Chapter 82: Merging Skills...
"Ouch!" Rubbing his forehead, Night looked up at the culprit with injustice written over his face.
Night : (＞Д＜)
Sara crossed her arms. "Whatever happened just now can wait. You need to tell us what actually happened to you inside the Inheritance Ground."
He heard [Dream]’s voice echo in his head: "Ohh, go on. This will be interesting to watch."
[Dream]: (๑╹ω╹๑ )
He looked at the others, who were all staring at him with curiosity. Even the tiny Sage had her small arms folded, wearing a questioning look on her furry face.
Sage: @( ಠ_ಠ )@ ?
....
Still sitting on the bed in the master bedroom, he took a deep breath and explained to them everything that had happened inside the Inheritance Ground, and exactly what had transpired in his dream about Levi Rose’s memories...
Eve consoled him immediately. "Master, we only care about you for who you are right now, not because of some ancient memories."
Lilith nodded beside her. "Yes, please don’t feel bad, Master."
Lucy added with a smirk, "I chose to bond with you for who you are, and definitely not because of some ancient being you might be the reincarnation of." She guessed that this revelation had been a huge blow to Night.
Night felt warm hearing this.
( ˘ ▽ ˘ )
Death gripped her scepter. "Good thing he is already turned to dust! Or I would have turned him into a skeleton for making you cry..." she said with fury.
Death: ( ╬ Ò ‸ Ó ) 🔥
Sage jumped up and down.
Eke ekee ekeke ek!
(We will become Cosmic Beings ourselves!) she declared, flexing her non-existent biceps.
@( ✧ 益 ✧ )@ 🔥
"Heh." Night smiled. Sage never failed to make him chuckle.
Blade, however, looked a little dazed. "So this [Dream] is a Goddess from the past and she helped you gain the [Dream] Aspect?"
( 〇 ﹏ 〇 )
Night nodded.
Sara frowned in concern. "And this ’Dream System’? Is it really safe?"
"Che... another one..." he heard System Girl’s fuming voice echo in his head.
( ￣^￣ ) 💨
She had mentioned earlier that those who came before him had all run away the moment they saw the ominous System message.
Night reassured them, "It’s completely safe. In fact, I feel like I am a lot stronger now and I also finally have a complete human body."
Blade’s "So you are really a Unique Being?" She still looked like she had just heard she had won the lottery. There was even some genuine expression breaking through her normally blank human disguise.
Night nodded. "Yes. Apparently, I was born when they tried to create an artificial human."
Shaking his head, he said dryly, "They really outdid themselves. From what [Dream] said, we are incredibly rare."
Blade turned quiet at that, falling into deep thought as she processed the implications.
Seeing them finally calm down from his story, he returned back to check the System notifications.
[Ding!]
[Stone Spikes (Common) (Lvl.1) - 10 EV]
[Allows the user to create stone spikes. The power scales with the user’s level.]
[Y/N]
[Ding!]
[Stone Spears (Common) (Lvl.1) - 10 EV]
[Allows the user to create stone spears. The power scales with the user’s level.]
[Y/N]
[Ding!]
[Stone Ball (Common) (Lvl.1) - 10 EV]
[Allows the user to create a stone ball. The power scales with the user’s level.]
[Y/N]
[Ding!]
[Stone Blade (Common) (Lvl.1) - 10 EV]
[Allows the user to create a stone blade. The power scales with the user’s level.]
[Y/N]
[Ding!]
[Stone Shield (Common) (Lvl.1) - 10 EV]
[Allows the user to create a stone shield. The power scales with the user’s level.]
[Y/N]
"Wow," Night muttered. This time, he was mindful of not staring blankly into space and worrying the people around him.
As they watched, he explained what skills he had received as he purchased them.
Just as he was about to move to the next notification, System Girl spoke up. "Umm, wait! I have an idea!"
( ๑>ᴗ<๑ ) 💡
Seeing Night pause, she continued proudly. "These are all low-level skills originating from a similar source element. If you want, I can merge them for you! It would just cost some EV to perform."
Night exclaimed in his mind, "Is that actually possible?!"
System Girl nodded furiously, feeling glad to finally be useful. "Yes, it’s possible!"
Night grinned. "That is awesome. I was genuinely worried that in the future, I might get a headache just looking at the number of basic skills I had to cycle through."
"I’ll start the process!" System Girl said happily.
Immediately, the cluster of System notifications vanished and in its place, he saw a new prompt.
[Ding!]
[Similar types of skills detected.]
[Do you want to merge?]
[Stone Spear], [Stone Ball], [Stone Blade] and [Stone Shield] will merge to create a new skill.
[Cost: 100,000 EV]
"Shit!" Night closed his eyes with a bitter expression.
＼(º □ º l|l)／
He had happily thought he finally found an overpowered skill-merging cheat, but the cost was really painful.
Almost as painful as his transformation earlier.
Well... almost.
[Dream] chimed in: "Do it."
Night mentally complained, "But it’s so costly!"
[Dream] reasoned, "Yes, but the resulting skill should be worth it."
Night reluctantly agreed, figuring he could always just earn the EV back by hunting later.
[Skills merging...]
[...]
[...]
[Ding!]
[Stone Creation (Legendary) (Lvl.1)]
[Stone Creation - A skill that reaches into the territory of the Gods and Goddesses. Allows the user to freely create stones directly as per their desires. The stones created will last as long as the user wants, at the cost of continuous EV consumption. Mastery of the skill depends entirely on the user’s imagination.]
Night’s mouth was stuck in a perfect ’O’ shape after reading the description.
( ﾟoﾟ)
He quickly explained it to the others, who were giving him curious looks.
"I just got a Legendary skill!" he said, excitedly explaining exactly how he got it using his new System feature. He looked like a kid who had just gotten a surprise present when he least expected it.
He opened his palm and a small stone was created. It felt so effortless, as if he had been born with the ability. He then willed the stone to turn into a flat plate, then seamlessly into a sharp knife. It took some mental effort to maintain its complex form, but it was manageable.
Sara looked at him with an envious expression and explained, "Legendary skills are incredibly hard to get. And this one is specifically a ’Creation’ type, making it functionally very close to an actual Aspect. If you learn to use it properly, it will be an game-changer in combat."
[Dream] observed: "Exactly as I thought, a Creation type. Night, if you ever manage to get a ’Stone Manipulation’ type skill in the future, we can combine them together to create a Divine Skill."
Night blinked. "Are Divine Skills really so easy to get?"
[Dream] chuckled. "No. But the specific type of skill I am talking about is indeed relatively common. Still, at the mortal realms, combining them should make you overpowered."
Night nodded. He winced at the cost, but the resulting skill was still pretty damn neat.
He shared this upgrade path with the others.
Blade suggested, "You should play the Game of Chess. It should help with you in mastering this specific skill. In the future, when you actually manage to evolve it into a Divine Skill, it will become a terrifying trump card."
Sara added grimly, "Especially with the way things are currently going... I genuinely hope you become strong quickly."
Night frowned, looking up at her. "What exactly happened?"
Previously, he had been too preoccupied with his own existential crisis to ask, but he still didn’t know exactly why they had been forced to move to the Dream City.
The others looked at each other hesitantly. Sage was the one who finally stepped forward to explain.
Eek ekekek ekek ekek!
She used her small, furry hands to rapidly describe the various terrifying events. It looked very comical, but what she described made Night’s face turn solemn.
@( ๑ ＞ᴗ＜)@ 👐
Sara stepped in to fill in some of the more complex political details, while Blade, Lilith, Eve, Death and Lucy shared some of their own thoughts and observations of the incident.
Night didn’t interrupt even once, but anyone who saw his face could easily tell he was completely furious.
After they finally finished explaining the situation...
Night, instead of raging at the invisible enemy, looked directly at Sara in worry. "A Soul Projection... can it be recovered?"
Sara sighed softly. "No. As far as I know, it is not currently possible. My cultivation technique, [Witch of Walem], doesn’t mention anything like it either."
[Dream] hummed in his mind: "So, she cultivates using a technique from the Walem..."
Night asked urgently, "Do you know about it? No, wait... first, can a Soul Projection actually be recovered?"
[Dream] answered calmly, "The Projection itself cannot be recovered, but the fundamental damage to her soul can be healed and she can fully recover her lost cultivation potential as well."
Night exhaled in relief. "How?"
[Dream] explained, "If she consumes any Immortal Soul Medicine that is focused on healing, it should fix the damage entirely. Consumption of such a divine medicine will not only heal her soul, but also boost her cultivation and make breaking through to become a Immortal much easier."
Night immediately asked, "Is something like that available in the System Shop right now?"
[Dream] chuckled. "No, silly. Why would someone sell something as valuable as that, even if they were lucky enough to get it?"
Night frowned, asking with desperate hope. "Is there another way to get it, then?"
[Dream] said thoughtfully, "After the Merger happens; when this universe, combines with the greater cosmos, the local System Shop will also merge with the universal System Shop of the cosmos and you should be able to buy it then. Though it’s incredibly rare, it should eventually show up if we get lucky."
She paused before adding, "Also, don’t tell them this yet... but before the Merger, if we execute a [Dream Descent] and you are lucky enough to descend outside this universe, you should be able to get it from the cosmic shop pretty easily. But it’s better you don’t tell her about this method just yet, in case it doesn’t happen exactly as you expect and she is disappointed later."
Night nodded with a thoughtful expression.
The others paused their conversation, easily knowing he was probably talking telepathically to [Dream].
Night looked at Sara and said seriously, "The damage to your soul can be healed with a Immortal Soul Medicine. But unfortunately, we will have to wait after the Merger to buy one."
Sara nodded slowly in understanding, easily connecting the dots.
With that concern out of the way, Night then turned and looked at Blade intensely. It looked like his blue eyes would spew literal fire at any minute.
Night: ( ╬ Ò ‸ Ó ) 🔥
"Did you manage to see exactly who it was that tried to attack Sage?"