With Skullius' plan to operate on a large scale, certain viewpoints had been made apparent to him, helping to extricate his stunted mind-set into a more flexible path.
As stated before, the Null Lifeform intended to find a way merge most of his skills, leaving himself with clear paths instead of a mound of wasted potential. The fact that he couldn't combine his skills the same way his Apostles could, limited him greatly after all.
This, however, wasn't the main concern for now.
Among the many paths he discovered to make his rise in power more substantial, upgrading aspects of himself with [Unbound] rose as a high priority option.
Not weapons.
Not skills.
Just his own stats.
As for why he had decided to do this while merged with Ferex, it was because [Unbound] couldn't be used on any sentient Lifeform other than himself. That was its current limit. Fortunately, affecting others seemed to be one of the many avenues for its growth because the skill was in fact upgradeable unlike [Static Limbo] and [Null Extraction], his other standard forms of Null Life skills.
As for [Unbound] itself, now that Skullius could handle more than 10,000 units of Null Life Essence, an additional option for Upgrade was unlocked.
~~~
[1-99] – Null Life Essence Points-
Gives the option for basic upgrades to stats, weapons and skills from the vast connection to Serenity.
---
[100] – Null Life Essence Points-
Gives the option [Random Upgrade] to stats, weapons and skills from the vast connection to Serenity. Increments below 1000 NLE increase the chances of drawing higher level upgrades.
---
[1000] – Null Life Essence Points-
Gives the option [Permanent Random Upgrade] to stats, weapons and skills from the vast connection to Serenity. Increments below 10000 increase chances of drawing higher level upgrades.
---
[10,000] – Null Life Essence Points-
Gives the option [Special Bonus Random Upgrade] to stats, weapons and skills from the vast connection to Serenity. Increments below 20,000 increase chances of drawing higher level upgrades.
~~~
(A/N: Refer to Ch.23).
"Special Bonus Random Upgrade. I assume it's permanent too and with it being above Permanent Random Upgrade, I hope it does justice," Ogwulf said with a grin as he began the process.
Hopefully, both Skullius and Ferex would gain something from this.
[What would you like to upgrade with 'Unbound'?]
"My mana."
[12,000 Null Life Essence Points expended for Special Bonus Random Upgrade]
[Upgrade processing...]
[Special Bonus Random Upgrade decided]
With this notification came a burning sensation from within Ogwulf's body. Something was happening to his mana.
No.
To his mana core where it originated.
A bright glow suffused from his abdomen before it caused the air to grow still, bathing everything in a powerful authority that wasn't so easily recognisable.
'Hmmm... what is this? I feel my mana core...' Ogwulf wondered.
Deep within him, his mana code started to... split.
No!
Rather than split, it... reproduced, a terrifying amount of mana coursing through it to birth a second core within his body!
A second core that was vastly different from the old one!
This mana core hissed viciously, before it exploded with mana, a great amount of it causing a blinding light to display the sheer quality of the energy from beyond the raiment of the Penetrator!
[Random Upgrade Complete!]
[A new mana core, the 'Nature-Bound Malleable Form Core' has been forged in your body]
[A Special Bonus applies!]
[+500% to pure mana quantity production]
...!
With that, mana flooded from this new mana core, causing Ogwulf's floating body to fall to the ground!
SHHHH!
The winds shrieked, blowing over everything – the corpses, the broken carriages, the snow – fiercely, their unseen masses roiling with 'excitement' and zeal while rushing towards the Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator!
Ogwulf felt it vividly.
The changes were told to him by [Greater Mana Crafter].
All around him, there seemed to be whispers, the natural elements and ambient mana in the atmosphere seeming to want to speak to Ogwulf in a favourable tone, as if to tell him things.
Unfortunately, he couldn't hear it.
'This is...new.'
As this took place...
[The mandatory effect known as RESET for Apostle '...' is about to apply]
[Because of your conjoined nature, this effect has been altered to accommodate the individual known as 'Skullius']
[Instead of wiping away all physical experience, accrued personality and cunning ideology adopted from the previous battle, the effect of RESET will now RESET all skill cooldowns belonging to the individual known as 'Skullius' and will resume its appropriate function on the Apostle '...']
"Stop!" Ogwulf commanded the guidance field.
The time limit for [Bringer of All] had been reached and with it came the effect of RESET that he wanted, which registered after he had been in an intense battle with the Knights captain through the man's subordinates.
Sadly, while that hurdle had been crossed, there was still the problem of the RESET's effect on Ferex.
No way his valued Apostle would lose all he had worked hard for.
There had to be a compromise.
"Cancel RESET for Ferex."
[Unable to cancel RESET for Apostle 'Ferex']
"Tsk! Of course it wouldn't be so easy," Ogwulf said with a frown that couldn't be seen because of his face. "Cancel RESET for Ferex."
[Unable to cancel RESET for Apostle 'Ferex']
[Insufficient authority for desired action]
[A fitting price must be paid as the individual known as 'Ogwulf' is one entity]
"Authority, huh?" Ogwulf said.
What was this? Was this because the skill [Bringer of All] was just too under levelled to handle something like this?
And this price...
'This is turning out to be pretty disadvantageous for the Ferex portion of myself. I have to pay a price to not RESET, which in itself is a risk that can bring the BoneTender whatever. Tsk!' Ogwulf thought.
Indeed this was disadvantageous.
Last time Skullius decided to ignore Ferex's RESET, he had lucked out but now... he wasn't sure if he would luck out again. This BoneTender seemed to be a really big deal. If that thing still showed up after all this trouble...
"Let's hear it. What's this price?" Ogwulf asked.
[As a result of your conjoined nature, the recently acquired 'Nature-Bound Malleable Form Core' was to be split between your two selves upon separation. However, the price to reject a full RESET for Apostle 'Ferex' dictates that this benefit be stripped from said individual]
[Do you accept?]
"Fantastic," Ogwulf said while floating over to where he had left his weapon – Cross Pyre – and pulled it out, the giant greatsword leaving the ground.
The guidance field wanted to take away what had been Skullius' intent, giving Ferex what he needed. Additional mana to power the Spells within his scales.
That was one of the reasons he chose to test [Unbound] with mana first.
Sadly...
It turned out to be all for naught.
"Fine," he agreed.
This wasn't much of a problem. There were other ways for Ferex to get more mana anyway.
Now, it was the moment of truth.
Since [Bringer of All] had timed out, Ogwulf began to split, forming the figures of Skullius and Ferex.
The Limitless Body Null Demon Hound looked a bit depressed while Skullius anxiously looked at the Apostle, hoping for the love of all that was holy, that the Apostle wouldn't transform into this famed Null Terror.
Honestly, he didn't even know what would happen exactly but he dreaded it.
One second passed.
Then three seconds.
Six seconds.
Nothing.
"Did it work?!" Skullius asked himself, his blindingly bright sockets dimming with anxiety.
Truly!
He was spared again!
Atrocious luck turned to the side!
"Hahahahaha! Can you believe this Ferex? We dodged it again!" Skullius said with enthusiasm.
To be fair, the description for Ferex's Flaw did say 'there was a chance', meaning it wasn't absolute but still...!
Ferex looked quite bitter about having the benefit stripped from him. He was supposed to half of this mana core but unfortunately, Direction was too cruel.
"Don't worry bro. We are going to slaughter millions of Cluster beasts together after this and get you to rise up the Tiers, alright? You'll get as much mana as you want," Skullius said to comfort Ferex.
And he meant it.
There needed to be hard grind to get the Apostle stronger as the only way to overcome his Flaw, as Skullius was starting to discover, was to become so strong that no fight would considered tough.
The Apostle nodded.
"Yes, master. I trust I will," he said.
"Good boy, I mean good bro."
About this core though, since there wasn't a split, Skullius had gotten all of it to himself and on his guidance field...
~~~
[Mana : 29,400]
---
[Mana^ : 60,000]
~~~
...!
The two mana cores within Skullius' body registered on the guidance field and this new had a total of 60,000 mana!
"Well damn!" Skullius thought. He looked at his abdomen, pulling away the robes he wore to find two cores, one floating on top of the other just below his ribcage!
Furthermore, the second one was... different.
As Skullius had forged a mana core from scratch before, he could tell. By using [Greater Mana Crafter], he delved deep into this core and found that his thoughts were true.
This new core's Centre had been anchored to his soul too, but it was extremely different from his original, and even the one from the core belonging to his Hybrid Luman body which was the strongest one he had prior to this.
The pure mana it produced was extremely refined, sifting softly into the Refinery with class and serene quality!
As the mana seeped into the Refinery which dictated whether or not an individual could utilize special types of abilities and powers, the Penetrator discovered something even more shocking!
"N-no! No way!" he exclaimed as he plopped to the ground.
Within his Refinery, there was an exceedingly complex mana pattern that constantly shifted into an innumerable range of other patterns!
Patterns that he couldn't identify.
All he could tell that one pattern he saw, would never be repeated again!
That was...
This was unlike anything Skullius had seen before!
A core was supposed to have one fixed pattern.
Either it formed a generic pattern that could only produce mana which could perform basic forms of utility or it was forged with a complex one that would work well special abilities, like how children were groomed within Families that had specialised techniques!
But this one...
Didn't this mean...?
"This mana core is adaptable... It can conform to ...anything?" Skullius wondered incredulously as all around him, the winds, the cold and all seemed to whisper to him, wanting to tell him several mysteries...
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