Chapter 101: A Secret, Shared

Kaius snapped his eyes open as his final legacy merge settled into place around his soul. Everything was prepped and ready for his final skill, the nexuses of power orbiting his soul locking into an equidistant formation. A single place remained in their circle, waiting for his last selection.

Father had told him how it would work. When his final skill was chosen it would slot into the remaining empty space. His legacy skills would resonate, amplifying his tenth skill… somehow. He didn’t know much more than that, only that the system did all the heavy lifting. No more battles of will in his future, thank the gods.

That could wait though, he still had to have his conversation with Porkchop, and investigate his latest acquisition.

Grinning in anticipation, Kaius pulled up the waiting description of his latest skill.

Uncanny Dodge:

Level 1

Unique

Roll enough dice, and eventually one of them will phase through the table.

Allows the user to sense portents of doom, and aids them in evading the unavoidable through subtle guidance and twists of fate. Certain effects may impede this skill.

Each level reasonably increases specificity of warnings.

Each level reasonably improves the skills ability to counteract impeding effects.

Each level slightly increases speed, control, reflexes and flexibility when dodging.

Each level minutely lengthens the window of warning prior to the impending danger.

Each level infinitesimally twists probabilities in your favour when dodging.

Each level infinitesimally increases your ability to evade sensed dangers, including otherwise unavoidable attacks.

Merged from: Danger Sense, Dodge

As his eyes roved over the skill, Kaius drank in its effects.

It was good. Far better than he had expected for a merge of only two general skills. While it was mostly a simple baseline improvement on the functionality of both Danger Sense and Dodge, it was its last two effects that grabbed his attention.

As they only grew Infinitesimally, he would most likely only feel their effects subtly while he was capped to level twenty. Yet, even then, he knew that they would inevitably become invaluable as he grew. Anything that twisted the fate of the world was powerful, and Father had said that they inevitably led to truly mind bending twists of coincidence.

His mind wandered, thinking of unlikely circumstances where he was saved by the changing of the wind, or an archmage’s spell destabilising catastrophically. Unfortunately, he would have to wait and see. If it did do anything at so low a level, he doubted it would be anything but the most subtle of influences.

“You gonna share the details, or just keep staring at the bunk?” Porkchop asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Kaius smiled and sat up. “Sorry,” he replied. “Just got caught up in my thoughts. It’s good, better than I expected. Mostly the same, but it’s a fate skill.”

Porkchop cocked an eyebrow. “Really? That’s impressive.”

“I know,” Kaius nodded. “It’s only an infinitesimal influence, so it’s nothing too crazy.”

“For now. Evolve it enough times and that will quickly change.” Porkchop replied.

Kaius grinned. That was the plan. A significant part of the value of legacy skills wasn’t their immediate strength, but what they could grow into as one ascended the tiers. The difference between rarities only widened as you grew in power, so having a strong base was an immense advantage that was incredibly difficult to overcome for those without their own advantages. Not impossible, not by any means, there were plenty of stories of driven commoners catching up to a wastrel of a scion.

However, often effort alone wasn’t enough. If someone with legacy skills was driven, and pushed themselves as hard as they were able, a common born would need some truly mind boggling feats of strength and lucky encounters galore to even hope to bridge the gap.

Even then, it would require someone without merged skills to have a skill list that was not only high in rarity, but also well suited to them. Beyond the simple fact that skills needed to be capped before you tiered up to have any decent chance of evolving, evolutions were impacted by feats and achievements just as much as classes were. A skill might never grow in rarity if you weren’t able to stretch the boundaries of what was possible. Something you could only do if you knew your skills like they were a natural extension of your body.

It was why his final skill was so important to deliberate on. With only ten skills, each one would have a significant influence on his class and development. He needed something that was not only strong, but well suited to him. Something he would use.

Which made Porkchop’s secret skill all the more intriguing.

Porkchop might have been lounging on the stone, half splayed out, but Kaius could see the tension in his shoulders. The way they were bunched. Stiff. He was nervous.

“So, are you ready to talk about your mystery skill?” he asked, keeping his voice calm. He wanted to grab his friend by the shoulders and shake the bloody answer out of him, just sitting there and knowing that Porkchop had something interesting to share had made the last few days torturous. However, Porkchop was like blood, and it was clearly a big deal, so he let it slide.

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Porkchop froze, before he let out a low huff and set his head on his paws. “I suppose I can’t really push it off anymore, can I?”