Blocky clouds and grasping mists blurred past the two hellbent and aerial Marines.
Beneath them, the castle mountains crumbled into irrelevance. The massive titans of fabled geography shrank downward into the earth until they were re fortress foothills.
Then the last traces of the Grimrock Castle Mountains disappeared. The land of stone forts and wild gardens rged with brackish wetlands. Ancient architecture and old trees with slick moss covering their stone bark beca one with bricks of fog tumbling across like grounded clouds.
Zarian enjoyed the view. He enjoyed the feeling of danger when he crossed a certain magical and ga-like line delineating a low level area from a high level area.
He kept going as he funneled his aura and the surrounding air from in front of him and thrust it behind him. That created a vacuum to his face and a roaring torrent behind his tail. Thus, he flew like a frictionless rocket
Naomi used no finesse. Only raw power. A combination of her psychic abilities and buffs, old and new, propelled her through the skies. Despite being a quality below mythical, the mad woman let nothing slow her down.
She rocketed next to Zarian with a savage smile on her beautiful, dark face.
Zarian smirked, impressed by her. They’d done nothing but nonstop rocket flight for two days and two nights.
The twin suns were peeking over the eastern horizon once again. But their morning light wouldn’t shine as great today.
Not while the wizard and the cultivator flew toward the lesser known and plenty dreadful Harrowing Mist Isles.
And to think … I wouldn’t have gotten a clue about it if it wasn’t for Dawson and his vultures, Zarian thought humorously.
Para spoke up in their shared mind space. I’m thankful for him, Gisella, and the others for being forthcoming with their information.
Zarian chuckled aloud. Inwardly, he stated, Yeah, well, I guess them being forthcoming has everything to do with them being honorable adventurers. And it had nothing to do with us dumping a lot of gold into their hands while you interviewed them with giant serpent heads big enough to eat them all whole.
Para didn’t respond.
Zarian felt a little bad about teasing her until he received a ntal ping from Naomi. Because of the heavy changes to their profiles, especially in the skill departnt, they had to readjust to how they operated.
In so ways, the downpour of trait combiners and skill combiners might’ve set them back. They lost out on old abilities and advancents. But their profiles would beco even stronger as they progressed further and advanced their new abilities.
Naomi sent over a section of her profile via the spider network. She applied asterisks to the traits and skills she wanted to test out the most.
Traits (11 Total): Psionic Affinity (Rare), High Intimidation (Uncommon), Truly A Savage (Rare), Fatal Finisher (Rare), Thematic Concept/Even Further Beyond (Divine), Adventurous Breaker (Epic) *Barehanded Sage (Epic), *Aura Ignition/Second Stage (Legendary), *Half Titan Warrior (Legendary), *Dao of Power (Mythical), *Undying Tyrant (Mythical).
Alpha Skills (6/6): Psychokinesis 3 (Level 70), Overclock 3 (Level 71), *Mind Spike 3 (Level 63), *Primal Huntress Form 3 (Level 50), *Harmonious ditation of Heaven and Hell (Level 1), *Nascent Soul Robe (Level 1).
Beta Skills (0/18): …
They hadn’t shared up to this point, so Zarian was impressed. He was probably as excited as Naomi to see her new abilities at work.
He noted how she’d applied asterisks to Barehanded Sage and Aura Ignition/Second Stage. Without asking, Zarian concluded Naomi wanted to advance those naturally.
Barehanded Sage could probably advance on its own. Bianca had shown how style-based traits could advance through personal growth like her legendary Twelve Step Killer Whirlwind Princess Style.
As for Second Ignition, Zarian knew that trait had restricted paraters. There was no way to advance it or combine it with other traits. The only way to improve Second Ignition was with personal growth.
Naomi had fought a dangerous death battle against a maniac like Jack to push from First Ignition to Second Ignition. What would it take for her to reach the Third Stage of Aura Ignition?
Granted, those weren’t imdiate attention-grabbers. Not like the two mythical traits Naomi had.
What the heck can Dao of Power and Undying Tyrant do? Zarian wondered. Those weren’t there before. She really squeezed the best out of her old traits with those combiners. Half Titan Warrior sounds interesting, too, even while legendary. 𝔯ἁ𝐍o͍BÈṣ
Zarian didn’t ponder about Naomi’s changes for long. Their drop point was coming up. He sent over sothing via the spider network for Naomi to chew on.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
It was … extensive.
He marked all the fundantal changes with asterisks, too.
Traits (9 total): Dark Affinity (Rare), Thematic Law/Floridian Mindset (Divine), Bearer of the Twenty Dark Locks Sealing Style (Legendary), Aura Mastery (Legendary), Aura Magnificence (Epic), Overpowered Tis Two (Legendary), *Devourer of Secrets and Stories (Legendary), *Eldritch Existence (Legendary), *Outer Planar Scourge (Mythical).
Alpha Skills (6/6): Overwhelming Darkness (Level 23), *Lion Prince (Level 1), Parasite Cloak 3 (Level 74), Spectral Spider Network 3 (Level 66), *Intense Arcana Hat (Level 1), *Grand War Mage Body Furnace (Level 1).
Beta Skills (4/18): *Advanced Grimoire of the Voidling Exile 2 (Level 30), *Advanced Grimoire of Black Magic 2 (Level 38), *Advanced Grimoire of the Hell Gator 2 (Level 40), *Advanced Grimoire of Freaky Morphs (Level 7).
Voidling Spells (6/7 Learned): Void Waltz (Legendary), Void Shout (Legendary), Void Madness (Rare), Void Acid (Epic), Minor Void Portal (Legendary), *Void Domain (Mythical).
Black Spells (5/7 Learned): Bloody Lifesteal (Uncommon), Deploy Expert Skeletons (Epic), Black Fire (Rare), Arcane Artillery Platform (Legendary), *Crucifying Storm Tower (Mythical).
Gator Spells (6/8 Learned): Quagmire Pit (Uncommon), Dread Mire Bite (Rare), Dread Mire Bellow (Epic), Dreadnought Hell Gator (Legendary), Hellish Breath (Legendary), *Hell Gator ga Slam (Legendary).
Morphs Spells (4/7 Learned): No Hard Walls (Uncommon), Water to Sli (Rare), Animate The Thing (Epic), *Big Bad Polymorph (Mythical).
Zarian hadn’t gotten trait combiners and skill combiners alone. It turned out the 2 advancent to his advanced grimoires had introduced SPELL COMBINERS!
He could only combine two spells within the sa advanced grimoire when the option had co up for Voidling, Black, and Gator. That still occupied a lot of his theory-crafting and ta-gaming ti the past week. It was only recently he’d decided on the spell combiner results for sure.
With Voidling, Zarian had combined Void Authority and Void Layer to form Void Domain.
With Black, he’d combined Torturous Lightning and Graven Glacial Tomb to create Crucifying Storm Tower.
Then, with Gator, he’d combined Hell Gator Quake and Hell Gator Crush for the new Hell Gator ga Slam.
Morph had only beco an advanced grimoire just recently, leaving Zarian to settle with choosing a spell to upgrade. He’d turned Bad Polymorph to Big Bad Polymorph.
Other than reading their descriptions and seeing the changes in their pages, he had no idea how so of these new spells would co out. The one or two mythical spells might end up being devastating. Maybe even too dangerous for compact uses within non-ranker civilizations.
If that wasn’t a lot already, he and Para had spent hours mulling over which traits to combine with which. That part had ended up the hardest.
Certain traits had restrictive paraters – Dark Affinity, Floridian Mindset, Bearer of the Twenty Dark Locks Sealing Style, Aura Mastery, Aura Magnificence, and Overpowered Tis Two – which ant they couldn’t combine. That hadn’t turned out to be the case for the others.
Identify, Lore Eater, and Unraveled Mind had rged to beco a legendary trait, Devourer of Secrets and Stories.
Frenzy Zone, Uncanny Valley Effect, and The Dreaded One had rged to beco another legendary trait, Eldritch Existence.
Then Void Mysticism, Warp Adaptation, and Devil Bane had rged to beco his only mythical trait, Outer Planar Scourge.
Zarian shivered, still feeling the echoes of his soul getting rearranged and consolidated with fewer but more potent traits. He’d lost a few minor quirks, but he gained much more, especially in his potential for growth.
Granted, nothing in his profile had the greatest potential compared to his skills, new and old.
Don’t forget, we still have Bloody Lifesteal to upgrade on our own and new spells to learn! Para reminded him.
Para … what if it’s more than just that? What if the grimoires are really trying to teach us to learn, upgrade, add, and combine through the guidance of the System first? What if this is sothing we’ll do on our own once we maxed out each grimoire? Zarian asked his head-mate.
Para didn’t respond right away. Zarian could tell the theory was a major one for her. It was the sa for him.
Unfortunately and fortunately, a certain dynamic woman demanded Zarian’s attention. It was ti to get out of his head and touch so swamp grass.
“There!” Naomi shouted. “Let’s drop in there.”
“Oorah, Marine!” Zarian replied with a growing grin. “Ti to kill!”
“KILL!” Naomi shut off her psychic thrust.
She spiraled through the air. Then she pointed her bare toes at an angle up in the sky. With an explosive blast, she shoved psychic force from her feet and rocketed even harder down to a misty series of broken land masses surrounded by wetlands, ancient ruins, and dark stone forests.
Zarian followed her with more grace, with his cloak fanned out. Para manipulated aura and air with him, propelling the wizard downward like a divine dragon with a lion tail.
He followed the cultivator at a slightly slower pace, letting her make her grand slamming entrance. Zarian and Para chuckled as Naomi landed like a bomb, blowing up multiple temples and waterlogged courtyards.
Weathered stone blocks flung in all directions as hurtling debris. Waves of brackish water spread out fast. Blocks of mist scattered away.
The song of doom and destruction resounded for miles and miles as Naomi slowly floated out of the large crater she’d made. Intense blue-purple psychic electricity cracked and popped around her body. Her voluminous and curly hair waved and zipped about.
“Was that loud enough?” Naomi asked.
“Could’ve been louder.” Zarian slowed to a hover next to her.
His Parasite Cloak 3 remained attached to his back and shoulders. The dark red, cosmic-lit, and flesh-eating fabric fluttered behind him majestically, disregarding the dead swamp air. His lion tail curved and twisted from behind him in excited motions, matching his mood.
It might’ve seed like fun and gas to them, but the Harrowing Mist Isles was everything Dawson and his vulture guild mbers had warned about.
There was a potent aura drain curse acting on the wizard and cultivator. There was a warp-style curse in the air, too, but more advanced. There were even other hidden and unfamiliar curses set to debuff them.
Zarian sensed a concealed actor in the mist, maybe even a clever one. He wasn’t quite able to interact with the mist naturally without force, but the thing controlling the mist could interact with them.
The wizard could tell it didn’t want its secrets getting out as the mist and water returned with a rush from all sides.
Great, he could push one of his new abilities against the magic information block.
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