Chapter 21：Riding and Skill Points

Icarus heaved a sigh as the wind rushed past his ears. After much effort, he had finally been able to ditch uncle Caylus. The horse wasn't scary to him. It didn't panic and run off accidentally either. In fact, he set it off on purpose. Staring down at the new "Riding(Initiated)" skill that he had received from the system, an idea began slowly forming. It had been three years and yet his sense skill had still remained the same. Continuously failing, frustration had began to fill him. Icarus wasn't a very patient person to begin with and reaching dead ends every time had driven him nearly insane. That was when his gaze had fallen on the "skill points". Even though almost every kind of mission rewarded skill points, he didn't exactly know how to use them or how they functioned. Using it on Sense or Enhancement was too risky. His father checked their progress everyday and if the skill points did their job then coming up with a reasonable excuse on the spot would be too hard. He needed another skill and Riding was the perfect guinea pig. There was an excuse already prepared as his acting skills made sure that it was clear he was panicking. Increasing skill level under fear was logical and Icarus was almost certain that it happened in this world as well.

'Okay Icarus, stop being a pussy. Just do it.' Taking a deep breath, he invested a single skill point into riding.

It was as if he had known it for a long time but had just forgotten about the skill. He grabbed the rein and tugged lightly as if he was an out of practice veteran. The horse slowed down to a trot, then to a prance. Slowly turning the horse, after adjusting the direction in a particular direction before it making it break into a canter.

'Interesting.' He smirked as the wind rushed through his hair. 'I didn't expect it to be this good.' He stared at the skill which had become "Riding(Beginner)". Icarus thought that perhaps the difference between initiated skill level and beginner skill level was small but he had grossly underestimated the level of skills and the amount of training needed to increase them; even by a small amount.

Breathing out a long drawn out breath, he tried to calm down the giddiness bubbling up from within him. This system was truly broken. Usually it would have taken him anywhere from three to four months to learn even the basics of horse riding. This was with the aid of an expert. That would have been a prodigious performance. He had broken common sense instead. His level of expertise had practically shot up through the roof; without putting in any hard work at all. In his ecstasy, another point was invested into the Riding skill.

A tingling shock ran up his spine this time. His mind cleared from it and he could the mare's muscles moving. He felt in tune with its breathing. The mare felt like it was infinitely close to him. It felt like another part of his body.

The strange sensation caused him to want to become more skilled. He could feel that there were more levels of expertise. It made him feel impatient. 'Screw it!' Unable to bear the irksome feeling, he invested 10 skill points all the same time.

Icarus felt as if his soul had been knocked out of his body. It wasn't painful, just startling. Then it was knocked back. His view changed and he felt the wind rushing through his body. He could see the tress and was weaving in between them. At the same time, the urge to run even faster burst out from inside him. The feel to simply break free urged him to go faster. Faster! It screamed, causing the thought to overtake all his other thoughts. In his adrenaline filled rush, he failed to notice that his view was first person.

The path before his eyes became extremely clear between the trees. He weaved through them like a bolt of lightning, causing his heart to pound like a war drum. Eventually the trees started to thin out before finally breaking open. A wide field revealed itself beyond a cliff. Pumping his legs, he skidded across the floor before stopping right at the edge of the cliff.

Ding!

He opened his eyes and rubbed the mare's dark black mane gently. It neighed gently before sitting down. He felt it; his view, it had changed. Opening his stat screen, there was a new skill there. Icarus' eyebrows twisted themselves into knots as he saw its name. 'To be able to share the feelings and world views of creatures around you. Its fair to call it "Synchronise" but whats with this bloodline talent? Why does it say one?' The screen in front of him had text that he had never seen before;

Abilities:

Channel the feelings, views and the power of the those around you. Able to Synchronise with one object (living or non-living) and add their stats to your own.

It was an new ability but he didn't understand the "Bloodline Ability" tag after that. Deciding not to think too much about it, he instead focused on his skill mastery level. 'Huh. I guess Riding can't go beyond Grandmaster level?' He invested 10 points into the skill but only 4 of the 10 were used up which meant that there were 4 levels between Grandmaster and Novice. He decided to put that to the back of his mind as well, before gently patting the horse. It stood back up and before turning around and rushing off into the forest.

'Damn.' Caylus cursed as he ran through the forest. Daedalus had banned them from using their real abilities in order to not scare the children but at that level he couldn't even chase down an adolescent mare. The mare had run off into the forest and following it's tracks, he could tell that it was headed straight for a cliff. 'Daedalus wouldn't send his son off to his death.' His heart was pounding furiously in his chest as he weaved through the trees. He knew the kind of man Daedalus was and the kind of treatment he was put through as a child. He knew that Daedalus would never hurt Icarus too badly. He also knew though that Daedalus would push his son to a certain limit in order to make sure that his potential is revealed. 'God damn Daedalus, I am trying my best here!' Curses were flying under his breath when a neighing sounded out in the forest.