I Reincarnated As A Stick
Chapter 14 - Evolving Skills

"Evolve [SP Storage]."

Ding!

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Please select the skill that [SP Storage] would evolve into:

[Condensed SP Storage]

[Expanded SP Storage]

[Flux SP Storage]

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Looking at the choices in front of him, Aurus pondered over his past experiences with the [SP Storage] skill when he played as a branch of the Mahogany race back then, specializing as a close range attacker.

"Hmm...if I remember my choices correctly, the evolution I chose for [SP Storage] would be to expand it so I have more SP to use for skills. But now that I'm aiming to become a mage, I can't haphazardly choose that right?"

From the various MMORPGs Aurus has encountered and played back then in his previous life, mages were reliant on their Intelligence stat as it was the only way for them to increase their MP, attack power, and of course, the amount of spells they could unleash.

Surprisingly, ISE pursued a sense of reality that MMORPGs couldn't achieve, wherein the purity of the SP the player uses affects the strength of the skills and the casting speed of the skills. Aurus has faced a lot of mage class players before in ISE, most of them focused on achieving a high level of purity for their SP rather than a vessel that seemed like it would hold a boundless amount of SP.

Nonetheless, in the late-game periods, many mage class players would be able to achieve both, bringing terror to every player they met.

"Identify [Condensed SP Storage], [Expanded SP Storage], and [Flux SP Storage]."

Ding! Ding! Ding!

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[Condensed SP Storage] (Level 1/5)

Experience: 0/5

An upgraded version of the [SP Storage] skill, focused on achieving a higher purity for SP. Discarding the expansion of the storage itself, the storage has found a way to condense the SP the stick holds into a purer form, allowing skills to be casted with half the amount of SP while having higher strength.

Maximum SP capacity: 5 SP

SP regeneration rate: 1 SP per minute

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[Expanded SP Storage] (Level 1/5)

Experience: 0/5

An upgraded version of the [SP Storage] skill, focused on storing high amounts of SP. The storage expands in terms of internal space, yet remains the same externally. Once evolved to this skill, the storage can hold twice as much SP than before in the initial levels while giving the stick the ability to hold even more SP at later levels.

Maximum SP capacity: 10 SP

SP regeneration rate: 1 SP per minute

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[Flux SP Storage] (Level 1/5)

Experience: 0/5

An upgraded version of the [SP Storage] skill, focused on allowing the SP to be regenerated at a faster rate. Once evolved to this skill, the storage mutates to have SP receptors that allow the stick to absorb more SP than usual, increasing the rate of SP regeneration. In exchange, the expansion of storage has been discarded.

Maximum SP capacity: 5 SP

SP regeneration rate: 2 SP per minute

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Although expanding his storage and increasing his SP regeneration rate enticed him to pick those choices, he made sure to pick his choices with a calm mind and chose the [Condensed SP Storage] skill.

Now, what are the possible reasons as to why Aurus chose this skill rather than the others? Well...since he aims to play as a mage this time although it's his second life, he's trying to reference his skills from the top mages of ISE.

Since he was able to achieve the existence level of God in his previous life, he was able to have a lot of connections with many mages near the existence level of God or at the level itself, and most of them had spells that had a cost at thousands up to millions of SP! Take into consideration that all of the mages Aurus has met have achieved the highest purity for SP achievable in the game...yet it still costs a lot of SP!

And that's why...

Ding!

'[SP Storage] has been evolved to [Condensed SP Storage].'

Aurus chose it, to prepare for the future.

At this moment in time, he couldn't help but sigh. Whenever he wanted to evolve his skills, he would have to go through multiple screens that mostly held useless information just so he could make a choice rather than seeing the instant benefits.

"System, please enable the option of seeing the instant effects of skill and species evolutions in one go," Aurus decided and commanded.

Ding!

'The option 'Short Evolution Info' has been enabled.'

Since the option was in the game, of course, it was also available in his system as well. He couldn't help but let out a light smile as he commanded, "Evolve [Nut Shot]."

[Nut Shot], the first offensive skill he obtained and would eventually lead him to being a proper mage. His choices in evolving skills would affect his future whether he ends up becoming a mage or a ranger.

Ding!

________

Please select the skill that [Nut Shot] would evolve into:

[Dual Nut Shot]

[Quick Nut Shot]

[Infused Nut Shot (Special)]

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"Eh?" Aurus couldn't believe his eyes...well he didn't have eyes in the first place but still. "I know they exist but...how did I get them so early?"

Just like how evolutions have normal and Special types, skills also have normal and Special types which affects the power of the skills depending on the tier the skill is at.

From his past memories, he only had a bunch of Special skills at the Transcendent skill. It was around 7 at most. His friends were not far off from the number as well, having around 4-8 Special skills.

"Identify all of the possible skill evolutions."

Ding! Ding! Ding!

________

[Dual Nut Shot]

In exchange for more bullets shot, firepower stays the same.

Number of bullets: 1 -> 2

SP Cost: 1 SP -> 1 SP

Cooldown: 5 seconds -> 8 seconds

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[Quick Nut Shot]

Gains more firepower thanks to its increased speed. Has a chance to land a critical hit (stacks over innate critical hit chance).

Critical hit chance: 10%

SP Cost: 1 SP -> 3 SP

Cooldown: 5 seconds -> 10 seconds

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[Infused Nut Shot (Special)]

Thanks to the stick having high amounts of SP, the bullets can be infused with high amounts of SP, allowing them to deal more damage.

Levels of Infusion: 0 -> 3

SP Cost: 1 SP -> 2 SP (Level 0), 5 SP (Level 1), 10 SP (Level 2), 20 SP (Level 3)

Cooldown: 5 seconds -> 10 seconds

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Looking at the simplified information screen in front of him, Aurus could now easily replace out which skill could offer him the most benefits, and of course, he would have to pick the [Infused Nut Shot].

"From its method of usage, it could give me a chance to evolve it from a skill into a magic spell!" Aurus' eyes gleamed as he confirmed his chance.

Skills could be evolved into magic spells when a player is of the mage class. They also follow the same tier levels: Mortal, Transcendent, Divine. But the main difference is that, Mortal magic spells have a might equivalent to Transcendent skills. Well if you think about it, the spells mages conjure are definitely out of this world, right?

Ding!

'[Nut Shot] has been evolved into [Infused Nut Shot (Special)].'

Aurus then looked at his skill screen and checked his progress, feeling quite contented. Yet one thing stuck out though.

"I'm going to have to replace out how to improve [Wind Affinity], Aurus murmured.

"But first, how the heck do I fix delayed skill level ups?"