Seated in the proper posture for meditation, hours pa.s.sed like flowing water as Elizabeth happily indulged herself in unseen masochism with her internal refinement and grandmist pressure slowly forming a perfect body. Halfway through the day"s spiritual training, Elizabeth had to stop to get rid of her urges as they started impacting her refining speed.It was extremely confusing to everyone aside from Yrre, as they watched one of the most well behaved and liked members of the dojo jump ship out of the blue. But, given her status, no one bothered to stop her in the name of training. Even Sophie ignored the weird behavior and focused on galvanizing her Qi.
Out at sea, as Elizabeth ran through the ocean killing to quench her bloodl.u.s.t, Yrre"s words caused her to stop. She"d seen the horribly inefficient and amateurish manner her master used to cultivate death and felt this might as well be the first time she helps her out with regards to proper energy cultivation. Through their Law Linking Chains, Yrre said, "You"re not making any progress with just absorbing death energies like that. Unfortunately, I"m not a pract.i.tioner who Majors or even Minors in Death. But, as a high ranking Void Stage Djinn, what little understanding of Death I have, should be able to help you at least a little."
Through their connection, Elizabeth felt the same sensation of understanding she had whilst P activated her eidetic memory and within her mind, a spa.r.s.e set of images appeared. Some images were horrific and disturbing. Take, for instance, the ill.u.s.tration of a mountain of corpses sitting under a bloodlit sanguine moon, or a river of blood a million billion miles long without end or beginning putting to shame any human rendition of what h.e.l.l might look like.
However, though few, there were indeed some other pictures that seemed tame; peaceful even. One such picture that held Elizabeth"s attention for several seconds long, was a picture that seemed to have nothing to do with death. It was a picture of an elderly woman, sleeping soundly in a bed set by a park. Of course, with all the pictures being in some way related to death, Elizabeth understood the woman in the image wasn"t sleeping at all. Yet, that image resonated with her the quickest.
"Death isn"t all bad… Some people find death as a release. Compared to a lifetime of anguish and torture, only death can end some miseries..." Images that she"d repressed from her childhood appeared in her mind, but before she could make out the silhouette of the person she was subconsciously thinking about, it was like chains of un.o.btanium prevented her from remembering clearly and a heart-wrenching pain hit her head like a piano falling from a skysc.r.a.per .
Elizabeth dropped to one knee on the surface of the ocean, but with all the practice she received from yesterday, she managed to fight through the pain and not sink. Hesitant, she tried to keep the soul-crushing pain out of her system by forgetting the past as she"d done for all these years, and after receiving the last set of images from Yrre, a notification popped up.
[Skills
Name: Recollection Of Minor Death Understanding
Grade: Peak-tier Spirit Grade
Description: Though only made up of a cursory understanding of Death, that is only relative to Yrre"s true level. In truth, the contents held within these images hold profound insights and concepts of Death that even those at the upper end of the Spirit Realm would fight to the death to possess.
Current Effect: Supplements the cultivation for understanding Death. Allows the user to gain Affinity for Death up to Consummate-tier.]
Elizabeth reviewed all the information Yrre transferred to her and sure enough, during the time she experienced that backlash for thinking of her life"s second biggest change, there was a formula for how best to cycle death energies throughout her body. Looking through the method, Elizabeth frowned. Then her face morphed into confusion, before concluding in terror. Looking at Yrre with panic, she said, "Are you sure this is a valid method of cycling? It looks to me like anyone who tries this would die miserably..." Comparing this "cultivation method" to the one Jane showed her — the one literally designed to turn its user into a sacrificial p.a.w.n — made Jane"s method look like a child"s prank.
"It"s a very basic death cultivation method I once saw after going through the items of an enemy I killed, so don"t expect anything too special. But, if what you"re worried about is the strange and even suicidal-looking energy channeling route, think of it as only natural. After all, how do you expect to understand and train in Death itself if you"re not willing to get close to it?"
"I"ll have to get used to death anyway, so..." Elizabeth threw caution to the wind as she used her sword to skewer an oblivious nearby fish and began using the suicidal cultivation method for the first time. True to her expectations, her heart rate slowed to a dangerous ten or less beats per minute as the rest of her body"s functions also slowed to unnatural and alarming levels. The death energy she used only fueled the dangerous cultivation, but for a resilient cultivator of the extreme path of Perfection, and beyond, she never truly felt like there was a serious life-threatening risk.
Continuing with Death cultivation, Elizabeth was happy to see her urge disappear after only killing 40 fish this time. She returned to the ship and re-entered internal refinement until the end of the six hours-long spiritual training session. Returning to sea once more to get her needs taken care of, Elizabeth smiled as the number of things she needed to kill was steadily decreasing.
As promised, after Elizabeth returned from cultivating death, she and Jane had a lengthy sparring session. Training with her usual feverish desire to see her stats grow, Elizabeth was one of the few true maniacs aboard the ship that happily smiled even as she lost time and time again. Confronting a superior Martial King such as Jane, she didn"t hold herself back as she had with Irene. Rather, her Time spell [Fast] was used to full effect and even then, not once did she come close to so much as hoping for a victory, which only resulted in her Muay Thai ascending to match what it should be for her Level at an unheard of rate.
For the rest of her time aboard the yacht, Elizabeth"s hectic life finally seemed to have organized itself, managing to at least come together as a stable routine. Sparing with her peers, training with Yrre, internal refinement, and cultivating death, made up the entirety of her schedule.
Elizabeth"s power and skill grew to the point where she and the girl who hadn"t yet stepped foot on the ship seemed like two different people. She never managed to secure a win against her higher leveled companions, but it didn"t mean she didn"t think she could take them on if she fought with the intent to win. Until now, every fight she"d entered within the yacht was fought with the intent to better herself and absolutely no one, not even Yrre, knew the full scope of Elizabeth abilities.
Aside from training, Elizabeth managed to imprint the last two pending Spell Seeds in her Dantian; namely the [Spatial Contraction] and [Target Homing] methods. With some much time focused on training, multiple affinities rose in rank, leaving her status utterly ridiculous when compared to regular Soldier Stage Mages.
[Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia
*New) Bloodline: Human 100%, G.o.d (Fallen) 100%, Ancient G.o.dslayer Fiend 0.0003%
Level: 15 (20/23)
Rank: Peak Soldier Stage (100%) [Perfect Chaos Mage Soldier]
s.e.x: Female
Strength 168
Endurance 199
Speed 266
Defense 171
Intelligence 254
Luck: 10
Inner Strength 458,260/458,260
Innate Skills
*New) Death Affinity
Tier: Trash-tier
Description: Now possessing the ability to generate Death energy/magic, active Death skills and spells are usable.
Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 10. Low Mortal Grade Death-type buffs are 50% more potent.
*New) Lifespan Watch
Description: Now understanding some of the subtle intricacies of death itself, the user can roughly calculate how much other living things have left to live. The higher the cultivation or strength of the being, being a.s.sessed the harder it is to accurately measure lifespan. But with higher affinity for Death and more attuned senses, this ability improves accuracy as well.
Current Effect: Accurately measures the remaining lifespan of anything Level 15 or lower.
Fire Affinity
*New) Tier: Bad-tier
Ice Affinity
*New) Tier: Bad-tier
Yin Affinity
*New) Tier: Bad-tier
Time Affinity
*New) Tier: Mediocre-tier
Description: Your ability to manipulate Time approaches the Realm of Spirits. You"ll find manipulating spatial energy to be several times easier than when your Affinity was at a mere Bad-tier. Generating Time-type Magic from Inner Strength is also several times easier and time-type spells and skills are less demanding on your energy reserves.
Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 30. High-Peak Mortal Grade Time-type buffs are 100% more potent.
*New) Ominous Pa.s.sage
Description: Now capable of communicating with the local spiritual time, the user may now attempt to form a resonance to illuminate both the past or the near future. Only two things increase the success rate of resonating with local time: Increasing Affinity for Time, or coming into contact with a catalyst.
Current Effect: Successfully resonating with time, allows the user to see fragments of what"s happened in the past or in the very close future.
Chaos Seals (9)
*New) Current Status: 3 Seals Complete (Fragmented Grandmist)
*New) Current Effects: Level 3 Pressure, With the user acting as the epicenter, a heavy pressure influences everything in a 10-meter radius.
Skills
*New) Name: Spatial Contraction
Grade: S (Level 2 Spell Seed)
s.p.a.ce Energy Cost: 100 units of s.p.a.ce Magic for one meter of s.p.a.ce. For every additional 10 cm of s.p.a.ce contracted, the cost rises by 1.15 times the base cost.
Description: A prized Spirit Grade technique that"s been almost perfectly converted to methods cultivators at the Mortal Realm can practice. Allows the user to physically contract the s.p.a.ce around them to move faster.
Current Effect: Depends on the amount of Spatial Magic used.
Bullet h.e.l.l Codex: Target Homing
*New) Grade: B (Level 1 Spell Seed)
Energy Cost: 1 unit of Neutral Magic per second
Description: Casts a "Lock On" Magic Circle on a target that influences the user"s Bullet Trajectories mid-flight.
Current Effect: Margin of error whilst firing guns increases; albeit slightly. The farther the target, the greater the effect.
Name: Slow
*New) Grade: S (Level 2 Spell Seed)
Time Energy Cost: Varies based on the target. The baseline for Level 2 would be 15 units of Time Magic to effect a Soldier for a second. Doubles thereafter for each additional phase and decuples for each change in Stage.
Current Effect: Reduces the target"s rate of time by half a percent relative to the surrounding environment.
Name: Fast
*New) Grade: S (Level 2 Spell Seed)
Time Energy Cost: Varies based on the target. The baseline for Level 1 would be 10 units of Time Magic to effect a p.a.w.n for a second. Doubles thereafter for each additional phase and decuples for each change in Stage.
Current Effect: Expedites the target"s rate of time by half a percent relative to the surrounding environment.
Martial Art: Art Of The Eight Limbs (Muay Thai)
Level 52
Experience: 62,000/66,248
Grade: B
Current Effect: Unarmed combat at the Warrior level yields a 25% buff to Strength and Defense. Due to the user not yet being in the Warrior Stage, only the Soldier Stage buff is applied. (Total Applied: 100%; Total Achieved: 325%)
Blade Art: Basics
Level 55
Experience: 78,000/83,448
Grade: B
Current Effect: Armed combat with a blade at the Warrior level yields a 50% buff to Strength and Speed. Due to the user not yet being in the Warrior Stage, only the Soldier Stage buff is applied. (Total Applied: 100%; Total Achieved: 350%)]