Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 35 35: You can learn a maximum of six active skills

The scroll in his hands didn't shatter with spectacle. No flash, no thunderclap, just a quiet, almost intimate unraveling, its material breaking down into tiny points of light that hovered over his skin… and then began to sink into it, as if Leon's body was their natural destination. For a fraction of a second a white, geometric symbol reflected in his eyes, then vanished.

And then he felt it.

At first it was a mild sting somewhere behind his eyes. Unpleasant, but tolerable, like the pressure of a sleepless night you could force yourself to ignore.

Then the pain arrived.

It came in a deep, spreading wave so intense Leon dropped to one knee on instinct, hands clamping over his temples. It felt like someone had crammed a foreign life into his skull, foreign decisions made in moments where hesitation wasn't allowed.

The information didn't come as words or images.

It came as finished reactions. Patterns. Instinct.

How to set his body in close combat to minimize damage. How to guide a blade so the kill was fast and efficient. How to immobilize someone in a way that was least painful, most brutal, or most effective, depending on the objective. Knowledge of firearms followed: construction, function, optimal ranges, reload windows, critical points. Even how to move as part of a team whose members didn't need to see each other to know what the others were doing.

This wasn't learning.

This was remembering something he'd never lived.

Leon froze when the flood finally stopped. The pain faded slowly, leaving behind a heavy, unpleasant after-echo, like bruising inside his skull. He stared at his hands, turning them as if he was seeing them for the first time, and the words slipped out before he could stop them.

"On Earth… soldiers were like this?"

He didn't mean raw physical strength, stats had already taught him that language. He meant how much could be wrung out of a body with no system bonuses at all. Just discipline, experience, and knowledge. Only now did Leon truly understand how much he'd been wasting his potential earlier, fighting blind, relying on numbers to carry him.

If he stood against the Violet Mutant Marten again, even without that absurd Agility, he could already see dozens of routes through the fight. Ways to take initiative. Moments where he could force a mistake.

The realization was both exhilarating and terrifying.

He didn't even notice when his posture changed. He stood straighter, more stable, his weight distributed differently, like someone preparing to move even while standing still.

Valeria noticed immediately, even if Leon didn't.

"You just got the combat experience and knowledge of the best elite soldiers across your world's entire history," she said calmly. "Thousands of years. People who survived more battles than you can even imagine. No wonder you feel… different."

A faint smile touched her lips, almost indulgent.

"Your stats were already well above human norms. But your combat experience was zero. Now?" Her gaze slid over him. "Now you can finally pass for a novice."

Leon looked at her with disbelief. In his head, this "novice" knowledge felt overwhelming, vast, almost inhuman. The difference between him a few minutes ago and him now was so sharp it was hard to accept.

Valeria laughed, genuinely, at the expression on his face.

Then she vanished from Leon's sight.

Before he could react, he felt the light but firm pressure of a finger under his chin, forcing his head up. Red eyes were suddenly right there, inches from his own, staring straight through him.

"In this world, you can think of yourself as someone special," she said softly.

Her finger slid, almost teasingly, across his lips. There was no mockery in her voice now, only cool honesty as she kept looking him dead in the eyes.

"But that only applies to your world. Compared to countless worlds, billions of warriors, cultures, races, and orders… you're a child. Someone who just took their first step."

She disappeared again, reappearing on the countertop in a relaxed sit as if she hadn't just moved like a glitch in reality.

"Don't start believing you're exceptional because you got a secondary skill and your stats are a little above average," she added in a sweet tone.

The words landed exactly where they were meant to.

That faint arrogance that had begun to bloom in Leon, after the levels, after the absurd advantage over zombies, popped and vanished almost instantly. He felt it clearly, like air being let out of a balloon before it could fully inflate.

He understood he was on a road, not at a finish line.

And in this world, overconfidence wasn't strength, it was one of the shortest routes to death.

Leon nodded slowly. When he spoke, there was no irony, no amusement, just plain, dry honesty.

"Thanks," he said simply. No grand speech. No drama. He knew now not every kind of help needed a paragraph in return.

Valeria looked at him with that familiar half-smile, always unreadable in the edges, then winked, as if the heavy conversation from a moment ago hadn't happened.

"For my lover, I'd do anything," she said lightly, stretching the words like she wanted a reaction.

Leon snorted without meaning to, not even looking at her as he picked up the scroll and rolled it between his fingers as if he could ignore what he'd just heard.

"Lover?" he muttered. "Who exactly is your lover? And seriously… what man would even want a woman like you?"

There was more bite than malice in his voice, more defensive reflex than true opinion. Valeria just laughed again, softer this time, without that predatory edge.

"You'd be surprised," she said calmly. "Very. Even in higher worlds, my looks are considered… above average."

Leon didn't answer right away, because his mind dragged up the memory of her true form, the one before the "human shape," before the restrictions. He had to admit, even if only in his head, that she wasn't exaggerating.

Instead his eyes drifted to the last item on the café floor, the violet scroll, faintly pulsing with a living glow. The moment his focus settled on it, the familiar system window appeared, and the skill name lit up clearly.

[Beast Dominion] (Phase One Skill) – Tier: Adept]

[Enables communication and control over animals and beasts of a lower level than the user. Effectiveness depends on level difference and current mana capacity.]

Leon tilted his head, rereading it more slowly, turning the description over in his mind. It wasn't flashy. It wasn't terrifying like shadow manipulation. But he had to admit it was… useful. In a world full of mutated animals, control, even over weaker ones, could be the difference between living and dying.

[Do you want to learn Beast Dominion?]

Leon was about to confirm when Valeria's voice stopped him mid-motion.

"Think twice," she said, and for once there was no teasing in it.

Leon looked up, surprised. "What do you mean?"

Valeria exhaled quietly, like she'd just remembered something obvious that he couldn't possibly know, and settled more comfortably against the counter.

"It's an active skill. And at your stage of evolution, you can learn a maximum of six active skills."

Leon went still.

"Only six?" he asked immediately. "Why?"

"Because your brain isn't built for more yet," she answered without hesitation. "Scroll skills aren't something you learn naturally. The system forces ready-made mana patterns into your head, activation sequences, responses you'd normally build over years. A few hours ago you were an ordinary human. Now you can use powers that take decades of training in other worlds."

She paused, watching to see if he was keeping up.

"If you exceed the six-skill limit at this stage, your brain starts to overload. The information you didn't absorb gradually, information that was jammed into you, begins to collide. Long term, your mind and body won't handle it."

Leon lowered the hand holding the scroll. The earlier spark of excitement dimmed.

"Passive skills are different," she added after a beat, like she'd remembered something important. "They don't require active mana control, or they're one-time, like 'Elite Soldier', or they run automatically, like your Cold Mind. That's why the limit practically doesn't exist for them."

Only then did Leon truly look at the violet scroll differently, not as "another bonus," but as a decision with long-term consequences.

He couldn't just learn everything he found and assume the system would sort it out.

He would have to plan.

Choose.

Decide which skills were worth one of those six slots… and which ones he should save for later, or never take at all.

Leon let the air out slowly, as if he could push excess thoughts out of his head with the breath.

"Not yet," he murmured, more to himself than to her, setting the violet scroll aside like something fragile, or dangerous. Not because it radiated power, but because it demanded a decision he wasn't ready to make.

Valeria only nodded. No comment. No mockery. Just a quiet approval that spoke louder than praise.

Leon reached for the backpack, intending to pack the scroll away with the rest, to close this chapter and drag his mind back to the present.

Then he heard it.

A sudden sound from deeper inside the café.

Leon flinched on instinct.

The backpack dropped to the floor before his brain caught up. His hands were already moving, drawing the daggers in one smooth motion that would've been clumsy a few hours ago, and now came out natural, clean, without hesitation.

He turned toward the source of the noise, blades ready.