Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 21: Strategy Session
When the crew noticed that Edge had picked up their orders from the Forge, they rushed outside to help him unload the rest. They were excited to check out their custom weapons and thrilled that everything was ready in time for today’s hunt.
The hunters spent a few minutes admiring their gear, then went inside to change into their new armor. When they got back, they started loading the wagon and finalizing their preparations to head into the field. They were only planning to be out on the plains for two or three days this time around, so they didn’t need to pack nearly as many provisions and supplies.
Everything was ready go an hour later. After Edge placed his kit in the wagon, Trapper gathered the crew and had them stand in a circle.
“We’re almost ready to roll out. Today’s briefing is going to be a bit longer than usual, since we’ve all grown so much in such a short amount of time. First, I’ll provide an overview of our target and route. Then I want each of you to walk us through your skillsets, with an emphasis on your latest acquisitions. If you picked up any upgrades to your gear, tell us about them too. I know we’ve discussed our new skills before, but I want everyone to have a complete picture of our current capabilities before we set foot beyond the walls.
“Before we get to that, let me tell you about our assignment. We have another commission to fulfill, posted by the Resource Hunters’ Association this time around. A sizable predator has moved into one of their favorite gathering grounds—a dense grove of trees with an unusually high concentration of medicinal and alchemical herbs. It’s only a ten-hour hike each way, but it should take us a day or two to locate our quarry, evaluate its abilities, and prepare the killing field.
“The creature in question is some manner of giant arthropod. A native beast that resembles a scorpion as far as I can tell. It’s an ambush predator that has killed three people already. It’s late stage two and perhaps three times Blue’s size. While it shouldn’t be as dangerous as the padamas, we will still have a tough fight on our hands if we can’t finish it off with traps and tricks.
“With that out of the way, let’s move on to updating everyone on our recent gains. Edge, why don’t you go first?”
“Sure. My only new skill is Double Slash. I merged Slash and Double Strike with a token and can’t wait to show you the result. Since we’ve been back in town, I’ve managed to rank up three of my other skills. Regulate Temperature hit rank two and gained some resistance against heat and cold-based attacks, on top of insulating me from rough weather.
“I just took Entangle to rank three, which lets me control the number of vines it creates by adjusting the mana I spend. My biggest gain was advancing Regeneration to rank two. Now it can heal destroyed organs, which means that I can survive some nasty wounds if they don’t kill me outright.”
He went on to detail his new gear. Everyone loved his noise-reducing boots and considered having some made when they got back. It turned out that every member of the crew had commissioned a suit of self-regenerating garax-leather armor. Although, since they had each chosen a different style and stain, their looks were complementary instead of copies.
His chakram was a big hit. Jumo asked Edge to let him try a few tosses and was delighted when the weapon came sailing back into his outstretched hand. Edge reviewed his old skills, then finished by outlining his current stash of consumables, including the chirpers that Bee had talked him into.
Then the others took their turns. Although he had perused a few pieces while riding to the lodge, he was eager to check out the full range of equipment the crew had commissioned, using the resources they had collected during their last adventure.
Jumo went next. “I’ll start with the skills that didn’t change. Lunge lets me land heavy hits with my spear. It’s good for getting through armor and damaging beasts with high Durability. Rapid Strike unleashes five thrusts in three seconds flat, helping me slip past the guard of another weapon-wielder or tag a nimble creature. Over the last few days, I trained hard and took Second Wind to rank two. It lets me burn mana to recover my stamina, and I went with an efficiency upgrade that will help me fight longer at peak performance.
“Dash also reached rank two. I added a blur effect that makes me harder to hit while I reposition.” At that point, Jumo ignited his core and took off in a flash. His body was reduced to a streaking blur, which made it difficult to track his exact position until he came to a stop beside the wagon.
“I have a new earth core. It came with a passive ultimate that enhances my earth and stone powers. Although, the only elemental skill I have so far is the one I got from our quest to kill the garax. Piercing Javelin creates a stone spear that deals a crazy amount of damage, and I’m eager to try it out.”
With his skills out of the way, Jumo moved on to showing off his new gear. As a replacement for his old ironwood spear, a heavy weapon that had packed a real punch, he’d had new spear crafted from the padamas’s tail spikes. The material was incredibly light for its strength—less than half the weight of his prior weapon. It let him attack even faster than before and shouldn’t break, even if he used it to block another heavy hit from a behemoth beast.
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In addition to his new armor, Jumo had commissioned a garax-bone helmet. It was modified to cover his face with a plate that was completely transparent, protecting his head without impairing his field of view. The helm also had a clever bit of crafting that kept it from muffling the sound that reached his ears.
Sasha was next in line. “I have my new fire core. It works just like Jumo’s but boosts heat and flame-based attacks. I trained hard with my skills this week and took Shield Bash to rank two, upgrading its shockwave to affect a wider area. Flame Imbuement hit rank two as well, and I opted to increase the heat of the flaming mana it transfers to my opponent.
“Combined with my new core, the imbuement should dish out some serious damage, although I can’t use it on beasts whose hides we are planning to sell. Silent Step is close to advancing and should rank up on this hunt. I plan to give it a wider area, so that it can cover a small team if they stick close to my position.
“I have two new skills. Fire Breathing came from the garax quest. It shoots a cone of flame with a range of about twenty feet. I also spent some Credits to buy a new skill, Enhance Hearing, which used my last slot for this stage. Since no one on the crew has anything comparable, it should bolster our ability to sense prey and detect aggressive predators. On the gear front, I have a new spear like Jumo’s, and a garax-bone short bow with longer range and more power than my old weapon.”
When Sasha was done, Riller and Violet took their turns. They were still ecstatic to have received their Basic cores, which let them use more skills and powers of a higher rarity. Riller had taken Poison Arrow to rank two on the last mission, adding a mind-muddling effect to his sedative poison. He had advanced Eagle Eye to rank two after returning to Puppet Town, giving the power a telescoping effect that increased its range by a fair margin.
He had been awarded Scout Drone from the garax quest—the same power that Warren the manslayer had used to hunt Edge. Riller had also purchased a new skill, Wind Shot, which took thirty seconds to charge, but let him fire an arrow with some incredible power behind it. He had commissioned a new garax-bone longbow, to make the most out of his body’s newfound Power, and a pair of padamas-spike daggers that were incredibly hard and wickedly sharp.
Violet had chosen to focus on her supportive role with her recent gains. Her Mend skill let her make minor repairs to damaged equipment, and Create Copper Aether turned magicyte-containing food into fuel for low-grade magitech devices. Enhance Beast had hit rank two on the last mission, giving the target beast a boost to its Speed in addition to Durability and Power.
Her biggest gain was her new Travelers’ Boon aura, which hastened healing and helped restore the stamina of anything friendly within a ten-foot radius. It wasn’t a huge difference in battle, at least at rank one, but the skill would let the crew operate for longer each day and help them recover from wounds faster.
She wasn’t sure how she wanted to use her last two skill slots yet, so she was saving them for now. In addition to her new armor, Violet had picked up a heavy crossbow, letting her hit harder from medium range, since her build wasn’t well-suited for melee combat.
Violet also gave the crew a quick refresher on Blue’s powers. Charge was true to its name and let Blue accelerate by burning mana. Thrust unleashed a powerful, penetrating strike, whereas Gore made her horns sharper for a rending attack. The azure dino had entered middle stage two during the padamas hunt and was due to learn another skill soon. Everyone was excited to see what she got and hoped that it would happen on this mission.
That just left the crew’s leader. Trapper had evolved to stage two during the padamas hunt and had cycled up several times since, granting the woman a dramatic boost to her attributes. On the skill front, she had Manifest Trap—the signature power that let her create a range of deadly devices with a 12-hour time limit.
Manipulate Air was another versatile skill that let her influence the properties of gases within a modest radius and create puffs of wind on demand. Cleanse purged the body of poisons and infections. After advancing it to rank two the day before, the skill could treat other kinds of ailments, such as parasites and infections, although it couldn’t heal damaged tissue directly. Trapper had also taken Sense Life to rank three, letting her add more power to the detection skill on demand.
Her biggest gains were the skills she had been awarded for completing the garax quest. Sense Vibration could detect enemies that were moving through the ground or beyond her field of view, and it worked just as well on nonliving objects. It would help her pierce a wide variety of stealth skills, since only a handful of them muffled the impact of their wielder’s footsteps.
She had also slotted Snipe, which increased the velocity and accuracy of her ranged attacks. Snipe wasn’t as powerful as Wind Shot but only took a few seconds to charge. Last came Quagmire, the Rare skill that had convinced Trapper to accept the garax quest in the first place. Edge hadn’t seen her use it yet and was dying to see it in action.
Quagmire transformed soil and sand into quicksand or mud—deep enough to drown smaller creatures and trap big ones. Even something the size of the garax would have struggled to force its way through the muck.
Other than her new armor, the crew’s leader had claimed a core seed for most of her reward, although Edge wasn’t sure why she wanted it. Trapper had also purchased some new bolts for her magitech crossbow, adding water and air to the weapon’s lightning, ice, stone, and flame shots.
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Now that their briefing was over, it was time for the crew to roll out. After hitching Blue to the wagon, they made their way through town, crossing the districts while heading for the south gate. Edge realized that he was grinning from ear to ear. He was eager to head into the field with his friends and eat some juicy skills along the way.
