[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 77: Reacclimating

[Void: Scour]

(Magical Art) (F-Class)

(★Common II)

As your connection to the Void deepens, you begin to understand the meager and ethereal nature of mana. By sending out a burst of Void mana, you are able to violently scour all other mana, leaving nothingness in its wake. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength and Insight when using Scour.

Mana Cost: Low

[Void: Surge]

(Aura) (F-Class)

(☆Primitive II)

Completely saturate the surrounding area with overwhelming Void mana, negating and denying all other mana from entering the area of your aura. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Vigor and Insight when using [Void: Surge].

Mana Cost: Very High

[Void: Smother]

(Magical Art) (F-Class)

(★Common)

As your control over the Void within you improves, you are able to designate an area that inhibits the proper functioning flow of mana, reducing the effectiveness of the mana type you designate. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength, Insight, Arcane, and Vigor when using [Void: Smother].

Mana Cost: Varies

[Surge] was the only Void Path skill that didn’t make it to Common rarity. But given how costly it was, he couldn’t use it nearly as much as [Scour].

It was a saving grace that [Void: Smother] came to him as Common, and it helped to denote that the skill was fairly powerful right out of the gate.

Something he needed if he was going to be defending his new home. If demons could invade Raiko’s relatively large Skyshard, then his tiny orbiting thing would be easy pickings.

Unless I can join mine to hers somehow.

Taking a glance at his MP and seeing it still wasn’t maxed out, Sam decided to go for broke and see if anything else had changed in the interim. He wasn’t the best at catching every notification, especially during a fight, so it was best to be sure.

(Personal Skills & Abilities)

[Call of the Void]

(Soulbrand) (X-Class)

(Unique)

Exposure to Apocalypse mana is almost always fatal. Somehow, you managed to not only survive the onslaught, but inoculate yourself with Void mana to stave off the imminent dissolution that is caused by touching Apocalypse mana. However, Void mana was never meant to be wielded. It has fully corrupted your capacity to conjure and obtain any other type of mana. All new mana types you receive will instead be consumed by the Void, and you are locked into the Path of the Void.

[Heavy Weapon Handling]

(Incarnate Trait) (F-Class)

(★☆Uncommon III)

Few of the core races are able to wield the heavier and more brutal weapons. These are generally reserved for monsters and oversized creatures who require something more robust. You, however, have tapped into the beginnings of the Incarnate powers of War who was legendary for wielding weapons no other living Divine could lift.

[Inventory]

(Soul Trait) (F-Class)

(☆Primitive VI)

Used throughout the Shardrune Realms, inventory is considered a birthright. All new initialized people are immediately granted this trait.

[Shard Common]

(Language Trait)

All races of the Shardrune Realms grow up learning Shard Common, the ubiquitous language of the Shardrune Realms. Newly initiated races are given this language to ease their transition. Allows you to understand all forms of Shard Common, as well as write and speak the language fluently as your native language.

[Hero’s Grace]

Your presence naturally inspires people. They see you as the Incarnate of War that saved their home during their time of greatest need. They are spurred to greater heights while in your vicinity, dealing enhanced damage, shrugging off devastating attacks, and fighting for longer. Only affects those of Islegard descent.

[Flamekeeper]

(Elemental Ability) (X-Class)

(Unique)

As the Archflame’s bearer, the fate of the Archflame is entirely in your hands. You can choose to borrow some of the [Archflame Coal’s] Heat in order to empower yourself temporarily, or use it to bolster your mana. However, overuse will eventually kill the [Archflame Coal] and the Archflame will never shed its light again.

Nothing missing there. Next!

(Bloodline)

[Breaker]

(Incarnate Bloodline) (D-Class)

(★★★Rare VIII)

Yours by birthright as an Incarnate of War, you have awakened a fragment of the Kindred, War’s, power. The [Breaker] Incarnate Bloodline allows you to create critical weak points whose strength is inversely proportional to the weak points currently in existence. Bestows the title, [Alloy of War]. Grants a small bonus to the effect of Strength, Vigor, and Dexterity when creating weak points.

Ironically, despite using it so damn much, his Breaker bloodline hadn’t moved an inch. Probably because it was way stronger than he was.

It felt like every level he gained his bloodline improved dramatically, as if he was catching up to it rather than the bloodline leveling up in any way.

I wonder if it syncs down to me, and with each level, I’m unlocking more of its power? I don’t think I ever could have one-shot anything with my Breaker bloodline before, and it sure as hell wasn’t as easy to use.

He still remembered having to spend minutes focusing on the weak points to get them to show up. Doing the same for living targets was incredibly difficult, but thankfully armor and weapons were not considering living and didn’t pose the same level of difficulty.

(Blessings)

[Veil of the Hidden]

(Greater Blessing) (X-Class)

(★★★★★☆ Ancestral)

Through this Greater Blessing, your presence is masked to all but the most persistent and powerful of Seers and Empyrean-Rank Deities. Your details are only shared when you choose to do so. The strength of this Greater Blessing scales with your Legend and is added to your Incarnate Deeds. Additionally, having been given a Greater Blessing by one of the Hidden Pantheon, you gain the following:

Insight (+10%)

Awareness (+10%)

[Treasure Hunter]

[Shadow Veil]

Enhanced Renown with followers of the Hidden Pantheon.

[Treasure Hunter]

(Trait) (F-Class)

(★★☆ Limited II)

All things hidden and unknown fall under the purview of the Hidden One. With His Greater Blessing, you are able to increase the rarity and amount of treasure or goods gained. Grants a tiny bonus to the effect of Insight and Awareness when [Treasure Hunter] activates.

[Shadow Veil]

(Ability) (F-Class)

(★★ Unusual III)

Marked by the Hidden One, you are able to wrap darkness around yourself when you stand in full shadow. The amount of mana this consumes varies based on the amount of light in the area and whether or not you are moving. Attacking reveals your position and may break [Shadow Veil]. Grants a tiny bonus to the effect of Insight and Awareness when using [Shadow Veil].

Not that he had a chance to sit and chill in the shadows, but he had to remind himself that [Shadow Veil] existed as part of his skill set. It just wasn’t all that useful to him in the grand scheme of things.

Sam’s idea of stealth was killing everybody in sight.

He couldn’t be detected if there was nobody alive to detect him.

And that meant wholesale slaughtering every living soul instead of creeping around, taking extra care not to step on a cliché twig.

At the very bottom of his Blessings was something new. New and unfortunately unusable at the moment.

[Divine Conduit (Soulshadow)]

The god of malice and shadows has fallen. It is your responsibility as a Kindred Incarnate to preserve the state of all Shardrunes, to assure that nothing is lost. To that end, you have gained the barest fragment of a fragment of the Divine Conduit (Soulshadow). Due to the enormity of a Divine Conduit and the disparity between its strength and your own, you must bear the burden of this power alongside another Incarnate. Currently locked, as you lack the sufficient Rank to wield its power.

Sam wasn’t sure when he could use it, but he was looking forward to it.

The little bit he saw of Sumet was quite frightening. He’d love a shadow sword, or even the strange shadowy barrier that numbed his foot when he touched it.

Aside from locking swords with a First Layer weakened god and living to tell the tale, Sam and Raiko both managed to take a piece of his power.

What Soulshadow was, Sam didn’t have a clue. But judging from the fight, it was some combination of ice and shadow. Which he would be more than happy to wield if his stupid Void mana would let him.

No use in drooling over a power he couldn’t use yet though, so he moved on.

Lastly, were his Titles. They couldn’t grow, insofar as he understood Titles, but it was good to see that they hadn’t changed after attacking Raiko.

Especially the [Hero of Islegard], something he imagined they both shared given their pivotal involvement in averting Islegard’s total destruction.

[Hero of Islegard]

All peoples of Islegard will recognize you as not just one of their saviors, but as an Incarnate of War, regardless of whether you fully Awaken your Incarnate Powers or not. You gain significantly faster renown with the people of Islegard, and they are far more likely to come to your aid in your time of need. Grants the trait [Hero’s Grace].

[Alloy of War]

Few are born as Incarnates and fewer yet make it far enough in their life to learn of their latent power, much less to awaken their bloodline. Unlike other Incarnates, those of War’s blood must awaken their powers through trial and tribulation. Most do not live to see their powers manifest. Those that survive reap great rewards. As an Alloy of War, you gain the following:

Strength (+5%)

Vigor (+5%)

Fire Mana Attunement

Metal Mana Attunement

[Void Maw]

Through your Incarnate Deeds, you have shown your fledgling hunger for advancement and improvement. Your ability to manipulate and manifest Void Mana, while yet nascent, now allows you to not only consume Mana Attunements to empower your Void Mana, but also to acquire Mana Affinities related to those initial Mana Attunements.

Having gone over everything, he doubled checked his notifications. There were actually a couple things still pending. One he knew he put off for later, and the other he wasn’t sure if he even noticed it before.

The first one was a new Swordsman Job skill to select. That piqued his interest, winning his immediate attention over the other one, which was an Ascension quest.

While that was a new kind of quest, picking up a Swordsman skill would impact him immediately.

You have [Swordsman] abilities to select from.

[Traversal]

(Movement Skill) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Travel, climb and jump over obstacles, vertical surfaces, and difficult terrain with greater ease, success and range. Slightly diminishes hazardous terrain’s effect on your natural movement speed and slightly reduces falling damage. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility, Strength and Vigor when using [Traversal].

[Evasion]

(Swordsman Skill) (F-Class)

(★Common)

The best mitigation is when you don’t get hit. By paying close attention to your surroundings and your enemies, you’re able to utilize this new skill to grant you a slight edge when dodging from incoming attacks. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility when using [Evasion].

[Block]

(Swordsman Skill) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Brace against melee and magical attacks, using your weapon, armor, cloak or shield. Sheds a portion of physical and magical damage received. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Vigor when using [Block].

[Iron Mountain]

(Sword Stance) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Raises your resistance against physical and magical damage by increasing your Leaden Stacks the longer you root yourself in place. The more Leaden Stacks you possess, the more damage you resist and the heavier you and your weapon becomes. Grants a minuscule bonus to Vigor and Strength when using [Iron Mountain].

Maximum Leaden Stacks: 3

Some fairly solid choices to pick from. A bunch of skills and a stance! Sam thought with excitement.

Most interesting, besides the new Swordsman skills to choose from, was the fact that all of his old Fighter skills were still there to choose from. [Sturdy Stance], [Guard], and [Onslaught] were still possible to choose, but he dismissed them instantly.

Not only because each of them except [Sturdy Stance] was Primitive instead of Common, but because most of the Swordsman skills just seemed plain better.

He particularly had his eye on the [Iron Mountain] stance. Not only did it increase his resistance to all forms of damage and make him do more damage the longer he stayed rooted to the spot, but it would also allow him to use [Switch] for once.

At the same time, [Traversal] seemed incredibly useful. And given the somewhat random nature of gaining new skills, Sam wasn’t sure when they would come around again. It could be 5 levels, it could be 8, or whenever.

Sam ate another bite of cold pizza and pondered what to pick.