After 23 minutes, Degritone was almost through the memory packets. "Ooo, nice, there's image upgrades in here, too. I'll set them aside for now so I can shift through them for any incompatibilities in different ones and see what I can make from the amalgamation of them all."
Another 8 minutes later, Degritone had gone through all the purely combat experience memories and moved on to sorting out how he was going to advance his Immortal Troll image using the advancements of his other selves.
The first and easiest was Flesh. Only 2 Degritones had focused on it, coming to the same conclusion: Make it regrow so fast as to seem permanent. So, after incorporating that into a memory packet of the whole Immortal Troll image that he would use to more easily memorize the Immortal Troll in a way that didn't require active use of memory packets, he moved on to Regeneration.
Regeneration was also pretty simple, with 10 submissions that claim to get almost identical results. He chose the easiest one to actually incorporate: The image of the Immortal Troll returning to full after having been reduced to a single cell.
Withered Hands was next up. Some worked on getting a ranged application of the Skill, others worked on making it more potent. The most potent one he found was a version of the image where the arms had been fully withered away, with the shoulders in a constant battle to return to normalcy, but with spectral copies of the arms being made from the Troll's excess life force.
With a slight modification from flinging out a glob of the Troll's on withered flesh as a catalyst to making it a beam of ectoplasm, Degritone looked both add range to the Skill and increase its potency greatly.
Piercing Blood came next, and it had exactly one submission: Just its current state, but more potent. More corrosive, more damaging, less Stamina cost for its activated effect.
Finally, he had 18 submissions for how to get the Immortal Troll's signature ability: Copying the stuff that damaged it. Be it the bite force of a shark, the magic capability of an insanely ancient and powerful lich, or as simple as the toughness of steel. Only 2 of them were compatible, and they were the weakest two. Even multiplying the numbers together did not reach the top 10.
He took the most powerful version and slapped it onto the Immortal Troll: The life force of the Troll reaching out and deconstructing anything in the path of its regrowth, incorporating the resultant property essence into itself. The System did not enjoy the damaging aspect of the Skill, excluding it, but respecting the power play and making it the most powerful version any of the Degritones had thought of.
And so, Degritone went about memorizing the new version of the image: The Immortal Troll starting as a single cell and regenerating through a steel box, his life force chewing through the box and giving his flesh outside where the box used to be the same hardness as steel. Some of his blood spilled out of his still-regenerating body to chew through the table the box used to be on, and once the regeneration reached his arms, the withering curse reapplied itself, preventing his arms from truly regenerating, but his life force being so strong that it recreated its arms out of itself.
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Congratulations! Skill Set upgraded!
Revelation of the Immortal Troll becomes The Immortal Troll
Battered Flesh of the Immortal becomes Persistent Flesh of the Immortal
Exemplar Regeneration becomes Unending Regeneration of the Troll
Withered Hands becomes Immortal's Spectral Arms
Piercing Blood becomes Corroding Troll Blood
Immortal Physique added to Skill Set
"Blades! You ready to see my upgrades?"
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Three real time hours later, Degritone said to the exhausted Patron of Blades, "Ok, that makes the last 325 matches mine. Think that's good enough?"
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"You're nowhere near as overwhelming as Duels, though, I guess that's to be expected of someone with primarily defensive Skills. You should at least last one real second against him, now. I don't think I have anything else I can teach you, so goodbye." With that, Blades disappeared.
"To a Dungeon?"
"It would be nice to get you some real equipment before we do so you can get used to fighting with real equipment bonuses, but the more people know you are out of my garden, the more likely it would be for Duels to find out. So, yes, to a Dungeon."
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Degritone leveled up to 90 and got the prompt for a new custom Skill. He imagined an angry loli face with numbers for a mouth appearing on someone he focused on, with the number representing the number of lolis they've hurt, either physically or emotionally.
In the text box, he put, "Apply a mark to anyone you can see. This mark is unable to be removed and counts the number of lolis the mark holder has hurt, physically or emotionally, including those from before the application of the mark. If they hurt another loli while they have the mark, it deals DR bypassing and ignoring percent maximum Health damage equal to the number of lolis they hurt. This counts as an attack originating from the one who applied the mark."
After a second of thought, he changed the last sentence to, "This counts as an attack from the holder of this Skill with the most damaging effects that apply on-hit," before submitting the Skill.
Skill granted:
Mark of the Loli Heretic lvX
Degritone then spent his 1986 new free stats on Agility, since it was his most lacking Stat, and began slowly spending his 3091 SP, as to not encounter whatever insta-death effect that one person had. After spending 1396 SP on The Immortal Troll, bringing it up to level 2013, he felt the first inkling of sickness and immediately stopped, two different Orders preventing him from going further.
"Huh, seems like I do have a limit," he said.
"In what way do you mean? You have plenty of limits that I can think of."
"Fair enough, I can't exactly explode an entire multiverse yet, or mind control anyone, or arbitrarily manipulate the System. I do actually have a Skill cap. Just started feeling sick at around... 5250ish above my max."
"Oh, did you remember to stop immediately?"
"Of course, I have two Orders preventing me from trying to go any further. You told me to immediately stop if I felt sick, and my daughter in my lifedream told me to not die."
"You have a daughter, and what is a lifedream?"
"Technically, and it's a dream where I live out an entire life, from some age to my death by age-related complications. Don't really have time to tell you more about it now, as who knows when or if Duels will figure out arbitrary teleportation like we have, but I will explain if you ask."
"I will ask for more details after you return victorious."
Degritone nodded and spent his new PP.
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Vital Abyss 2200/2200
Congratulations! You have completed the Vital Abyss Path!
Vital Soak upgraded
38 Vitality per level
6 Bonus Health Regeneration per level
1 Bonus Stamina Regeneration per level
100 Health Regeneration per Level
100 Stamina Regeneration per Level
100 Mana Regeneration per Level
Vital Abyss 0/2860
WARNING!
Once you put PP into this Path, you must complete it.
Once completed, you will be given an official position among the Architects.
"Ew, no," Degritone said.
"What?" Melena asked.
"A path would apparently make me an Architect. While I could probably do a lot if I was in that position, I have that achievement that says I'm being hunted, put in place by them. No way am I giving myself up for free like that."
Master of Vitality 2860/2860
Congratulations! You have completed the Master of Vitality Path!
Vitalkinesis lv1
38 Vitality per level
6 Bonus Health Regeneration per level
1 Bonus Stamina Regeneration per level
100 Health Regeneration per Level
100 Stamina Regeneration per Level
100 Mana Regeneration per Level
Ocean of Health 2860/2860
Congratulations! You have completed the Ocean of Health Path!
Vital Presence becomes Vital Tide
38 Vitality per level
6 Bonus Health Regeneration per level
1 Bonus Stamina Regeneration per level
100 Health Regeneration per Level
100 Stamina Regeneration per Level
100 Mana Regeneration per Level
Infinite Vitality 1201/3640
Melena and Degritone looked at each other, nodded, and hugged.
"Win this," Melena said before Degritone disappeared.
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He reappeared 40 feet behind the Patron of Duels. When the Patron instantly turned around, Degritone accelerated time as much as he safely could and laughed. "Man, this really feels like the end of the line."