[Homeostasis] didn’t need a closer look because he’d already studied that process in his previous life. He knew how the body worked, and all magic did was upgrade the already existing process to keep him balanced.
[Meditation] on the other hand, wasn’t as simple, and required a small amount of testing. Not as much as he would normally because it was a Skill he used a lot and knew a lot about, so he already had the limits solidly in the known. He could shunt off damage to another being, strengthen a bond with something to gain benefits or burdens, Meditate on his link to certain things and gain Visible Presence, and he was solid.
He simply had to test out his ability granted to him by his link to Fendrascora, allowing him to share a portion of his Spiritual stats with anyone under his care. Fendrascora wouldn’t need it because she was physically protected by his body, but Perumah certainly would, as she was still very vulnerable to outside magic.
“Perumah, do you mind if I scan your stats? I might have a way to help fix your Spiritual a little bit.”
“Certainly, however I do warn you… it may not be as necessary as it once was” she said smugly.
Shrugging, he Identified her level and stats.
[Biting Flesh Trap of Allure bulb (Charged) - Level 232
Physical: 178 -> 191
Mental: 44
Spiritual: 9 -> 33
Magical: 112]
He raised his eyebrows at the difference in stats from the last time he’d Identified her. It wasn’t good, but it was a lot better.
“Alright I’ll bite, what’d you do to gain so many Spiritual stats without leveling up that much?”
“A simple matter! Upon rejecting The Mothers influence, I gained several Titles that granted Spiritual stats,” she told him proudly.
‘Oh yea that’s right, Clever mentioned Titles as well. I’ll ask Aloran what they are later because humans clearly can’t get them… I hope. Unless I’ve been doing something way wrong.’
She clearly wanted some praise so he said “That’s awesome Perumah! Good job.”
He felt her begin preening at the attention, but he brought it back to the matter at hand. She did, of course, still only have a third of his Spiritual stats, despite being more than double his level.
“To be absolutely sure you’re safe from outside magic though, let's go through with my plan yea?”
Getting her wordless confirmation, he tried to share his Spiritual stats with her, knowing instantly when it activated as it did a bit more than just protect her.
He felt four of his Spiritual disappear as his magical defenses weakened slightly.
‘So it takes my Spiritual and gives it to her?’
Perumah cleared it up though. “I feel that my Spiritual stat has risen by one point.”
‘Bad conversion, but probably better than I could hope for.’
If it were any other stat, he’d be worried about giving it away. With his [Pondering Sage] Profession though, he knew he would have Spiritual to spare by the time he left Alorans garden.
Short test of Meditation over, he looked at the next few Skills: [Disconnect], [Identify of the Stout Protector], and [Pandora’s Box (Unleashed)]
Nothing could be done about them because Disconnect took too long to work, Identify he already knew about, and Unleashed would probably consume every scrap of mana he had- something he couldn’t very well test without detrimental consequences.
That left [Fine-Tooth Comb], a Skill that was invaluable early on, but fell into obscurity with his higher mental stats. It helped him sift through overwhelming amounts of information, but he could already do that with how incredible [High Mind] was.
He tried investigating it, seeing if he could edit the Skill at all, but ran into a problem rather quickly.
He simply couldn’t find it.
His brow scrunched as he got the general impression that it was anchored to his soul in the same memory that he’d accepted his first class, but it failed to manifest in any complicated way.
‘I think that means… Outer Skills don’t exist within my soul at all, so I can’t edit or change them in any meaningful way. That’s why they’re called OUTER Skills. Because they’re outside my soul.’
The only thing he could do about his Outer Skills now was to find or form a Skill close to their function, then merge the Outer Skill into his own in order to turn it into an Inner Skill.
Just like that, he was completely out of Skills to look over or experiment with. He had a better idea of both his capabilities and everything that would be useful in the upcoming fight, so he could more easily plan out a training regime.
He would, of course, work out physically while [Growing Rage] rebuilt his body using Fortitude mana for now while [Homeostasis] learned how to resist vibrational damage from Fendrascora. [Good Samaritan] would slowly consume all his Kindness mana to suppress all the tracking marks on him, buying him some extra time. His MP would be split between training [Empower Self], [Fortress of Denial], and his new Void affinity until he learned how to produce some Void mana for himself.
He checked his clock, marking the time and date.
[Since the Fall: 10/30/809 - 12:42:59]
‘No time like the present.’
* * *
[Since the Fall: 11/30/809 - 10:19:08]
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 16) -> (Level 17)]
[Stats Gained: +5 Spiritual]
[Skill Leveled Up: Good Samaritan (57) -> (72)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Meaningful (44) -> (50)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Growing Rage (170) -> (186)]
[Total Stats Gained: +6 Physical]
[Skill Leveled Up: Empower Self (4) -> (12)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (100) -> (105)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Fortress of Denial (36) -> (42)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (100) -> (107)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (101) -> (106)
[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (64) -> (68)]
[Affinity Strengthened:
[Void: Low-Common 99%] has strengthened into [Void: Mid-Common: 8%]]
One month since he genuinely started training, he finally stopped to take a break for the next step. The reason for this was clear.
[Pandora’s Box (Sealed) (273) (10920/10920)]
[Pandora’s Box:
8323/10920 Wrath
712/10920 Kindness
492/10920 Soul
231/10920 Fortitude
1150/10920 [NULL] ]
12/10920 Void]
He’d just filled the box completely, and was just waiting on one more piece of mana to begin the process of leveling it up. Before that, he quickly reviewed all the changes over the last month.
Talking to Aloran about all the changes in his Skills helped solidify his knowledge and netted him one more level in Pondering Sage. [Good Samaritan] was almost guaranteed to evolve before the hunters found him, and he was hopeful that it would provide a path to breaking apart the tracking marks for good, maybe even allowing him to escape rather than fight to the death.
Stolen novel; please report.
[Growing Rage] finished stripping the Fortitude mana of its Concentration just the day before, granting him eight hundred and fifty more Null mana. He decided to put off on using the Curse until after he found out whether [Pandora’s Box (Sealed)] would hurt to level up or not. Now that it was repaired, he was hopeful, but that didn’t guarantee anything.
He came to realize that practicing with manipulating his physical form leveled up [Solidity], which implied the Skill would make it easier over time. It did make his mind and soul more malleable with each level up now that he’d changed it, which would seem to help his [Fluid Shape] Racial ability.
Identify was leveling up slowly, which was a problem. Dei wanted to work as many Skills into [Connection] before he left Alorans cave as he could, so he was going to start a new training with the Skill soon: Identifying Aloran. That would lead to a slew of problems because he was not equipped to understand a divine soul, but Aloran said it shouldn’t kill him if he tried, just hurt really badly.
He also discovered a way to produce Void mana- though only in small quantities so far. If he split his mind into multiple pieces, then either grew or shrank the minds on different tasks, thus rapidly swapping his main focus between what he was training, it would grant him the tiniest slivers of Void, as well as a percentage of his Void affinity. The affinity was actually getting stronger at a solid pace, which he attributed to how the personality requirement was completely removed for him, so it would be much easier to level for him compared to anyone else.
During his training, he began to sift through his knowledge of the Void granted to him by his Contract, though it was slightly difficult to find. Instead of appearing in a packet for him to look over, the knowledge was simply found within his head, as though it’d always been there.
He discovered this when he went back to study the shard of Void contained within his soul, and had various facts spring to mind; mainly the fact that it wasn’t a true window into the Void. Instead, the place in his soul was imbued with incredibly deep Void concepts, something he gained from both his blessing from Void and traveling through its plain of existence. It served to store the things he subconsciously learned about the Void during his time there, and if he could tap into it, he would gain access to many Void Skills.
The knowledge granted to him by his Contract also clarified why he wasn’t able to enter it, telling him it was because he had a physical body right now. Only certain intangible things could freely enter and exit the Void, but that wasn’t a problem to his goals. Because the Void technically had no space or time, it didn’t actually matter how far away or near something was. If Dei figured out how to transport himself between points, any two points, it would cost the same if he was teleporting one inch or a trillion miles.
That brought him to his study of how to create a Void teleportation spell. It was odd, but he never actually had to enter the Void to take advantage of it. He could like… merge the idea of two points into a single one, closing the Void between them. Those two points would become a single point, and if he stepped into the area of uncertain reality, he could decide which place he wanted to exist in.
So that was his plan for now, figuring out how to eliminate the Void between two things, conjoining the space. If he learned how to do that with freestyle mana manipulation, then the next step would be to work out how to direct the spell into his old reality, somewhere back on Earth. All in due time though, because he had to worry about his current step first. It wasn’t a very safe step either, because he could only manipulate the mana within his body, so all the experiments involved merging the tip of his index finger with the tip of his thumb and hoping the Void mana didn’t severely damage his health, and that it would be a reversible process when complete.
Breathing deeply, he held it for several minutes, only exhaling as he felt another Soul mana enter his body.
It moved with deceptive slowness towards [Pandora’s Box] for how much pain it would cause him, but he made no moves to either accelerate or stop its journey.
When at last it found the wall of his Skill and went to press inwards, displacing the hundreds of Soul mana already there, the Skill creaked dangerously, stretching itself to accommodate for the new guest.
Dei felt… bloated. But no pain!
He sighed in relief despite the uncomfortable sensation, because he now knew he wouldn’t want to die by the time he had to fight against his pursuers.
He continued to practice other things while waiting to see how long it’d take to level up, getting a bit of a dangerous estimate for how long each level up would take as he realized it was thirty five minutes per level.
He was almost positive that it would level up faster if he tried to force the mana into [Pandora’s Box], but that would probably hurt, although not as much as the first time he was leveling the Skill up. Now that he knew casual leveling of [Pandora’s Box] wouldn’t cripple him, it was time for something that would push his mind and self-control to the limits in the form of a Wrath Curse.
Now, there was no possible way he would be going through the entire curse in the time he still had, but with how Concentrated it was, his Skill would never have to strain itself like it had with Fortitude. There were just a few more preparations he had to make before activating it.
“Fendrascora,” he got her attention, “I’m finally going to begin utilizing the Wrath Curse, and I don’t want you hurt. Is there any way you could enter the Great River through the stream?” he said, referring to the only water source in Alorans cave, a trickle of water from the wall.
It wasn’t a random decision either. In the month they’d been stuck in Aloran’s cave, Fendrascora was slowly getting more and more antsy as boredom set in. She was, after all, a creature of Flow, she needed change and new experiences to heal, and her level was not as low as it had once been
[Corrupted Ancient Embodiment of the Flow - Level 241]
The “Damaged” adjective had been removed at level two hundred, which is apparently when Fendrascora chose to upgrade her “Careful” adjective to the “Ancient” adjective, an option she’d gained after sitting in place for a hundred or so years back when she was still preying on the villagers crystals.
“Damaged” caused Fendrascora to be physically fragile, so without that she was now a genuine threat, especially considering she was potentially a hundred levels higher than anything in the area. All “Corrupted” did was prevent her from creating Flow mana herself, but that would barely hinder her combat capabilities.
Fendrascora was an actual threat now, and could take off on her own adventure if she wanted, which is why he considered letting her put herself in danger at all.
At his request for her to re-enter the Great River, she seemed to snap out of whatever stupor she was in, exclaiming “I hadn’t even considered that I could do that now! I… absolutely! Wait… is there a tracking mark on me too?”
“I can check” Aloran chimed in, somehow able to tap into the connection Dei and Fendrascora spoke through. Fendrascora was also quickly learning the Gem Dweller language, or “Undercant” as Aloran called it, because The Mother included information on human language when she turned Fendrascora into an Embodiment.
Dei felt several of Alorans tendrils enter his body but made no moves to stop them as they made their way towards Fendrascora’s primary body, the concentrated Spirit mana in the shape of a short girl within his bloodstream.
After several seconds of searching around, Aloran said “There is a tracking mark here, but only one. I can actually walk you through the process of finding it if you’d like, but it would require me to sift through some of your memories. This isn’t something Dei can do though, because he has a few hundred, so it would take too long and be incredibly invasive.”
When she heard Aloran would need to go through her memories, she tensed, not sure what to say, so Dei stepped in.
“I think you should do it, Aloran has made similar mistakes to you, I don’t think he’ll have any room to judge” he told her through [Gesture], thinking of how Aloran said there was a time in his life before The Fall when he excused morally despicable things because it was the “Trend” at the time so to speak. If there was anyone in the room who could judge Fendrascora for her mistake in killing a village of innocents, it was not Aloran.
Aloran of course made an unhappy humming noise, but did not deny it. Dei’s words seemed to ease Fendrascora’s mind and she agreed to his help.
Just a few minutes later Fendrascora was tracking-free and Aloran made no comment on anything he’d seen in her memories. Dei watched her slip through the wall, where the spring of water was pushing its way though, and she was soon gone.
Clever looked curiously at the point she’d left for a few moments before continuing his own training.
Now that it was him alone to be destroyed by his bad decisions, Dei was about to begin the process of rebuilding his body when Aloran spoke up.
“Wait.”
“Yea?”
“This is the same curse that Lani had, right?”
“Ah… yea?” Dei asked, wondering if Aloran would also try to talk him out of using it.
“I want to give you a warning, it is an old curse, and one that doubtlessly has a lot of complexities to it. I’ve been observing the Skill you’re using to improve your body, and it’s likely that this curse is going to manifest in multiple ways once you’ve worked enough of it into your biology. I’m not going to tell you not to use it, because I would use it in your situation, just be aware. Once it’s a part of you, you’ll just have to live with it.”
Dei frowned. He’d assumed it would be the same as using simple Wrath mana, but the curse being different made more sense now that he thought about it. “What do you think will be different about it?”
“May I see a piece?” he asked, and Dei sectioned off a point before tossing it out into the open air and losing track of it. A few seconds later he said “It seems this is a curse dependant on hating the world in general. It’s antagonistic towards esoteric concepts such as fate or luck, but also the idea of unplanned attacks. I’m correct in that, at the very least, this is a complex curse, but I don’t even know how a tenth of this exists in the first place. I wish I could say more, but all I can tell you is that it holds a strong hatred for the idea of everything, while not actually caring to focus that intent on any one person or creature. I suppose it might manifest as a general damage boost to everything? But no… No, that would be too simple for something with this much conceptual depth. I’m sorry, but I was wrong. I have no idea.”
“Thank you for trying at least, and I appreciate the heads up. Do you think I’m making the right decision though? To turn this curse into more power?”
“I do, yes. It’s a dangerous world out there, and there will always be those more power-hungry than you that wish you harm. For something with as little risk and incredible potential as this? I made dumber gambles on my own ascent to Godhood.”
“Well, thanks for the pep-talk. I suppose it’s time to get this done.”
Aloran said nothing, and Dei simply took calming breaths for several minutes. When he felt he was ready, he opened his eyes, and activated his Skill.
