~2 months later…
I breathed in and out, steadily repeating the rhythm as mana began to flow into my core. The act had become second nature over the past few months, as the majority of my time had gone towards meditation. It was high time for my core to evolve, but progression had proven difficult to acquire. Nonetheless, I had to remind myself that my efforts were about to bear fruit. After two months of gruelling training, [Overloading combustion core] had finally reached the ninety-ninth percentile.
What better way to push it over the edge than face Arcellus one final time, right?
Across from me, Peter didn’t seem to think so. Still as stubborn and prideful as he had ever been, he hadn’t fit in easily with the rest of us. Cerion seemed to despise him, getting into any fight or argument at the first opportunity and Emeri did her best to avoid him.
That left only myself as a person willing to be in the same room as him. Or, in this case, on the same battlefield. Cerion didn’t want to fight him until he was certain he could win, after all.
Unfortunately, Arcellus had grown just as much as we had, his sun-born flames making me sweat even from this distance.
For the past few hours, Arcellus and I had been trying to overwhelm each other by using our most powerful skills exclusively. That meant that whenever our cores recovered from their exertion, a new sword laser would clash with a miniature sun, pulverising the area around us, rinse and repeat.
I was getting close. I could feel it, sense it. ‘Only a little more…’
With a groan of exertion, I pushed all the mana I had managed to gather into the skill enveloping the broken sword in my hands. The practice weapon disintegrated even further, but not before allowing me to unleash another bolt of pure darkness at Arcellus.
His marble-shaped sun shone with fervour, rising to meet my assault with calm certainty. When the two skills collided, yet another explosion erupted, threatening to throw me into the air. By now I was prepared for it, however. Using [Aura dash], I kept my feet firmly planted on the ground and kept myself from tumbling. As the dark mana, fire mana and light mana vied for supremacy, wisps of concentrated power shot off in all directions. With my heightened mana sense, this was even clearer than it had ever been.
With a vague sense of desperation, I pulled the wisps of mana toward me as they were about to be dispelled, re-absorbing them and sending them right back into the beam of black light than continued to stream forth from where my sword had been. Now, only the handle remained. But that was enough. The absent blade was replaced by the laser I had created, after all.
The mana within me started to exceed the amount I could push into the skill at one point, spilling into the air around me and forcing [Dark embodiment] to work overtime. Eventually, I got the notification I had been waiting for. At last.
[Overloading combustion core](100%)
I called out to Cerion, asking to continue some other time. He nodded and scoffed, biting back a taunt as it left his mouth on instinct. “Already tired? Maybe I overesti… huff.” As he walked off, I realised that while Arcellus was still a pompous git, he had changed for the better since his loss.
If only because he was actually trying to change, now.
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Exhausted, I stumbled back to my tent and waited for my body to mend itself. I had left the place sparsely furnished, in contrast to Emeri who had decorated hers as soon as we had arrived here. I still remembered how appalled her and Cerion had been when we found out where we were about to spend the next few months. The looks on their faces…
After our conversation with Duke Rass and uncle Robard, we had been told to start packing our things and invite Emeri along to our future training ‘camp’, which really just turned out to be an abandoned military base. An old one, too.
Instead of the accommodations we had been hoping for, we were left in a dilapidated camp that had walls made of wooden-stakes and a few wooden shacks that had collapsed under their own weight.
It resembled a bandit camp more closely than a military outpost, but who was I to judge…
Once there, we were left to our own devices. By hunting, fishing and foraging we filled our food-stores every week and kept ourselves alive. Aside from that, we spent our time coming up with the most intense and creative methods of training possible, quickly disturbing the surrounding forrest and fields with our antics and leaving very few trees standing.
Thankfully our methods, while odd, were rather effective. I, especially, could push myself to the brink in whatever way I wished, which allowed me to progress faster than ever before. This had resulted in three skills reaching the edge of evolution, though I had yet to take that step.
[Ghost apparition](100%), [Overloading combustion core](100%) and [Cascading mana-intrusive Swordsmanship](100%) had all reached that point.
The first had been a matter of refusing to move in any way other than apparition, even when I had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. That, combined with constant combat and practice, had finally pushed the skill to evolution. I was curious to see what the skill could evolve into, but didn’t really know what to expect. More intangibility would be optimal, of course.
Meanwhile, my swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds during my spars with Cerion, who had taught me much of what he knew. In truth, I didn’t use much swordsmanship these days, resulting in the skill being rather ineffective. Its cascading effect required a series of successful strikes to build up, making it a bit finicky to use against higher-tiered enemies, especially when they had a resistance to such tactics. I was hoping for a new avenue to pursue with the skill, something that could synergise with my other abilities.
Beyond those three skills, my other skills hadn’t seen much growth. Apart from sword laser, I suppose, as that skill was getting there, too, reaching 79% just yesterday.
Realising that I only had a week before I would have to depart to Mulio, I decided to now was a good time to start evolving skills. With that in mind, I picked the first skill on the list, [Ghost apparition].
[Ghost apparition](100%)
Tier 4 skill.
You possess the ability to transfer your body and equipment from one location to the other, using sufficiently dark locations as a medium.
Become intangible for 0.5 seconds after apparating.
Progression increases through experience.
Tier 5 upgrades:
[Phantom apparition]
Intangibility is increased to 1.5 seconds. Increased distance. Apparate to any location, regardless of how well-lit.
A direct upgrade of [Ghost apparition].
[Phantom presence]
Turn intangible and unsensable for a maximum of three seconds. Cancel intangibility at will on certain body parts or equipment. 0.5 seconds later, the rest of you will follow.
Warning: Previous skill effect lost.
[Spectre shift]
Turn intangible at will, for a maximum of 1 second. Transfer your body and equipment from one location to another at will. Both skill-effects can be instantly reversed at will.
Using them in conjunction increases mana-expenditure exponentially.