~2 months later
I breathed in and out, steadily repeating the rhythm as mana began to flow into my core. The act had beco second nature over the past few months, as the majority of my ti had gone towards ditation. It was high ti for my core to evolve, but progression had proven difficult to acquire. Nonetheless, I had to remind myself that my efforts were about to bear fruit. After two months of gruelling training, [Overloading combustion core] had finally reached the ninety-ninth percentile.
What better way to push it over the edge than face Arcellus one final ti, right?
Across from , Peter didnt seem to think so. Still as stubborn and prideful as he had ever been, he hadnt fit in easily with the rest of us. Cerion seed to despise him, getting into any fight or argunt at the first opportunity and Eri did her best to avoid him.
That left only myself as a person willing to be in the sa room as him. Or, in this case, on the sa battlefield. Cerion didnt want to fight him until he was certain he could win, after all.
Unfortunately, Arcellus had grown just as much as we had, his sun-born flas making sweat even from this distance.
For the past few hours, Arcellus and I had been trying to overwhelm each other by using our most powerful skills exclusively. That ant that whenever our cores recovered from their exertion, a new sword laser would clash with a miniature sun, pulverising the area around us, rinse and repeat.
I was getting close. I could feel it, sense it. Only a little more
With a groan of exertion, I pushed all the mana I had managed to gather into the skill enveloping the broken sword in my hands. The practice weapon disintegrated even further, but not before allowing to unleash another bolt of pure darkness at Arcellus.
His marble-shaped sun shone with fervour, rising to et my assault with calm certainty. When the two skills collided, yet another explosion erupted, threatening to throw into the air. By now I was prepared for it, however. Using [Aura dash], I kept my feet firmly planted on the ground and kept myself from tumbling. As the dark mana, fire mana and light mana vied for supremacy, wisps of concentrated power shot off in all directions. With my heightened mana sense, this was even clearer than it had ever been.
With a vague sense of desperation, I pulled the wisps of mana toward as they were about to be dispelled, re-absorbing them and sending them right back into the beam of black light than continued to stream forth from where my sword had been. Now, only the handle remained. But that was enough. The absent blade was replaced by the laser I had created, after all.
The mana within started to exceed the amount I could push into the skill at one point, spilling into the air around and forcing [Dark embodint] to work overti. Eventually, I got the notification I had been waiting for. At last.
[Overloading combustion core](100%)
I called out to Cerion, asking to continue so other ti. He nodded and scoffed, biting back a taunt as it left his mouth on instinct. Already tired? Maybe I overesti huff. As he walked off, I realised that while Arcellus was still a pompous git, he had changed for the better since his loss.
If only because he was actually trying to change, now.
Exhausted, I stumbled back to my tent and waited for my body to nd itself. I had left the place sparsely furnished, in contrast to Eri who had decorated hers as soon as we had arrived here. I still rembered how appalled her and Cerion had been when we found out where we were about to spend the next few months. The looks on their faces
After our conversation with Duke Rass and uncle Robard, we had been told to start packing our things and invite Eri along to our future training camp, which really just turned out to be an abandoned military base. An old one, too.
Instead of the accommodations we had been hoping for, we were left in a dilapidated camp that had walls made of wooden-stakes and a few wooden shacks that had collapsed under their own weight.
It resembled a bandit camp more closely than a military outpost, but who was I to judge
Once there, we were left to our own devices. By hunting, fishing and foraging we filled our food-stores every week and kept ourselves alive. Aside from that, we spent our ti coming up with the most intense and creative thods of training possible, quickly disturbing the surrounding forrest and fields with our antics and leaving very few trees standing.
Thankfully our thods, while odd, were rather effective. I, especially, could push myself to the brink in whatever way I wished, which allowed to progress faster than ever before. This had resulted in three skills reaching the edge of evolution, though I had yet to take that step.
[Ghost apparition](100%), [Overloading combustion core](100%) and [Cascading mana-intrusive Swordsmanship](100%) had all reached that point.
The first had been a matter of refusing to move in any way other than apparition, even when I had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. That, combined with constant combat and practice, had finally pushed the skill to evolution. I was curious to see what the skill could evolve into, but didnt really know what to expect. More intangibility would be optimal, of course.
anwhile, my swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds during my spars with Cerion, who had taught much of what he knew. In truth, I didnt use much swordsmanship these days, resulting in the skill being rather ineffective. Its cascading effect required a series of successful strikes to build up, making it a bit finicky to use against higher-tiered enemies, especially when they had a resistance to such tactics. I was hoping for a new avenue to pursue with the skill, sothing that could synergise with my other abilities.
Beyond those three skills, my other skills hadnt seen much growth. Apart from sword laser, I suppose, as that skill was getting there, too, reaching 79% just yesterday.
Realising that I only had a week before I would have to depart to Mulio, I decided to now was a good ti to start evolving skills. With that in mind, I picked the first skill on the list, [Ghost apparition].
[Ghost apparition](100%)
Tier 4 skill.
You possess the ability to transfer your body and equipnt from one location to the other, using sufficiently dark locations as a dium.
Beco intangible for 0.5 seconds after apparating.
Progression increases through experience.
Tier 5 upgrades:
[Phantom apparition]
Intangibility is increased to 1.5 seconds. Increased distance. Apparate to any location, regardless of how well-lit.
A direct upgrade of [Ghost apparition].
[Phantom presence]
Turn intangible and unsensable for a maximum of three seconds. Cancel intangibility at will on certain body parts or equipnt. 0.5 seconds later, the rest of you will follow.
Warning: Previous skill effect lost.
[Spectre shift]
Turn intangible at will, for a maximum of 1 second. Transfer your body and equipnt from one location to another at will. Both skill-effects can be instantly reversed at will.
Using them in conjunction increases mana-expenditure exponentially.
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