Chapter 223: His Own Way (1/2)

After that display of mine, Transient fell in line. He wasn't as cryptic with his hints or indirect with his phrasing. While I didn't relish in threatening people, it sure got the job done sometimes. Especially after they made me vomit eyeballs, guilt wasn't an issue. Man, who would've guessed?

Sarcasm aside, Transient's change in attitude didn't fix my issues with Growth. This difficulty stemmed from several causes. The least obvious but most impactful being my trait - blood magic.

It was what unified my mana and health into one resource, and I had only learned magic while using it. It was a different style of mana usage compared to more conventional means. Typically, a mage externalized his intents and used a tremendous surge of thought and will to manifest it into reality. This required utter focus, complex formulations, and precise timing.

My magic was the opposite. I sacrificed my physical well being for my magic to manifest. That sacrifice's effect was based on what I sacrificed, however. That's why adding more endurance and size effectively strengthened my magic. I was immolating something more valuable, therefore getting more in return. Since I could exchange blood and bone for mana, the reverse was true as well. This meant my mind strengthened the rigidity and stability of my body.

These factors cleared up quite a few oddities about me in general. For instance, my instinctive learning style, it worked because of blood magic. Your average mage couldn't go by 'feel' at all. It would disrupt the flow of mana, making it all fall apart. On the other hand, my style oriented around intuition and something similar to muscle memory.

This was why most mages relied heavily on their grimoire for practical magic. The algorithms in their grimoires acted as the software of a computer while their reserves of mana acted like the hardware. The better the software, the more efficiently they used the hardware.

My style meant any finesse with my magic should be outright impossible. The result was quite the opposite if what Helios and Torix told me was true. Well, after thinking it over, I figured it out along with why this compendium wasn't exactly optimal.

This virtualization was teaching me using the standard mage's learning curve. That's why the compendium was behind its initial estimate for my pace of learning. I was using an inferior method to gain knowledge for me. Once I understood the roadblock, maneuvering around it was simple.

I would just skip all the convoluted conversion bullshit and use what I already understood. Instead of learning Growth, I used transmutation on my flesh and blood. In layman's terms, I was cutting out the middle man. In this case, the middle man was turning my body into mana then formulating that mana into what I wanted. That part was hard, tedious, and arbitrary.

Why do all that when I could just change my body right into what I wanted from the start? All that other nonsense was slowing me down. Hell, logically speaking, this new style still used quintessence because of blood magic. My body was my mana pool. Using it was no different than using mana in the end.

Subtle as this change was, the difference was immediate and overwhelming. Within hours, I created immense torrents of water and expansive infernos. Using The Rise of Eden, I turned into an elemental tornado of volatile forces. My density, regeneration, and overall mass gave me a tremendous base of material to work with after all.

That was the icing on the cake for me. If I turned myself into water, I gained water worth about double what I sacrificed. Due to my density and mass, an arm's worth of mana could flood a room easily. Combine that with my already vast well of experience with converting my body to mana, and I wasn't a fish out of water anymore.

With that bottleneck broken, I practiced with a relentless fervor. It was how I learned best. After a few hours, I gained several notifications.

Breakthrough Achieved! Elementalist(lvl 21) --->(lvl 36)!

Breaththrough Achieved! Elementalist(lvl 36) --->(lvl61)!

Skill gained! Transmutation(lvl 10) - While others devour to expand their horizons, you use your own will to expand yours. +10% to efficiency of transmutation. +10% to ease of transmutation.

My changed way of doing this yielded enormous results. This was how I was used to doing things, and cross-applying my experience to different fields of study saved me a fuckload of time. Transient was pretty peeved since I ignored all of his advice over the last few hours, but I gave two fucks what he thought at this point. After that eyeball incident, I trusted no one until I got back to that hospital in Belka.

This new tactic even gained me quite a bit of usability with The Rise of Eden. Sure, the extra stats while using quintessence were hella nice, but my magic was pitiful since most of my ascendant oriented skills didn't work with quintessence. Now I could imagine actually using quintessence for something like Star Forger. Force of Nature wasn't about to be usable with quintessence anytime soon though, if ever.

For now, this was enough. After rolling my shoulders, I honed in on the next skill on the list - mutation. It was a natural skill to gain. For starters, I summoned three elementals using the virtualization. The fire, water, and earth ethereal beings hovered in front of me, their bodies mimicking tornadoes of their chosen elements.

Around me, I generated an abandoned set of ruins, vines, and moss hanging on ancient stone. Birds chirped outside the shaded interior, crumbled pillars supporting a massive stone labyrinth.

Once in front of me, I dashed towards the summoned monsters, instigating a fight. They attacked me in sync, each wielding its element with proficiency. As they did, I transmuted portions of myself to fight them. The water elemental summoned a viper of aqua, its fangs rushing towards me. I turned the surface of my skin to fire, a detonation of fire erupting from my frame.

The attack fizzled into nothingness before the earth elemental spiraled in the air towards me. Its fragmented body coalesced into an arm, crushing where I stood. I swung an arm, turning a portion of it to water. Within The Rise of Eden, this conversion of flesh to water proved efficient. A flood plumed from my frame, turning earth to mud.

From my side, the firey spirit flanked. It turned its body into a fireball lunging right at me. Where I stood, I stomped a foot and shot my hands out towards the creature. A wall of icy spines erupted from my frame, the fire melting it to water. The elemental collided into this growing surge of liquid, bursting into an ever increasing fog.

I sunk into the fog, avoiding the earth and water elemental's retaliation. They chased into the mist. Before they caught up, I turned the surface of my skin into pale ice, masking me in white. Hidden within the fog, I used my hearing to leap into the gust of earthen pieces.

I shifted my frame, a tide of water smothering the earth elemental. Turned into a muddy slop, it died beneath me. Angered by the death of his brethren, the aqua elemental turned its body into a floating fist. As it crashed down, I smashed my hands together. As I did, I converted a portion of my palms into wind. The clap's shockwave rippled up the beast's frame, creating a cylinder of water.

I pulled in my hands as it splashed around me. Before it reformed, I stood tall and spread my arms. A vast wave of wind unleashed from my frame, the water dispersing like a water balloon shot by a rifle. As the rain fell from around me, I glanced at my notifications.

Skill gained! Mutation(lvl 10) - Environments and circumstances change, but so do you. +10% to mutations efficiency. +10% to speed of mutations.

Unique skill gained! The basic skills Mutation, Efficiency, Anatomy, Transmutation, and Matter Generation fuse into the unique skill, Inundation. 195 treepoints rewarded.

Inundation(lvl 10) - You live in abundance, drowning your foes with your frame. +10% to matter conversion ratio. +10% to volume of converted matters and energies.

I raised my hands, staring at them. I glanced up to Transient,

”Now this is a skill I could imagine myself using.”

Transient started with an unusual silence. It whimpered,

”The mythical skill we had planned will no longer be formable. Skill shift volatile.”

I shrugged, ”So what? Make a new one.”

”It is not so simple. The compendium expended its ability to analyze you when it was assimilated. The previous pathway nullified.”

I raised my eyebrows, ”Huh...Well, it's not that big a deal. I'll just make a different mythical skill, one that suits me better.”

”Impossible. The compendium analyzed your history, status, and fighting patterns. You cannot craft a better-utilized skill.”

I shrugged, ”Eh, maybe if it was working on what I was like before. My armor evolution as of late makes me quite a bit different now though. Considering I've changed and the compendium hasn't, wouldn't that make it incomplete?”

Transient was left speechless. I waved it away, ”Anyways, thanks for the help with quintessence. That shit would've been damn near impossible to make without your help. From here on out though, I'll handle it.”

Transient remained frozen in place, unable to so much as budge. It wobbled for a moment before shaking. It shivered, mumbling to itself in a monotone,

”Mythical skill ungained. Purpose incomplete. Failure. Failure. Cannot compute. Mythical skill ungained...”

It repeated that phrase over and over. After about ten minutes of that bullshit, I waved Event Horizon over the damn thing. Its mind shattered as the mana drain muted its thoughts utterly. Those shattered fragments drained into my frame, strengthening me.

I shivered a bit. By destroying its will to resist, I empowered myself. In a way, I ascended by their destruction. It made sense why it was dominion plus augmentation. Their fall was my rise.

Either way, without Transient bothering me and the ability to control the simulation, I went about my own business. The most logical skills to combine into a mythical skill were Quintessence, Elementalist, and Inundation. With that in mind, I spawned hundreds of various enemies and elementals around me.

I rolled my shoulders before pounding my fists together. Learning by kicking ass was more my style. After destroying the first wind golem with a torrent of its own element, I grinned. As I did, my head throbbed with a headache that'd been growing over the last several days. I shook it off, laughing the pain away.

Yeah, this was more like it.

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I stared down at my disciple, already accustomed to the different environment of Belka. To my surprise, my disciple's coordinates led me directly to a hospital upon this imperial world. Once within its confines, I discovered several of my allies. Kessiah, in particular, proved a fruitful encounter as she healed my fractured knee. Her restoring several of my key injuries and lacking aspects eased my life quite a bit.

I always told her that her magic was powerful when harnessed. Hmph.

An old mage's musings aside, I, along with Helios, stood in a rather unused portion of the hospital's hallway. We both were looking for my disciple, his presence known by the staff. They referred to him as the stationary man. To be precise, his presence here stirred up quite the fuss.

A news station covered his presence, mentioning the strange being's refusal to respond to any outside contact. Despite being healthier than any patient currently residing within the hospital, this resident refused to move. They sent a moving crew to take him out of the facility, but this creature's weight far exceeded all but the most active being's ability to move him.

Therefore, Daniel was treated as a statue and oddity. How quaint.

The spectacle expanded until even Helios became involved. Upon coincidence, my arrival coincided with his being called here. With a like-minded goal in our sights, Helios guided me towards the statued man.

And that was how we found a necromancer and world ruler staring down at a dimension. It was quite a sight; Daniel's bench had been long ago removed. He stayed sitting despite no support, his gravity wells in place. Of course they were. Otherwise, he'd collapse the entire building with his heft alone.