The jungle floor was slick with the blackened ichor of fallen insects.
Acrid smoke spiraled into the air, blending with the electric static that still crackled from the dead swarm’s bodies.
For Elius and his party, the carnage had beco routine.
They advanced forward like a rotating machine of death—swords dancing, guns blazing, worms tunneling, and ghostly blasts shattering chitin.
Every few steps, Elius would hear it.
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Earth type.
Fragnts: ⅕
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
He didn’t show it on his face, but inside, a thrill jolted through his soul.
Another.
The fragnt glimred briefly before vanishing into his inventory like it had always belonged there. And then, just minutes later—
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Earth type.
Fragnts: ⅕
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
Two fragnts, but subtly different. Different aura textures. Different resonance in his spiritual core.
They weren’t duplicates.
They were unique martial skills.
Each one Earth-based, but as distinct as two mountains of different shapes.
Elius narrowed his eyes.
The system didn’t just dump generic abilities into the world. It crafted techniques for specific individuals. For his party. For Clint. For Balkan. For Monkaar.
But Elius had claid them first.
Their fates, and their powers, would feed his path.
And then—
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Fire type.
Fragnts: ⅕
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
He blinked. Fire?
Yes, this is it.
The assumption about the system creating Martial Skills for my party mbers is as expected. The three Martial Skills with Earth affinity were for the three sidekicks: Jiro, Balkan, and Monkaar, while the Fire Skill was for Clint, who has a Fire affinity.
He smiled faintly. Good. Let’s collect them all. And in the future, I will invite more and I will have more ability!
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
With that, Elius beckoned them to continue.
They moved deeper into the jungle-dinsional rift’s electrified heart.
The flora crackled with ambient voltage.
So of the trees had started to shimr with golden veins—living conduits of insect-made electricity.
The ambient tension was higher now. Stronger insects crawled from the underbrush—larger, more intelligent. So had armored exoskeletons.
So wielded rudintary tools, like spiked staves or sharp-edged shells.
But Elius wasn’t fazed.
They killed them just the sa.
Swords swirled around him in a violent hurricane. Insect wings were severed. Heads toppled.
Lightning bolts were sliced in mid-air. Clint leapt through the trees, bouncing off trunks as he fired shot after shot, each bullet sparking blue trails behind them.
Balkan’s Dreadworms crashed through trees, jaws snapping, earth rippling. The jungle floor opened like a maw beneath the insects, swallowing them alive.
Monkaar howled from the skies, sending ethereal blades of pressure down from above.
Elius moved through it all—silent, precise, and focused.
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Earth type.
Fragnts: 3/5
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
His breath hitched slightly.
This was progress.
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Earth type.
Fragnts: 4/5
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
Almost there.
He could feel the skill coalescing, fragnt by fragnt. With each kill, each surge of energy, each pulse of the dinsional rift’s rhythm—sothing was forming.
Then ca another fire fragnt:
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Fire type.
Fragnts: 3/5
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
Interesting.
The fire-type martial skill, unlike the earth-based ones, burned hotter in his spiritual core.
It wasn’t like magma—it was more like a forging fla.
A tempering force.
He felt it sharpen his qi when he held it inside his dantian.
Whatever that skill would be when completed, it would cut through more than flesh.
Another wave of electrified hornets ca screeching from above, but Elius t them with his floating swords without missing a beat.
Clint fired in tandem, matching Elius’s rhythm as if they’d trained for years.
Balkan growled. "Another one! Left flank!"
The earth cracked. One of the Titan Dreadworms burst upward, devouring a cloud of winged insects in one gulp.
Monkaar blasted the skies open with a cone of raw kinetic force.
And—
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Earth type.
Fragnts: 2/5
Effect: Fragnt only. Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
More skills. More paths.
Elius now possessed four different Martial Skill fragnts.
Three were Earth-type, each different, each with their own pulse and resonance. One was Fire-type, with a burning potential he could feel in his very bones.
They continued pressing forward, clearing the jungle like gods of war.
The ground shook beneath Balkan’s summons. Clint’s energy rounds lit up the dusk in staccato bursts. Monkaar beca a blur of darkness and force, diving and striking like a shadow blade.
Elius’s senses grew sharper with each fragnt. The spiritual link with his system deepened. The jungle seed to pulse in rhythm with his heartbeat.
And then—
As they stepped into a clearing wrapped in humming vines and glowing roots, a single beetle the size of a boulder crawled forward.
Its shell glistened with black iron, and lightning coursed through its limbs. It released a roar that sounded like grinding gears.
Balkan clicked his tongue. "I’ll take the front."
"No, let ," Elius said softly.
He stepped forward.
The beetle charged.
Elius raised a single hand—and five swords launched forward in a perfect spiral.
They stabbed, sliced, and spun through the air, carving the beetle’s shell into glowing cracks. One sword pierced its skull.
It fell.
Smoke rose from its corpse.
Then—
Ding!
[Fragnt of Martial Skill found!]
Martial Skill: Unknown
Type: Earth type.
Fragnts: 5/5
Effect: Fragnt only.
Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.
His vision flared.
Energy exploded inside his core.
The fragnts swirled together—earth qi thick and heavy—twisting and folding like layered sedint. Dust, sand, pressure.
A sealed world began to form within him.
The notification changed.
Martial Skill Unlocked: Sand Tomb
Type: Earth
Effect: Seals targets weak to Earth affinity by encasing them in high-density compressed sand. Activation triggers pressure and immobilization.
Elius’s eyes widened.
Sand Tomb.
He could feel it—an entire technique inscribed into his dantian.
A martial script carved into his veins.
He understood it instinctively, as if he’d trained it for years.
The ability to summon sand even from dry air, to shape it into an ever-shifting tomb.
A technique designed not to kill, but to trap. To bind.
To seal.
Perfect for those with elental weaknesses.
He exhaled slowly.
Suddenly, the forest trembled with an unnatural rumble.
Trees bowed beneath a pressure that wasn’t from wind, but sothing heavier, deeper—an unnatural force born from beneath the earth.
Balkan’s three Titan Dreadworms rose from the soil, their armored bodies rippling like serpentine mountains.
Their jagged horns shimred with power, and their eyes locked on the new enemy that had appeared.
It was a beetle.
But not just any beetle.
This one was massive.
No, colossal.
A towering juggernaut of gleaming obsidian chitin, its body shaped like a living fortress.
Its legs were like pillars, each one crashing into the soil with seismic weight.
Electricity coiled off its horn, and its body was adorned with faint, glowing symbols that pulsed in sync with the dinsional rift’s energy.
Even the worms—creatures that had consud armored titans before—seed to pause.
Elius would grin, "perfect, ti to test it..."
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