Skill Attempt

The next day, Mel Carlo asked Anke if he could have the day off.

Anke readily agreed and even gave all the children the day off. Mel Carlo wanted to test out his skills.

After successfully performing the Back Hop 10 times, he acquired the skill [Back Hop].

"Back Hop: Leap backward to evade attacks. I remember this skill has a two-second cooldown. It's a warrior-class skill, but in the game, all classes could use it to dodge attacks."

He continued to experiment. The skill consumed almost no mana, but the fatigue felt in his body was real. His legs ached from constantly hopping backward.

Next, he tried [Mighty Slash] with his bare hands, mimicking the motion of gripping a sword and delivering a heavy downward slash. He attempted it 50 times without success, and even after 100 attempts, it still failed. He wondered if it was because he didn't have a weapon in his hands.

Perhaps he could find a wooden stick to substitute for a sword, as warriors could also use clubs.

Just as he was about to search for one, Akai and Lily invited him to play with them. They didn't have to beg today, and everyone was happy. For them, days of freedom like this were rare.

"Mel, aren't you coming to play with us?"

"No, I'm playing right now. This is fun." Mel Carlo found a long stick and refused their kind offer.

He accepted because, for him, there was nothing more interesting than this at the moment. It was like playing a game for the first time, his eyes shining with excitement that he couldn't hide.

This could completely be considered a hardcore version of "Kandewen Continent." There was no one-click skill tree, no damage numbers, and possibly no revival. Just thinking about it made him a little excited. He hadn't played such an interesting game in a long time.

When a hobby becomes a job, even the most beloved game can become tedious.

After 10 slashes with the wooden stick, the [Mighty Slash] skill was successfully acquired, with a current proficiency of 1/10000.

"Mighty Slash is done. Adding the 6 points from yesterday's Theft, 1 point from Back Hop, and the 1 point from Mighty Slash, that's only 8 points. If I practice a couple more times, I should be able to do a Lottery draw."

However, he wouldn't stop now. For [Staff Strike], it seemed like a staff-type weapon was needed – smashing downward with a staff. There was only a downward smash motion. He tried it 20 times with the wooden stick, but still without success, so he had to put it aside. As for [Fireball], he had no idea how to cast it. In the game, after learning it, it was cast with a single click. But now, no matter how he moved his hands or imagined it, no magic was stirred. He gave up after 20 attempts.

"Perhaps in this world, being a mage is a very high-end profession."

The thief skills, Flying Blade and Slit, required a dagger or short sword to learn. He asked Anke for a dagger and began to experiment. After 10 attempts, he successfully acquired both [Flying Blade] and [Slit].

Anke found Mel's strange movements from early in the morning peculiar but didn't ask further. He could see that Mel seemed to be trying to learn some skills, but they looked a bit childish. Without anyone to teach him, it would be difficult to master them on his own.

"I know Flying Blade. I can teach you if you need."

"Thanks, I don't need it for now." Mel shook his head.

If teaching could speed up proficiency, it would mean fewer points earned through effort. He didn't need teaching for now because his experiments weren't over.

He also attempted the priest skills, Grapple Throw and empty strikes, but he couldn't master these throwing or super-armor type skills. Even following the movements from memory, he couldn't learn them successfully.

Knight skills like Shield Bash had to be abandoned for now due to the lack of shields. Spear skills required a spear, and it seemed like a wooden stick could be used to learn them. He eventually acquired two skills: [Thrust] and [Rising Uppercut]. However, his current physical condition was too weak, and the strength he could exert was very limited.

It was as if the character's base stats were very low. But these skills required base stats to be enhanced. He had already learned one archer skill, [Dagger Attack]. There were no archer or gang members around, and Mel Carlo didn't like owing favors. He decided to put aside these less urgent matters.

He couldn't master the fighter skills either. He didn't know what the problem was. As for the movements themselves, his were probably standard enough, but there was no auxiliary system here; skills weren't cast with a single click.

"Warrior's Mighty Slash, Back Hop; Thief's Flying Blade, Slit, Theft; Spearman's Thrust, Rising Uppercut; Archer's Dagger Attack. That's 8 skills in total. There are too few skills that can be learned at level one."

Looking at his skills, these were all level one skills, appearing in the level one skill slots. Whether there was a skill tree would only be known upon reaching level 5.

Mel Carlo had already tried to learn some higher-level or general skills, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't trigger their learning. Even in the game, those skills required learning from NPCs, and perhaps it was the same in this world.

This was a world both familiar and strange to him, similar in some ways to the game world he knew, yet with many differences.

Attack Skills: [Mighty Slash], [Flying Blade], [Slit], [Thrust], [Rising Uppercut]

Passive Skills: [Dagger Attack]

Utility Skills: [Theft]

Evasion Skills: [Back Hop]

He couldn't train every skill to its maximum potential right now due to time and energy constraints. If he wanted to gain some self-preservation ability in a short period, it would be best to focus on [Slit], [Flying Blade], [Back Hop], and [Theft]. This is because [Slit] and [Flying Blade] seemed to trigger [Dagger Attack], so practicing one was like practicing two, yielding double proficiency gains with almost no energy consumption, only needing to be mindful of physical fatigue.

[Back Hop] was his only evasion and mobility skill for the time being, so it was essential.

[Theft] was a skill that could be trained long-term. In the game, learning this skill and playing some entertainment builds was very enjoyable, with a nearly 100% success rate and accuracy in theft, truly allowing one to travel the world as a master thief.

He wasn't sure if this world had job advancements, but given the current environment and his physical condition, he could probably only pursue the thief path first, as the rewards were higher.

He didn't believe this was exactly like a complete game world because, here, a cut from a dagger to the throat could mean more than just a damage number.

If he viewed this world entirely through the lens of a game, he would eventually suffer greatly. Mel Carlo had come to this realization from the moment he arrived in this world. He had abandoned his original name and chosen to integrate into this world.