Assimilate All Talents

Sol nodded, confirming its suspicions.

"Yeah, under certain circumstances, I can learn the skills of others."

He didn’t want to go into specific details, as he didn’t want too many people knowing how his ability worked, but Shadow Crawler didn’t seem to mind his vagueness. Instead, it contemplated out loud.

"Circumstances, huh? Well, that explains how you have both my skills and the skills of the Handless Fiend. That’s why you wanted to fight me so many times. I just thought you were looking for the experience to level up."

"Are you not surprised?" Sol found the boss’ lackluster response rather odd. He felt anyone would be shocked to hear he could learn virtually any skill he wanted.

Shadow Crawler crossed its arms and shook its head. "Nah. It’s probably one of the rarest types of abilities, second maybe to fate or time-related abilities, but I’ve heard of people like you before."

"Really?!" Sol was surprised and pressed for more. "Can you tell me about them?"

Sol had believed himself to be a unique case. At first, it felt amazing, but as he gained more knowledge and experience, it also began to feel isolating. Even when he learned of mythic talents, the highest of them only reached level 10, while his was unlocked at Level 25. To learn there were others like him before came as a shock. Eager for answers, he leaned in, awaiting Shadow Crawler’s response.

Shadow Crawler wasn’t supposed to speak about such things without Mother’s permission, but since Sol had returned the void root, it decided she wouldn’t mind. The boss thought back to memories from long ago.

"Hmm, it’s been a long time. I can only remember two off the top of my head. If I’m recalling it right, the first was someone with the talent [Soul Harvester]. Basically, it let him steal the souls of others and house them inside his body. Through them, he could use their skills. The second was before the system existed, so talents weren’t a thing yet, but that crazy woman was known as the Butcher. She gained the abilities of those she ate. I know there’s one more, but I can’t quite remember him. It was during the war against the Outer Gods, and too much happened back then..."

’Huh... I think they’re similar, but neither is exactly like me.’ Sol thought to himself, a little disappointed.

"I’m guessing from your expression that they aren’t like you, huh?" Shadow Crawler said with a sly grin. "Don’t worry too much about that. It’s like that human saying: there’s more than one way to skin a fish."

"It’s supposed to be a Cat." Sol corrected.

"Pshh, same thing. Could be a sand drake, and it’d still be the same." The boss shrugged, then continued. "What I’m trying to say is that your ability falls under the ’skill stealing’ branch. Just like there are various ways to wield a sword, there are different ways to do what you can do. But if you’re looking for guidance, I really don’t recommend learning from those two."

"Eh, why not?"

Shadow Crawler grinned, sharp teeth glinting. "Well, there’s a reason they come to mind easily, they both died spectacularly. The one with the [Soul Harvester] talent bit off more than he could chew and absorbed way too many souls. He lost control. The amalgamation of souls caused his body to swell up like a balloon, and he popped in a massive explosion, taking out half a city, if I recall correctly. The Butcher, on the other hand, had no regard for anyone and ate whoever she met that had an ability she wanted. She became frighteningly strong, fast. But before she could ascend to godhood, the gods—fearing they would be her next targets—put aside their differences and killed her. That story became a popular bedtime tale for a couple of centuries, which is how I learned about it."

’They’re not exactly like me, but I should still keep their fates in mind.’

Neither case perfectly mirrored his situation, but they served as stark reminders to be careful. With [Siphon], Sol had once experienced something similar to what happened to the [Soul Harvester]. After siphoning too many talents at once, he’d felt bloated, dangerously overstuffed. Though his limit had risen after comprehending his law technique, he was sure that forcing one more skill at that time would’ve ended poorly. As long as he stayed within his limits, he’d be fine. Besides, Sol preferred to focus on improving his best and most powerful skills personally with his own ability like he did with [Earth Hammer] that eventually became [Terra Manipulation]. That wouldn’t have happened if he had simply siphoned [Earth Hammer] continuously until it evolved into its next evolution. He had plenty of skills right now that could use similar attention like [Impact Bubble], which he believed could have a lot of potential as the ultimate defensive skill.

The Butcher’s fate was even less of a concern. Sol had done his best to avoid openly displaying his abilities. Though it was restricting at times, he understood how easy it would be for a god to pass by and end a puny mortal like himself. He had even seen the might of a god firsthand when Orna instantly dealt with the Bliss Spider leaving it encased in an impenetrable ice. And while the temptation to steal powerful skills of people he came across had crossed his mind before, his strong sense of morality had always won out.

Contemplating Shadow Crawler’s words, Sol nodded and thanked the boss monster. "You’re right. I’m not like them, but I can still learn from their mistakes."

"That’s a good way of looking at it." Shadow Crawler said, glancing at the Tynamo Cannon its tail held. "I need to take this back to Mother, so I’ll see you both around."

Before Shadow Crawler could leave, Sol stopped him with one last question. "Actually, mind if we challenge your boss room a couple of times?"

Because of the battle the day before, Sol had pushed his skill [Umbral Domain] to its very limit when he expanded its tether to the point of snapping. When it was all over the skill survived, but barely and it was now at level 1 much weaker than before. He hoped to regain what the levels had lost before setting off.

The boss smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Of course! You can challenge my boss room however many times you like. It’s not like taking skills from the clones affects me anyway."

Shadow Crawler then turned to Amber, grinning. "We can also see if you got any better since last time. How about it?"

Amber, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, gave only a light nod in response before making her way to the teleport sigil. Though her face showed little emotion, she was eager to rematch the Shadow Crawler.