Anything ~ 16!

By the end of the third day of waiting, Luke was beginning to lose it. His Skill still hadn’t managed to complete it’s upgrade, and he wasn’t sure why. None of his skills before now had ever taken more than two days to come back to him. His brow furrowed as he tried to think it through logically, frankly not his forte anymore. “This is the first time I’ve gotten to the ninth Tier. Is it just a hazard of getting a Skill to be this powerful? What does the ninth Tier of something even do?”

*Chime.* His Sigil interrupted his verbalization to write out a message.

The 9th Tier creates a 5th effect for the Skill, Spell, Ability, ect. This effect is usually the main focus of the Skill when creating a Full Domain at the 10th Tier. Please plan on at least one business week when reaching the 9th Tier!

“Main focus.” Luke thought about that for a long moment. “It’s more powerful than the previous effects. That’s the only reason it would take this long. What’s a business week? No. Forget it. Fine. I’ll wait a little longer.”

But it wasn’t just a little longer. He had been planning on a few more hours at the maximum, but it was two full days more before something changed. The Murderhobo was tumbling through the air, attempting to catch an upward blast of air that seemed to originate from large heat sources, when the pulsing of the upgrading Skill suddenly just… stopped. He dropped fully to the ground, confused as to why the change had occurred.

The shockwaves that he had been sending out suddenly reversed. Mana crashed into him, one wave after another. In a place like Murder World, the converging mana was clearly visible. Wave after wave of power fell on him, and the dense blue fog filling the sky as far as the eye could see was soon spiralling toward him, a vast whirlpool that drained down into his Sigil as if someone had pulled the stopper from the bottom of the ocean.

Luke was prepared for pain, but the most dense the concentration of mana-fog reached was a liquid form, the same as he used as drinking water. He was more annoyed by the shokwaves, since each time they occurred, it felt like some giant was flicking him right in the middle of his forehead. Again, more annoying than anything, but not actually painful. At the fifth hour of this, he gave up on waiting and just got back to practicing maneuvering in midair.

“Actually good practice to do this while I’m getting distracted.” He admitted as he crashed into the ground for the fifth time. Roughly five hours after the reversed process started, a series of shockwaves rolled toward him rapid-fire, these ones strong enough that they directly slapped him out of the air and dug a hole in the ground with his head. Just before he bellowed in fury, a notification appeared that made the words catch in his throat.

Skill increase complete!

There was a momentary pause as Luke waited for more. “Go on. Why didn’t it tell me the-”

Notifications have been updated from verbose to minimal.

“That was weeks ago!” Luke shouted at the Sigil. “You’re a construct! You don’t get to be  passive aggressive! Skill information!”

Walking Arsenal -> Source-cerer’s Armory (Tier 9, Level 0)

*Altered* Effect 1: You are able to absorb natural weapons and armor (Claws, fangs, scales) by touching them. You are able to ‘equip’ the absorbed gear onto your body. Only one type of weapon can be created at a time, and only one type of armor per slot.

*Altered* Bonus 1, at range: You are able to absorb a weapon or armor type within fifty feet of your body. No longer requires active attempts after the item is selected.

*Altered* Effect 2: You are now able to absorb any non-magical weapons or armor.

Bonus 2, Multitarget: You can now select to absorb all weapons or armor of the same type within the range of bonus 1.

*Altered* Effect 3: You are now able to absorb weapons or armor created via unnatural metals (magical weapons/armor).

Bonus 3, AoE: You can resize the weapons and armor you create. An increase of size decreases overall mobility, but allows for defending or attacking at greater range.

Effect 4: Each active weapon or armor slot now costs a flat percentage of your mana pool to maintain! To achieve the exact damage or protection potential, ten percent of your mana must be applied. Each percentage added or subtracted will change the potential by one percent.

*Altered* Bonus 4, Multitarget AOE: All weapons and armor within one meter of you grant you 1n% of their maximum damage or armor. (Maximized at 10%)

Effect 5: You are now able to imprint one piece of armor or weapon per slot with a Soul Brand*. Two-handed weapons are considered one-handed weapons, and fit in a single slot. The restrictions of the previous tiers have been greatly reduced.

Soul Brand: Choose one item per slot in your Armory to be your main item for that slot. This will directly double the damage absorption or dealing properties of that item, as well as allowing it to return to you no matter the distance. Travel time will vary due to distance.

A Soul Brand can be removed so that another item can take its place. Removing a brand will take three days. Only one brand can be removed at a time.

Luke’s eyes traveled over the updated Skill, pleased at how well it had cleaned up. He was especially glad to see that he was now able to directly absorb a weapon or armor without needing to eat hundreds of them. If he had to guess, it also appeared as though he would be able to have various gear that he could equip, instead of being limited to a single item per slot. Having a versatility with weapon and armor choices would be a massive boon since he fought against such different types of enemies.

There was at least one part he didn’t understand, so he looked more closely at the ‘Soul Brand’ information, which had a separate message appear.

Soul Brand: Choose one item per slot in your Armory to be your main item for that slot. This will directly double the damage absorption or dealing properties of that item, as well as allowing it to return to you no matter the distance. Travel time will vary.

A Soul Brand can be removed so that another item can take its place. Removing a brand will take three days. Only one brand can be removed at a time.

“Interesting.” Luke considered the changes, pleased with the vast majority of them. Not knowing when he would be able to gain access to new weapons, he branded all of his current gear. The triple triangle that he had decided on for his family and Sigil crest blazed momentarily on all of his mana-made gear as they accepted the brand. He looked himself over before shrugging and grunting, “Don’t feel any different.”

His weapons and armor were back, and that was good enough for now. It was time to challenge Zone ten properly. He started running downhill, alternating between sprinting and gliding along with Feather’s Fall. The huge swarm of pteranodons had dispersed, but Luke knew that they were out there, and that was good enough for now. He even had a plan to get them all over to him.

More and more of the birds began to circle him as he approached the massive chains that went into the distance, and a few even began to test their luck against him. As the first flew at him, Luke wound back and punched it in the beak. The bird literally popped like a soap bubble, gore splattering the area in front of the human in a cone.

Damage dealt: 630 blunt damage!

Exp gained: 100.

He let out a lungful of air, a tension knot he had been holding in his stomach slowly releasing. His weapons were useful again. Sure, that had been an attack with everything he could put behind it, but it showed him what he could do. Now it was time to put his plan in motion. The Murderhobo retreated uphill, then sprinted at the chains and jumped as high as he could… then began drifting out into the open air over the chains.

A huge clamor arose from the birds as they dove at him, the noise attracting more and more of the creatures. Luke smiled as the first of them closed in on him; he flashed to it’s head and used it as a platform to refresh Bum Flash and began gaining altitude. It was time to start preparing the next stage of his massacre. “Sigil, devote all Potentia gain to skill ‘Open Up’.”

*Chime.* came the acknowledgement.

The pteranodons did not enjoy their airspace being infringed upon. Scores of the creatures appeared each second, slowly starting to fill the sky. Luke didn’t mind at all. As a point of fact, he used the higher numbers to begin gaining more and more altitude. Eventually he was able to look up and see the bottom of a previous Zone far above him, and he tried to go a little further… only to bump into a strange barrier that forced him to rebound back toward Zone fifteen.

Upd@te! Living things cannot cross the boundaries at unauthorized points!

“Eh, glad I didn’t try swooping further down first.” Luke grumbled as he moved into freefall toward the beasts below. “Ah, well. I’ve got killin’ to do.”