Image synergy detected! Skills merged! Original skill created!

Rejuvenate lv529, Sanguine Restoration lv45, and Rapid Cell Division lvX merged to become:

Immortal's Potent Blood lv529

PP from any lost levels has been retained. Image synergy detected! Skills merged! Original skill created!

Danger Sense lvX, Regeneration Gland lv100, and Revitalizing Aura lv81 merged to become:

Immortal's Feeling, Regenerative Sweat lv116

PP from any lost levels has been retained. Image synergy detected! Original skill set created!

Immortal's Potent Blood and Immortal's Feeling, Regenerative Sweat have been integrated into this skill set.

Creating an original skill set has granted you a path.

Inevitability of the Immortal Troll lv529

Origin of Inevitability of the Immortal Troll 0/250 Image synergy detected! Skills merged! Original skill created!

Tough Skin lvX, Unbreakable lvX, Electrifying Vengeance lv1, Haste lv343, Empower lv55, and Limit Break lv43 merged to become:

Immortal's Conductive, Resilient Flesh

Immortal's Conductive, Resilient Flesh incorporated into Inevitability of the Immortal Troll lv529

The Immortal Troll just stands there, steaming, breathing, and arcing electricity. Degriclone walks around the Immortal Troll, looking it up and down, as Degritone looks through his notifications and also starts steaming. "Can you make it pick something up?" Degriclone asks, holding up a rock between his thumb and middle fingers.

Looping up from the novel that is the Flash skill, he says, "Hm? Oh, sure. It'd be cool if he was adept already. If he is, calm image is definitely adept." After saying so, Degritone has the Immortal Troll reach out and grab the rock. Degriclone releases his grip on it and it stays inside the hand of the Immortal Troll. Degritone has him chuck it at a tree, using its version of Empower, Haste, and Limit Break to do so.

The rock flies through the air and shatters against the trunk of the targeted tree, removing the bark and revealing a large gash at the impact site. Degritone quickly develops a headache and the Immortal Troll disappears. He checks his mana and finds it at near full. Grabbing his head, he says, "Well, seems maintaining it is taxing. We've never gotten a headache from mental exertion, right?"

"Don't think so," Degriclone says. "Hey, after your headache is gone, remake me and we'll see if I can also produce images or if it's just you. If we can, we should have image duels or something. Also, if that 30 minute image is adept, there's no way the calming image isn't. Heck, they might both be master and we don't know it because something feeling 'true' or not is pretty vague.

"They definitely aren't the third tier, whatever it's called, as it doesn't feel like I'm just looking at a part of a whole. If those tiers even work that way here. Though, it wasn't me who saw the calming image, so who knows what he felt."

"Doesn't this seem too easy?" Degritone asks.

Degriclone stares at Degritone for a few seconds before saying, "Wow, didn't know you were able to... well, do anything while immersed in the calming image. But, to answer your question, it depends on the metric you're using and task your asking about. The intro dungeon felt a lot hard. But everything else has been easy, pretty much since then, yeah. Why?"

"Images is what I'm mainly talking about. Doesn't it just feel... I dunno, like we're somehow cheating or something. I know our imagination is, probably, our strongest point, but... It should not have been that easy to make the Immortal Troll. Or to materialize him. Going from Artisan to Adept should be easy enough for us, yes, but getting to artisan shouldn't be easy. It's not about having a good image, it's about being able to convince the system it's real, right?

"I can understand the calming image even reaching master, maybe, if we're remembering those two tiers correctly, but not spending only 30 minutes on something to make it real. How long did it take to make Golden Roots of Yggdrasil for Randidly? Years? It started before he entered the prison, and finished just before he was about to leave, right?

"I guess before that was his quick lunging attack I forget the name of. That one was pretty quick, wasn't it? Or was it stuck at something like eighty percent for a while before the judgement came and made him quickly jump those last few percentage points...? Even if it's the latter, that wasn't very long, but still on the order of days. But, thinking about it, I think it was mostly the former.

"So, sure, maybe a single skill. Maybe even multiple skills. Maybe even the whole of Rot G, but not the Immortal Troll. Not the Immortal Troll. This just feels... accelerated, somehow. Like we're getting assistance somehow, or maybe this is a dream, or maybe a simulation?" He stares at the golden rope.

They both sit around for a long while before Degriclone speaks up, saying, "Maybe. I feel like we're missing information. Our class says 'from the 9th iteration.' Does that mean 9th version, as in updates, 9th version as in this is our 9th time going through this, or... I dunno, that this is the," he throws his hands up, slowly lowering them before jerking them down and bouncing slightly up as he finally says, "9th uni slash multiverse it's absorbed?"

"I say we have a lot to ask our patron once we next see her," Degritone says, sitting upright. He sighs. "To do that, we need to grind. Let's assume, for now, that everything's real. We can deal with existentialism later. Specifically when we reach 15k skill level and talk to our patron again. To do that, we need two levels and a bunch of grinding. If we're assuming everything's real, survivability is what matters most.

"As long as we can deal even a single point of damage more than the enemy's regen, heck, even a fraction of a point, we will eventually win. As long as we don't get oneshot. And with everything active, Omen of Famine kills us about 6 times over. And that's a skill level and stat amount we have to assume our enemies will have. If my guess is right, we're actually pretty close to a level 7 gobbo in skill level, but our stats are way higher and way more imbalanced.

"So, let's get to it. One more level 5 until 11, then who knows until 12," he says, finally standing up.

Origin of Inevitability of the Immortal Troll 250/250

Congratulations! You have completed the Origin of Inevitability of the Immortal Troll path!

This was a path forged by you. Upon realizing this, you immediately sprinted down it.

+5 health regeneration per level

+3 Vitality per level

+3 Health Regeneration Vitality Multiplier per level

Adrift I 250/250

Congratulations! You have completed the Adrift I path!

Although you may have been lost without enough paths before you, you found that being adrift itself was a path.

5 free stats

Authoritative Image 1500/1500

Congratulations! You have completed the Authoritative Image path!

A badge of honor, showing you're just stepping into the realm of the truly strong.

Though many walk the path of images, very, very few continue beyond the basics.

Do not grow complacent and let the competition blow past you.

+5 SP per level

Adrift II 500/500

Congratulations! You have completed the Origin of Adrift II path!

Although you may have been lost without enough paths before you, you found that being adrift itself was a path.

10 free stats

While he uses his PP, his clone gets him another level. He thinks about it for a while and decides to put 12 of his 50 new free stats into mana regeneration to get him above 15 mana per second to permanently have Flesh's new mana version of Haste be permanent, then the other 38 into maximum health to at least lower the difference between his health and Omen of Famine's damage.

"'Survivability matters most,' he says then immediately starts training damaging skills. These will be easy to grind to the point that I want them so that I don't have to put effort into keeping IIT low enough to fit these last levels in, so shut up, conscience." He then activates Omen of War and all of the active components of Flesh before using Great Cleave.

He hears an extremely loud crack and a much quieter ripping sound and feels extreme pain run through his shoulders. He goes to reach for them, but realizes he no longer has arms, just rapidly regenerating stumps. Instantly, Degriclone is beside him. "Enemy?" He asks, looking around. Half a second later, he's in front of Degritone, his fist on Degritone's cheek. "No enemy. What happened?" He begins fake punching Degritone's cheeks back and forth, barely even touching his face.

"Went for a full power swing to start grinding Rot G, GSM, Flesh, and Cleave when that boom happened and I apparently lost my arms. No enemy? Then what happened here?" he asks, waving his arms, which are now regenerated to slightly beyond his elbows.

"Maybe your body is too weak to handle all the stress put onto it by a full power swing? What was the boom, though?"

Shrugging, Degritone looks into his status. Upon looking at the high regeneration numbers, he tries to get them in per-second values, and the system complies.

Name Degritone Race Human Resources 32921/32921 (+111084.35...) 6937/6937 (+1649.64...) 10153.33.../10189.8! (+16.98...) Class Lolicoknight lv11 Experience 30/6600 Strength 124 Endurance 63 Vitality 429 Agility 586.1625 Physical 353.6 Magic 219

Then he activates Flesh's versions of Limit Break and Empower, its Haste having already been on due to its permanency.

Name Degritone Race Human Resources 32921/32921 (+118014.35...) 6937/6937 (+1752.55...) 10153.33.../10189.8! (+18.04...) Class Lolicoknight lv11 Experience 30/6600 Strength 430.1 Endurance 63 Vitality 429 Agility 2437.81... Physical 7871.136 Magic 219