[Requirments reached: Level up! 83 —>84]
[Requirments reached: Martial Arts Master (A) skill levels up! 59–>60/60]
———
Requirments for Advencment towards Rank S:
• Fuse with three skills (At least A, as well ready for fusion)
———
Sam smiled.
Finally.
How long had it taken? How many broken bones, near-death fights, endless repetitions until his body moved before thought? Reaching A-Rank alone had been hell. And fusion?
The system of this world was insane.
To create one S-Rank skill — just one — he needed twelve skills in total.
From C → B, one skill for fusion.
From B → A, two skills for fusion.
Four fully realized A-Rank skills… just to attempt an S-Rank.
Crazy, he thought, jaw tight. Absolutely crazy.
With slightly trembling fingers, Samuel opened the next window.
As his focus settled on the Fusion Selection, the air in front of him shimmered. Lines of text rippled, characters dissolving and reforming as if the system itself were considering his worth.
⸻—
Possible Fusion Options:
1. Martial Arts Master [A] + Full Combat Regeneration [A] + Adamant Body [A] + Body Strengthening [A] ——> ??? [S]
————
[An new skill is detected in the Systems Log, please name it]
Sam raised his brows but first checked what it could.
——
???: An skill made for close combat battle.
The body becomes an ideal container for combat. Every martial technique gets absorbed into this skill and is executed at peak efficiency and power, physical limits are removed, and regeneration ensures close to zero power loss in fights, while adamant reinforcement prevents catastrophic injuries.
——
Sam stared at the flickering text, pupils contracting just a little.
"…Name it?" he murmured.
The system prompt pulsed again, patient. Empty. Waiting.
He read the description once more—slow this time.
Ideal container for combat.
Every martial technique at peak performance.
Physical limits removed.
No power loss.
No catastrophic failure.
Not invincible.
Not immortal.
Just… made for fighting.
Sam exhaled through his nose and let his eyes drift to his hands. Scarred. Knuckles misshapen from years of breaking things—stone, monster bone, himself and a lot more. A body forged by pain, tuned by hatred, sharpened by survival.
"This is an S-Rank…?," he said quietly.
His fingers curled slowly into a fist.The system chimed softly.
Sam lifted his gaze.
"I have an Name," he said.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the words flowed—not forced, it was just the first thing that came up in his mind after reading the text.
"War Vessel."
The screen shimmered.
⸻⸻⸻
Skill Registered Successfully
⸻⸻⸻
[You acquired the Skill: War Vessel [S] Level: 1]
[To upgrade it to the next level keep hardening your Body to the maximal current potential]
A pressure rolled through Samuel's body. Not pain.
Alignment.
Muscles tightened, then loosened—reforming. Bones rang faintly, like steel being struck and quenched. His heartbeat slowed, deep and steady, each pulse heavy with contained force.
He even thought he grew some centimeters, because the ground was far away and the monster pelt shorts reached just, right under his knees.
Sam let out a steaming white breath.
"…Yeah," he said, a thin smile cutting across his scarred face. "That feels good…Status."
────────────────────────────────
STATUS – SAMUEL
——————————————————————————
Race: Human - Slave (ownerless)
Age: 15
Condition: good
LEVEL: 84/100
EXP: 23/84000
HP: 562.084 / 562.084
Mana: 1.301.375 / 1.350.000
Strength: 602
Agility: 602
Endurance: 903
Dexterity: 837
Magic: 1030
Willpower: 1500
──────── Skills ────────
• War Vessel (S) [Level: 1]
• Dual elemental resistance Fire and Earth (A) [Level 45/60]
• Really High Pain Tolerance (B) [Level 49/50]
• strong Water Resistance (B) [Level 48/50]
• strong Wind resistance (B) [Level 43/50]
• intimidating Aura (C) [Level 28/30]
• Healing Water (C) [Level 14/30]
• sixth sense (C) [Level 3/30]
•…
————————————————————
„Wow…!" a deep humm echoed through the wilderness, „my stats doubled!? With just one skill?"
Sam looked at his hand and clenched his fist, feeling the new power in his body. It was as if his muscles would explore from the new strenght, and when he enhanced it with compressed mana, it flickered in a new color.
It was dark blue,no , like a transition of blue to black.
With an shake Samuel relaxed and looked towards the direction where the sun crawled at mornings on to the sky. „Maybe I can look more east, with this power now?"
His deep voice lingered in the air for a moment, while he scratched the back of his head, walking towards the dead cyclops.
He started cutting of some flesh out of its corpse. For this he pulled out an old crude stone deggar, he took from some hobgoblin.
In fact it was already broken, but he didn't knew how to craft new weapons, because of this he needed to strengthend it with mana for it not to brake.
Mumbling to himself, Samuel started making fire with some wood and stone while cooking himself this meat.
"The farther east… the stronger the monsters," he muttered between bites. "To the west… only mountains. Kilometers high. I don't even know where civilization is."
He ate.
And ate.
And ate.
Until half of the ten-meter giant was gone.
With a full stomach he Spread his backpack open, or better said sack, he threw the deggar back in the few stuff he carried. Most of it were pelts —when it would get cold— and some dried meat for emergencies.
Rumble
A loud rumble made the air tremble as massive black clouds rolled closer, and the scent of petrichor lingered in the rising gusts of wind. Samuel looked up at the sky and noticed his hair trying to break free from its bun.
He grabbed the ends of the leather strap and tied his backpack — or rather, sack — shut.
Suddenly he felt a pull. Strong. Almost like wind — except his hair was blowing in the opposite direction. Samuel looked up again and saw the storm drawing the mana out of the surrounding atmosphere.
The clouds pulsed with a faint blue glow, then brighter, until deep, throbbing currents of lightning-laced mana ran through them.
"Oh… been a while," Samuel muttered as he lifted the stick carrying his belongings onto his shoulder, thinking back to the last and only time. About four years ago, a mana storm like this had passed over him.
Then the wind shifted as well.
And with it came slicing mana blades, cutting through the air at tremendous speed toward the clouds. A few struck him, but they simply bounced off this time, leaving no deep wounds behind.
Every breath tasted of earth and wet stone. The blue pulsing in the clouds darkened, deepened… almost violet.
He shifted his weight.
The first bolt struck.
Not somewhere on the horizon — but directly into the steppe, maybe three hundred meters away. It wasn't normal light. Not a normal sound. It was as if the sky itself had torn open.
The impact ripped the earth apart — not with fire, but with condensed, raw energy.
The grass vaporized.
A crater remained, its edges still glowing with blue light.
Samuel grinned crooked.
"Smells like training…"