"Now, for your other question, Achilles has barriers that can interact with those who are spirits or have intangible forms, but he is completely unaware of this, as far as I've observed. So he can quite literally destroy that worm of yours if he wants to. Not that it would kill the thing. You just have to spend more to mend it and resummon the Worm of Doubt is all." Lilith explained, earning a thankful sigh from Keido, who thought it might permanently be the end of his Worm if Achilles did crush it.
But Keido quickly focused on the other thing she had mentioned, and that was Achilles' barriers. Why would Achilles be given such an overpowered skill and be unaware of its own usage? Perhaps he'd figure it out later on, but such an additional part of his primary ability could very well be a second ability of its own.
Keido was finally starting to understand exactly why Z-ranked skills were the absolutes among skills, simply because they had too much to them to handle at first, and gave their users an extreme advantage over others, regardless of rank.
It felt a bit unfair, but then again, Keido and Heidi also had Z-ranked skills, so he couldn't be so rude to their own.
After about an hour, the group left their rest stop and went on to find the dungeon boss. Needless to say, it was a bit of a one-sided fight, but not for the reasons one would think. It was simply because Kimsung was a bit pent up, and he took that anger and anxiety out on the monster, butchering it within minutes.
[Congratulations, you're among the first to achieve F-rank! May your fight for survival continue!]
Kimsung sat down, catching his breath. The monster was simply a huge bear that had an enhanced durability, but Kimsung was well experienced in fighting monsters with high durability. After all, there had been methods specially made by others in his research on how to shape your mana to pierce a defensive-type monster's defenses.
You've unlocked a new Ability: 'History'!
Kimsung smiled a bit. He felt some measure of happiness from regaining a skill that once helped him solve an assasination on one of his friends, and Kimsung treasured this ability a lot.
You've unlocked a new Ability: 'Dove of Love'!
Keido's eyes widened. He had been thinking earlier about how to get Achilles to stay with them, and it turned out his next ability quite literally gave him a new ability just for that!
You've unlocked a new Ability: 'Breakdown'!
Heidi was also feeling happy, as the description told her she could break down recipes of different potions and their effects. Perhaps this ability would be much easier to raise its Tier, and its effects were straightforward enough for her.
You've unlocked a new Ability: 'Construct Scanning'!
Achilles quickly read the description of this new Ability and felt slight disappointment. It was exactly what he had been seeing recently, and he had expected something completely random. But to think he had been experiencing its effects before gaining the skill. He activated it once, and his brain was flooded with information as they reappeared in the building.
Blueprints, specific measurements, even exact details of the building they were in, were all absorbed into his mind. Achilles quickly turned it off, feeling a migraine coming on in his head almost immediately after. He closed his eyes, covering them like when he'd been staring at his phone for too long and was exposed to light other than his screen.
He summoned some sunglasses in his inventory and put them over his eyes, feeling less pain in his eyes. It reminded him of a certain white-haired, blue-eyed character from a manga with a shitty end he'd read some time ago.
"Heidi, I'mma need another one of those painkillers real quick. Like, now." Achilles requested, keeping his eyes closed still. She gave him one, and he immediately chugged it, ignoring the shitty taste. He felt like vomiting from it, but pushed down the urge.
The group took some time to see what their abilities could do, minus Achilles and Maria. After some time, Keido was sitting down with the Worm and his newly acquired Dove, both flying around him. Achilles also finally opened his eyes and decided to scan something small, like his phone.
It was actually quite painless, and now Achilles had a perfect blueprint of his phone in mind. He used his barriers to create one, and it felt almost natural, as if the struggle he once felt before wasn't there.
Next, he tested it on his arm, something he'd experimented with a while ago, and he was surprised again. After a moment of scanning, he recreated his entire arm from his fingers to his shoulder. This was also the first time Keido had seen the man's arm, even if it was a construct, and he didn't expect Achilles to be so… skinny. Keido had seen the man eating large amounts of food daily, so he attributed it to perhaps having a very fast metabolism. Maria, however, teased him for it.
"Damn, Nicholas, you've got a skinny ass arm, it looks like a stick bug!" She laughed a bit at him, and Achilles threw a nearby book her way, of course, not actually hitting her. The two had a back-and-forth for a while as Heidi experimented with her new powers, using them on a nearby lamp.
The lamp began to break down, forming various metals, plastics, and glasses, returning to what it was before being made into a lamp. She then tries 'Breakdown' on the glass window, watching as it reverts to a mix of greyish and white powder.
Kimsung tried out his abilities, a few of his memories returning to him from finally having it again. He touched a book that was on the floor, and saw the past of a man with a beard of black hair, fair skin, and a balding head as he was reading the book, only to be quickly killed by a monster.
Kimsung hadn't expected the past event he'd seen to be the man's death, but then again, he had found the book on a stain of dried blood.