Skill

"Skills were fundamentally intangible abilities. They pulled in and gathered energy or elements to make simple forms."

- Han Yoojin

Skills are magical abilities usable by Awakened people. They have a wide range of effects and specialize in different areas, including attack, defense, and support.

Initial skills
Upon initially Awakening, every person gets a certain number of initial skills, regardless of their rank. The number of initial skills one obtains and how highly they rank, however, is dependent on the Awakened person's own ability. An F-rank would Awaken with 2 initial skills, while an S-rank Awakens with 4 initial skills. Skills do not affect stat ranks; rather, one's stat rank normally defines the level of skill they can safely handle without undue stress on their body.

Additional skills
People generally get additional skills every 10 levels, but some skills have additional acquisition conditions that must be met before the skill is earned. However, since these conditions are not directly revealed to their potential holders, it's possible for unlucky individuals to reach extremely high levels with only their initial skills.

For the reasons given above, it's also common to have skills not appear instantly at 10 levels.

Optimized skills
Everybody has a certain aptitude or affinity for certain magic abilities. In some cases, this is an elemental or "attribute"-related affinity, such as for Bak Yerim (affinity for ice- and water-related skills). In other cases, one's affinity relates more to their mundane skills before Awakening, such as for Han Yoojin (a caregiver whose skills generally relate to growth and support) and Bak Hayool (a celebrity whose skills presumably relate to charming others).

Skills that best fit an individual's aptitude or affinity, therefore, are known as optimized skills. Earning one's optimized skills can be difficult if the conditions in which one Awakens are not optimal. However, skills exist to specifically trigger optimized Awakenings, such as Han Yoojin's Promising Sprout.

Appearance
In the webtoon, each skill listed in the Status Window has an icon displayed above its name and rank. This icon consists of a stylized symbol relating to the skill's use or purpose, enclosed within a circular border. The color of the icon depends on the skill's rank (see the page on ranks for full list of associated colors). Each icon may have accents in a lighter, desaturated version of their rank color.

Usage of skills is usually accompanied by a glow of varying color, dependent on the skill in question. This glow does not appear to be linked to the rank of the skill; for example, Choi Yoomi's E-rank skill has glowed green instead of gray, while Lim Seokwoo's (presumably) C- or D-rank strengthening skill has glowed gold instead of white or green.

Activation
Skills can be either active or passive. Active skills comprise the majority of skills; they must be consciously activated by the skill user, and consume mana upon each use. Passive skills, on the other hand, are always active and do not consume the skill user's mana. Some special cases of passive skills, however—namely, those that are extremely high-ranking —can be manually enabled or disabled by the skill user.

Currently, the only known passive skills are resistance skills.

Types
Due to the wide possibilities offered by magic, there are countless skills and skill variants in existence. They can be largely grouped into attack skills, defense skills, support skills, and special skills. It is possible, and in fact common, for skills to fall under one or more of these categories.


 * Note: As not all skills are explicitly defined under these categories, some guesswork is involved in what categories each skill is filed under on this Wiki.

Attack skills
Attack skills are used for fighting. By and large, these skills can inflict mental and/or physical effects on designated targets to injure them or hamper their ability to fight. Attribute manipulation skills are also counted under this, due to their wide range of potential uses.

Defense skills
Defense skills are used to protect a designated target. All known defense skills target the user; however, some skills (particularly high-rank attribute resistance skills) can shield individuals other than the skill user.

Support skills
Support skills cover the majority of skills that do not fall under the categories of attack and defense. These include all skills that can be used to inflict a variety of effects on another target which are not direct attacks, but which can be useful on a battlefield. Buffs, debuffs, and healing skills all count as support skills.

Buff skills most commonly affect stats, an incidence exemplified by the standard range of Stat Up buffs. Skills that affect skill effects (particularly in addition to increasing stats), on the other hand, are extremely rare. A skill that raised both skill effects and abilities by a mere 10% would already qualify as A-rank.

Special skills
Special skills are those that do not fall under any of the preceding categories, but instead have special effects not necessarily limited to use in combat. Skills for creating and modifying equipment, examining other's skills and Status Windows, granting skills or even Awakenings, enabling variations of enhanced vision/psychometry/precognition, and so on fall under this category.

Special skills relating to equipment are not rare, but skills for creating equipment were nonexistent prior to Yoo Myeongwoo's acquisition of Gold Forge's Owner, both pre- and post-regression.

Skills that allow one to see another person's information exist, and are known as appraisal skills. However, they come with limitations; generally, appraisal skills only reveal abilities that are one rank lower than the skill itself. Additionally, since such skills will eventually be superseded by Awakened people's developing ability to sense others' skills and affinities, they are often (comparatively) low-ranked.