[Detected Magical Beast bond with User Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft’s soul. Initiate Status? Yes/No]
Tapping [Yes], a new screen popped up.
[Status: ]
Name: Scytale (Lvl. 1)
Age: 15y
Race: Magical Beast
Sub-Race: Serpent Beast
HP: 100/100 {+1/5m}
MP: 99/100 {+1/5m}
Stats:
Free Stat Points: 25
STR: 8 SPRT: 498
CON: 14 MENT: 11
AGI: 13 CHAR: 15
DEX: 12 CHP: 0
INT: 13 HRP: 1
WIS: 9
[Origin Skill: Hybridisation - {Truth-Seizing Serpent/Sanctity Caladrius} | Type: Bloodline/Realm
Magical Beasts all inherit a series of traits providing the boon of instinctual magic and glorious forms. Unfortunately, the world is unfair, and so many beasts have a lower bloodline strength than others, creating a hierarchy that requires a beast to struggle with its own powers to advance. This User has a rare case of Hybridisation – When a Magical Beast gains two bloodlines at almost exactly 50% purity each. He shall define this Origin Skill by his actions.
Subskills:
* Primal Descendant
* Natural Synchrony
* Ancient Retribution
* Glorified in Bygone
* Truth or Falsification
Awakening: 15% (Intermediate) ]
Skills:
[Demi-Mortal Assimilation (Altered)]
[ ]
It was unexpected and expected at the same time. There were a couple of things Lucille found were not what she thought, and some were. But one thing instantly stood out to her.
“Why are your stats fine?” She scowled.
“Well, I am only 15 according to the System. It wouldn’t print another port on my consciousness until I bond or turn 16, in which either case, I will go to an Obelisk where the processing capability is slightly higher, meaning it’s more likely to check for anomalies within my soul. Don’t be jealous, I only get 25 free stat points instead of 30 remember!”
“30 Stat points I can’t even use! And you get higher starting stats than humans, you brat.” She glared at the cheeky snake, flicking his tongue at her in amusement. Sighing, she looked at his stats in more detail.
“They’re a bit weird.”
“Yup. STR is below 10 because I wasn’t born with the size of my relatives, so that’s expected. It’s why my AGI is high for my enclave though, and DEX is slightly higher too. I think INT and WIS are the same, due to being a magic-casting clan. The 99 MP is because of the slight mana drain to keep my great-grandmother’s spell active. The rest though…”
CON could be explained by his second bloodline. Higher rarity bloodlines did normally have better constitution. His old starting stats had CON at 13. She supposed his SPRT was due to retaining part of his soul stats, but the others were really weird.
“It seems I have all the hidden stats?”
“Probably because you have a high SPRT stat. 300 was the amount needed to gain the Authority to unlock those without reaching Rank-3.”
“I think I remember having a high CHAR when I first unlocked the stat, and we attributed that to my bloodline being involved with illusions, so why is it even higher?”
“In that situation, there’s only one cause. The other bloodline has a higher CHAR stat than your original.”
“….have you ever heard about the Sanctity Caladrius having charm spells?”
No, she had not. And if she didn’t know, it was for two reasons only. One was that they didn’t normally have a high CHAR, and it was a mutation for Scytale. The other was because it was kept secret by the bloodline, which was common when related to charm. So, they had a famous light bloodline secretly using hidden manipulative techniques, a situation that instantly felt suspicious, and was giving her severe flashbacks to her experiences with that blighted organisation in the Mystical Realm famous for collecting money from its noble followers as ‘donations’ for its ‘prosperity’. She felt a vein twitch on her forehead.
“Rule number 1. Avoid the Sanctity Caladrius. At all costs. I am NOT going to get involved with a second manipulative Faction when I just know I’m going to get screwed over by the first. Don’t see if you can sneak near them, you know how the older ones can detect their descendants. They probably already sense the new member of their bloodline.”
“I’m not stupid. This whole situation is giving me Citadel of Fate vibes and I want none of it. However, what do you think the deal is with that Heroic Power? Its main users are manipulative in a different way.”
She rubbed her head with a complex expression on her face. Heroic Power… was a version of spiritual energy with quite specific uses. While the Heavenly Realm mentioned it when talking about reaching the ‘heart’ realm with ‘sword’ or ‘weapon intent’, creating their ‘weapon souls’, the Mystical Realm used it to form Heroic Weapons and Armour. Formed out of elemental mana, these weapons gained the special Transient prefix next to their rarity.
They were ‘summonable’ temporary weapons and armour, costing a certain amount of mana to form and keep active, but had much higher stats than normal weapons of that rarity. Mana-arts that developed Heroic Power were what Glory Pantheon was famous for, dubbing those who learnt the techniques ‘Champions’ or ‘Mythos’ depending on their age and whether they were active participants in Championships.
100 points of spiritual energy condensed to form a single point of HRP. This one point enabled the user to form a weapon or piece of armour out of it. The issue with Scytale having it was that it was a technique belonging only to the ‘mortal’ races as they were called, humans, elves, dwarves, etc, with few exceptions. With the exclusion of the Titans who were naturally born with it, to Lucille’s knowledge, and she had a LOT of knowledge on System history, there had never been a nonmortal race with Heroic Power.
If a bloodline could provide this, then it meant it was either a much higher rarity than it seemed, or was a jealously guarded secret, and a bloodline ability that very rarely occurred in its descendants. She turned to Scytale.
“Please tell as few people about this secret as possible. It is very likely that if the Sanctity Caladrius find out that a beast with another sub-race has this ability, or even notices the higher CHAR stat, and knows what it represents, they’ll either try their hardest to kidnap and indoctrinate you so you become their tool or will hunt you down to the end of the realms. More likely the latter considering you’re a serpent.”
He nodded solemnly, likewise aware of how important it was to keep this secret.
“What do I do with it?”
“Nothing for now. I think that even if you tried to hide it by using the Heavenly Realm techniques, with your light element affinity, it will automatically become a Heroic Weapon or piece of armour. I’ll try to study as much as I can about it, but I’ll be busy the next few years, so I suggest you do too.”
She rubbed her face again and groaned. “Unfortunately, I know more about Chaos Power than Heroic Power. All I need to do is defeat, or even make a deal with a demon, to find out more about Chaos Power, but that doesn’t work on Glory Pantheon members, their loyalty to their clans being way too high. Why couldn’t you have formed Chaos Power instead? It always gives interesting debuff affixes.”
He flapped his white-gold wings, ruffling her hair with the breeze. “Then I would be a demon beast and not Scytale. Let’s look closer at the sub-skills, I see something I like.”
She opened the Origin Skill tab and Scytale used his snout to tap on Primal Descendant.
[Sub-skill: Primal Descendant | Type: Bloodline/Transformative ]
The Magical Beasts of the Beast Realm are descended from mighty creatures larger than the size of worlds, who roamed and fought with each other in their spectacular glory. Unlike their unintelligent ancestors, their descendants are capable of thinking of the consequences of their actions, so therefore please watch below you when you unleash part of their incomprehensible size.
Ability:
Endless Growth – Squash not the creatures below you.
* Enables User to increase their size by a certain factor, and multiply their STR and CON. Factor increases each bloodline strength increase. Current factor: x3
[ ]
Scytale bobbed his head happily in an approximation of a nod.
“This is great. I didn’t gain this skill until I reached advanced level last time. From my memory, I reached about Skulker’s size when I was advanced, so….. yup, x3 is a nice starting point. My old one started at x2 though?”
She nodded. “The Caladrius also have this sub-skill in their bloodline.” Not all magical beasts had the skill. It was more common in the higher rarity bloodlines, but it wasn’t a rule. It was also in lower rarity bloodlines, and some higher rarities didn’t have it at all. Scytale made a face, or at least sent his intention of making one through the bond.
“Caladrius again. Now I know what I do about the bloodline, I’m not quite so proud of it now. Ah well, I’ll adapt, I come from a bloodline known for its illusion magic anyway, so I can be cunning and manipulative.”
“And you’re a sneaky snake.”
“That too.”
They looked at the other sub-skills. Natural Synchrony was the skill that enabled all magical beasts to communicate mentally, but it also was responsible for several other features. For one thing, magical beasts could increase their bloodline strength by devouring natural resources or materials that matched their elements. The skill could also provide mutations in some beasts when they were in a habitat without their element of mana, or some other situation, like gaining a glowing horn if they were in a cave when they advanced their bloodline strength. They skipped over the third skill to view the Glorified in Bygone one.
“I think this subskill is responsible for your HRP.”
“That much is obvious, it’s the Sanctity Caladrius bloodline ability.”
“I don’t mean the bloodline; I mean the skill itself.”
“How?”
She brought up the skill sheet. Using a long finger, she pointed at the skill description.
[Sub-skill: Glorified in Bygone | Type: Bloodline/Elemental ]
Desc: As brilliant beacons of light, the many winged Sanctity Caladrius have often been guardians and idols of worship for the lesser, mortal masses. Descendants of one of the few peaceable primals, the Light Bringer, they have protected and purified many areas where abominable creatures roamed, allowing the races to hold deep respect for these beings, with some placing them on a pedestal as more than mere beasts.
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Abilities:
Neophyte Light Bringer – Child of the purest light.
* Gives User advanced Light Affinity. All light element spells have up to 75% increased efficiency and effectiveness. Current element ratio: 75%
Golden Pillar of Peace – Everywhere you spread your wings shall see your light.
* Gives the User Lesser light manipulation.
* Gives the User the spells: Sanctification Zone, Rays of Purity, Force of Power (light), Brilliant Beacon.
* Gives the User the Sympathetic aura effect. Applied to all light spells.
Emergent Glory – What was, shall return in time, and the praise of mortals will be with them once more.
* Gives the User a buff depending on the number of onlookers. Current onlooker count: 1/50. 50 = +50% skill effectiveness.
* Gives the User mana regeneration +1/1m for every onlooker.
* Gives the User a temporary mana cap of +1000 for every 100 onlookers.
[ ]
“This is…. unique. Huh. Gaining buffs through attention. But ‘idols of worship’? Is that what you mean?”
“No, I mean ‘mortal masses’. That only refers to the races that don’t necessarily have any ancestral connection to the 'great beings’ as they were called, such as primals. It seems that this ‘worship’ of the Sanctity Caladrius enabled them to gain CHAR stats and the potential for HRP, as they were familiar with the mortal races which gained the stat.”
“But wouldn’t that mean other powerful races with a history of worship, such as Phoenixes or Dragons, have the stat? I’ve never heard about that before.”
“Does it honestly surprise you, with how massively overpowered they are, that those races could be born with every available stat?”
“…okay, I see your point.”
Then she lifted the metre-long winged snake to look him in the eye.
“Scytale. If those Major bloodlines are hiding this, when they don’t hide any other ability of theirs, means that this point of Heroic Power you’ve gained could be the answer to becoming a Mythical bloodline. They’re hiding this so none of the other bloodlines discover this, making the Sanctity Caladrius hide this as well, so they won’t attract the Major bloodlines’ attention. I can’t be certain, but if you work it out, you could potentially raise your hybridised bloodline to Mythical, and raise the Truth-Seizing Serpent bloodline to Legendary when it happens.”
Scytale stared at her for a moment, before lowering his head and letting out a low, drawn-out hiss. She likened it to a growl of frustration.
“This is almost as big as that mask of yours. I’ve found out too many risky secrets while being a Rank-0. Let’s just check my serpent bloodline skill to make sure it’s the same, before moving on to what you wanted to do.”
Bringing another screen to the forefront, this one she brought out had his Truth-Seizing Serpent bloodline skill.
[Sub-skill: Truth or Falsification | Type: Bloodline/Elemental ]
Hidden in the wild frontiers, the Truth-Seizing Serpents have gone millennia without anyone discovering the Supreme Ancient clan, besides their fellow serpents. With individual power rivalling that of the highest noble serpent clans, the only thing stopping the gorgeous snakes from becoming stronger is their relatively few numbers, limited by the region they live in. Fitting with their nature, they have the rare and wondrous ability to create and manipulate illusions like others do the elements, and having descended from the World Serpent, they can reach massive sizes but remain hidden from mortal view.
Abilities:
Illusions of Grandeur – With or without their illusions, they awe those around them.
* Gives the User mid-level compound: Intermediate Illusion Affinity. All illusion spells have up to 25% increased efficiency and effectiveness. Element ratio: 25%
Veiled in Secrecy – Those who understand not what they see, therefore do not see it.
* Gives the User Greater illusion manipulation (no element)
* Gives the User the spells: Lesser Invisibility, Incongruity Inversion, Illusory Body
Truth’s Insight – No other beings shall use their powers against them.
* Gives the User the spell: Greater Lie Detection
* Gives the User the ability: Discerning Eye (Illusion)
[ ]
She smiled. “I’ve always found it funny that the System sounds like a fan when describing your bloodline. Considering what we now know about your enclave becoming a ‘local legend’, I think the City Lord’s father was the fan, being one of the few humans who knew you existed.”
He hissed at the screen. “I’m annoyed the light element affinity became the dominant one. At least my illusion manipulation didn’t become a light illusion manipulation. My enclave’s version is less restrictive.”
She nodded at that. “It’s because the Sanctity bloodline is a higher rarity. They even got an extra light spell in the second skill compared to your bloodline. Be thankful it didn’t degrade your Greater illusion manipulation.”
“I never understood that. Why is it Greater while the Sanctity bloodline was only Lesser light manipulation?”
“That would be because illusion is a compound element. Typically speaking, it’s harder to gain mastery over the natural ‘essential elements’ as the Mystical Realm terms them, compared to the more complex ones, because the complex elements were created with intelligent minds behind them. High-level compound energies are a different situation, with how they add concepts into the mix.” She tapped on his head. “Any rudimentary plans on how to use the light and illusion manipulation?”
The winged serpent perked up a bit. “Well… it can basically be summarised as turning into a really angry armoured disco ball.”
She quirked an eyebrow but swiped away the screens. “I’ll ask for more details later. Any questions on the ‘Demi-mortal assimilation’ skill?”
“Nope. I understand it’s because I turned down the ‘Semi-mortal’ main skill but have a strong bond with you. I’m not interested in merging with you in combat, and I didn’t think you wanted that either. What were you planning to do now?”
She brought up a new screen. “Firstly, let’s complete this quest, and find out your bloodline rarity.” Tapping a button, a notification came up.
[Main Quest (Rank 1: Beast Realm): COMPLETED]
In the Beast Realm, find and secure an item, object or bond that is Rare or higher with the System Obelisk.
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Bond
[Rewards: Stages 6-10 Unlocked]
Scytale turned to Lucy on her lap. “Legendary? But I still have my Epic Truth-Seizing Serpent bloodline.”
“It’s likely because you gained that HRP point. It must be a rare occurrence, meaning the System graded your bloodline at the same level as the Caladrius bloodline instead of placing you at Ancient,” she responded.
“Huh. Was that it for you?”
Shaking her head, she went through a few more screens. There were so many because her Authority automatically opened them, which was a bit annoying but easy for her to navigate with her spiritual energy. She found what she wanted and, bringing it forward, it pushed aside the other screens.
Then they froze.
[Lucille Goldcroft’s Titles:
Activated: Regressor – Unique
Inactivated: Overachiever – Unique, Beginner Ascendant – Common
Available: 99+]
[Scytale’s Titles:
Activated: Regressor – Unique
Inactivated: Overachiever – Unique (Shared), Beginner Ascendant – Common
Available: 3]
Both of them stared at the screen for a while, before Lucy wordlessly tapped on ‘Regressor’ for its information.
[Title: Regressor | Type: System]
Rarity: Unique
Desc: By the blessing of your patron, Aut6or$ty: Z@lec ##### ###### #############, You have gained a second chance as a User. Use it wisely, for this will not happen again.
[Benefits: x1.25xp gain, +15% to skill gain chance]
Scytale started sniggering. “Somehow, I don’t think we’re supposed to have this. But what’s with you?”
Lucille was looking at the screen, an odd expression on her face. Moving her finger, she counted the number of hashtags.
“Why did it bother to hide its name? I can see how many letters are here.”
The snake on her lap looked from her face to the screen, and back again.
“It?”
She patted him on his head. “More dangerous secrets. The hashtags were related to what I was talking about when I inspected your soul, while the crossed out name is….. well, it has something to do with some past of mine.”
Scytale tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at her.
“Tower past or otherwise?”
“A bit of both.”
“….please bring this up again when I reach Rank-6 at the very least, so I don’t die without knowing how.”
“You can see my thoughts.”
“Let me be dramatic. It’s a coping mechanism.”
Shaking her head wryly, she checked the other titles. Due to Scytale being a bond, he was able to share some of her titles and sometimes Aspects. He shared the Overachiever title because as an underage bond, he couldn’t do the Tutorial, and was able to see her memories of it anyway, rendering the experience redundant for him. The Overachiever title gave her the benefit of a +5% completion rate when her completion was under 90%, a massive bonus. The normal Overachiever title only gave +1% up to +3% depending on rarity. The snake on her lap gestured with his nose towards the ‘Available’ section of their titles.
“That ‘99+’ answers the question of whether you still have your unknown Authority though. Although you have access to waaaay more than 99.”
“It’s because it’s a collapsed list. I’m not planning on taking any just yet. How about we check yours? I think the Titles may get you nice Aspects.”
“Oh. Right. I begin with an Aspect because of my bloodline. Will it give me two or replace my old one?”
“Let’s see another day. Titles for now.”
She pressed on the ‘Available’ section of Scytale’s titles.
[Available Titles:
New! Prodigy of Light – Epic
New! Phantasmal Splendour – Ancient
New! Hybrid Nature – Unique]
Scytale titled his white-gold feather-crested head.
“Epic? Even though the bloodline is Legendary? That’s lower than Ancient!”
“Title rarities also indicate the actual rarity of the event or creature because Titles are mostly based on real-life occurrences. There are about 5 light element beasts for every illusion one. The benefits won’t necessarily be better though.” She considered the titles. "Prodigy of Light and Phantasmal Splendour are titles that let you obtain Aspects of the light and illusion element, so there's no harm in adding them. The Hybrid Nature Title grants you the Bloodline Sync Aspect, which helps you manage your two bloodlines better."
She looked down at her bond and shrugged. “May as well add them all. Only the resulting Aspects have limits on them.”
He nodded, pressing on them all with his nose. He activated them all, and Lucille activated her Overachiever and Beginner Ascendant Titles, the latter of which indicated that they were Users and not pre-System inhabitants. Then, Lucy pulled out a small round white token from her Soulbound dimensional bag. Pressing down on it like it was a button, a white-blue holographic image of an open book formed above it, as large as a real book, and rotating slowly. A notification sounded.
[Skill book – Rare has been identified. Open Rare skill selection? Yes/No]
She pressed [Yes] and two screens appeared in front of her. On her left was a scrolling list of millions of skills, slowly moving through them to showcase the names. On her right was a screen titled [Class Skill Selection]. Considering the ‘[Class Skill Selection]’ only said ‘[Class not detected. Go to class selection?]’, she shut that screen down and turned to the list of skills. Normally, a User wouldn’t use the list of skills as it would take far too long to find any viable skills, but for Lucy, it was a breeze to sort through them with her spiritual energy and thought strands. However, that wasn’t needed. She looked at Scytale on her lap.
“What do you think?”
He swayed from left to right, doing what Lucy knew was his ‘thinking’ movement.
“If it was me, I’d go for some of the valuable evolvable skills.”
She let out a hum. “I’m going to be hard-pressed to find skill unlock items for the skill slots of my primary skills, so I don’t think the added skill consumption will be an option for me. Should I go for some of the more… exotic options?”
“Can’t hurt looking. I always enjoy seeing the special skills and what they can do. Most people can’t even find them.”
She looked at the screen. Materialising a thicker strand of spiritual energy, she connected it to the screen, and attempted to imbue the mental image of the screen ‘shattering’ or of an illusion ‘breaking’. The screen resisted, and with a slight strain, she added more spiritual energy, until the screen fizzled away with the sound of static and a new one popped up. Unlike the other blue ones, this screen was a dark grey. Compared to the original screen, which had skills such as Shadow Step or Fire Blade, this screen had skills of much more interesting names.
[Complete Authorisation: Skill Selection – Rare]
* …..
* Hem…..
* Grand Archmage Olisidair’s Experimental Fire-Ice Construct Type 9
* Unstable Dimensional Severance: Prototype 4, Partial Materialisation
* Umbra Shadow Scythe Technique: Sequence 28
* Daoist Razing Sunfire’s Ultimate Blade Technique: 4 of 208
* Krale….
* ….
* …..
* Type…
* Type 5 Variant 6 9827B
* Type 7 Variant 24 3210L
* Type…
* …..
* ….
* Thend…
* Ancient Fire Dragon Heart Manifestation Mana furnace
* Mythos Arestiel’s Alternative Champion Halberd Mana-art Footwork Technique
* Elemental Probability Calculation Mechanism Ratio 32
* Luthema…..
* …..
“Ooooh. What does the dragon heart skill do?”
“The description says it’s a prototype method to simulate the power of an adult fire dragon’s dragon heart while only having their bloodline and not their source. Unfortunately, the mana-art was extremely volatile and didn’t have the expected power, so was abandoned by the creator so he could try out more successful ventures. It seems it’s for the dragon-blooded.”
“And what about the Elemental Probability Calculation Mechanism?”
“It says it’s a type of divination technique that uses elemental geomancy to determine the best type of spell to use depending on the atmospheric mana ratios. Huh. Sounds like something Marellen would be interested in.”
“Who’s Marellen?”
“Some noble mage I met. I’m going to stop reading out the descriptions now and start working out what I should pick.”
“But they’re so interesting… Look! Daoist Razing Sunfire created 208 Ultimate Techniques! I thought that was just a stereotype about cultivators!”
She just rolled her eyes. “I can show you some more another day. We still have to get ready for the Inheritance Event.”
And so, they scrolled through the choices as she deliberated over them. Independent skills didn’t typically have much use unless used to tier up a main skill, or primary skills as they were also called. As main skills were usually only gained when getting a class, she couldn’t do that for the moment. The good thing was that all Rare skills and higher were secondary and not tertiary skills. Tertiary skills gave passive boosts, and the more tertiary skills that fused, the higher the rarity of the secondary skill. Secondary skills were added to the subskill slots of a main skill. If a main skill had available tiers to tier up, it did so. Incompatible skills existed, and some even brought down the rarity of the main skill when added, but usually, those couldn’t be added to the main skill at all.
“What kind of path are you trying to complete, and what do you need for the first main skills?”
She put a hand to her chin in thought. “I’m aiming for utility. This means general mana manipulation, a crafting main skill or two and adaptive skills. I already know which type of main skills I want for the first three ranks at least, so that’s fine. But I wonder… maybe the creator of the elemental divination technique had others.”
The creator’s name was registered as ‘Saufren Lestial’ which made her raise an eyebrow. She wasn’t too familiar with the details, but she was pretty sure that guy was supposed to be dead.
“The All-Aeon Athenaeum registered him as ‘Missing in Action’, not dead.”
“Well, I suppose, but wasn’t he that all-element battlemage of 200,000+ years ago? That’s unlikely. Maybe he’s a hidden inheritor who adopted his name.”
“Can’t you check when he last created a skill?”
She could, and so, checking it, she was amazed to find out his first skill creation was registered as 99,998 years ago, and his latest skill was only 10 years ago. So he was definitely the ‘Saufren Lestial’ she was thinking of.
“I know he’s a battlemage, but don’t let your prejudices stop you from taking a good skill of his.”
She glared at the snake on her lap. “I know I say I hate battlemages, but only because their main factions, the Red and Grey Orders, are exceedingly violent and make it a habit to fight each other, destroying the environment to test how much destruction they can cause. The skills I’m seeing Saufren Lestial with indicate he doesn’t quite have such an obsession for blasting people to pieces, and so I’m fine.”
In fact, the Rare skills she could see he had made indicated he was a genuine prodigy when it came to all the elements, and working out the most unique elemental combinations. He also had made a good 50+ ‘adaptive’ skills like the divination technique, which reacted to the environment of the user. She managed to find some decent choices.
“I’m thinking of picking ‘Elemental Integrity Verification’, ‘Environmental Analysis Var. 3’, ‘Energy Anomaly Automated Indication’ or ‘Chaotic Usurpation Perspective’.”
“…..they all sound the same to me. Can I have an overview? Also, I don’t think I could ever have the type of character to copy other’s skills whenever I want.”
Due to only Lucy having the authorisation, Scytale couldn’t see the descriptions she could and had to rely on her providing the information. He could see their names because sometimes others earned limited access to the User skill sheet, but normally nobody could use a skill book on them. She rolled her eyes at the other part of what the snake said.
“Any created skill is automatically added into the System database, and variants of those skills are constructed for less restricted use. There are going to be versions of these skills in the normal Rare skill list, but they might vary slightly. The System would never allow Users to hoard information that could otherwise be used to strengthen the Tower’s inhabitants,” she said. “These personal skills are just more applicable to me, as they are easier to modify for my purposes.”
She reviewed the skill descriptions, shortening their names for Scytale. “Verification tells me the ‘integrity’ of elemental mana in my area, meaning how likely they are to become another element. Environmental Analysis gives me a summarised version of the elemental biomes and localised mana environments in my immediate area. It’s good for making quick modifications to my spells depending on my situation. Energy Anomaly can act as an alternative to my lacking killing intent detection, highlighting strange mana forms in my mana vision or even spiritual perception field passively. The Perspective one seems to be related to what we know about the 7th realm.”
“So like, field researcher specialised skills? They sound useful, you might need to get them all. But the third one sounds the most important. You can’t even detect killing intent when I share my senses with you, so as your plan will make you a bigger target, this is the most valuable to you right now. Seems even Saufren had issues detecting killing intent.”
She frowned slightly as she thought about the last skill. “It’s more likely Saufren has found traces of the 7th realm. You know how ‘Absolvance’ works, and how half the entities there are not even ‘living’ technically speaking.”
“Guess the stories of him exploring the outer planes are true. Anyway, picking the Anomaly one?”
Nodding her head, she selected the skill, and the holographic skill book next to her turned the same grey tone as the screen. She attached a spiritual energy strand to the book, activating it with her will. There was a disconcerting noise of fizzling static she felt reverberate within her head before the skill book disappeared. She instantly felt her spiritual energy follow the commands of the skill, alerting her thought strands to little details that didn’t conform to the rest of the white cube she was in. She got up from the armchair and stretched, regardless of the lack of muscle tiring in the frozen time-space. The silvery-winged snake wrapped around her neck so she could leave.
“I want to exit the Obelisk,” she called out. The apathetic System voice sounded out as the notification appeared.
[Do you want to exit the Obelisk? Yes/No]
Selecting [Yes], the world went black as she found herself standing in one of the four archways of the Obelisk. She looked up and sighed.
I forgot it was raining.
‘No, you didn’t, you can’t forget anything. You just didn’t want to think about it.’
That’s true, she responded to Scytale with a smirk on her face, heading back as slowly as she could just to annoy the once again wingless and now very wet snake resting atop of her head.