I was once more practising. It was time to make this Skill do what I wanted. With how little I was noticed I felt it should have long broken through but the Skill just did not want to upgrade. I was sitting in a tree for a few minutes identifying everything that moved without being noticed and no notification wanted to pop up. It was frustrating. Looking back, when I got [Sneak] to level five, I had thought I was done before I had done everything. Maybe the [Identify] was still lacking something for an upgrade. Maybe I had not considered some part of it.

To be fair, I was not noticed when using it but my targets were still noticing something. One of the rodents I had used my Skill on had gotten so angry it ripped through the undergrowth shrieking like a kettle of boiling water until something larger silenced it outside my vision. I made sure to stay hidden for a bit longer after that.

But what could I improve? I did not know much about how the Skill worked anyways, only that it somehow connected to the target’s soul to gain information which it then presented to me. That was honestly kind of scary. If there was a Skill to access someone else’s soul, there should also be ways to attack it. What could those look like? Right, my new Skill when used with eldritch mana did go in that direction, but I was looking more at some direct manipulation or attack than just slathering it with warp. The idea along gave me the chills. I did not want to face something capable of that. The saving grace was the Skill being given by the System to any sapient being so it was probably rather complicated to get it or other soul related Skills without its support.

There were two ways I considered right now. I could try to make my Skill manipulate the target so it would believe it was not identified. The existence of my other Skill choice, [Warped Truth], made me think it was possible but it should be very difficult without having access to the aspect of soul myself. And different from knowledge or human essence I did not want to rip it out of myself. This was a touch too delicate to justify risking myself. The other option was continuing the way I had until now. Avoid detection. I just had to get so good at using the Skill it could get me the information without actually ‘touching’ my target. This was what I was trying to practice.

I took my time in the beginning only using the Skill once a minute at most but as I went on I got more and more impatient and started rushing. That was obviously not helping but I could not stop myself. It was just a little frustrating to make no progress. In order to get my head to think about something else, I went on a hunt. A few delicious snacks helped quite a bit. I decided to take a solid break and read a bit. I had taken these books along to use them after all.

I made myself comfortable in my home and started paging through some tale about a hero fighting off powerful monsters. At first, I just enjoyed the distraction. It was a simple tale but it had been quite a bit since the last time I had just read for entertainment. About halfway through I started to actually think about what I was reading and where the book had come from. The tale was about a human hero and I had found it in an ork’s library. How had he gotten his fingers on it? The Orkish historical and political textbooks had no mention of humans at all. I was wondering how it had gotten there. Or was it a fictional story an ork had come up with? I decided to ignore my questions and just kept enjoying the read. This was a mystery to figure out someday but not right now.

As I finished up, I had been successfully distracted from my failure and was looking to get back to work. I wanted to try one more time with the monitor lizard this night.

I quickly reached my goal and did the same thing as last night. I hid behind the rocky pillar and peeked out my eyes. This time I focused on my Skill without activating it for a much longer time. I was looking for something to improve my stealthiness. Somehow I had to be able to make it work. After a long time, maybe even a whole hour, I had not found anything so I decided to get on with it. The Skill triggered, and I willed it to go slow. Sluggish even. As careful and gradual as I could use it. As it arrived, the information was extracted with intrinsic precision and my Skill detracted, patiently bringing it back to me. Once more I got the lizard’s status page.

[Identify]

Species: Monitor Lizard (mature)

Age: 16

Name: -

Gender: male

Before I could complain about my lack of Skill Breakthrough notification, I heard a quiet and decidedly angry hiss. I was hiding, still, and hoped it would just move out once more and go back to sleep. But instead of the rumbling and grinding accompanying his steps, I heard a quiet plop follow by a smacking sound. It had dropped down. And its steps were quickly approaching my position. Had I completely failed my Skill? Apparently, that was the case because no sooner had I thought that, the lizard rounded the corner and growled at me. I was still surrounded by shadows that were hugging the stone and making it difficult for him to see me. This gave me enough time to sneak a tendril around and shift away to gain some distance.

I immediately took to the air. My still metal body made me a little slower to take off so when I heard the monster quickly approach me I rotated mid-air to get a clean shot for [Winged Death]. The lizard had made its home near an earth and water node so I went for void feathers. I expected to deal the most damage with those. Thin lines dragged through the cave where the void ripped out the air from reality and struck into the lizard. I had tried to get its head and the upper body where I expected to hit a heart or lung but it shifted out of the way in a smooth motion and only took a hit to one leg, which was cut into almost halfway making the monster stumble for a moment.

As I pulled back my wings for another swing, the lizard’s mouth opened and spit out a glob of olive-green liquid straight at me. I was able to shift and let it go through but decided not to. It looked much like poison which would not affect me and I was right about that. If it had been acid it might have started to burn into my metal body but I had my ‘extra-life’. The problem with this attack was, it hit me straight in the face. I could not see, and thus not aim either. So I decided to shoot myself. With air feathers straight into my face. It was an instinctive action but it luckily worked out just as planned. The miniature storms blasted off most of the gunk and I was able to see again. Only to emerge to a lizard shooting towards me a pillar of rock extending from each of his feet. It was getting ready to take a bite with its mouth full of teeth.

I barely had enough time to activate [Eldritch Shift] and move my body half a step lower. At the same time, I shifted my position to be belly up, pointing at the lizard that was taking to the air as the pillars no longer extended. Another swing of my wings shot out a set of destruction feathers which the underside of its body. The lizard shot past and curled up hissing in pain. I had landed a good shot. My body clanged against the ground a moment later a crack going through my wings. A few of my crystalline feathers had smacked against the stone and not gotten away all the well. I struggled for a moment to turn around and once I was finally up the lizard was just getting its bearing, blood spewing on the ground from its belly.

It growled at me and I let out a metallic hoot. My head lowered, I spread my wings. Clang, I clicked my tongue and spread my wings. The lizard flicked its tail back and forth taking a careful step forward. It flicked its tongue. Before it could get any more ground, I swung my wings once again. Another two feathers, this time void again, shot towards it. This time I saw the scales soften up at the edges and turn into a wavy pattern and the head I had aimed for shifted out of the way like a river around a mountain and my attack dug into its shoulders instead. This did not help it much judging from the fountain of blood shooting out of the deep wounds. The lizard hissed once more and tried to take a step forward but stumbled and only barely caught itself from falling. It looked at me like I was the devil incarnate which I was probably from its perspective. I had no qualms about it. This was a fight to the death after it had attacked me like that. And it was almost over.

I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to risk another counterattack. I could take the damage in my shifted form but I did not expect turning back to remove any poison still on my body. I did not want to take the chance of the lizard forcing me back to mortal. The animal took another step towards me before collapsing. Its eyes glared at me for a few more moments before losing focus.

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 51. 1 Attribute Point awarded.

Wow. I got a level for that? I had totally not killed it before being noticed. Maybe I was getting close to the level up anyway? I dumped to point into Wisdom, it should hopefully help me to work out this stealthy [Identify]. Control seemed important. Although, trying to forcefully be careful did the opposite of what I had wanted. Maybe I should have gone as fast as I could? That made a bit of sense. If I had my Skill connect to the target’s soul for only a moment it would be much harder to sense.

Now I had to find a new powerful target first. Hopefully, there was something else with a regular resting spot at the level of this lizard. If not it might be a bit difficult to get the Breakthrough.