Chapter 193 – Forbidden Skills

“We will officially be on our vacation break after our exam results are released in two days. Teacher Dong, may I practice together with you then?” Gu Yueyan asked.

Dong Chengling replied, “Sure, but don’t you need to complete your vacation assignments?”

“Vacation assignments? Ha ha, I’ll surprise you when that time comes, Teacher Dong!” Gu Yueyan said.

As Gu Yueyan chatted happily with Dong Chengling, she also noticed Ren Suo, who was eating beside her, looking slightly down. A sudden urge of playfulness struck her, and she pointed to Ren Suo’s head, exclaiming, “There’s a spider on your head!”

Ren Suo reacted in shock and likewise pointed at Gu Yueyan’s bowl of rice with his chopsticks, exclaimed, “There are cockroach feelers in your rice!”

“What?!”

Gu Yueyan was so frightened that she fell from her chair. At the same time, Ren Suo put his empty bowl down on the table and said, “Thank you for your hospitality. I’ll be going off first as I have matters to attend to.”

Ren Suo shot a glance at Gu Yueyan and added, “I washed the dishes in the afternoon, so it’s your turn now.”

“You—” Gu Yueyan said as she finally managed to pick herself up from the floor. She realized that Ren Suo had already slipped away, so she had no choice but to sit back down on the chair and suck it up. However, when she saw Dong Chengling’s smile and her caring gaze, her unhappiness instantly vanished.

She said, “Forget it, I shall let it go since he could read the situation and left first.”

——————

“There you go, don’t hold any grudge against me anymore now that you have eaten my spicy dried anchovies and milk.”

Ren Suo smiled as he apologized to the black cat that loitered around on the ground floor of the dormitory building. The black cat could not be bothered about him as it continued eating the spicy anchovies and drinking the milk with its head down.

Nonetheless, Ren Suo was not bothered either, and headed back home cheerfully to continue his quest in “The Mage Under the World Tree”.

At that juncture in the game, Red Hood, who saw Mage standing at the same position for quite some time doing nothing, could not help but remark sarcastically: [If you don’t have the courage to do what you need to do, then don’t take on that responsibility! Why, are you also thinking of making me slice a part of myself as food?]

All of a sudden, Mage said: “I’ll show you what real magic is!”

As he finished his sentence, Mage picked up an old shirt, and then pulled a red box out from it!

The aroma wafting out of the box attracted the attention of the hungry civilians and even Red Hood. Their gazes were fixated on the box as they stared at it intently!

Although the hungry civilians were all drooling, they still remained in their positions and did not dare to rush over to snatch it from Mage. He opened the box to reveal the glistening and tempting crispy fried chicken and spicy chicken wings inside!

Mage said: [Here, eat this.]

Then, Mage pulled out a second red box and said: [There’s no need to snatch, there are many more.]

Upon finishing his sentence, the hungry civilians finally gave in to the temptation. They stretched out their hands to grab the chicken and began enjoying the mouth-watering food. Mage had taken out six red boxes and the amount of food was more than enough to fill their empty stomachs!

At that juncture, Red Hood walked over and grabbed Mage by his hand. She asked with a face of grimace: [Did you make a wish to the Holy Grail?]

Mage replied: [Make a wish? What wish?]

The fried chicken sets, which Mage took out, were naturally from the prop that Ren Suo had equipped him with in the [Equipment] page. Originally, Ren Suo had only intended to experiment with the effect of the ability. That was because the effects of abilities often varied due to differences in the game setup, although it was still possible for game characters to be equipped with various abilities and props.

He had not expected that [Unlimited Fried Chicken Set], as well as other abilities and props could be turned into [Offerings]!

Moreover, while Mage took out multiple fried chicken sets, it did not cost him any magic power or health. Rather, the cooldown time of the fried chicken sets was lengthened.

After retrieving six fried chicken sets, the cooldown time increased to 72 hours. Nonetheless, he could still continue taking out more fried chicken sets, and the cooldown time would be extended accordingly.

However, it seemed that that was only the case for game characters. In reality, Ren Suo was unable to even equip himself with the prop [Unlimited Fried Chicken Set]; he had to wait for the cooldown period to pass before he could do so.

Furthermore, it was only in the game that [Unlimited Fried Chicken Set] was almost truly “unlimited”. The limitation of the cooldown time seemed to be targeted specifically at Ren Suo. It was as if to prevent him from establishing a fast-food chain and becoming the next tycoon, where he could live a carefree life bathing in money, so easily.

Red Hood explained: [The reason why humans turn into monsters is because they made wishes to the Holy Grail. While the Holy Grail fulfills humans’ desires, it buries despair in their hopes, which leads them onto the path towards becoming a monster.”

[Letting those who are hungry consume any living creature they see, letting those who long for immortality turn into stone monsters that will remain ‘alive’ forever, letting couples in love with each other turn into dual-soul monsters… This power of yours to make things appear out of nothing, is that not granted to you by the Holy Grail?]

Mage replied: [Of course not, look at how well they are eating.]

Red Hood turned around and realized that the hungry civilians had finished all of the fried chicken sets, and not even any chicken bones were left. Their mouths were glistening in remnants of oil and they were all smiling in pure bliss and satisfaction. A pure, white glow was radiating from their bodies.

They walked towards Mage but did not say anything. Instead, one by one, they clapped Mage’s left hand with their own hands, then died and vanished in silence.

At the same time, the Holy Light shone from Mage’s left arm, and it leveled up all the way to [Holy Hand Level 7]!

Upon seeing what was happening, Red Hood also let go of her grip on Mage and turned to leave. However, she turned back again and looked over Mage as she said in a hushed tone: [I want a set too.]

Ren Suo quickly checked out the new offerings he had obtained.

He received the same offering from all seven civilians. That appeared to be the biggest benefit of choosing the [Salvation] route.

[Pearl of Holy Light: Shoot a pearl-sized beam of Holy Light. When struck by the light, humans would be healed to a small extent, while monsters would be injured to a small extent. When used, the user’s health would be reduced.]

After fusing the seven offerings, the Pearl of Holy Light still did not level up. However, there were small changes to its effect:

[Pearl of Holy Light: Shoot a pearl-sized beam of Holy Light. When struck by the light, humans would be healed to a small extent and their Defense would increase, while monsters would be injured to a small extent and their Defense would decrease. When used, the user’s health would be reduced.]

Ren Suo’s eyes lit up when he read the description of the offering. He quickly equipped it as his main combat offering.

Such a skill which could both offer protection and cause damage was a “bug level” skill in the game. In real life, it was akin to Ren Suo not only being able to treat patients with [Ability: Heal] but also being able to cause injuries to others by utilizing the ability like ‘Kamehameha’.

Subsequently, Mage and Red Hood spent over three more hours to clear most of the monsters in the monastery.

Although the damage of Mage had increased, the rate of mana consumption also increased. Red Mage also had to take breaks from time to time to recover her mana. At the same time, going deeper into the monastery, the monsters which appeared were stronger, and the Blood Monsters also appeared more frequently. Nonetheless, Ren Suo also managed to exchange them for a few more Pearls of Holy Light with his fried chicken sets.

His Sacred Hand was also upgraded to Level 15, and it seemed that the initial leveling speed was extremely fast.

Just as he was about to clear the last batch of monsters, Red Hood stopped Mage.

Red Hood said: [I have now acknowledged your ability. As such, I will now be imparting you with the Forbidden Skills of mages.]

Forbidden Skills?

[I only know two Forbidden Skills: Breath of Fire Skin and Finger Iron Chain. They are both emergency spells which should not be used until the very last possible moment.]

The tone of Red Hood was very calm. She continued: [All skills require offerings, and the offerings required by Forbidden Skills…]

She pointed to herself and Mage and said: [It’s ourselves.]

Two new skills appeared on the right side of the screen. They were tangled black flames on top of a scarlet-red background, indicating that those two skills were not to be messed with.

[Breath of Fire Skin: All of the user’s skin would burn and turn into a huge fireball that is fired at the enemy, dealing massive damage. However, the user would also be severely damaged by the burning skin, causing the user’s Defense to decrease by half. The user’s skin cannot be regenerated and the effect is permanent.]

[Iron Chain Fingers: The knuckles of all five fingers of one hand of the user would crack and split apart, turning into a tough iron chain that entangles the enemy for 20 seconds. The user’s fingers will then be rendered completely useless permanently. The damage of the user’s close-ranged-type offerings would also be permanently reduced by half.]

‘…?’ Ren Suo thought. He pulled the corners of his lips and muttered, “Who would use the skills knowing that the side effects are so great… What’s more, the game character will turn ugly and it would be hard to continue watching the character throughout the game…”

However, at that juncture, a Holy Grail appeared at the center of the screen. A black liquid was boiling within the Holy Grail, and the countless eyes and a mouth appeared on the sides of the Holy Grail:

[You have something I desire on you… Let me perform a ‘fair’ exchange with you.]

A game prompt appeared: [You have triggered the trade with the Evil Holy Grail.]

[You may perform a trade with the Evil Holy Grail under non-combat circumstances.]

[① Perfect Recovery: 10 merit points;

② Minor Recovery: 1 merit point;

(Perfect Recovery will heal all side effects from using Forbidden Skills, and restore health and mana)

(Minor Recovery will suppress a certain side effect from using Forbidden Skills. 7 Minor Recoveries are required to completely eliminate all side effects)]

Ren Suo had not expected that in-game purchases would appear at that juncture. Furthermore, they were directly linked to ‘Forbidden Skills’.

Generally, the significance of in-game purchases was to reduce the difficulty of a game. In “Mage Under the World Tree”, in-game purchases could be made to heal and eliminate side effects from utilizing Forbidden Skills. As such, it could be deduced that the power of Forbidden Skills was truly terrifying. Being able to eliminate the side effects of Forbidden Skills allowed the player to use them repeatedly, which could disrupt the difficulty balance of the game!

If the player used Forbidden Skills in every checkpoint, it would cost 60 merit points (since it did not matter even if the character was barely alive after clearing the last checkpoint). However, upon completion of the game, 300 merit points would be earned. Hence, Ren Suo did not mind spending slightly more lavishly to clear the individual checkpoints by utilizing the Forbidden Skills.

Ren Suo saved the game at that point, then proceeded to clear the last batch of monsters with Red Hood and waited for the boss of the monastery to appear!

At that critical moment, however, Red Hood suddenly turned to look out of the monastery. She said: [There are people here.]

Ren Suo was surprised. He asked: [People? Didn’t you say that there are only monsters here, apart from you and me?”

[They are foreigners to this place, just like you.]

The scene changed to the monastery gate, and indeed, Ren Suo saw a few people.

They were people of Xuan Nation!

And amongst them, there was also someone he knew well!