Anorak lounged among a few of his most loyal allies, watching Ethan struggle to kill Scorpions with a lance twice as tall as he was, in an enclosed space no less. His friend had developed an impressive tactic where he brought sand and wind to life, beckoning the sand and wind to distract the scorpions and blind them while Ethan smashed them with the butt end of his lance, completely ignoring its main function of storing kinetic energy.
“Your champion will die in this Dungeon, this I know.” The Orc turned Oni and top assassin of the Hellfire Sector pronounced. He wasn’t saying it mockingly, but more out of concern.
“Oh yeah? Are you certain enough to bet on it?”
“I would just be taking your possessions, it would not be a wager but a gift with extra steps.”
“I’m offering the forgeworld of TItanus, my second most important planet.” Before Anorak could come up with something to sweeten the deal, Fang the Silent replied.
“And what prize would you like me to offer up?”
“Oh nothing really. Just one hundred years of service as Ethan's familiar.”
“You jest, my aura would suffocate everyone on that weak planet. Do you truly wish to ensure your champion's death?”
“Oh, of course we would either seal your strength to the grade of the planet or have you prestige your class and start from scratch. Your choice really.”
“Normally I would laugh at this kind of bet, but you will lose. This I know.” Anorak extended his hand to shake with Fang, they had fought and saved each other's lives far too many times to need to rely on system enforced pact magic. Fang shook it, believing himself to soon become the planetary overlord of Titanus. Anorak probably could have asked Fang to do this as a favor, as he has lost both his arms in a chaotic battle once freeing Fang’s disciple from a sect prison, But Anorak didn’t like asking for something without giving anything in return or atleast offering a gamble.
Both of them returned to watching the feed, Fang now much more invested in Ethan’s downfall. So far the two have made slow but steady progress- but if Anorak knew anything it was that places like this always contained a mini-boss. That would be the true test of their power and resolve. The two had just found a trap of illusions and dreams to rest by, no idea of the danger of allowing the trap to drain their mana. With some sort of stroke of either genius or luck Nathan had turned the trap into, you guessed it, a googly eyed smiley faced living creature. After asking it to provide them with good dreams and rest, the trap had somehow disabled its own harmful mana-draining runes, leaving just the ones that provided deep and beautiful dreams. They had turned a deadly trap into a resting area. Anorak was starting to see why Ascenders and Gods alike invested so heavily into this form of entertainment, championing integrating species. It was truly a thrill to watch.
—
Ethan was once again the creature of vines and root on a barren planet. Ethan had grown its root system to touch every leyline, no matter how damaged. His roots extended from one side of the planet to the other, his ancient roots entangled with his new ones. But what were these tablets? Ethan, or the plant rather, hungered for answers. It had learned everything it could of this planet, and these stone tablets full of intention were the final mystery. The books had long decayed, providing nutrients to the creature long ago- but the tablets remained. It ran its tendrils across their surfaces in a probing and thoughtful manner. It never constricted the tablets, not after the first one broke. Only rubbing against them, what sort of mysteries did they contain?
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Ethan felt more, real this time, for lack of a better phrase. Before he couldn’t control his ghost body, being brought to different angles to observe himself, or the version of himself that was this plant creature. With some resistance, he broke from the firm grasp of the dream. He understood that he shouldn’t be able to do this, but something was keeping him in the dream. For a few moments he fluttered his eyelids open, before being pushed back into the dream world. He was no longer the plant, just an observer in the world, who could move of his own volition now. He let his wisdom guide him to the vault, instinctually knowing where it was from the now fading memories of the plant. Entering the vault he was surprised by the size of everything, including the plant.
The tablet’s were much larger than he perceived as the vine creature, towering above his head by several feet. His Dao of Reading flared to life as he began to parse the information of the tablets. The first two described the rise, and then fall of this race called the Permetions. They all cultivated the Dao of Teaching and Dao of Learning into The Dao of The Scholar, as their whole species resonated with it. The Dao of Learning tablet lay in crumbles, as the vine creature had unknowingly destroyed and absorbed some vestiges of The Dao of Learning. A skill called ‘Form of Constellations’ seemed to be the sole reason for the planet's downfall, as the planet was forced to process too much ambient void mana as a result. It was the Pemetions only combat skill and it was devastating to their enemies and homeworld, a complicated skill that was made available to all who cultivated The Dao of The Scholar as their Dao made the learning much more simple and straightforward. A planet can handle thousands of users of this ability, but not billions.
[Skill: Constellation Form] (Epic) Gives the user the Constellation Form transformation ability.
[System Warning! You are attempting to use a Dao Vision in an alternative way that is not system protected. Any soul damage from being unable to process the skill correctly will be consequences of your own actions. Dao Vision may become permanently inaccessible after absorbing this skill.]
[Do you wish to continue attempting to absorb the skill?]
Ethan could already read, apparently even foreign languages. Why did he need to further develop his Dao of Reading? He didn’t need these dreams and they were weird, not in the good way either. He was fine never coming back here. He could practice reading with his scanny gun. He selected [Yes]
The world around him shattered like glass as he absorbed a skill in the unorthodox manner, not through a skill crystal but through his Dao and it’s link to this vision. The system filled him with understanding that not only would he never return to the Dao Vision, but that he was breaking it for anyone that came after him. The path of self taught reading through the Dao that this vine creature unknowingly would teach him now gone, and in its place a new skill.
—
"The pair of balls on this mortal." Anorak barked in laughter as Ethan showed his pal his new ability he got while sleeping. Anorak couldn’t make this shit up if he tried. Transformation abilities were rare and almost always had some sort of drawback that made them circumstantial at best. Ethan had gained an epic rated skill that’s only drawback was draining the ambient mana around himself and producing void mana in its wake. Fine for an individual cultivator but not something you’d want to equip an army with, or even a small assault team, as they could wreck any magical device that used ambient mana- and that was most of them. Nonetheless destroying a Dao vision of that quality and compatibility was unheard of. It could have carried him into the C-ranks and helped him form a complete Dao tree at the very least. The fact that Nathan’s little trap creature had made it possible wasn’t lost on Anorak, who was thinking of having some of his more distant allies with their own sectors champion this Nathan fella. While his champion had done nothing but confirm his choice with his entertaining antics, Nathan seemed deserving of a Demon backer as well.
“Are you starting to regret that bet we made yet?” Anorak said, still laughing. Fang just replied with a grunt. Anorak just laughed even harder at the assassins scowling oni mask, that now matched his feelings underneath.