Skill Forge: Broken Extra Character

He stretched his hands, and Finn lets go of the spear, but to their surprise, it slipped through his fingers as if it were intangible. An awkward silence hung for a few seconds.

"Pftt…" Finn burst into laughter. "Sorry, my bad," he chuckled, unable to contain himself.

Red with embarrassment and annoyance, he quickly urged Finn to try again, but Finn disagreed.

"C'mon, let me try again," he pleaded, attempting to grasp the spear, but Finn evaded him, dodging every attempt.

"Nothing's going to change, just give up," Finn insisted.

"I wish I could, but I need to try," he explained, as the notification kept popping up repeatedly.

Finally, he managed to grab hold of Finn and slammed him to the ground. He reached for the spear, and to their surprise, he was able to touch it this time. Upon contact, the notification finally changed.

[[Throne of Destiny is Reacting to a Fragment]]

[[You have Acquired a Fragment]]

[[Fragments 1/13]]

It felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He could finally think straight, but a new question emerged: What caused it to work this time?

*****

"Hey, have you seen Jett?" Freya asked Ray, having already searched in vain for him, refusing to remove the cloak she'd been wearing since the beginning.

"I think he and Finn went that way. Why?" Ray replied, as he pointed at an alley just close by while looking curious. "Planning on apologizing for being suspicious of him?" he added, reading her like an open book.

"You sure mind reading isn't one of your skills?" she joked, turning away out of embarrassment. "Well... yes and no."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Ray inquired.

"I'm not apologizing because I thought he was suspicious. I know he's hiding something. I'm going to apologize for doubting him about the rune stone," she explained.

"It worked? Lucky for you. I've been a bit hesitant to try mine," Ray confessed before continuing. "I don't think you'll be able to move freely after today, so it's now or never."

"Right," she said with a faint smile, oblivious to Ray's concern, before heading in the direction he indicated. To her surprise, she found both Jett and Finn on the floor, with Jett on top.

"Umm, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she smirked, seeing them in an awkward position, regretting not being able to capture the moment in a photo.

Finn pushed Jett off his body as he noticed Freya standing nearby. "Get off me!" he yelled.

"Hey," she focused on Freya, ignoring Jett who still seemed dazed. "Of course not," Finn said.

She giggled as she teased him, "Oh? I didn't know you swing that way."

Finn tried to explain, "No, no, no, forget you ever saw that. He just fell on me while trying to restrain me," inadvertently adding fuel to the fire.

She faked shocking reaction, "Restrain? That's the kind of thing you're into? Wow..."

"Please just forget what you saw. I'm begging you," Finn pleaded, to no avail.

She shrugged at him, "I'm sorry, man, I can't unsee something like that."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Finn sighed in defeat.

"Nope," she quickly responded, shaking her head, causing Finn to silently walk away in defeat.

Realizing that nothing else would affect her, he turned to Jett. "This is your fault, you know. Why aren't you saying anything?"

*****

The translucent notification screen appeared once again.

[[Original successor could not be found.]]

[[You have met the criteria]]

[[Will you accept the succession transfer? Y/N]]

[[User has been inactive for 30 seconds, proceeding with a random choice]]

[[Yes]]

[[Successful]]

[[Memories can be experienced first hand from now on]]

[[Gained New Classes: Merchant, Warrior]]

[[Title: Successor of the ???]]

[[Skill: Switch A]]

[[Switch between your different class options]]

[[Skill: Revenge A]]

[[Replicates an offensive skill the user is attacked with and uses it again original owner dealing 70% of the main damage. User won't be able to move for 10 seconds.]]

[[Cool down: 1 hour]]

Multiple pieces of notifications flashed before him, faster than he could comprehend. "Again with this succession crap, what does it even mean? It was never in the game or books," he wondered. "I guess I really have to look into this, I have a bad feeling about this experiencing memories first hand though, am I over thinking this?."

The ability to change classes at will, this wasn't something that should've been possible. Once you got a class, you can never stray away from it no matter how hard you try.

He checked the notification again to confirm if he was hallucinating or not. But it was right there in front of him.

Being able to replicate an attack to deal 70% without having the original skill was a goldmine on its own. The only downside was having to wait 10 seconds before he could move after using the skill. The problem could be overlooked if he had an ally close by but would be a double edged sword if he ever used it alone.

For someone who prided himself with knowing everything about this world, the whole issue of succession and even the dream from before were all alien to him. He found it fascinating and also weird that all this was kept hidden even from the book.

Grateful for the newfound and useful power, yet wary of its mystery, he sat there, absorbed in the information, oblivious to his surroundings.

"Hey Jett," he could vaguely hear a voice calling him. "Jett?" it got louder and more familiar. "Jett!" This time, the call was followed by a slap on the head.

"Urgh, what was that for?" Jett groaned in pain, holding the part of his head that had fallen prey to her attack.

"I was bringing you back to reality," Freya replied, clenching her fists. "And maybe it just felt that good too."

Genuinely annoyed by the response, Jett looked at her in annoyance, still groaning in pain. "Seriously? What do you even want from me?"

"I wanted to thank you for the rune stone and also apologize for not trusting you," her tone softened enough for Jett to sense the sincerity, but he was still too peeved to acknowledge it.

"And you start by assaulting me? Ouch." The pain intensified as he tried to touch his head, adding to the slight headache he already had.

"How does it still hurt?" she asked innocently.

"You tell me. Anyways, you're welcome," he sighed. "I hope you can at least trust my actions from now onwards." He stood up and stretched his hand for a handshake.

Before she could thank him, multiple explosions occurred in different locations of the fair, including where Freya and Jett were. He was able to push her away just in time to avoid any damage on her but wasn't able to dodge debris from the explosion which eventually fell on him, causing Freya to panic.

She instinctively used a blessing skill on him, not knowing if he was still alive, before running to seek help. "I need to hurry."

She was met by the scene of complete and utter chaos, with dark-cloaked figures causing mayhem as adventurers and her friends battled deadly fiends out for blood.

She spotted Ray, Asher, Evelina, and Seraphina taking down the cloaked enemies. She called out to Ray as she ran towards them, "Ray! Jett needs help, come quickly."

"Stay away. What about Finn?" Ray inquired, still dealing with one more enemy before pushing off to Seraphina, who finished him off with a monstrous kick to the head.

"Finn can help you out, right? Weren't they together?" Seraphina asked as she effortlessly landed on her feet.

"We're kind of busy here," Asher added, holding two purple daggers defensively.

"I can't find him anywhere, please hurry, or he'll die, it's my fault, he was only trying to save me." Freya pleaded with them.

Ray surveyed the area to see what was going on. Everyone else was occupied so they had no choice. "Tch… Follow me, you guys, let's go save Jett. The others can handle things here."

She led them in the direction where she left him, but halfway there, as they got closer, they were blocked by more cloaked men and engaged them as they couldn't go past them. One of them slipped right through and quickly snatched Freya with incredible speed, running in the opposite direction.

With tears in her eyes, she yelled, but everyone was too occupied to lend a hand, even Seraphina, who tried to give chase but was blocked again by more of them.

"Freya!!!" Ray yelled out powerlessly. "Crap, we messed up big time."

"What do we do Ray? He's getting away" Evelina report as she takes aim and shoots an arrow which lands perfectly at his back.

He was torn between the desperate thought of what to do, whether to save Jett or abandon him and go after Freya.

*

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What will he do?

Hope he doesn't break down out of stress.