"Another unique skill holder?" Cipher was surprised once again. It was as if his whole worldview was being flipped upside down. Did unique skills grow on trees nowadays? He didn’t even remember seeing these two back then. But given their positions, he supposed they worked behind the scenes rather than at the frontlines.
He activated Appraisal. As he was doing so, Elaine rushed at him.
"No, stop! Don’t..." she shouted.
"What are you doing? Interfering with the test," Iris asked.
"Selene, it’s difficult to conclude the test with this old hag interfering," she said.
"Leave it to me," Selene replied. She then pulled Elaine away from Cipher and held her tightly. "Please excuse me."
"Nooooo!" Elaine screamed, trying to get free, but she couldn’t do anything against Selene’s grip.
Name: Elaine
Level: 60
Rank: B
Species: Human
Class: Saintess
Health: 1,000/1,000
Mana: 1,500/1,500
Strength: 8
Stamina: 10
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 150
Skills (8/11): Holy Light (S), Divine Heal (A), Mass Blessing (B), Sacred Shield (B), Purification (C), Regeneration Aura (C), Mana Recovery (C), Charm (E)
Unique Skill: Divine Prayer (Unique)
Type: Active
Cost: Varies
Cooldown: Varies
Description: Pray to the Love Goddess to receive divine gifts: items, knowledge, temporary skills, or blessings. The goddess may grant, refuse, or offer alternatives based on her whims and the nature of the request. Requests aligned with love, beauty, and grace are more likely to be answered favorably.
Note: As a side effect of channeling the Love Goddess’s divine power, the user’s appearance is altered to maintain the image of a mature, elegant woman befitting the goddess’s aesthetic standards.
Current actual age: 20 years old.
Apparent age: mid-30s.
Cipher was wondering why she was so against being appraised, but when he saw her skill’s description, he finally understood.
"Did you get it? Tell me, what does it say?" Iris asked.
Cipher ignored her and looked at Elaine with a smile. So this girl liked to cosplay older than she actually was. He wondered why she did that instead of explaining that her skill made her appear older. She even tolerated being called a hag by Iris. He wondered if it was a restriction set by the so-called Love Goddess so that she couldn’t talk about it.
Speaking of, was she related to the Time God? He needed to ask her about this. Still, he had to find a smooth way of going about it. The gods might also have their own situations - it would be really bad if the Love Goddess and Time God didn’t get along.
He then turned to Iris and explained the skill description to her. Of course, leaving out the age part.
"Hmm, that checks out with what she told us. Pass," Iris said.
She then turned to look at Elaine, who was being held by Selene. "Why were you acting up? One would’ve thought you were hiding a huge secret."
Selene released her.
"Hmph, what do you know. A woman who has lived a long time like me has to have her own secrets," Elaine said.
Internally, she thought, "Looks like I was worried for nothing. It seems he can’t see everything."
Cipher smiled at her. "Miss Elaine has lived a long time? You don’t look a day over twenty to me."
She looked at him. He definitely saw it.
She laughed. "My, what a sweet guy."
"Now that we have confirmed your appraisal, we need to go discuss with the rest on how to handle your situation," Iris said.
...
As they walked to the meeting place, Cipher was deep in thought.
"Something is definitely weird here," he thought, looking at the skill description before him.
[Skill: Mana Recovery (C-Rank)]
[Type: Passive]
[Cost: 0 Mana]
[Description: Regenerate 0.5% of maximum mana every 10 seconds while out of combat or 1% of maximum mana every 10 seconds while sleeping.]
This was the description of the C-rank Mana Recovery skill that Elaine had. The description was exactly the same as the description for his E-rank Mana Recovery.
This was the same situation as the S-rank Mana Manipulation that Iris had. For that, he could attribute it to being more proficient in mana manipulation, which was hard to put into words. But this one... it was something that could be put in numbers, yet they were all the same. 0.5 percent over ten seconds. How was that possible?
"We’re here," Iris said, pushing the door open.
Cipher closed the appraisal screen. He would ask Selene about this later. For now, he needed to lock in. This meeting would determine his future in the Association.
...
Inside was a large conference room with a polished table stretching across the center. A man sat at one end, and a woman sat at the other. Elaine and Iris took seats on one side of the table, while Selene and Cipher sat on the opposite side.
Through that strange skill again, Selene’s voice appeared in his head, explaining the situation.
The man was Marcus, the Association Chairman. He was also the strongest member of the Association - an A-rank Void Mage. The number of A-ranks in the world could be counted on one hand, so it was best not to offend him.
As for the woman, her name was Victoria and she was the Vice Chairman. She was a B-rank Support. There were other executives with authority in the Association, but they were mostly busy and wouldn’t be attending. She’d introduce him to them eventually.
"~Thank you," Cipher replied.
Selene had a shocked expression when she heard his voice enter her head.
"~How did you do that?"
Cipher smiled, looking at the notification before him:
[Congratulations! You have awakened a skill]
[Skill: Voice Transmission (D-Rank)]
[Type: Active]
[Cost: Varies]
[Description: Transmit your voice directly into the mind of a target within 50 meters. Can maintain multiple simultaneous connections (up to 3 targets).
Cipher observed the skill. He had taken inspiration from the Reverse Engineering skill that Iris had - how it allowed her to deconstruct spells and recreate them. He’d tried to do the same with his Mana Manipulation, controlling his mana to try and replicate how Selene was transmitting her voice.
He’d been expecting to use it through Mana Manipulation, not to actually create a new skill.
The problem with creating a new skill was that it took up a valuable skill slot. He wondered why he got a skill this time. He used Mana Manipulation every time to imitate Aura, but he didn’t get a skill for that. Was it because he already had it?
"~I’m an All Rounder, remember?" Cipher replied to Selene through Voice Transmission.
Selene had an amazed expression. He copied her skill just like that?
"Alright, now that you’re all here, let’s begin," Marcus spoke.