Tainted Perk? Ragnar had never heard this term before. So, had he gained something very rare? But it was just as probable that he was simply out of touch with the knowledge pertaining these perks. They might be common thing.

The Realm could not be bothered to provide a description as always so Ragnar was left to his own devices to figure out what it was. It didn’t seem too hard though considering the name of the perk. It was kind of self-explanatory.

He also sensed a strange attraction coming from the Earth below him, as if he could dissolve into it.

Earthen Fusion, it should have something to do with fusing with the Earth. But how does it work? Ragnar was very sceptical about this. Considering his past with burying under Earth, he was hesitant about testing this one out.

But he had to do it. Because if it was what he thought it was, then another very strong ability might just have entered his arsenal.

He activated it and imagined himself being one with the Earth, in the next moment, he dropped down. He had entered inside the Earth. Ragnar opened his eyes and he could see the surface. It felt like each grain of soil above him were his eyes. He had a very clear picture of the outside even though his body was completely submerged in the Earth.

Ragnar had thought that it would feel suffocating to be buried under Earth, but he currently felt like he belonged here.

He could also move through the Earth. Albeit not as fast as he might on top of it, but it was still much faster than normal running without his Wave Surge ability.

He sensed that he couldn’t use any other ability while he was in here. He also could not interact with anything outside the Earth. Which means that he could either be in or out, there was no middle ground. Once in, he was the Earth.

The most amazing aspect of this ability however lied in the fact that he did not require any Essence to activate this ability, which means he could stay here indefinitely.

He wondered if he could bring in other things with him as well… He will have to do some tests to find out. And what about living things? He had an inkling that it might just work.

Ragnar’s grin returned to his face, this time while he was underground. He could imagine the things he would be able to do with this. His Ethereal form might be a much-upgraded version of this but it came with a time limit. And this one didn’t.

This also allowed him to be almost invincible, whenever he wanted. Once inside the Earth, no one can damage his real body unless they destroy the whole chunk of Earth in their vicinity in one strike. As long as enough Earth was left intact that could house his body, Ragnar would be just fine.

He also didn’t have any cooldowns between the uses of this ability. It might be almost the same tier as his Wave Surge ability.

But that didn’t mean it was anywhere near as strong. This one only served a single purpose. Whereas Wave Surge should be one of the most flexible and versatile abilities to ever exist, as least as far as Ragnar knew.

Even though Ragnar didn’t feel like it suited him at first, he had started to warm up to it. He preferred it even more than his Shifted Abilities. Maybe that’s a stretch. But still, he is not mad about all the noise it creates anymore. Rather, it sounds like music to his ears.

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Ragnar had to check the new things he could accomplish with his other abilities but the Earth was too comfortable. He didn’t feel like leaving it. This being the flip side of Earthen Fusion.

Ragnar had sensed this as soon as he entered the Earth. The Earth was luring him, coaxing him, to stay inside it. The Earth wanted him to fuse with it completely and never leave its side.

This might have actually worked on Ragnar if he didn’t have his lineage but he did. So, his Primordial class completely blocked out this mind hex from the surrounding Earth, making him completely prone to the negative side of this ability. Ragnar could stay inside the Earth for as long as he wanted without any worries.

So, his Primordial class also provided him defence from mind attacks, he wondered what else he didn’t know about this unknown class he had received by that mysterious entity.

This ability had come from the Queen, so that means she had this before him. She must be constantly fighting the urge to be one with the Earth as well.

Remembering the Queen, she must be unable to use this ability because of her inability to move from that location during her evolution. Otherwise, it would have been a piece of cake for her to escape this collapse.

Ragnar had gotten very lucky in this regard.

Did the Realm calculate this? No, it must have sent him during her evolution so he could get some easy Charges and increase his Saturation. It never could have guessed that Ragnar would completely destroy this Network.

He emerged from the Earth in the same spot he had gone in. The process of going in and coming out didn’t even take a single second. It was almost instant.

He had another very useful ability that would help him escape. Why were all his abilities so good at escaping?

Well, never mind. Ragnar liked it this way. As long as he was alive, he would have countless attempts at achieving his goals.

***

The first thing Ragnar did after emerging was use his Echolocation. It came naturally to him; he didn’t have to think about it too much anymore and would regularly use it at certain intervals.

He liked being aware of his surroundings.

But the image that formed in his mind from this action came as a surprise for him. A complete 3D image took shape inside his head that covered a 100-metre radius around him. He felt that if he just wanted to sense movements like he previously did then he could even expand his range to around 200 metres.

Like this, he could see the places where his eyes couldn’t reach. This will come in handy.

Ragnar liked this surprise.

He only knew a few things about the Arcane Rank that also came from Tristan.

Once an individual reaches it, they become capable of sensing their Essence, hence improving their control over their abilities overall. What one could accomplish using the same amount of Essence also increases exponentially since the increase in Rank provides a qualitative upgrade to the abilities.

Ragnar could now also release his Waves from any part of his body and not just his palms, feet or mouth. This felt like it should be something significant, but Ragnar could not think of any use for it right now.

He now had a much finer control over his waves allowing for countless things to be possible. Just thinking about it gave him a headache. He will have to come back to it.

His body needed a rest really badly at this point. He was still very much injured and the thrill from the near-death experience had left him exhausted.

He still did not want to rest yet before checking his Shifted form. So, he transformed.

And after transforming he found out that it was a waste of time. He could accomplish the same things he could before, but nothing new had happened. Only the time that different things lasted had increased.

He could stay invisible for around 30 minutes now before he ran out of essence. His Phantom form, he decided to call it that since Ethereal seemed overused, could last for 10 seconds. The cooldown before he could activate it again also decreased to 2 seconds, which was nice.

Other than that, it was just the general things like his senses had improved and body felt much stronger. But nothing that could excite him. He was liking his human ability more and more for some reason. Wonder why?

Ragnar had wasted enough time; he could finally rest.

He turned back into human and entered the Earth for a recovery sleep.