To celebrate hitting the top 2 on RS, and for many followers who made all this possible. Here is an extra chapter for today!
***
[Plant Spirit (E) LV.7]
“Hello, Sprout, I hear that you’ve been enjoying the river.” Maximus smiled as he crouched next to the spirit.
He activated his World Sense and observed the river and Sprout. The thick blue liquid flowed alongside deep blue water mana, all of it intertwined with spirit energy, and it all streamed into Sprout through his roots, into the small humanoid body, and then out through the roots back into the river.
“Aren’t you something else? You are actually cycling all three energies and taking only what you need to grow, this way you don’t force anything; you let it flow as it does in nature. If only my body could work like that and not go into panic mode as soon as any mana is forced in.” Maximus paused for a moment and observed Sprout’s channels. There were countless of them flowing through its whole body, but each transported only one type of energy and stored a sliver of each in a different place.
Spirit energy flowed into Sprout’s spirit core, a small transparent crystal-like organ at the center of its being. The water numina remained in the leaves on top of its head, and the water mana was kept low in the roots.
“By the stars, this confirms my theory! You can keep all three; you just need channels for each. Well, in my case, numina is not the problem, so I indeed need two sets! Good, good, amazing, this is what I needed, thank you, Sprout, my friend. Here, take this.” Maximus took out one of the Emerald Crystals he had saved and placed it into the shallow waters.
“Feed, grow, become the strongest plant spirit in all of the realms!” Maximus laughed a bit eccentrically as he sat on the shore, turning inward.
He noticed his seed had remained the same; he hadn’t really managed to cultivate it, but the crystal roots had grown deeper and had entered his channels, flowing through them and effectively doubling his output of spirit energy.
Once the roots grow fully, I can attempt to split the flow into two and then condense my first circle around my heart, unlocking the Mage path, but, and a big but, before any of that, I need to rebuild this body, which wasn’t made for containing mana whatsoever. He smiled; his elixir was missing one last ingredient, and he would finally be ready to attempt the reforging.
Let’s research this Solar Pyre spell. I’d love to test the Sanctuary as well, but it can only be used every six hours. What nonsense, why limit the use of a skill like that...? Maximus shook his head in disbelief. The old him was only limited by his knowledge and his almost limitless mana, and now some arbitrary rules were set upon him, restricting his actions for no reason at all.
He cast Solar Pyre, and a large magic circle appeared in the sky. He managed to pause the activation long enough to read through the formula and frowned. It cannot be edited, it’s too precise; it actually works like a magnifying glass, enhancing the solar rays and then igniting them through light mana combined with fire numina. He frowned as he released the spell. A large pillar of light descended at the designated spot and detonated in a flash of brilliance, leaving a human-sized crater where it landed.
“Boss, are we under attack?” Vesper jumped out from the shelter, ready to fight.
“No, no. My apologies, I was testing something.” Maximus bowed apologetically.
“I see… Boss, you are stronger now than before?” Vesper asked as he stared at the crater that still flickered with small yellow flames.
“I am, a little bit,” Maximus said modestly. He truly believed it; to him, all of this was still far too weak, barely noticeable.
He then opened the list of his skills and nodded at the ever-growing library until he suddenly paused, and a mischievous smile crept upon his grime-covered face.What if I merge these two? They are both linked to celestial bodies, and both are types of fire. If I could reach something close to Celestial Magic, it could be my secret skill in case of an emergency.
He then activated Lunar Flare and Solar Pyre and paused both magic circles that shimmered into existence high in the skies. He activated World Sense alongside Eagle Eyes and observed the formula of both in the greatest of detail.
Yes, it should work. I can apply the principle of Starlight and Solar Flare, a strong burst of heat. I’ll remove the over-time effect of Lunar Flare and intensify the burning effect of Solar Pyre while merging both into one.
He nodded and smiled at his idea and carefully merged the two.
BOOM!
As soon as the two magic circles layered over one another, they detonated in a flash of light and heat.
“Damnit!”
“Boss, was that you again?” Vesper asked, frowning.
“Yes, Vesper, it will be me for a while now. Bear with me, please.” Maximus replied with a sigh.
I should remove the formula glyphs from the circles and then merge everything back one glyph by one. He noted this and sat down to meditate for a while until his spirit recovered before trying again.
This time, the magic circles merged seamlessly, but once he started merging back the glyphs that contained the formula, it detonated again.
“By the heavens, this is harder than I thought.” Maximus frowned and went back to the drawing board.
Like that, he spent hours until finally an idea hit him. He layered the circles and split the glyphs into basic runewords, showing the full calculation within the structure. He then changed the calculation to adjust to the influx of cold and hot fire while altering the entire formula to expand instead of constricting into a focused beam. Once he was satisfied with the combined structure, he slowly merged it back into the magic circle, and the spell finally took form.
The circle turned silver with a violet outer border, and it activated. As it did, it expanded and surrounded the field across the river in a five-meter radius before unleashing head-sized comets of pure starlight that crashed into the ground and exploded in bursts of hot and cold fire, leaving large patches of land burning with silver and violet flames.
“Yes! That’s it, it touched upon Starfire, a far cry from a true spell, but this is the next level!” Maximus cheered as the system chimed.
Skill Unlocked: [Starlight Shower (B)]
Alert: Unexpected action detected. A feat greatly above the users’ level had been accomplished.
Soul Trait Unlocked: [Skill Innovator]
Secret Quest [Find a way to unlock a skill beyond your level] Completed.
Rewards Earned: 10 Trait Points, Secret reward unlocked at trial’s end.
Battle Tokens earned: 5000
“Look at you, Astrae, showing me some respect finally.” Maximus smiled as he checked the skill’s description.
[Starlight Shower (B) Level 1] – Channel the power of the stars to rain destruction over your designated area in a radius of 5 meters for 5 minutes. Starlight comets will fall continuously, dealing high instant purifying and fire damage. Targets hit by the comets will be set ablaze and receive both cold and burning damage for over one minute.
Dark-attuned beings will receive double the damage.
If you cast Nature’s Wrath on the same target within 30 seconds of it being hit, the spell will deal 30% more damage.
For the duration of the skill, you gain Starlight’s Blessing, allowing your shapeshifted physical attacks to deal either a Lunar or Solar damage modifier depending on your choice. Cooldown: 12 Hours. Spirit Cost: 750 Spirit.
By the stars… Literally! It turned out even better than I wanted. The system had actually refined the skill, and the jump to B rank had clearly played a part. The only problem is the cost and cooldown. It will remain, as planned, a secret weapon. Maximus noted, smiling faintly.
Let’s see the new trait; if it’s anything like the current ones, it should be quite something.
[Skill Innovator] – You have created a new skill above your realm, which reached B rank within the First Plane. Such a feat was deemed impossible due to limitations imposed upon it.
All future skill selections now have a 10% chance to offer higher-tier skills, depending on the plane you are on.
Merging and editing skills will become significantly easier, allowing the user to access a simplified mainframe to experiment with skills without consuming resources and to run tests in a far safer and more controlled environment.
This is incredible! A place to test skills without any cost? Amazing, just amazing. This system is far beyond what I expected. Maximus moved to test it immediately.
He focused on the trait, and before his eyes, a wide, light-blue, transparent interface emerged. On the left side was a list of the skills he had unlocked, on the right the skills he had edited or created, and in the center a large space filled with faint, slowly spinning magical circles.
Let’s see… What if I adapt Cyclone Shell to enhance a weapon or a body part instead of forming a defensive shell?
As he selected the skill, its formula appeared in the center of the screen, displaying all the parameters and glyphs required for activation.
This should be simple enough. Maximus thought as he began waving his hands, rearranging the structure while removing the glyphs he no longer needed. Once he was done, he initiated the testing phase, where a holographic version of the skill activated and demonstrated its effects. The sharp winds swirled in a tight circular motion around Maximus’s hand, increasing both its durability and cutting power.
New Skill Detected:
> Cyclone Shell: Lesser Wind Enchantment – Cover your weapon or a body part with sharp swirling winds that increase the sharpness of your attacks and damage done by 15%.
That confirms it, this new trait is unbelievable. Everything, from the idea to editing to testing, was done seamlessly, without any energy wasted or any harm done, even if the spell failed. A wide grin spread over his face.
Now then, what is this secret reward? Way too secretive for a system that seems to revolve entirely around facts and numbers… Well then, I will see what it is soon enough, no use dwelling on it now. Last thing to check before tonight’s hunt is the Armor Selection Ticket.
He took out the paper-white ticket with a large chestplate icon with a letter ‘C’ engraved within on its left side and the word ‘Rare’ written in red across the remaining space of the ticket.
Note: Rip the ticket to activate.
The instruction floated into his mind as he inspected the item.
“Alright, let’s do this!” He ripped the ticket, and a burst of mana erupted from the small piece of paper before three, meter-long screens appeared before him in a neat row, each containing a single item and its description.
“Vesper, can you see this?” Maximus asked as he pointed toward the screens.
“I cannot see anything, boss,” Vesper replied simply.
“Alright, thank you,” Maximus noted that this was meant for his eyes alone before diving into the items.