Fucking hell.
How the hell am I supposed to find anything good in just half an hour?
The place was massive. My eyes couldn’t even process all the skills and artifacts around me, let alone choose one.
As I stood there, completely overwhelmed, a voice echoed from somewhere.
"What do you want, kid?"
It was old, wise and even somewhat ancient.
I turned around instinctively—
No one.
" Down here, kid. "
I looked down and instantly regretted it.
There, floating a few inches off the ground, was a... snail .
Not some glowing orb. Not even some spectral old man with a wise expression.
Just a small snail.
It had a pair of tiny spectacles hanging off its slimy head and I swear it looked like he was judging me.
I blinked. Once. Twice. But it was still there.
"...What are you?" I asked, because of course that’s what you ask when a literal snail talks to you right?
"Tsk. Kids these days. No respect for elders." The snail shook its head as if disappointed.
"I’m the Treasury’s guide spirit. They call me Hong."
It floated a little higher and sighed.
"Just tell me what you’re looking for already. You’ve got twenty-eight minutes left."
"I want a skill," I said, keeping it simple.
The snail didn’t miss a beat.
"And I want freedom, dumbass." Its tiny eyes glared up at me through those glasses. "There are tens of thousands of skills here. You want me to sort through that shit just because you’re lazy?"
"...I didn’t say I was lazy," I muttered.
"Yeah but you look lazy."
I sighed, rubbing my temples.
This was going to be a long half hour.
I thought about what kind of skill I really needed.
I already had some offense—between [ Card Throw ] and [ Minor Strength Boost ].
It wasn’t much... but once I mastered the Ashborn family’s martial arts, I’d have a solid foundation to build on.
What I lacked was defense and perception.
I had no clue if someone was sneaking up behind me unless they started tap-dancing on glass.
I looked down at the floating snail again. "Is there any skill that focuses on both defense and senses?"
Might as well ask first. No point choosing only one type if I could get a two-for-one deal.
The snail looked at me with what I could only describe as pure judgment.
"Yes. There are skills like that but none of them are below B-Rank."
So, I need to choose only one.
I made my decision without any hesitation. "Okay, what’s the best perception skill I can get at C-Rank or below?"
Sure, I could’ve asked for a B-Rank skill. Hell, I was tempted.
But that would’ve been a stupid move.
Most B-Rank skills demanded absurd amounts of mana. If the skill didn’t activate when I needed it most, I’d be dead before I even realized it.
No thanks.
If I wanted to survive the Forest of Unmasked, I needed something I could rely on.
Not once. Not twice. Every damn time .
Better to live with average than die with overkill.
The snail floated in a lazy circle, spinning like he had all the time in the world.
"Now that’s the right question." His voice was calm. "Come along then, Young Ashborn."
I sighed and followed, already grumbling under my breath.
_
This fucking snail.
I cursed under my breath.
I wasn’t someone who lost his cool easily or maybe I was... but at least not without reason.
And this? This was the reason .
The damn snail had wasted five whole minutes of my already short time, just to lead me a few dozen meters to the left.
He could’ve pointed. Floated up and said, "Yo, third row, left shelf." But no.
And the worst part? I was sure this bastard was doing it deliberately.
I mean, sure, snails were slow. That was their thing.
But this one?
He talked. He floated . He was a magic snail, for god’s sake. The laws of nature didn’t apply to him.
So what was the excuse now? Tradition? Pride? Chronic asshole syndrome?
Whatever it was, I hated it.
And him.
"We are here. All the skills in this section are sensory types, ranked B and below," the snail said, hovering like a smug tour guide. "Just touch the box to see the info."
I looked at the section he pointed to.
There were at least fifty skill boxes. Maybe more. And here I was, with barely twenty or so minutes left on the clock.
How the hell was I supposed to check each one?
I looked at the snail.
" Ahem... Oh great and venerable elder," I said, making my voice as reverent as possible, "is it possible to, say... sort the skills by low mana consumption , perhaps?"
"Yes, it is," the snail replied immediately.
For a second, I saw it— a smile . An evil smug on his slimy face.
"But I’m not being paid enough to do that," he added.
"Now get to work. You have twenty-two minutes and thirty seconds left."
Fuck.
I wanted to curse but I held it in and walked forward.
No time to waste.
I needed a good skill. If I could, maybe a decent artifact too.
But right now, skill was the priority.
I could buy Artifacts from outside.
But good skills? Almost impossible. They were too rare.
Most of them were hoarded by big families like mine or monopolized by major guilds. Finding one in the wild was rarer than nobles who kept their vows.
And even if I did find one in some shady market or underground auction, I doubted I’d get anything better than what was here.
So yeah.
Time to find myself a damn good skill.
__
Or... that’s what I told myself a few minutes ago.
But reality? It was a nightmare.
I’d been going through skill after skill for the last fifteen minutes and I still hadn’t found a single one that truly clicked.
Some had great effects but burned through mana too much.
Others had low mana usage but the actual skill effects were trash.
And then there was the third kind.
The "too good to be true" kind.
Perfect effects with low mana consumption and ideal cooldown. But of course, there was a catch.
Like this one skill I just saw: best sensory amplification I’d come across so far and the lowest mana drain too.
Except...
It only worked while dancing.
Actual dancing. Not metaphorical or symbolic. Literal footwork with rhythm and flow.
What the hell was I supposed to do? Dance my way through a battlefield?
What kind of nutcase would even use this kind of skill?
Still, I wasn’t just glancing over them... I had marked some skills for further review.
Although they were not ideal, if I don’t find anything good within the next few minutes, I was going to choose one of them.
As soon as I went over to the next skill, its information appeared before me.
—
Ember Sense
Type → Sensory
Rank → C
Description → Forms a small ember core within the body that passively enhances physical senses, sharpening reflexes, touch, hearing and awareness.
When activated, it grants thermal vision, allowing detection of enemies, traps and movement through smoke, darkness or thin walls.
Mana cost decreases if the user has fire elemental affinity.
__
My eyes paused on the description.
Ember Sense...
I read through it again. Then again. Just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
Passive enhancement of reflexes and all five senses? Thermal vision on activation? It could even detect movement through smoke, darkness or thin walls?
And it had reduced mana cost if the user had fire affinity?
That was me.
This... this was actually good.
No, not just good—perfect.
It wasn’t flashy but it was exactly what I needed for now.
Forest of Unmasked had one really annoying effect and that was constant fog covering it which made it difficult to see anything.
So, this skill was perfect. Such types of skill which granted both active and passive effects were rare.
I looked around just to make sure there wasn’t some hidden line saying, "only usable while performing fire-dancing."
Nothing. I almost teared up.
"...I found it," I muttered.
And then turned to the floating snail, who was currently spinning mid-air like he was meditating.
"Oi, old man. I found my skill."
__
Author’s Note:
You might be wondering—if getting the skill is so important, why can’t Rael just return to the vault tomorrow? Why the rush?
Well, here’s the catch: with his current rank and mana tolerance, Rael can only stay in the treasury for thirty minutes at a time and only once every week or two.
The Mana Resonators inside the vault emit an intense concentration of raw mana, far beyond what his body can safely endure.
Spending even half an hour inside leaves him with acute mana poisoning and it takes days—sometimes longer—for his body to recover. Re-entering too soon could seriously harm him.