Becoming the Dark Lord

Luke tapped the notification for his new level eighty-five Witch skill. Five options appeared.

[Black Gleam (Uncommon)]: [Shadow Ball] gains the additional effect of Gleam. At the moment of detonation, the sphere of shadow releases a sudden flash that dazzles and temporarily disrupts the vision of nearby targets. In addition, the fire of Shadow Ball gains a small damage bonus against undead.

[Basic Appearance Shift (Ultra-Rare)]: A Witch is not always satisfied with her own appearance, whether out of lust or the need for disguise. Through deep mastery of mana, she learns to alter aspects of her form. A Witch may change the color of her hair with a simple touch, taking on any shade she desires. Her eyes may also change color, and even her voice can be altered to mimic one she has already heard. The transformation is illusion-based and not permanent. To maintain the effect, the spell consumes a small amount of mana. An ideal skill for disguise and infiltration.

[Beldam (Ancient)]: A power meant for Witches who understand the value of appearance. Whether she is an old crone in the woods who devours children or a manipulator seeking entry into courts and noble salons, beauty can be a powerful weapon. Upon acquiring this ability, the Witch’s skin becomes smooth and renewed, erasing scars and wrinkles and restoring youthful features. Natural signs of aging are reversed, transforming even an old witch into a young and alluring figure. But such power demands devotion: from time to time, sacrifices must be offered to the Demoness Beldam. Eternal beauty is always within reach... after all, you are already an assassin.

[Profession Collector (Ancient)]: A Witch is a devourer of knowledge. With this skill, she may learn the basic skill of a profession by stealing small fragments of knowledge from the chosen path. It is not the true profession, but useful fragments that now become fused into the Witch’s class path. For a greedy Witch hungry for power, even the professions of others become yet another resource to collect.

[Accumulated Curse (Rare)]: The power of [Curse] is strengthened. The damage it deals increases, and linked abilities such as [Cursed Object] and [Throw Cursed Object] receive an additional power bonus. In addition, victims affected by Curse remain under its effects longer than they normally would.

Once he finished reading, Luke went quiet again.

I can’t stall this any longer. I have to decide.

Since none of these would make an overwhelming difference in direct combat, he had allowed himself time to think it over. Right away, he ruled out [Accumulated Curse] and [Black Gleam]. They had their uses, sure, but compared to the others, there was a gap so wide they were easy to discard.

This Beldam skill is bizarre. The class treats me like a woman sometimes, but I’m assuming the effect would still work on me even though I’m male.

He had absolutely no concern for his looks, but the skill still left him with one question.

The system will let me live for centuries now. But what does that do to my appearance? Will I age the way I would across seventy years, only stretched over centuries? Or will I keep the way I look now until I’ve only got a few decades left, then suddenly age all at once?

It was the kind of curiosity he had developed during the time he spent with his family after training with Artemis. Not just for himself, but for the others too. Especially his family.

Charlie is a vampire. She probably won’t age at all. She’ll look twenty to twenty-five forever. But me...

He discarded the skill. Still, it was strange to know powers like that even existed.

Elizabeth Moon... what do you look like now?

Would she look like a woman in her forties, like Clara? Or young, like him?

He pushed the thought aside. That left only two real choices, and in the end, he made his decision.

[You acquired the Class Skill: Profession Collector]

Appearance Shift would’ve been useful. I could have changed one eye color and hidden the heterochromia. But this new skill... this one has real potential.

***

The ship was close to a Beacon. A group waited below in a raft beside it while Luke and the others fought off the Stalkers. The creatures kept climbing up the hull and leaping onto the deck, trying to grab someone or wreck the ship.

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Anne cut into them with her sword. Jack’s father stood nearby with a staff in hand, guarded by Jack, who had raised a [Healing Dome] just in case while firing Light Balls at the enemies through his wand.

“Are they really going to stare at that Beacon all day?” Evangeline snapped.

She drove her spear into the Stalkers. Luke ran forward and spun through them with his kukris, cutting them down as he moved. One kukri left his hand, struck a Stalker, then snapped back to him by magnetism and killed another on the return.

Charlie jumped off the ship. Her arm lit up, and she came crashing down into a cluster of them with a devastating [Arcane Power Punch]. The group at the Beacon vanished. The Stalkers fell back, retreating into the depths. The Beacon went dark. When it was over, Charlie used [Fire Leap (Rare)] to return to the ship.

“Move. We don’t have all day,” Marten shouted to his men on the other ship, and they began lifting anchor.

“She’s incredible,” someone said.

“Lady Fists really does solve everything with her fists.”

“That nickname didn’t come out of nowhere,” another replied.

Charlie had definitely heard them with her enhanced hearing, but she ignored it. By then, both Triss’s and Marten’s crews had started looking at her with open admiration.

“Is your arm hurting?” Luke asked.

“No. I’m getting better at controlling it,” she said, proud of herself.

Charlie’s skill had physical limits. The more often she used it without rest, the more the impact tore through her arm and damaged it. The same went for the amount of mana she poured into the attack. A punch that was too powerful could destroy her arm outright. A normal person would have to use the skill with strict restraint. But Charlie’s limits were different. Her bones were made of iron. Which made the skill even more terrifying.

The ships continued on. This was the second Beacon they had approached. Twenty people from Marten’s ship had agreed to enter the Beacon dungeon as a group.

“So? What was the challenge in that Beacon like?” Luke called from the edge of his ship to Marten, who stood at the rail of his own.

“Same as the last one. A group of up to ten people,” Marten answered from across the water.

Most of those people were passengers he had ferried in, curious sightseers who only wanted a glimpse of the Cursed City.

“What do you think the odds are that Marten actually comes back here and picks those people up later?” Evangeline asked.

“No idea. But they agreed to it. At least they had rafts,” Luke said.

The rest chose to remain on the ship beside the Beacon Marten’s group was attempting. They would wait there until their captain cleared the Beacon and came back for them. After another hour, they had gathered a few more artifacts and continued toward the next Beacon. Once he stepped into his cabin, Luke went right back to messing with potions.

“Time to test these deeply unsafe liquids, Layla,” he said.

“Why did you have to phrase it like that?”

“And how else would I phrase it?”

“I-if something goes wrong, you’ll heal me, right?”

“No,” he said.

“What?!”

“Relax. There are two healers on this ship. They’ll be the ones healing you. That’s what I meant.”

She seemed to relax a little.

“T-this one doesn’t mess with libido or anything, right?”

“You want one that messes with your libido?”

“No. I absolutely do not.”

“They’re simple potions, Layla. Algae-based. Just drink a few, then stick your head in that bucket of water.”

“O-okay. I’ll trust you,” she said.

While Layla tested the potions, Luke tried to work out how to use his new Witch skill.

It can’t be unlimited. No way it just lets me learn every profession in existence. I’m guessing there’s some cap. Now I just need to figure out how I actually learn them.

His hand lit up in a deep violet glow.

This skill doesn’t give me full operational knowledge. All I know is that to activate it, I need to do this.

Luke raised his glowing hand toward Layla.

“What are you doing? Your hand is glowing.”

He stepped closer.

“Hey...”

[Do you wish to absorb the Armorer Profession Path?]

“It worked.”

“What worked?”

“Layla, you’re an armorer?”

He had never actually asked what her profession was before.

“Yeah, but I don’t really like it. I picked it in the tutorial because I had to. I needed arrows, and my magic quiver had been lost.”

Hmm.

“So your current profession is still just Armorer?”

She explained that at level fifty, it had evolved into Skilled Arrow Armorer.

So this skill only gives me the basic knowledge from the initial profession. Which makes sense. That is the most basic layer.

He would need to run more tests.

Now I get why this skill doesn’t dump a huge amount of knowledge into me. It grafts a branch of professional power into my Witch class. That kind of thing would mess with the system too much otherwise.