Sol and Amber ate their food while discussing each other's status pages. Although Amber kept her responses short, it was much more frequent than before. Sol also noticed during the conversation that she lacked a lot of common sense regarding talents and skills and tried to explain as best he could.
“When you unlock a talent, you don’t always get general skills right off the bat, you have to discover them yourself. That's usually not a problem with common or well-known skills, as those are documented in detail, but I don’t know much about [Sand Queen]. I can tell it's a legendary talent, but that's about it. I have no idea what kind of skills you would be able to learn and develop just from the name, but it’s obvious they would all be sand-related. We can check in the library later if there's any more information about it.”
“Mhm.”
Amber gave a small nod as Sol thought to himself how ridiculous her lineup is.
‘She has the rare [Hidden Blade] followed by what I think is the unique [Sand Body] and tops it off with a legendary [Sand Queen]. Getting any of them would normally be more than enough, but she got increasingly better talents. To top it all off, each talent helped her learn different attribute skills, and if she gained [Wisdom Up] when we first entered the dungeon… for it to already be at level 3…’
Sol believed Amber was an anomaly for being so talented. Sol knew he was even more so of an anomaly, but his growth was mostly dependent on others, while Amber’s growth was all hers. It didn’t help either that Sol’s growth was not just dependent on others, but they had to die as well for him to gain anything.
‘Forget it, I also have [Reinterpret], so I can also slowly develop my skills. It’s not the same, though…’
After finishing their meals, Amber and Sol went to their tents to rest for the night. Instead of his usual [Reinterpret] session, Sol wanted to combine a few skills instead. It would leave him tired by the end of it, but he believed it to be worth it.
Activating [Aggregate], Sol saw once more the strings that ran in multiple directions in a beautiful assortment of colors.
‘I have been wondering, where do these strings lead?’
Sol could only perceive the strings a few feet away from him, after that, they began to blur and disappear. He tried to somehow look further, but didn’t know how, so he just ended up straining his eyes.
‘Nevermind, let's just focus on the skills.’
Eagerly, Sol willed [Magic Resistance] to wrap around [Invincible Body]. The process was smooth as the string easily wrapped around the thicker one, as if it was always meant to be there. When Sol originally combined [Invincible Body], he also desired [Magic Resistance] to be a part of it, and that desire made the created skill more flexible and able to accept the new addition much easier.
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[Invincible Body] Lv 6: Increase Defense by 220. Nullify all damage by 30%. High chance to ignore mental status effects. Increased health regeneration by 300%. Able to slowly regrow small body parts.
‘Amazing! It also didn’t decrease the skill level.’
It was an incredibly small and minuscule change to the description, but it was a huge step for Sol. The reason for the skill not degrading was solely because the skill was combined with [Magic Resistance] in mind; it completely adapted and became one step closer to being a complete creation.
‘Maybe I should add [Increased Mana Regeneration]? No, that may work, but I think it would be best to combine it with the other mana-related skills. This should be a purely defensive skill.’
Sol was worried it would muddy the waters, figuratively speaking. While he didn’t know for sure, he felt that it would stretch the skill too far in trying to do too many things at once.
‘Now what else can I make?’
…
An hour later, Sol only managed to combine two new skills. It’s not that the process itself took a long time, it was solely because he was indecisive over which skills to combine.
[True Sight] Lv 6: Open one's eyes to the truth of the world and see what most cannot. Perceive mana and life within a 30 meter radius. Able to pierce through most illusions. Extremely rare chance of obtaining a premonition.
[Superior Mana Control] Lv 1: You have taken a large step in mastering the manipulation of mana. Able to bypass the need to chant spells in their totality at 50% decreased efficiency. Increased mana regeneration by 500%, can also manually recover mana faster. All mana costs decrease by 50%. Able to multicast three spells at once at 50% higher cost.
[True Sight] came from a combination of [Mana Perception], [Life Perception], and [Danger Sense]. Sol made a mistake in adding [Danger Sense] while focusing on creating a perception ability. This in turn combined into a skill that also allowed him to see through illusions but it completely changed his ability to detect danger and instead now had a small chance to see the future.
‘I don’t know if trading [Danger Sense] for a small chance to see the future was worth it, but I can’t take it back now. Hopefully, it doesn’t just tell me what I’ll eat for dinner a week from now…’
The second skill Sol created, [Superior Mana Control], came from a combination of [Shortened Cast], [Increased Mana Regeneration], [Mana Efficiency], and [Multicast]. Overall it was a net positive increase, improving on most of the previous skills. The biggest gain from this newly combined skill was that it kept most of the previous effects while resetting the level back to one, meaning it had evolved in the process as well, allowing it to grow once more.
‘If I increase this to level 10, won't spells cost no mana? How is such a thing possible?’
Sol had no idea how it would be possible for spells to cost nothing and was excited by the possibility of being able to cast spells nonstop. Although Sol could have kept combining skills, he was tired after the creation of [Superior Mana Control], which took the most concentration to successfully create. He decided to call it a night and get some rest as in a few hours they would have to race through the dungeon once more.
A few hours later, Sol woke up and with a refreshed mind and body made some breakfast. Amber joined him not long later as the two ate peacefully in the dark and dreary dungeon.
Done with their meals, the two once again ventured into the 16th floor of the dungeon with renewed vigor.