Alex spent the last 3 days with his family and friends. He met with his two best friends, Takeshi Fuji and Karl Heinz on the 2nd day of his return. These two aspiring Defenders let him knew that they intend to take the Defenders Registration Test by the end of this year. They are about to graduate from the martial art dojo in a few months due to their hard work in training. They said that they don't want to be left too far behind by Alex. He left some words of encouragement for them and they parted ways.

Today, Alex is going to enter the Realm of Defenders again. He has spent the last 3 days trying to probe the ring further, but it has brought no result. That's why he decided to bring this black ring with him to the Realm of Defenders this time around. He can just leave it in his personal space later if he's afraid of losing this ring while fighting creatures.

Alex steps out of the Hyperloop station and walks into the portal hall. After taking care of the usual administrative affairs, he steps into the portal room and walks towards the spiraling black light that is the portal to the Realm of Defenders. He touches the portal with his hand and finds himself inside his personal room once again not long after that.

Alex walks to the holographic computer in his personal room as soon as he arrives. He plans to get some new skills before going out to the E-rank area. Alex buys 3 skill books at once, two E-ranked skills and 1 F-ranked skill. His {Energy Manipulation} has been amazing for him so far, but he doesn't want to face the same situation that he faced against the . If he had better skills, he wouldn't be in such a dangerous situation the first time he fought it.

Of course, he managed to profit greatly from that situation, but he doesn't want to constantly gamble his life this way. Alex has decided to be more prepared this time around. That's why he spent 2,600 credits on those skill books.

He takes out the first skill book. It is an E-ranked offensive skill called {Lightning Strike} that cost him 1,000 credits. As the name suggests, it's a skill that enables the user to shoot lighting out of their hand to strike the opponent. It has the added advantage of paralyzing the opponent due to the muscle spasm caused by electrocution. It takes 20 rune-words to cast and 40 units of mana.

The second skill book is an E-ranked defensive skill called {Ice Dome}. The skill cost him 1,250 credits. Defensive skill books tend to be more expensive than the offensive ones because they are a big help in surviving inside the Realm of Defenders. The effect of this skill can also be guessed by its name. Invoking this skill creates a dome formed from ice walls around him ranging from a radius of 1 meters to 5 meters around him. He can control the radius of this ice dome using different rune-words when he casts this skill. It takes 20 rune-words to cast and 20-100 units of mana, depending on the radius he wants to cover.

The last skill is the F-ranked {Detection} skill. It cost him 350 credits. This is a support skill he bought to hide his spiritual perception ability. It can be used to detect enemy up to 35 meters around him. In some ways, this is even more useful than his spiritual perception. But, of course, this skill can only detect the presence of enemy while the spiritual perception can tell him everything he needs to know about the enemy.

Alex wants to use this skill to hide his spiritual perception, especially if he joins a party in the future. His spiritual perception is too powerful to not be used as a scouting tool. But, it's also a secret he wants to keep. If he can detect an enemy the other Defenders in his party cannot see without casting a skill, it will raise suspicion. That's why he bought this skill. Besides, this is still a useful skill in its own way, so it's not like he's wasting his credits buying this skill book. The skill only needs 3 rune-words to cast but uses 20 points of mana. The nature of this skill made it more expensive than other skills of the same level.

After having bought the skill books, Alex realizes a problem he managed to overlook because of his excitement in buying those E-ranked skill books. 20 rune-words mean he will need around 20 seconds to cast each skill when he first masters them. Even if he trains for a long time to shorten the casting time, he will probably unable to shorten it to less than 10 seconds. Will it even be practical in battle? He starts questioning the usefulness of these skills.

Or, maybe this is why the party system starts to be available in this rank. With a party, the other party members can distract an opponent while someone in their party is casting their skill. He comes to a realization. But, it doesn't get rid of the frown on his forehead, because it means he will have to rely on the member of his party. For him who doesn't know anyone in the E-rank area, this is a big problem. He has no one he can trust in this early stage of entering the E-rank area. What if the other party members are unreliable and they are unable to protect him while he's casting his skill! Even worse, what if the other party members were to have an evil intention towards him!

While still in doubt, Alex has no other choice but to open the first skill book. He has spent credits in buying these books, it's better to learn them than to waste them. To his surprise, his worries have a solution right on the second page of the skill book after the introduction page.

"{Lightning Strike} can be stored in E-ranked {Skill Gems} and above. It needs 2 rune-words and 5 mana points to invoke. One E-ranked {Skill Gem} can be charged 10 times with {Lightning Strike}."

Alex is stunned after reading this statement. What is a {Skill Gem}? It only needs 2 rune-words and 5 mana points to cast this after using this {Skill Gem}? His mind is full of questions. He forces himself to calm down and open the other E-ranked skill book.

"{Ice Dome} can be stored in E-ranked {Skill Gems} and above. It needs 3 rune-words and 5-25 mana points to invoke. One E-ranked {Skill Gem} can be charged 10 times with the 1-meter radius {Ice Dome}. The 3rd rune-word is the modifier to control the radius of the invoked {Ice Dome}. To invoke the skill with more than the minimum radius, multiple corresponding charges will be used up."

The explanation in this second skill book is longer and more complicated, but the gist is the same. He can store his skills in these {Skill Gems}. Alex reads the F-ranked skill book, but like the other F-ranked skill books, it doesn't say anything about {Skill Gems}.