840 Four Pillars: Skill Overhaul (3)
Having already spent two years of his time on forming the Azure Energy that he sought after, Valyr showed immense patience and perseverance as he began to retrofit all of his skills to begin using his newly obtained Azure Energy.
With how the first technique that changed thanks to his Azure Energy came from [Arcane Shadow Serpent Magic Style], Valyr decided to focus on the entire skill first, faintly wondering what would happen to the skill once he retrofitted all of them.
With that in mind, he set his sights to modifying the second technique under the skill, [Toxic Manastorm].
In terms of how flexible it was to use in combat, [Toxic Manastorm] was more of a skill that Valyr would use whenever he wanted to target multiple foes at once.
Though, because it covered such a large range, the skill was somewhat lacking in damage when compared to something more simple like the previous [Arcane Shadow Bolt].
Fortunately, thanks to him forming a unique kind of braided energy, the damage output of the skill was increased while maintaining the same range.
Because of that, he was quite curious as to what kind of changes his Azure Energy would bring to the mix if he were to use it on [Toxic Manastorm].
Whoosh!
Conjuring the Azure Sign once more, Valyr began to activate [Toxic Manastorm], prompting a dark blue cloud to appear far above their heads.
Feeling that now was the time to start infusing a specific element into the skill, the young man went ahead and thought of infusing the Wind element into it, thinking that the rain it generated would fall down faster.
However, as if there was a massive barrier before him, Valyr felt his attempt at infusing the Wind element into the skill end up in failure.
Then again, even though he was unsuccessful in infusing an element into the skill, [Toxic Manastorm] still showed greater power when compared to the time he used braided energy to power it.
Though he admired the power it now showed while taking less energy from him, the young man's thoughts were still stuck on the fact that infusing the Wind element into the skill seemed to not work.
Scratching the back of his head as he wondered why, Valyr waited for the skill to be off cooldown before proceeding to conjure it once more.
This time around, rather than infuse the Wind element into [Toxic Manastorm], the young man decided to infuse the Water element in the hopes of that the properties of both element and skill would match.
Unfortunately, similar to his attempt with the Wind element, the skill did not accept the element at all, continuing to rain down its azure droplets of destruction to the ground.
Watching the azure droplets touch the ground once more, a feeling of slight exasperation welled up within Valyr, even though it had only been a few minutes since he began retrofitting his skills.
Taking in a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he then thought back to what he had done with [Arcane Shadow Bolt] before, comparing it to his current attempts with [Toxic Manastorm].
In his mind, he considered the previous [Arcane Shadow Bolt] to be a flexible skill, having the ability to accept any type of element he infused into it.
On the other hand, with how things were looking, [Toxic Manastorm] was shaping up to be a skill that could only be infused with one element.
'Perhaps it won't even allow me to infuse an element into it at all,' thought the young man to himself sometime later, only for him to shake his head at the thought.
After all, he had not yet obtained any confirmation from the system that it was the case.
Giving himself a bit of time to instill the thought that there were two possibilities to how his retrofitting would go, Valyr continued with his attempts at infusing [Toxic Manastorm] with an element.
Whoosh!
Manifesting the Azure Sign above his palm yet again, Valyr activated the skill without much delay, immediately sensing the opportunity the skill gave him to infuse an element into it.
Having already chosen Wind and Water before, the young man decided to choose Fire this time around, somewhat unsure as to whether it would work.
Though, just as he had infused the element into the skill, [Toxic Manastorm] immediately underwent a massive change, prompting him to widen his eyes in slight disbelief.
Screech!!!
As the azure cloud above gained hints of fiery red here and there, Valyr noticed that the droplets raining down from the cloud resembled phoenixes in shape.
Then, once these droplets touched the ground, they generated a small circle of azure flames around them that began to linger, transforming the area occupied by the cloud into a field of azure flames.
Ding!
Hearing the ever-familiar sound echo in his mind, Valyr felt both excitement and relief as he continued to watch the azure cloud wreak havoc on an area near both him and Sellifer.
Glancing at Sellifer to see what her reaction was, the young man inwardly let out a chuckle as he noticed that a look of surprise covered the woman's face.
Dispelling the skill after feeling like he had seen enough of its new effects, Valyr went ahead and brought up a notification screen to his side, reading its contents before beginning to conjure yet another [Toxic Manastorm].
[Due to your actions, the technique 'Toxic Manastorm' under the skill 'Arcane Shadow Serpent Magic Style' has changed to 'Azure Phoenix's Lament'.]
'[Azure Phoenix's Lament], huh…' inwardly muttered the young man to himself as a faint smirk crept up the edges of his lips.
Whoosh!
Sending down the skill one last time, Valyr proceeded to infuse the skill with the element of Earth, only for the skill to end up looking like the attempts that preceded the only successful one.
"Better to be safe than sorry." Now more than confirming that there were two possible paths his skills could take after being retrofitted with Azure Energy, the young man psyched himself up as he began to make his way through the remaining techniques under [Arcane Shadow Serpent Magic Style].
Being the third technique under the skill, [Arcane Domain of the Shadow Serpent] was something Valyr admitted to himself that he did not use that often.
After all, with his status boosting skills running at maximum output, there wasn't really any need for him to activate the skill anyway.
Nevertheless, the young man retrofitted the skill, eventually finding out that the skill worked best with the Water element, its name changing into [Dominion of the Azure Turtle].
After that, he moved onto [Arcane Fang of the Shadow Serpent], being reminded of the debuff it inflicted that boosted a skill's damage by 50% as long as the skill was powered by Shadow Energy.
Taking a few tries to do so, he figured out that the skill worked best with the Wind element, transforming into a set of azure claws that covered a far larger range than a single fang ever could.
"[Azure Dragon's Claw]!" shouted Valyr once more, finding delight in the fact that his hands could be used to control where and how the claw struck.
With four out of skills making up [Arcane Shadow Serpent Magic Style] now retrofitted, the young man eventually focused his sights on the technique that undoubtedly made the skill a staple of his combat style.
"[Consummatum Est]."
Releasing Azure Energy out of his hands, Valyr began to infuse it into the skill's ultimate technique, causing a small part of the barren ground to begin resembling the terrain of the Shadow Plane.
Watching the piece of land before him continue to resemble more and more of the Shadow Plane, Valyr felt the skill call to him all of a sudden, asking him as to which element he wanted to infuse into it.
Considering that he had yet to obtain a skill from successfully infusing the Earth element into it, the young man decided to infuse the element into the ultimate technique.
Rumble…
In response to the infusion, the land that made up the Shadow Plane began to rumble, only for the entire thing to reveal azure cracks all throughout its surface not long after.
Eventually, the cracks on it had reached a tipping point, shattering the entire place as an azure tiger took its place and began to soar into the sky.
Roar!
At the moment the tiger let out a bestial roar, it was only then did the skill unleash all of its power, sending out an explosion that prompted Valyr to conjure a hasty mana barrier even with the distance that separated them.
Ding!
Though he heard a couple of notification sounds resound in his mind, Valyr took a while to register this fact as he still could not get over the level of power the ultimate technique contained after being infused with both Azure Energy and a specific element.
"You've definitely lucked out from the Triad Gates on this one," said Sellifer as she looked at Valyr, also surprised that a skill unleashed by a peak Rank 3 class holder could unleash that much power.
Faintly smiling in response to her words, it was only then did Valyr take a look at his notification screen, noticing that the skill's new name was a bit different compared to those that came before it.
[Due to your actions, the technique 'Consummatum Est' under the skill 'Arcane Shadow Serpent Magic Style' has changed to 'Four Paths Azure Zenith'.]
[Due to your actions, the skill 'Arcane Shadow Serpent Magic Style' and 'Intermediate Mana Magic Style' have fused together to form a skill of Rare+ grade.]
[The fused skill's name is the 'Four Paths Azure Magic Arts'. The skill's level has reverted to Level 1.]
'[Four Paths Azure Zenith]…'
Going over this name in his head a couple of times, Valyr soon began to look at his notification screen with an expression of realization, a smile soon adorning his face.
Waiting for it to go off cooldown, the young man went ahead and unleashed the ultimate technique once more the very moment he could do so.
Though, rather than infuse the Earth element into it yet again.
He decided to infuse the Fire element into it this time around.
"[Four Paths Azure Magic Arts]!"
"[Four Paths Azure Zenith]!"
Screech!!!
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