[STT] Chapter 64: Skill Evolution (Patreon)

Lying there on the top of the monolith, Ben found the stone underneath was far colder than expected. But perhaps it was him who was running a bit hot, that this was colder in comparison. Whatever the case, Ben stared at the evolution notification.

He had waited this long to see his skill evolve, so he could definitely wait just a tiny bit longer to actually claim it. Dismissing the system with a quick thought, he pulled himself up to his feet to check out the summit.

The pressure from the stairs was entirely gone, but more than that, the roars of the monster horde swarming the base simply didn't exist up here. He took a deep breath. It calmed him. This place was unnaturally peaceful, so he kept [Focus] up in case there was some mental tinkering at place.

Though he wondered if he'd even detect anything of the sort.

It was just way too silent.

This was literally the first genuinely quiet moment the monolith had ever bothered to give anyone.

But that was exactly where the good news ended, as he quickly realized the summit was absolutely nothing like anyone theorized.

Ethan and everyone else down below had banked on there being some kind of epic reward, a chest perhaps, or maybe a massive fountain of free essence just waiting for them. Instead, the top of the monolith was just a wide, barren circle of smooth rock.

Gray in color, actually, now that he looked a bit closer.

Frowning, Ben walked toward the only object actually occupying the empty space.

Resting in the center of the peak, a single jagged stone stuck out of the ground. Squinting at the rough surface, he noticed strange symbols carved into the rock face.

Huh.

Reaching out without really thinking about it, he pressed his bare hand flat against the carvings, and a system prompt appeared in front of him.

[Enter event monolith?]

Choosing yes without a second thought, he accepted the monolith's invitation.

Error… Parameters updated… Unexpected variables detected…

Calculating reward… Processing… Processing…

Requesting higher authority… Waiting…. Waiting…

After that there were no new notifications. So blinking at the system, Ben rubbed his chin.

Is it broken?

There was no way it was actually broken. But considering everything that had happened so far in this rift, and more specifically, the event, it was exactly the kind of nonsense he expected to happen. They had tried to break the rift's parameters, after all.

And succeeded, too.

Ben dropped down onto the floor to wait. He'd wait for the system to figure itself out, and he'd wait for everyone else to finish their climb to the summit, but sitting there doing absolutely nothing was entirely too boring.

So, excitedly, he brought the previous notification back to the forefront of his mind.

He still had a massive milestone to deal with, after all!

Congratulations! [Fire Burst] has reached the pinnacle of its current rank.

Evolution Requirements met. You have four paths you can walk forward in. Do you wish to proceed?

Smiling at the familiar notification, Ben chose yes.

The offered skill paths are based on your performance up until now. Choose carefully!

Please select your path:

- [Fire Burst] (Rare)

- [Ignition Step] (Rare)

- [Spontaneous Combustion] (Rare)

- [Fire Wall] (Rare)

Four options were honestly a lot to process for a single skill, but it was exciting too, as it showed him many possibilities he could take future inspiration for, as well. A skill existing was enough to plant the idea in his mind.

Going over the list, he immediately dismissed the first one. Picking the exact same skill just with a 'rare' tag slapped on it felt like a total scam.

Why would I ever pick that?

On a serious note, though, the actual reason for not picking the basic evolution was that the other options just seemed way too enticing. And not like he was going to lose functions of [Fire Burst] with the evolution anyway, much like [Mana Sense] persisted through [Mana Sonar], and other skills persisted through [Warforged].

So he wanted an addition on top in a new direction for [Fire Burst]! He wanted something new and shiny. So he shifted his attention to the rest of the options.

He moved on to the second choice. [Ignition Step] sounded like some kind of movement skill. And he definitely needed more mobility to survive this place. [Fire Burst] already provided a great deal of mobility, but it was also very… flat in its usage. He couldn't do more than blast in different directions.

So [Ignition Step] was enticing. Would it just blow up his feet every time he took a step forward? Leaving a trail of fire sounded cool in theory, but would it do anything different from what he could already do with [Fire Burst]?

And if it was evolving in that direction, what would the changes be? Just what did "ignition" mean in this context, anyway?

Frowning at the possibilities, he moved down to the third option. [Spontaneous Combustion] was a lot more aggressive. And it honestly sounded incredibly dangerous.

It sounds like an offensive skill.

Which was something he definitely needed.

Rubbing his chin, he figured it was probably an offensive attack to instantly set a target on fire, though that sounded too basic for a rare skill, so there had to be more to it than he thought. But knowing his luck with this system, it could just as easily be a literal self destruct button. So he definitely wasn't risking his life on a total guess.

Though he knew that the system wouldn't just give him a self destruct button without an actual benefit, so there had to be something more to it than he realized.

Sighing softly, he checked out the final option on the list. [Fire Wall] was completely self explanatory. It just made a wall out of fire.

He thought, at least, because that would be incredibly simple for a rare skill, so he doubted the skill's name gave him the whole picture.

Still, [Fire Wall] sounded incredibly boring. He already had enough utility with his other skills, and was working on a mana variant of a shield skill. So this one felt like a downgrade. Though he doubted it was. Plus, he could probably just draw a line of fire with his current skill anyway if he tried hard enough.

Ben leaned against the stone jutting out of the monolith. He was completely stumped. Every single option seemed to have potential, but the total lack of actual descriptions made picking one a massive gamble.

And he hated gambling with his life, even if he was a gambler more often than he liked.

I really have no idea.

He glanced toward the edge of the monolith, stood up, walked over, and checked to see if anyone was climbing. The others seemed to be climbing. It was better to just wait. Ethan and Alice definitely had way more experience with how the system named these things and skills in general than he did…

So he'd just wait and ask them when they got here. Tapping his fingers against his knee, he stared out into the sky and waited for his friends to arrive, wondering what he should do in the meantime. Finally his attention moved to the only interesting thing on the top given that the system still hadn't calculated his reward for climbing the monolith.

The stone jutting out of the monolith looked quite a bit interesting right now. Should he maybe poke and prod a bit?

He shouldn't… right?

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