It took only a few moments before I was thoroughly stumped by the possible paths my skill could take. I mean, I knew that the skill was supposed to be a tier 6 and all, but did the system have to be this vague?
[Dark embodiment] and [Dark overload] were somewhat straightforward at least, but I could have that the system had made illusory form deliberately obtuse. This skill evolution would, supposedly, make me unkillable by physical attacks. That seemed powerful, until you considered the downsides. For one, being immortal was pretty useless when you couldn’t actually slap back against your aggressors. Secondly, while the skill spoke of ‘reverting’ my physical body back to normal pretty quickly, nothing about healing the illusory form was mentioned.
I that form somehow got wounded, would I just be stuck like that forever? To make matters worse, any wound my illusory form accrued would also appear on my physical body, weakening my offensive capabilities. And I hadn’t even considered the possible implications for my class evolution! I didn’t want to become a wraith if I could help it… Until I knew more about this possible skill, I decided to leave it as a last resort.
My second option was [Dark embodiment], a reliable upgrade of what I had currently. The increased healing speed would be a welcome improvement, though I was left in the dark when it came to the magnitude of this change. Apart from that, my physical power would increase and I would gain the ability to ‘substitute’ parts of my body that had become damaged, allowing me to continue battling or, if the situation called for it, running.
In a way, this skill promised the exact opposite of [Illusory form]. The latter promised protection, but if you ever did get hurt, you were fucker forever. The former, on the other hand, seemed far less ambitious, but promised to keep me alive and kicking, no matter what.
Finally, there was [Dark overload], which had a twofold function. For one, it could create overloaded mana on its own, instantly making it available for use in battle to boot. For another, it could then store that mana to release later, opening up some more opportunities for larger AOE skills and preventing me from having to charge up after each apparition. On top of that, it maintained the previous skill effect.
There was just one downside. A major one. How was I supposed to stay below the radar if I was constantly pumping volatile mana out of my body, creating strange black clouds wherever I went? It would all but be an end to the anonymity I had enjoyed so far. Outside of Roa, at least. Was such a large sacrifice really worth it when there were other skills comparable in power available?
Eventually, I decided to inquire about my options with the dry man. I found him sitting on a log in an improvised encampment, surrounded by his three most faithful friends.
“Sir Arthur! Hello again!” the first of them greeted. The paladin’s greeting was swiftly followed by a wet gurgle originating from Dullahan the innkeepers throat and a small wave from ash.
“Have you made a choice?” the dry man asked, having noticed my approach earlier.
“Not quite. I’m afraid that my choices are all equally tantalising and I’m not sure which one to choose.”
Ash groaned at hearing my shameless boast and stomped off, grumbling like a toddler.
“Pay him no mind, sir Arthur! Ash only recently got his first tier 6 skill, you see. He’s a little jealous, I think.”
I hid my smile with a cough before sitting where Ash had been seated earlier.
“So, child. Tell us about your plight. You’ve trusted us so far, might as well tell us the fruits of our own labour, no?” the dry man asked.
I nodded, seeing his point. I had been rather greedy with my recent requests. Besides, I understood too little to make an informed decision.
I took a few minutes to introduce the three skills I had been offered, sharing my thoughts on them all the while. Apart from the occasion and humming and hawing, they kept quiet until I finished explaining them all.
“Guuaargl.” The innkeeper shared, his wise council falling on deaf ears, unfortunately. Thankfully, the undead paladin sitting next to him was kind enough to clarify.
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“What he means to say, as I’m sure you understand, is that illusory form is a two-edged sword, so to speak. While it improves your survivability substantially, housing your essence in a non-physical form is a big risk. If anything harms this ‘illusory form’, healing it will be quite difficult. Furthermore, at higher tiers most classers will possess abilities that deal ‘true damage’, which would ignore this skill’s gimmick. Then again, if you evolve it further, maybe…”
Throughout that explanation, I couldn’t help but marvel at the innkeeper’s alleged ability to say so much with a single gurgle.
Despite this distraction, I had picked up enough to figure out that [Illusory form] could turn out to be quite a failure of a skill if it didn’t evolve into the right skill by the next tier. But how long would it take to reach that level? Years? Decades? No, I wasn’t willing to consider the skill as an option anymore.
Eventually, the dry man shared his own opinion.
“I will just share with you my recommendation, child. Pick [Dark embodiment]. Direct upgrades with straightforward functions allow for more diverse builds. Besides, [Dark overload] solves problems that you only have because of your low tier. Do you think higher tier classers still bother with gimmicks like ‘overloaded mana’? No, the system simplifies such things as you progress. Let the system solve your mana problems on its own with your tier 5 class advancement. That is all I have to say on the matter.”
It took a moment to absorb what the dry man had shared, after which I was hit by momentary panic. Overloaded mana, a gimmick? Simplify things? Were my skills about to become obsolete? Did he mean to say that my entire build was for nothing?! The panic departed as quickly as it had come, though. After all, the dry man wouldn’t have phrased it the way he did if I had anything to worry about. He had only said that the system would ‘simplify’ things. How, I wasn’t sure… But as long as my skills remained as they were, I felt I didn’t need to be too worried. Losing the inherent advantage that overloaded mana held wouldn’t be too devastating, as long as my skills’ inherent power remained.
I spent a few more minutes mulling over my options, but eventually decided to heed the dry man’s advice. If the system rebalanced overloaded mana after the fifth tier, in my favour, if what the dry man implied was accurate, then there was no need to centre my newer skills around the build.
With a mental command, [Dark embodiment] clicked into place, settling on my status screen and fulfilling the last requirement I had made for myself before tiering up to tier 4. The skill evolution was instantaneous, but the change wasn’t.
Over the course of about half an hour, I witnessed the changes the new skill brought. Unlike [Dark form], which had felt like a system of pipes and valves that regulated mana as it coursed through my body, [Dark embodiment] felt like a cloak that had been wrapped around me, woven into my flesh.
It felt like my shadow had merged with me, strengthening what was already there with something… more.
As the wind whipped up the ever present dust around me, I felt every little change, every single grain as it slid past my skin. I took a few tentative steps and noticed how much lighter I felt, how fluid my motions became without any input from my side.
Before I got to my fourth class evolution, I would have to test the limits of my new skill. Hells, my last class evolution hadn’t felt as strange as this!
A still-grumbling ash was more than happy to help out with that, for better or worse. To that end, we returned to the clearing, where we decided to begin by testing my new physical strength.
I feared that I would have difficulty making a fair before-after comparison, as I hadn’t exactly pushed my strength much ever since I reached level 100. Thankfully, I got a pretty fair image when running into a mountain at full sprint caused me to pierce the crust and crash right through. Now that I found myself stuck in the dense stone, I had to dig myself out. Thankfully, even this wasn’t a problem anymore. A casual swipe of my hand would see the stone part as if it were dense foliage instead. By squirming and clawing my way out, I quickly remerged.
The next step was to test my healing, which we decided to do by repeating a part of my previous training. Ash attacked me from a distance and compared my healing speed with what he had seen before, marvelling at the difference.
“That has to be at least 3 times faster than before on the big wounds!” he shouted. “The smaller ones don’t even take a second anymore!”
It was a markable improvement, to say the least. Furthermore, Ash also noted that my improved physical strength also made me more resilient, increasing my defences by the same factor! I was still susceptible to tier 5 and 6 attacks, but average tier 4 skills wouldn’t leave that much damage anymore.
Eventually, we decided to test the ‘embodiment’ part of the skill. Ash took off both of my arms, his eyes going wide when two pitch black limbs made of swirling black smoke rose to take their place. I flexed the new appendages, finding the feeling odd. My arms were gone, obviously, but the black ‘cloak’ from before still reacted as if they were there. After some more practice, we came to the conclusion that the dark replacement limbs were indeed just as strong and tough as the real thing. If they were destroyed, they would quickly be replaced by an identical pair, costing the same amount of mana each time, depending on the size of the replacement. Organs, flesh and bones could be replaced as well, but their functions couldn’t be replicated by the shadow parts, unfortunately. At least [Adaptive physiology] hadn’t become obsolete. All in all, dark embodiment could keep me in a fight and keep me alive, giving me time to heal, but it couldn’t actually replace my body long term.
I would have to settle for that, for now.
I had a more pressing matter to attend to, after all. With three days left, I had just enough time to finally advance to tier 4, as long as I passed the trial. I could only hope the trial in question wouldn’t be as harsh as the last ones were…