Choosing Skills

Benjamin had to admit that he was a skill-obsessed gamer.

Just like when he played games in his former world, he cared little for graphics or plot; his priority was always the skills. As long as there was a vast, bizarre, and imaginative array of skills, the game had him hooked. He wasn't particularly interested in leveling up, either—all leveling was merely a means to gain skill points. Every time he unlocked a new skill, his sense of achievement would skyrocket.

However...

Now that he had finally transmigrated into a magical world, you were telling him he could only have three skill points?

And one of them had already been wasted on a Water Ball Spell?

"This character is bricked. I want to delete it," he said, looking up at the sky, though he didn't know who he was talking to.

"You should know by now that no one will respond to such talk; it only makes you look like a chuunibyou," the system remarked dryly.

Benjamin was silent for a moment, then suddenly gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Who says no one will respond? Didn't you just respond?"

The system replied tactlessly, "I'm not a person."

Benjamin sighed. He stretched, pulled himself together, and picked up the Introduction to Divine Arts once more.

Three skills were three skills; he couldn't exactly delete his character and start over!

No matter how dissatisfied he was, he had to keep reading this book to find out how to obtain the remaining two skill points. In this world, things couldn't always go his way, and he couldn't afford to waste such a rare, exclusive beta-testing opportunity.

Didn't that fourth-generation Pope achieve the Church's dominance with just three basic moves?

He believed that as long as they were used correctly, even water could become incredibly powerful.

And so, Benjamin accepted the fact that he could only learn three spells. With an optimistic mindset, he returned to his state of focused study and continued reading the Introduction to Divine Arts.

At the end of this section, the book described how to strengthen the Seal of Holy Light and how to condense a new one. The method for strengthening was similar to the "meditation" Benjamin had previously researched, so he skimmed past it. The process of condensing a new Seal of Holy Light, however, became his primary focus.

The book stated that to condense a new Seal of Holy Light, one needed to continuously gather and compress the Holy Light stored within the Prayer Space until it reached a materialized state. Then, one simply had to chant the incantation of the chosen divine art toward the materialized energy body, and the second Seal of Holy Light would be successfully formed.

Translated into magic, that meant gathering and compressing water elements, right?

Hmm, it didn't seem that difficult.

After finishing the passage, Benjamin didn't hesitate; he put down the book and got to work.

He entered his consciousness space, focused his mind, and commanded the free-roaming water elements to gather. The process was actually quite similar to meditation, and under his direction, the water elements in the space began to move slowly.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly; he didn't encounter any difficulties.

However, he soon discovered a new problem:

It was too slow!

Due to his poor affinity for water elements, the process was exceptionally arduous and sluggish. He estimated that to reach the level described in the book, it would take about a year of uninterrupted effort.

Damn it, a year!

Although a year in the consciousness space would be significantly shortened in reality—to about half a month—but...

Benjamin tried to stop directing the water elements, and the ones he had just gathered immediately dispersed.

This wasn't like a download manager; it didn't matter if the download speed was only a few KB, you could just leave it there, and it would finish in ten or fifteen days. This thing required his constant attention and could not be interrupted. If he slipped up and it broke, he would have to start all over again.

What the hell was this?

If he stayed in his consciousness space for that long, he would have turned into a dried corpse in reality.

No, there had to be another way!

After thinking for a moment, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he came up with an idea. He first cast a Water Ball Spell in his consciousness space. Once the water ball formed, he didn't disperse it as he usually did. Instead, he used the water ball as a core and began to guide the water elements to gather toward it.

This was his logic: if the gathered water elements couldn't stay put, why not give them a core or something to hold them in place?

The moment the first water element touched the water ball, a soft "ding" sounded from somewhere unknown.

Benjamin suddenly discovered that he seemed to have arrived in that blue world again. Countless profound runes swirled around him, resembling an endless, living universe. This time, he stayed there slightly longer than before, but unfortunately, he still couldn't see anything clearly before he was pulled back into the pitch-black consciousness space.

After a brief moment of daze, he quickly regained his senses.

"Did it work?"

He looked back at the floating water ball.

At this sight, a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face.

The water ball was acting like a magnet, gathering the surrounding scattered water elements at a slow but steady pace. He realized that in the moment he had been stunned, he hadn't been consciously guiding the water elements at all, yet they were still flocking to the ball like ants returning to their nest. The gathering process was continuing spontaneously without requiring a shred of Benjamin's mental effort.

The problem that had just been troubling him was solved in an instant.

This wasn't just a water ball; this was a goddamn floating download window!

Benjamin felt as if he had found a treasure.

Now, he just had to wait for the "download complete" chime. It was funny, actually—the magic runes and the download manager's chime sounded quite similar; they were both a "ding."

Just like that, the problem of condensing magic runes went more smoothly than he had imagined. In the dark, he felt that perhaps the God of Fate felt it was unfair to give him only three skills, so he was compensating him from another angle.

To be honest, he didn't really want this kind of compensation; he would have preferred a few more skills.

But speaking of skills...

He should think carefully about which two spells to choose for his remaining slots.

According to the book, the power and controllability of a divine art solidified with a Seal of Holy Light could be continuously strengthened, with no upper limit. Therefore, in a sense, there wasn't much difference between learning entry-level magic and hall-of-fame-level magic; the only difference was that the latter sounded cooler.

Plus, Benjamin urgently needed to improve his strength, so he definitely needed to learn new spells as soon as possible. Therefore, he could only choose from the relatively basic spells he had on hand.

Initially, he wanted to learn a Water Barrier first to have some defensive capability, while relying on a more heavily strengthened Water Ball Spell for offense. As for the last skill point, he planned to save it for a more suitable spell he might discover later.

However, when he saw the water ball in his consciousness space continuously gathering water elements, he suddenly changed his mind.

This water ball was no ordinary water ball.

Benjamin realized that the book's claim of "no upper limit" might have a much greater significance than he had thought. It didn't just mean that if you strengthened it to the extreme, a single water ball could drown a city; it meant giving the water ball infinite possibilities.

Anything a Water Barrier could do, a water ball could do too. Wasn't it just a matter of hollowing out the water ball to turn it into a bubble? As long as the water elements compressed inside the bubble were dense enough, the defensive power certainly wouldn't be bad.

The same went for the Water of Life; as long as he condensed the water ball in a specific structure, he could give it the ability to heal people.

In short, by leveling up the Water Ball Spell through strengthening runes, he wasn't just increasing damage or reducing cooldowns; he was giving it tactical utility for defense, healing, control, and more.

In that case, choosing his three skills from a tactical perspective seemed redundant. Since he could handle everything from daily life to killing and arson with a single move, the Water Ball Spell was supreme. If the Water Ball Spell kept him safe, what was the point of learning a Water Barrier?

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt that the three spell slots were like a hint.

He felt he needed to do another experiment.

Chanting the incantation, Benjamin summoned another water ball.

Unlike before, this time he began to try and manipulate the water ball, constantly changing its shape—compressing it, expanding it, turning it into a bubble like a Water Barrier, or shaping it into a bird or a fish... He played with the tiny water ball in his hands, having the time of his life.

Only then did he realize what a marvelous spell the Water Ball Spell was.

But he wasn't just playing around.

He was testing, probing the limits of the water ball—to find out what it couldn't do, and then use the other two spells to make up for it.

After half an hour of tormenting the water ball, Benjamin finally stopped. He dispersed the water ball, letting it meet its end.

Through this half-hour experiment, Benjamin confirmed his hypothesis: the water ball was omnipotent. He could change its shape, strength, volume, and even its density and physical properties... As long as his magic runes were powerful enough, he could make the water ball do anything.

Except for making the water ball not be a water ball.

The water ball could not freeze into ice, nor could it turn into gas.

This discovery instantly brought Benjamin back to his middle school physics class. The teacher had handed out a quiz with a fill-in-the-blank question: What are the three states of water? Some kids were scratching their heads, but Benjamin had confidently filled in the three blanks with "liquid, gas, solid."

There was a certain destiny in the dark; he hadn't expected that after all these years, this stuff would return to his eyes in such a way.

Which three spells should he choose?

He had done this test before.

This was a freebie question.

Soon, he picked out two suitable ones from the fifty-plus incantations provided by the Bible: Ice Shatter Spell and Steam Pillar. According to their descriptions, the Ice Shatter Spell condensed ice shards for attacks, while the Steam Pillar summoned scorching water vapor to injure enemies.

From the Bible's definitions, they, like the Water Ball Spell, were classified as offensive magic. But in Benjamin's view, they were endowed with infinite possibilities.

In particular, Benjamin had a premonition: once all three magic runes were successfully condensed, they would interact to produce new changes.

"Water" in all three states combined—that sounded pretty powerful.

Having decided on the spells he would choose, Benjamin felt his confidence grow significantly. He felt he had made the right choice, and he felt that after making this decision, something had quietly changed.

If there really was such a thing as a Wheel of Fate, then just now, it must have clicked into a brand-new notch.

The world would change because of him.

Suddenly, Benjamin shook his head, pulling himself out of that self-indulgent sense of grand mission, and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

He really had quite the imagination.

Better to just get the job done at hand.

His gaze returned to the "floating download window": the download speed was still too slow. Therefore, he joined the ranks of gathering water elements, using his perhaps mediocre affinity for water elements to accelerate the condensation of the magic runes.

Thanks to book friend 161215220905248 and your fans for the tips~