Ryan ignored Seraphina for now and looked at his stats.
— Physical Body: 10
— Mana: 16
"Sis, how much mana do you think you have according to my system's calculation method?"
Sera smiled. "Your system actually uses the same unit of measurement as Mugen. It just changes it to Earth terms. For example, when I checked your body, I noticed you had 16 mana-units. So well, by the same metric, I would have more than 3000 mana-units."
"Damn, you are that strong?"
This was the capital's prodigy?
Ryan felt a burst of pride and Seraphina immediately noticed it through their connection. She became smug immediately, staring at him with a side eye.
She laughed. "I am a mage with more than one sub-class, of course my stats are strong."
"How much mana did you have when you were level 10?"
"1000 mana-units. My body was 1000-physical units."
"That's… much stronger than me…"
He became annoyed. Even if he used all 45 stat points in his hand on one stat, he still would not even come close to matching her at the same level.
What kind of wretched difference was this?
He will have 61 mana at best and she will have 1000?!
How was that fair?
"Well, don't cry about it. When I was at that stage, I barely had 5 Mana Arts and 5 Martial Arts. In total, 10 skills. And you can have way more than me."
He felt a bit better. "Yeah, I guess."
Then, he moved his gaze to his system and assigned (34) stat points on his Mana.
— Mana: 16
The stat blurred.
— Mana: 50.
He immediately felt much better. What kind of number was 16?
Such an ugly number.
50 looked so much better.
At the same time, he felt a wave of warm energy flicker throughout his head. His mind felt much clearer, as if a sort of brain fog had been removed from within him.
"You didn't use all your stat points," she said with a blink.
He still had "11" points remaining.
Ryan smirked. "Of course, that goes to my physique."
— Physical Body: 10
The stat blurred.
— Physical Body: 21
A searing hot, but wildly comfortable energy rushed right out of his heart and spread out into the entirety of his body. His bones felt as if they straightened up, as if they had gained a burst of immense strength.
I wonder how many kilos I can lift now?
He was not much of a gymnast, but he couldn't help but wonder if he could be considered top tier by Earth standard now.
"Making your physical body stronger is not really the best choice, though," she guided. "You are a mana focused fighter, as I told you."
He stared at her. Then flexed his biceps. "Men must have strong bodies!"
She rolled her eyes. "When did you become a man anyway?"
"Eh?" Ryan's eyebrows quirked up.
She really doesn't see me as a man, the heck?!
His face actually became quite funny.
She laughed.
"Obviously, what kind of man gets dominated by a woman who is kissing for the first time?"
Ryan stood up, then glared at her. "That's because you have more physical strength!"
"Surely."
"Wanna try again?"
"You think you stand a chance?"
He pushed her down and tried to kiss her, but she just pushed his face away in return, acting disgusted. "Get lost, I don't feel like it anymore." He tried to force his lips onto hers, but she didn't let her soft hand budge. "Aren't you gonna use your Skill Points yet?" she asked.
He moved away and clicked his tongue.
"Well, whatever."
Ryan sat down on the bed again. Then, he opened his status panel and looked at his skills. Which skills should he level up first?
[Skills]
Skill Plunder (Lv.1) – Steal skills via 30-minute contact (24 hour cooldown (8 hours remaining).
Vitality Theft (Lv.1) – Drain stamina on touch (Mana Cost: 5).
Luck Sucker (Lv.1) – Temporarily steal luck (Mana Cost: 5).
Apex Predator (Lv.1) – Intimidate weak foes, +10% physical prowess (Mana Cost: 10).
Appraisal (Lv.1) – Reveal basic info on targets (Mana Cost: 1).
Enhanced Vision (Lv.1) – Sharper eyesight (passive).
Twin Telepathy (Lv.1) – Mental link with Seraphina (requires touch).
_
"Which skill are you going to develop first?" Sera asked.
She is testing me, he realized.
Of course, the answer was simple.
"I will add most of my skill points on Skill Plunder skill."
If possible, he wanted to max it out.
That was the core of his skillset after all.
She grinned; he was not foolish after all.
"Sure, try."
Ryan did just that.
[Skill Plunder (Lv.1)]
Steal skills of equal or lower level via 30-minute contact (24h cooldown).
The screen blurred.
[Skill Plunder (Lv.2)]
Steal skills of equal or lower level via 27-minute contact (22.5h cooldown).
"Oh, your cooldown and required time of contact both reduced quite a bit."
He nodded. Then continued adding skill points on the same skill.
[Skill Plunder (Lv.3)]
[Skill Plunder (Lv.4)]
[Skill Plunder (Lv.5)]
[Skill Plunder (Lv.6)]
Steal skills of equal or lower level via 15-minute contact (16.5 h cooldown).
.
.
[Skill Plunder (Lv.9)]
[Skill Plunder (Lv.10) (Max)]
[The skill has reached the limits of its potential. Make the skill 'evolve' to add more levels]
[Skill Points Remaining: 36]
Each level up had cost one Skill Point, and thus, going from level 1 to 10 had cost nine points in total.
"This is so convenient," Seraphina said with obvious curiosity. "I wonder how this actually works. I needed to research each of my mana arts separately for them to level up, but you are doing this so easily with mere clicks."
He was also curious. "How can I 'evolve' my skills?"
"Well, you need to unlock subclasses for that. For now, check what happened to your Skill Plunder."
He turned his attention back to the pink system.
[Skill Plunder (Lv.10)]
Steal skills of equal or lower level via 3-minute contact (10h cooldown).
Each level up of the skill reduced 3 minutes of required contact and 1.5 hours of cooldown time. And thus, he now only needed 10 hours between each Plunder. That made Sett excited.
He could steal two skills a day from today!
"My Skill Plunder is active again," he said. "Maybe we should visit that cheetah now?"