Skill Forge: Broken Extra Character

'He's right. This place might not have many monsters, but it's still dangerous at night if you get caught in its illusions,' Jett thought, keeping his guard up.

They moved swiftly, with Jett effortlessly matching their pace. Unknown to the others, he was actually faster. 'For someone not born into a noble family, he keeps up remarkably well,' Ray mused, casting curious glances at Jett.

Noticing Ray's persistent gaze, Jett turned to him. "What's on your mind? You keep staring at me like some weirdo," he said bluntly.

"Ah, you noticed? Your perception is really high," Ray admitted with a novice smile. "Were you trained by a master? You seem to be keeping up with us much better than I expected."

Jett looked at Ray in mild disappointment as they moved through the trees, leaping from branch to branch for a better vantage. "You do realize I'm a noble too, right? The lowest rank, maybe that's why you don't know."

Ray chuckled. "I had no idea. The name 'Grift' sounded familiar, but I didn't know much about it."

Jett sighed. "Honestly, I don't know how or why, but the king made my father a Lord."

Ray's eyes widened in surprise. "A Lord? That explains a lot, then."

Jett's expression turned serious. "I have a question for you," he said, voicing his curiosity. "You're a prince, but no one seems to recognize you or your sister. Why is that?"

"An item we stumbled upon by chance. It changes everything about us—our faces, voices, even during appraisal, it fools someone five levels above us," Ray explained.

"Maybe if Freya had something like that, we wouldn't be in this mess," Jett added.

"Will you two concentrate? There's something bothering me which I'm trying to understand," Evelina, who had been leading them, interrupted their conversation.

"What's that?" Ray inquired.

"She didn't fight back at all. She just let it happen like she was totally helpless," Evelina explained as she moved gracefully from branch to branch, as though it was second nature.

"Yeah, I noticed it too," Ray pondered, as Evelina confirmed something he had been thinking about for a while.

"Even the Freya from the movies and TV shows had some offensive skills. So why couldn't she do anything?" A mansion in the forest slowly came into view, and Evelina ended the discussion there. "Let's save that for after we rescue her. We're here."

They met Seraphina and Asher, who were spying on the building from afar. The structure was heavily guarded by cloaked men, with an enormous gate giving it the appearance of a fortress. It had a dark, foreboding feel to it.

"Is that where they took her?" Jett asked as soon as they stopped.

"What took you so long? I've been itching to go in there," Seraphina asked Ray and Evelina before looking at Jett. "You look too uninjured for Freya to have been worried."

"Haha, well, I got lucky. So, what's the situation?" Desperately trying to change the topic.

"Their defense is solid. I can get in, but I can't say the same for any of you," Asher stated confidently.

"I still can't believe Freya let herself get captured like that. I've never seen her in combat before, but this is too disappointing," Jett said, shaking his head.

"It's not like she just let herself get captured. It's more like she couldn't fight back," Asher explained.

"What are you talking about?" Ray asked, puzzled.

"Freya doesn't have any offensive skills, nor is she good in combat," Evelina interjected. "The least she could have done was use debuffs, but in that situation, it would have been useless." Jett interrupts while also surveying the area.

*****

In the WAR BOUND books, Freya had the shortest lifespan after Jett's character. The reason was her lack of combat and offensive skills. The author probably wasn't sure what to do with her, so he just killed her off early.

The game developers didn't have much information about her, so they tried a few tricks to make her a reasonable character in the game. However, it still wasn't enough. The author, who never revealed his identity to the world, only agreed to her inclusion under very specific conditions known to only a select few.

This made her extremely hard to play, leading most players to abandon the character. They even posted articles and videos on the forum about why no one should use her.

Ethan and his sister were able to unlock special features after months of experimenting and research, but they never shared this on the forum.

Jett had already planned on avoiding her death if it ever came to that, but the current situation was unprecedented, making him wonder if his presence had caused a butterfly effect of some sort.

*****

"So, how do you plan on infiltrating?" Seraphina asked.

"I'm not sure... Too bad none of us has a skill to teleport someone inside," Jett mused.

"I can," Asher interjected.

"In that case, I have a plan," Jett said.

"Go on, we don't have all day," Ray urged.

"There's not much to it. The four of us will go in while Evelina stays outside as a distraction. We haven't seen any creatures since we entered, so I'm guessing that was their doing. Seraphina won't be able to tame any beasts to aid you, so you'll just have to hang in there. Once we're inside, we'll split into two groups. I'll go with Seraphina."

"So you plan on using me to get in, right?" Seraphina asked.

"That's right. If everyone is set, let's move quickly. She may still be alive but probably not in good condition."

"This should be close enough," Asher said, stretching his hands to reveal a dark portal. They all walked through, ending up inside the compound, leaving Evelina alone.

[Shadow Portal C]

User can open portals with a maximum distance of 10m that are visible to the eyes. 100% increase at night.]

"Let's go," Jett ordered. 'I've already copied it before now anyways.'

Evelina immediately searched for a good sniping location with a clear view and finally found one.

[Eagle Eye B]

Increases user's vision by 120% and other senses by 20%.]

[Homing Shot B]

Locks on a target, causing all long-range attacks to never miss their target for 10 minutes. Increases shot power and speed by 40%.]

Evelina immediately shot two men guarding a window. They seemed too close and could have alerted the others. Once the coast was clear, Asher used his portal to send them all inside.

"Alright, now Ray and Asher, go up while we search around here," Jett ordered.

They searched for a while but found no one inside. Ray and Asher eventually returned without any good news.

[Tactical Mirage]

"Something isn't right," Jett said, halting and surveying the room.

"What's that?" Asher asked.

Jett could sense them thanks to his skill and pinpoint their exact location. "They're here, right in front of us. We fell for an illusion."

Clap clap clap

They heard clapping, and before long, the view changed. They were inside a cage, and outside were four men, their presence emanating a ferocious pressure. Freya lay soulless on the floor, chained to a pillar, while a red substance, which looked like blood, slowly levitated from a single spot on her body into a bottle.

"You managed to make it this far. I'm even more impressed you saw through my illusion. Now, you get to die after witnessing the death of the Priestess of Light," a mage stood before them.

"Let us go! What do you want with her?" Seraphina yelled from behind the bars.

"That's none of your concern, pipsqueak," a harsh voice sounded from behind them.

"Really? Just wait till I get out of here," Seraphina replied defiantly.

'They actually think a cage like this can hold us?' Ray thought to himself before realizing something. "This cage seems to have some dark properties attached to it. My skills all got downgraded."

Jett examined his surroundings and came to a conclusion. "These guys are definitely stronger than us. Our only option is to get Freya and escape immediately."

"And how do you plan on achieving that?" Ray inquired.

"Asher's Shadow Portal is a dark attribute skill, so he can still use it in here," Jett explained.

Their whispering started to irritate the ones behind them until they could no longer ignore it. "Be quiet. Once we're done with her, we'll come finish you off," the harsh voice sounded again.

Asher created a portal that connected above the mage, and they all rushed through.

[Dark Seclusion]

Creates a space which no one can enter for 3 minutes. Allies get a 5% boost on all stats.]

"I just cut the others off, but we don't have much time," Asher yelled before running to Freya while the others attacked the mage, not holding back and not giving him a chance to cast any spells.

"You actually had an ace up your sleeve. How troublesome," the mage hissed.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Jett retorted. 'He blocked that? Isn't he just a mage?'

'What's this feeling? I can sense something closing in on us, and fast,' Jett thought, feeling an ominous presence getting closer. At the same time, the other members had broken through and cornered them.

[Hell Fire]

A wall of flames quickly engulfed the mage, but it died down immediately as though something intentionally made it disappear.

"Was that dispel magic or a skill? I think I want it," Jett muttered, checking the mage's stats with greed in his eyes.

"Now it's my turn," the mage yelled in anger. "Die!!!"

[Blood Lance]

Spears made from blood appeared out of thin air, pointing at them.

Jett quickly called out to Asher, who immediately knew what to do. Asher used his portals to intercept the spears before they could make contact with anyone, simultaneously transporting them closer to the mage.

[Ricochet Strike A]

[Beast Fury A]

[Divine Fury A]

[Poison Stroke B]

They all went for the kill as they saw an opportunity.

"You are indeed strong. I would have died if I were just an ordinary person," the mage admitted as he appeared in the furthest part of the room, evading the attack but still bleeding from the backlash. "It seems you're out of time."

Asher's skill finally went on cooldown, which meant the other allies could join the fight.

"Don't worry, Articus, we'll end this quickly," the one with the harsh voice said.

"Be careful, especially with that kid with two different hair colors, Gabo," Articus warned.

"You managed to injure Articus so badly. Now I want to test your skills myself," Gabo grinned as he and the other two rushed in.

'This is bad. We don't have much stamina left. How are we going to get out of this one?' Ray thought to himself as he looked at his friends. 'Do I really have to use that here?'

Jett smirked. "Hey Ray, ever heard of a term called plot armor?"

"Plot armor?" Ray wondered why Jett would bring up such a thing at a moment like this.

'It's coming,' Jett thought to himself. "3, 2, 1," he counted backwards.

Boom!!!

The roof exploded, blasting away all their attackers. In the aftermath stood a man and a woman. One had snow-white hair, floating above them illuminated by the moonlight, and the other had scarlet-red flaming hair, burning as she held her sword.

"It seems we're not too late, old man," the woman said.

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Plot Armor fr

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