[NR] It Used Literal Salt - Chapter 442 (Patreon)

Within the private practice room, Jason lays in the very center stripped down to his underwear. No sitting for this one. Sure, by lying down it did mean more of his skin would be in contact with the ground, but by lying down he isn’t going to end up falling over halfway through.

After an indeterminate amount of time and once he had fully settled himself, Jason selected Conductive Skin as his reward. Then the pain hit, because of course there was pain. Good thing it looks like this “weapon” was an addon to his skin and not a complete replacement.

So what was the pain from, you might ask? Well of course things couldn’t be simple. The source was how the runes of power were being placed on his skin. They weren’t being painted on. They weren’t even being tattooed on. That would be too easy.

No, it felt like someone was dragging a knife through Jason’s skin and filling in the resulting wound with salt and sewing it together with red hot wire. A bit nasty to say the least. Oh, and it didn’t just “feel” like his skin was being split and salt being deposited. Though the wire bit wasn’t real. That was just spicy healing.

Jason couldn’t see it, but all over his body actual wounds were opening up and a sparkly dust was being inserted. No blood escaped despite how tightly the System was maintaining its preferred reality of him being a juicy bag of dirty water instead of a void. Every bit of gore was constrained as the dust was added and then as every section of his body had been covered and healed, the process started all over again.

This time though the wounds weren’t as deep. Not that this comforted Jason at all as the cuts also weren’t only half as deep, but rather just a smidge shallower. Why worry about this? Well, as was quickly proved true, it meant that whatever the System was doing required it to be laid down in multiple layers. Not just two or three, but nine whole layers, the last of which was still deeper than a tattoo would be.

Then as the pain started to recede, a new fresh hell started. The deepest layer of dust begins to glow so bright it shines through Jason's skin, causing a slow tick of heat damage. Once the entirety of that first layer is glowing, Jason can feel it start to pull outward.

Within moments the deepest layer touched the next layer and that one started to glow as well, though in a deeper shade of white. This continued on through each layer as the pain ramped up with each new burning series of lines and runes becoming visible under Jason's skins. The pain only ends as every one of the layers comes to rest at a point that just qualifies as subdermal.

Jason only has a moment to look down and see that his skin didn’t look any different. Then a screen popped up to tell him exactly what he just received.

{Conductive Skin of the Troll Tribe

Description:

A rare ritual developed by trolls, for trolls and other beings with similar levels of regeneration. Not that others can’t use it as long as they can survive the deep cuts required to insert an unbroken trail of metal aligned salts. Though even among trolls this process usually takes months to lay down each of the nine layers of salt. After that, if the subject survives as not even trolls always do, they will usually take another month to fully activate the ritual as any faster will cause the salts to heat up as they slowly migrate to just below the skins. This last step is generally the one with the most fatalities among the trolls as their weakness to fire is legendary.

Effects:

• Conductive Subdermal Layer (Utility) - The user’s power more easily flows through their body, though this can cause the runes to harmlessly light up if enough power is flowing through it
• Conductive Subdermal Layer (Defense) - Powers targeting the user and excessive heat will be spread through the body with some of it converting into force damage.
• Conductive Subdermal Layer (Offense) - The user can dump 90% of their primary power through the ritual causing a mystical EMP
• Charged Skin - As long as the user’s primary power is flowing through the ritual, any aggressive contact with another will cause the power to arc into them}

Jason was a little annoyed at the description as it meant not only did this ritual naturally torture the person it is applied to, but it is meant to take a while to settle into place. So with the System purposefully speeding that up it meant even more pain. Sure, this did mean he could use the ritual right away, but was it really worth it?

To answer that question and after making sure he still had time in the room, Jason decided to see what the ritual did to his void.

Not even bothering to sit up, Jason turned his view inward and was shocked. Most things that ended up inside of him experienced a major change in shape. Even the ritual in his lungs had ended up becoming just a part of his lines. Conductive skin was completely different.

Sure, it was no longer made of salt, but the runes were still clear as day. Each stroke is made of Energy threads instead of salt, but it wasn’t made of lines like what Jason was used to. Instead it was just a loose bundle of the threads, held together simply because of the innate power in the runes.

However, despite the looseness of the structure, there are thousands and thousands of runes making up the ritual and they all exist on the edge of his existence. Outside, the physical aspect might be stuck under his skin, but the mystical aspect has become a part of the thin membrane that separates Jason's void from the rest of existence. A useful place for it to be as that will allow the runes to do their work without needing outside powers to enter.

Unknown to Jason though, is the fact that this change will actually be visible to others who bother to look. While NeoRealm doesn't have an "Astral Realm" or similar, but the concept of an astral form wasn’t completely foreign, though people mistakenly call it the soul form and these runes will be clearly visible.