Chapter 288
Matt teleported into his living room, only to find that his unexpected guest had already beaten him there. King Rusty, clad in Tier 25 armor that revealed far too much skin to actually serve as nonmagical protection, stood in a triumphant pose and with eyes firmly fixed on him as he materialized.
“There you are! Did you think you could run forever?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Matt shot back. “I was starting to wonder if you were trying to ignore me.”
Neither was actually true, but they had both been busy with the war going on. In truth, Matt hadn’t expected Rusty for another month at least, but apparently he’d snuck away from some of his meetings long enough for their long-awaited match.
“Never!” The king’s opening move was to barrel through Matt’s couch, sending it flying into the wall as the light from a [Fist Blast] began to shine out from the gaps in his gauntlet.
Instead of dodging it, Matt snapped out with his own hand, blanketing his hand in a full-powered [Cracked Phantom Armor], reinforced with his Concept. The attack, an almost textbook Tier 25 in strength, stopped dead, and Rusty’s grin grew manic.
“Let’s take this outside.” Matt countered and wrapped the royal in a full-powered [Telekinesis], dragging him along as he used [Cracked Air Slide] to swiftly relocate outdoors, through the mass of splinters that had once been his front door.
The moment they were both outside, Matt was instantly thrown through the air by a solid uppercut. Rusty followed a moment later, and Matt let himself be carried along by his momentum. The duo flew in a tall arc, landing a few miles outside of the main Fort Lightfoot.
While Rusty crashed into the ground, leaving no mark on the soil beneath him, Matt caught himself with a gentle use of [Flight]. Fortunately for him, [Regeneration] had already been running at minimum power, so he didn’t need to worry about getting that going. But now that they were clear of their more breakable surroundings, Matt was eager to get the fight properly started.
He didn’t need to wait long, as Rusty’s fist was already cracking towards him.
Years of training made Matt twist, but Rusty’s fist was like a striking snake and unerringly tracked him.
The blow was only empowered with a single skill, alongside Rusty’s Concept, but there was something in the Concept that rattled through [Cracked Phantom Armor], treating it as an extension of his spirit and rattling his body through that connection.
Matt’s jaw and face cracked and deformed under the force of the punch, but he flared up [Regeneration]’s rate slightly to start putting it back together as he materialized a sword out of mana crystal, striking back at Rusty. A steel-gray aura enveloped the man’s body, and Matt’s strike cut into Rusty’s bare shoulder far less than it properly should have. Instead of cleaving through muscle and bone alike, it merely left a long, bloodless gash down his arm that already began to knit back together.
Matt mentally reassessed the seemingly-impractical armor that the Royal was wearing. While a wiry circlet, a vambrace pauldron combo on his left arm and a gauntlet on his right hand was utterly laughable in terms of proper upper-body protection, Rusty’s body was likely tougher than just about any armor that he could wear. So instead, his “armor” was positioned such that Matt could either try and attack it or vital spots on Rusty’s torso, but not both.
Rusty gave him no chance to properly follow up on the one wound he did score, as the brawler backflipped, connecting with a solid kick that sent Matt flying as a clod of dirt ripped alongside the attack until Matt dropped his concept space-locking.
He had to admit, the Royal really knew what he was doing. He’d expected Rusty to realize he’d been locking himself to the ground with his Concept, but not that Rusty would or even could kick the entire space that Matt had been holding onto.
His mana crystal sword had gotten lost somewhere along the way, but as Matt properly adjusted to his new position, he became aware that Allie was hanging upside-down from a tree next to him, eating popcorn from a bag nearly as big as she was.
“What about Regent, Legion, and Champion?” she asked, and Matt shot her a glare.
“For one, not the time. For two, there have been no less than four Ascenders- Heroes, sorry, from the Guilds whose title could be reasonably translated as ‘Champion.’ I’m not taking it as well.”
“Aeon, Immortal, Infinite?”
“Again, not the time.”
“Eh. Your loss. Also, duck.”
He didn’t really need the warning, but followed his coworker’s advice anyway, tucking into a roll to avoid the metal-clad fist passing through where his torso would have been.
“You know, you didn’t need to wreck the door. Couldn’t we have started out here?”
Rusty laughed even as he worked his still-healing arm. “It's more fun this way!”
Matt couldn’t really disagree with that, except… “You’re paying for the door. And I’ll want an upgrade.”
“Only if you win,” the royal challenged back, dropping into a fighting stance. His fists began glowing a deep ruby red, giving the impression that his normally charcoal-black hands and forearms were pieces of smoldering wood.
There was a small flare of an Intent, and Rusty yelled wordlessly even as the royal practically teleported right in front of Matt, a fist just inches away from his face.
Matt teleported behind Rusty and went in for an upper spine punch, but Rusty’s back foot was darting up like a blade and nearly caught Matt in the jaw once more. He was slightly faster than the royal and managed to dodge, though that move cost him his chance to strike out at Rusty.
Rusty laughed, and the temperature plummeted as his aura instantly changed from a burning fire so hot, [Cracked Phantom Armor] was already starting to convert, to a flowing water-based one. Simultaneously, the aggressive fighting style that the man had been displaying was extinguished, and his stance and movements shifted to a fluid defensive set.
His body flowed as if he didn’t have a single solid bone in his body. He slid around Matt’s counterpunch, responding with a blow Matt could only liken to a tsunami. The wave of power crashed into Matt’s body and tried to send him flying.
A well-timed moment of Intent invincibility denied that attack, but his return punch, wreathed in crackling electricity from a recently upgraded [Lightning Torrent], nearly fizzled out as Rusty began to embody the wind instead. Matt released his charged attack and lightning flashed, filling the space where Rusty was and leaving a distinct scent of smoke circulating through the [Air Body] form that Rusty had taken.
An arm-shaped breeze still managed to quite effectively bypass [Cracked Phantom Armor], with knifelike winds opening up an infinitesimally small crack then pouring in, sending Matt’s guts through an invisible blender. It didn’t do much to hinder his current capability, and [Regeneration] was already putting him back together, but Matt was still overwhelmed. He managed to end the spell with a powerful blast of [Air Manipulation] after recentering himself.
Dropping an elbow on the arm as it retreated, he felt something break and flared his Intent to attract Rusty towards his next blow. The brawler responded in kind, and their fists met in an explosive shockwave.
The air shattered with waves of compressed air slamming into the ground, causing the earth to explode and sending dirt flying miles into the air.
A part of Matt noticed that before any of the damage reached the perimeter of Camp Lightfoot, it dissipated. Rusty was still a Tier 47, and even a thought would be enough to stop a Tier 25 level of power.
As that thought came over Matt, he was impressed at Rusty’s control over his own power. It would be all too easy for the Royal to go overboard, but so far, he had been restraining himself admirably.
That only meant Matt hadn’t pushed him hard enough.
Flaring his buffs, Matt crystallized the mana in his armor’s forearms and fists, somewhat mirroring the gauntlets that Rusty wore.
He took a blow to the chest, but successfully blocked Rusty’s Concept from bypassing the spell's defenses. He had started learning how the Concept functioned, and it spoke to a level of sophistication at odds with how Rusty normally portrayed himself.
The spell didn’t just look for a gap in a defensive network, though it did do so. It also had a subterfuge-like mental effect that created a gap if the target wasn’t paying attention to their armor.
Upon learning that, Matt crystalised the rest of his armor and laughed as the Concept slid off of his crystalline mana. It wasn’t a perfect defense against Rusty’s mental effect, but the innate sense of integrity he got from the Talent-created mana crystal made it far easier to keep his focus on defending from Rusty’s blows.
When his next blow failed to bypass Matt’s defenses, Rusty laughed. “Good! Let's take it up a notch.”
Having said that, the man vanished from his spot, even as his aura turned a bluish-white that reminded Matt of lightning. Rusty exploded in speed, and when his fist struck Matt’s back this time, he seemed to teleport before his blow fully landed, and launched another attack on Matt’s front.
He was trying to juggle Matt, but there was no way Matt was going to be played that easily. Instead Matt used [Lightning Manipulation] to grab all the lightning mana in the area and commanded it to stand still.
The mana that Rusty was relying on to teleport around stopped conducting him, and Matt lashed out using his hand like a blade to send out a [Mana Slash].
Rusty punched the spell, but was still sent flying as the mana was released. Even as Matt chased the royal, who used the momentum to gain some distance, he watched with interest as Rusty’s charred arms and chest quickly healed.
It was damn similar to how his own wounds healed with [Regeneration]. He remembered Rusty saying he had a similar ability to generate ‘stamana’ instead of mana endlessly, but seeing it in action was interesting. It was also fun to fight someone who could match his staying power.
That had never happened before besides Manny’s Legacy, and even that didn’t really count.
Flaring [Flight], Matt closed the distance between him and the still retreating Rusty, but he realized he fell into a trap when Rusty’s aura turned a deep earthen brown and he slammed into the ground like a magnet finding iron.
Matt was too close; he was grabbed by the head and slammed into the ground at least a dozen times before he was able to free [Mana Charge] and break free from Rusty’s grip. Before he could right himself, he was kicked in the chest and sent flying yet again.
He had just enough time to see a maniacally grinning Rusty just a few dozen feet behind him, chasing him into the nearest mountain range.
Matt blew straight through the first mountain and gasped as he came out the other side.
The impact had shattered every bone in his body, but [Regeneration] was there for him and quickly stitched him back together.
With pain fueling his attacks, Matt grabbed the mountains with [Earth Manipulation] and threw them at Rusty.
It took most of his mana generation, but seeing the Tier 47’s eyes go wide at the move made it all worth it, despite the splitting headache it caused Matt.
Rusty tried to turn into a wind form, but Matt grit his teeth and commanded the wind to stand still as well.
Instead of panicking, Rusty laughed as his aura turned into a red one, and he exploded in a wash of flames so hot, the mountains turned into molten rock,evaporating away before they could even touch the royal.
It was an impressive display of power, and as far as Matt was able to tell, Rusty was still keeping within his restrictions.
The flare of fire petered away as the mountains vanished, and Rusty looked physically drained, but he met Matt’s fist with a dodge and uppercut that wasn’t lacking in power.
Matt checked the blow with his elbow and kicked down at Rusty’s hip, but had his foot caught in response. He spun, trying to kick free of Rusty, but he was unable to complete the maneuver as Rusty spun with him and threw him straight into the ground again.
By the time Matt got to his feet, Rusty was already upon him, and with an earthen aura, he rained blow after blow down on Matt.
The first few shattered crystalline armor, but once Matt steadied himself, he started trading blows one for one with the royal.
He thought they were going to stalemate, but to his surprise, his blows were stronger than Rusty’s.
He had done his research on the Royal after the first time he had met the man and been challenged. He knew mentally that Rusty had only ever been considered an elite, and not an Ascender level fighter, but experiencing the difference first hand was different.
He was stronger than Rusty.
Not physically, because there he was only on par with the Royal who had his own buffs, but his version of endlessness was stronger than Rusty’s. He could take a blow that shredded his chest and heal the damage before the next wound landed. Matt was slowly gaining the upper hand as Rusty’s wounds were only slowly closing.
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They flew through the air, their blows and respective attempts to catch up to the other sending them mile after mile deeper into the rift, until they splashed down into a massive lake, sinking through the crystal-clear waters.
Their blows created massive vacuum bubbles that slammed back on them like the slaps of an angry Duke Waters. But Matt’s armor held up better than Rusty’s aura.
As they stood deep in the mud that settled on the bottom of the lake, Matt grinned and used [Water Manipulation] to shove the water away from them. He wanted to lift the entire lake and then drop it on them, but he just didn’t have enough mana to lift that much high-Tier water yet. Tier 35 rifts were massive, and even their smaller lakes were hundreds of miles deep. It was only thanks to some tricks one of his prior trainers had taught him that he could even make the bubble, bypassing most of the water pressure by linking opposite sides of the bubble together, similarly to how he could zipper space with his Domain.
Rusty didn’t seem to appreciate Matt’s skills, and very rudely punched the side of the bubble, his strike managing to dispel Matt’s working and set [Water Manipulation] on a fairly lengthy cooldown.
Well, no matter.
Matt instantly flooded the bubble with air, then used [Air Manipulation] to form a channel back to above the surface, [Flight] sending him skyward. However, Rusty, now twenty feet tall and shrouded in a blue aura, even as his skin took on a stony appearance, grabbed at Matt from where he stood on the surface of the lake, seeking to grab Matt in his oversized hand.
[Telekinesis] threw the royal off, skidding across the surface, only for him to suddenly twist in midair, redirecting his momentum towards Matt in a flying uppercut. He met the challenge, and the pair traded blows midair for a few exchanges before Matt elbow-dropped the other man, sending him crashing to the water below.
Rusty shook himself off, scattering droplets so fast, they produced shockwaves in the air around him, and entered a ready stance, wiggling his fingers at Matt in a clear challenge. Matt happily swooped in, creating an oversized crystal sword as he did so. An open-hand strike blocked Matt’s sword blow, and the second shattered the mana crystal. A triumphant cry accompanied a physical taunt, and Matt found himself pulled towards the dark-skinned man even as his eyes erupted into white, yellow, and red-blue light supernovae. Matt blocked the first fist with an elbow and spun and kicked down from above. The blow sent shockwaves of water up into the air, but Matt was forced to dodge as Rusty sent out a massive [Fist Blast].
Matt rapidly formed a sword and sent out his own [Mana Slash], not to meet the spell, but at Rusty directly.
He was betting that he could take the royal’s blow better than the royal could handle his spell.
The [Fist Blast] burst through [Cracked Phantom Armor] and broke most of his bones, but none of the damage was so bad that he couldn’t out-heal it.
Rusty, on the other hand, had to block the blow on his aura-covered arm. That cut open a gash that, this time, Matt refused to let heal. With [Mana Beam] now a part of his arsenal, Matt’s previous usage for [Lightning Torrent] was somewhat superfluous. He had perhaps the best possible channeled attack, so what would he need a bit of close-ranged blasts of lightning for?
The answer was simple. Turn it into a melee attack. Thanks to his flexible innate slot and a truly absurd amount of mana, Matt had taken the spell’s normal upgrade, the ability to charge targets of the spell with excess electricity that would lash out at other nearby enemies, and twisted it to be able to empower a weapon strike.
With millions of mana poured into the wreath of blue lightning around Matt’s temporary sword, it looked to be practically made of electricity. As it struck the royal head-on, the resulting boom was tantamount to thousands of lightning strikes happening simultaneously.
Rusty’s arm was blasted open, sending his gauntlet flying and revealing layer after layer of tendons and surprisingly little blood, but his bone stayed intact… Matt narrowed his eyes, casting [Analyze] to get a better sense that yes, Rusty’s body wasn’t normal flesh-and-blood. Instead, his tendons were more akin to incredibly intricate metals and polymers, with his bones outright made of enchanted metal. That the enchantments were currently suppressed didn’t matter, but it did shed some light on just how the royal was so tough.
“Self-Identity, eh? What floor?”
“Seventh, at Tier 12!” Rusty called back with glee, and the gauntlet rematerialized over a skeletal fist. He charged at Matt, but Matt swung his sword around, trailing lightning and enhancing the blow with [Telekinesis] and [Air Manipulation]. Another boom rocked the battlefield, and Rusty was sent skyward.
A star ignited in the crystal-clear sky, and then Rusty was rocketing back down towards the ground, gauntlet-first. Matt twisted gravity to ensure he would fall in a perfectly straight line… and then unleashed a [Mana Beam] skyward.
The air thrummed around him as a blue column of light stretched into the sky. For all the force that Matt was exerting on the royal, Rusty was doing an admirable job of dodging the beam as he swept it through the man’s path, never taking more than a glancing blow for more than mere instants.
When they got close enough, Matt swapped his pure [Mana Beam] to a combination of [Mana Beam], [Telekinesis], and [Lightning Torrent], keeping Rusty at bay while he kept trying to dodge and eventually block the implacable beam. Then, power flared as Matt’s spells connected fully.
When Matt could properly resolve what was going on, he realized that Rusty, no longer suppressing his cultivation, was simply catching the massive beam of raw power with his bare hand, inspecting it with a mild bit of curiosity.
“And you can just do this forever?” he asked.
Matt just nodded and Rusty snorted. “What a crock of bull shit. You win the round. I think I can take you if I go to Tier 26 though, so prepare yourself.”
Matt snorted. “You wish!”
Rusty laughed. “I do. I want to fight the others first, but then I’ll ramp up until it's an even fight. But once you hit Tier 45 or Tier 46, we’ll have to enter a rift and have a proper brawl. There are a lot of things I only learned in my thirties and forties as my powers started really hitting their stride.”
Grinning, he winked at Matt. “If we both go all out, I’m pretty sure we can crack a solar system, nay a galaxy, nay a universe, nay two universes! Wouldn’t that be fucking awesome?”
“Don’t think you’re getting out of my new door,” Matt narrowed his eyes. “You can’t distract me that easily.”
“Not a chance,” Rusty replied, and with a wave of his hand the two of them were back at the front of the house, alongside a small crowd of onlookers. Allie seemed the most surprised, having appeared in midair, hanging upside-down with her legs hooked over something that wasn’t there anymore, but a plblblp later she had her feet firmly on the ground. One vworp later, she had her now mostly-empty bag of popcorn as well. Maybe someday, he’d ask her just how many teleportation noises she had saved up.
Aster raced forward and slammed her staff on Rusty’s head, who just blinked at her.
“Me next!”
Rusty laughed. “First things first. Catch!”
A glittering mote of crystal arced through the air, and Matt reached out with [Telekinesis] to pull it towards him. While he was figuring out what it was, Rusty skipped over to where Melinda and a healer Matt didn’t recognize stood. “Heal please!”
Instead of simply casting her spell, Melinda grabbed Rusty’s still-reassembling arm, casting a light blue spell as she twisted and turned the royal’s biomechanical appendage.
Rusty didn’t seem bothered and instead started explaining, “If it was just a mechanical arm, I would have needed more reinforcements on my shoulders and back to handle that much power, but because I had a final floor run of Self Identity, I was able to transform my entire body, which allowed me to ignore some of the constraints you will find others who use the alternative routes to achieve the same results. Most others are limited to smaller sections unless their Great Power is willing to invest in them or they come from a very wealthy group.”
Melinda nodded as she pointed at the runes crawling along Rusty’s metal insides. “And the runes? How do they normally react to healing? Everyone says they aren’t bothered, and I can see my Talent bypassing it, but are there issues for normal healers who wish to repair your body?”
Rusty shook his head. “Naaa, that’s the beauty of it. It responds almost exactly the same way that normal bio-bits would. Easier in some ways, because some parts are outright simplified. The enchantments, well they can get tricky, but these days I can keep them intact no matter how much you bungle around with your healings.”
The healer next to Melinda coughed and Rusty rolled his eyes and looked to Melinda’s shadow, Corporal Nore, and mock whispered, “Silvermore is jealous that his background in mundane healing isn’t as useful for the good stuff, and The Bone Artisan’s domain, completely based on nothing but good vibes, is better at patching me up than his oh-so-careful images and bio-nonsense.”
Corporal Nore nodded and said a quiet, “Yes sir,” that held no emotion at all.
“So is this your payment for the door?” Matt piped up wanting to save the Corporal. Studying the skill shard Rusty had tossed him had given him nothing useful. “Because I don’t want a reimbursement, I want the actual door. Also, I don’t take skill shards. I can’t identify it, but I don’t know if you’re aware that I’ve never had a real lack of them.”
Rusty cracked a grin. “Nah. That’s the little doohickey that gave me the opportunity to sneak away for this little brawl. Some little thing that you asked for, one uh… what was it. Ah! That’s right! [Archmage’s Presence]. But you know, if you don’t want it, I’m sure I could find some use for a second…”
Matt barely even heard the last part of what Rusty said, as a grin spread across his face. With a triumphant laugh, Matt sprinted into his house to start absorbing the Tier 44 skill.
A door made out of mana crystal could look really cool if he did a little detail work.
***
Matt had spent a long time in meetings with his advisors, trying to figure out the shape of his upcoming build. As a melee-focused damaging tank, he needed abilities to get him into the thick of a battle, keep him in the thick of it and alive, and with enough firepower to actually make a difference in the outcome.
Thanks to Minkalla, he had nine openings between his core and innate skill slots, though he usually just thought of them collectively as his ‘core’. Nine openings that would define the vast majority of his fighting style, that would be the fastest to modify, the most powerful in use, and overall serve as the core of his identity as an Ascender.
[Cracked Phantom Armor] was the first and easiest choice. It served as the cornerstone to his entire build, was one of the main pieces his armor was built around, and was absolutely his signature skill. Usually, it would be taking the innate slot unless there was another skill he was actively working to modify.
At the moment, that was [Cracked Reinforce Stone]. It was hard to say that any skill was truly ‘perfect’ for Matt, given how well his Talent meant he could use just about any skill, but with a crack that made the spell reinforce mana instead of physical earth? The Tier 14 skill could drastically increase the amount of mana which a spell could take before destabilizing, stacking with and even enhancing [Overcharge]. But unlike [Overcharge], which could only be active for a single spell at a time and had to be cast alongside the spell, [Cracked Reinforce Stone] could be cast at any time after the spell had been cast, and had no limits to the number of spells it could enhance at a time.
And that was before he upgraded it with a Tier 14 and 26 upgrade orb, which made affected spells much harder to dispel or steal, and reinforced the physical durability of mana constructs respectively.
Right now, he was working on modifying the spell to also affect magical items, increasing how much mana they could take without burning out. Once he was done, he would probably rename it as something like [Reinforce Mana], but who knew if the Team Chatter publicists would take umbrage with that idea. They’d already made Liz rename half her skills, saying that “Blood Noun” was fine in moderation, but a full quarter of her spells being called that was underselling her.
Of course, with their full Ascender titles still in flux, there was only so much that they could really do. Legion and Immortal were the two names currently in favor for Liz, and each implied very different themes to her skill names. So long as they figured it out in the next couple of decades, everything would be fine.
Now, they could have just said “screw it” and given all of their skills stupid names or not renamed them at all, but they all felt it was more fun this way. They’d made a group promise to choose exactly one skill and give it some kind of stupidly over-the-top name more fitting for the Sects, just to screw with the public. But mostly, the points made about acting as a source of inspiration and awe for the common citizen, and the benefits that could come with them making skill guides for their custom-named skills to boost morale and patriotism… they weren’t wrong. So, they may as well play along, right?
In any case, that meant [Sword Twin], as the third skill in his ‘core,’ really needed a rename. Now that he’d used a second upgrade orb on it, he could summon up to four blades at once, giving him somewhere between one extremely powerful blade and five normal-strength swords, depending on what he needed. Because doubling the number of swords he was fighting with in one go was tricky, he usually kept the two extra blades absorbed, but he was slowly getting used to keeping out all five swords.
How Liz managed to keep track of dozens to hundreds of entirely extra bodies was a wonder he could only shake his head in disbelief at. She was even working on adapting [Summon Blood Monster] to act as oddly-shaped clones instead of autonomous summons, and Matt couldn’t help but be in awe of his wife.
While [Sword Twin] served to amplify his swords and serve as a powerful basis for the rest of his skills, as a tank, he still needed to actually have a powerful attack, and he stood by his decision to use [Lightning Torrent] in that role as his fourth core skill. Whether enhancing his punches, sword strikes, or even used as a close-range spread of lightning, it meant anyone getting within arm’s reach of him was in for a world of hurt. With enough mana, it could rival [Breach] in power, devastating anyone he struck and everyone close to them. Sometimes, if he was feeling adventurous, he could use it as a sort of makeshift explosive, charging up a mana crystal, potion bottle, or even another body and throwing it into a cluster of the summoned monsters he usually used as testing dummies.
Not that anything beat [Mana Beam] for ranged attacks, of course. [Breach] could sometimes come close, but it was rarely properly useful outside of as an opening move versus a ship or other fortification. [Mana Beam] was far and away more versatile, and more useful more often. However, the beam was still comparatively easy to dodge by people Matt would classify as a ‘serious’ opponent. But that was more a reflection of the kinds of enemies he usually fought than any kind of judgment on the ineffectiveness of an attack spell that could take down spaceships of his own tier in a single blow. Besides, he’d had the limitations of relying on a single attack well beaten into his head with [Cracked Mana Spear], and Luna’s often hands-on lessons on the ways an intelligent enemy could ruthlessly punish rote predictability.
Even something like [Barbarian’s Hide] had some well-known modifications to specialize it against a single spell, and as an Ascender, Matt could reasonably expect any enemy sent against him to have defenses targeted towards his strongest attacks. He needed to be prepared for that, while not having the luxury of knowing what he would have to deal with on his own end.
That was why his own [Barbarian’s Hide], with a Tier 14 and 26 upgrade orb behind it, was his sixth core skill. While [Cracked Phantom Armor] was all but unparalleled in blocking physical and magical attacks, it was by its very nature weaker against armor-piercing effects, and could struggle against certain types of curses and more ethereal spells.
[Barbarian’s Hide] was his answer to those. Much like how [Mage’s Retreat] drastically increased speed with its upgrades, [Barbarian’s Hide] could help him shake off debuffs, lingering effects, just about everything [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Regeneration] couldn’t. He couldn’t specialize it any more than that, not without compromising what made it valuable for him, but he could flood enough mana into it, even localizing it if needed, that the efficiency loss didn’t really matter.
Ultimately, it and [Archmage’s Presence] were the only self-buffs Matt still had in his core. [Archmage’s Presence] was considered the ultimate buff spell for a reason, with a massive boost to all physical cultivation, spells cast, and even items he was using. There was a well-documented modification that could make it into a primarily reserve skill, with the channel portion largely relegated to a focused empowerment of the skill’s buff. Matt wasn’t interested in the former part of that mod, but the latter was especially useful, giving him yet more ways to productively use his mana on a single attack, reducing the diminishing returns that came with the amount of mana he liked to throw around.
[Cracked Air Slide] and [Artificial Intelligence] were his final core skills, and were the most prone to being replaced. While the upgrades of the former helped him overpower restraints with a blast of wind, and avoid attacks that would be too costly to take head-on, it was mostly there as a movement skill, and [Flight], or something similar, stood a solid chance of potentially taking its place at some point. [Artificial Intelligence], meanwhile, simply wasn’t utilized often in combat, and while it being a core skill synergized excellently with its Tier 26 upgrade of increased modification/learning speed, it wasn’t like he truly needed that level of efficiency for what was mostly a noncombat utility spell for him.
Perhaps he’d actually add [Regeneration], but despite it being his only skill other than [Cracked Phantom Armor] itself to receive a Tier 38 upgrade orb, it was predominantly a backup spell, there to catch whatever Liz or Arthur couldn’t fix in the field and keep him alive through just about anything. He didn’t need a third defensive spell in his core, not when his inner spirit worked just as well and had plenty of room.
He had plenty of potential regular skills, plus whatever cracks Frederic might have in store for him, but he wanted to do this right, and that took time.
Fortunately, he had both time and practice. Project Breach was nothing if not comprehensive, and he found plenty of willing volunteers to hone his kit, from Team Zero to Duke Waters, to the trainers and even random soldiers, all eager to prove their mettle against the Empire’s newest Ascender.