R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 8

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 8 (in editing) 

Official Schedule -> As of March 5th, 1 chapter every other day.

There were three ways to replace an Ability as far as Micheal knew.

The first way, and the easiest, was to possess the Morphic Body Type. It was an unlimited Ability that cost 268,300 Points in the Shop. Humans with that Type could remove almost any Ability they purchased at will with no cost. The main exception was that the Ability couldn’t remove itself, thus requiring one to permanently have a Type that was versatile but not very strong.

The second way, harder and more restrictive but still not impossible, was the ‘Synergy Method.’

If one had an Ability that they wanted to replace with another Ability, as long as the new Ability was similar to the old, it was possible to ‘synergize’ the Abilities through the Shop, replacing the old one at no cost.

What made the second method difficult was that the new Ability had to not only significantly overlap with the old in function, but the user also had to fully believe that the new Ability was a straight ‘upgrade’. If these two functions weren’t met, the purchase would still go through in the Shop, but nothing would happen, resulting in a large loss of Points.

Requiring ‘belief’ was a very fuzzy boundary with rather vague parameters, making this method unreliable for most people. It was also one of the favorite topics of debate for human philosophers and researchers.

The third and final method was the most difficult to achieve: find an Artifact that could replace or remove Abilities. There were many Artifacts that could do this, but all of them were extremely rare or extremely expensive in the Shop.

‘Hmm… since I’ll be obtaining the Deity Title Attribute, my choice of Abilities will have to change.’ It was a thought that had lurked in the back of his mind ever since he arrived on the Second Layer.

‘Let’s see…’ Micheal waved his right hand.

‘Shop!’

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— - Shop — -

Available Points: 621,885

Abilities - Artifacts

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‘Abilities.’

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—-Abilities—-

Ki Cultivator (God Tier) - 1,012,800,500

Ki Cultivator (Emperor Tier) - 256,850,600

Ki Cultivator (King Tier) - 31,402,800

Ki Cultivator (Lord Tier) - 5,288,000

Ki Cultivator (Sky Tier) - 606,500

Ki Cultivator (Earth Tier) - 95,000

Ki Cultivator (Mortal Tier) - 5,000

High Werewolf Type – 10,250,000

Werewolf Type – 556,000

Lesser Werewolf Type – 12,000

High Vampire Type – 11,350,000

Vampire Type – 688,000

Lesser Vampire Type – 16,000

Steel Body Type – 40,000

Herculean Strength – 2,500,000

Enhanced Strength – 20,000

Enhanced Recovery - 20,000

Dragon Blood Type – 16,340,000

Ice Caster Type – 245,000

Fire Caster Type - 245,000

… (1/41 page)

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Micheal scanned over the first page with a casual shrug. It was the same as always. After a few seconds, he moved through the shop until he landed on page 37.

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—-Abilities—-

Thunder Legs Type - 860,400 (2/5)

Armageddon Matrix Type - 25,250,000 (0/3)

Golden Shield Warrior Type - 500,000 (10/10)

Eldritch Snarer Type - 235,000 (5/5)

Red Orc Type - 88,000 (9,000/9,000)

Fire Weaver Type - 23,000 (1,200/1,200)

Void Ripper Type - 40,000 (10/10)

Shock Geniton Type - 1,800,500 (2/2)

Black Mace Type - 12,000 (330/330)

Quickstep Type - 280,000 (18/18)

Frozen Warrior Type - 70,000 (250/250)

Armor Force - 92,000 (30/30)

Healing Aura - 65,000 (800/800)

Immemorial Vision - 212,000 (8/25)

White Mane Clone - 74,000 (50/50)

Impact Release - 45,000 (20/20)

Guiding Light - 22,800,000 (0/1)

Magic Swell - 65,000 (810/810)

Electric Touch - 80,000 (250/250)

Ocean Clone - 260,000 (35/35)

… (37/41 page)

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‘Hmm. It’s only been a few months since my Wave, yet the changes are notable.’ The last time he checked this page, many of the Limited Abilities were open for purchase. Now, however, almost every Ability was maxed out, save for a few.

Limited Abilities, like their namesake implied, were limited. The only way to get an Ability that was maxed out was to either find a way to obtain it naturally, without the Shop, or to wait until the next Wave happened. There wasn’t any guarantee, but as long as a human that bought a Limited Ability died, there was a chance their Limited Ability would reappear in the Shop at the start of the next Wave.

His eyes trailed over the infamous Void Ripper Type for a moment before landing on the Immemorial Vision Ability.

He tapped on the Ability, pulling up its description.

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—-Immemorial Vision—-

The Immemorial Vision Ability greatly enhances the mind of the user. It greatly strengthens the user’s resistance to all illusions and mental attacks. The user will be able to activate an ‘Energy Vision’ state, allowing them to see traces of energy.

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This Ability had been one of his original targets, an Ability that would Synergize and replace his Ceaseless Mind Ability. The description the Shop gave didn’t do the Immemorial Vision Ability justice. Not only did it have the same function of giving him perfect memory just like Ceaseless Mind, it also came with a boatload of useful resistances and its signature Energy Vision that made tracking foes and predicting attacks easier.

Now, however…

‘My new Physique already gives me enhanced resistance to mental attacks, to the degree that it says “greatly enhanced resistance.” Buying Immemorial Vision on top of that would be overkill.’

The other perks of Immemorial Vision weren’t enough in his eyes. There were few beings that relied on illusions in the first place, so enhanced resistance to them wasn’t particularly useful. Even without it, Micheal could use his senses to overcome them to a certain degree. With few exceptions, almost no illusion was perfect.

As for possessing an ‘Energy Vision’ state… he couldn’t deny its usefulness, but was it a necessity for him?

‘No. If I’m going to get the Deity Titles system, then I might as well pick an Ability that will go well with it.’

He thought for a few moments before flicking through the shop to the 26th page, the legendary ‘Page of Ones.’

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—-Abilities—-

World Matrix Type - 85,000 (8/8)

Mistling King Type - 428,080 (1/1)

Brutal Strength Type - 523,000 (12/12)

Flame Ruler Type - 205,000 (1/1)

Ice Ruler Type - 205,000 (1/1)

Metal Ruler Type - 205,000 (1/1)

Gale Ruler Type - 205,000 (1/1)

Lightning Ruler Type - 205,000 (1/1)

Void Ruler Type - 205,000 (1/1)

Poison Ruler Type - 205,000 (11/11)

Yellowfist Enhancement - 388,000 (12/12)

Aeon Fist - 11,040,000 (0/1)

Silver Healer Type - 1,450,000 (0/1)

Eyes of the Deep - 580,200 (1/50)

Wicker Spine - 829,040 (0/30)

Shining Defense - 481,000 (32/80)

Elemental Giant Transformation - 1,680,900 (4/10)

Giga Force - 458,000 (1/1)

Wanhope Aura - 5,584,248 (0/1)

Ephemeral Body Type - 920,400 (0/30)

Blokarm Frenzy - 260,090 (328/600)

… (26/41 page)

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The Pages of Ones was renowned for being the Shop page that contained the most Single Limit Abilities. It also happened to contain the World Matrix Ability that Director Prime used to stop time.

Most of the Single Limit Abilities on this page were part of the ‘Ruler’ Series of Abilities, a set of rare powers that always returned to the Shop when their owner died. The Ruler series was renowned for being extremely strong in the later Layers, most notably on the 4th Layer, where the strongest humans had a Soul stat that could take full advantage of the Type.

Of them, the only one that wasn’t a Single Limit Ability was the Poison Ruler Type. Micheal was vaguely aware that there was a lot of history and lore behind the Ruler Series and why the Poison Ruler Type was Limited to 11 instead of 1, but never really bothered looking into it. He knew the characteristics and powers of each Type, anything else was irrelevant.

Micheal set those thoughts aside for the moment, scanning the list until his gaze landed on an Ability in the bottom half of the page.

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Eyes of the Deep - 580,200 (1/50)

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‘Someone already bought this Ability this early on?’ He paused for a moment, surprised. This Ability’s price tag and lackluster description made it last in the Shop quite a while, in the original timeline. Micheal's upgraded Soul let him overcome the 500,000 Points Wall of the Second Layer, but that was something that should be extremely rare, meaning the buyer had to be on the Third Layer or higher. 

Micheal tapped on the Ability, bringing up its information.

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—-Eyes of the Deep—-

The Eyes of the Deep Ability Divinely blesses the mind and eyes of the user. It greatly enhances the user’s resistance to Negative Energy.

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‘It really is way too vague.’ He shrugged. Sometimes the Shop clearly explained things, sometimes it didn’t. There was little rhyme or reason to it.

Micheal’s eyes narrowed as he looked at one word in particular in the Ability description.

‘Divinely.’

In the beginning, there were many mysteries behind the beings known as Deities. As the years went by, after the Tribes of Deities overwhelmingly transformed into Humanity’s number one enemy, the layers of mystique that hid them were gradually peeled back. The results from the entire human race coming together to research something was nothing to scoff at.

One thing Humanity learned was that anything in the Shop that had the word ‘Divinely’ or ‘Divine’ in its description related to, in some way, the Deities. The Eyes of the Deep’s description was rather vague, but it did include the word ‘Divinely’ in it. As a result, it was one of the Abilities that was heavily researched, and thus one that Micheal happened to possess detailed information about.

This Ability fundamentally enhanced the brain and eyes of the person possessing it. Similar to Micheal’s Ceaseless Mind Ability, it gave him a perfect memory. It also made his body and soul highly resistant to anything related to ‘Negative Energy,’ which covered a wide multitude of things.

More importantly… it gave him something that not even 10% of Deities possessed.

Divine Eyes.

Blessed eyes that could see through the essence of most things, or, in simpler terms, eyes that let him analyze not only Artifacts but also people, garnering information that would otherwise lay hidden.

‘No need to hesitate. This is my best option. Let’s get it right now.’ He had put enough thought into his choice over the past few weeks. This Ability would be invaluable for his future.

With that in mind, Micheal selected the Ability and focused.

‘I am upgrading my Ceaseless Mind Ability. I am replacing it with the Eyes of the Deep. I am evolving one Ability to another.’ He repeated this thought in his head, over and over, his willpower cementing it as truth. He only had one shot at this. If he failed, while he wouldn’t waste any Points, he would be stuck with both overlapping Abilities at the same time, taking up two of his valuable Ability slots.

Micheal’s fingers hovered in the air for a few seconds as he collected himself, taking one last deep breath.

Then… his fingers plunged down.

He bought the Ability.

A warm, comfortable stream of energy enveloped Micheal, gleaming in the cool air as he attempted the first Ability Synergy of his second life.

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