Alexia

Unexpected.

Probably should’ve expected it, but unexpected, nonetheless.

I frown at the massive hole in the wall that didn’t take me very long to find. It’s at the base of a massive cliff, and is actually hard not to spot.

But when I found it before, there wasn’t a hole in it. It was just a solid cliff.

Which means that the exit to that place only appeared after killing mister Candy.

I blink at that thought, briefly realizing I don’t know if Candy was actually a mister or not. But then I decide it doesn’t matter.

Candy is dead after all.

Anyways, I yawn right outside of the cavern despite not really needing sleep anymore. Not at Tier 4 at least.

Then I check my soul to find that it’s still not at full.

Best recover before leaving. And I need to find a Safe Zone to swap out those skills.

So I mark the place on my Dungeon Map skill before heading to the closest Safe Zone near the exit. Which doesn’t take long to reach.

Honestly, this whole place is rather eerie now. An enormous forest for as far as the eye can see without a single living creature in it other than the plants.

It’s just unnerving now.

The wolves were the only thing in it. Or only animals. Only living creature.

Massive forests like this aren’t supposed to be empty. They’re supposed to be filled with animals.

I continue running through the place despite my thoughts, not teleporting in order to save soul. Seeing as part of why I’m doing this is to regenerate my soul in the first place.

When I reach the Safe Zone, I quickly begin searching through my skills. Just in case I find something better than the two skills I already decided on before.

But nothing looks better in my list, so I go ahead and slot the two skills.

[Quantum Flux Absorption: The user passively absorbs the nearby ambient quantum fluxes, converting them into energy and soul for the user.]

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

[Quantum Phasing: Temporarily shift the user’s body fully out of the normal plane of reality into the quantum plane, making them immune to any and all physical damage and able to pass through solid objects.]

And they’re both slotted now. Nice.

I hold myself back from activating Quantum Phasing, even just to test it. Because it costs a lot of soul to use even if I have plenty to use it. And I’m trying to recover my soul right now.

On the other hand, I focus on my soul and on my senses sensing my surroundings. Looking for what the skill meant by quantum fluxes.

But I don’t really find anything. Only thing I notice is that my soul does at least seem to be regenerating a bit faster.

What exactly the skill is doing to make that happen, I have no idea. Not the foggiest at all.

Doesn’t really matter I guess.

It’s raising my soul regen, so it’s good.

Actually, it’s raising it by a decent amount. So looks like the skill really is pretty good.

Good enough that I think I will try testing out Quantum Phasing a bit after all.

Just means I’m gonna have to spend a bit longer waiting for my soul to regenerate.

It is best to know my skills for battle after all. Rather than trying ones I haven’t used before. Much.

I look around before finding a narrow ish tree. Then I stop in front of it and activate phasing, finding my soul quickly beginning to drop at a rather rapid pace of thousands of soul every few seconds.

The sensation I get while phased feels weird. Like my entire body is incredibly light and just… not all here. Meanwhile the sight I’m greeted with is my entire body just kinda glitching out. Parts of it teleporting one way or another, other parts going in opposite directions, and every part of me just kinda blinking. Just like a glitch on a computer screen.

What’s most interesting though is that it’s not just my body, but my outfit as well that’s doing it. Which is good and something I already knew before.

Just that this is the first time I’ve actually been able to hold it long enough to get a good look.

Never tested it out much until now. After it’s become practical to use in battle.

Anyways, I quickly step forwards, passing right on through the tree. And what seems to happen is the same thing that happens when a monster tries to attack me with physical attacks. Non-magical ones.

A lot of glitching and I appear on the other side of the tree.

Then I deactivate the skill, leaving just half a minute of using the skill draining away ten thousand soul.

Practically a seventh of my maximum soul capacity.

Ouch.

But it’ll be helpful.

And just using it to phase right through something without wasting any time like I did here won’t be very expensive soul-wise. It shouldn’t even take more than a couple seconds to walk through the wall of a maze for example.

Which should cost probably several hundred soul.

A much more reasonable amount.

As for other tests? They’ll have to wait.

Like testing how I take magical damage while phased. If I take it. And how much I do if I do take magical damage when hit with the skill active.

I don’t really have any way to really test it on myself, and using quantum magic to attack me while phased doesn’t sound like it’ll be the same as using other affinities.

That said, there is one other test I do want to try right now.

If it works, then it shouldn’t take as much soul. Logically speaking, at least. I’m not sure if it won’t or not.

Either way, I won’t be holding it for more than a second or two.

So I quickly activate the skill again while trying to phase just one part of my body. And to my delight, it actually works. Just phasing my arm and nothing else.

It also costs less soul to do.

I stop the skill again right after finding it working with a grin on my face.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Now to wait for my soul to recover.