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Ike pulled his mana back, then slammed it into the skill all at once. The skill bounced away, hurtling through his veins. Little cuts opened up inside him, leaking mana into his body. The mana burned. Uncontained by his mana passages, it ate away at him, tearing at his muscle and soul alike. He coughed, and tasted blood on his tongue.

"This is why I wanted to teach you for longer. You aren\'t very compatible with this skill," Silver said quietly.

Why didn\'t you say that, then? Ike screamed silently, too busy with the skill to speak.

"Silver! You—why did you give him the skill, if you knew that?" Orin snapped, rounding on Silver.

"Because he can survive this. It\'s not impossible."

"Not imposs—" Orin\'s face reddened. He opened his mouth, then took a deep breath. Forcibly, he calmed himself, then looked back at Ike instead. "Can you hear me, boy?"

With some effort, Ike nodded.

"Don\'t fight the skill. It\'s going to hurt, but you\'ll hurt yourself worse if you fight it."

Ike grimaced. Too late.

Orin caught his expression and sighed. "It\'s not too late. I know it goes against your intuition, but let the skill attack you. Silver trained you. That should have reshaped your mana passages and body enough that you\'ll survive the skill. If you don\'t let the skill finish that reshaping now, you\'ll never be able to use it to its full potential…or worst case, die."

Ike\'s eyes widened. He forcibly unwound the tension from his body. Every time pain hit him, his muscles tensed instinctively. Even so, Ike forced himself to relax and let it scour through him. His body ached as the skill reshaped it. The skill slashed him open so fast Salamander Healing struggled to keep up. Bruises discolored his limbs, and blood oozed from his nose and eyes.

As the skill broke him down, it also strengthened him. His mana passages adjusted. His core widened. Ike held on. Cuts opened over his body, then healed. His internal organs were pushed roughly out of the way, then reconstructed. Salamander Healing drained his mana steadily. Still the skill continued to bite into him.

Sweat dripped down Ike\'s back. He tensed his hands, then forcibly unclenched them. It\'s a battle of attrition. Will the skill finish reconstructing me, or will Salamander Healing run out of mana first?

The skill\'s power intensified. His whole body shook. Ike gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, sinking into himself. I can\'t just sit here passively. It\'ll tear me apart.

Ike drew out a thread of power and wound it through his mana passages, feeling out the changes the skill had made. His old passages still remained, slightly displaced from the new ones. Just feeling the shape and flow of the new passages, he could tell how much stronger and better optimized the new passages were, but his old passages still held the majority of his mana.

Ha! I can fix that. Ike circulated his mana. His mana wanted to follow the old flows, but Ike forcefully shoved it into the new passages. It resisted, and resisted. Every time he pushed it into place, it flopped out of place somewhere else, refusing to follow the new flow.

The skill continued to tear him up. His mana grew thinner, siphoned by his constantly-healing body. Ike lifted his lip in fury. Stop. Resisting!

Grabbing his mana, Ike pushed it into place. Once again, it fell away.

It\'s not working. Something else. I need something else.

Ike sank into contemplation. He took a step back, watching the skill reforge his body for a moment. He traced the flow of the mana, and his eyes widened. I see! My mana is soft, but the skill is sharp. My mana needs to be sharp to match the skill. It needs to cut, not simply flow.

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Hesitation gripped his heart. He sucked a short breath. Cut. That\'s my own body. My mana\'s too thin to completely heal. I—

No. I have to. I won\'t hesitate! Ike grabbed his mana again, but this time, he pressed it down. It had flowed like water, but now he sharpened its front and its edges. It burst free of his hands and snapped into place, following the new shape of the skill.

It tore through his body, cutting the new paths, helping the skill rather than fighting it. The pain of his body resisting the skill faded, replaced by a new one—the pain of forcibly adapting to the skill. Ike clung on, clenching his teeth and pushing the mana to keep moving. I can do this. I can overcome this!

His healing grew slower. Blood coursed down his body from the dozens of small cuts. Ike trembled. His body weakened. His vision darkened. He took a deep breath and held on, focusing on the flow of mana inside him. Just a little more. A little more, and—

The flow connected, touching the place where he\'d started the new flow. His entire body burst with power as the new mana flow took hold, and the skill slotted into place.

Ike gasped a breath. He fell to his hands and knees, darkness flashing in the corners of his eyes. "I did it. I did it."

"Check your skills," Orin urged him.

Obediently, Ike called up the skills menu.

[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 1 [Salamander Slayer]]

Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | … | Rare 2 | … | Unique: 4

Common: All-Around Runner Lvl 2 | Razor Handling Lvl 9 | Spear Handling Lvl 3 | Axe Handling Lvl 4 | Primitive Crafting Lvl 4

Bronze: Sensory Enhancement Lvl 3 | Mana Manipulation Lvl 1

Rare: Salamander Healing Lvl 7 | River-Splitting Sword Lvl 1

Unique: Lightning Dash Lvl 8 | Lightning Grasp Lvl 5 | Lightning Clad (Forearm) Lvl 3 | Lightning Clad (Calf) Lvl 1

He laughed with relief. "I have it. I have the skill!"

Orin smiled. He patted Ike on the shoulder. "Good going, kid."

"I knew you could do it," Silver said.

Ike nodded. Sitting back, he breathed deeply, drawing in as much mana as he could with each breath. His core sat almost empty, and only a trickle of mana remained in his passages, more of it continuing to drain as his healing worked on his wounds. Exhaustion hit him like a sack of bricks, but he scanned his skill list anyways, checking the changes.

Sprinting and Distance Running had hit level ten, then combined into All-Around Runner not long ago. At first, he\'d been worried about losing his skills, but after experimenting a bit, he\'d confirmed that All-Around Runner was more like the evolution of the two previous skills than a downgrade or separate skill.

He eyed the newcomer in the Bronze skill rank as well. Mana Manipulation? I guess that\'s what I did, to resolve the problem with my mana flows. He tried activating the skill, but nothing happened. He shrugged. Maybe it\'s more like the Common skills, and it ranks up by me taking action, rather than by me activating it. In any case, it seems like a good thing to have. He yawned, resolving in his heart to practice it later, when he wasn\'t so tired.

Down at the bottom of the list, he gave a sleepy smile to Lightning Clad (Calf). It had taken more time than he\'d expected, but with Silver\'s training and his body continually strengthening, he\'d eventually unlocked the next level of Lightning Clad. He still had a lot of practice to go, though.

Orin shook his shoulder, and Ike jolted and looked around. "Wha…?"

"You were falling asleep on us, kid. Why don\'t I walk you back to Silver\'s hut for the night?" Orin offered.

"I\'m not a kid," Ike protested. Still, he didn\'t protest the second part. Absorbing that skill left me wiped. He stood. "I\'ll head back on my own."

"Nah, nah. Let me walk with you," Orin insisted.

Silver glanced over his shoulder, then turned back to the fire, ignoring both of them.

Ike gave him a look, but shrugged. He tapped him on the shoulder.

Silver half-glanced at him.

"Thank you. For the training. And the skill," Ike said quietly.

Silver nodded. He turned back to the fire.

The second they were out of Silver\'s earshot, Orin leaned in. "He\'s just acting like that because he\'s gonna miss you."

"Acting like he doesn\'t care?"

Orin nodded. "It\'s a cat thing, you know? A cat thing. He\'s just lonely, I think. Wanted you around for another year or two to break the monotony. But he\'d never say it aloud."

"Is that why...?" Ike murmured, looking over his shoulder at Silver\'s silhouette.

"Yep. Don\'t take him to heart. I wouldn\'t be surprised if he \'coincidentally\' follows you back to town, at least for a day or two. Again. Cat things."

"Then why\'d he say all that about never being my teacher..." Ike fell silent, already guessing Orin\'s answer: cat things. He looked back one last time. Silver did look lonely, there, sitting at the empty fireplace. He felt a vague pang of regret, but forced it down. He couldn\'t stay here and play forever. He had to go out. Hunt in the real world. That was the fastest way to gain new skills; the fastest way to grow stronger.

Orin clapped Ike\'s shoulder and grinned. "But enough about Silver. Let\'s celebrate you! I\'m gonna drink all his good liquor as revenge for that shit he pulled on you."

Ike laughed. "For revenge, huh?"

"Eh, well. And I rarely get a chance to taste Silver\'s liquor," Orin said, winking. He patted Ike on the back. "Rest up. After what you just went through, you\'re going to need lots of sleep."

Ike yawned, nodding wordlessly. I don\'t need you to tell me that. He wandered into the hut and almost fell into the cot he\'d set up, instantly passing into a deep, dreamless sleep.