Ultimate Level 1

Standing in the hallway outside the portal, Max stared at the notification.

[Consume has successfully Consumed a skill]

[Would you like to learn [Regeneration]?]

[ Yes / No]

He considered it briefly, but he knew he couldn’t choose no. Everything inside him yearned for it.

When he selected yes, his body felt on fire from the bottom of his feet to his bald scalp. A few seconds passed, and then the sensation was gone. A cool, refreshed feeling like he had slept all night long remained.

[Skill Description - Regeneration]

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Regeneration - Rare Skill: This skill allows the user to regain lost hit points at the cost of mana. Twenty hit points may be recovered each second at the cost of one mana. At this rank, the skill may regrow a lost body part or organ at the cost of twenty mana. The skill will automatically engage if the user is unconscious unless no mana points are available.contemporary romance

*****

Max read the description twice before almost running the entire way from the adventurer's hall to their inn.

“This sounds like a bad idea. A horrible idea.”

Max nodded but did his best to lay still on the floor as Tanila and Batrire sat beside him.

“Hold him down.”

Fowl nodded, sitting on Max’s stomach and arms. “It won’t do much unless I activate my skill. You two realize he is way stronger than me.”

Both nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Tanila tried to steady her hand, holding a knife out to Batrire.

“If this goes wrong…”

“I wear a patch. We will call me pirate Seth Pendal.”

Fowl snorted.

“Stop that, please,” Tanila said, handing the knife to Batrire, who began leaning over. “Don’t joke about this.”

“Stop talking,” their healer snapped. “Hold his head.”

Tanila moved forward, holding Max’s head tightly between her knees.

He resisted the urge to joke, seeing her expression as she looked down at him.

“This is going to hurt.”

“I know.”

Batrire shook her head. “No, you don’t. You have no idea, but forget it.”

She was right. Max had no idea how right she was.

He had only vaguely remembered the pain when his eye had been shot.

The pain he felt when Batrire pulled it out was worse than anything he had ever experienced.

Even the pain of being burnt alive did not seem so bad. Mainly because he couldn’t remember that, too.

This time, it took everything he had not to react. To not move his head or throw Fowl off his chest.

Batrire had worked quickly as she plucked his useless eye from his socket and then found the part of his body that was connected to it. A nerve she had told him. It sent daggers of light and pain into his brain that almost knocked him out. He had prayed for a moment it would.

Once she was done, he activated the skill and felt mana draining from him.

The pain he had expected to end was not finished. It continued as a new eye constructed itself, forming within the socket as it grew from the cord inside it.

When it finally ended, he realized he could see with both eyes.

“Well, that was incredibly unexpected,” Batrire said as she began to stand up.

“Thank you for not hurting me,” Fowl added as he climbed off Max. “For a moment when you tensed up, I was certain I would finally touch a ceiling for the first time in my life.”

Max smiled and then felt chills run down his body. He realized that Tanila was gently stroking his bald head with her fingers.

“You ok?” she asked, peering down at him.

He nodded, clearing his throat, afraid it would squeak if he spoke.

She smiled and then moved back, allowing him to finally get up on his own.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Should we tell him?” Tanila asked.

“Tell me what?” Max said, finally standing and seeing them peering at him.

“Go look in the mirror.”

Max moved across the room and stared into the reflective glass.

“Two colors? I have a green and brown eye?”

“I guess that will help disguise you from those chasing you,” Tanila replied. “Surely, that would be an obvious thing.”

“How is this possible?” Max asked as he turned and looked at Batrire.

“Why are you asking me? I don’t deal with this kind of healing. I’m sure you could read something and find out, but does it really matter?”

Opening his mouth to speak, Max closed it and nodded.

“We could always try and pluck out the other one to see if they match,” Fowl joked.

Groaning, Max shook his head and held a fist as he smiled. “How about I punch you and see if I can help you get a black eye?”

Fowl held up his hands and waved them.

“Ok, let’s stop talking about this and focus on something else,” Tanila said, rolling her eyes at the two joking around as usual. “You said you got six points in both stats? How is that possible?”

“I have no ‘eye-dia’ Tanila,” Max joked as he tapped near his new eye. “It is the most I have ever gotten at once in one stat, and the fact I got it in both tells me those things are way stronger than we are now.”

“Which means that warrior you talked about is completely out of our league. I’m just glad she came along before your stupid arse went in there and died.”

Ignoring Tanila’s scolding, Max motioned to his stomach. “I’m a bit hungry. Like using that skill actually made me hungrier.”

“It would make sense,” Batrire said as she approached the door. “You did regrow a body part.”

Fowl started to smile as he held the door closed.

“Hey, if you cut off another body part, does it get bigger?”

“Sir Fowl, what happened to your eye? Bad time in the dungeons?”

Muttering under his breath, Fowl shook his head and said nothing as Alexander set down the tankards.

“Sometimes people say stupid things,” Batrire replied. “Even a healer can’t heal all wounds.”

A slight smirk appeared, and their host nodded. “Well, let me hope dinner will cheer you up. I have a guest cook and baker this week. Tonight will be a roasted pig they have been cooking for over a day, basting it every thirty minutes. On top of that, we will have some of the freshest vegetables in the kingdom. There are bacon-wrapped quail bites, and for dessert, we have a new take on the pineapple I treat you all with. It will be frozen and tantalize your taste buds.”

Max’s stomach rumbled at the sound of all the food, and Alexander looked at him and smiled. “Perhaps you would like an extra portion tonight?”

Max nodded and smiled. “I would. Could you tell your friend Nicholas I have a few more gifts for him?”

Nodding, Alexander extended his hand to Max. “I will tell him, and I know that he has had great success finding worthy men and women for the other items you provided. Word has spread, with many wishing they could thank the benefactor, but he has kept your secret.”

Max smiled and nodded. “All I could hope for.”

Unsure if dinner tasted better tonight because it was just that good or if he was just that hungry, Max barely found himself full after two servings.

“Let’s get down to business,” Tanila said when Max finished stuffing his face.

“Sorry, I was famished.”

She nodded and pulled out a book along with some notes she had written.

“I got this from my people and wanted to share it with you three. Needless to say, I need to get this back within a day or two.”

Glancing through Tanila’s notes, Max took the book and began turning to the pages she had marked in it.

“Uh… I can’t read this language.”

Tanila laughed and nodded. “I would have been impressed had you been able to. I can translate more later, but those are the highlights.”

Max groaned and nodded, offering the book to Batrire, who waved it away.

“I can’t read that chicken scratch either,” she muttered, winking at Talina, who rolled her eyes.

“This is crazy,” Max said, tapping one of the lines on the page. “The elves actually mention a reason why they prefer people to not climb their tower but climb others instead. Can a person really challenge the god of the tower they defeat?”

Tanila shrugged.

“No one knows what happens after a person ascends. The Keeper of Lore laughed at my questions and wanted to wave most of them off, until I shared with her how my party was comprised and that someday I would want to help the three of you with that task.”

Grimacing, Tanila tapped at a note further down on the paper.

“She was unhappy about my request but pointed me to this part here.”

Max read it and knew his eyes had grown to the size of plates. “Rumors of past survivors showing up in our world for a moment?”

She nodded. “Though these were thousands of years ago, long before the massive conflict that created the division between our three races. The one where…” she paused, lowering her voice, “humans got less adventuring classes after.”

Max considered what she said and continued reading her notes. His hand froze as he reached the middle of the second page.

“Is… is-”

“Yes. Don’t say it out loud, but yes.”

Max nodded, rereading it before handing the sheet to Fowl and Batrire, who waited to see what had him worked up.

“Dear gods,’ Fowl muttered. “That can’t be right.”

Talina nodded.

Max read through the notes on the third page and found the list of skills Tanila had written.

“Just how many red skills do the elves have knowledge of?”

Tapping her finger on the table, Tanila momentarily considered the question.

“I guess the real question would be how many have actually been recorded. There are hundreds of variations of red skills. Then you have the clear skills that dwarves often get more of.”

“Gods, don’t get me started on those,’ Batrire muttered. “Those damn skills draw the attention of the nobles and the king, and that is never good.”

“Why not?”

“When we go to prove we can enter the tower, how do you feel about knowing someone will have all the information they need about you at level fifty?”

Grimacing, Max nodded. “Well, without my help, yeah, that would be bad.”

Batrire nodded. “Exactly. Imagine what that is like for a new dwarf, on the cusp of their choosing day and suddenly having the entire kingdom expecting certain things from you. Your family becomes thrust into the spotlight because of all this, and if you fail…” She glanced at Fowl, who had a sour look on his face. “Dwarves are very family-oriented. To not bring honor to them is a complicated thing. To bring dishonor is even worse. Clans have cut off an entire family because of the actions of one dwarf. To imagine that is–”

“How I was before you three accepted me,” Max interrupted. “Cut off and alone.”

Fowl nodded. “I am grateful to Batrire not leaving me. I know it wasn’t easy, and someday, we both hope to be able to return home and bring honor to our family.”

Max nodded, knowing exactly how that felt.

Turning back to the notes, Max froze at the last page.

“Holy elf tits, you could have warned me,” Max muttered, unable to look up from the paper.

Tanila winced, but she knew exactly what Max was looking at.

There are three known black skills…

done.co