On their way to the tundra, they had been intercepted by a small flock of the vulture wyverns they had encountered before. Still, Alistair, with the help of King, made short work of them as they were pretty weak, and the vultures had based their assessment of Alistair and Riseth's strength on grade alone. Alistair used them to further practice and refine his Kinetic Skinguard skill, feeling more and more comfortable maintaining the kinetic spheres orbiting around him. Riseth had held back, only providing some distraction as she was at level 48 and wanted to leave atleast one level gap in case of emergencies. On the other hand, Alistair leveled up once more, putting him on level 47.
Watching King fight made Alistair feel bad for Fluffy, who was still too weak to participate in any of their fights. The snake's limited mobility prevented it from participating in the Slayer World's fights without exposing her to a lot of danger. Luckily, the snake's participation in the arena and being a summon allowed Fluffy to benefit from Riseth's records, as the snake would reach the next grade sometime after Riseth. Alistair hoped Fluffy would undergo a racial evolution, helping the Snake to fight better, whereas Riseth hoped the Snake would continue being her cute companion.
As they traversed the tundra to the southwest, their eyes caught sight of a formidable creature roaming the sparsely vegetated plains. It bore a striking resemblance to both a bull and a gorilla, with hind legs ending in hooves and front limbs resembling thick gorilla arms. Its fur, a blend of black and brown, covered a body that possessed the posture of a gorilla but the bulk of a bull. The creature's head, resembling that of a bull, was crowned with two imposing curved horns jutting forward. Identify revealed the beast to be a [Krulte Minotaur - lvl ?]
"Oh, It's a Minotaur. Don't they go around stealing women to hide in their temples? I thought they were an intelligent species," Riseth questioned as they observed the beast.
"I don't know. In Earth's stories, they are usually portrayed as monsters guarding labyrinths. I'm not sure about the stealing women part, but it does ring a bell," Alistair retorted.
"Are you going to fight it?" Riseth inquired.
"Yes, its build is almost tailor-made for practicing kinetic magic; I don't sense much mana or any other energies besides the incredible life energy," Alistair explained as they approached.
The Minotaur spotted them in the air as they approached, presumably sensing their energies approaching as neither of them tried to suppress their energy or hide themselves. It showed no hostility, but its gaze was fixed on Riseth, which bothered Alistair, who landed in front of the creature, staring it down, slowly seeping out his bloodcurdling aura, which got its attention.
"Are you smart enough to communicate?" Alistair asked just as he detected a surge of hostility.
As the Minotaur's fist surged forward with remarkable speed and force, Alistair deftly intercepted the attack with the palm of his hand. Simultaneously, an incredibly condensed sphere of kinetic energy erupted out of his body, starting to gracefully orbit around him. Alistair had tried to refine the quantity each sphere could hold without increasing the sphere's size, and this particular sphere was compressed to a near-breaking point. This forced Alistair to divulge more focus on the sphere in order to maintain its stability.
"Too condensed for now," Alistair reflected, redirecting his focus to the imposing figure of the Minotaur before him.
"I'll mark this one down as a 'maybe'," Alistair quipped, meeting the Minotaur's intense gaze head-on.
Alistair felt the rage emanating from the Minotaur, reminiscent of his own emotions when he faced Anzeth, the final dungeon boss. "A rage skill," Alistair realized, recognizing the familiar intensity. Alistair still had the Rage skill in his skill selection himself. However, he had not picked it up because Riseth had requested him not to use it again, as she would experience his unbridled rage over their resonance. Additionally, the skill's side effect of clouding the user's judgment and pushing the body beyond its limits had deterred him.
"If only I could temper the rage skill to not mess with my state of mind," Alistair mused as he blocked an unhinged barrage of punches from the minotaur. With practiced precision, he channeled and redirected the kinetic energy, transforming it into densely packed spheres. As the stored energy surged beyond containment, the spheres began to expand. Alistair felt excitement surge within him as a chime rang out, prompting Alistair to eagerly check his notifications, hoping his [Kinetic Skinguard] had finally upgraded.
Notifications:
Skill [Calm Mind] can be upgraded.
"Wait, what?" Alistair said with a baffled expression, looking at the notification.
Alistair was quite sure it implied he could combine his unselected [Rage] skill with the [Calm Mind] skill. This would inherently change how the skill worked. Alistair lacked good defensive skills when it came to [Mind] attacks. This could potentially upgrade his defense against mind attacks and allow him to use the benefits of Rage without some of the usual drawbacks. For a moment, he was worried he would be unable to extend the calm mind magic to his allies anymore, but he thought better of it. Not having the skill would not prevent him from casting the magic manually. Would the skill appear in his skill selection again after being combined into something different? There was still so much Alistair did not know about the system, and this could potentially answer some of the open questions.
Alistair contacted Riseth through the Akashic link to detail the situation. He made it clear that he wouldn't convert one of his skills into a rage variant without her consent first, but she gave him the go-ahead.
"Thank you for asking, but don't restrict yourself on my behalf. With the calm mind aspect, it should be quite fine," Riseth reassured him.
The Minotaur's fury intensified as Alistair's seemingly laissez-faire approach to the fight provoked it further. Alistair was reaching the limits of how many spheres he could control and expand without losing focus. Seizing the moment, he directed all the collected spheres to turn into powerful blasts. Launching them in a rapid yet graceful arc toward the Minotaur. The blasts struck their target one after the other, propelling the Minotaur across the desolate landscape until it crashed through one of the sporadic lichen-covered rock formations.
Alistair confirmed the skill upgrade and checked his new skills descriptions.
Skills: Tier: Name: Description: [Epic]
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Cold Rage
Enter a state of controlled cold rage, shielding you from all [Mental] attacks by a large degree. When active, the skill increases the user's resilience by a large degree. It also increases [Power] & [Control] by a large degree while continuously draining the users [Qi] by a moderate amount based on the energy expended and damage taken.
After extended use, the user becomes weary and exhausted, and all affected stats are reduced by a moderate amount for a duration based on the duration the Cold Rage skill was used.
[Calm Mind] had been his lowest-tier skill before the upgrade. It wasn't the skill he had been looking to upgrade this fight, but he was pretty happy with the result. The Minotaur was battered and bruised but was already charging at him again but was still some ways out. Alistair worried that increasing the number and compression of the spheres was insufficient to push his [Kinetic Skinguard] into the legendary tier. The only alternative would be to make use of his arcane affinity and attempt to convert different forms of energy into kinetic energy to store them. This approach would prove more efficient than extracting kinetic aspects from various energies or attempting to store multiple energy types simultaneously. Managing different energy types would demand significant focus and control, depending on their nature, particularly if he had a low affinity for them.
Alistair watched the Minotaur barrel towards him like an oversized mass of muscles tipped with horns. It was an intimidating sight, but Alistair had seen worse. Drawing upon both Cold Rage and Temporal Combat Reflexes, he aimed to synchronize his actions for optimal timing. A chill, numbing rage surged through his veins, fueled by the memories of the glances the minotaur had given Riseth and the violence it wished to unleash upon him.
Alistair reined in his rising anger as he grabbed the bull by its horns, effortlessly lifting it off the ground. The stolen kinetic energy surged, transforming into [Power], which he channeled to slam the bull into the nearby protruding rock. The impact shattered the rock, and the force tore into the Minotaur's flesh, eliciting a gasp from the beast. Chimes rang out, which confused Alistair as they were not the slightly altered chimes notifying him of a kill. A quick check of his notifications revealed what happened.
Notifications: The Skill [Kinetic Grappler] has undergone a linear upgrade. The Title [Supreme Skill Expertise] has been Upgraded to [Legendary Skill Expertise].
"That's not the skill I was aiming for," Alistair said with slight bewilderment.
The Minotaur had taken lethal damage and took a few heavy, ragged breaths lying on the ground, the rage seeping out of its shattered body before dying from the accumulated damage. Alistair ended his boosting skills as he felt a wave of feebleness wash over him; he had not been using the Cold Rage skill for long but already felt its effects. He would need to use the skill sparingly or in a short burst when facing opponents using mind attacks. After his initial bewilderment and excitement over his skill upgrade, Alistair glanced down at the Minotaur's body. The familiar realization of who the real monster between him and the Minotaur was came creeping back, but he shrugged it off, pushing the thought aside.
Riseth landed beside him, her hands resting on his shoulders as they exchanged a knowing glance. He knew she was aware of what he was thinking about due to their connection. Alistair was self-aware enough to realize that he had been calling his opponents monsters, beasts, and enemies interchangeably in his head as a way to distance or justify himself from his own actions. Alistair stepped toward the body, putting it in his storage.
To divert his mind from the gloom, he considered how he had unintentionally upgraded his grappling skill. The answer was instinctively, he converted the kinetic energy from the charge into a temporary power surge. Utilizing magic with strong affinities on instinct or in instinctive ways was a very common way of utilizing magic. It was frequently observed in beasts and individuals who struggled with spellcasting. The first time he had done so himself was during his first day of the trial, where he instinctively learned to disperse kinetic energies through his body and transfer them into the ground. It had formed his first steps into magic and provided his first and most valued skill. Alistair pulled up the skill window as he felt a tinge of disappointment that his kinetic skinguard had not become his first legendary skill.
Skills: Tier: Name: Description: [Legendary]
Kinetic Grappler
The user robs opponents of their momentum at the cost of a minuscule amount of [Qi] or [MP] compared to the [KE] stolen. If possible, the stolen [KE] will automatically be used to either empower the user with a short burst of [Power] based on the amount of stolen kinetic energy or harm opponents if connected either magically or physically to the user. The user may repurpose the stolen [KE] or store it in spheres provided by the [Kinetic Skinguard] skill. This skill has moderate resistance against outside interference by using the user's augmented skin and body. The skill provides a moderate bonus against opponents attempting to resist or disperse the effects of this skill.
Titles: Tier: Name Effect: Origin: [Legendary] Legendary Skill Expertise Drastically lowered prerequisites for future skill upgrades and acquisition.
Obtained for upgrading a skill to Legendary Tier while still in grade 10.
Alistair finally obtained his first legendary title and skill. he smiled ear to ear as he read the description.
"Your emotions are all over the place. What's going on?" Riseth inquired as she stood beside him, a slightly worried expression on her face.
Alistair's smile was tinged with a hint of surprise as he confessed, "I just received my first legendary skill and title, but it's not the one I had been expecting."
A gentle chuckle escaped Riseth's lips as she shook her head in fond disbelief. "You always manage to surprise me," she teased, leaning in to place a tender kiss on his cheek. "Well, it looks like you've finally lived up to your title, Mr. Legendary," she added with a playful grin.