Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

The King gazed down at his subjects with mild concern. They seemed to be anxious, but he didn't understand why. He had defeated that pesky being who had dared to interrupt their kingdom. Now they could get on with adulating him and obeying his orders. Why were they staring at him with such lost gazes, when he could tell them exactly what he needed them to do?

No, no. He should be a good, virtuous leader. He turned a gentle smile their direction. "What troubles you, citizens?"

"Guys, he's fuckin' lost it," Wisp muttered.

The King frowned. Wisp? Why did he give that one a name? Why did he care? She was a subject! He should treat her the same as all his other subjects. Treating her specially was rude to all his other subjects.

One of the other females looked his way. "Ike, are you in there? Can you hear us?" Aside, she added, "I've heard legend of this happening with excessively powerful skills. The skills themselves come with their own mana, and that mana can overwrite the user's mana. Effectively, the skill takes over the person's body." Enjoy exclusive adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

"And then what happens?" Wisp asked.

She—no, Scar. It's Scar—grimaced. "They're overwhelmed by mana, and their body slowly falls apart. It's the same as any mana poisoning, but unlike most mana poisoning, where a mortal falls into deep mana and can be removed from it, the problem is that the mana is coursing through the mage constantly, at a rate higher than their body can handle it. It's a slow, painful death. The skill-possessed mage won't feel the damage the skill incurs to their body as they continuously push themselves past their limits without even realizing it. And then… well, they die."

The King scoffed. What a ridiculous notion. He felt fine. Past his limits? She hadn't even seen what his limits looked like. What a foolish, yet somehow adorable, subject. Thinking he would harm himself at this low level of power.

Blood dripped on his hand. He frowned, then lifted a hand to his nose. How unfortunate. Had that charcoal figure nicked him?

"It's already begun," Scar murmured, sorrow in her eyes.

"How can we stop it?" Wisp asked, her voice full of determination. There wasn't an ounce of doubt in her voice. She fully intended to stop whatever it was, and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

A strange emotion welled up in his heart. Something that wasn't very kingly. It screamed out, fighting against him. The King frowned and pushed it back down. He didn't need that. He didn't need anything anymore.

"We can't. The only way is to somehow completely cut him off from mana, and…" Scar looked at his scepter, with endless mana still pouring in, and grimaced deeper. "I don't think we're doing that. Since we can't isolate him, he's the only one who can deactivate his skill. We just have to have faith in him."

"That's bullshit. What if we knock him out?" Wisp asked.

"Good luck," Rufus muttered.

"You saw what he did to that charcoal thing. We couldn't hurt that monster, couldn't even scratch its skin, but he wiped it out with a wave of that staff thingy. What are we going to do to knock him out?"

"Venom," Wisp said.

"I have poisons," Vi added.

Scar gave them an exasperated look. "And you think that's going to work? You think you'll be able to land a hit on him?"

"I think we won't succeed if we don't try," Wisp replied, her voice short and sharp.

The King arced a brow. A rebellion? In broad daylight? The blades appeared before him again. They targeted the four people before him. If they were going to rebel, then it was his job, as king, to put an end to their wrong-headed rebellion. Still, he should give them one last chance to survive. He was a gracious king, after all. "Submit to my rule, and I might yet spare you."

"Submit? You're talking to the wrong crowd, idiot," Wisp snapped. She darted at him.

The King spread his hand. The blades leaped forth.

And then they halted. Frozen in midair, unwilling to follow his orders. His hand closed, clenching into a fist against his will. "Now!" his voice shouted, but it wasn't him. It wasn't The King. It was someone else. Some pitiable, tiny ant within him—

No. It's me. Ike. The fucking mage who's gonna sock your lights out! Get the fuck out of my head!

The King's clenched hand leaped toward his temple. He exerted his will, but the hand wouldn't stop.

Neither did his subject. His own hand and the woman's hand impacted his head at the same time. His eyes rolled back, and he dropped toward the ground. The gold light flickered out from around him, fading away into nothing.

Wisp caught him. "Ike! Hey!"

He fell limply into her hands. As he dropped, a small, perfectly clear orb fell out of his mouth.

Wisp's eyes widened. Before anyone else could see it, she snatched the orb and secreted it on her body. She glanced left and right, but no one else reacted to it.

"They weren't kidding about that skill," Scar muttered, looking at Ike. She turned to Wisp. "The second he wakes up, that skill might activate again. It's strong enough it might be able to draw on Ike's mana and activate on its own, without his will. Skills that strong are… not conscious, but they can be something like sentient. Self-aware. It's said the most powerful of them are just as real as people, even indistinguishable from mages and beasts… but those are only fairy tales. Even a skill powerful enough to possess a mage is basically in the realm of legend. I've heard tale of it, but I never saw it personally. Nor expected to see it."

"No?" Wisp asked.

Scar shook her head. "No. Most skills that powerful were lost millennia ago. It was hypothesized the skill in this trial might be that powerful, but if it was—and it is—then this trial is older than we thought. Not centuries old, but thousands of years old. Maybe even tens of thousands of years old."

"Damn. No kidding," Wisp muttered to herself. She plucked Shawn off Ike's shoulder and tossed Ike himself over her other shoulder.

All around them, the earth shook. The final castle standing crumbled. Relin and the Old Guard appeared before them, not in physical bodies, but floating on the air and transparent like ghosts.

Ike's eyes flickered open. Scar reached for her weapon, instantly on guard, but Wisp just glanced at him and set him down. "You okay?"

"Better," Ike grunted. He had the headache of a century and his vision flickered, with little spots darting at the corners of his eyes, but he was in control. He wasn't a king or The King or anything like that. He was just Ike.

"You Ike, and all?" Wisp added, a little belatedly.

"Yeah, and all. The hell does 'and all' mean, anyways?" Ike looked at her. He frowned, slightly, then squinted at her.

Wisp wiped her brow. "Whew. We're safe, guys. It's Ike, for sure." She met his eyes and nodded just a little bit.

Ike nodded as well, understanding. A tiny bit of tension left his body.

Scar lowered her hand, but she gazed at Ike warily, ready to attack at a hair trigger.

Ike looked up at the shades. He nodded. "You guys free now?"

Relin nodded. "Our work is done. Thank you for finally passing this trial and slaying that monster. Now, our king's regrets are no more."

All present nodded. In the background, something cracked.

Ike turned. Mag dug at the charcoal figure's cooling body. He hopped back, holding one claw high and hissing through his beak.

Ah. Looking for skills. I'll leave him to it. He could ask Mag what he found later. He turned back to Relin and nodded. "Good luck with whatever comes next."

She smiled. Turning his head upward, she started to rise, then vanished in a flash of bright light. The rest of her men waved as they vanished as well.

All around them, the realm crumbled. The earth broke apart. The sky tore. The entire realm split open. The world outside appeared, as dawn broke over the edge of the world.

They all turned toward the gap. The sunlight poured in, and they stepped back into the world.