Psychic Parasite

Chapter 163: What Are Skills?
”Why do you think this is the case?” Hearing the question directed at him, Jyorta readily shook his head, unable to give any thoughts on the matter. Seeing his action, Madam Rizenne shifted her gaze, lingering it on the girl to his right.

Seeing the girl too repeat the same action, Madam Rizenne diverted her gaze to the 7th row, glancing between a couple of faces. After 30 seconds passed in such a manner, Madam Rizenne stopped her action, clicking a button on the remote held in her hand, and switching the image on the screen.

Two pictures, placed side by side, one a regular human, and the other, a human that had numerous cancerous outgrowths on his body. Glancing at the second image, the students averted their gazes, with some sporting expressions that were on the verge of puking their lunches.

Jyorta closed his eyes; the blue soul overlaid the false persona, one of calm, optimism, and filled with focus, subtly affecting his mentality. But, it failed to suppress his budding disgust, instigating a reaction in his stomach.

’I should next create a false persona that would help me keep my levelheadedness while faced with disgusting stuff.’ Jyorta trained his ears, listening to the sounds from his batch mates. He planned to open his eyes only when the atmosphere returned to normal.

Madam Rizenne changed the image on the screen, replacing it with a single black dot, ”Starting next month, you will be trained to get accustomed to seeing such aberrations. After all, the image I flashed now is nothing compared to a Tier 4 Ring Worm, which is by far, the definition of ugliness in the Wild Zones.”

”Coming back to the topic,” Madam Rizenne waved her hands, emitting a gentle flux of psychic energy, turning it pale blue, calming the moods of everyone present. ”If the Skills are something manifested by a change in DNA, then it would exhibit physical mutations. It would become something like the second picture I showed just now.”

”But, it doesn’t happen. Irrespective of the Tier of the Warriors, they retain their human appearance, lacking any physical mutation or deformity.” Madam Rizenne pressed another button, showcasing the image of a glass tumbler, filled with water. Placed next to it were gems, each radiating their own colours, akin to natural luminescence.

It was a video, recorded as an example. A hand picked up a red gem and dropped it in the water. Due to the refraction of the light emitted by the red gem, the water turned red. The hand removed the red gem and then dropped an orange gem, making the water turn orange. The process was repeated with gems of different colours, from red to violet.

”Skills are a definite manifestation of a fusion between two DNA strands, originating from the human and the Wisdom Parasite, forming the base. They then form a cluster with similar DNA strands and create new genes, deriving the genes originating from the human body, shaping its structure. They finally become a genetic material capable of manifesting a biological change.”

She raised a finger, pausing to emphasise her next sentence, ”But, that would have been the case were the created gene allowed to affect the human body. Upon completion, the gene settles within and modifies a part of the Wisdom Parasite.”

She brought her palm forward, allowing everyone to see it clearly. Using her psychic energy, she created a filament before her, distorting the light, forming a lens that magnified her palm and the space above.

Tendrils of blood, numbering in the hundreds gushed out from the pores on her face, coagulating into a crimson sphere in the fraction of a second. A section appeared along its middle, parting it into two. The two hemispheres rotated in opposite directions, unravelling a long cylindrical body.

Grooves appeared along the cylindrical body, segmenting it into six. A pair of arms formed in the second segment, while a pair of legs formed in segments 4, 5, and 6. Feminine facial features, almost humanoid, appeared on the first segment, with the top morphing into hair, braided, spanning the length of three segments.

The moment it appeared, it began to wriggle its body along the centre, dancing. It was Madam Rizenne’s Caterpillar. Through the lens she had created through her psychic energy, Madam Rizenne allowed everyone to gaze at the magnified image of her Caterpillar.

She opened her mouth, her voice crystal clear, ”Look at how my Caterpillar’s body has six segments. The case is the same for the Warrior’s Centipede. Now, you might wonder why I am mentioning this, since both the Caterpillar and the Centipede are just the manifestation of the Wisdom Parasite’s psyche and not their actual bodies.”

She retracted her Caterpillar, dissolving it into blood tendrils before absorbing them into her body, the process faster than when she summoned it. ”You might not have noticed it during your Induction Ceremony but, there were five grooves on the Wisdom Parasite, segmenting it into six. The lines were so faint that you wouldn’t have realised unless you observed with focus in close proximity.”

”Each segment pertains to a Tier of the Wisdom Parasite, or its evolutionary potential to say the least. This means that all the Wisdom Parasites, the ones injected during the Induction Ceremony have a chance to evolve until Tier 6, which is their final form.”

”Now, when an Observer Nurtures his Tier 1 Skill, it means a gene has been created as explained before. But, this gene lodges itself in the first segment, i.e. the parts where the first segment of the Wisdom Parasite has fused in our spine and modifies it. This causes the spine to experience numerous changes. Since the changes are to an internal organ, we won’t find any change in our external appearance.” Madam Rizenne lifted the hand that held the remote, pointing at the screen behind her.

”Observe the example depicted in it, you can consider the Skills as the coloured gems. Alone, their effect is not apparent. But, when immersed in the glass of water, their effect is pronounced. In the case of Warriors, their energy is the equivalent of water. It changes depending on the Skill actuating it.” She smiled, depicting the image of a Wisdom Parasite, with its body separated into six parts by a red coloured line.

Upon a click, another image flashed below it, grossly mutated, a realistic image. It was segmented into six too, with the sixth segment blurred beyond recognition. ”The ones above are the six segments of a Wisdom Parasite, while the ones below are the changes they experienced after Nurturing a Skill at each Tier. This is a specimen image extracted from a Transformer who had died 8 years ago, after gaining his permission before death.”

The first segment on the bottom had slight spikes, minute in size. It was covered in patches of green, showcasing a slight shrinkage in size. The second segment was similar to the first, slightly amplified in its features.

The third formed a stark contrast with the rest, silver-blue in colour, shaped like a jelly, mottled with pores oozing out a green fluid. Fumes spewed out of it from the pores on the top, with its ends slightly melted.

The fourth segment looked rock solid, but on a closer look, a fluid seemed to flow beneath the rough exterior, faintly varying the exterior at gradual intervals.

The fifth segment looked no different from the fifth segment above—one belonging to the Wisdom Parasite before Nurturing a Tier 5 Skill—except being smaller in size. Suddenly, it ballooned in size, becoming ten times the original, exhibiting characteristics of all the other four segments. It then shrunk once again, reverting to the plain appearance from before.

”Remember that their appearance varies based on the Skills the individual had Nurtured. The fifth segment is more or less similar to everyone, thanks to us Nurturing the same Skill at Tier 5.” Madam Rizenne pressed another button, flashing a tabular column.

The title of the tabular column was, ’Observer Skills’. It showcased three columns, ’Serial Number’, ’Skill Name’, and ’Skill Effect’ and 20 rows. It seemed that the list continued but due to the available space on the screen, only 20 rows were displayed.

”The majority of the beings, humans, and Frenzy Beasts included are comprised of Warriors. Therefore, learning about the various Skills they possess is of the utmost priority.” Madam Rizenne raised her voice, ”Every race produces a set of Skills at each Tier, with the appearance of some Skills forming the majority.”

”Depending on the Skill used, you can determine which race the individual originated from. Very few Skills mesh between the different races. Most of the races have their own distinct set of skills. We will be talking about them in today’s class.” Madam Rizenne said, pointing at the screen behind her, ”We will first talk about the Skills humanity possess and has Nurtured to date. This data is inclusive of all the human cities.”

”Based on the records,” Madam Rizenne paused once, glancing around the auditorium, checking the reception of the students present, continuing with a satisfactory nod, ”There are 87 different Skills Nurtured at Tier 1, 46 Skills Nurtured at Tier 2, 21 Skills Nurtured at Tier 3, 6 Skills Nurtured at Tier 4, and one Skill at Tier 5.”

She let out a wry smile, ”There is also another Skill at Tier 5 but it is a military secret; unless you join the related department in the future, you will never come to know about it.”

”Now, we’ll go into detail about the Skills of Observers.”