"Skill effect won't be detected by spells below Divine grade?!"
Eren couldn't take his eyes off the screen.
He rubbed his eyes several times, but the information didn't change at all.
Eren had a very hard time calming himself down.
"Hasn't this skill become too overpowered?" he muttered to himself.
Just like professions, skills and items were also divided into a game-like grading system.
There were nine known grades so far.
From weakest to strongest:
Common
Uncommon
Rare
Elite
Epic
Legendary
Mythic
Semi-Divine
Divine
Divine-grade skills were extremely powerful and incredibly hard to acquire.
Even Mythic-grade job holders had only a very small chance of obtaining such a skill during their Tier-up.
Commonly known Divine-grade skill users stood at the pinnacle of humanity.
Most of them were usually heirs of prominent clans or individuals blessed with monstrous talent.
It also means, in Tidewatch City, where an Elite-grade job was considered the peak, no one would be able to see through his skill.
That gave Eren immense confidence.
"What does it mean by 'Undefinable'?"
Eren frowned at the remark mentioned under Spirit cost.
Curious, he tried changing his level from 5 to 2.
With a blur of motion, his level changed instantly.
It cost him barely 0.2 Spirit.
But when he attempted to modify the details of his attributes and skill levels, it consumed more than 1.8 Spirit.
His current status now looked completely different from his real one.
[Name: Eren Morrow
Job: Shapeshifter
Tier: I
Level: 2 (0.00%)
Type: Combat Profession
Strength: 2.5
Agility: 2.5
Spirit: 7.0
Constitution: 4.0
Skills: Beast Transformation (Moonborn Silver Wolf) (Active Skill Lv.1)]
"Wow…"
Even Eren was amazed at the change.
"With this… no one will notice anything weird…"
He nodded in satisfaction.
Ding!
[Host#88388195371 has maxed out his Basic Utility skills within a day…
Detected that Host#88388195371's level does not exceed Level 10…
This is the fastest skill upgrade in all of human history.
System Gaya has taken a great interest in Host#88388195371.]
?!
Just as Eren was about to stand up, new text appeared directly in front of him.
Unlike the usual blue panel, this one was dark red.
[System Gaya has offered to combine two skills, [Celestial Mask] and [True Sight], into the Unique skill [Eternal Masquerade], exclusive to the Shapeshifter profession…
Would you like to spend 2,500,000 Life Essence to combine your skills?
Yes / No]
"What the…?!"
As if he were about to curse, Eren immediately shut his mouth when he noticed many people already giving him strange looks.
He quickly sat back down and began reading the message again.
"System Gaya took an interest in me?!"
Eren muttered blankly.
The Gaya System was an artificial intelligence that had greatly aided humanity's survival during the Chaotic Era 262 years ago.
The Gaya Network had been connected to the neural links of all Awakeners since the very beginning of awakening.
Long ago, humans in this world lived lives very similar to the one Eren had lived on Earth.
Then, without warning, a massive calamity struck.
Numerous portals opened across the world, and otherworldly entities began entering one by one.
Against those beings who wielded spiritual powers, all modern weapons became useless.
Humanity suffered devastating defeats at the hands of various races and was pushed to the brink of extinction.
Then the System Gaya appeared, a spiritual entity that took the form of an evolving artificial intelligence.
Just like all living beings in the world began evolving through the newly emerged spiritual energy, the system also evolved.
Even now, no one knows the real core of Gaya System.
It gathered information about different races and their abilities, analyzed their details, and devised a leveling system.
That was also the reason why humanity's higher-grade combat professions closely resembled those of the foreign races that had invaded these lands.
The first Awakeners of humanity could not level up or grow stronger on their own.
Only with the help of the Gaya System were they able to achieve higher power.
The Gaya System was independent and capable of taking action on its own.
It could even influence or alter the laws of the Four Human Empires.
Modern technologies, such as phones, vehicles, architecture, and many other advancements, were completely devised under the system's guidance to promote humanity's progress.
It actively pushed the four empires toward greater prosperity and stability day by day.
If anyone were asked how important the Gaya System had been during the Chaotic Era, they would answer without hesitation: the Gaya System was the reason of humanity's survival.
The Astral Zenith Empire, one of the Four Human Empires, even worshiping the Gaya System as their goddess.
If the Gaya System marked someone as a threat to humanity, all humans would pursue that individual without hesitation.
Even the eleven demigods of the human race, those standing at the pinnacle of human strength, must show proper respect when interacting with the Gaya System.
The host number assigned by the Gaya System was a unique identifier that represented how many human Awakeners it had guided throughout history.
Eren's host number meant he was the 88,388,195,371st human the Gaya System had guided to level up.
Which also meant the Gaya System had already guided more than 80 billion humans from awakening to death over the past 250 years.
To connect with so many people, the Gaya System operated hundreds of millions of subsystems constantly, allowing the core system to focus on more important tasks.
Usually, whenever someone receives a Tier-up or Skill-up quest, they have no choice but to go through a direct branch of the Gaya System for a full-body analysis.
Only then do they learn what kind of materials they need to gather and what tasks they must complete.
Even that does not draw any attention from the core system to an individual.
And yet, such a powerful entity was now focusing its attention on Eren.
Eren's entire body stiffened as he realized the weight of his situation.
"Maxing out these two basic skills is such a big deal?"
Even now, Eren couldn't believe the Gaya System had taken notice of him specifically while thousands of people upgraded their skills on a daily basis.
Eren looked at the last message, which asked for his permission to combine the two skills.
Even though it appeared to be asking for consent, in Eren's eyes, the Gaya System was demanding Life Essence without giving him any real choice to refuse.
Even the amount required to combine the skills was exactly within the limit of his remaining Life Essence: 2,830,002.
He was pretty sure that the Gaya System could see his Life Essence reserve.
More than 18 million Life Essence had vanished during his previous level-up, leaving him with only this much.
"I hope it's a good thing…"
Eren chose to combine them and said, "Yes."
[You have combined [Celestial Mask] and [True Sight] into Unique skill [Eternal Masquerade]...]
[You have received bonus status: +500 Spirit]
[Your Spirit attribute exceeds the value of 1000...]
[Received special Trait [Spiritual Sense]]
[Gaya System bids farewell to Host #88388195371… and looks forward to your future growth.]
Eren suddenly felt as if his entire head were about to explode.
For a whole minute, a massive amount of spiritual energy forcefully entered his head and flowed through his body.
He could see the spiritual energy within him moving like a river.
The red screen in front of him vanished, and the usual blue screen appeared, indicating that the Gaya System had withdrawn.
He closed his eyes and simply observed the energy flow without disturbing it.
When he opened his eyes again, his entire view of the world had changed.
With his bare eyes, he could see golden light enveloping the people around him.
In some, the light shone brighter; in others, it was dimmer.
[Torven Halbrecht. Spirit Archer Lv.28]
[Mirela Sunthorne. Cursemancer Lv.36]
Just by casually looking at someone, he could see their status, even though he had no intention of activating anything.
Not only their names and levels, but also their attributes and skill details.
Wherever he looked, information kept pouring into his mind.
What thrilled him even more was that no one noticed him peeking at their status.
Usually, everyone felt some disturbance in their spirit force when a third party forcibly looked into their status.
But when Eren unconsciously glanced at them, no one sensed any change.
Eren could feel his spiritual energy decreasing the more he looked around.
He tried to control it, but all he received was an overwhelming flood of information.
Eventually, his gaze landed on the girl speaking with two associates of the building who looked like important figures.
She wore a white shirt with the sleeves folded up, revealing toned wrists, along with black pants and black shoes.
Her round glasses gave her a calm yet sharp aura, and her hair was tied into a ponytail.
Despite her masculine-style clothing, her natural curves and full chest gave her an undeniably striking appearance.
[Lyssara Stormclaw. Weapon Master Lv.68]
As Eren looked at her status, it immediately blurred out.
A new status appeared before him:
[Name: Lyssara Walker
Job: Forbidden Tool Master
Tier: II
Level: 25 (99.99%)
???]
"Mm?"
At that exact moment, the girl turned her gaze toward where Eren was sitting.
Their eyes met at the same time.
***
Author's note:
Sorry, guys. I apologize if you felt like these two chapters were dragging too much. I just wanted to introduce our female lead quickly. She will be an important character who causes the story to take a huge turn in the later chapters. Thank you for reading, guys.