CHAPTER 63: EDGAR’S TRAINING [1]

[Ding! Beta testing has been initiated!]

[Ding! 24 hours till beta testers arrive!]

[Ding! Player forum is now open.]

[Quest function is now available.]

It took a while, but Gabriel eventually remembered these events.

He recalled that before Realm of Ascendency had launched, the company in charge had given a few professional gamers the opportunity to test out the game and write reviews.

Gabriel wasn’t a big gamer, so naturally, he wasn’t invited, but he still had vague recollections of some top players who competed in the beta testing.

While he was at it, he decided to check the forum. Naturally, because of the absence of players, it was completely empty with no chats.

Still.

’Now I can keep an eye on what’s happening in-game and in the real world.’ He smirked, imagining how fun it would be to silently eavesdrop on the conversations between players.

He soon noticed a font at the top of the forum that read... USA Server 1110.

In Realm of Ascendency, servers were divided by continents and regions, but players could occasionally cross over through special events or certain high-level quests. Gabriel, however, was currently bound to USA Server 1110, which meant most of the early beta testers would be from that region.

"Not bad..." he mumbled to himself. After all, even in his past life, he was on the same server.

In truth, it might have looked like different servers from the players’ perspective, but thanks to his past life, Gabriel knew very well that these servers were parallel worlds.

The players might think the events just happened randomly, but they were unaware that everything was influenced.

Even the World Invasion War that would occur a few years from now was all influenced by the actions of NPCs rather than the programming of developers.

Afterward, he navigated to the quest function. Just as he had expected, it was a feature that allowed him to assign quests and rewards to players. The rewards could range from cash, skills, weapons, or treasures.

This was where his Extraction Talent would come into play. With this talent and his relationship to Damian, he would be able to recruit players into his guild.

’I have to seriously start making plans for the guild.’ He thought with a frown. He made a mental note that after his training with Edgar DarkMore, he would head to the Adventurer Guild to register a guild of his own.

’Now before the interruption.’ He narrowed his eyes on his skills.

Gabriel currently had 217 Extraction Points, and he wanted to upgrade some of his skills.

[Ding! Would you like to extract the skill Burrow Shift? Cost: 150 EP.]

"Heok!" His eyes widened in shock when he saw the cost to upgrade the skill.

But soon, he realized the reason for the cost.

If he extracted the skill, the rank would upgrade from Rare to Elite, and if his guess was right, the level would increase as well.

He wasn’t discouraged by this little setback. Instead, a wild idea appeared in his head.

If he had enough EP, he could continuously extract the skill until it became Divine Rank Level 5.

Usually, skill ranks were permanent, and only the level could be increased, with the max being LV5.

Gabriel chuckled to himself when he realized how broken his talent was.

If he had enough Extraction Points, there was no theoretical limit. He could push even the most basic skill to terrifying heights. The only bottleneck was the sheer amount of Extraction Points required.

But that was a problem for later. For now, he scanned his list of skills, contemplating any cheap one to invest in.

He realized that most of his skills were Rare Rank, and all Rare Rank skills required about 150 EP or more to extract.

He couldn’t afford to spend such a large amount yet. In the end, there was only one skill that caught his attention.

It was the Parry skill, and it cost 100 EP to extract.

---

[Parry LV.1]

[Rarity: Uncommon]

[Description: Instantly deflects a single melee attack if timed correctly. Reduces incoming damage by 80% and staggers the attacker for 0.5 seconds.

Cooldown: 20 seconds]

---

With a little hesitation, he proceeded with the extraction.

[Ding! You have successfully extracted the skill Parry LV.1.]

[Parry LV.1 (Uncommon) ➜ Parry LV.2 (Rare)]

---

[Parry LV.2]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Description: Instantly deflects melee and ranged physical attacks if timed correctly. Reduces incoming damage by 90% and staggers the attacker for 1 second.

Cooldown: 15 seconds]

---

The new changes to the skill were very obvious.

Gabriel carefully compared the two versions and instantly noticed the key differences.

’The old version could only deflect melee attacks and had a twenty-second cooldown,’ he thought, his eyes narrowing. ’But now... it can also deflect ranged physical attacks. That alone is a massive improvement.’

His smirk widened as he continued reading. ’And the damage reduction increased from 80% to 90%. The cooldown also dropped to 15 seconds.’

But what really caught his attention was the upgraded stagger effect.

’The stagger went from 0.5 seconds to a full second. That’s more than enough time to launch a counterattack or reposition.’

Before, it was just a simple timing skill—useful, but situational. Now? It had transformed into a powerful offensive opening tool that could completely shift the flow of battle if used correctly.

While other NPCs and even players would have to find skill books or wait for level-ups, he could directly upgrade his skills and leap past natural limits.

There was no doubt in his mind now.

If he kept accumulating Extraction Points, he could eventually create skills that shouldn’t even exist.

He could one day have an arsenal of only Divine Rank skills.

Of course, the cost would be ridiculously high, but now Gabriel had a goal.

’Stack EP... continuously. Extract... endlessly.’

For now, he closed the skill window, satisfied with his upgrade even though his EP was now left at 117.

After the bath, the night passed uneventfully.

Anna looked at him weirdly as he had slept without even making an attempt to touch her.

Although it was only for a day, her impression of her new master was slowly increasing.

’He’s... kind of unpredictable,’ she thought.

Some time later, Gabriel arrived at Edgar’s class, but upon entering, he realized he wasn’t alone. There was someone there already. A trace of surprise crossed his expression.

"I didn’t expect to run into you again so soon," he spoke. "What brings you here, Vice Leader?"

* * *

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