Catching up with Mo’han would have to wait, and he quickly made himself scarce. Hearing that the asura wasn’t just two stages ahead of him, but had completed the trial considerably easier had sent his ambitions into overdrive.

  He was probably being too hard on himself. After all, Mo’han was the strongest person in the entire sector, and far ahead of him level-wise. But who was Aaron to care about such logical considerations? A goal had been set, and he wanted to smash it. In his mind, levels were just a number, and numbers couldn’t hold him back.

  Hurriedly waving goodbye, he rushed off for some peace within the meditation room and opened his Skill selection. Sooty was allowed to come too, since Aaron was actively attempting to take more advice from him. Besides, he had gotten a lot better at drowning out all the extra chatter coming from the little soot goblin, which made him a whole lot more bearable.

  Spirit Punch [ Rare ] Why punch with just normal physical strengthening when you can also punch with the pure energy of the spirit? When activated, Spirit Punch aligns the user’s fist with their spirit, adding a little extra oomph to their blows.

  Mage Shield [ Elite ] A mage’s best friend is a shield, preferably a forcefield like one that keeps pesky melee combatants away. When activated, this Skill creates a shield of mana around the user that can both block attacks at the cost of mana and push attackers away by expending additional mana.

  Unkillable Rampage [ Elite ] Your eyes are dead, and words are pointless as they do not reach your ears. Rage is all you hear. When activated, Unkillable Rampage sends the user into a violent berserker state that greatly increases their Vitality and healing rate at the cost of conscious control. Warning: this skill is dangerous when used around allies.

  Blurred Image [ Epic ] Melding with your spiritual side, you have taken on a ghostly apparition. Passively alters the user’s appearance so as to make them shimmer and blur between transparency. This makes tracking and hitting the user with precise attacks significantly harder, and partial transparency can be difficult to spot under low light.

  Spirit Negotiator [Epic] Why talk to the living when you can talk to their spirits? Or at least that’s what you believe; everyone else just thinks you’re a weirdo. Passively allows the user to speak with spirits. Spirits with whom their users lack a connection may say unexpected things, potentially saying things their owners wish to be kept secret.

  Aaron’s spirits rose when he saw [ Spirit Punch ], then fell when he read its description. It was kind of what he wanted, but also… Well, it didn’t seem very good. It didn’t mention anything about targeting the enemy spirit like he had done against Oozagh or anything like that. Was it being intentionally vague, or was it just a bad Skill?

  “Sooty, whaddya think of Spirit Punch?” he asked.

  “Pretty terrible Skill,” said Sooty. “Barely does anything for ye. Unless ye want some insight into the spirit, but ye seem to have that covered already. Not very effective in combat.”

  “Argh! Bloody hell,” Aaron groaned. “Seriously? After all that work?”

  “Still, not a bad lineup,” Sooty hummed.

  “What do you mean? I was hoping for something like spirit punch, but a good version.”

  “Aye, it is. Nothing special about that. Then again, just because it ain’t great, don’t mean ye can’t do better next time.”

  Right, Aaron nodded to himself. There was always level 35, and if he worked hard and focused on levels, he reckoned he could probably hit it before the trials ended.

  He hadn’t really been too focused on leveling so far. After all, he figured he’d be able to after the trials. But it seemed hitting level 35 was going to be a prerequisite for beating Mo’han.

  “Damn,” he muttered. “But I was definitely using a stronger version just now.”

  “Well, were ye relyin’ on that steak ye were cookin’?” asked Sooty.

  “...Yeah.”

  “Well, there ye have it. If ye rely on outside help, ye won’t get the Skill. Same reason ye never got that movement Skill from yer shoes. However, this is a bit different since it was from yer Profession. Ye can probably get it at the next Skill selection if ye work hard.”

  “I guess that makes sense…”

  It was true that he had been relying on the ribeye. Without it, his attack was basically ineffective. It was probably about as useful as the lame [ Spirit Punch ] Skill, so it sort of made sense.

  Aaron was starting to get a feel for how Skill unlocks worked. He didn’t believe you necessarily needed to come up with your own version of a Skill to unlock one. That being said, you were rewarded for what you did, and most Skills matched your style, or rather, your path.

  If you were going to inject a new technique into your path, you were going to have to work for it. And since the spirit punch he had been using was really very weak, he hadn’t been greatly rewarded, or at least that was the working theory.

  It was the [ Mage Shield ] Skill selection that brought him here. It was no doubt because of his own mana barrier. It wasn’t great either, and a big part of that was likely because it was so starkly different from his path. And yet he was rewarded for the work he put into refining his barrier.

  He asked Sooty about his suspicions, and the little goblin more or less confirmed them. Although it also said that no one knows exactly how the System works. There are plentiful theories, but if anyone had actually decrypted it, they hadn’t done so outside of the divine realms. And gods didn’t share such secrets with mortals, if they had them.

  “What about the others?” Aaron sighed as they continued down the list of Skill options.

  “Hmm. Mage Shield doesn’t fit ye style. Though if you were somebody else, say a caster, I’d say it’s decent. That said, it mentions mana cost a bunch of times. That’s normally a red flag. If a Skill description keeps talking about the energy it costs to use, it normally means it’s an energy hog.”

  “I see. Good to know,” Aaron scratched his chin.

  “Unkillable Rampage is also good. But ye are already basically unkillable. Why pick up another Skill to make you even harder to kill? Especially when the Skill could potentially put future allies in danger. Might not be a big deal right now, but in the future ye’ll probably regret it.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Make sense,” Aaron nodded. He hadn’t actually been planning to take the Skill, but Sooty’s reasoning was better and more thorough than his had been. That was nice. He could move on more confidently thanks to it.

  “Blurred Image is pretty interesting. It won’t help against big area attacks, but it’ll make hitting ye with direct hits harder. That might come in handy against Mo’man. Not a bad choice, even if slightly boring.”

  “And then we have Spirit Negotiator. Look, that’s a handy Skill. Spirits can be pretty wild, and often say things their living counterpart would blow a fuse over. But it ain't you,” Sooty shivered in disgust.

  “What do you mean, it’s not you?”

  “C’mon, bossman. Ye, a negotiator?” Sooty chuckled. “Besides, it's clearly a Charisma-based Skill, and that’s your lowest Stat. Unless ye plan on changing that, I wouldn’t start trying to pick Skills up that are going to rely on it. That’s just dumb. Too much spread makes for a weak build.”

  Aaron couldn’t disagree with that. If he had wanted to build on that Skill set, then he should have started doing it sooner. Not that he did. With or without Charisma, it wasn’t his style.

  “So, it sounds like Blurred Image is the only suitable Skill?”

  “Yup,” Sooty shrugged. “Sounds like it, bossman. “Ye do have a free slot, anyway, right?”

  “True.”

  Sooty was right. Whilst Aaron didn’t really care about dropping something like [ Thick Skinned ] for a new Skill, as it didn’t do much anymore, he wasn’t in a rush to throw it away either. The Skill was still one additional buff when activated, and if there was nothing worth replacing it with, it was better to keep.

  And by the same reasoning that made him want to replace the Skill, [ Equal and Opposite ] was a far better defense than Mage Shield. Between the two defensive Skills he already had, he really didn’t need a third. Especially not one that didn’t suit his style.

  Sooty was also right about [ Unkillable Rampage ]. He had no idea when he might need to fight alongside allies, and the last thing he wanted to do was kill a friend.

  With that thought in mind, he confirmed his selection and picked [ Blurred Image ].

  Okay, it’s settled. I’m going to hit 35 and get a decent Spirit Punch to take Mo’han out with!

  He wanted to jump straight back into stage 8 of the Trial of the Challenger and fight Oozagh again. But considering how much of a difference his spirit steak had made, he decided it was worthwhile seeing if he could make something similar, but better.

  And whilst Sooty confirmed that relying on the buff to beat Oozagh had been half the reason he hadn’t unlocked a better version of the Skill, it had also paid with insights. Having greater control over his spirit made it easier to understand it as well. If he could push that further, then he would be able to control his spirit better, and no doubt increase the chances of a better unlock for level 35.

  Aaron went straight to the kitchen, and his eyes glazed over, and he got to work. Sooty saw himself out as he usually did when Aaron went full trance mode, and the kitchen turned into a chaotic mess.

  But unlike in previous cooking rampages, he let his spirit do as much of the cooking as he did. It was all thanks to the residual effects of his Spirit Marbled Ribeye still being active. He realized that it wasn’t just a combat aid, and now his spirit could cut, lift pots and pans, and do everything he could.

  Not only that, but his spirit being able to handle things, aether was constantly being imparted on everything. It was quite the cheat, and whilst the [ Soul Cooking ] which hadn’t picked up during his last Profession selection was no doubt stronger, having such control over his spirit was very similar.

  On top of that, it gave him another set of hands to work with, increasing the chaos of his kitchen even further.

  Now, with this improvement to his cooking, it wasn’t just the final dish that was spirit-bound. No, it was every ingredient he put into his cooking. Every touch imparted aether, further strengthening the spiritual properties of the final product.

  This was true synergy. He had found a means of going beyond what he was passively capable of, and by doing so, he could get more out of what he was cooking.

  The final product lit his face up with delight. It was evidence of the decisions he had been making of late. And further cemented the importance of ascending towards his own path. A path that put equal importance on the control over his spirit as it did his mortal shell.

  But the more spiritual energy he infused into his cooking, the more it increased the risks that people would discover his true powers. Because this wasn’t just the dishes, but the ingredients touched by his spiritual form had now taken on a shimmering appearance, shifting in and out of transparency.

  That said, he wasn’t sure what he could and couldn’t keep a secret anymore, anyway. Perhaps he would need to speak to Pentival and ask him to keep his abilities on the down low.

  There were others who had seen him fight as well. Voidrin should be easy enough to talk to. He believed the cyclops only cared about besting him in a duel and wouldn’t want to cause trouble beyond that.

  Oh yeah, and then there’s that Mal guy and his buddies…

  Aaron groaned as he thought about all the people who had seen him fight. At least most seemed reasonable, besides perhaps Pentival. Then again, Elmira seemed to like the guy, and she seemed alright as far as Aaron was concerned. Maybe he wasn’t that bad.

  I hope I don’t have to suck up to that guy!

  It wasn’t that he necessarily disliked Pentival. But the guy already had a god complex. He really didn’t want to add fuel to that fire.

  Forcing his mind to return to the task at hand, he finished the final touches on his new dish.

  Oh well, at least this turned out well!

  His newest dish was a true masterpiece. The epitome of working with his spirit. This was a feat he wouldn’t be topping anytime soon. But he doubted he would need to.

  Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

  Spirit Infused Mermaid Sashimi [ Legendary — E-grade ]

  A dish that transcends the realm of the living, taking on spiritual properties to increase the light and delicate mermaid meat. Doused with a light sauce, this is truly a touch of refinement rarely found amongst the monstrous creatures that would dare devour a pure creature such as a mermaid.

  Provides: Special Effect—Master of Spirits.

  Aftereffects: Death.

  Conditional: Requires an active aether soul.

  [ Ogre Gastronomist ] has LEVELED UP!

  36 → 38

  Aaron felt giddy as he looked upon the dish. It was his second-ever Legendary dish. It didn’t provide as many levels as the first one had, but two levels at once were still very welcome. He suspected it had something to do with the fact that he had used more or less the same methods for each dish, though he thought the mermaid sashimi had a more delicate approach and a better final product. Still, he couldn’t complain.

  He was also a little disgusted. Eating a mermaid felt wrong on so many levels. Luckily, the meat had arrived diced and ready to add to a dish. He wasn’t sure if he would have been up for cutting up such a creature himself, but it looks suspiciously similar to fresh tuna, and that was something he could get behind.

  Besides, as if he was going to turn up a dish that provided an even stronger buff for his spirit?

  With this, he figured that even stage 8 against Oozagh would be within reach, and if he was fast about it, maybe he could even catch up to Mo’han.

  After all, he did not have to rest and recover from death sickness, as the asura had to. Thanks to that, the gap between them was narrowed a little.

  You know what? I think I like my chances, Aaron grinned as he walked toward the trials, only to have it turn into a frown moments later.

  Something was really going to need to be done about these damn lines!

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