Chapter 221: Evolving Calmness --- [Calmness] [Rank: Common] [Proficiency: 66%] [Details: You have the ability to calm beasts weaker than you by touching them, making them feel at ease and reducing their natural aggression or fear. Effectiveness depends on power differential between user and target. 60% Calming Effect.] --- Moon stared at the proficiency percentage in shock. Sixty-six percent. In thirty minutes. He’d reached more than halfway to complete mastery of the skill in nearly thirty minutes. "What the hell..." he muttered under his breath. It was the fastest he’d ever improved any skill by such a dramatic margin. Even with skills he’d had prior knowledge about, like [Ignite], which built on his existing understanding of fire manipulation, or [Elemental Attack], which had synergized with his natural affinities, he’d never experienced improvement at this absurd rate. Normally, taking a Common rank skill from 0% to 66% proficiency would require hours of constant practice at minimum. Moon had done it in half an hour. ’Is this because of my understanding of Mirage?’ he wondered, cycling through the various reasons. He continued walking toward the inn, taking a longer route to practice his skill more. but his attention remained partially focused on the skill, continuing to practice and refine his understanding. By the time Moon reached the inn’s entrance, he checked his proficiency again: — [Calmness] [Rank: Common] [Proficiency: 83%] [Details: You have the ability to calm beasts weaker than you by touching them, making them feel at ease and reducing their natural aggression or fear. Effectiveness depends on power differential between user and target. +80% Calming Effect.] — Eighty-three percent. In under an hour total. "How is it improving so quickly?!" Moon muttered in shock, staring at the numbers. At this rate, he’d reach complete mastery before he went to sleep tonight. For a skill he’d only just acquired. If this accelerated learning applied to all his skills, not just [Calmness]... If he could take newly acquired abilities and master them in hours rather than days or weeks... Then killing fifty S-rank beasts was nothing but a matter of time. The real bottleneck wouldn’t be his capability—it would simply be finding that many high-rank creatures and traveling between their territories. Despite standing at the door of the inn, Moon didn’t enter or take Mirage to the stable. Rather, he continued using his skill on his companion, driven by curiosity about how far he could push this accelerated learning in a single session. Mirage’s expression showed immense satisfaction, his eyes half-closing in contentment as waves of calming energy comforted him greatly. He was clearly pleased with the sensation of tranquility flooding his mind and body, leaning into Moon’s touch like a cat seeking affection. The improvement speed had been absurd for the first hour—climbing from zero to eighty-three percent with shocking rapidity. But once Moon reached the 80-90% range, things became noticeably more difficult. The skill’s intricacies became more apparent at higher proficiency levels. Understanding the basics was easy; mastering the subtleties required more focused attention and refinement. After another period of practice, he’d managed to reach 90%. ’The progress is slowing down, but that’s fine,’ Moon thought, continuing to channel the skill with careful precision. ’I’m almost there anyway. In another hour or two, I should have the skill completely mastered.’ He was right. In the span of an hour and some change, Moon managed to completely master the [Calmness] skill. — [Calmness] [Rank: Common] [Level: 1] [Evolve] [Details: You have the ability to calm beasts weaker than you by touching them, making them feel at ease and reducing their natural aggression or fear. Effectiveness depends on power differential between user and target. +100% Calming Effect.] — Moon stared at the completion notification with satisfaction, then noticed the [Evolve] option that had appeared. He didn’t hesitate. The skill was useful for Mirage. His companion clearly enjoyed the calming effect, and once they embarked on the long, dangerous journeys that were certainly in their future, having a way to reduce Mirage’s stress and fatigue would be useful. Moon selected the evolution option. [Calmness] [Rank: Common] [Level: 1 → 2] [Cost: 2 Lives] [Confirm evolution? Cost: 2 Lives] With his abundance of lives accumulated from countless kills on Lunaris Island, Moon was more than happy to invest in evolving a useful utility skill. He confirmed. The system began consuming lives in exponentially increasing amounts as the skill climbed through levels: [Level 1 → 2: 2 Lives consumed] [Level 2 → 3: 4 Lives consumed] [Level 3 → 4: 8 Lives consumed] ... [Level 8 → 9: 256 Lives consumed] [Level 9 → 10: 512 Lives consumed] [Total Lives Consumed: 1,022] [Lives Remaining: 26,697] [Skill evolution complete. Calmness has reached Level 10 and evolved to Uncommon Rank.] Moon watched his life total drop by over a thousand without any concern. He still had more than twenty-six thousand remaining—a ridiculous surplus that would take months or even years for most awakeners to accumulate. The evolved skill’s description appeared: [Calmness] [Rank: Uncommon] [Level: Max] [Details: You have the ability to calm beasts weaker than you by touching them, making them feel at ease and reducing their natural aggression or fear. Subtly increases stamina and reduces fatigue of affected beasts. Effectiveness depends on power differential between user and target. +150% Calming Effect.] Reading through the enhanced effects, Moon felt pleasantly satisfied with the evolution of the skill. Not only had the calming potency increased from +100% to +150%, but the skill had gained additional utility: stamina enhancement and fatigue reduction. Those secondary effects would be incredibly useful during long journeys or extended combat situations where Mirage needed to maintain peak performance. "Not bad... not bad at all!" Moon said aloud, testing the evolved skill on Mirage. The difference was immediately noticeable. Moon could sense, through the connection the skill created, that Mirage’s physical stamina was being subtly increasing as well. Satisfied with [Calmness], Moon turned his attention to the more important skill: [Beastmaster]. He’d initially wanted to practice it first, but the insane progression rate on [Calmness] had made him focus on mastering that simpler skill before tackling the more complex one. *** Support has been amazing! (Doesn’t affect Chapter price or length) 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 Current Rank: Top 11 Updated Goals: Top 15 GT (Monthly - End of month) = 5 Chapter Mass Release (in progress) Top 10 GT (Monthly - End of Month) = 10 Chapter Mass Release (in progress) Top 10 will be hard since there is many old monsters there, but with current support i’m sure we can hit it if we keep it up. You guys have been amazing, hopefully the Chapters have been to your liking.