Liu Shu was having a bit of a conflicting moment. The reason? The Skill Merchants she has waited for so much for used skills as currency! That didn't mean copying, but extracting part of their essence, or the skill entirely, to gain currency.
Liu Shu looked at the list of her skills.
***
TALENTS
PASSIVE SKILLS
***
This array of skills was, to put it mildly, luxurious. From the prices of skills she had seen, Liu Shu could tell with quite a bit of confidence that no one possessed better-tiered skills than her other than her Dungeon Bosses. Of course, she didn't take into account the Skill Merchants, who, most likely, just by being part of the group, had learned quite a few fierce skills.
So, taking everything into account, Liu Shu was conflicted on how she should act. "If I were to sacrifice any of my skills, which one would it be?"
Her gaze drifted to
After all, while Liu Shu had "dimensionalized" herself not to shatter Ceperet's surface with her growth, many of her roots still extended physically below the surface, connecting all Life Trees, World Trees, and also nurturing all flora in all the worlds.
She was, in a way, the most foundational source of essence for all plant creatures. If she suddenly stripped herself of
Therefore, Liu Shu found herself stumped. 'I am dirt poor. I don't have any useless skills!''
She could, of course, learn some C or D rank skills without much effort by herself. Then, she could let these Skill Merchants extract them. But this would only give her some C and D Tier shards. Buying anything useful with these was asking for a miracle.
So, with a very aggravated tone, Liu Shu looked at Leafara, who had at some point stationed herself in Liu Shu's house, and complained. "I don't have any skills to sell. I am poor and can't buy anything!"
Leafara's heart ached, hugging the little Avatar and patting her head. "Sigh, I sadly can't intervene, Little Darling. Otherwise, I would've sneaked out one or two A Rank skills for you."
Standing across them, the four Sylvan lovers looked at this plant woman with a confused expression. 'Hm… strange, why am I not feeling jealousy?'
The four of them sipped their tea as they watched their precious darling being hugged by another woman. Yet, their emotions remained calm and collected. This intrigued them; after all, they could easily sense that this woman was not like themselves.
After all, the "life" section of the Petal Door was already owned by Verdantia.
Verdantia asked, curious. "Can skill shards be shared?"
Leafara shook her head. "They are not normal currency. After all, buying and selling skills has incredibly powerful restrictions set by the system. Otherwise, abusing it would be easy."
She commented. "Actually, the shard prices are not set by anyone in particular. They are a currency we created after a few thousand years to categorize the essence needed to do the rituals. It's basically a standardized unit we use to count the residual skill essence the ritual leaves in the body."
Tempestria listened, intrigued. "I see. So, the reason you need people to sell their skills is not so much because of greed, but because you need the person to have donated a skill beforehand, so that they have sufficient energy to have a skill forcefully transplanted. Am I right?"
Leafara nodded with a smile, her hand caressing the pouty Liu Shu's head. "While we collect a bit more to have some extra of that unique skill shard energy stored for our own use, we don't gain much from each transaction."
Harmonixia asked with some doubt. "Why not crank up the prices?"
Leafara smiled wryly. "While we are a unique power, we dare not scam the top powerhouses. In the past, our ancestors tried to do something similar to what you said, but greed caught up to them. Eventually, a person who was almost crippled by the unfair transaction grew, fueled by revenge, into a top powerhouse, then swept through our entire power, almost annihilating our practice. From the records, we took around 14,000 years to recover, and we have yet to reach our past heights."
The four Sylvans realized. Cinderielle commented. "When you are selling something as tempting as
Leafara smiled. "Exactly. We are indeed powerful, but history has taught us a very important lesson, and we don't intend to forget it."
Liu Shu sighed and commented. "I guess I can only search through the low-level skills, and then slowly practice them to A or S Rank."
Leafara's lips twitched as laughter brewed in her eyes. "You little darling~. Always saying such abnormal things as if they are normal."
Liu Shu blinked. "But my current A+ Rank attack skill comes from an F- Rank skill. So, I feel confident."
Leafara burst into laughter. "You are truly absurd, aren't you? Upgrading a pitiful F- Rank skill to an A+ Rank in the span of 100 years? Unheard of doesn't make it justice. Even if you add a zero, I don't think I've heard anything of the sorts."
Liu Shu, having her cheeks squeezed by Leafara, could only pout. "Anyway! Show me the catalog of C Rank skills. I want to learn one offensive and one defensive Talent and Passive Skill."
"Got it, got it. Let me see."
Leafara placated the pouty World Tree and then opened her personalized catalog. She smiled at the four Sylvans as well. "If you four want to buy anything, tell me. I told Flamar that I would become Liu Shu's personal assistant in this stop, so whether it is you, your children, or someone close, you can use my services for free~."
Tempestria leaned back, swirling the tea with a wooden spoon, and asked. "Why are you so fond of Liu Shu, Lady Leafara? Don't get me wrong, we are delighted you like our Liu Shu. However, it is somewhat puzzling how close you've become in just a little over a month's time."
Leafara's eyes softened, gaining a touch of melancholy. "Actually, my mother was a World Tree. A True World Tree. Sadly, her luck was not too good. She provoked someone she couldn't afford to and was eventually uprooted. I am one of the few survivors of that civilization."
Looking down at Liu Shu, her eyes softened. "My mother was very similar to Liu Shu in many regards, especially appearance. She had long, white hair and beautiful amethyst-colored eyes. Her Avatar was also petite and full like Liu Shu. So, it is a bit of nostalgia. Nothing else."
Liu Shu blinked and patted Leafara's head, her face gaining a comforting smile. "I am sure your mother would be proud of how strong you've become."
Leafara laughed lightly. "Don't worry. I've long come to terms with it. Still, what I said stands. If you or your family needs our services, I will be the one personally serving you."
Then, she tapped Liu Shu's forehead and spoke softly. "Here, the four skills I've found the most suitable. See if you like them."
[You are being shown two
"Yes."
***
Talent:
Talent:
Passive Skill:
Passive Skill:
***
Liu Shu read through them, and her eyes lit up with interest. Among them, the one that caught her eye the most was
Yet, even with this massive difference, soul attacks would have made it impossible to inflict damage on her. After all, for a soul attack to do damage, they need to pierce through both Anima and Willpower defenses.
So, this 2%, if later boosted by skill evolution, would make her impervious to mental damage.
The others didn't need much presentation. Liu Shu lacked direct attack methods, healing skills, and something to boost her "raw" damage. So, they all fell into the useful category.
"I really like them!" Liu Shu smiled, quite happy about it. "What are their prices?"
Leafara smirked. "You remember the prices, right? There are C Rank shards, and common skills sell for 10, 50, or 500, depending on the rank. Then, the conversion between ranks is 1000 to 1."
Liu Shu nodded, and Leafara chuckled. "Well, the prices for these skills are from top to bottom. 3,500 C Rank Shards. 2,500 C Rank Shards. 5,000 C Rank Shards. 5,000 C Rank Shards.
"..." Liu Shu looked at Leafara with a stunned expression. "You… These prices are egregious! In total, it is… 16,000 C Rank shards, or 16 B Rank shards. That means I would need to sell two B- Rank skills to exchange them for four C Rank skills!"
Leafara shrugged. "They are that valuable. Don't look at their current rank, darling. Each of them has incredibly good potential. For the
Liu Shu's head ached for a moment. "So… I need to learn either 32 C+ Rank skills, 320 C Rank skills, or 1,600 C- Rank skills."
Leafara laughed. "How about learning a B Rank skill? It shouldn't take you that long, right?"
"That's… for the best." Liu Shu pondered and sighed. "Otherwise, I might not get done before the 20-year stay passes… I can even have some leftovers to buy something else."