1 Extracting Skills

The border of the world, outside the land of mists.

Laka Forest

The sun was hanging high in the sky, shining its light on earth.

In a dense forest, the midday sunlight cast thin beams of light through the canopy of leaves.

"Ka."

A huge spider-like insect, about a meter in size, was gnawing at something. The sound of its feeding was accompanied by a fishy smell that filled the air with a sickly sweet tang.

Perched a nearby branch, hidden in the dense foliage, was a young man.

He was the hunter who had cast the bait to trap the giant insect.

He slowly drew an arrow from his belt and placed it on his bow arm.

"Eagle Eye."

He whispered a short spell.

With that, he drew his bow quickly and shot the arrow at the spider.

"Whoosh."

There was the sound of an arrow hitting flesh. It was proof that he had hit the target.

The flying arrow pierced through a chink in the spider's head.

There were chinks all over its caraspace to allow for movement of its joints.

And it was those chinks that made the spider vulnerable.

"Hiss!"

A piercing cry came from where the spider's giant pincers were. Its eight limbs flailed wildly as it struggled.

The force of the struggle sent fallen leaves and splinters flying all around. The instinct for survival made it desperate to leave this trouble spot.

However, the running, struggling, and screaming did not last long. After a while, the area fell silent. The huge spider could be seen shrinking into a ball, its shell still tightly protecting it.

The arrow stuck in the chink at the head was especially eye-catching.

Perhaps the arrow had finished it off.

"Whoosh."

Another arrow slammed into the chink in the spider's head, but other than a slight movement caused by the impact of the arrow, nothing happened.

The branches swayed.

A boy of about 16 years of age jumped down from a tree, with leaves falling around him.

He was Kane, Kane LaFleur.

Short black hair. A glossy hunting bow in his hand. From the look of it, its owner cherished it. Dressed in brown-green hunting attire that made it easy to move and hide in the forest, he carried a quiver of exquisite arrows on his back.

What was striking about him were the sharp, eagle-like eyes that flashed with a faint green light. However, his pupils were actually blue.

The teenager slowly approached the downed spider.

Slowly, he squatted beside the carcass. He checked again and again to confirm that his prey was dead.

Then he removed a coppery columnar gem from his neck and placed it on the carcass.

"Absorb."

As soon as he said that, a faint light began to rise from the carcass and flooded the gem like sand. Parts of the gem that were transparent rapidly turned coppery.

The giant spider's carcass had not changed, but it no longer gave one the feeling that it was 'powerful'.

Beautiful! It was not in vain that I spent a week tracking and hunting this copper-colored Armored Spider.

Kane was delighted and satisfied as he looked at the pillar-shaped gem that was now filled with a copper tone.

He took out his hunting knife, peeled the carapace off the carcass quickly, and put it in his bag.

This was good stuff. He couldn't waste it. This one was worth at least 16 gold coins.

Of course.

For anyone else, the armor of the spider would have been his only trophy, but for Kane, it was just a by-product.

His main trophy was the energy generated by magic mixed with fragments of a creature's soul after it died.

Kane was originally a typical office worker from the Blue Planet who would go home after work to play games and watch dramas.

Unexpectedly, when he got home from work one day and turned on his computer to play games, he blacked out suddenly and passed on peacefully.

In a daze, all he could think of was how tired he was.

When he opened his eyes again, he was reincarnated into another world as a 14-year-old boy. The faces around him were all unfamiliar.

It's been two years since I came to this world, and it's not so bad. After all, it's a fantasy world filled with magical powers.

With that thought, Kane put his hand on the gem hanging around his neck. It was a prop he'd had in the game he played when he came home from work—the Magic Stone.

His cheat, or system, was the same system as the one players used to control the characters in the game.

[Book of Adventure]

The game designer wanted to make the player's system and the game setting compatible.

Kane had to use Magic Stones that were filled to turn on and use the game functions. The book produced empty magic stones.

Kane used these magic stones to absorb the energy from slain creatures.

These filled magic stones would in turn allow him to extract useful Skill Stones from the system.

Of course, they were for basic use only.

Kane squeezed a magic stone and characters instantly appeared before him.

[Copper Magic Stone*1]

[You can randomly extract a copper Skill Stone.]

[Yes] [No]

"Yes."

[Extracting…]

[The Maiden's Prayer…]

[Completed]

The magic stone disappeared from his hand. In his hand, a copper plate the size of a square coin appeared.

Staring at the skill stone in his hand, Kane began to read its introduction.

[Name: Spider Nest Weaver]

[Type: Active Skill]

[Color: Brass]

[Additional: 2 Jet Holes]

[Description: Use magic power/physical strength to spray spider silk from the jet holes. The strength of the spider silk is determined by the energy spent, but there is a certain limit.]

[Introduction: In the dark spider's nest, the weavers are indispensable to this empire. They will always be at the pinnacle of spider silk art in the empire, weaving a continuum for the empire.]

It was the first skill he'd drawn since coming to this world, and he was itching to try it.

But that wouldn't be safe right now.

Forget it. He would slowly check what kind of ability it was when he got back. It was more important to hurry on. Otherwise, more danger would come his way when other creatures smelled the carcass.

… .

The sun hung low in the sky as it slowly set toward the side of the mountain, lighting up half the sky with shades of pink.

Dusk was approaching.

The gates of Kara town were open, and at this time, people who needed to rest were stopping over for the night. After all, it was not very safe to be out in the wilderness at night.

Kane appeared at the entrance of the town, carrying a sheepskin bag.

"Hey! Kane, how's it going? I see you've been busy all week. Haven't you caught your prey yet?"

A burly middle-aged militiaman with a spear shouted to Kane from a wooden post that stood at the entrance to the town.

"This is my prey now, Uncle Gorm."

Kane patted the cloth bag on his back.

"Oh! Next time at the tavern, you'll have to tell us all about your hunt. It took the number one hunter in Kara a whole week, hahaha."

"Haha, okay. I'll go back now, Uncle Gorm."

"Alright, go quickly. Look at you all covered in mud."

Kane said goodbye to Uncle Gorm.

He greeted every passing acquaintance as he made his way home.

He walked slowly through the streets to the edge of the town.

He stopped at a stone house that was his home in this life and the only thing the parents of the original Kane had left him.

He recalled what happened back then.

Two years ago, when he transmigrated, the original Kane had collapsed by the little river in town. Uncle Ram had found him and called for help to carry him home.

When he woke up, he became Kane.

Based on the memory that was associated with the original Kane, he understood that Kane was killed by a stone fruit falling from a tree.

He couldn't help but sigh.

He was out of luck.

He opened the door, entered the house, and put the loot under his bed in the room.

He spent some time washing up.

Then he lay on the bed and began to review the skills he had extracted at noon.