Elias had, once his heart had stilled, decided to check over his Mana and Essence—despite having lost his ability to evaluate his new skill during the fight, he could look over how much Mana and Essence was needed to wreck his insides. His hand grasped his side trying to embrace his own channels—it was futile, but an entire life of habit could not be broken in a few moments.
[Life Points: 176 / 215]
[Mana: 128 / 161]
[Essence: 567 / 15]
What took him by surprise was that the pain he felt had actually translated to physical damage, it was as he had feared, releasing too much essence at once could lead to consequences.
In terms of Mana and Essence efficiency—dreadful—The uncontrolled outburst has drained both by twenty percent, despite being full of Mana and absolutely overflowing with Essence, in order to unleash the same devastation he'd likely have to channel sixty-seventy percent of his own Mana, if not infusing the qualitatively enhanced Essence, he would've needed to channel for a significantly longer time and at a lower concentration to avoid the damage to his channels.
Examining the screen for a few moments more, a genuine smile crept onto his face—but he could still unleash that amount of devastation. Flames of Orus WAS powerful. He'd need to test it in a more controlled manner, unlikely in the dungeon. But something he could undoubtedly pursue after getting out. His curiosity and love for discovery of the unknown began to carry his emotions, visibly relieving some of the tension he'd been cradling up to this point.
He then tugged at a notification screen that was buzzing for his attention, it had first made its entrance during the uncontrollable struggle over the 'treasure room', up until this point he had been too preoccupied to deal with it.
[Enhancement - Spirit - Tier 0, Level 6 has increased to Tier 0, Level 7…]
[Enhancement - Spirit - Tier 0, Level 7 has increased to Tier 0, Level 8]
Two levels, eight willpower and an indication of how to level the skill—"Torment the spirit" he thought and sighed once more, refusing to allow the negative emotions to find purchase again so soon.
Instead he chose to revel in the relief for a small while longer as he paced back and forth in the room, putting off his inevitable decision, but not out of hesitation. He was piecing together the past few hours. He'd fallen into an emotional state ever since arising from the primal waters, understandably he could link this directly to his overabundance of essence, whilst Corruption Core played a part to mitigate the effects of corruption, it had no chance of staving off the hundreds that plagued his core. No, it was an effort of sheer willpower, something that one his skills did play a large part in. Enhancement - Spirit. He pulled up the skills details:
[Enhancement - Spirit - Epic, Tier 0, Level 8 - Epic
-
+32 to Willpower
-
+ 4 to Willpower per level, doubling each Tier:
Tier 0: 4 — Tier 1: 8 — Tier 2: 16 — Tier 3: 32 — Tier 4: 64 — Tier 5: 128…
-
Affinity - Resilience
-
Resistance to Spiritual Attacks - Minor
-
Skills you channel have an increased resistance to interruption - Minor.
-
Mana you channel has increased stability - Minor
-
'Enhancement skill gems can be altered through Skill Fusion and Enhancement Crystals - Alterations are permanent and will forever affect your path.']
Now, he couldn't say for a hundred percent that the enthrallment of the creatures was a Spiritual Attack, but the fact that his Enhancement - Spirit skill levelled twice? Well, it was either the intensity of the channelling, the entrapment of the creatures, or a combination of both, and all of those reasons gave him enough cause to carry out his experiment.
[Tier 0 Skill Enhancement Crystal - Rarity - Rare]
It was finally time, at this point, any bonus to his willpower or willpower related skills would undoubtedly provide a large boon. He just had to figure out how to merge the two. He couldn't channel the Enhancement skill itself, whilst it came under the same category as the activatable skills, this was always in effect and interacted with him in a different way than other skills. A Passive Skill.
He considered multiple approached before succumbing to the tried and tested method, he shoved in into his chest.
"OW!" he yelped as the crystal drew blood and his now System enhanced strength caused what would have been a painful pull of a solid object into his flesh to become agonising as it collided brutally with his own body. "I guess… It doesn't work like that" he said, gasping.
A notification appeared:
[Tier 0 Skill Enhancement Crystal detected, Enhancement Skill detected, would you like to use the Enhancement Crystal?]
A frown appeared quickly on his face as he silently cursed the sarcasm of the System and grunted "Yes."
The notification flashed and then disappeared, the crystal glowed with a crimson light, pierced by the same orange as skill runes and then dispersed into an array of colour, the colour flowed like a visible gas into the air before swirling around him. Another notification appeared:
[Enhancement - Spirit - Tier 0 - Level 8 - Affinity Resilience can be enhanced, available enhancements at Tier 0, 0 / 2. Confirm use of Enhancement Crystal of Enhancement - Spirit]
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He read over the notification a couple of times, available enhancements, zero of two? He noted it as something to think about later but ultimately couldn't see any reason not to continue. He had filled his 'skill slot' limitations for Tier one, or Tier zero in his unique case and this was his only Enhancement skill.
"Yes," He said.
[Enhancement Crystal will be consumed, based on rarity of Enhancement Crystal - Rare - 12 enhancement points will be granted. Please begin enhancement of skill]
"Eh?" was all He could say as he read the notification that had followed. Begin enhancement of skill? Was he supposed to do something? The notification in front of him disappeared and was replaced promptly with a single sentence and a timer.
[Time remaining for Enhancement - 00:59:59]
His momentarily relief was quickly replaced once again with anxiety and desperation. A different form, but one just as encompassing of his spirit. The realisation that he had used a quest reward completely ignorant of how it might work and what knowledge he might need to make best use of it hit him hard.
"Is this like, some kind of crafting? What do I do? Skill be stronger?"
Windows formed around him, one central containing his skill - Enhancement - Spirit, its level and affinity and just the same as he normally saw when calling it up, the only different was a line at the bottom of it:
[Enhancement: 0 / 12]
On the screen to the left he saw a list of red and orange writing:
[
-
Willpower per level - +1 per level - 1 point
-
Resistance to spiritual attacks - Minor -> Moderate - 7 points
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Skills you channel have an increased resistance to interruption - Minor -> Moderate - 7 points
-
Mana you channel has increased stability - Minor -> Moderate - 7 points
-
Mana gain per level - +2 per level - 1 point
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Additional affinity - 1 additional affinity - 15 points
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Instant level up - + 1 level - 2 points
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Mana regeneration whilst channelling - Minor - 4 points]
He stared, mouth agape, at the list as it went on almost endlessly, dozens of lines of potential alterations were listed and as he drew to the bottom of the list the text scrolled downwards and more were revealed. He pulled himself away and glanced over to the right.
[Draw effects from infused skills.
Corruption Core - Tier 0 Infusion
-
Essence Storage - Passive - 50 points
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Essence Channelling - Passive - 50 points
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Essence resistance - Passive - 50 points
Flames of Orus - Tier 0 Infusion
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Fire Resistance - Passive - 40 points
Mana Barrier - Tier 0 Infusion
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Barrier - Passive - 20 points
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Spirit Shield - Active - 20 point
Mana Manipulation - Tier 0 Infusion
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Mana Field Control - Passive - 10 points
Scan - Tier 0 Infusion
-
Spirit Sense - 10 Points]
"What the…" He began as a grin spread across his face, he had never heard of such an interaction under the System, it was both overwhelming and energising. As he read over the two screens left and right of his skill, he felt all of his emotions fall away, succumbing to the dopamine of choice.
"Essence resistance… barrier? Fire resistance?" he muttered out the words on the screens as he continued engross himself in the words in front of him.
Time passed and Elias glanced at the timer before him:
[Time remaining for Enhancement - 00:23:42]
"I've got time" he muttered as he finalised his short list of improvements, the shortlist still containing a number of choices. It had taken him over two minutes to reach the bottom of the left side columns list and once he had he realised he didn't have enough time to fully study each effect and how it would engage with his desperate struggle. Instead, he used his gut, combined with sure-fire means of enhancement that he could guarantee would improve his arsenal of survivability.
From the left side:
[Willpower per level - +1 per level - 1 point] - It was simple, it provided an immediate boost of eight Willpower for one point. Changing his skill from plus four Willpower to plus five per level. Elias knew it wasn't as flashy and as interesting as some of the other enhancements, but at Tier two, level twenty six he would have four hundred and sixteen Willpower by default. With this improvement—five hundred and twenty. twenty-five percent more Willpower.
He moved on.
[Mana gain per level -+2 per level - 1 point] - Now, like Willpower, simple. Just like Willpower it provided an increase that scaled with himself. Something that he could take through his adventuring career—and he kept running out of mana. His only question was whether it would interact with Enhancement - Spirit's doubling effect… At Tier two, level twenty six if it didn't interact, it would only be an increase of fifty-two mana, which at that level seemed miniscule. IF it scaled, two hundred and eight mana. Four times as much and undeniably a great additional to his growth.
Next.
[Spirit Perception - Grants a bonus to Spiritual Perception - Minor - 7 Points - Enhance your ability to detect nearby Spiritual Signatures, higher Willpower and training in Spiritual Perception will allow longer range detection and more detailed analysis of signatures] - Something about this just called out to him, it indicated that he would need to actively learn how to detect these Spiritual Signatures, but the ability to detect monsters? He could immediately see the uses.
[Pain Resistance - Grants a bonus to Pain Resistance - Minor - 9 Points] This was self-explanatory, it didn't fully indicate how much of a bonus 'Minor' was, but right now, he'd take anything. The amount of pain coursing through his body and spirit right now was almost crippling, combined with the inevitable pain of future battles, he almost selected it immediately upon seeing it.
[Additional affinity - 1 additional affinity - 15 points], An additional affinity could be useful, his current affinity—resilience—provided more than any single other benefit and whilst he wasn't positive of what other affinities he could choose from, or what bonusses they did, he'd worked out that three 'minor' bonusses could be worth around twenty points if selected individually. Now, the problem was that fifteen points was more than he had to spend, and Elias hadn't even originally considered it. Not until he had seen one option at the bottom of the list.
[Reduce Skill Level - + 1 point available per level decrease - Selectable up to -7- times], This was a game changer. This effectively meant that he could have nineteen Enhancement points.
This was only a few of the many options that were available to him and it was all so overwhelming. He didn't want to make the wrong choice… but at the same time, Uthred had never even heard of the Crystal he had carried with him. He had simply shrugged it off to be a System hiccup because of Elias's broken Awakening. Did that mean that the Crystal was unique? "
Focus, Elias," he muttered as he drew his eyes back to the screens.
"What do you need, right now?" He said,
"What will help me…"
Running over the possibilities in his mind he finally gritted his teeth and selected.
[Enhancement Points: 15 / 15 - Are you ready to finalise your selection?]
"Yes." He grunted, anxiety pulsing from his diaphragm, he closed his eyes tightly waiting for the finality of the decision to set in.
A wave of energy washed over him, as it did it both infused him and pulled from him, a rush of agonising pain struck his nerves as something seeped from his own channels. "Agh!" He grimaced.
The seeping of power from his own channels was a reflection of his selection. He'd dropped three levels of his Enhancement - Spirit skill in order to afford his choice.
The sensations of both a boon and curse engulfed him for a few more moments before fading. He felt different. He knew his Willpower had fallen slightly but that wasn't it. He turned and looked out upon the room with his still tinted crimson vision. As he turned he waved his hands through the air, he shook his two claws. As he moved he felt something else move with him. It was… "Is that my spirit?" he said in alarm as a solidity that had never been present before had enforced itself upon his presence.
Each movement of his limbs felt as though they were followed by another. He struck out with his fist—and so too did he spirit. A small snap in the air sounded as his fist met his invisible target. He could feel the air in front of him part for a split second.
He examined his skill eagerly:
[Enhancement - Spirit - Epic, Tier 0, Level 5 - Unique (Enhanced - 15 / 15)
-
+20 to Willpower
-
+ 4 to Willpower per level, doubling each Tier:
Tier 0: 4 — Tier 1: 8 — Tier 2: 16 — Tier 3: 32 — Tier 4: 64 — Tier 5: 128…
-
Affinity - Resilience
-
Resistance to Spiritual Attacks - Minor
-
Skills you channel have an increased resistance to interruption - Minor.
-
Mana you channel has increased stability - Minor
-
-
Affinity - Solidity
-
Spirit Form - Minor - Your Spirit transcends its intangibility and overlays your own body. It imbues all actions with the strength of its users Spirit.
-
Mana is used to fuel your now tangible Spirit, on reaching zero mana your spirit will falter. Spiritual attacks now drain your mana. Your physical movements now drain your mana. Increasing the level of your skill both decreases the drain on your mana and increases the density of your Spirit infusion.
-
'Enhancement skill gems can be altered through Skill Fusion and Enhancement Crystals - Alterations are permanent and will forever affect your path.']
"Wow." Was all he could say as he marvelled at the changes to his skill, whilst simultaneously starting to understand just how vast the System was.