Chapter 52 (2 of 2) Hexadic Essence Absorption. (Patreon)

Lucille raised an eyebrow. “But what about your sixth Aspect?”

“For that one…” Her bond gained an evil grin and opened up the Class Selection screen again. He tapped on the Bloodlust Berserker class.

[You have no Main Skill slots left. Do you wish to deconstruct the Bloodlust Berserker Class into a Side Class? This will grant one Secondary Skill of the same rarity as the Class and one Aspect with a limited selection of bonuses from the Bloodlust Berserker Class Aspect.

Yes/No

Warning: Deconstruction of this Class will result in the Class becoming unavailable for all future Main Skills.]

Lucille watched him curiously as he pressed [Yes] and gained the secondary skill and Aspect. Then he opened them up.

[Gained Secondary Skill: Bestial Bloodlust]

[Gained Aspect: Bestial Bloodlust Berserker Aspect]

[Secondary Skill: Bestial Bloodlust | Type: Spiritual/Killing Intent]

Rarity: Rare

Desc: The power to imbue a sense of doom in your enemies can be an immense boon. You may send them weak at the knees, strike fear into their hearts, or knock them unconscious. Take care you do not lose yourself in your bloodlust.

Ability:

Bloody Intent – Violent malice revealed in mana.

- Grants the User the ability to enhance their skills with killing intent to inflict additional ATK. Mana cost x3 for enhanced skills.

- Maximum bloodlust enhancement increases by +5% per each additional Class Tier. Current enhancement is dependent on the quantity and strength of killing intent. Enhancement: 110%/110%.

[]

[Aspect: Bestial Bloodlust Berserker Aspect | Type: Side Class/Killing Intent]

Prerequisites:

- Strong killing intent

- Beast subrace

Desc: The Beast Realm follows the rule of kill or be killed. Ferocious monsters and warring beast clans fight daily to survive. While you did not wish to fully immerse yourself in your bloodlust, you still wished to make it part of your power.

Bonuses:

· Grants the User additional SATK when using killing intent. +3% SATK at Class Tier I. Increases by +3% per Class Tier.

· Heightens the emotions and battlelust of the User the longer their killing intent is imbued into their attacks. The User is at risk of losing control of themselves if their mental state is too unstable.

· Grants the User the Bestial Bloodlust Secondary Skill.

[]

The snake in human form smirked. “Do you think I’m smart? Now I can add this skill to the Light Mage primary skill and because it’s a higher rarity Side Class skill-”

“-the primary skill will always evolve,” Lucy finished, thinking. “But you need to collect two other skills to put in the subskill slots before that will happen.”

He hesitated. “Well, yeah, but…” He gestured to the screen. “Come on, aren’t I smart? We both know how much killing intent I have!”

“Scytale, I have zero clue how much killing intent you have,” Lucy stated flatly. “I can’t sense any of it.”

He clicked his tongue. “That’s not what I meant…” He shook his head and looked around the cube. “So, uh… do you mind if I leave while you do your skill and Aspect selection stuff? Because I’m pretty sure you have it all worked out and anything you tell me will be too technical for me to make sense of…”

She huffed a laugh. “Go on, do what you want. You just want time to feel like it’s passing quicker so you can use your new abilities.”

“Yep!” he replied, unabashed. Then he paused and shot her a serious look. “But Lucy, do you think you have a plan? Are you going to learn to fight with the daggers?”

Lucille smiled wryly. “With the Simulacrum, I think I might just be able to use them. But as for a plan…” She smirked. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

…

With Scytale gone, Lucille went expressionless and looked at the screens in front of her. She stretched her hands out in front of her and then sighed as she placed them on the armrests of the materialised couch. Then she extended her spiritual energy out to begin manipulating the screens.

The first thing she did was bring up both the Aspect selection screen and the Main Skill selection screen. She selected [No] for the prompt that asked her if she wanted to select a class.

[Lucille Goldcroft’s Aspects {0/6}:

None]

[Main Skill Selection]

[Available Primary Skill: Half-Beast Assimilation (Altered)]

Desc: This is a customised version of the typical Beast bonding ability given by the System. Almost a brand-new skill, this one skips years of relationship trials to tightly bind a willing beast to yourself with a far thicker bond than most can achieve in decades.

Info: Accepting this main skill occupies one primary skill slot, and gives you the Morph, Unity, and Perfect Harmonisation subskills]

[]

Only one main skill was apparently ‘available’ for her, the skill she declined when she had bonded Scytale a few months prior. But with a strong spike of spiritual energy sent through the main skill selection screen, it fractured and shattered to reveal the grey-toned User skill selection.

[Complete Authorisation: Main Skill Selection]

There was no such thing as a ‘User’ Aspect selection, so she scrolled through the normal Aspect selection list, just having all Aspects available to her. Well, nearly all. Some, such as Scytale’s Lightspeed Sky Predator Aspect, were unavailable for her purely because of biological compatibility. She had no wings for the ability to enhance, and so it was redundant. Other Aspects that enhanced bloodline characteristics were also redundant.

Lucille had decided that her second main skill would involve mana manipulation. This was because mana and magic manipulation were her core strengths, regardless of her current limitations. It would grant her something to rely on while she was learning to use the daggers. And… as much as the idea felt strange to her, it seemed she may end up as some kind of spellblade, someone who uses spells to enhance their physical abilities in battle. With Apophis and Ouroboros’s extraordinarily high strength, it would be an utter waste for her to disregard them. She needed their abilities to gain stats as well, so if she could evolve the weapons, then maybe something truly special would be born.

The two weapons… both because of their connection to major events in the past, and the method by which they gained their abilities, gave Lucy a sense of comfort, in a way. They represented her core strength of knowledge and everything she had learned in the past timeline. They were one of the first secrets she had discovered in the new timeline, and if she had to somehow change what she had been doing for the last 231 years… she wanted to give the weapons a chance.

But when it came to mana-arts and attack skills, she was completely incapable of using them. Killing intent allowed mana to briefly gain enhanced strength and impact when used, often allowing the mana to have effects that she couldn’t possibly mimic. Such as battle aura and weapon aura. Those enhanced their user’s stats and attack by insane amounts due to the influence killing intent had on mana, but wasn’t replicable with normal spells unless they were very powerful or highly costly.

And she could forget about attack abilities from the Heavenly Realm. The strongest ones used intent and sword intent, weapon intent, they were all forms of killing intent. Just more refined. If she was unable to comprehend killing intent then how was she supposed to understand how a blade worked? And comprehending ‘Daos’ was only for those who had spiritual roots.

All of this meant she couldn’t ever be a traditional warrior, nor fight like then. Any of the powerful abilities that she might have a chance of gaining access to in Glory Pantheon wouldn’t work for her at all. Her combat path had to be made entirely from scratch. As an Archmage, physical combat wasn’t something she needed to care about, but this time it was different.

She had already done some deep thinking and planning into this, however, and first had another job to do. She needed to get rid of her main weakness and a potential issue when it came to manipulating the Simulacrum.

She used her will to apply a ‘Soul’ filter to all the Aspects. The strongest ones arranged themselves at the top and she clicked on the first one she could find that wasn’t biologically incompatible and was suited for her purposes.

[Aspect: Celestial Dragon’s Palace of the Soul | Type: Bloodline/Soul]

Prerequisites:

- Celestial dragon bloodline of 90% purity or greater.

Desc: The mighty dragons have three lineages. The Celestial Dragons are the lineage of the Heavenly Realm, the sovereigns of the sky. As a pure bloodline member of this powerful race, you gain the fortified mind and soul of your ancestors.

Bonuses:

· Strengthens the User’s soul against outside forces. +200% Soul Defence.

· Internally stabilises the User’s soul, granting them immunity to soul backlash from any soul manipulation technique. +400% Soul Stability.

· Greatly improves the User’s memory retainment and clarity of mind. +50% to Soul Performance.

[]

She couldn’t care less about the memory retainment and clarity of mind effect, but the bonuses above would be crucial in allowing her to safely use her soul and possibly the Simulacrum. There were other soul Aspects she checked, but the better ones were cultivation Aspects and while ‘Myriad Power Nascent Soul Talent Aspect’ sounded great, it required a dantian and spirit root, so you could argue that that was another biological incompatibility.

Then she hesitated for a moment, having second thoughts that perhaps she could put it off until the next rank, but it would be another weakness if she didn’t resolve it now. She searched through the ‘Physique’ type Aspects to find ones that boosted her CON. She would never be a tank, and instead of taking advantage of the CON multiplier, she only wanted to ensure she reduced the stats spent on CON to make up for her unusable free stat points. The CON would help provide her minimum protection against force damage.

Many of the Physique Aspects had effects related to the earth element or had the disadvantage of slowing her movement speed, so she skipped all of those. She couldn’t afford to have any debuff effect in her Aspects. She found herself having to ignore every beast Aspect due to not having the scales and fur for them. She finally found one after getting an idea from Scytale’s Bastion skill.

[Aspect: Adamantine Body and Bones | Type: Bloodline/Physique]

Prerequisites:

- Titan bloodline of 10% or greater AND/OR

- The Adamantine Bones Constitution.

Desc: The Titans are the largest race of the Mystical Realm. Famed for their aid in the establishment of the Glory Pantheon, the Eternal Empire treats these colossal beings with great respect. As a descendant of these beings, whether someone with a strong share of their bloodline or one who has gained the Adamantine Bone Constitution, a trace of their heritage, you now walk in their footsteps.

Bonuses:

· Massively enhances the bodily constitution of the User. Skin strength, bone density, muscle strength and stress resistance are all enhanced.

· Grants the User a stat ratio effect of x3 to the CON stat. Current CON value:

· Grants the User the ability to gain STR from a percentage of their unamplified CON. 25% of the CON stat is added to the STR stat.

[]

Since the effects were purely given by the System instead of an enhancement of the bloodline benefits, she could use this without the prerequisites. There had been another Titan Aspect that amplified her CON by a large amount, but she picked this one over the other when she saw the STR boost.

The CON-boosting Aspect was to ensure her body didn’t suffer because of her soul power. She was sick of getting nosebleeds from a slight movement of spiritual energy. The STR was just a bonus, but she’d take it. With her CON improved, hopefully, she’d never need to worry about overusing her soul again. And for her ultimate plan for gaining power, the higher her CON, the safer.

With the two Aspect pages open for her to find the details again, she turned her eyes to the other Aspects and the Main Skill Selection screen. What was essential to her now was gaining Aspects and a main skill that had strong synergy and would allow her to create some sort of battle style that completely removed the need for killing-intent-based attack skills, but didn’t severely limit what actions she could take in battle either.

In her plan for her abilities, she eventually wanted a way to allow some spells to get through her ‘anti-spell’ forcefield, but she could afford to prioritise that later. Lucille believed that her best bet lay in the Constitution Aspects. The Constitution Aspects wouldn’t grant her a Constitution, but the Aspects would have effects that the System gave as additional benefits.

As for the main skill, however… That might require her to make some alterations to the skill. Main skills that weren’t part of classes were usually custom-created by Users, and nearly always by those who had reached Rank-5 so they understood conceptual manipulation. For those who already had strong classes, what they needed was skills to fill the gaps rather than purely more stats. Each Rank had a maximum stat cap, after all.

Lucy knew she wouldn’t find a powerful high-tier main skill that fully suited her purposes, so she’d have to take an existing main skill and alter it. She had experience with altering skills, but as a Rank-1 the System might place limitations on her skill-altering abilities. So an Aspect that would enhance her ability to alter skills, for her second and any future main skills, would be a worthwhile investment. She set part of her mind to sort through the best skill moulding Aspects she knew of.

As someone who couldn’t just follow the path of a traditional mage due to not having a runic model in her mana pool or mage class, her INT and WIS were going to suffer because of it. Lucille wasn’t ready to just completely give up on magic with her main body when it was her biggest strength, so she searched for the best mana and magic Aspects.

That gave her two remaining Aspects to form a synergy with her next main skill. She also hadn’t ignored the fact that she wanted an ability that could wield all the essential elements, and planned to somehow incorporate her no-elemental affinity into everything. She needed to keep her no-elemental affinity until… she could replace it with something more powerful.

Lucy shook her head and sighed. Making plans for that occasion was far beyond her means right now, and she had work to do. Her plan for her combat abilities was to find some way to use her atmospheric mana manipulation in an adaptive skill that affected her stats.

However, her desire to use all elements formed the foundation of her abilities. Searching through the Constitution Aspects she found several of the best ones she knew of that involved all the essential elements.

[Aspect: Cyclic Elemental Transformation | Type: Constitution/Elemental]

[Collapsed]

[Aspect: Elemental Explosion Amplification | Type: Constitution/Elemental]

[Collapsed]

[Aspect: Ordered Essential Affinities | Type: Constitution/Elemental]

[Collapsed]

She had a feeling that Marellen might have that last Aspect. But none of them quite had the effects she needed. None of them except… the one that belonged to one of the most volatile Constitutions she knew of. Her real choice.

[Aspect: Hexadic Essence Absorption | Type: Constitution/Elemental]

Prerequisites:

- Have the Hexadic Essence Absorption Constitution

- Have a total MP below 1000

Desc: While a rare few are blessed with stable affinities for the six essential elements, some face the difficulty of having bodies that constantly absorb the elements to conflict with their affinities. At times the elements within grant them strength, but often they grant them pain instead. Learn to survive the conflict within your body and turn this power into strength.

Bonuses:

· Grants the User the ability to absorb elemental mana into their body. Maximum saturation is 70% for any one element. Current Element Saturation Levels:

· Grants the User a temporary stat amplification and bonus stats depending on the quantity and type of the elements within the User’s body. Use of this stat amplification will reduce the level of the element in the User’s body over time. Amplification is equal to the saturation ratio of the correlating element.

· Elements boost the following Stats: Earth = CON, Fire = STR, Wind = AGI, Water = DEX, Dark = INT, Light = WIS.

· Grants the User the effect of the product of the element amplification and the corresponding stat becoming additional bonus stats. This applies to all the elements at any one point in time. Current Additional Bonus Stats:

[]

She had heard of the Hexadic Essence Absorption Constitution, but only in medical papers. Most researchers of the Athenaeum had concluded that the Constitution was a mutated version of the prior six element Constitutions Lucille had looked at earlier, only in this one, because the User’s elemental affinities were always unstable, their bodies constantly required healing to prevent them from breaking down due to the conflicting mana.

Lucille didn’t have the Constitution, so her body had neither the unstable affinities nor the ability to absorb mana that would conflict with her affinities… but this Aspect would grant her an absorption ability for elements. If she could prevent herself from gaining any affinity, then she would never be at risk of elemental conflict in her body…

She pulled up another Aspect she was looking at to compare the two.

[Aspect: Null Attribute Physique Type 3-E8| Type: Affinity/Suspended]

Prerequisites:

- No elemental affinity.

Desc: Null Attribute Affinity is a rare phenomenon that occurs when an individual fails to absorb any elemental mana during their time as an embryo and first fifteen years of life, and is most commonly found in those of the Cosmic Realm. Null Attribute Affinity has no benefits on its own, however, when the individual contacts a large amount of an element, they are very likely to absorb it all and obtain a Major or even Superior affinity for the element. This Aspect will disrupt the body’s attempt to gain elemental affinities.

Warning: This Aspect will permanently remove all possibility of gaining an elemental affinity unless overpowered by the User being forcefully granted an affinity.

Bonuses:

· Permanently fixes the User’s elemental affinity ratio for all elements as 0%.

· Enhances the User’s control over non-elemental and arcane mana. +100% to control.

· Grants the User immunity to all elemental suppression effects.

[]

Suspended… so the System doesn’t allow anyone to gain this Aspect currently. Not that that’s a barrier for me.

The immunity to elemental suppression effects was something that would be extremely valuable if she managed to incorporate the Hexadic Essence Absorption Aspect into something. That would prevent her from facing severe weakness when she was placed in an area with strong elements opposing her highest elemental saturation.

And as for how she would control her elemental saturation to suit her purposes…

That brought her to the final missing piece of the puzzle.

[Available Primary Skill: Essential Mana Conduit]

Desc: This main skill was created by a grandmaster golem craftsman when he wanted to gain control over the elements inside his vehicular golem. The User forcefully gains control over all elements without mana signatures that have entered their field of influence, and their mana pool becomes indistinguishable from the mana outside their body.

Info: Accepting this primary skill occupies one main skill slot, and grants the User the Field of Mana Mastery and Elemental Conduit subskills.]

She wasn’t able to see any more details, but… she knew that the skill could work. It allowed mana and the elements to enter and leave her body with extreme ease and passively granted all the mana within her field of influence her mana signature. It was possible she could justify her atmospheric mana manipulation as being an effect of the main skill. It was also a manipulation skill that didn’t necessarily need runes and did not need heart circles or runic constructs.

As spells didn’t work on her and just disintegrated as well, then that mana would allow her to boost her stats with the Hexadic Essence Absorption Aspect…

But while she could control all the elements in a radius around her, there was no guarantee there would be enough of the element she needed at the time to boost her stats to the level she wanted. Not unless she could change the mana from one element to another.

The idea she had thought of earlier was brought to mind, and she pulled up a screen that showed the only available secondary skill she had chosen to leave be. Lucille finalised everything.

[You have selected the Primary Skill: Essential Mana Conduit. You have 1 main skill slot remaining. If you select this primary skill, you may not gain a class until Rank-2. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No]

Lucy didn’t hesitate and pressed [Yes]. Besides the three motes of light within her chest, all circling the sphere that was her Origin Skill, a new one formed, the same size as the one that contained her Alter-Ego main skill. There was no mana in the Obelisk cube and so she couldn’t yet feel the effects of her skill, but she would soon.

She glanced at the other Aspects, and quickly affirmed the order she needed to select them in again.

She chose the Celestial Dragon’s Palace of the Soul and the Adamantine Body and Bones Aspects first, obtaining their benefits.

[Gained Aspect: Celestial Dragon’s Palace of the Soul]

[Gained Aspect: Adamantine Body and Bones]

Lucille sighed as she felt her mind become more structured, and her thought strands stopped fraying and splintering into distracted pieces. But the second Aspect allowed her to feel a slight increase in the tension of her skin. While none of the stats visibly changed the User, different stat ‘stages’ could have physical impacts.

She shook her head and selected the Null Attribute Physique Type 3-E8 Aspect. She needed to choose it before the Hexadic Essence Absorption to ensure nothing about her body would change.

[Gained Aspect: Null Attribute Physique Type 3-E8]

While she didn’t feel anything like she had with the other Aspects, she knew it was at work, fixing her no-elemental affinity into place.

Instead of selecting the Hexadic Essence Absorption Aspect though, she brought up two other Aspects. The mana manipulation improvement one, and the skill moulding one.

[Aspect: Beloved Child of Mana | Type: Constitution/Mana]

Prerequisites:

- Child of Mana Constitution.

- Naturally high ability to manipulate mana.

- Unusually high density of mana in the body since birth.

Desc: The Mystical Realm has ancient tales of their most powerful Archmagus and Archwizards. Their fierce Mythos and Sorcerers. But to join the pinnacle existences, the ability to manipulate mana is crucial. You have been given a great blessing. Use it wisely.

Bonuses:

· Grants the User increased compatibility with all elements of mana regardless of personal affinity. Effect is equivalent to +15% affinity in any element.

· Increases internal mana flow and external mana speed. +50% to both.

· Increases the resistance of the User’s spells to interruption. +25% interruption resistance.

· Grants the User’s elemental spells increased resistance to spells of the opposite elements. +50% to elemental resistance.

[]

[Aspect: Cognitive Codex of Reminiscence| Type: Mental/Mana]

Prerequisites:

- A mage class at advanced level or greater or a wizard class of the 5th circle or greater.

- SPRT value of at least 100.

- The creation of one custom secondary skill or greater.

Desc: The mind of a mage is their most important tool. It contains their knowledge, the records of all their runic studies, and their most powerful mana manipulation techniques. These memories can be further wielded in other ways if the User dares to search themselves.

Bonuses:

· Grants the User +10% INT and +10% WIS.

· Grants the User the Codex of Reminiscence Secondary Skill.

· Grants the User Memory Transubstantiate Secondary Skill. Transubstantiate chances increase by x3 per Rank. Current chances: 6.

[]

Both were mana-related Aspects, although the second Aspect had an interesting story to it. In the past, a very… prideful Archmagus had told her to select the Cognitive Codex of Reminiscence because it was a staple Aspect of many Archmages and wizards.

She had ignored his advice because she was petty and didn’t want to listen to any uppity mages of the Athenaeum. But now she was selecting it for a completely different purpose, so there was no way that Archmagus could be credited with her using this as one of her first Aspects. Definitely not.

She had looked up the effects of the secondary skills belonging to the Aspect in the past, and they would be highly useful for her. The Memory Transubstantiate skill was the skill moulding ability, but it also allowed her to form secondary skills based on her memories. As she needed many skills to alter her main skills, that would be a promising ability.

The Codex of Reminiscence allowed her to store information and memories in the skill in exchange for bonus INT and WIS. While she had her atmospheric mana manipulation, she needed enough mana to use Apophis and Ouroboros. Plus, with her new main skill, being able to take her internal mana resources and turn them into elemental mana to boost her stats when there was a deficiency of elemental mana around her would be valuable.

She selected both of the Aspects, putting her at 5 out of 6 Aspects selected.

[Gained Aspect: Beloved Child of Mana]

[Gained Aspect: Cognitive Codex of Reminiscence]

[Gained Secondary Skill: Codex of Reminiscence]

[Gained Secondary Skill: Memory Transubstantiate]

She turned to the last Aspect. With this Aspect, she would be fully devoted to learning to fight as a spellblade… although one with very strange weapons. She’d control elemental mana to change her stat amplification at different times, gaining brief increases in STR, CON, or AGI that would replace the brief stat increases others gained from activating attack skills such as battle aura.

She wasn’t quite sure what kind of spells she could incorporate into her fighting style, but with the Simulacrum she’d be able to compute them in the back of her mind and summon them into action nearly instantly. She would be able to use more powerful spells than most spellblades could with her spiritual power.

Lucille finally clicked on the Hexadic Essence Absorption Aspect.

[Gained Aspect: Hexadic Essence Absorption]

[Lucille Goldcroft’s Aspects {6/6}:

Celestial Dragon’s Palace of the Soul

Adamantine Body and Bones

Null Attribute Physique Type 3-E8

Beloved Child of Mana

Cognitive Codex of Reminiscence

Hexadic Essence Absorption Constitution]

She was now set. The last thing she needed to do was use her stat potions and pick up one other skill. After that, she would leave the Obelisk, gain a few manipulation spells that she could alter the main skill with, and then… Lucy would show Scytale what her new fighting style was.

…

“Are you sure you’re fine with me doing this? I mean, last time you ended up crashing into the floor, so…”

Scytale and Lucille were standing in the centre of the Commission Headquarters’ training room. She had asked him to use his human form to spar with her, keeping his strength low. Scytale didn’t believe in the slightest that she’d manage to do anything to him.

In response to her bond, Lucille shrugged. “If all I’ve done fails me at this point, then I’d rather be attacked by you in a controlled environment where it’s unlikely I’ll die.”

“If you say so…” Scytale bent slightly at the knees in preparation to run and grinned. “Ready?”

Lucy smirked in return. “Attack me.”

A gold aura enveloped him as he dashed towards her, fist clenched in preparation for a punch. Scytale had a smug smirk on his face, ‘aware’ she wouldn’t be able to defend. Lucille didn’t dodge and let the blow hit her abdomen. She sensed the earth mana disperse slightly when he made contact.

Scytale hesitated. “Wait, your CON shouldn’t be high enough to-”

He flinched as a cloud of white mana surrounded them both for a second. Before he could even blink Lucy swiftly knocked over his legs and hoisted him up by the waist.

Scytale’s expression became strange. “What are you-”

The white mana instantaneously became a searing blaze of red fire and Lucy threw him across the room to crash into a wall. He coughed and then stood back up, mostly unharmed.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Lucy, what in the realms was that?”

Lucy smugly dusted off her palms. “That, my dear friend, was the effect of my Unique rarity main skill, Essence Transmutation Conduit.” She gained a broad grin. “And my ability to enhance my stats whenever I want.”