Chapter 33:

Editing note: I edited last chapter so the description for the two illusion Skills have been changed. Just to make it more clear the difference between the two and what they can do.

It took me some time to make my decisions about what Skills to take. They were all quite tempting in their own way, and some were clearly more beneficial than others. But there was more to consider than just whether the Skills were good enough or not.

I also had to consider what Skill consolidations these new Skills might unlock, along with the chances I could harvest any similar Skills soon.

For the foreseeable future, the Crystal Drake and most of the creatures of the Crystal Cliffs were probably going to be out of reach. I would have to take that into account. Then there were the One-Tailed Spirit Foxes. I’d seen their entry in the Starguard Bestiaries, and they were supposed to be quite rare. It was unlikely that I would find any more of those in the future.

And, of course, there was one final worry that I had to consider. Whether or not I would be able to use the Skills I harvested openly. Harvesting abilities from spirit beasts wasn’t as note-worthy as being able to do the same to people. But it was still something that I wanted to avoid others even considering that I could do.

If I used too many abilities that resembled spirit beasts, and they were different enough from each other, it was possible that people might start making assumptions. They probably wouldn’t come to the right conclusion, but it was better not to draw that kind of attention in the first place. Thankfully, after giving it some thought, and thinking back to talking about this with Lin and Jianfeng, I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be an issue with these Skills at least.

The crystal-based Skills could be seen as an extension of my Earth techniques. And the illusion and fire Skills could be one-offs. But it was still good to think about these kind of things now, to get into the habit.

Eventually, I made my decision and picked my three new Skills. They were Foxfire, Illusionary Form, and Crystalizing Beam.

Illusionary Form seemed very useful. The way the foxes used it, it was pretty much both a disguise ability and a clone ability in one. It would probably take some getting used to, but all the utility available was just too good to ignore.

Crystallizing Beam was also a very powerful move, but took a little more thought before I took it. Getting access to more Qi by storing it in crystals was tempting. But, in the end, I chose Crystallizing Beam. There were a lot of reasons for this. Part of it was not wanting to rely on a resource I had to buy. Another was wanting a harder-hitting move. And one of the biggest reasons was how being able to make my own crystals would make my Earth Skills even more powerful.

That also wasn’t taking into account the possible consolidations I might be able to get with said Earth Skills. It really was a great Skill for me and made up for me not getting that Gem Shelled Tortoise I was originally aiming for. This was likely better than what the gemstone tortoise could have given me.

Finally, there was Foxfire. That was actually the hardest decision for me. Overall, it didn’t sound that impressive. Perhaps a decent range option, but with Crystalizing Beam, it felt a bit redundant. Perhaps it could be the less Qi-intensive and more controlled range option, but I could have filled that role once I got better with Earth Constructs or Earth Manipulation.

However, the thing that still made me choose it in the end was the rank. It was the first C-Rank Skill I’d seen. I honestly thought I might have to wait until the first time I harvested a Rank 2 for me to get a C-Rank. And I couldn’t help but feel that there might be something special about it.

So, in the end, I took the skill.

Once all three carcasses had dissolved into light, and I had recovered from all the information that flooded my mind, I was eager to see if I was right about the C-Rank Skill. The information that came with the Skills was only ever about how to use them and not all their details.

I walked over to the trio of dummies in one of the corners of the room to try things out. Standing only a couple yards back from the target, I held out a hand and activated Foxfire for the first time.

A small ball of blue flames appeared in front of my hand. It hovered there in the air, and I could feel a strange connection to it. With just a thought, I made it float slowly to the left and then to the right. Then I made it do something more complex, ascending in a spiral.

I smiled despite how unimpressive it all was compared to some other things I’d done. The amount of free control I had over the Skill was nice. Of course, if this was all it could do, then that wouldn’t make up for taking up a slot. It was time to see just what else it could do.

Looking back at the target, I willed the blue ball of flame forward as fast as I could make it. I also willed it to burn as hot as it would allow.

The fireball smashed right into the dummy, erupting into a small burst of blue flame. When that disappeared, I looked at the dummy to see… nothing. Absolutely nothing.

What the hell? Did I mess up in making it burn, or was it that weak? On a closer inspection of the wooden dummy, I saw that there was a slight singe mark on it. So it seemed it had burned, just not well.

I frowned at that and tried again, creating another ball of foxfire. This time, I attempted to funnel more Qi into it to make it bigger or stronger. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work. I could control the Foxfire, but I had no way of adding more Qi.

I launched this foxfire ball in frustration at the target and got the same result as last time. Frustration welled up in me as I wondered if I’d just fucked up. I could have gotten more illusions Skills instead of this. It was so freaking weak, what the—

Wait a minute. What if…

Hope welling in my chest, I held up my hand again and aimed at the dummy once more. I activated another of my new Skills. A beam of familiar—and still a bit frightening—purple blasted out of my hand. It smashed right into the dummy for a couple of seconds, quickly draining my Qi as it did. Then I cut off the Skill and looked at the results.

Once again, I started to worry when I saw that the dummy was now coated with a thick layer of crystal. I’d been hoping the dummy was actually magical in some way and that’s why my Foxfire had seemed so weak. But if—

There was a cracking sound. It was soon followed by another and then another. Finally, the cluster of crystals that had been clinging onto the dummy broke apart and crashed into the ground.

I stared wide-eyed as the dummy remained mostly unscathed, except for some shards of purple crystal that still clung to its frame.

I sighed in relief. So the dummies were magical to some extent. Probably extra tough, and even had some way to repel the crystallization effect of my Skill. That meant that there was still hope for my Foxfire. Perhaps it would do a lot more damage to something less protected. I would have to check later with more fragile targets.

With my hope restored, I spent the next half hour or so messing around with Foxfire some more, trying to figure out its secrets. It didn’t take me long to figure one of them out, and I realized just how silly my previous panic about the Skill was. Even if the dummies hadn't been reinforced it wouldn’t have been an issue. Because while I couldn’t add Qi to a ball of already made Foxfire, I could control more than one of them at a time.

The only limit there seemed to be in terms of numbers was my focus and Qi. Aside from that, it seemed I could have as many balls of Foxfire as I wanted. Which, when combined together into a single attack, was much more devastating than I thought possible.

Combining over 10 of the fireballs into a single attack created a much larger explosion than the single fireball. It also left a much darker burn mark on the dummy. The mark disappeared after a moment from whatever repaired the dummies, but it was a remarkable improvement and left me far more satisfied with the Skill.

After that, I decided to move on. I messed around with Crystalizing Beam a bit more and realized that the whole cultivation chamber seemed protected against my crystallizing effect. It was a bit worrying, but I just hoped it wasn’t as easy to get such protection on armor as opposed to a structure. And if that wasn’t the case, it wasn’t all bad.

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Crystals still grew from where I hit with the beam, even if they didn’t turn anything else into crystal. That effect would at least slow down an opponent. The crystals themselves could also be used with my Earth Skills, making any constructs I made much tougher.

Once I was done with that, I finally moved on to Illusionary Form. Which, as expected, was not quite that easy to use. Creating a clone of myself wasn’t too difficult and seemed the easiest way to use the Skill. But controlling the movements of the clone while moving myself was a lot more difficult. Changing what the form looked like and getting something that didn’t look hideous was also not easy.

I would need to spend more time training it as it would be well worth it to get it working. But that would have to be in the future. It was getting late, and I was still mentally tired from the day. So I decided to just check out any new Skill Consolidation quickly and call it a day.

Or at least, that was the plan.

Then I actually opened my status screen.

Everything seemed normal at first. I was now at around 20% of the way to Mid Rank 1, which I should be able to bring up to 100% after processing another 23 cores in addition to one I’d eaten along with my dinner. I had more than enough cores for that after our hunt.

My normal cultivation was, of course, way less impressive, as I hadn’t started yet so it was still labeled ‘none’. And I had used up 16 of my 20 Skill slots—a number that I could reduce by a lot if I needed to by consolidating.

But then I saw my Skill Consolidations. The first thing I noticed was that it just said 25+ options available on the main Status page. But after I clicked on that, and opened up the secondary page, I saw that there were a lot more options than I thought. A lot more.

It was as if my consolidations had more than doubled.

I quickly looked through the massive list to see just what could have caused this. And very quickly, I realized what the culprit was: Foxfire.

For some reason, Foxfire was extremely compatible with other Skills. It could literally combine with every other Skill. And as I looked at the various options available, I realized that the Foxfire Skill seemed to take precedence over other Skills.

All the resulting consolidations seemed to still be the same at the core. The ability to create and control Foxfire. But what changed between the various combos was the additional effects the foxfire got when combined with another Skill. For the most part, the flames seemed to gain an ability similar to the Skill combined with Foxfire.

It took a while to get through the whole list, but several really stood out to me. So much so, that I was strongly considering just consolidating the Skills now. The only thing that held me back was that I wasn’t quite sure what to take. There were so many incredibly useful Skills, and I might only be able to have one of them.

Foxfire (Active) (C Rank) + Qi Devourer (Active&Passive) (C Rank):

* Qi Devouring Foxfire (Active) (C Rank): Create and control Foxfire. Foxfire is part illusion and part reality, unique to every being able to create it. It can burn or not based on the desires of its creator. When it burns fuel, it can replenish itself and even grow. This particular kind of foxfire can also absorb Qi, burning it to increase its own power or channel it back directly to an extra Qi reserve of its creator.

* Cost: 5 Qi

* Upkeep: 1 Qi per hour

Foxfire (Active) (C Rank) + Crystalizing Beam (Active) (D Rank):

* Crystalizing Foxfire (Active) (C Rank): Create and control Foxfire. Foxfire is part illusion and part reality, unique to every being able to create it. It can burn or not based on the desires of its creator. When it burns fuel, it can replenish itself and even grow. This particular kind of foxfire can also expend itself to attempt to crystalize anything it touches.

* Cost: 10 Qi

* Upkeep: 2 Qi per hour

Foxfire (Active) (C Rank) + Illusionary Form (Active) (D Rank):

* Foxfire Clones (Active) (C Rank): Create and control Foxfire. Foxfire is part illusion and part reality, unique to every being able to create it. It can burn or not based on the desires of its creator. When it burns fuel, it can replenish itself and even grow. This particular kind of foxfire can be used to project an illusionary form of its creator that can mimic life.

* Cost: 10 Qi

* Upkeep: 1 Qi per hour

Foxfire (Active) (C Rank) + Quick Step (Active) (D Rank):

* Foxfire Steps (Active) (C Rank): Create and control Foxfire. Foxfire is part illusion and part reality, unique to every being able to create it. It can burn or not based on the desires of its creator. When it burns fuel, it can replenish itself and even grow. This particular kind of foxfire can be expended while being stepped on to give the user a burst of speed.

* Cost: 10 Qi

* Upkeep: 1 Qi per hour

Foxfire (Active) (C Rank) + Metallic Razor Strike (Active) (D Rank):

* Foxfire Displacement Strike (Active) (C Rank): Create and control Foxfire. Foxfire is part illusion and part reality, unique to every being able to create it. It can burn or not based on the desires of its creator. When it burns fuel, it can replenish itself and even grow. This particular kind of foxfire can be expended in pairs to transfer a physical strike from a foxfire near the creator to another foxfire within range.

* Cost: 20 Qi

* Upkeep: 1 Qi per hour

Despite how useful all the Skills in my shortlist were, I found myself drawn to Qi Devouring Fox Fire the most. The loss of the boost from Qi Devourer might have deterred me more if the boost wasn’t already pretty much useless at this point. Not without increasing how much QI I could store by likely an absurd amount. It was probably better to find a more Qi efficient Skill to replace it in the future.

And everything else about Qi Devouring Foxfire was too useful to ignore.

The ability to drain Qi from a distance could be a huge advantage. So far, despite Qi Devourer allowing me to drain Qi from others, I hadn’t used it because I mainly fought with a sword. It was tough to get into a position where I could use such a powerful technique. Something to empower me and weaken my enemy at the same time.

But with Qi Devouring Fox Fire, it would be a lot easier to try and drain my enemies. A lot less risky as well. Not only that, but I could use that drained Qi for myself, allowing me to use my Skills more freely.

If the other Skills weren’t all quite amazing as well, I would have chosen the ability already. But, because they were, and this was potentially my only shot for a very powerful ability for the next while—because of the troubles in the Great Southern Forest—I wanted to be as careful as possible.

So I decided to leave it for later. Let myself sleep for the night, and maybe make my decision tomorrow. I would have to choose soon, however, as Pan Song's meeting with Sun Xia was scheduled for tomorrow. If we were still going to go to that ruin, then I would want this new ability ready in case I needed it.

I left the cultivation building late into the evening. The sun had long since set, and the moon was high in the sky. The stars above also shone incredibly brightly, the light pollution of the city here nowhere near the levels of a city back on Earth.

I took a moment to admire it all before heading back to my house to go to sleep.

After changing into some nightwear, I dove into my absurdly soft and luxurious bed and went to sleep, happy to leave any decisions to tomorrow.

Or at least, that’s what I tried to do. Something stopped me, however. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. It was as if there was something trying to draw my attention at the back of my head. I hadn’t noticed it before, but in the silence and quiet of my bedroom, it started to be very apparent.

Unable to sleep because of it, I tried to focus on the feeling to figure out just what it was. It reminded me of something, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was almost like… like… Foxfire!

I opened my eyes as that realization hit me and sat up. It reminded me of Foxfire, but the Skill wasn’t running at the moment. Or at least, I didn’t think so. For a second, I wondered if I had left some Foxfire out, and that was what I was feeling.

But, after taking a moment to center myself, I realized that wasn’t the case. The feeling wasn’t off because it was far away. No, in fact, it felt quite close. The strangeness was because I didn’t have a connection to this Foxfire. I couldn’t control it, yet it was connected to me.

I opened my eyes again and pulled up the sleeve of my right arm. Then I stared at my forearm and focused on it. After another moment, I was sure. The feeling was coming from my forearm there.

But how? Why?

I reached out with the same sense I’d used to find it, trying to connect with this flame and see what it was all about. It seemed to try to evade my grasp, slippery like an eel and trying to remain unnoticed. But I had noticed it, and I didn’t like it one bit.

I forced it harder. Tried to grasp it and—ouch!

I winced as a blue flame erupted from my arm. There wasn’t a lot of it, and despite the initial pain, it wasn’t that bad. But it was still surprising as all heck. Had one of those One-Tailed Spirit Foxes left that on me? It was possible. If their fox flames were altered like the options I had for Foxfire. Perhaps that was just something you could do with foxfire. Leave it inside of someone as a trap or tracker.

But then again, perhaps not. Because as I looked at my right arm, where the flame had come from, I remembered another fox I’d encountered before. One that had gotten even closer than the foxes that tried to lure me away. It had bitten me right on the arm where the flame had been.

I frowned at the realization. As if I didn’t already hate foxes enough.

A part of me wanted to just go to sleep now that it was dealt with. But I couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t more to this than I thought. Despite my new Skill, I was hardly an expert on these types of things. It could have been some kind of tracker. Or it could have been worse. It would be better to get a second opinion.

I sighed at that thought and moved to get up. It seemed I wouldn’t be getting a chance to sleep just yet. Hopefully, I was just being paranoid, and there was nothing to worry about.