Wyatt collapsed to his knees, utterly drained after using his upgraded Analyzer on Debuffer’s message.

Not only had using Analyzer in that way completely sapped his Energy, it felt like it had drained his actual physical energy as well. His legs were weak, and his stomach growled with hunger. He’d already been woozy from whatever capturing the giant in the overcharged orb had sucked from him—now he could barely get a breath in.

Once he caught his breath several moments later, he focused on the new message.

Debuffer

D-Grade enchantment

Casting Time: Instant

Range: 128 feet

Components: P, M (Energy)

Duration: Up to 64 seconds

Rarity: 1⁄5

Scion Capacity: 0⁄2

Description:

When you use Debuffer, choose one of the following permutations to impose on a target within range that you can see. Permutations of the same type stack, while different permutations exist concurrently.

‎ ‎1. Disgorge: The target is wracked with visceral suffering. On a successful level-match, target is incapacitated by forceful regurgitation (unaffected by target type) and takes ongoing poison damage that decreases over time. Regurgitant is created if unavailable. Stacking increases the effect by 10% per stack.

‎ ‎2. Torpor: The target’s movements become sluggish. On a successful level-match, target’s Speed is reduced by 50%. Each additional stack reduces Speed by 5%, to a minimum Speed of 1% of initial.

‎ ‎3. Devitalize: The target feels their existence begin to wither away. On a successful level-match, target suffers a disadvantage on Durability, Toughness, Strength, Recovery, and ?, and has cohesion reduced by 10% for the duration. Each additional stack reduces cohesion by a further 10%. If a target’s cohesion is reduced to 8% or lower while this effect is active, they begin to disintegrate. If the permutation reaches four level-matched stacks, this disintegration occurs regardless of the target's current cohesion.

Devour (Arcana):

Quintessence Capacity: 186⁄500

Each time a permutation of Debuffer successfully affects a target, you gain quintessence. Additionally, if Devitalize disintegrates a target, you gain additional quintessence. Amount of quintessence gained varies based on target’s level and ?. Can be used directly to consume ?.

At Higher Grades. ?

For a while, he just stared at it. Finally having some more concrete information was amazing.

It showed far more details about the skill and its permutations now, though most of it he already knew. He suspected even the range and needing line of sight he’d sort of subconsciously known.

Well, maybe not the line of sight. That was something that he had been meaning to test. The range was about as far as he’d ever used it, and he wondered if maybe it was simply showing him what he already knew, and if the range would change if he used it on something farther away.

Hopefully not, given how much it had taken from him to get the new message format. He hoped that it was accurate, and not just estimations.

The message format itself looked somehow familiar, but he couldn’t quite place where he recognized it from.

He reread it, looking for things he hadn’t known.

Disgorge really did create the vomit, which he’d already suspected. And it did poison damage, which he hadn’t known or even thought about.

I wonder how much poison damage it does. It didn’t seem to do much to the quinametzin, but that might have been because of its level. Or it just had a lot of health. Maybe a high Immune System. Or all three.

I’d need ten stacks of Torpor to decrease Speed to 1%, plus however many it takes to reach level-match. It doesn’t say how much it decreases it before level-match is reached, but I know it decreases it at least somewhat.

Did level-match mean what it sounded like? Probably, since everything else more or less did.

Warily, he used Interrogate on the term level-match.

Unfortunately he didn’t have enough Energy, so continued reading while waiting for it to recharge.

Devitalize was a more general debuff than he’d realized, giving disadvantage to Durability, Toughness, Strength, Recovery, and something he couldn’t see.

Did disadvantage mean a decrease?

Another thing he didn’t have enough Energy to find out.

Something he hadn’t known was that it also decreased cohesion, though it was possible he’d subconsciously inferred it from the fact that it caused monsters to start disintegrating, and had completely disintegrated the first mummy he’d used it on. Maybe it’d already had its cohesion below 8%?

It would make sense, being a mummy. Though even the first stack on the level 7 had caused its skin to start flaking away, even though he didn’t think he’d achieved level-match.

Maybe the decrease to cohesion wasn’t the cause of the disintegration, but a side effect? That would actually make sense, since four level-matched stacks would cause it to disintegrate regardless of its cohesion.

So if something was level 1, a single stack would reduce its cohesion by 10%. If that was an absolute decrease and it started at 100%, then it would be at 90% after one stack, and four stacks would bring it down to 60%, and it would disintegrate. For a level 2, each level-matched stack after the first would bring it down by 20%, so it would be at 30% after four. So it would only be good up to level 3 on things with full cohesion, since four level-matched stacks at level 4 would be 130%, unless cohesion could go above 100%.

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It was also possible the percentages were relative, not absolute.

Or it could be that level-match took into account his own level. Maybe it was the difference between his level and his target’s level?

He’d used his level 10 skill balls on the quinametzin, which was greater than the eight or nine stacks that would be required, so that didn’t tell him which it might be.

And he’d only managed six stacks on the level 7 mummy back in the pyramid, and was pretty sure he hadn’t even used Disgorge on it.

Six stacks of Devitalize had caused it to start losing limbs, at least after a while. But it was possible its cohesion hadn’t been at 100% to begin with.

And whether it took into account his level or not, how would it work with level 0? Would it disintegrate right away? The only things he’d seen at level zero were people and items.

Was this cohesion the same cohesion as on items?

It seemed likely, which made him wonder if he could use the skill on more than just living things.

He focused on a nearby rock, and used Devitalize.

Nothing happened.

Right, still not enough Energy.

A minute of his mind racing through possibilities later, he had regained enough to use the permutation.

He tried again. It worked this time, but nothing happened.

He inspected the rock

⦗Rock, Level ?⦘

Huh. Question mark for level. Never seen that before. Does that mean it’s really high?

He looked around for something else he could try it on and spotted an empty water bottle, which was level 0.

The bottle almost immediately dissolved to dust, leaving a tiny orb behind, about the size of his thumbnail.

Where were you keeping that?

He went over and examined the orb.

⦗Essence Seed⦘

Essence seed? Is that like a genesis seed? And no level.

I wonder if I can use my Reformation Orb with it somehow.

He used Interrogate on it to see if it would give him more info. It gave him a jolt, but nothing like using it on Debuffer had.

Essence Seed

A seed which contains the essence of ⦗Plastic Container⦘. Use to imbue the essence of ⦗Plastic Container⦘ into an object.

Type: Mundane

He tried to get a message for the word essence, but couldn’t.

He took out his Reformation Orb then focused on it and tried to use the seed with it like he would a genesis seed.

Essence seed primed

Choose item to reform

He tried it on the rock, but it wouldn’t work. Which probably meant it was too high level, since he couldn’t use his Reformation Orb on things higher than its own level, which was 1.

Weird. Why would a rock have such a high level that he couldn’t even see what level it was?

He looked around at a few other things and discovered he could Interrogate pretty much anything: rocks, trees, even the ground itself. They all had simple names, but all had question marks for level.

He focused on the Split Piercer sword in Jasmine’s pile of items and tried the Reformation Orb.

• Missing Formula

• Missing Formula

• Missing Formula

That’s different than when I tried it with a genesis seed. That gave the option for a divining rapier, plus two unavailables. So essence and genesis seeds aren’t interchangeable.

Or is that because this seed came from a level 0 item? But it doesn’t even have a level listed…

There were a few other pieces of packaging trash around the clearing, but using the Reformation Orb on them all gave the same result: missing formulas.

He used Devitalize on them, and all dissolved to Essence Seeds. They all had type mundane. He stowed them away on his belt for now.

Do the seeds come from the items losing all cohesion, or is it unique to Devitalize? If an item loses all its cohesion through using it, would it also become an Essence Seed?

Lacking any way to test this at the moment since physical damage didn’t seem to affect cohesion, he tried Interrogate on level-match again. He had enough Energy this time and it worked.

Level-match is considered achieved when number of stacks is equal to target’s level. Affected by target resistances.

So it was as he’d suspected, he needed to match the number of stacks to the target’s level. But it looked like his own level didn’t influence that, unless that’s what it meant by target resistances.

If not, and if they had to fight Quetzalcoatl, he’d need 99 stacks to achieve level-match, even if he reached level 99 himself. Maybe there would be a way to cast multiple stacks at once when Debuffer ranked up again, or it would start taking into account his level.

He tried Interrogate on target resistances, but got nothing.

He also couldn’t get anything for any of the question marks in Debuffer’s description, but cohesion gave him something.

Cohesion

The physical manifestation of the ? of an object.

Great, another question mark.

He checked disadvantage next.

Disadvantage

A negative alteration to a base stat.

So would it not work on stats boosted by items or skills?

Not something I’m going to test on any of the team.

Maybe I’ll find a monster wearing armor.

Devour said it could be used directly to consume something. Was that referring to using it on orbs? Or could he use it on monsters, too?

He’d felt it activating automatically when using Debuffer, but maybe using it directly on a monster would do something different.

Something to try in his next fight.

He tried Interrogate on the rest of the lines in Debuffer’s new message. Most didn’t give him more information, but two did:

Rarity

Order of skill assignment and instances of the skill able to be assigned.

Huh, it really is straightforward. That’s almost exactly what I thought it might be, but it’s not how many people have it, but how many people can. Just kinda weird to call it rarity. I guess it makes sense though, that’s exactly what it is, only in a different form than I’m used to seeing.

Which means I’m the only person who has or can be assigned Analyzer, but four other people can have Debuffer. And the first number being one means I was the first to get it. Which means 1⁄1 is a unique skill. Or is there some way to get skills other than assignment?

Scion Capacity

Evolve capabilities by adding a scion to this skill.

He tried interrogating this message, the word scion specifically, but didn’t get anything further.

Still doesn’t tell me what a scion is, or how to get one.

He tried using Analyzer on itself, but that just gave him a headache.

Dismissing the messages, he pulled out his skill balls to charge up, starting with Devitalize. He only got two stacks before running out of Energy.

Lacking anything else to do while waiting for his Energy to regenerate, he ran through his mental to-do list.

I need to test out the effect of my shield more, see if my punches are stronger thanks to my increased mass. I forgot to do that in the fight with the quinametzin.

He frowned, trying to remember if he’d tried punching the giant. He was pretty certain he hadn’t.

Which probably was a good thing, come to think of it.

I should try with a weapon first, since that much force might break my hand, even with my titan skin.

We also need to figure out how to get the others’ skills to reach D-Grade. I should compare notes with Emma, since we’re the only ones who had our skills level up. Find out if she discovered something about her skill and what message she got when it ranked up.

And then there’s the runes on my shield. It seems the rune names are what it feeds on, taking all my Energy and replacing it with the stolen element. But what would stealing hunger or desire do? Desire might be a bit like a slow or a root, sapping a monster’s will to do anything. Which is a bit like Emma’s skill, if so. But what would it mean to eat hunger? And if I steal desire, what would that do to me? Make me extra motivated?

None of that was something he could figure out now, so he refiled it away to consider later.

I also wanted to test repairing items with my Reformation Orb, but nothing is damaged enough to waste a genesis seed on, essence seeds don’t seem to be capable of it with the formulas I have, and I couldn’t reform any of my own items anyway. I need to figure out what blueprints and formulas are, and how to get more.

This reminded him of the scroll Jasmine had created with her Waste Eater skill.

I should see what it does when I’m done here.