CHAPTER 154: | I HAD A LOT OF SKILLS LAYING AROUND THE CORNER, MAYBE I SHOULD FUSE SOME?
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Now that one of the most problematic matters was dealt with, I guessed it was time for me to get a little bit stronger.
The skills that I possessed were rearing to be fused. They were practically vibrating, eager to be cleansed of their filthy standing, desperate to be higher than they were ever before, or would ever be in a future where their original masters possessed them. It was time for them to become something akin to a god so that they could help their master. These skills were eager to be of use, even when I hadn’t bothered with them except for the incentives they gave me. Whether they were passive or active, I didn’t care about them, to me, they were nothing more than trash waiting to be recycled.
I needed to see if I could uncover their potentials in their Ascension, or if they should simply be used as ingredients to strengthen the existing skills that I actually favored. This fusion significance was something of importance to these pitiful things.
I gazed at the hologram in front of me and threw my back into the headrest of the throne.
CRACK-BOOM!
The impact was too great. The throne shattered into thousands of pieces, the debris scattering across the floor. But before the dust could settle, I willed it to change. The shards swirled and transformed, knitting together into a luxurious bed. I laid down, comfortably, gazing at the hologram floating in the air.
Nearby, the domestic violence continued. Samantha, who was glaring at Ishtar’s impudence, told Solia to let go of her disciple. Samantha didn’t wait for an answer. As she kicked Ishtar in the head with a sickening thud, then grabbed her by the hair, dragging her to the corner of the room with anger evident on her face. Solia, on the other hand was watching their master, diciple, 'bonding,' let out a faint smile.
Then, Solia turned her attention to Lumicor. The former betrayer was sitting in a lotus position, anger visible on his face. Lumicor clenched his teeth so hard I could hear them grinding, veins popping out on his forehead. He squeezed his eyes shut with bitterness.
He was feeling bitter not because he lost everything in this betrayal, nor because he failed. He was feeling bitter because he wasn't perceptive enough to react to the sneak attack that Alister, now his rightful master, unleashed on him.
He clenched his hands, knuckles turning white. Not because he was scared to lose his vision for the sake of training his senses, but because he was determined to grow stronger at all costs. As long as he surpassed that mountainous wall called Alister von Fai, he would stoop so low that he would even kneel in front of him just to receive his teachings.
But looking at his situation, Lumicor knew that it was impossible for him to receive my guidance directly.
So, he stood from the ground. He walked over to Solia, lowered his knees, and clenched his hands tighter. He never thought he would ask a person weaker than him to train him. Lumicor sighed, letting go of what remained of his pride, and kneeled in front of her. He bowed his head until his forehead met the cold ground.
Solia, who was on the receiving end, felt a pang of shame. She didn't believe she was a great enough person that someone of the stature of Lumicor would kneel to her. But nonetheless, she remained silent. She already knew what Lumicor would say, she had already read his intent. Her eyes were extremely cold as she observed him, waiting for him to say the words that had to be said.
Lumicor, still kowtowing to her, finally forced himself to mutter the words he abhorred all his life. "I may have committed a sin far greater than I expected, but now I feel nothing but the drive to become stronger than before. So please, Solia... the First Apostle of Alister von Fai... please teach me the method to hone my senses to their very limits."
The desperation in his voice and the chilling hunger for power in his gaze were too destructive to look upon for too long. But Solia merely ignored the intensity. She shook her head in refusal. The methods her master taught her weren't something that should be shared so carelessly.
She turned her head, speaking to Lumicor not with her mouth, but directly into his mind using [Voice Transmission]. "I refuse to accept the bow of someone as great as you, nor could I teach you the teachings of my Master, my God, since you yourself are not a follower of His. But what I can do is give you an advice. And that advice is, it is better to lose your eyesight than to have it when you cannot even see the movements of your opponent."
Hearing her first few words made Lumicor lose all hope. But Solia didn’t stop there. As she continued, and delivered her final words, and when he heard them he felt relief instead of despair.
Her sentence, that it's better to lose your eyesight than to have it when you couldn't even detect your opponent, made more sense to Lumicor than wallowing in pity. It was better to hone his spear blindly than to hone it with sight that deceived him. He realized he needed to see what others wouldn't see.
Like when Solia appeared earlier to restrain Ishtar, his accomplice. Lumicor could feel it, the Solia right now wasn't the same Solia he had met years ago. He could feel her presence was sharper than ever. If even the slightest murderous intent was directed at her, she would mutilate that fellow in less than a passing second. Even he, when he was at his peak, wouldn't be able to see her moving in the slightest bit when she wanted to kill him.
Lumicor acknowledged it. He raised his hands, pressing his fingers into both of his eyes. He clenched his teeth, bracing for the pain that would soon follow.
SHLICK.
He dug his eyeballs out. With a wet, tearing sound, he pulled them from his sockets. He swiftly stored the bloody masses, then pulled on the little bit of control he still had over his light magic to cauterize and heal the bleeding, empty sockets.
He grabbed at thin air, and a gilded spear appeared in his grip.
He departed in the next moment, leaving Solia and Tellus in awe at his decisiveness. Solia ignored the others a second later. She walked towards her master, sat on the bed, and laid her head on my stomach.
"Master," she whispered via voice transmission, "was it really necessary to have him learn on his own?"
I smiled at her question, then gently patted her head, catching her off guard as I whispered softly. "Huhuhu... Solia, it seems that you're underestimating the value of Lumicor. He is not someone like you nor I, could carelessly mentor. There is no one worthy to mentor a monster like him. So let him be. Maybe in a year, his progress will leave you in the dust, since that's the kind of existence he is. And that is the reason, why I spared him, even when he tried to betray me. Since he is someone that I need to achieve my goal... the goal of this God of yours to become more than a God in this sandbox called the Multiverse."
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Solia nodded her head and let her master's gentle hands caress her hair. Aa she fell into a deep sleep for what felt like an eternity of sleepless nights.
I chuckled at this sight. Returning to the System, I dragged [Advance Lightning Mastery] and paired it with [Sevenfold Tail Authority]. Of course, with the tail being the main concept in its advancement, the mastery would be the minor aspect pushing the tail to evolve to an 'Ascension Skill.'
Then I pulled [Bog Strength] and paired it with [Crushing Stomp], with the stomp being the main concept and the bog strength being a derivative enhancement, so that my stomping power would increase, even if only a little bit.
I clicked 'Yes' and watched the fusion of the two sets of skills, letting out a satisfied smile.
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[Normal Skill:]
Advance Lightning Mastery [Passive]
Bog Strength [Passive]
Crushing Stomp [Active]
Efficient Predator's Digestion [Passive]
Sevenfold Tail Authority [Passive]
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[Ascension Skills:]
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[Ascension V]
Indomitable Cereum Carapace [Passive]
Hands of the Gods [Active]
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[Ascension IV]
Continental Mass Physique [Passive]
Infinite Maw Cataclysm [Passive]
Wrath of the Voidstorm Serpent [Active]
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[Ascension III]
Abyssal Tendril Bastion [Passive]
Bulwark of the One True God [Active]
Celestial Abaddon Form [Active]
Flesh Marionette [Active]
Formless Sovereign Emergence [Passive]
Incarnate of the Fallen [Passive]
Judgment of United Blades [Active]
Scripture of Absolute Reinforcement [Active]
Sylphid Summoning [Active]
Tidal Cataclysm Domain [Passive]
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[Ascension II]
Aureate Sanguine Restoration [Passive]
Colossal Demonic Dominion [Passive]
Cosmic Ossature [Passive]
Fallen Lord Descension [Active]
Immovable Core of the Earth [Passive]
Mercy [Active]
Neural Tendril Nodebirth [Passive]
Terra-Void Bulwark [Passive]
Tyrant’s Eye of the Storm [Active]
Void Step [Active]
Voracious Maw of the Abyss [Passive]
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[Ascension I]
Apex Predator Senses [Passive]
Apostle's Aetheric Blood[Passive]
Bloodline Suppression Gaze [Active]
Caustic Assimilation [Passive]
Gaze of the Fallen [Active]
Sanguine Purification [Passive]
Savage Tenacity [Passive]
Spectral Hunter [Passive]
Sunder Maw [Active]
Supersonic Aerial Dominion [Passive]
Tempest Lightning Rush [Active]
Voracious Vortex Maw [Passive]
World-Rending Scream [Active]
World-Shaper's Might [Passive]
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[Would you like to fuse these following skills?]
? Advance Lightning Mastery + Sevenfold Tail Authority
? Bog Strength + Crushing Stomp
[Initiate Fusion?]
[Yes] / [No]
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Their fusion wasn't something unimpressive, nor impressive in the slightest bit. I stared at the two concepts in the form of small spheres, slowly changing as their descriptions were being rewritten by some unknown force. Of course, I wasn't just here to watch. I let my mana run into the sphere to tweak the descriptions to my liking.
They offered some resistance, but I didn't care. As I brute-forced myself in, cleansing the descriptions into a blank slate.
Then, I materialized my mana into a pen. Before I wrote the letters myself, defining exactly how these skills would function. only when I was satisfied at the result did I nod my head in satisfaction when their descriptions that were so basic had turned into something worthwhile. Then, I ignored the skills without even reading their final descriptions. Before I sighed and dismissed it.
I stared at the 'Ascension I' skills in the open and contemplated which skills I should fuse next.
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[The skills had been fused you may now view their descriptions.]
? Storm-Tail Genesis [Ascension I]
? Titanic Mirebreaker [Ascension I]
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[Normal Skill:]
Efficient Predator's Digestion [Passive]
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[Ascension Skills:]
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[Ascension V]
Indomitable Cereum Carapace [Passive]
Hands of the Gods [Active]
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[Ascension IV]
Continental Mass Physique [Passive]
Infinite Maw Cataclysm [Passive]
Wrath of the Voidstorm Serpent [Active]
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[Ascension III]
Abyssal Tendril Bastion [Passive]
Bulwark of the One True God [Active]
Celestial Abaddon Form [Active]
Flesh Marionette [Active]
Formless Sovereign Emergence [Passive]
Incarnate of the Fallen [Passive]
Judgment of United Blades [Active]
Scripture of Absolute Reinforcement [Active]
Sylphid Summoning [Active]
Tidal Cataclysm Domain [Passive]
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[Ascension II]
Aureate Sanguine Restoration [Passive]
Colossal Demonic Dominion [Passive]
Cosmic Ossature [Passive]
Fallen Lord Descension [Active]
Immovable Core of the Earth [Passive]
Mercy [Active]
Neural Tendril Nodebirth [Passive]
Terra-Void Bulwark [Passive]
Tyrant’s Eye of the Storm [Active]
Void Step [Active]
Voracious Maw of the Abyss [Passive]
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[Ascension I]
Apex Predator Senses [Passive]
Apostle's Aetheric Blood[Passive]
Bloodline Suppression Gaze [Active]
Caustic Assimilation [Passive]
Gaze of the Fallen [Active]
Sanguine Purification [Passive]
Savage Tenacity [Passive]
Spectral Hunter [Passive]
Sunder Maw [Active]
Supersonic Aerial Dominion [Passive]
Storm-Tail Genesis [Passive]
Titanic Mirebreaker [Passive]
Tempest Lightning Rush [Active]
Voracious Vortex Maw [Passive]
World-Rending Scream [Active]
World-Shaper's Might [Passive]
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Hmm. There were some skills that I'd been delaying fusing, thinking that maybe when I devoured more compatible skills, only then would I elevate them. But looking at my reasoning now... I shook my head. It was flawed.
What can low-quality skills do when fused together? Well, the answer is a slightly better quality skill. And for what? Well, for nothing.
So I dismissed that hesitation. I turned my attention to all of the 'Ascension I' skills. I knew that one of these skills would be left behind, [Storm-Tail Genesis], which didn't have a skill compatible with it in the least bit. I ignored it and began to randomly pull the other skills.
I paired them one by one, clicking the familiar button that indicated 'Yes' as I smirked.
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[Would you like to fuse these following skills?]
? Apex Predator Senses + Gaze of the Fallen + Bloodline Suppression Gaze
? Sanguine Purification + Sunder Maw + Voracious Vortex Maw
? Savage Tenacity + Caustic Assimilation + Apostle's Aetheric Blood
? Tempest Lightning Rush + Supersonic Aerial Dominion + Spectral Hunter
? World-Shaper's Might + Titanic Mirebreaker + World-Rending Scream
[Initiate Fusion?]
[Yes] / [No]
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I watched the process with a smirk as the fifteen skills melded seamlessly into five new sets.
I checked their descriptions as they combined and were rewritten into more powerful ones. I nodded my head to some, but shook my head to others. Again, I flooded the skill sphere with mana and forcefully interfered so that I could assist in making the skill descriptions, seeing if there was something needed to be adjusted, removed, or added.
Just then, Samantha sat right beside me. She took a glance at Solia, who was sleeping soundly with her head on my stomach.
"Alister," she said, voicing her concerns. "I know that you're training Solia to become a formidable force, but dear... aren't you being too harsh on her? I know you had the capabilities to heal her but ignored it. At least let her be, able to speak so that there's someone around my age that I could converse with, other than those fools."
I smiled at her words and nodded. The purpose of me not healing Solia’s organ responsible for speech had been accomplished, Solia could now use 'Voice Transmission' perfectly so delaying her treatment isn't exactly what I wanted.
So I gently opened Solia’s mouth so as not to wake her up. Then I squeezed my blood to the tip of my index finger, forming into a droplet of heavy, condensed life essence. That fell into her mouth.
I closed her mouth gently. The droplet of my essence had begun its job at repairing Solia's impaired organ.
Now that the task was complete, I grabbed Samantha by her stomach, which was already filled with my essence, and pulled her towards me. Samantha smiled softly as she cuddled into my side.
I smiled at this sight, then turned back to the System. I stared at the outcome of the fusion, dismissed their descriptions for now, and stared at the 'Ascension II' list.
I closed my eyes and pondered. What approach should I take this time?
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[The skills had been fused you may now view their descriptions.]
? Predator-King’s Dominion [Ascension II]
? Sanguine Devourer Core [Ascension II]
? Aether-Blooded Devourer Berserk [Ascension II]
? Tempest Wraith Ascendancy [Ascension II]
? Cataclysmic Paragon of the Deepworld [Ascension II]
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