Chapter 169 (2/2)

Then Randidly smiled. Ghastly Slash… would likely work. He already used it a lot as his fast attack in fights to throw off the opponent's tempo. If he could strengthen that, the knowledge he had gained from Marco’s tutelage would become all the more useful. The skill had been strengthened previously by his images to be changed to Ghastly from something, but it didn’t seem like that connection was currently very strong.

So Randidly closed his eyes and focused his attention inward, in the veritable forest of Aether Engravings in his chest that caused him to have the ability to access skills. After a bit of searching, he located the one for Ghastly Slash, floating, the lines of it burning white hot, but fading to blue at the edges.

There wasn’t really any way for Randidly to actually tell which was which, but when he looked at them, he just knew. Then he looked down at the strange clear energy in his hand, and it seemed like an empty snow globe, waiting for a scene to fill it. Breathing slowly, Randidly focused on what he wanted.

It was rather simple and direct one, but for a quick attack, that was best. It was the image of a clock, its hands still. Then, powerfully, the hands moved.

Tock.

The image was short and sweet, but the powerful echoes filled that clear energy shard. With his Battle Intent, Randidly made those echoes resonate, thrumming with power. Then, very gently, he pressed the shard of energy into the sky, and felt something inside of him click.

Congratulations! Your skill has been upgraded from Ghastly Slash Lvl 59 to Idiosyncratic Cut (Un) Lvl 59! You have absorbed the two golden spheres of energy. Stamina +100! Stamina Regen +15 per minute!

The golden energy spheres didn’t disappoint either. Although his Stamina pool was becoming rather difficult to keep track of, regeneration was always useful for prolonged fights. Randidly then produced a training spear and used his new move.

Randidly blinked. Then he tried it again.

When he swung, as soon as he activated the skill, his spear would resonate with those echoes, and a powerful ticking noise would be created. His spear would basically complete ⅓ of the swing instantly, which was impossible, but it happened. Randidly grinned slightly. Which meant that he only needed to swing the spear ⅔’s of the usual distance for a slash. As Randidly experimented, it seemed that the power was decreased in a proportionate fashion, but this wasn’t his power move. This was a move that he would rely on to set up his finishers.

But after several Cuts, Randidly found himself exhausted, his chest heaving. Curious, he waited until he recovered some stamina, which was very quickly now, and used the move. Then he grimaced. 75 stamina was a rather hefty price tag to pay. Well, Randidly supposed that was why the reward also included pretty big gains to his Stamina pool and regeneration. Although he gained over 3 stamina per second, and a pool of over 1400, Randidly still wouldn’t be able to regenerate through using this move very much.

Randidly’s available paths hadn’t really changed, although he wondered about that. Most of the Spear Phantom moves must really be at a high level before he could get a path in them. He supposed this made sense, as they were likely part of a skillset that was definitely not common in rarity.

Between Engraving and the Weeping Rain Path, neither would have much of a concrete effect on his current performance. Well, Randidly did want to make himself some personal armor with Engravings on them, but that was for later. And besides, the Weeping Rain had a lot to do with his success in Engraving anyway. Really hard to tease apart which would be more useful.

But ultimately, he chose to put points into the Weeping Rain Path, for a very simple reason. It was an uncommon rarity skill.

So Randidly was very pleased to discover that after he put 5 points in, he received a point in Willpower. After another 5, he received a point in Resistance. This continued until he put the 25th point in.

Then he froze, his whole body trembling. A small burn started in his chest, which rapidly expanded into an inferno.