Chapter 29: Kayn's Gift and the Midas' Curse

"Anyways, let's go to my room,"

Since they are already done talking about the stuff related to the House of Dragons, Kayn finally decided to lead the way to his room.

"Now that you've mentioned that, which floor do you belong in the House of Dragons?" Natas can't help but wonder.

"Didn't you already see what I am capable of?"

"I've seen it, and as a matter of fact, I even experienced fighting against you. But that wasn't your original weapon, right? Based on the information I've gathered about you, you don't actually use a sword, but rather you use daggers way back during the early days of you being a Hero,"

"No, I don't mean it as in the future," Kayn immediately shook his head. Indeed, the talent he showed and has always used wasn't the same as what he was known for in the future. In truth, he switched weapons somewhere in between. "I meant now. Just now, during the event in the Technological Building. You've seen what I was capable of. I think you can guess which floor I belonged from that,"

Hearing Kayn mentioning the Technological Building, Natas immediately started recollecting his memories of how the former has performed at that time, including the time when he was out searching for the location of Rowan.

Linguistic Mastery, Resourcefulness, Deception, Sneaking, Concealment, Stealth, Hunting Intuition, Body Proficiency, Quick and Precise Attacks..

All of those skills are the abilities that only Master Assassins would prefer to execute.

"You belong on the fourth floor!"

"Yes!" Kayn confirmed. That's right! Before he started using swords, he was actually once a Master Assassin and his main weapon was daggers. He started from that path, but eventually in the future, due to an important encounter he made with someone, he switched to using a sword instead. Every now and then he would still use a dagger, but ever since he became known as a Swordsman, those situations rarely happen. He still misses being a Master Assassin. As a matter of fact, he always moves like one despite preferring to use a sword in a fight. Probably because the skill, expertise, and talent are long already carved deeply in his body and through his muscle memory he unconsciously or consciously performs them.

"I thought that was just a rumor that you were a Master Assassin back then," Natas was a bit surprised at Kayn's revelation. "Well, considering your Gift, I guess that was a given already. I don't know why I didn't think of that beforehand,"

Gift..

That was the term commonly used by Heroes to describe the power they received after awakening and being recognized as Superhuman. This Gift is what separates Superhumans from ordinary people. It's also what they would make use of to the fullest in order to achieve greater things in their career as Heroes, or because of unfortunate circumstances, as Villains.historical

Simply put, Gift is the superpower Heroes and Villains possess.

Kayn, as someone who is enrolled in the Starlight Hero Academy, naturally possesses a Gift. Otherwise, he won't meet the most basic requirement one should have before being allowed to enroll in a Hero Academy.

And this Gift that Kayn possess is what allowed him to become the greatest Hero on Earth.

What is his gift?

Kayn's Gift is called 3R, it stands for Replicate, Recreate, and Reproduce.

It might sound simple, but it's actually overpowered, especially when he just first entered the 'Tower'.

Replicate, just like what the name suggests, it grants Kayn the ability to replicate something and use it for himself. At first, this something was only limited to being able to replicate simple things like a fellow Hero's skill or talent. Then later on he was able to replicate their stats and attributes. But then as his Gift got stronger, he was eventually able to replicate their Gifts. This gave birth to the first Hero on Earth who possesses more than five Gifts in their body. And that number just continued to grow the more Kayn copied other Heroes and Villains.

In the case of Recreate, Kayn is able to recreate objects like weapons, tools, armors, and even buildings. It's a lot similar to Replicate, except for the fact that it only allows him to recreate physical objects. Because of this ability, he could copy the blueprints of many great weapons, tools, and armors and then pass them to the respective craftsmen to make an identical copy of them. He was able to become extremely rich quite easily because of this Gift.

Lastly, Reproduce. If Replicate and Recreate allows Kayn to copy something, the Gift Reproduce allows him to pass what he had copied to another Hero or even to an ordinary person, thus granting him the ability to create Heroes and possibly Villains. Strictly speaking, in most cases Gifts can only be used by its user. It's called Gift in the first place because of that reason. But in Kayn's case, as long as he will it, he could give the Gift he had copied through the use of Replicate to another individual. This was the reason why his Guild 'Mischief' became the number one Guild on Earth. If it wasn't for this Gift, even if his Guild was made of a bunch of talented and gifted individuals, it would still not be able to stand a chance against all the greedy Guilds on Earth. Moreover, he won't be able to keep everyone in his Guild if it wasn't for the benefit of getting another Gift.

Most important of all, the 3R Gift isn't actually limited to only the individuals on Earth. Kayn can also Replicate, Recreate, and Reproduce anything inside the 'Tower', including but not limited to the Gifts of the inhabitants of the 'Tower'. Sadly, he can't do that to the Gods, as their power is bound to the 'Tower', and Kayn can't copy the 'Tower'. Otherwise, he would have easily overwhelmed the Gods and taken over the 'Tower' a long time ago.

However, as great as that may sound, the 3R has great limitations for its user. Well, that is naturally going to be the case considering just how overpowered it is. Another best example of that would be the Sitan's Ring. It has no limitation on the number of summons, except that the summons should only be weaker than its user, or else the summoned soul would rebel.

In the case of Kayn's 3R, Kayn's limitation is the duration for when he can use his Gift again. As the saying goes, everything has a price to pay. For Kayn, the stronger, more useful, and helpful the object or target he wants to Replicate, Recreate, or Reproduce is, the longer it would take for him to be able to do it again. Take for instance, if he Replicates a Gift that allows its user to manipulate the gravity of their surroundings, he probably won't be able to use Replicate once again for the next month. Though he can still use Recreate and Reproduce. But if he likewise uses them to copy a useful item and pass a powerful Gift, he would no longer be able to use his 3R Gift for a given duration. And unfortunately, that is something he mustn't do no matter what.

The moment all 3R is in cooldown, everything that Kayn had Replicated and Reproduce would temporarily disappear causing him to become Giftless. In other words, he would become an ordinary person for some time.

If it was someone else, that would be okay for them. But since Kayn was an extremely important person, if ever a day comes when he is discovered not to possess any Gift, he would most likely get killed. All his enemies and those people he has offended would take advantage of that chance to eliminate him. Moreover, people who he once treated well might betray or abandon him for that reason.

That was the main reason why no one aside from the Gods and the 'Tower' knows of the Gift that Kayn possesses. And due to the rule of the 'Tower' where the Gods absolutely can't take advantage of the information that they have gotten through the help of their status in the 'Tower, the weakness of Kayn's Gift didn't spread. Though Natas strongly doubts that World President Nicholas doesn't know of that fact. That's probably one of the reasons why Kayn hardly encounters Nicholas because the latter is afraid that the former would copy his skills, talents, stats, attributes, and more importantly, his Gifts. In that case, Nicholas would thoroughly be helpless against Kayn. And that should also be the reason why Nicholas has to assign his daughter beside Kayn so that he would still know what Kayn is doing without the risk of him becoming the target of 3R.

"Being a Master Assassin indeed gave me a lot of opportunities to use my Gift 3R," Kayn said in a remark. "There was even an instance where I was able to steal someone else's Gift by stealthily sneaking into their castle,"

"I can see that," Natas expected that at the very least. Honestly, it isn't that strange for Kayn to do something like that considering he is a Master Assassin. In fact, it would be really strange if he didn't as everyone that he knows who possesses overpowered Gifts, items, weapons, armors, or tools had taken advantage of what they have to the fullest potential. Only someone stupid or ignorant would not do that, and he doesn't believe Kayn to be one.

"That was what I did in the early days inside the 'Tower; taking advantage of my 3R Gift to the fullest. But as I Replicated, Recreated, and Reproduce more things, I started to realize that my overall skill level was greatly affected by my overreliance on my Gift,"

"I might have possessed a lot of Gifts that other Heroes and Villains could only imagine possessing. But I couldn't say for sure that I was a Master of any of those said Gifts. In other words, I was a Jack of all trades but a master of none,"

"What's the use of possessing hundreds of Gifts, being able to tweak my skills, talents, stats, and attributes to my liking anytime, having overpowered weapons, tools, and armor, or passing those that I have Replicated and Recreated to anyone I want when I couldn't even, in fact, perform them in the same level as my targets and to a desiring level?"

"It was disappointing and regretful seeing myself that way. Like Midas who can turn anything into gold but is forbidden to do things that he likes or else those that gave him fun might accidentally turn into gold as well,"

"Midas' curse," Natas muttered. That was literally the curse given to most of those Heroes and Villains that possess overpowered Gifts.

"That was why I switched from using a dagger to using a sword. It was so that I won't continue to always rely on my Gift and would learn to put effort into developing my skill level. In the process, I gain plenty of combat experiences and was finally able to perform a few certain Gifts to a desiring level,"

"And that realization was the official birth of the number Hero on Earth," Natas said with a wide smile on his face. That moment was the day he finally started observing everything that Kayn did, so he was one of the witnesses of this event.

"That's right," It was indeed at that moment when his growth, potential, and power spurted like a waterfall. He started achieving greater things and performing extraordinary feats. That was also the moment when he finally started competing with those in the top league in the circle of Heroes and Villains inside the 'Tower'. And through those competitions, he was eventually able to earn the title 'Hope of Terran'.