Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"How confident are you to increase your rank by a total of three times within the span of seven years?".

Tearing his gaze away, Simon cleared his mind from the unexpected blow he had received and said "Thirty percent. I'm thirty percent sure that I can achieve it". His reply made Irene frown and at the same time, she looked somewhat surprised. "It is higher than what I had expected. But regardless of that, it will be extremely hard to achieve. If you don't mind me asking, how are you going to achieve it?".

It was not like she was underestimating him, but even without using her skills, she could easily tell that the bloodline that Simon possessed was fairly impure and it would be nigh impossible to achieve a rank as high as the Demon Duke. However, seeing his confidence, she did not want to dampen it.

Simon knew what Irene was thinking and deliberated for a while before revealing about the existence of his inherent skill [Main Menu] whose one of the functions allowed him to purify his bloodline and raise his rank.

Although the [Main Menu] was his biggest secret, he didn't know why but he didn't feel it uncomfortable to reveal its existence to Irene. Of course, he didn't reveal anything about him being reincarnated.

Irene was silent for a long while after being told something like that. Even she was hard-pressed to believe that something like that which broke all the common sense existed in this world. Although she was a little surprised, she wasn't in a disbelief as she was aware of heavenly treasures such as the royal Spirit orb that can remove one's restriction placed on them by their bloodline.

The fact that stunned her most was that the man in front of her was in possession of one that she had never heard of.

Exhaling a deep breath, she asked "Is it alright for you to reveal the existence of such a thing to me? Isn't that inherent skill your biggest secret?".

Simon simply smiled looking at her and waved his hands and said "That's alright. Since I decided to reveal its existence to you, naturally I have enough confidence in you. I feel like it's alright to reveal its existence to you".

Irene crystal blue eyes trembled and all the reasoning flew out of her head. She wanted to refute his words, but for some unknown reason, words failed her.

"Baseless confidence'¦ you don't even know me'¦" Irene silently whispered in a voice that only she could hear.

"Haha, anyways why did you suddenly ask something like that?" Simon questioned. He felt like Irene wouldn't have asked him such a question if she didn't have something in her mind.

Her state of mind returned to normal and her bearing was back to her aloof self. Instead of answering him, she asked a question of her own.

"How much are you aware of skills?".

Simon fell into silence as he pondered over her question. Frankly, he did not know much about the skills and whatever he knew was from experimentation and trial.

He shook his head and said, "I only know that skills just like magic should have different tiers since some of my skills have evolved into better ones after repeated uses".

Irene nodded her head, her eyes flashed with a mysterious light as she observed Simon.

"Correct, just like magic have different tiers, skills do too. However, just like gaining mastery over a form of mana, evolving skills to a new tier is equally difficult. There are three types of skills Normal, Rare and Lost skills. Each of these three types of skills has different tiers".

"A Normal skill can evolve up to two tiers i.e Superior tier and Ancient tier. Whereas, a rare skill has the potential to evolve up to three tiers namely Superior, Ancient and Legendary tiers". Irene paused here and glanced at Simon who was intently listening to her.

She further added, "As for the lost skills, they have a possibility of evolving up to four tiers:- Superior, Ancient, Legendary and finally the Phantasmal tier".

Simon was amazed. The knowledge he inherited was limited, he did not know that there existed so many types of skills not to mention that there were even different tiers to them. But'¦ "Wait a minute'¦ what do you mean by that they have a possibility of evolving? You don't mean that there is a chance that they might not evolve?".

He asked befuddled by her explanation.

Irene was not surprised that Simon asked such a question. On the contrary, she was expecting such a question. She clarified "You are not wrong. Even a Lost skill has a possibility that it might not evolve. Skills are similarly restrained by ones bloodline. If their bloodline is not pure, they are unable to reach higher ranks and similarly, their skills are unable to evolve. One not only needed to continuously increase their proficiency with the skill but also need a pure bloodline to go forward".

"You must have guessed by now but the type of skills represents how hard they are to acquire. A Normal skill is easy to acquire while a rare skill is difficult to get. The same goes for the Lost skill, they are the most difficult to acquire".

"Not only that, Rare and Lost skills are more difficult to evolve than Normal skills since one needed a very pure bloodline and a high rank to increase their tiers. So even if one gets extremely lucky and acquires a Lost skill, they cannot evolve it their entire life if they possessed an impure bloodline".

Simon who was processing all this information, couldn't help but mutter "So that's how it is. The better the type of the skill, the more difficult it is to acquire them and increase their tiers. Does that mean that a Rare skill is stronger than a Normal skills and a Lost skill is stronger than a Rare?".

Seeing Simon's enthusiasm to fill the void in his knowledge, Irene was quite pleased. She shook her head and said "Not exactly. You have to also consider that evolving a Rare and Lost skill is more difficult than a Normal skill. If a normal skill evolves into a Superior tier, it should be stronger than a Rare skill that has not. And similarly, a Rare skill that has evolved into a Superior rare skill is more stronger than a Lost skill that hasn't evolved and so on so forth".

As Simon soaked all of this knowledge, He felt his understanding of skills increase more and more. Suddenly though, a thought flashed in his mind and he couldn't help but ask once again "If there are only three types of skills, then what about inherent skill?".

Simon opened his status and looked at the row which displayed his inherent skills. If according to Irene that there only existed three types of skill, then what about the inherent skill that was displayed by his status?

Irene deliberated as to how better phrase her answer before saying "Inherent skill is not a type of skill. It is displayed by the status that governs the laws of this world, the various skills that are unique to you or your race".

Simon finally understood as to why the [Dungeon Creation] was listed in his inherent skills. Dungeon Creation was a skill unique to the demon race.

"As of now, most of your skills could only be said as are Normal-type superior tier at best. The only Rare skill that you have in your possession is the [Demonic Eyes] skill" Irene said while observing Simon with that mysterious glow in her eyes.

Simon was a little surprised that Irene knew all about his skills but when he thought that she might be using Analysis on him, he soon relaxed. What Simon did not know was that his status that even the subordinates of the Demon Lord couldn't see through, was easily read by Irene.

What Irene was using wasn't as simple as Analysis and was something totally different.

Simon was amazed by the vast knowledge of Irene, he was reminded of the vast gulf between them once again. He didn't doubt her words since he felt that her origins were quite mysterious.

"So it turns out that the [Demonic Eyes] skill that I got as a gift after winning the dungeon war was a Rare skill. Since I don't use it much, it would take quite a bit of time to increase its tier". Simon mused as he brought out his status window.

He stared at all of his skills which according to Irene was mostly Normal type of skills. Suddenly, out of curiosity, he asked the question that suddenly popped into his mind "I get that most of my skills are Normal ones but what about my other skills such [Dungeon Creation], [Ancestral Symbol Ignition] and [Main Menu]".

Simon was quite curious about the type and tiers of these skills that were listed in his inherent skills.

Irene looked at Simon, her eyes were strange as they observed his status. It was only after a while that she sighed, her chest heaved up and down as she said.

"No matter how I see it, it's clearly strange that all Demon Nobles have the skill [Dungeon Creation] which allows them to create a such as this. No wonder the status has listed it in your inherent skill".

Irene said in a low voice after a deep contemplation. Simon's interest was piqued after he heard what Irene had to say. Although he asked the question out of curiosity at first, he didn't expect such a response from Irene.

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Tiers of Skills-

Phantasmal [✪✪✪✪✪]

Legendary [✪✪✪✪]

Ancient [✪✪✪]

Superior [✪✪]

Base [✪]

Normal Skills:- Evolve Possibility [Superior, Ancient]

Rare Skills:- Evolve Possibility [Superior, Ancient, Legendary]

Lost Skills:- Evolve Possibility [Superior, Ancient, Legendary, Phantasmal]