Chapter 18: Skill Card

“What do you think? Is this what you wanted?” Xu Feng played with the poison sac as he asked.

The Wandering Merchant’s eyes lit up, but after a careful look, he shook his head and said, “Although this is also a Green Poison Insect’s poison sac, and its quality is very good—it seems the poison inside hasn’t been used at all—this isn’t the poison sac I need.”

“What I need is a One-Star Green Poison Insect’s poison sac. This one is just from a Green Poison Insect that hasn’t evolved yet. Its effect compared to a One-Star Green Poison Insect’s is like the difference between heaven and earth; they can’t be compared.” The Wandering Merchant shook his head and said, “However, if you want to sell it, I’m willing to buy this kind of poison sac for one Cosmic Gold Coin.”

Xu Feng thought for a moment, then nodded to Wang Ying. Wang Ying immediately took out the poison sac from the One-Star Green Poison Insect.

“Is this the one you meant?”

The Wandering Merchant examined it carefully and quickly said, “Yes, yes, this is exactly the kind of poison sac I need. Oh my, you actually killed a Green Poison Insect with One-Star Strength. That’s truly incredible.”

“Hehe, so does that mean we completed your quest?” Xu Feng asked.

The Wandering Merchant nodded repeatedly and said, “Completed, completed, of course it’s completed. Hehe, this is the long sword I promised you.”

The Wandering Merchant handed over the long sword that Xu Feng had looked at earlier.

Xu Feng threw the poison sac to the Wandering Merchant and took the long sword in return.

“Hey, you really get what you pay for. A Black Iron Grade weapon is absolutely incomparable to that Bone-Cleaver from before.” Xu Feng swung the “Sharp Warrior’s Sword” once, and a familiar feeling arose inside him.

In his previous life, because the talent Xu Feng obtained was only an R-grade Fighter’s Heart, he belonged to a close-combat profession. Among close-combat weapons, his favorite to use was the one-handed sword.

“Hehe, with this long sword, the second trait in my talent can take effect. Its power increases threefold—just thinking about it is scary. If I encountered that One-Star Green Poison Insect again, I could cut its head off with just one swing.” Xu Feng stroked the long sword, and joy showed on his face.

Although in his previous life, Xu Feng had even owned Dark Gold Equipment, this long sword was the first supernatural equipment he obtained since his rebirth, so it held special meaning.

“I’ll sell you the rest of these poison sacs. And let us see what good things you have here.” Xu Feng had Wang Ying take out all the poison sacs.

“Haha, there are so many! Although they’re only of ordinary quality, it’s not easy to get so many at once. Did you guys clear out a Green Poison Insect nest?” The Wandering Merchant was surprised and quickly handed over the gold coins.

“That’s a total of seventeen Cosmic Gold Coins. Plus the one I had earlier, that makes eighteen.” Xu Feng looked at the coins in his hand and asked, “Do you have any skills suitable for us? Preferably ones we can use right away.”

“Of course, I said I have everything here, and I can definitely meet your needs.” The Wandering Merchant’s face beamed with a bright smile.

Soon, the Wandering Merchant pulled out five cards from a bag behind him and displayed them. The five cards were: “Healing Touch,” “Cleave,” “Basic Swordplay,” “Basic Meditation,” and “Lesser Fireball Technique.”

These five cards represented five skills. Xu Feng examined them one by one.

Skill Name: Healing Touch.

Skill Attribute: Active Skill, Permanent Mastery.

Skill Category: Healing.

Skill Effect: Casts a heal on a target, restoring 30 Health Points, and then restores 5 Health Points per second for the next 5 seconds.

Skill Cost: 10 points of Energy Value.

Learning Condition: Healing-type talent.

When he saw this card, Xu Feng’s eyes lit up. He had a healer with him, but she didn’t have a healing skill, which was a total waste. He definitely had to get this skill. He checked the price—it required 8 Cosmic Gold Coins.

“Oof, that’s really expensive! It uses up half my savings right away.” Xu Feng felt a bit pained.

He continued looking.

Skill Name: Cleave.

Skill Attribute: Active Skill, disappears after three uses.

Skill Category: Combat.

Skill Effect: Deals one instance of physical damage to a target (25 + 80% of Strength Value), with a 10% chance to inflict a “Crippled” effect on the target.

Skill Cost: 15 points of Energy Value.

Learning Condition: Strength Attribute F-grade.

When Xu Feng saw the words “disappears after three uses” on this card, a strange look flashed in his eyes.

In his previous life, Xu Feng had seen the permanent mastery version of this skill, but that card cost 10 Cosmic Gold Coins. At that time, Xu Feng was so poor he could hardly afford food, so how could he have Cosmic Gold Coins to buy that skill?

This card’s skill could only be used three times; after three uses, it would be forgotten. However, Xu Feng wanted to try that method: use the skill once, then rely on the body’s own memory to repeatedly perform the skill. There was a high chance he could comprehend the skill and master it permanently.

If this method really worked, it would be a very cost-effective deal. After all, this skill card that could be used three times only cost 2 Cosmic Gold Coins.

There were three more skills.

Skill Name: Basic Swordplay (Beginner Level)

Skill Attribute: Passive Skill, Permanent Mastery.

Skill Category: Combat.

Skill Effect: When using sword-type weapons, damage dealt +5%.

Skill Cost: None.

Learning Condition: None.

Skill Name: Basic Meditation (Beginner Level)

Skill Attribute: Active Skill, Permanent Mastery.

Skill Category: Spell.

Skill Effect: When activated, slightly increases Energy Value recovery.

Skill Cost: None.

Learning Condition: Spirit Attribute F-grade.

Skill Name: Lesser Fireball Technique.

Skill Attribute: Active Skill, disappears after three uses.

Skill Category: Spell.

Skill Effect: Creates a burning fireball that explodes upon hitting a target, dealing (35 + 12% of Spirit Value) spell damage to the target, with a 15% chance to trigger an “Ignite” effect.

Skill Cost: 18 points of Energy Value.

Learning Condition: Spirit Attribute F-grade.

Basic Swordplay (Beginner Level) was a passive skill very suitable for someone who used swords. Moreover, Xu Feng knew that this kind of beginner skill had a certain chance to upgrade to intermediate level, or even advanced level. It was a very cost-effective basic skill, and the price wasn’t high either—only 5 gold coins.

Basic Meditation (Beginner Level) was similar to Basic Swordplay (Beginner Level); it was also a basic skill for recovering Energy Value, also requiring 5 gold coins.

As for Lesser Fireball Technique, like Cleave, it was also a limited-use skill card, costing only three gold coins.

Of these five skills, except for the first one, Healing Touch, which required a healing-type talent, theoretically Xu Feng could use the other four skills.

In his previous life, it often happened that a close-combat professional wielding a melee weapon would suddenly cast a magic spell during a fight, which was startling. In this post-apocalyptic world, anyone could learn any skill as long as they met the conditions.