Chapter 1453: Commotion! . . . I had accumulated enough Skill Proficiency to learn the wondrously amazingly Spell of [Fireball]! It was the lowest of the lowest in the Fire Attribute Spells Skill List I saw in the Skill Library, and I could had purchased it for around 20 Skill Points, but I saved them up by just getting it naturally. Of course, I'm trying to do the same with a few of the other basic spells, although it might take some time. And as for anything above them, seems pretty impossible, my Affinity looks to have been permanently locked into Chaos, Darkness, Illusion, and Dreams and the like, so nothing weird can be acquired by me currently aside from a very few very weak spells of other elements, and the most basic ones- Ding! [Skill Proficiency Level has reached the desirable amount] [You have learned the [Cutting Wind: Lv1] Skill] 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 Oho! There it is! Another one in the list already! With that we got two… I guess I should continue using them over and over again to accumulate Skill Proficiency anyways. There are many other Skills that I could purchase, but something on me is telling me to save them for the moment, what a pain… Oh, well, I could look a second time. Hmmm… All the ones I want are pretty costly, I can't afford anything I really want. No, wait, there's one I want in here… Oh, there it is! It only costs… 40 Skill Points?! That's a lot! Are you freaking kidding me? Well, I definitely can't learn this one normally, so I better just grab it, it will come in handy a lot. Ding! [You exchanged 40 Skill Points] [You have learned the [Mana Drain: Lv1] Skill!] Yes! With this one, I can absorb Mana from my foes. Although it seems quite nerfed, it can still help me in terms of using Mana, because even when it recovers a little after leveling up, I am often still needing more Mana in big battles. I gotta prepare properly! Ding! [Skill Proficiency Level has reached the desirable amount] [You have learned the [Ice Spike: Lv1] Skill] Oho! Yet another magic skill has been learned! Nice, we are getting through it. With these three new Skills of Magic, I can create fireballs, cutting winds, and ice spikes. The last one seems the most lethal, but they're as small as needles. Nonetheless, with this we can slowly begin learning more about element manipulation. From there I could actually learn more skills perhaps, or something. Although I seem to lack the talent for it, I could always try to get new skills by using several others at the same time. Anyways, this skill cost me 40 Skill Points, but it was worth it because it will extend my ability to use Skills and Magic thanks to draining Mana from foes! ----- [Mana Drain: Lv1] Grants the ability to innately drain mana from a target's MP. Every successful attack against a foe will drain 10% of the damage dealt as MP and add it into the user. This MP Drain will grow more intense with each level. ----- And with this, I can get a nice amount of Mana, I just need to hit the bastard that comes at me with everything I've got! Also, the three other new Skills cost little Mana per use, so I might be able to spam them a lot. Maybe I could try to figure out combined skill effects right now… Let's see… Combine- BOOOOOOMMM!!! But right before I could even begin my magic experimentation, an enormous explosion made the entire castle rumble and tremble. I felt completely alarmed, and I immediately used [Roll] to rush outside of the room, quickly finding a big mess outside! There was a dark fog spreading through the entirety of the floor and it seemed miasmic and toxic! What the fuck is going on?! Ugh, I hate how low my perception-based abilities are right now! Should I buy something to help me sense danger from afar? "Gyaaah! What is going on?!" "D-Darkness…! Cough, cough!" "It is infecting everywhere… RUUUUN!" I saw the Elf servants running away for their lives. They were being shrouded and engulfed in the overflowing darkness, that was infecting them for some reason. Yep, this was definitely something like Miasma, but it also had Malice within it, an interesting combination. The darkness began to quickly mutate the bodies of the people, turning them into ghoulish elves that had their eyes become red-shot, their claws grew sharp, and they even grew black horns in their foreheads! Wow, these bastards are getting stronger. Should I kill them? Or should I trap them? Well, is there even a way to purify them? Maybe in my Skill Library but- "GRAAAWWR!" One of them ran towards me and tried to attack me, it swung his claws and generated three rays of darkness from within, which shaped into sharp slicing black winds that hit my body. CLAAASH! My body was naturally as hard as metal if not harder, but it still bended to the damage and hurt a tiny bit. My interior was still soft after all! This was quite problematic now, I lost around 50 HP with that one attack, not much compared to my big pool, but if I am swarmed, I'll die easily. I guess it can't be helped… "ROLL!" CRAAAASH! I ran straight towards him and crushed the butler into the floor. His entire body splattered into pieces in an instant, wow, so weak! I guess that's about it for you, my man. Healing you? Yeah, no thank you. I am not in the mood to help innocents from an asshole Kingdom anyways. SPLAT! But… uegh, my entire body is now covered in blood and flesh! It took me a long while to actually clean it from the blood I got from that one bitch succubus woman and her minions. Are we doing this all over again now? Oh well, maybe I should learn the Water Bullet Skill next to wash myself, but that one is going to take some time and- Oh no, more ghoulish elves are coming in! "GRUUAAAH!" As the opportunistic bastard I am, I shall take this offering wholeheartedly. . . .