[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

…

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

…

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

…

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

…

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

…

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

[[Conditions met. Set completion has caused first level skills , , and to unify into rare skill .]]

***

My bone club came down on the giant snake beast with imbued. It became disoriented, and I shouted out.

“Fiara!”

Not that I needed to shout. She was already casting an impressive . Dark blue frost spread out, killing the grass, and it stopped the Magic Beast in place. More than just restraining it, though, the cold became deeper, to the point where continuing to live was impossible for a cold-blooded creature.

With this, I have a little more magic power. It should be enough to finish building the space for the visiting Orcs during the meet.

Fiara and I went hunting alone, just like we have for the past several days. Carrying this giant prey with just the two of us would be unreasonable, so I cast around it. I'll send some Orcs over to retrieve it later.

“Well done, Fiara. Your casting time has decreased greatly.”

“Thank you, chief, but I still used more magic power than I gained. The efficiency of third level spells are…”

“Is there a skill to reduce the cost of spells?”

“Yes but…”

“You can't hold any more?”

“I'm already juggling too many spells, and every time you drop one it becomes harder to learn again.”

“Mm. You need to unify them somehow.”

“I've been trying for days, but none of the skills I have embedded will unify.”

“Which ones are those?”

“, , and ”

Eh? Just three?

“Fiara, do you only have three skill slots? Or… maybe you’re saving some…?”

“No, I only have three.”

What? But she’s so talented… Such a waste…

“So what skills are you juggling?”

“Hold on, let me ask the spirits…”

Eh?

“... It’s , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .”

Most of them I can somewhat understand, but,

“What does do?”

“It would allow me to see the flow of magic power… Since it's a passive skill, I can't use it without embedding it.”

“I see… By the way, you said something about asking the spirits just now…?”

“Hm? … Of course. I asked the spirits to show me what skills I’ve learned. You didn't know, chief?”

“I didn't… Hold on, let me try it.”

Fiara looks slightly confused, but she’s keeping quiet to let me concentrate.

So, spirits… what skills have I learned?

[[Information is accessible. User’s learned skills are , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .]]

Indeed, those twenty one are my current skills.

So… you can request information from the spirits…?

Why is it only Fiara who tells me these things?! Rather, momma! How come you didn't teach me anything about skills or the spirits?! She should have known about it, right? Why was I left to figure it out on my own?! That isn't teaching independence; it's just inefficient!

“Mou! Enough! Let’s just go back to the village for now. I have to finish the construction underground. I leave the day after tomorrow, so I can just think about this later!”

“Yes, chief. You have the battle royale with the other chiefs coming up, so please focus on that.”

“Yeah, I got it. Let’s go, Fiara.”

***

Another room there, and… done. In eight days, I dug out a massive cavern under the village spanning nine thousand square feet, plus a few dozen walled rooms around the perimeter, for privacy, all of which also contain a deep hole for, well, you know.

Eight of the days that I had to prepare for the battle royale with the chiefs were spent here, but I don't feel like I've wasted my time at all. In order to acquire enough magic power to make this happen, I fought Magic Beasts every day with Fiara. Eight days of fighting Magic Beasts. I'm not even eight weeks old yet, only seven. I've literally doubled my magic power this time. Not to mention all the skills I got.

Durghan said he expected me to win even at half this magic power, so I think I'll just use the rest of today to investigate skills.

I still have five percent of my magic power left, so I think it's about time I unified my last two resistances.

Ah, but first… let me ask the spirits some test questions.

Hey spirits, can and be unified?

[[Request is invalid. User must provide a skill name for manual unification.]]

Whoa, that answer was far more informative than I was expecting. But wait, earlier the spirits were going to let me merge them, that’s when I learned what skill would be produced. Back then, I decided not to go through with it.

What is manual unification?

… Eh? No answer? Do I have to say it like,

Spirits, what is manual unification?

[[Information is accessible. Manual unification refers to requesting the S system to unify a known skill when all necessary skills are present, usually when the user’s understanding has not reached the threshold for natural unification.]]

So I have to make it clear that I'm not just wondering to myself. But S system? I've heard that word pop up before.

Spirits, what is the S system?

[[Information is not accessible.]]

I’ll give up on that then. Next, let's try this.

Spirits, can I unify ?

[[Request is valid. First level skills and have been manually unified into second level skill . An additional 5% of magic power has been consumed.]]

Ah, note to self, if I ask it like that, the spirits will take it as permission to just go ahead and unify it.