The Gamer's POV Chapter 305: Our Source of Power

Chapter 305: Our Source of Power

The first thing Cedric noticed about Lee Lim’s profile was that many skills were missing. In fact, unlike when he had seen it the first time, the list of abilities was now barely a fraction of its former length.

Cedric then also noticed that the skills which were missing were the ones the Lord had already used.

"I was able to make a few deductions," Aika quickly began as she alternated her gaze between the screen and Cedric.

"It seems that Plagiarist’s Eye has quite a few limitations. Yes, it allows him to copy abilities that he sees while one engages with him in combat, but it seems that he does not copy these abilities permanently. Once he uses them, they disappear, and it seems that he can only use them for a limited time or a specific number of times, depending on the ability. It also looks like he cannot copy the same abilities twice in a short span of time.

"There is one thing that bugs me, though. Where could he have gotten most of his skills from? If he can only copy skills with Plagiarist’s Eye, then... where did he copy half of his skills? I’d have said from the other Lords, but... I’ve not seen any other Lord display the abilities he has shown, so I’m a bit lost on that angle. Could it have been with the help of his Admin Privileges?"

"Maybe. But then, we do not know the full powers the Lords all possess," Cedric replied, his voice low and contemplative. "Plus, bear in mind that we’ve not seen all the Lords fight."

"Right," She sighed. "Well, the only thing I’m sure of is that he’s lost all the skills he has used so far.

"I figured that the reason he keeps dodging your flames is because in order to receive the immunity, he would need to actively use the skill. And it seems he’s not ready to part with the skill just yet. As for how I figured out that he cannot copy the same abilities twice in a short span of time? Well, I thought that if he could, he wouldn’t be so cautious and unwilling to part with skills. After all, he could simply copy them again, considering that we are fighting him right now.

"I do not know the details of the skills he currently has left, but I have a feeling that he has used up most of his powerful skills.

"I also noticed something during the fight. His movements have gotten much slower than they were at the beginning. He’s got these cracks that keep appearing on his skin, and they seem to get worse the longer he fights. I heard him say something about causality. Maybe it could be that he is currently suffering the effects of moving the bridges? I mean... doing something like that in a realm that does not belong to him is bound to cause some sort of backlash, right?"

"Hm..." Cedric turned his attention from the screen to Aika. "We can’t let him fight any others then. Fighting more people would mean adding more skills to his list."

He turned away from her to Lee Lim, who had taken his rod out of Leon’s eye and was now surveying the battlefield.

Closing his eyes, Cedric took a breath, then he began jumping from one foot to the other as he opened his eyes again.

"Come, Aika. Let’s go put an end to this antagonistic son of a fiend."

He had barely spoken when Aika’s form dissolved into smoke that reformed into a katana and wakizashi in both of Cedric’s hands.

Alicia, who had been observing them quietly with an amused expression, finally broke her silence. "I’ll uhm... I’ll head off then to help the rest of the cadets." She looked toward the horizon before returning her gaze to Cedric. "I can see that everyone is now on the shore. The princess, Glazier, and many of the cadets are fighting one of the lords, while Evelyn and a few others are fighting another woman. I think I’ll join Evelyn’s team and try to stop the Nagas and other monsters from interfering."

Then, as her form began to vanish, she added in an uncertain voice, "You’ll be out of this reality in about twenty seconds. Uh... good luck?"

’Well, thank you. Luck is a very important stat as well,’ Cedric thought, giving a nod of gratitude.

He turned his attention toward Lee Lim and began preparing one very massive nuke for the man. The good thing was that he had the element of surprise, so he expected to deal heavy damage with the flames. As the seconds passed, and as the large orb of compressed fire in front of him continued to charge, it suddenly looked like time was being reverted. The moon, which was high in the sky, began to recede toward the horizon, bringing back the gold of dusk.

Cedric waited tensely, counting the numbers, and the moment a ripple ran across the fabric of the air, signifying that the transition was complete, he released his hold and the massive sphere of fire shot toward the unsuspecting Lord like a falling black sun, detonating in a terrifyingly chilling explosion.

Everywhere in Cedric’s vision suddenly turned a blinding gray.

***

Lee Lim really hadn’t expected that a few low-grade cadets would be the ones to drain him like this.

At this point, his whole body was aching. He was doing his best to act normal, but it actually took a lot of effort just to keep standing.

Of course, part of it was a consequence of causality, but there was a much bigger reason why he was in such a bad way.

You see, during their relatively short time in the First Ring, the Lords had come to learn that these people from the other world had something called mana cores inside them. It seemed that they used these cores to pull mana from the air and the elements around them to power their magic.

The Lords were different, however. They didn’t use mana at all. Instead, they used a more divine energy called essence.

After being brought to this ugly world, they were all blessed by the deity who brought them here with the ability to use magic in the form of skills.

The problem was that they didn’t have any internal way to power those skills themselves. In order to use their skills, they had to pray to that deity, who would then bless them with a dose of divine essence. That essence was the only thing that actually let them manifest and trigger those devastating powers.

They could ask for essence at any time and there was almost no limit to how much power they could receive as long as they prayed.

At first, they hadn’t really been cautious about it, but as time went by, they realized there was a catch. Even though there was no limit to how much essence they could ask for, there was definitely a limit to how much they should actually borrow at once.

If they used too much of that power, their bodies would literally start to give out. It made them all realize that using the power of a God wasn’t something mortals should do lightly.

Lee Lim sighed. He dipped his hand into his pocket and took out a small jade carving that looked like a green figurine.

It was a strange creature that looked like a miniature elephant, except there were two wings at the back. It also had two extra humanoid hands in the front that were pressed together like it was praying, and from its head, two large horns emerged.

Now that he was holding onto this ominous object, he could hear the voices in his head which had been there all this time suddenly grow louder.

"Kill them, kill them, kill them..."

Lee Lim’s tired eyes went dull.

’I thought that when I kill them, these voices would stop. Why am I still hearing them?’

He slowly lifted his gaze from the figurine, then looked toward the direction where Cedric’s body had been. A frown formed on his face when he couldn’t find the corpse.

’Where is it?’

He narrowed his eyes, and at that moment, it was as if the air suddenly rippled. Then his eyes widened as he saw a massive orb of black fire which had not been there before suddenly shoot toward him, engulfing him in the flames.