A/N: HAPPY DECEMBER GUYS! We're now three months into the story and thank you to everyone who supported the story this far! Special thanks to the awesome folk who sent gifts, golden tickets, votes, comments, and reviews! \o/

Special mention of the Top Golden givers last November 2025 as well~! Thank you Live_love_Live, Patrick_Broughton, and Kurrzo~! \o/

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Eventually, the unli-bbq did have to end because each one of the sauces was, unfortunately, a finite resource.

They could still grill if they wanted, but how could they eat plain meat after that?

However, the adventurers continued with their hunt. Some headed out to lure more monsters, and some teams decided to fight outside. After all, if most of the members were toughened and above, there simply weren't enough monsters of that level in this area.

However, the difference was, they didn't have to be so fearful. After all, unlike before, they had a place to run back to rest in!

…

Before sleeping, Finn naturally went to do one of his favorite things: Buy from the Hearth Market. Using his new shower of gold, he decided to purchase a few more things.

He suddenly remembered the time on earth before sleeping, when he'd buy things from an online store. He was too busy to go out and shop, so other than ingredients, the rest of his stuff was bought online.

He immediately jumped to the [Skills] Section and started perusing the options again. He now had liquid funds of 200 gold and a few thousand Hearth Points, which were more than enough to get a few new skills, assuming that he liked or could use what was available to him, of course.

That said, he did not dare to be careless and just choose randomly after getting money.

He had asked a question to Pang earlier: Would there be a limit to how many skills he could get?

The answer was Yes and No.

In normal circumstances, learning a skill would depend on someone's talent and comprehension. On the other hand, because learning from scrolls was automatically installed in the mind, it naturally couldn't be endless.

As a metaphor, the brain was a hard drive, and the number of skills he could download was limited. The number wasn't easily quantifiable either because the lower the tier of the skill or the easier it was, the more he could "download", and so on.

(At the same time, manually learned skills had wider limits, because the body would slowly be trained for it).

Regardless, he did not dare to be careless. And now that he was at the peak of Awakened and could apparently absorb toughened cores, this meant he'd have to go against monsters like the hoovensore on his own very soon.

And eventually, that level of monsters would be his only option. After all, absorbing cores a rank below was basically absorbing a drop of water into a gallon container. Eventually, his only option to level up was to go beyond the barrier.

Back to the issue of Skills, there also seemed to be tiers or skill trees wherein certain skills would require the mastery of another before one could purchase them.

This was just another limitation to the already limited options he had in the Market, since only a few were displayed every day, and not all of them could be useful for him. He wondered if, despite the advantage of the [Hearth Market], he'd have to purchase skill scrolls someday as well.

According to Pang, learning from the same skill tree would consume a lot less energy or 'memory', so it was practical to choose a few lanes and specialize in those rather than spread out and get everything.

Finn didn't have the illusion that he was the main character and could therefore have special cheats that'd let him get all the skills he wanted. In the end, he decided to choose in the Combat Skill category, ideally, those in the same skill tree as what he already had.

He chose fire, which was the most destructive, and earth for a good balance of offense and defense skills. If there was a skill tree he really wanted to start, then he'd take that eventually.

The past week after landing tier 3, he managed to buy three skills (he'd have bought more if the other techniques fit), which was already a good ratio considering how difficult it was to buy anything before.

After the [Heated Arc], there were two very different skills from the same Skill Tree that he could learn.

[Blade of Fire]

Information: Unleashes a sweeping arc of flame from the weapon of choice, scorching enemies in its path. Deals moderate fire damage and chance to inflict a burn debuff.

Consumption: 15 Mana.

Regeneration Rate: 10 minutes

Requirement: Heated Arc Mastery, Tier 2 Awakened

Cost: 50 Gold, 500 Hearth Points

When he saw it a few days back, he bought it so quickly that his finger was shaking. Pang called him stupid, because it wouldn't refresh for an entire day after that, so there was no need for him to be so stressed.

The cold-hearted Panda would never understand! He had looked at the [Skills] tab every day since he got access to it. How often was it that he find something he was actually looking for?

He was also really excited because the more long-range techniques he had, the better! After all, he didn't like to get blood on him. Second, he had the barrier! Long-ranged skills were like cheat skills in here, okay?

Surprisingly, the other technique, which he bought just yesterday, ended up much more interesting.

[Thunder Clash]

Information: Energizes a weapon of choice to create a current that would target a single target with a dangerous voltage. With a chance to shock and temporarily paralyze.

Consumption: 15 Mana.

Regeneration Rate: 10 minutes

Requirement: Heated Arc Mastery, Tier 2 Awakened

Cost: 50 Gold, 500 Hearth Points

This might seem out of bounds, but it made sense if one thought about it. The [Heated Arc] wasn't just fire; its skill tree was apparently more in the field of energy, heat, and light.

This was really convenient. He had always found electricity to be a fascinating element, and now he didn't have to start an entirely new skill tree from it.

This would be his CC skill, giving him options for most situations he might have to go through in the future.

And finally, today, he saw a fitting Earth attribute technique. Which was just as well, because he needed a defense technique.

[Stone Guard]

Information: Fortify the user's body with the essence of earth, greatly reducing incoming damage for 10 seconds.

Requirement: Tier 2 Awakened

Mana Consumption: 20 Mana

Regeneration: 30 minutes

Cost: 50 Gold, 500 Hearth Points

He nodded.

These should be fine for a long time, and he felt unusually satisfied with his newfound strength.

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