Free Web NovelChapter 47: Trash Skills... Or Not?
"Holy shit."
He said it once. Then again, quieter, more to himself, the way a man speaks when he’s trying to confirm that what he’s seeing is real and his own voice is the only witness available.
’Two skills. Two random skills just for having sex with Mrs. Walbury?’
[Alert!]
[Note from System: To be transparent with the Player — this was not part of the original design.]
David blinked.
[The System had prepared a structured path- Missions, Incremental progress and a measured pace of development suited to a Player of your current standing. What occurred this morning with Target: Mrs. Walbury was not on the itinerary.]
He opened his mouth. Closed it.
[You were meant to complete only a quest, which you did. You also, somewhere between warmup and cooldown, managed your First Conquest and lost your virginity — an achievement the System had not scheduled for at least several missions from now. Player has significantly overstepped projected expectations.]
"I —" He stopped. Pressed his lips together.
"Are you scolding me right now?"
[The System is not scolding. The System is recalibrating.]
[What you have done has triggered an unplanned reward sequence. The Monarch Of Sin’s Blessing is not a standard mission payout. It is reserved for moments where the Player demonstrates growth that exceeds the System’s own projections. You have earned it. The System acknowledges this, however reluctantly.]
David stared at the notification for a long moment.
Then the grin came back. Slower this time, and considerably more satisfied.
’However reluctantly,’ he repeated in his head. ’The system is sulking.’
[2x Random Skill Tokens have been deposited to your inventory. The System strongly encourages you to utilize them wisely. You have been given tools that Players far beyond your current level would consider significant. Do not waste them.]
[That is all.]
[...The System would also like to note, for the record, that it did not expect this from you. That is meant as a compliment.]
David laughed — a real one this time, short and genuine, the kind that comes out before you can stop it.
He dropped back against the couch, phone resting on his chest, staring up at the ceiling with the easy, loose feeling of a man who had walked into his morning expecting very little and come home with a hundred dollars, two skills, and the apparent ability to surprise even the supernatural entity living in his head.
’First Conquest with that beauty...’ he thought. The words settled over him, warm and a little unreal.
’...Mrs. Walbury.’
He let that sit for a moment.
Then he straightened, pulled the phone back up, and tapped to open his skill inventory.
"Alright," he said quietly.
"Let’s see what you gave me."
The system didn’t make him wait.
The skill token spun in his vision — a clean, almost ceremonial rotation — and then the notification cracked open like a gift.
[Player has received: E-Rank Skill — Virgin’s Touch (Lvl. 1)]
[Class: Aid]
[Description: Restores Player to 5% base health level upon activation.]
David read it once.
"Virgin’s Touch."
He said it out loud. Flat. Letting it exist in the air for a moment.
’Under normal circumstances,’ he thought.
’I would be offended by that name.’ He paused. ’Actually, no. Virgin no more. So if anything, this is just the system being funny about it.’
He looked back at the notification. Then, despite himself, a slow nod.
It was actually good. Genuinely good. Health restoration on demand — in a fight, that was the difference between standing and not standing. But his mind went somewhere else first.
"Does this work on physical exhaustion too?" he asked. "Like after training?"
[Depending on the severity of physical exhaustion, yes. Virgin’s Touch can assist considerably.]
He sat with that for a second.
’So I can train harder. Push further. And just... reset.’ He thought about his current regimen. Then he thought about what he’d been holding back on because his body had limits.
’I could increase everything. Weights, distance, even the martial arts schedule —’
"This skill is genuinely useful," he said, mostly to himself, with the quiet satisfaction of a man who had just realized something good.
[The System is glad you approve.]
"Alright." He straightened. "Second skill."
The token spun again. Slower this time, or maybe it just felt that way — the anticipation had nowhere to go except inward, his leg bouncing once against the couch cushion as he watched it rotate. It slowed. Slowed further.
Stopped.
The light that bled out was red.
[Player has received: E-Rank Skill — Dust Sense (Lvl. 1)]
[Class: Shield]
David’s body went very still, perhaps in disbelief as he read the description.
[Description: Player can sense dust.]
David read it once.
Read it again.
The words did not change.
"...Sense dust."
[Correct.]
"Dust," he repeated. "Regular dust. The kind that settles on shelves."
[The skill does not discriminate between dust types, yes.]
He set the phone down on the couch cushion. Not dramatically. Just set it down, screen up, and stared at the ceiling with the expression of a man trying to locate something — patience, perspective, the will to continue — somewhere in the empty air above him. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
The evening sun moved across the floor. A neighbor’s dog barked once, twice, then gave up.
David picked the phone back up.
"Let me make sure I understand this correctly," he said. "I surprised you. You said so yourself. You gave me a blessing you weren’t even planning to give me, because I exceeded your expectations by that much —" freeweɓnovel.cѳm
[The Player did perform admirably beyond projected —]
"— and the second skill you pulled out of that blessing," he continued, as if the system had not spoken, "the reward for going above and beyond, is the ability to know when my floor needs sweeping."
[The randomization process is entirely impartial. The System does not curate results.]
"So this was random."
[Yes.]
"Out of everything in existence that you could have given me —"
[The System understands your frustration.]
"Do you though."
A beat.
[...The System acknowledges the outcome was suboptimal.]
David exhaled through his nose. Long. Slow. Controlled.
Then he put the phone face-down on his knee, pressed both hands over his face, and sat there for a full three seconds.
When he looked back up, something in him had settled into a kind of exhausted acceptance that only comes from having no other available option.
"Incredible," he said quietly. "Truly. A historic moment."
[You are welcome.]
"That wasn’t a thank you."
[The System is aware.]
David leaned his head back against the couch and groaned at the ceiling.
"What a waste," he told it. "What an absolute waste of a spin."
[The System would like to respectfully push back on that assessment.]
"Please don’t."
[Player does not fully understand what Dust Sense is.]
"I understand perfectly," David said, still addressing the ceiling. "I can sense dust, so I’ll never need a cleaning lady again... not like I could spare one currently."
[Player can sense particles.]
"Same thing."
[It is not the same thing.]
There was a brief pause, as if the system was choosing its next words carefully.
[Dust particles exist everywhere. They float. They drift. They are disturbed by movement — by air displacement, by shifting weight, by the draw of a blade. At its current level, Dust Sense is a rudimentary perception skill. But its foundation is sensory detection.]
David stopped staring at the ceiling.
"...Go on."
[In practical application — a theoretical example, at current level — if an opponent were to strike from a blind spot, the movement of their body would disturb the particles in the surrounding air a fraction of a second before contact. Player would sense that shift.]
David sat up slowly.
"So you’re saying," he said, "that I could feel something coming before I see it."
[In theory. At higher levels, the applications become considerably broader. Combat in low visibility. Detecting presence in enclosed spaces. Sensing movement through barriers.]
The thought landed fully and rearranged everything.
’Fight in the dark,’ he thought. ’Sense a blade from a blind spot. Feel a room before you see it.’
He looked down at the skill entry again. E-Rank. Tiny font. Completely unassuming.
"Wait." He straightened.
"You said it had limitations."
[E-Rank skills have limitations. The skill itself has a ceiling that does not.]
David was quiet for a moment, turning it over in his head — the image of standing in a pitch-black room and knowing exactly where every living thing in it was just from the way the air moved around them.
A slow exhale left him.
"Alright," he said. "I take it back."
[The System accepts your retraction.]
"Don’t push it."
[Noted. Would Player like to add skills to arsenal?]
"Hell yeah I would." David called out, a bit of excitement in his voice.
[Skills added to Arsenal: Virgin’s Touch (Lvl. 1) | Dust Sense (Lvl. 1)]
