Quite like the bottom most floor, there was no wall at the end of the ninth floor, which allowed the turbulent view of what happened at the peak of the stout mountain, to be seen from within Replicus' abode.
The rising stone pillars that sometimes shot in the sky, the grey shaded lightning that made said pillars vanish whenever it struck, and the thick mana laced with 'spices'... All of it appealed to Replicus.
Behind the giant doors, the enormous space that led to the end was littered with fat columns of dark marble that extended from the floor to ceiling... and that was it.
Nothing else decorated this place, which was fitting, since a harsh wind blew in from the other side right that moment.
[High level concept detected. 'Distorted Gravity'. To learn the greater essentials, an investment of 55,400 Null Life Essence is required]
[High level concept detected. 'Spatial Lightning'. To learn the penultimate secrets, an investment 111,345 Null Life Essence is required].
[High level concept detected. 'Stagnant Space. To learn the greater fundamentals, an investment of 40,230 Null Life Essence is required]
"Stagnant Space is still very tricky. These fundamentals are hard to grasp..." Replicus said.
His powers had grown more than considerably over the past two months.
Splitting with Skullius had proven to be the right choice. Replicus' goal had never strayed from increasing his power with each waking minute every day ever since he separated from the original. Naturally, it had started with the mission that Skullius had signed up for those months ago and hadn't been able to complete. Replicus had completed it for him and given him the spoils.
(A/N: Refer to Ch.573).
From there, it had been grinding and grinding and grinding to the power of five.
Replicus' black, bony hand extended from the clouds, and snapped its fingers. Barely noticeable to even a Master's eye, a spark of grey lightning ran down his phalanxes, and then dashed onto the air.
Where it dipped, a dark void was opened for a micro moment, and a large chair dropped onto the floor.
Replicus sat on it.
A sigh of relief left his mouth.
The clouds around him grew more tame, and then became very thin wisps that awaited his call to bulk up again.
"Maintaining a respectable image isn't fun at all. I bet Skullius has had it easy all this time... Well, before what happened to him, I guess..." Replicus said.
His appearance seemed extra, but it was all a product of him advancing to Tier 3, and graduating from being a mere Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator. The benefits he had accrued from eating the Chubby Remnant Child of Polarity back then, and making his luck incredibly positive to his existence, still bore fruit even now, since when evolving, he had ended up getting some rare evolutions. The consequent racial variations spawning from the option he chose – Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator – offered greater additions in stats and other quirks.
Replicus placed his hand under his chin. His dark body was in full view now, and after all was said and done, he didn't look that different from before.
There were only two differences with him now.
The spikes that had risen from his collarbone to cage his head before had grown very small, but at their tips they still passed on a streak of Levin indefinitely. Second, the white cloud that would always feature over his head was also gone, though he could summon it whenever he pleased.
Only his clouds seemed to grown more ferocious after evolving, and they kept growing excited whenever he made a great leap towards Tier 4. And he was already very close.
The Tier Serenity encouraged him to reach.
"Will I even see her the next time I evolve?" Replicus said aloud, lazily. "There better be something good waiting for me."
As it turned out, Replicus didn't get visitations from Serenity when he had met the cumulative experience required to ascend to another Tier. Thankfully, this didn't have any effect on the evolution, so Replicus' concerns were moreso on whether if he reached Tier 4, there was some sort of step only Serenity could help him with.
Then again, as close as he might be to Tier 4, he was still far. The experience required demanded Replicus to hunt purple Clusters as frequently as possible, and that was a burden by the incarnation of treachery itself.
"Onto the pastime..." Replicus said.
While he had told Allora that he would be working on her Armament, it was more of a passive declaration than the new Unlimited had realised. Replicus was waiting for something else eagerly. It was the other reason why he was a bit irritated today.
And thus, armour tweaking would have to do for now, as he waited.
With the snap of his fingers, 90 pieces of Legendary grade armour dropped to the dark floor.
Replicus scanned them all lazily with his guidance field, checking what they could do, and the focus of their skills in relation to the user.
"Let's see here. About thirty have heavy focus on stamina and endurance. Good. I'll have to pick which ones to extract from, and which one to... oh, that one looks nice. Hope it keeps its slim design afterwards..."
Replicus split the sets, reserving five of the forty which he found to have the best benefit to stamina aside and then selecting three out of the rest which had skills that amplified the user's individual abilities.
Afterwards, he took a slender looking armour with a brass-like tint and drew it to himself by guiding the mana around it. He set it aside, drew the eight he had selected before him, and then dismissed the other sets of armour he didn't need.
"Alright. Let's have the first," Replicus said, and he grasped one of the armours by the helm.
His bony hand became wrapped in the blue glow of Null Life Essence only he could see, and then the armour he held lit up, showing the traced paths of runes etched into it, key points for the abilities inscribed into it.
A moment later, the tracings turned dim, and it seemed even the armour lost a bit of its lustre.
"Seven more to go."
Replicus did this with the other selected sets or armour. He held them, and his Null Life Essence would force them to reveal where the craftsmen had inscribed the armour's complex abilities.
Of course, what Replicus was doing, was simply extracting the abilities of the armour and branding them onto himself.
Unlike what he had often done before; applying Null Life Essence manually into treasures to extract skills, Replicus had earned a skill for it.
A skill worthy of the Vehement Bone Nullmancer, and exclusive to them alone.
[Wealth of Spoils], an inspired name.
With this skill, Replicus could steal the skills AND stat boosts from any armour under Mythical Grade for now. But that wasn't all [Wealth of Spoils] could do. Obviously.
After he was done, the Null Lifeform disposed of the sets of armour and drew to himself the slender one with the brass hue quality.
"Bones crossed," he said to himself, and with a fierce imposition of Null Life Essence, he activated [Unbound].
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