A Divine Talent?
Kyle stared at the message that had suddenly appeared in front of him, and for once, there was a noticeable change in his usually calm expression.
Before his Class Awakening, he had spent a great deal of time going through the academy’s records on awakened professionals, so he naturally knew what a talent meant.
A class determined the general path an awakened professional would follow, while a talent was more like a special ability unique to the individual.
The problem was that not everyone had one.
Some awakened professionals could reach very high levels without ever awakening a talent of their own.
As for Divine Talents, Kyle had only come across a handful of references to them in the academy’s records.
He hadn’t expected to obtain one immediately after awakening his class.
Instead of leaving the formation right away, Kyle continued reading.
With a thought, the description of his new talent appeared.
[Divine Talent: Total Enhancement] [Effect: All class skill effects are enhanced tenfold.] Kyle paused.
Tenfold?
He read the description again to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood it.
It wasn’t a ten percent increase, nor was it simply double the original effect.
It was ten times the original effect.
His expression remained mostly unchanged, but internally, he was nowhere near as calm as he looked.
Skills were one of the most important parts of any awakened professional’s combat ability.
If every one of his class skills received a tenfold enhancement, then the advantage provided by this talent went far beyond a simple increase in numbers.
More importantly, he was only Level 1.
His skills would naturally become stronger as he leveled up.
If the effect of Total Enhancement continued to apply as they improved, the difference between his skills and those of an ordinary professional would only become more obvious over time.
Kyle didn’t remain in the formation any longer.
There were still plenty of students waiting for their awakenings, and this wasn’t the right place to study his new abilities in detail.
He closed the talent information and walked out.
As Kyle left the formation, the remaining traces of gray-black energy finally disappeared.
The clouds overhead gradually dispersed, allowing sunlight to fall across the training grounds once again, and the temperature slowly returned to normal.
After everything that had just happened, however, the way the other students looked at Kyle had changed.
“Necromancer…” “And it’s a Hidden Class.” “I’ve never heard of that class before.” “That awakening phenomenon was huge, but I wonder if the class is actually strong.” “A Hidden Class doesn’t automatically mean it’s powerful.
It depends on the skills, doesn’t it?” Conversations continued around him.
Some students were curious, others envious, and a few clearly weren’t convinced that his class was anything special.
Kyle ignored them.
There was little point in arguing over whether a class was strong or weak.
Once he started entering dungeons, the answer would become obvious.
He was about to return to his previous place when the professional overseeing the awakening ceremony called out to him.
“Kyle, wait a moment.” Kyle stopped and turned around.
“Sir?” The man glanced at the awakening formation, where a faint gray glow still lingered, before looking back at Kyle.
“Your class is extremely uncommon, and the academy doesn’t have a complete record of it.” He paused briefly before continuing.
“Would you mind showing us one of your class skills?
You only need to demonstrate it.
There’s no need to test its power.” Edmund walked over as well.
Kyle’s awakening phenomenon had been far too unusual to ignore, and the principal was clearly interested in learning more about this Hidden Class.
“If your skills aren’t suitable for use inside the academy, there’s no need to force it.” Kyle thought for a moment before nodding.
“That’s fine.” He hadn’t properly looked at the Necromancer’s abilities yet anyway.
Kyle stepped aside and focused on his status panel.
A translucent interface that only he could see appeared in front of him.
[Name: Kyle Gray] [Class: Necromancer (Hidden Class)] [Level: 1 (0.00%)] [Strength: 10] [Agility: 10] [Spirit: 20] [Vitality: 10] [Equipment: None] [Summoning Space: 0/10] [Skills: Soul Flame (Level 1), Summon Skeleton Warrior (Level 1)] Kyle went through the information from top to bottom.
His Strength, Agility, and Vitality were all at ten points, while his Spirit was twenty.
Judging from his base attributes alone, Necromancer was clearly a Spirit-based class, which made it somewhat similar to a conventional mage.
He continued down to his two class skills.
[Soul Flame (Level 1): Condenses soul flame to attack a target, dealing continuous burning damage.
Power is affected by Spirit and skill level.] [Summon Skeleton Warrior (Level 1): Consumes Spirit to summon one Iron-rank Skeleton Warrior to assist in battle.] Two skills.
One was a direct attack, while the other was a summoning skill.
That gave Kyle a basic idea of how his new class worked.
Although the Necromancer’s base attributes were closer to those of a mage, its fighting style was clearly different.
The Skeleton Warrior in particular caught his attention.
Kyle glanced at his Summoning Space.
[0/10] At his current level, that meant he could have up to ten summoned creatures at once.
If each Skeleton Warrior had reasonable combat ability, the skill would already be useful even at Level 1.
And that was before taking his newly awakened Divine Talent into account.
Kyle considered the possibilities.
How exactly would a tenfold enhancement affect a summoning skill?
Would it increase the number of creatures he could summon?
Would it strengthen the summons themselves?
Or would it work in some other way?
He couldn’t tell yet.
This wasn’t the place to spend too much time figuring it out, so Kyle returned his attention to the two skills.
Soul Flame was a direct offensive skill.
Testing it properly would require a target, which made it unsuitable for a training ground filled with students.
Summon Skeleton Warrior was much easier to demonstrate.
“I can summon a Skeleton Warrior,” Kyle said.
The students who had been talking among themselves immediately became interested.
Even Erin moved a little closer.
The gray-black energy that had appeared during Kyle’s awakening had already been unusual enough.
Now that they knew his class could actually summon the undead, many of them wanted to see what it looked like for themselves.
Edmund nodded.
“Go ahead.” Kyle followed the method of using the skill that had naturally appeared in his mind after awakening.
[Summon Skeleton Warrior.] His Spirit began to drain.
A circle of gray-black light appeared on the ground in front of him and slowly rotated, forming a small dark vortex.
A gray-white skeletal hand emerged first.
Then came an arm, a shoulder, and finally a skull.
With the dry sound of bones scraping together, a complete Skeleton Warrior stepped out of the vortex.
The students who had been waiting eagerly fell quiet.
Kyle himself stared at it for a couple of seconds.
This…
This was his Skeleton Warrior?
It stood about as tall as an average adult, with two blue soul flames burning inside its empty eye sockets.
In that sense, at least, it looked exactly like something that deserved to be called a Skeleton Warrior.
The problem was that it looked like it was falling apart.
Its entire skeleton was a dull gray-white.
There was a visible crack running across one shoulder bone, several ribs were chipped, and even its leg bones were covered in tiny fractures.
Its weapon somehow looked even worse.
The Skeleton Warrior held an old longsword that looked as though it had been used for decades.
Rust covered most of the blade, several chunks were missing from its edge, and one section had been damaged so badly that Kyle wondered whether the weapon would simply snap after a few more swings.
Gavin stared at the Skeleton Warrior for a while before finally speaking.
“That’s really a warrior?” Someone beside him had an equally strange expression.
“I think…
so?” “Did it pick that sword up from a junkyard?” “Forget the sword.
I feel like the skeleton itself might fall apart if it walks too fast.” Several students tried to hold back their laughter.
Kyle’s awakening had caused such a large phenomenon that everyone had naturally expected his first summon to be equally impressive.
Instead, after all that anticipation, he had produced a battered skeleton carrying a rusty sword.
The contrast was difficult to ignore.
Erin stood nearby and studied the Skeleton Warrior for a while.
For some reason, the pressure she had felt after Kyle awakened a Hidden Class eased slightly.
At least from its appearance, the thing didn’t look particularly dangerous.
Kyle wasn’t bothered by the comments around him.
Looking weak and actually being weak were two different things.
What mattered to him was the summon’s actual attributes.
With a thought, the Skeleton Warrior’s information appeared before him.
[Iron-rank Skeleton Warrior] [Level: 1] [Strength: 15] [Agility: 10] [Vitality: 20] [Spirit: 5] Kyle frowned slightly as he looked over the numbers.
They weren’t particularly impressive.
If these were the normal attributes of a Level 1 Skeleton Warrior, then judging by the numbers alone, it really wasn’t very strong.
A second later, however, the information on the panel flickered.
At the same time, the Divine Talent Kyle had just awakened took effect.
[Divine Talent — Total Enhancement activated.] [Summon enhancement effect increased tenfold.] The attributes displayed on the panel began to change.
Kyle’s attention immediately returned to the numbers.
In front of him, the Skeleton Warrior still stood quietly with its battered sword in hand.
From the outside, it still looked as though it had just crawled out of a pile of scrap.
But Kyle now knew one thing for certain.
This thing probably wasn’t nearly as useless as it looked.