Monsters and legends, p.44
Monsters and Legends, page 44
part #1 of Infinite Realm Series
The perk was incredibly powerful, but the next window showed him the evolutions of his techniques, and he studied it more closely, as he was eager to find out how his techniques had evolved.
Congratulations!
Your Path of the Final End techniques have evolved!
Tranquil Mantle > Null Mantle
Silent Breath > Breath of Destruction
Final End > Darkest End
Null Mantle
Increase all stats by 48% (40%) of their total while technique is active. You can shift the bonuses from any stat to any other.
Breath of Destruction
Send out a wave of Qi from your mouth, dealing Void energy damage equal to 6 x (5x) your wisdom. The wave marks anything that it touches, dealing one quarter of the total damage over the next four seconds.
Darkest End
Unleash a sphere of Void energy all around you. The energy deals Void damage equal to 8.4x (7x) your wisdom. Anything marked by the attack takes one quarter of the total damage over the next four seconds.
His upgrades were incredible. All of his techniques had gotten stronger, but his Mantle was the biggest upgrade, in his opinion. He could now transfer all the bonus stats from any stat, not just half of the bonus. That would allow him to reach even greater heights.
With that done, he glanced to his new path. He didn’t feel like it was connected to a core, so he didn’t know if cycling with it was even possible. In the end he just put the required 500 Greater Essence in it, and felt that Essence settle into his core, answering his question. It was connected to his original core, but the Essence didn’t settle in the same manner. Instead of filling the core, it somehow settled around it. He didn’t know what that meant, but he activated the advancement so that he could find out. Immediately new notifications appeared in front of him. He unlocked all three techniques, and the path immediately reached the Early Foundation Realm stage. He frowned, but once he saw the next window, it started to make sense.
Path Perk evolution available for Body of Iron.
Titan’s Body
Your skin is stone, your bones steel, your flesh dark wood. Your body hardens. -10% to dexterity, +20% to endurance, +20% to strength, +40% physical damage resistance. The strength of the effect depends on the endurance stat.
Blood Soaked Body
Your body attracts the blood of your enemies. Spilled blood will flow to your skin and seep in, healing you for 250% your vitality. -10% to endurance, +20% to dexterity, +20% to vitality. Blood nourishment—your body now survives on the blood of other beings. Strength of healing effect depends on vitality stat.
Void Touched Body
Your body is touched by the void. Damaging effects of the Void have less effect on you. Immobilizing effects are 50% less effective on you, all physical or Qi attacks deal 80% of their total damage to you. +40% to endurance.
He looked at the available options and couldn’t help but smile. It made sense; the second path wasn’t to advance one’s core, but to improve on the decisions one made during their first advancements. Some people wouldn’t have had the best options, but if they managed to survive and thrive, based on their advancement they would’ve gotten better choices the second time. He knew that he would get to evolve all of his old perks, based on the stage he had gotten them in.
The Titan’s Body was obviously an improvement on his original body, the Body of Iron. It was powerful, and would be an incredible bonus to Ryun. The Blood Soaked Body was probably available because of his other perks, and perhaps his actions in life. It was powerful as well, and would synergize well with his other perks, Feast and Vampire, making his regeneration even greater.
But the last one was the one that was the most interesting to him. It was obviously a choice because of his aspect, and by the looks of its power it was a good idea that he had taken an aspect at the same time. He knew that he wouldn’t have gotten anything like it if he didn’t have a high-tiered aspect.
There was no choice, really. If he was going to advance with the focus on the Void aspect, he needed to make sure that he could survive using that power. Anrosh had warned him that Qi aspects could be damaging to the user as well. He picked the Void Touched Body perk, and felt a surge of energy spread through his body. He felt a cold that spread to every part of his body. And then it was done, and he looked at his new status.
Cultivation
The Path of the Final End (E)
Stage
Peak Lord (0/30,000 Greater Essence)
Aspect
Void
Base technique
Null Mantle
Branch technique
Breath of Destruction
Fruit technique
Darkest End
Cultivation
The Path of the Unbreakable Wall (U)
Stage
Early Foundation (0/900 Greater Essence)
Aspect
Void
Base technique
Qi Wall
Branch technique
Qi Skin
Fruit technique
Avatar
Strength
607
Dexterity
519
Vitality
659
Endurance
635
Intelligence
502
Wisdom
673
He had gotten a solid boost to his stats, as well as new abilities and effects. He tried to cycle with his second path, but found that he couldn’t. The Essence just came back out into his free supply. He couldn’t even create a crystal. It didn’t look like cycling was possible, but he still had his main path for that. He had enough Essence to advance his second path a bit more, but he restrained himself for now. First, he wanted to test out his new techniques. He had some ideas on what he could do with them.
“Satisfied?” Ereclaw asked.
Ryun raised his head and smiled at the wolf. “Yes, I am. Come, let us go to the training yard so that I can try things out.”
CHAPTER 69 – PRESENT – Ryun
Soar
Ryun stood in the center of the training yard. Most of the town’s people were still asleep, but there were a few nearby. They were attempting to hide their interest, but all were focused on him and what he was doing.
In front of him, suspended in the air was a small plate of Qi, oriented vertically. The {Qi Wall} technique allowed him to create a small plate of Qi that was fixed in space. It was about the size of his head, and he studied it closely. Like the one that the builder had created, it was thin, but his wasn’t translucent. It was completely black—or at least it appeared to be black. In fact, it was just somehow empty. The light that came near it just stopped, as if it didn’t exist. The technique itself had taken him only a minuscule amount of Qi, too little for someone like him to even notice. He had only used the amount that the technique required in its most basic form.
He reached out and touched it, feeling the solid surface, but also a deep coldness. His hand quickly lost its heat and he pulled back. It wasn’t damaging him, but perhaps it was just because of his new perk. He glanced at Ereclaw and then nodded with his head at the plate. Somehow he and the wolf had a connection where they didn’t really need to talk in order to communicate simple things.
Ereclaw reached out and placed his palm against the plate, and after a few seconds he pulled his hand back.
“Cold,” the wolf said.
Ryun tilted his head. The plate didn’t damage him, either, other than making him cold. He continued with his experimentation. He pulled his hand back and struck the plate lightly. He felt it shudder from the strike, but hold, barely. That wasn’t encouraging, as he had barely used any strength.
He struck it again, this time a bit harder, and the plate broke apart. A sound similar to glass shattering filled his ears, and then something strange happened—for just an instant the air and light around the plate was pulled into the collapsing darkness. He would’ve probably missed it if not for his |Vibration Sense| skill.
He hummed to himself as he moved on to the next stage in his experimentation.
That technique was the reason why he had chosen this path. He wanted more mobility, and after seeing the technique he had an idea about a different way to use it. He settled into the breathing form and sent Qi down to his left foot. He raised the foot from the ground and formed a plate beneath it, parallel with the ground. As the plate snapped into existence, he leaned his foot on it and then climbed on top of it.
Ryun kept a close eye on it, seeing if it could support his weight, but there didn’t seem to be any issues. His True Body perk probably helped, as with it, his weight was somewhat conditional. He was standing on the plate a step up into the air, suspended above it. He experimented with its firmness, and it felt as if he was standing on the solid ground. He jumped lightly, and landed back on the plate. He felt it vibrate, but not enough to break. The coldness was starting to get through his boots, but it wasn’t really an issue as it wasn’t hurting him.
He raised one leg and then stomped down, hard. The plate cracked and he fell through. He felt an instant where the released Qi tried to attack him, but there wasn’t any effect. He was resistant to the damaging effects of the Void, of course, and the effect wasn’t all that strong.
He was convinced now that what he wanted to do was possible, so he continued to the next step.
He focused on his Qi, utilizing his Qi Manipulator perk to weave his Qi differently than how his new technique required. Unlike Class abilities, which couldn’t be changed other than by evolving a Class, and otherwise always had the same effect, techniques could be improved and changed. It was how he had evolved his techniques. He had learned that a technique could be improved in several different ways. It could become stronger based on the quality of a person’s core and Qi, or it could be slightly changed or altered by experimentation. Every path had a rarity, and that rarity reflected the power of the techniques that the path utilized. His Path of the Final End had started out as rare, and when he improved his techniques it had changed into an epic one. Now, he knew that paths could be passed on, they could be taught to others, or they could be stored in Path Stones for others to learn more quickly. The Path Stone had given Ryun the knowledge of the three techniques, putting him on the Path of the Unbreakable Wall, which had uncommon-level techniques.
But the techniques themselves could be improved, and with them the rarity of the path.
He pushed his Qi out his palm, but this time he didn’t stop. He put in more Qi and shaped it to his liking, utilizing the knowledge of the technique he had gotten and expanding on it based on his own experience. The plate manifested again, but with the amount of Qi he put in he could feel that it was far stronger. He pushed it into a different shape, and instead of a plate, it turned into a cube the width of about a single step. The technique settled in and he stepped back. It would remain there, fixed in space, for as long as he provided it with a tiny amount of Qi. It wasn’t an issue for him at all, and he could dismiss it in an instant.
It was at the height of his shoulders and he took a step back, looking at it. It was strange; from some angles, he couldn’t see the edges of the cube, and the light interacted with it strangely. But while interesting, that wasn’t a problem. He took a step closer and then jumped up on it. Putting both feet on the cube, he looked around. Ereclaw was standing there, motionless, studying everything that Ryun was doing. Around the training yard he saw others doing the same, both the warriors and the builders. He spotted Anrosh and Kri standing to the side, watching with interest. He didn’t enjoy the audience, but they were in a hostile area, so he didn’t have much choice.
He stomped his leg onto the cube and his lips quirked upward when the cube held. Then he bent his knees and jumped high into the air. With his Untethered Body he soared through the air, high above the town. And as soon as he felt his momentum wane and his body start to fall, he pushed his Qi out. Another cube formed beneath his feet, far faster than the first one. His ability to manipulate Qi was impressive—he had never met anyone who was as fast as he was. His legs bent as he caught himself on the new cube, and he straightened, putting both feet on it. He stood there high in the sky and looked around. The town beneath him was just a tiny spot on the ground, and the territory stretched around him. One section of the sky was covered with gray clouds and he was standing above them, seeing only the cloud-covered peaks in the distance. The other was clear blue sky, and the last was filled with dark clouds and smoke. He could see the limits of this area. Beyond the mountains that surrounded this valley, there was nothing—just a gray curtain that covered everything. He had already assumed that they were in some kind of a pocket dimension or something like that, and this seemed like it proved that theory.
He shook his head and turned back to the matters at hand. He bent his legs and jumped forward, soaring through the air. He released the cube behind him, letting it collapse, and then he bent and put his leg forward, creating another cube and landing on it with both of them. He bent his legs, then, and immediately shot off in another direction. He used all the power of his stats, and the cube held. He was moving through the air faster, and he started experimenting some more. He created more cubes with different angles, shooting off up higher into the air, then reversing his direction in an instant and shooting toward the ground. He even created cubes with his hands, catching himself and halting his movements in an instant. His Untethered Body allowed him to quickly come to a stop, to absorb the impacts of creating the cubes just next to his body and move through the air with little resistance.
Finally, he pushed off a cube and shot toward the ground head first. He was flying so fast that the he almost slammed into the ground, but he put his palms in front of him and created another cube, catching himself on it and swinging around, bleeding all of his speed into the swing before releasing himself to fall gently down.
He was satisfied with the result. With multiple cubes, he could pick up speed incredibly fast, and he could change his direction in an instant. He couldn’t quite fly, but now he could walk, run, and jump through the air.
Ereclaw walked over to him. “Impressive,” he said simply.
Ryun nodded his head. He could already imagine all the things that this one technique would allow him to do, both in the air and on the ground. But there were more things he wanted to test out. He turned around, and noticed the people staring at him. He recognized their expressions as ones of shock. He didn’t understand why they felt that way, nor did he particularly care.
He pushed his Qi out of his palm again, this time creating a wall. He made it about a hand’s breadth thick and as tall as he was. Then he took a step back and smashed his fist into it as hard as he could. The wall held, but that came as no surprise. The original technique was inefficient, and his Lake of Qi perk made his Qi more powerful, and allowed him to use less Qi to achieve more. With his Qi Manipulator he had fine control over his power.
He started striking at the wall, hitting it several times in quick succession. It held for a while, but then it crumbled, and broke. Still, it could be a good defensive technique in some situations. While it did limit his vision, he still had his |Vibration Sense|, so he would always be able to tell what was going on beyond it. He still had two more techniques to test out, but he wanted to try a few more things with the {Qi Wall}, and so he turned to Ereclaw.
“Let’s spar a bit. I want to try some things out.”
Nearly a day later, Ryun was back on top of the roof of the residence, most of the people of the town had gone back to sleep, and Ereclaw was dealing with the attack from one of the territories. It had been a productive day, he had done a lot of experimenting and he was feeling good about the new techniques. They were simple, but he had managed to adapt them to his combat style. The only issue was with the {Avatar} technique—the Qi copy mirrored his movements exactly, so it wasn’t as useful in battle as he had originally assumed it would be. Ereclaw had easily avoided it just by watching Ryun’s movements, always managing to stay out of the range of the copy. So it just kept fighting air. It might be useful in situations where he was surrounded, but otherwise it was a waste of Qi. He had tried to adapt the technique, to change it so that he could control it, but he didn’t have much success.
But now that he had enough of a grasp of the new techniques, he wanted to advance. He had a feeling that advancement would trigger the evolution of his new techniques, and he had decided that the Essence he would need to spend would be worth it in the end, even though he would much rather cycle with it. He only felt a bit disappointed that the second path didn’t give him any stats with advancements, but new techniques and upgrades to his perks were more than enough for now.
He placed 900 Greater Essence into his second path and triggered the advancement. New notifications came up, but he put them aside as he put another 1,500 Greater Essence into the path to bring it to the Peak Foundation Realm. As soon as the second advancement was triggered, he looked at his notifications.
Congratulations!
Your Path of the Unbreakable Wall techniques have evolved!
Qi Wall > Qi Shaping
Qi Skin > Qi Sheath
Your Unbreakable Wall Path is now Rare!
As he had assumed his {Avatar} technique hadn’t evolved, but his path had gotten up a rarity. Of course, his adaptation of its basic techniques was far more advanced, enough to increase the rarity on their own. Besides, that alone didn’t give it any greater power. He looked at the next window, looking through the techniques.
