Chapter 482 Experimentation

“Damn, damn, damn. Those are some good skills. I want to see you use Force against my Lightning! I bet it would look phenomenal. Do you think Phaseshift would negate lightning damage entirely? Or an explosion from Claire? Can you displace spells or is that maybe the second tier?” Trian asked.

“I would really consider the Lull of Battle skill. If the second tier gives you a reduced mana cost per spell used, you’d become unstoppable. Not that you aren’t already close,” he continued, murmuring to himself about potential combinations.

Claire looked at Ilea with an apologetic look as she finished her notes.

“The storage ability is useless to you now but what if you can store spells at the second or third tier? Charge your fire beam into it ten times and you can just unleash destruction!” he laughed at the idea, spreading his arms as lighting arced from him into the nearby ground and the two Shadows.

Neither cared about the slight damage.

“Displacement and Storage in higher tiers could mean you can teleport stored spells into other people. Can you imagine that?” Trian continued.

Ilea focused on the Core skill points for a moment, wondering what she could do with them.

Core Skill Points available: 16

[3rd tier Class Skill Point]

[Stat Gain]

[Skill Boost]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Locked]

Most are locked. What does that mean?

She focused on the individual options instead.

[3rd tier Class Skill Point] – [Advance a Class skill to the third tier – Cost: 1]

Was kind of obvious. So now it’s not linked to specific classes anymore. Not that it matters, my two main ones already have all skills in the third.

[Stat Gain] – [Gain 50 stat points to distribute freely – Cost: 2]

What? For just two points? Or am I missing something?

[Skill Boost] – [Increase the level of a skill. Subdued effects at higher skill levels – Cost: 3]

Costs more than stat gains? That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you use this when you could just level the skills manually. Just takes a bit of time. Or can they level skills beyond 3rd tier 30? I doubt it.

She told everything to Claire, ignoring the incoherent ramblings from Trian, his agitation only increasing with the new information.

“Can you get more info on the locked options?” Claire asked.

Ilea tried but failed to gain anything else.

“There was a mention… when you unlocked the Core skills themselves. You need a locked requirement or an additional Class to unlock the points. Maybe the other locked stuff is linked to that?” Claire said.

She tapped her notebook with her pen and nodded. “Considering the requirements for the third tier classes, I would assume you unlocked them earlier than most people, even at your level, would. Not that we have anything to go on there. As far as I know, you’re the highest leveled human in our records.”

“The Faen Class was the only one with a pre level five hundred requirement,” Ilea said. “You’re right. Or I didn’t level things high enough.”

“You also don’t know yet how these points can be gained. The achievements are quite random. Impressive feats of course but I doubt you could achieve another ten very easily. I suggest you wait until more options are unlocked. The stat and skill boost options are good but what if something much better is waiting?” Claire said.

“Force coupled with Flare of Creation could just decimate whole groups! Or you could just teleport them into your fire spells with Displacement,” Trian said, punching his fist into an open palm. “But then you would have to not choose another skill…,”

“I will use them to advance my third Class skills into the third tier, if that is even possible. Maybe they cap out at level twenty. Which is why I think I shouldn’t choose the Lull of Battle skill,” Ilea said.

“Depends. If you can replace the skills, you could level it up and see what it does. If it’s bad, you can just choose another available skill,” Claire suggested.

Ilea rolled her eyes. “Leveling skills just to look at the second tier? Takes quite a bit of time.”

She wouldn’t consider doing that for the third tier, simply because that required a skill point.

“It’s not like you don’t have the time. Most of them sound well suited for you in one way or the other. Knowing more is crucial for a final decision,” Claire said.

Ilea noted down the available skills into her own notebook.

Active – Flare of Creation – Good bonuses (body enhancement)

Active – Spear of Creation ← not really (burst damage?)

Active – Displacement – versatile – instead of Force? 2nd?

Active – Burst of Creation ← probably shit – no multiplier

Active – Force ← versatile too, potential strong 2nd

Active – Phaseshift ← Fucking awesome – limitations?

Active – Shrouding Cloak ← nope

Active – Blazing Force Shield ← no

Passive – Space Awareness ← mumbo jumbo magic – uncertain benefits – Body Enhancement!

Passive – Space Shift ← Yes, yes. Also yes.

Passive – Dimensional Storage ← maybe? More space? 2nd tier??

Passive – Body of the Valkyrie ← Kind of have to. Goal → Become indestructible

Passive – Lull of Battle ← uncertain - 2nd tier? Body Enhancement?

The decision really wasn’t easy. She also didn’t know if more skills showed up as she leveled the class. Her main classes were mostly devoid of that at this point. Either because they simply didn’t have any options or because she was so used to the skills, no new ones would make sense, and thus wouldn’t show up.

She had her theories but in the end that was all they were.

“I would suggest you test first if you can freely swap out skills. If that’s the case you could then test all of them individually,” Claire said.

“Good idea,” Trian said, apparently having calmed down by now.

“You’re not rambling anymore,” Ilea said as she looked over the list again.

“Well you’re not doing anything,” he said and summoned a glass of wine, the sight quite something with his plate armor.

“I don’t want to sacrifice an active skill… with my passives it’s probably between Space Awareness, Storage, and Lull of Battle. Let’s see if I can just switch them out as I please,” Ilea said. She selected Space Shift and Body of the Valkyrie as her first two skills, just to make sure they were set.

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the skill: Space Shift – lvl 1

Passive – Space Shift – lvl 1

Space wields easier for you, allowing you to unravel its mysteries. Teleportation abilities can be used again 50.5% faster [101%] and you can travel 20.5% farther [41%].

Category: Space magic

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the skill: Body of the Valkyrie – lvl 1

Passive – Body of the Valkyrie – lvl 1

The flame of creation flows through your veins, increasing your resilience by 15.5% [139.5%]. Increases your physical damage resistance by 5.1% [45.9%]. Increases your magic damage resistance by 5.1% [45.9%]. You won’t be fazed anymore by heavy damage or powerful sources of light and sound.

Category: Body enhancement – Space Magic

She felt the difference immediately, her body ever so slightly stronger. A quick few uses of blink revealed the description was on point.

Ilea could now blink close to seventy meters with one use of the skill. She wondered what was faster, her charged wings, that apparently broke the speed of sound, or her newly enhanced Blink used in constant succession.

Never broke the sound barrier… meaning my Wind Resistance did a marvelous job. Could I break through without it? she wondered.

“Did it work?” Trian asked.

“Wait,” Ilea said and selected Space Awareness.

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the skill: Space Awareness – lvl 1

Passive – Space Awareness – lvl 1

You become more aware of the density and shifts in the fabric of Space itself.

Category: Body Enhancement – Perception Aura

Ilea immediately felt something new within her perception. It wasn’t comparable to her sphere or to the change brought by Eyes of Ash but something had been added.

Eerie, the word was the only thing she could think of to describe what essentially looked like wisp like winds of energy. Strands of it came and went, moving in seemingly random patterns. Larger manifestations floated high above, all in a ghostly white color to her eyes, barely visible. Her sphere picked up the new sensation too but it looked essentially the same as to her eyes.

“More than no awareness, I suppose,” she said, looking around. She had no clue what to do with the new information she was getting.

“What do you see?” Claire asked.

Ilea shrugged. “Mist like energy floating around, might not even be energy but something else. It’s thin and barely visible. Can turn it off too,” she said, switching the perception on and off.

“You’re not exactly an esteemed Space Mage. It’s no surprise if you don’t know what you’re looking at,” Trian said.

She nodded and tried to change out the skill to the Lull of Battle one. She simply focused on the slot and her intent.

Available Passive skills for The Faen Valkyrie:

[Dimension Storage]

[Lull of Battle]

‘ding’ ‘Would you like to replace [Space Awareness] with [Lull of Battle]? All accrued skill levels in [Space Awareness] will be lost.

“Seems to work. I just lose all skill levels,” she said.

“It behaves like a normal Class then,” Claire said. “I wonder if it provides stat points,” she added.

Ilea confirmed the switch.

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the skill: Lull of Battle – lvl 1

Passive – Lull of Battle

You are one with war and battle. Less Endurance is needed the longer you fight.

Category: Aura – Body Enhancement

She checked again and found that Space Awareness was available as a skill again.

Hmm. Good thing I didn’t have so many options in my other Classes. That would have required quite a bit of testing.

Sentinel Huntress had redeemed itself in the third tier, becoming one of the main skills to protect those important to her. The few options Kin of Ash provided weren’t worth giving up any of her leveled third tier skills.

“It’s available again, so I guess I’ll level the Lull one for now and see what the second tier does,” Ilea said.

“Do that. Probably easier to level than a dimensional storage skill,” Trian said and laughed. “What about the active skills though? What will you chose?”

Ilea looked through the list again. “I’d go for the Aura, Force, and Phaseshift.”

“Try the others out at least!” Trian said. “The Aura is a must because of your bonuses. The others I’m not so sure about. You should especially consider Displacement and the Spear. Both could be incredible assets in battle.”

Claire chuckled. “I think your choice is good. Force could maybe be replaced with Displacement, depending on how they behave. The latter is probably more offensive.”

Ilea selected the Displacement skill, knowledge about the magic flowing into her and becoming intuition. She tried it out with a nearby stone. It took quite a bit of mana and entirely too much time to make the thing move.

The stone shook and appeared in her hand. She had teleported it.

“This Is pretty amazing,” she said with a smile. Ilea lifted her hand and tried to move Trian.

“I can feel it,” he said, right before he vanished and appeared a few meters farther back.

“Usable,” Claire said.

“Takes too long to affect others. I guess in the third tier it could be quite interesting. Getting people right in front of my fists or making them disappear right before their hits connect,” Ilea said.

“Can you move more than one thing at the same time?” Trian asked. He had a notebook out now too.

Ilea tried but failed to move two stones with one spell.

“That might change later on. What about magic?” he asked and sent a bolt of lightning her way.

Ilea tried but failed to grasp the projectile, the magic dissipating on her armor.

“Hmm… that limits it somewhat. If you level it though… you could move around your enemies the way you want. You could teleport single monsters to you to more easily lure them, depending on the range. Or you could teleport allies to safety?” he suggested.

“The potential is there… definitely,” Ilea murmured.

“Could also work against you, if an enemy knows what you’re doing. Try the Force one,” Trian said as he joined them again.

Ilea added the skill to her active abilities and activated it.

She felt she could focus on a small radius around her, about three meters.

“Oh, I can see it. It looks a little distorted,” Trian said, grabbed a stone and threw it at her.

Ilea’s hand rushed up to catch the flying projectile, barely slowed down by the field of magic.

“Do it again,” she said, throwing the stone back with just as much force.

He caught it and threw it back.

This time she focused on the small rock instead of the whole area around her. It used up a little more mana but the thing slowed down noticeably before it hit her hand.

She lightly threw the stone up and used her Force ability to push it towards Trian.

The rock flew towards him but not nearly as fast as when she had thrown it. She had focused on it again but knew she could use the ability to push against everything around her too.

“Again, two?” Trian asked, holding up the stones.

Ilea focused on them and found she could slow down both.

“I want to try something,” Ilea said. “Hug me, Claire.”

“Okay,” the woman said with a smile, closing her arms around Ilea.

“What did you want to test?” she asked after a few seconds.

“Don’t be mad, ok? You are a good hugger,” Ilea said and used her ability to push back.

Claire’s hold momentarily loosened, the woman pushed back enough for Ilea to blink out.

“I see. And here I thought you liked me,” Claire said in a monotone voice.

“It worked,” Ilea said with a smile.

“Doubt that will be enough to break a monster’s hold,” Claire commented as she brushed off her skirt.

“Not yet,” Trian said and gave Ilea a thumbs up. “Magic?” he asked and sent a few bolts her way.

They did slow down a little but not as significantly as the stones. Neither did Ilea find it as simple to focus on the volatile magic.

“Could be usable in the future. I do have my sphere already to get spells close to me,” she said.

Trian laughed. “You normally Want to get hit instead of stopping spells.”

“I do. If the range increases, which I do think it will, I could protect allies too,” she added.

“Same is true for Displacement. The limitation to one object is likely removed in the later tiers,” the man said.

“Possibly…,” Ilea mused and added Spear of Creation instead of Displacement.

She focused on the spell and found a somewhat lean spear of white fire appear in her right hand. It shined brighter than the flames that had appeared upon her class selection.

“I don’t know how to use this thing,” she admitted, whirling it around a few times.

“Good against defenses. Try me,” Claire said as a few shields appeared in front of her.

She didn’t have to ask twice, the spear immediately breaking through the first layer before scraping against the second.

Ilea wasn’t sure. She stepped closer and used Absolute Destruction against the second barrier, watching as the destructive healing mana ate through three layers in the span of a second.

“Not as fast,” Trian said.

Ilea deactivated the spear. “Maybe, but I’d have to learn how to use a spear. If I could infuse my ash arms.”

“Try the aura then,” Trian said in an excited voice.

“Alright,” Ilea confirmed and switched out the Spear with Flare of Creation.

Instantly upon activation, the pale fire returned, flickering over her ashen armor in a coat of energy.

Her health declined sharply, each second a few hundred points fueling the newfound skill and the power therein. Ilea’s healing activated, mitigating the damage but only barely.

She smirked, hoping the requirements to even use this aura were worth it.

Claire put up several shields again, as if reading her intentions.

One ashen arm clad in moving white flames brushed over the barrier, the fires latching on immediately, breaking through the defenses as if they were made of paper.

Ilea added Storm of Cinders to the mix, watching in fascination as the fire spread into the barriers like the force of an explosion spread underwater.

“Much better than the spear,” Trian said as they watched the defenses break down. “Mana intrusion is the game changer here… the fire of creation flows through your veins,”

The flame only spread slowly but it didn’t vanish either, continuously eating away at Claire’s magic.

“I’m pushing against it too,” the woman said, a drop of sweat rolling down her brow.

“It eats health, right?” Trian asked. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be kept active for a long time.”

Ilea nodded. “Considering the cost, I don’t think it should be anything but a quick burst. However, my healing cancels it out entirely.”

Claire took a step back as her barriers disintegrated. “I’m not surprised, with all your body enhancement bonuses. Hopefully the cost will be reduced in the second or third tier. Trading regeneration with damage is dangerous.”

Ilea just shrugged. “It’s a balance. Not that I’ve never taken any risks before.” She traded limbs and organs for openings. Now it was just Health itself. The difference was hardly there.

“Someone want to test it on themselves?” she asked, glancing at Trian.

He lifted both hands. “No thanks. Maybe after getting my next evolutions. I don’t want to burn to a crisp.”

“Aw,” Ilea exclaimed, turning off the aura. I wonder how effective it would be against me. Lingering damage to health and mana. Feyrair already dealt high damage. I wonder how he’s doing now. Walter did mention something.

She could use the aura from time to time during battles. A quick test showed that she couldn’t instantly turn it on, it took a second to spread over her full body and ashen extensions. Eh, still usable.