A Sinner’s Chance

Before leaving for the Skill Shop I made sure that Arya was awake and fed and told her that I would hopefully be back around noon so that we could practice the Yin-Yang Scripture. It didn't take that long to reach since the labyrinth district was next to the school district and I was thankfully not accosted by fellow students as I left the school grounds. The reason I was doing this first thing in the morning was to avoid all the challenges that I knew were going to be coming en masse soon.

Of the maybe twelve-hundred students that were at the academy, my previous combat rank was around four-hundred or so. Despite the display yesterday there were bound to be people who thought that I had cheated or used some dirty trick to win, and in order to combat rumors the school had made a rule that if you jumped over a hundred ranks, you couldn't refuse a challenge from those that were previously ranked above you. For someone like me that meant I had to deal with potentially four hundred challengers, though I knew the actual number would be lower than that. I didn't mind as I planned to use the chance to acclimatize to not having Pain Nullification, testing new inventions as well any new Skills, should I decide to buy one.

Of course this rule didn't apply solely to the combat rankings, but rather any ranking list in the academy, including the overall merits ranking, thankfully though, my merit rank had only increased by around fifty, which was impressive enough considering just how difficult it was to raise one's merit rank.

The Skill Shop itself was actually located in the Guild headquarters and it actually took nearly a half-hour to verify everything before I was even allowed in. I wasn't sure what to expect but even then the actual Skill Shop was nothing like I thought it would be. I thought perhaps a library or something similar, yet the small room was more like a massage or acupuncture room one found in a spa, with the exception of the shelving that housed vials of a dark ink-like substance. Each one had a label that corresponded to the name of a Skill, some of them were mundane, like Cooking or Sewing, but there were plenty that sounded impressive, like Reversal or Gambit's Luck, though I had no clue what the uses of such Skills could be.

As I was perusing the collection of Skills a voice suddenly called out to me. "Ah a first timer, are you buying or selling? Or perhaps you're just looking for now?" The voice came from a silver haired and dark-skinned female Elf who had just come into the room from the door.

I must have had a bewildered look on my face looking at her as she smiled while approaching. "First time seeing a Shadow Elf? We are quite rare and it isn't like you'd have a chance to see any among the youngsters."

Regaining my senses from her second line I smiled embarrassedly. "Yes my first time, both for Shadow Elves and this store. As for Skills, I'm selling."

The Shadow Elf woman looked me over a few times before nodding to herself in satisfaction. "And what would someone like you be selling?"

"Pain Nullification, Level 10."

The woman blinked and shook her head as if she couldn't believe what I'd just said. But before she could ask me if I was serious I simply pulled out my Status Plate and tossed it at her. She caught it, slightly startled before looking at the screen and shaking her head once more. She eyed me slightly closer as she passed my Status Plate back. "To think someone as young as you has a Level 10 pinnacle Skill, one of the harder ones to get too. It's nice to meet you Vellithra, you can call me Ellie."

I thanked her as I took my Status Plate back and told her to call me Vell while asking how this was all supposed to work. She explained that it was actually a technique passed down from before the Forsaken had turned on the other races, but for some unknown reason the only race that could actually apply it were Shadow Elves and a few shadow aligned Spiritas. Other races were simply unable to use or learn it and even if the Skill Transfer Skill itself were applied by a Shadow Elf, whatever race it was placed onto went insane, with several committing suicide.

However, so long as a compatible person performed the operation there were no issues and there had yet to ever be a case of side-effects. Though I was informed that while unlikely since I'd been approved by the Guild there was a chance that the operation itself could kill me. The Guild had found that it only happened on relatively weak subjects, Adventurers around B-rank had a 97% survival rate, while C-ranks had about a 40% survival rate. As the rank decreased so did the survival rate, and quite drastically as well, however the inverse also applied, and Adventurers of A-rank and above had never died to the operation, though the pool of subjects was of course much more limited.

The Academy had slightly different stats as those who participated were often much younger, but those who could make it to the top five of a ranking in their fourth year had about the same survival rate as B-rank Adventurers, which is why it was even allowed in the first place.

Supposedly the operation was something akin to acupuncture and was a long and extremely painful process. Strangely the pain itself wasn't affected by other Skills such as Pain Nullification which meant that no matter who you were, you needed to endure the pain to sell or buy a Skill.

It had been quite awhile since I'd felt pain of any kind so I was somewhat worried, but I really wanted to get rid of Pain Nullification so I had no choice other than to go through with it. When I told Ellie I was ready she closed and locked the door before having me strip naked and lay face down on the table that was in the center of the small room.

Author's Note: For undisclosed reasons the planned Canine has become a Feline.¹You can blame Rookie_Slime for change. Hedonism and Cats he said.