I Was a Small Fish When I Reincarnated, but It Seems That I Can Become a Dragon, so I Will Do My Best - Extra Chapter 209
7-29. Side -Ouren- What is a Pseudo-Skill?
Ouren sought out Tekeris to ask about the most perplexing issue.
He knew the term “pseudo-skill,” but that was the extent of his understanding.
Angels possessing pseudo-skills are generally weak and pose no real threat in combat, yet the threat level of the skill itself remains consistent.
If they were to attack in numbers, even Ouren would struggle to deal with them promptly.
However, they lack proficiency.
Ouren could confidently say that the angels are weak.
But this weakness was a consequence of Tekeris forcibly bestowing skills upon humans.
“Pseudo-skills are skills that angels conjure up in their imagination and force me, Tekeris, to bestow upon them. If the angel has a strong enough will when bestowing the skill, it wouldn’t be a ‘pseudo-skill,’ but a legitimate skill that maintains its value.”
“So, what’s the difference between a skill and a pseudo-skill? How exactly is it incomplete?”
“Let me explain.”
Tekeris, seemingly ready for a long explanation, folded his arms and began to explain, piece by piece.
“The difference lies in the ‘proficiency’ growth. A skill forcibly granted takes a significant amount of time to master, even if used repeatedly. This is the price of refusing to use the skill.”
“So it’s because the angels kept forcing humans to accept these skills?”
“Exactly. But that’s not the only difference.”
“What else?”
“The difference in ‘lethality.’ If a skill has a lethality of ten, then a pseudo-skill would be around four. The activation speed is slower, and the attack speed post-activation is also slow. In every aspect, pseudo-skills are inferior to genuine skills.”
This was the reason for the angels’ weakness.
Indeed, thinking back, none of the attacks from angels with pseudo-skills ever felt particularly threatening.
It also seemed like each angel only had one skill, and that was likely all they could do.
Ouren’s assessment seemed to be correct, as Tekeris laughed.
“Hahaha, the angels couldn’t fully control themselves. They could only embed two skills into a single human. One was ‘Angel Ascension,’ an original angel skill they absolutely wanted to bestow. I didn’t expect it to be mass-produced. And the other was a random skill.”
“Now that Tekeris has escaped the angels’ grasp, can we assume no more pseudo-skills will be created?”
“Yes, that should be the case. To create a pseudo-skill, they had to devise a skill just to control themselves. Or rather, they forcibly altered an existing skill.”
“…So, there’s still a possibility that pseudo-skills could be created, isn’t there?”
“No. The angels altered their original skills by force. Such a feat isn’t something that can be done repeatedly or easily.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s true…”
For now, Ouren understood the difference between skills and pseudo-skills and how the latter were incomplete.
In summary, pseudo-skills are inferior to genuine skills.
This is the difference, and the reason Tekeris called them incomplete.
However, if Tekeris’s story is true, it means there is still an angel who can alter skills.
Does he know who this person is?
“Arnicc, I presume.”
“Is that the angel’s name?”
“Yes. There were originally three of them.”
“What!? You even know that!? Tell me more!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t run away. Those who oppose the angels are allies to me. I’ll tell you everything.”
Tekeris then morphed his fingers to shape the figures of angels.
What appeared were three angels.
“A hundred years after this world began, beings like me, Atrak, and the angels came into existence.”
“I had a feeling you were the same generation as Atarak.”
“Luromcos was also around. Though I’m not a Devil.”
“And then?”
“The three targeted Atrak, the progenitor of the most threatening devils, but suddenly shifted their focus to me. Do you know why?”
“…Because you had a skill that could create other skills?”
Tekeris shook his head.
“It wasn’t something I’d reveal so easily. At the time, I kept it as a secret.”
“So what was it?”
“Because I sided with the devils.”
At that time, there were only three factions.
The devils, the angels, and Tekeris’s own faction.
Humans, Oni, and other races were still considered inferior and hadn’t even formed cohesive societies, so they weren’t regarded as factions.
They only began to gain power about three hundred years later.
No one remembers much from that three-hundred-year span.
During these three hundred years, the number of devils and angels increased.
But among the devils, only Atrak and Lurimcos remembered the conflict.
“Not to boast, but I was the strongest at the time. Then, the three archangels attacked me all at once.”
“Archangels?”
“The three strongest angels created at the beginning. Their names were Arnicc, Altez, and Meconny. It seems they used some kind of skill to increase their numbers…”
“Uh… so…”
Ouren tried to summarize what he had just heard.
After thinking for a bit, he asked Tekeris if his understanding was correct.
“So, there were three strong angels who then created multiple other angels… And now, there are hundreds of pseudo-angels created by Tekeris—is that right?”
“Yes.”
Finally, Ouren confirmed the enemy’s numbers.