[Registered Skills] →

∟ Skill: Physique of Arcane Trickster

∟ Skill: Trickster’s Assistant.

∟ Skill: Draconic Resilience

∟ Skill: Card Of Arcana

∟ Skill: ???????

∟Skill: Internal Gravity.

—

I scanned the list of my skills.

And oh man, I felt a spark of excitement the moment I saw the name of the final skill.

I mean, after getting screwed over by something massive, a man has to find happiness in the small things, right?

I had two skills to check.

The first was my questionable one, literally, because its entire name was just question marks and the second was the one I had received from Serpahina as a tribute when I made her my assistant.

Honestly, I was excited for both but I decided to save the question-mark skill for last.

It was unknown and could be a complete dud or something absurdly powerful.

So I figured I should check the gravity one first.

I willed on it as the information appeared before me.

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◈ Skill: Internal Gravity

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Type: Active

Rank: ????

Description: A skill awakened in a mortal blessed by Goddess Ishtara. Yet you—the Trickster—somehow obtained it after turning the Goddess’s blessed into your assistant. What you possess is merely an echo of the true skill’s power.

Effect: You can increase or decrease the gravity affecting your body slightly.

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I went over the description.

“Now this… this is definitely useful.”

Even on its own, it would make any punch I threw hit a lot harder but if I added the pulse wave from VoidPulse Martial Arts on top of that… it could definitely do some serious damage.

“Well, looks like I just scored myself a damn good close-combat attack.”

Still, I couldn’t be sure how much that “slightly” actually meant. From the description, it was obvious this skill was only a fragment of what Seraphina had actually received.

So there was no guarantee I would be able to use it properly, at least not the way she could.

“I guess it’s time to see what it can do.”

I didn’t even bother getting up from the bed. I just focused my mind on the skill, letting the method of activation settle naturally into place.

Inside my soul space, the inner pocket where my Card of Arcana existed, I saw a small orb of energy.

It floated beside the massive presence of the Card of Arcana, smaller in size but glowing with a strangely similar intensity.

A thin chain of energy linked the two orbs… like the Card of Arcana was restraining and keeping the gravity skill in check or maybe hiding it.

I had a feeling it was trying to shield me from Ishtara, the one this power originally belonged to.

Still, I didn’t think much about it and focused on the smaller orb as I willed it to activate.

The orb resisted against my will until the chain linking it to the Card of Arcana glowed with light.

The resistance vanished instantly and the smaller orb gave in as I felt energy seeping into my body, completely under my control.

I spread it through myself, letting it flow into every limb and immediately, I felt my weight increase.

The soft mattress under me sinked deeper under the sudden pressure.

“Hmm, it’s not much.”

I didn’t have a built-in weight detector but judging by how heavy I suddenly felt, the increase was maybe around ten or fifteen kilograms.

I focused on lowering the weight and the mattress, still dented from the pressure, lifted back up.

The decrease matched the increase pretty closely.

“Well… better than nothing, I guess.”

The weight decrease could make me faster and the increase could make my attacks hit harder.

With that thought, I moved on to my mysterious skill.

I was getting sleepy and I still needed to check my cloak, so I couldn’t afford to get sidetracked digging deeper into the gravity skill’s mechanics.

So I opened the next skill on the list immediately.

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◈ Skill: ???????

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Rank: ????

Description: A skill awakened in a mortal after absorbing the essence of Goddess of Underworld, Hel. This skill is more of a curse than a blessing.

Effect:

~ Memory Surge: The Dead resents you even after death making you see their deepest regrets and honest feelings.

~ Soul calling: You can call the soul of one you killed and form a familiar contract to make them your messenger in the mortal world. You can only contract one familiar currently.

[Current Familiar: NA]

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Tsk, so much for expecting anything good.

For a moment I had thought it might be one of those cheat abilities like copying skills from people I killed similar to those overpowered webnovel protagonists.

But of course not.

This is what I get for trusting those shitty novels.

Still… it was something.

I could call upon the souls of those I had killed and turn them into familiars.

Not bad.

I just had no clue how it actually worked yet.

So I decided to check it.

I focused on the skill and a panel appeared before me.

[Summonable Souls]

~ Lucien

Only one name was there.

The transmigrator I had killed.

Hmm. Should I try summoning him?

According to the description, I would need to form a familiar contract to actually keep him… so I could always cancel it afterward.

No harm in testing it.

I willed the soul to be summoned and immediately the world warped into strange colors.

Everything became oversaturated and sharp.

My head throbbed, but I kept focusing as I felt a thread stretching somewhere deep beneath the ground.

I reached for it.

“I summon you, Lucien, from the depths of the underworld.”

I muttered, mostly because it sounded cool.

And immediately, a blinding light burst outward, then everything went dark.

I found myself standing in a pitch-black void.

I looked down at my body. It was completely shadowy, its surface rippling like disturbed water.

“Where the hell am I?”

Even my voice sounded distorted, stretched and almost ancient.

The space trembled once and a bright orb of energy appeared into existence in front of me.

It warped, twisted and slowly molded itself into the shape of a human.

A very familiar human with green hair and brown slit eyes.

His face twisted in absolute horror.

It was Lucien.

“Where am I?” he muttered, almost the exact same words I had said before his eyes finally landed on me. “You… you, who are you?”

“I was just checking something,” I replied casually.

Honestly, I had zero intention of making this guy my familiar and I had already seen enough to understand how the skill functioned, so I was fully prepared to leave.

But before I could pull away, Lucien’s entire body began trembling.

“H-Hey… please don’t leave me here. Take me with you.” He begged, his eyes shaking. “I—I know the future, I can help you if you take me with you.”

“Ahh, that’s a bummer,” I said, my tone turning mischievous. “But I can’t help you. I know the future as well.”

I mean, he couldn’t even recognize me with my disguise, so why bother hiding it?

“Are you a g-gamer as well?” Lucien stuttered, trembling even harder. His voice wasn’t filled with excitement or relief. It was despair.

Pure, broken despair like finding “one of his kind” only made things worse.

That alone made me curious enough to play along.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“It’s over… you can’t escape Him.” Lucien collapsed to his knees as if all hope had just drained out of him. “Nothing can be saved anymore.”

He started crying loudly, almost hysterically.

“Hey, what are you talking about?” I asked as a cold ominous feeling went up my spine.

“You… Do you think you’re alone?” he whispered. “You think you’re the only transmigrator?”

A chill went down my back again.

“There are more,” Lucien said, voice shaking. “And this world… is not what you think it is.”

“You can’t escape him.”

Before I could say anything more, the void started trembling even harder.

What the fuck is happening now?

—

Meanwhile in a particular hell,

Vael’runn sat on the throne of his domain, his posture regal but his expression bored to the point of contempt.

The endless silence of the underworld stretched on until the doors of his throne room creaked open and a reaper stepped inside, dressed in a suit and red tie.

“Master,” the reaper said, bowing his head, “one of the souls in our underworld has vanished.”

The words snapped Vael’runn out of his boredom instantly. A soul vanishing from his underworld meant one of two things:

Either the soul was far stronger than it had any right to be… or someone far stronger had dared to interfere in his domain.

Both possibilities were interesting.

“Who is the soul?” he asked calmly.

“It is the soul of a recently arrived mortal, Lucien,” the reaper answered, head still bowed.

“How interesting,” Vael’runn murmured. A slow grin curled at the corner of his mouth. “I suppose I won’t be dying of boredom after all, Marz.”

Marz didn’t laugh at his master’s attempt at humor.

He only kept his head lowered because a joke from his master was rarely just a joke.

“I suppose I should go meet the one who dared to steal from my domain,” Vael’runn said, the smile on his face widening.

A second later, he vanished from his throne.

Left alone in the vast chamber, Marz could only lower his head and pray that his master wouldn’t cause even more trouble.

Especially now, when so many eyes were already fixed on them… after Vael’runn had killed a God not too long ago.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep