For once, after all the trials and combat she put herself through, she ran away from conflict with her tail between her legs. That, of course, was the conflict of what she did last night to Zeke.

If she had to say anything regarding her actions, it would be liberating and horrible at the same time. Not only had she coaxed an incredibly personal story from the inebriated Zeke, she had the balls to assault his lips with her own.

And if that wasn't enough, she went so far as to make him faint from how much air she stole from him. Apparently their difference in Endurance made that perfectly clear while under their drunk debuff.

When morning arose, memories of last night flooded in, along with the pain of the hangover from their drunken night. She could handle a bit of the liquor, enough to remember what happened, but apparently not enough to get away from the terrible headache she woke up with.

Alissa mentioned a cure-all from an alchemist to get rid of it, but knowing that Zeke might wake up soon and confronting him about what happened made her turn tail and run.

So now, she was out in the middle of the street along with several bustling people trying to recover their lost time from the festivities last night, her head banging against the walls begging for the sweet release of death.

She made up an excuse to Alissa before running away, hoping that at the very least, Zeke wouldn't remember anything at all from last night. While that chance was low, it was something to hope for.

As for whether she should tell him… well, it's not so important that he has to know immediately. She planned on letting him know soon–maybe when Clara became initialized into the system.

But she technically did have something to do which required some alone time for herself, so she took this chance to do so, at least to get away from the guilty conscious. The reason she needed to do something alone is simple–she needed to do something about her General Skills.

So far, she had maxed out her General Skill list. Thanks to that, she received several benefits from her Class and weapons. Having a maxed skill list, or rather a whole lot of skills, increased her power quite a bit–enough to put her at least a league above other Journeymen at her level.

However, she knew this was just a stopgap. At some point, she's going to stagnate and become a target for powerful monsters in the other tower, and perhaps several more towers, and finally these supposed trials that Zoan mentioned would come at anytime by now.

It's been a year so their time limit is almost up, but so far other than these towers and trying to find more otherworlders, nothing much of note came up about these trials.

But she knew that she needed to get stronger soon. And there was no better time than to figure out how to fuse these skills to become something better, at least to get her ahead of the fights to come.

She looked back at the skill fragments still tucked inside her storage pack. These mysterious little things have been there since the biodome takeover, constantly reminding her of the option to fuse skills whenever she laid eyes on them. But she always refrained for some good reasons.

She didn't know how to use them. She didn't know what to do with them. She needed to learn more about how skill fusion worked, and by that logic, learn more about the skills she needed to fuse into. There were plenty of things she needed to learn.

And what better way to learn than to go into a library? By that, she meant going into a magical library where you can actually buy Acquired Skills.

That would be none other than the Skill Repository.

She heard about the building from the Tempest Winds, and how you can actually purchase Acquired Skills there. Before she could make a solid plan, her feet led her towards the repository.

The one thing she knew about the power structure between countries is how well-connected they are to getting rare materials–which is to say are either attribute fruits or skill books. Each one can definitely boost someone's standing, especially when reaching Journeymen and above as you need powerful skills that work with you to get some levels under your belt.

That means the Skill Repository isn't just some casual library where you can purchase books like a store. It's completely safeguarded in the middle of the entire capital near the noble section. Worse yet, you can't enter unless you have specific invitation from some high-end people to even come in to check things out.

However, things are different if you're a Journeyman. Of course, even as she approached the large building that was easily more fortified than even Cronus' estate, she wasn't going to come in so easily.

Right at the start, Mikella was met with some extremely plated knights surrounding the place 24/7. After that, she was very rudely told to get the fuck away or else they would put the hand of justice on her.

So Mikella had to pull out this little move called 'Calling Allisa', and all of a sudden the knights treated her as though she was a princess that have been away on important business. Just to be extra petty, she flicked her long hair aside as she passed the knights, a clear bitch-smirk on her lips.

Though that was a bit exaggerated on her part, that was generally how it went. Hell, she even understood why they were on guard, hence why she didn't mind having an extra person on her while she explored the repository.

"Huh… so this is the repository."

She muttered aloud after entering the building, baffled at the absurd height that housed perhaps hundreds of thousands of extremely orderly and well-decorated shelves containing not actual books, but small steel slates that when you pull it out, revealed the information via a shimmering light hologram. Contrary to how it look when she spotted someone using those slates, apparently it is seen as though you were reading a notification from the system.

"Is this the first time you've been in any repository, ma'am?"

Stolen story; please report.

"Yep, first time. That's why I didn't mind having you around. Though I'm just glad that they put me up with a woman instead."

She said to the agent walking along with her, a sort of deterrent in case Mikella tries anything. She appeared to be a young woman with vibrant blond hair styled in a ponytail, though at her Journeyman stage, she could easily be much older than Mikella by decades.

Though Mikella can somewhat tell that this female agent is around the same age as Val, proven by her stance and the way her eyes shown in the lighting. It was just a guess, but Mikella had good instincts in this case.

"I'm glad that you're alright with this. I hoped we didn't mean to offend you when I came to guide you. We just take security measures very seriously around here. Also, it was just obvious that having a man around would only make things more tense… if that makes sense."

"I get it, don't worry. I'm not upset," Mikella shook her head. She can tell that she didn't want to get roped into this mess, showing sympathy like how a retail worker is forced to keep a lookout for any potential trouble despite not being part of her duties. "So do you know anything about skill fusions, by any chance?"

"Skill fusion…" The young woman, named Yola, frowned in thought. "We do offer chambers and services for such tasks, but… From what I can see, you are at a low level. Are you sure you want to fuse your skills so early in your stage?"

"Oh, I don't plan on fusing skills right now. Actually, that's another question I wanna ask–is there a difference between being low-level or high-level in your class for fusing skills?"

"Oh, not necessarily. That is just generally the range of when Journeymen and above usually have high skill levels to fuse. Preferably it would be better to wait until you reached maxed level in your Uncommon Rarity skills, or have at least Rare Rarity skills on hand."

"But don't Journeymen have to have Rare skills to advance?" Mikella raised her brow.

"Yes, but normally those skills are the main focus of your build. To fuse them with each other might prove to be dangerous or could leave lasting damage when it comes to synergy. Though I have no clue what skills you have, at your level, I suspect your best skills are still low and fresh after reaching Rare rarity, yes?"

"Umm…" Mikella frowned. "That's…"

While Mikella had no intention of showing all of her cards to some stranger, considering the personal circumstances of her build, she felt that this was proper in order to gain an advantage in battle.

So she showed the kind agent her skill list. Needless to say, she was gaping at the end.

Mikella had the joy to find out from Yola that she was the craziest Journeyman to have already filled out her General Skill list and attain Rare rarity on almost all of them (damn that Meditation). But what she was most shocked about was the fact that Mikella was at a tender age of 21, just a few years after system initialization for normal folks.

How that information got out was a bit out of control, but Mikella noticed that Yola apparently thought that she was older than she looked. When she corrected that, apparently it got even worse.

Though thanks to that, Mikella had a good grasp on Yola's personality, and she was actually pretty chill for a security agent in the Skill Repository. It was also thanks to the fact that she was one of the rare female security guards that made it in through hard work ethic and, admittedly, some good connections.

Revealing that wasn't even something Yola was ashamed about. That was how most women had to do to get anywhere around in this sexist capital city. Because of that, Mikella knew that they would be great friends, and making friends in places like the Skill Repository was definitely a bonus.

"So if you want to fuse your skills, you should head to this chamber here."

Yola presented with a gesture at a room far away from the shelves containing knowledge of the skills. It was at the back of the shelves, with several security knights standing still with their weapons perfectly held in their respective hands and sheathes. They passed through the rigorous entrance after displaying their mana signatures, something akin to scanning their hands like in those sci-fi movies and letting Mikella inside.

The inside was small compared to the rest of the library-like hall, being closer in size to a large living room. There was a circular stage of sorts at the back, surrounded by strange steel pillars just riddled with runes and complex magic circles that made Mikella's head spin.

She was certain even Zeke couldn't comprehend, considering that Yola gave a short explanation that several Runists and Enchanters worked together to create this piece of magical wonder. The air was a lot cooler as well, which only made Mikella realize that this chamber is actually sucking up the mana to the point where it was leaving everything colder rather than having some air-conditioner installed. That's how much power these chambers were using, at least according to her Mana Manipulation skill.

"Wow… so this is where I can fuse my skills?"

"With your current skills, I believe it is appropriate for you to do so," Yola said, her tone sounding professional with a hint of excitement. "Normally this doesn't happen to just anyone, so these chambers don't get used often. Is there anything you need to know before you start?"

Mikella still wasn't sure whether she was truly ready to fuse her skills. However, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that she was denying more opportunities to learn new General Skills.

While there is a benefit to having loads of skills, she didn't feel right being constrained just to get those benefits.

"A few questions; Is there any way to improve my chance of fusing a really good skill? What happens if I don't like my fused skill? And finally–How expensive is the service?"

"All good questions," Yola responded with a warm smile. "First off, I suggest increasing your Meditation skill to Rare rarity. That would increase the chance of a good skill fusion as it requires you to have a good mental grasp on what kind of skill you want. The second question is added to the first–Having a high level Meditation skill will allow you to make precisely what fused skill you want, so the chance of having a fused skill you don't want is close to zero. Possible, but very unlikely."

"...Huh."

This was Mikella's response after realizing that the skill she had been ignoring all this time was actually important for her goals. Not even Val mentioned you needed a high Meditation skill for fusing.

Though, she did mention to slow down and relax, which might as well be constituted to try and raise her Meditation skill as a by-product. She also never said that she herself fused skills, so the chance of her knowing this information was pretty low. In other words–she was blindsided by her own lack of knowledge.

Well, that's why she was here in the first place–to learn about skill fusion, not to actually try it out.

Then Yola hit her with a reason why barely anyone fuse skills.

"As for the cost, depending on how powerful each skill component is, and how many you want to fuse, it would total up to several thousand gold, as the chamber requires an extraordinary amount of energy to process the skill fusion without direct harm to the one using it."

"...Can I come back here later, when I'm more prepared?"

"Certainly," Yola responded with a kinder smile this time, completely reading her mind as she bowed. "Please notify us in advance if you plan on visiting. I will be there to guide you should you prefer."

"I definitely will."

She was embarrassed at how obvious she was ill-prepared for skill fusion. She figured it was about time for her to get started on fusing skills and grow even stronger.

But there were several, several things she needed to get done first before even thinking about fusing her skills. The first obstacle was definitely her Meditation skill. The second was how to get that Skill Fusion Fragment into the equation.

And finally, just how exactly is she going to pay for that clearly criminal high cost?

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