The first thing Lone did when he was alone was communicate telepathically with Soph again.
'How are you and Kyuubi injured? Am I safe to summon you both and heal you?' he asked.
'Kyuu...' Kyuubi grumbled softly and in a reassuring tone.
Soph answered just a moment later, 'We've both fine. My hand needs to be replaced and Kyuubi's hairs need to be looked at, but not now. Divine Hourglass is right outside of the room you're in. Uh, by the way, we're still in the clan. This is a portable building that Grand Guildmaster Sarah made appear right on top of the site of where our Spirit Pavillion used to be. Breena is in the room next to yours.'
Lone closed his eyes and focused past the soul pain he was enduring. Indeed, with his aura he could feel both Divine Hourglass and Breena. He couldn't feel the red spirit frog anymore. He hoped he hadn't killed the fellow by mistake. It had been annoying but helpful and it hadn't done anything wrong.
'Can you feel the frog?' he asked.
'Huh? Oh, uh, yeah? It's deep underground. I think it probably buried itself when you... did whatever it is that you did. It hasn't come back up yet. I bet it's scared of Divine Hourglass. or maybe of you? I, uh, I don't know. It isn't showing its emotions through its mana colours,' Soph explained.
He sighed in relief. 'Thanks... I dunno if we should be happy. The plan was only ever to involve the grand guildmaster and her closer associates, not a hundred or so Divines-slash-Divine-level beings. We've swapped one problem for another.'
'Yeah...' Soph replied in worry. 'And it's far too late to reverse time now. B-But at least we have allies this time!... Right?'
'Yeah, I guess. I don't know if I can trust Divine Hourglass though. He's being too honest, and everyone else was far too terrified of him. Not that I have a choice though. The fucker was powerful enough to force back two Omni Devils. Sure, others held them back, but he did the whole 'return from whence ye came, foul beast' thing. That's like an S-ranker banishing two Divines. Insane,' Lone said.
Soph was silent for a moment before asking, 'So... what now?'
Lone flopped down, allowing his head to rest on the pillow of his bed. 'I guess I go through my notification log. I also need to make a new mana concealer. I told them they could freely study the device I made. I didn't say they could freely study the device I made two days ago. Ergo, I can just make a copy. The first one is for you, and its whole point was to not be noticable. I also will not be with them when they study the copy. I'll need an intermediary. Maybe Divine Hourglass considering how eager he is to get on my good side. After that? Reach our current level cap. I would be surprised if I don't have enough enlightenment to become an S-ranker.'
He pursed his lips in thought for a moment. 'Right. Haze is meeting her potential mind magic teacher tomorrow. I want to be present for that. So yeah, immediate plans. Notification log. Leave the presence of any Divines, summon and fix both you and Kyuubi, then go visit Haze.'
'Okay. It's a plan!' Soph responded in agreement. Immediately following that, her tone changed and she asked, 'We are surprised you are not scheming to milk skills from the Divines within your grasp. You have power over them now, even if only through a device you do not wish to give to them.'
'Hello to you too, Sophie. I missed you. I'm glad you're also okay. And while I would love to do so, I need to be careful. What if I start asking for skills to be used on me and they start talking and figure out I can learn anything? Do you think they'll let me bind them in contracts like Prince Keining did? I reckon they'd band together and kill me given how much potential I have, or capture me to study me. Divine Tethered could tell the moment I earned Symbiotic Aura Control, and she could even tell what it did. Telling Divine Hourglass about my ability to earn magical affinites was bad enough. We've in a very sensitive position right now. My selfish desires don't take precedence over the full picture of our safety,' he replied.
'The boy has finally learned. We are glad we argued with you about this so much in the Farwinds. We could cry, we are so proud,' Sophie said, to which Lone chuckled. 'We missed you also. We shall leave you to your notification log. Our own was shocking enough, we dread to think what surprises are lying in wait for you.'
Lone didn't hesitate any further and summoned said notification log.
[Congratulations! The host has successfully entered a state of skill enlightenment.]
[Congratulations! The host has successfully entered a state of magical enlightenment.]
[Congratulations! The host has successfully entered a state of world-assisted enlightenment.]
[Warning! The world [Altros] has forcefully combined the host's enlightened states. Failure to achieve anything will erase the host's existence.]
'Scary. I was under the impression that I just wouldn't be able to recreate what I was doing, and the full potential of the mana concealer would be forever lost, not that I would be erased. Would Soph have been able to reverse time on that one? If not, would the promise the god who summoned me here to help me once have kicked in?' Lone thought.
He had actually intended to use that one chance to kill anything that Zel summoned and Zel himself, his contract be damned, should things go poorly. His True Contract magic came from that very god, after all, so he figured if he could ever bypass it, it would be by cashing in that old cheque.
Regardless, Lone refocused and continued reading.
[Congratulations! The host has successfully completed their state of world-assisted enlightenment.]
[Congratulations! The host has, with the assistance of the world, created a brand new school of magic, Coalescence Magic.
As a reward for this momentous occasion, the host's MP has been doubled, the host has gained the affinity for coalescence magic at a base of 150%, the first 5 coalescence skills the host creates will start at Master Rank 1 (or Master Rank 10 if no further growth is possible for the skill), the host is immune to all coalescence magic used on them, the host can make any coalescence spell they witness others cast fail or succeed in exchange for MP, the host can choose who the first Avatar of coalescence shall be (even themselves should they wish it), and every time a coalescence spell is cast by someone other than the host, the host's being shall evolve by a fraction of a fraction.]
'Coalescence magic, huh?' was his first thought. 'Coal magic for short. That surely won't cause any misunderstandings, heh.'
Honestly, Lone was a bit lost for words. He hadn't really paid attention to it but now that he knew, the system was right. His MP had doubled. His base MP was now a little over 1,800,000, and his boosted amount was now a little over 3,600,000. Those numbers didn't quite make sense. He had gained extra MP from something else, but he was sure he'd find out from where in his notification logs.
It was still just over half of Sofia's base MP pool, but still, it was a substantial amount. 'Those other perks are amazing too. I want to teach coalescence magic to the entire world. How powerful would I grow if billions of simple spells of the school were being cast every day? Can I just effortlessly and endlessly evolve my state of being? Will I become as powerful as Devil in no time at all, or is a fraction of a fraction, like, a millionth or billionth of progress?'
That was both a fun and a depressing thought. Regardless, it was likely a far easier method to do than what others needed to go through to elevate their order of being, so he was thankful to the system and the world for gifting this ability to him. No matter how slow it was, passive was passive and effortless was effortless.
At the same time, he hoped Scott hadn't been too negatively impacted from the explosive growth in MP, before he moved on and kept reading his notification log.
[The host has created the passive skill: Coalescence Forging.]
[Passive Skill: Coalescence Forging
A skill that allows the host to wield the magic school of coalescence to perfectly combine any and all forging techniques, skills, tricks, and whatever else may be useful when forging.
When forging, freeform coalescence magic is automatically added, making every new method used in the process guaranteed to be helpful and successful, never a hindrance and doing so will never add a chance to fail.
Cost: N/AMastery: Beginner Level 1]
Lone ignored his clawing soul pain and chose to stroke his jaw in thought. 'That's... not super useful right now but at the same time, maybe it is? Does this mean I can add my magic affinites to anything I manually craft in the future and it's a guaranteed success? If so, isn't this like enchanting magic but on crack? No extra added chance to fail? I can make a copy of the mana concealer with this, right? Unless that had special one-time bonuses applied to it due to it being the first of its kind... That's likely...'
Regardless, Lone was happy with this skill. It meant he could apply Steamforging to everything he created, even if normally doing so would make no sense. What was that if not a perfect way to honour his late master, Wilbur? It also, of course, meant he could add magical affinites with no problem.
Making a copy of the mana concealer would be far easier with this.
[You have gained a deeper connection with the world and she has aided you in creating the new world skill [Coalescence Understanding].]
[You have gained a deeper connection with the world and she has gifted you with a sum of power. You have gained 50,000 World Force.]
[Congratulations! The host has developed the world skill: Coalescence Understanding.]
[World Skill: Coalescence Understanding
A world skill of understanding and insight.
Grants the host the ability to passively understanding things more easily with the world's Coalescence magic.
Grants the host the ability to expend WF to forcefully understand something.
Limits: 1 use per week. Unlimited for things created by the host.
Understanding granted: Half of the limit of the host's current level of order. Everything for things the host created.
Cost: 25,000 WFMastery: Beginner Level 1]
'First, fuckin' awesome skill. Second, the system congratulated me for earning it? Normally it doesn't do that for new skills. It usually just congratulates for skill level-ups. Have I become a golden child of Altros now that I helped usher in the age of a new school of magic?' Lone wondered.
It was an interesting thought. He hasn't put much stock in the planet being a living being with its own thoughts and feelings. Of course, it made total sense. World skills were a thing and he knew they were only granted by Altros itself.
He had even suspected that the planet had permitted his copying of Full Body Diagnostics to test the waters of this strange new hero, but he had no proof. The skill had certainly only levelled when the world deemed it to be appropriate.
It had also refused to congratulate him for levelling Nothing Vortex. If plants could gain sentience and become X-rankers, why couldn't an entire planet gain its own mind and power system?
'Here's hoping i don't ever have to fight it. It's terrifying to think how powerful an entire planet would be given how old it is and given it's dominion over the system. Speaking of, does it control the system, or has it been permitted to use it by the gods who summoned Sofia and I? Maybe something different? Are the Ancients its kids? So many questions, no one to answer me. I could always use my new world skill to try to feel out an answer, but that's probably unwise with Divine Hourglass waiting outside,' he thought. 'Maybe I can ask Little Rinrin when I next meet her and her folks.'
Lone still had more notifications to get through so he moved on.
[Congratulations! The host has successfully applied the secret stat [Magic Power] for the first time. As a reward, the host has been granted 50 points of [Magic Power]. When applying [Magic Power] in the future, it will cost 3.2% of the host's SP per second.]
'Oh I'm about twice as talented at applying this than I was at applying Agility at the start. That's nice,' Lone thought. 'I wonder what I can with this... It should be worth asking Divine Hourglass. It can't be too crazy to have learned how to do this given what I already did. It's probably expected and quite benign to such a being, right?'
[The host has created the moment of an unknown A-ranker creating a brand new school of magic. Moment added to the [Miraculous moments and sites of history witnessed or created] list of the skill [Historical and Cultural Appreciation].
Create 1 more magic school to upgrade the tier of this moment.
Stat bonus from moment: Magic Power 10,000. 5% affinity in all owned magical affinities.]
'There's the mysterious extra MP. That's my first miraculous moment, and wait a moment, all owned schools? I need to see my affinity list,' Lone thought before he paused his notification log scrolling to do just that.
[Lone Immortus' Magic Affinity Sheet
[Affinites and Percentage of Affinity
Illusion Magic | 115%Fire Magic | 115%Water Magic | 105%Lightning Magic | 105%Air Magic | 105%Earth Magic | 105%Nature Magic | 105%Scripture Magic | 105%Blood Magic | 105%Explosion Magic | 105%Sight Magic | 105%Poison Magic | 105%Heavenly Magic | 105%Force Magic | 105%Compulsion Magic | 105%Body Fortification Magic | 105%Flower Magic | 105%Mind Magic | 105%Spirit Magic | 105%Star Magic | 105%[New!] Coalescence Magic | 155%[New!] Space Magic | 105%[New!] Time Magic | 105%]
'Holy fuck... Historical and Cultural Appreciation is broken beyond compare. I know some skills can become as powerful or more powerful than unique skills if trained well, but this is ridiculous. How is the entire continent not in a frenzy trying their best to make history and define culture? And Divine Hourglass said my space and time magic affinites were similar to his. Does that mean he has affinities over 100% as well?' Lone's mind raced.
If that was the case, then it meant that Darkness and Death were wrong and Lone wasn't the first person to exceed 100%, and it also meant the headmaster of The Academy had hidden this information but chose to candidly reveal it to him.
'I could be overthinking it and he maybe he just has affinities in the high nineties and can't tell the true difference, but still...' Lone sighed. He wouldn't get any answers from speculating.
He had a few more notification to get through, after all, and so much more to do once that was done.