I’ve triple’d my time in this world since getting my first two skills. I grow impatient by the day, as I’m not able to nurture my skill as much here as I would like. Using the skill, Unique Growth Factor, I have learned the basics of water, fire, earth, and wind magic. Since they are the most common forms of magic, books for them were readily available to my parents. I’m able to use basic skills for them, but I fear that, to master them, I will need to either train heavily or find some better books.

“Hey dad, where we goin’ today?” He sure is walking fast on this path. I wonder if we’re going far. 

“To the center of the City of Ormonero! It’s known as the land of gold. They create the coins we use for trade, which gets used both here and in many of the surrounding countries. That’s not why I’m taking you there, though. Remember how you said you wanted more things to test your unique skill on?”

Oh? I wonder what he has in mind. “Really papa!? What can I test it on?”

“I have a friend in the city who forges weapons from magic stones.”

“Like the ones that drop from creatures when they die?”

“Yes ma’am, little miss! He uses them to forge weapons. I’m buying some weapons off of him. I have some in mind that he showed me the last time I was there, but I’ll see what he thinks will be useful to you when I explain what you can do!”

We’re being followed. I don’t know if dad can sense it, but I unlocked a skill a while back that allows me to know when I’m being looked at. Dad’s looking straight forward, but the alert is still going off. Where could they be?

“Dad-”

“I know.” His expression is much more serious than before. He’s probably noticed them by now, because even I did. There’s rustling coming from the bushes behind us, but I’m not sure what’s there. I can’t see anything when I look.

| Skill Leveled Up: Inspect Object. Rank up from 2 to 3. Inspecting Object: Shadow Bear. A vicious bear capable of disguising itself in shadows and quick travel. Strengths: Speed, Strength. Weaknesses: Not available with current skill rank. |

Oh? That’s new. The last time I ranked up this skill, I hardly got any new information. Now I can see their strengths and abilities? 

I wonder what other uses this has.

Still, if this creature thrives in the shadows, he must be trying to get to ours. We just need to get rid of the shadows he has available.

“Dad, you know that spell you use when the lights are out?”

It felt like he instantly understood what I meant. He sat me down and faced the direction of the shadow bear. “Little one, you just gave me a great idea.”

My dad began casting a spell, and his aura changed. When most people cast spells, they exert an aura around them that makes it easy to distinguish their strength. His aura flared, now, though, as if responding to a new spell. He cast a beam towards the creature. It seems he figured out what I was going to try explaining. The beam he cast went forth like a fire tornado, but glistened with a white light that practically blinded me at the same time. With the shadows gone, the bear appeared, weakened.

“FIRE BALL!” I shot a ball of fire at the creature while it was stunned and weak. This bear looked so much smaller than the ones I had seen in books, likely due to how weakened it had become from the light.