Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 323: Ryun

Adapting Power

I never realized just how much control high tiered people had until I became strong enough to affect the environment just by moving, Ryun commented. His total stats were so high now that he had to hold himself back constantly in most territories he entered. He moved faster through low tiered ones, and his passage alone caused damage.

It is annoying, Tali nodded. I must admit that I didnt miss that part. Nor the fact that I need to eat high tiered foods. She shuddered. The sect can barely afford to feed me as it is.

Ryun blinked. Really?

You are lucky that you can survive on the Void itself. The more of my power I recovered, the higher tiered food I needed. I think that something like five percent of the Sects food budget goes just to feeding me.

Anrosh had told him a bit about of the Sects struggles, she hadnt mentioned that. He had put most of the pure Essence crystals that had been in Zenkers storage, as well as a few interface disks that held Essence too, straight into the Sects Framework account. A lot of the flavored Essence crystals he had given her to sell or do with as she wished, though not the higher tiered ones, not yet. They really needed to get a real vaultAnrosh was already working on it, sending out feelers, looking for some quality builders and vault makers.

What kind of food do you need? He asked her.

Tier ten at least, Tali answered. The lowest I can use to survive is the tier of my main focus, but it takes a lot to keep me sustained. Higher is better. Anrosh imports most of it, though Embesh had managed to cultivate a disgusting crop that is... ugh. The faster you deal with the sect and I get something better to eat, the better.

He heard the disgust in her voice, and chuckled. Soon. He said and turned his attention back to the spread of items in front of him. He was in the Early Ascended Realm now, and would be for a while. Not just because he needed to cycle and increase the size of his core, but because the perks that came after were peculiar. The next one was Power Manifest, and he needed to get in tune with his secondary aspect, to reaffirm what his own power meant before he went for that one. He didnt want a solely Void focused perk.

But he was in a bit of a bind. His core was filled with two types of Qi, Void and Stillness, equally. His Ascended core was almost twice as big as his Evolved one had been, the speed of his cores regeneration was faster too, the Qi felt greater. But, by filling the core with both Aspects equally he was hindering one of the main pillars of his power. His regeneration. He had come to realize that being able to take nearly any injury and recover in seconds was his greatest strength, what his entire power revolved around. The issue was that his regeneration required Void Qi to work, and now half of it was being used up by Stillness. He needed to upgrade his body, make it so any type of Qi could be used to regenerate. He also had an idea, but he wasnt sure quite how it would work. He had asked Tali for advice, and while she thought that he was insane, she did say that perhaps he could find a way to do it.

He glanced around, the two of them were up in the mountains, on one of the tallest peaks in the territory. All alone where no one could see them.

He picked up two vials from the spread in front of him, but focused on one. The potion that would allow him to remove his secondary path.

Specialization can bring great strength, Tali said.

Theyve talked about it before, he did know her opinions. He could remove his second path and he would lose little. His second path wasnt nearly as interconnected with his perks as his primary path was. If he did do it though, his next path wouldnt start from nothing again. It would start from the same realm as this one, he couldnt reset it and just upgrade his perks again. He didnt lose anything, but he gained little too. The Path of the Unbreakable Wall was compatible with his second Aspect, he had already tested things and tinkered with his techniques, he had ideas about how to change everything. But, he could also take another Path. Tali had offered one of hersThe Path of the Empty Dominion and the Path of the Clear Sky. Her primary was similar to his Final End in many ways, and while it sounded like it would be compatible, he had his reservations. The Path of the Clear Sky might give him a way to fly without his platforms, but If he was being honest, he did like the utility of his second path.

He shook his head and stored the potion. No, he didnt need a new Path, he would make do with what he had. Plus, he needed the influence of the second path, to temper his need to seek an end. And he did like that Path, he had taken it when no one saw any potential in it, and he made it something better. He would make it greater still.

What now? Tali asked.

Ryun glanced at the second potion, a Class removing one. Removing focuses was not an easy thing, a secondary path was one thing, but an entire focus? The higher tiered they were, the more intertwined they were with the persons identity. The more damage removing them would cause. Tali had told him that removing tier 6 Skills was the hardest, that it was like cutting a piece of yourself off. A Path? It could cripple a person if it was past the True Body stage depending on the type of body. Ryun had at least kept his Class low, so it shouldnt be too bad for him. The issue was what he would lose. His Class perks were what gave him his regeneration, what made it powerful even now. It synergized with his body. He couldnt lose those perks.

He picked up another potion from the ground, the same as the one that he had given to Anrosh. His body was tier 5, which meant that he could use it. The issue that he had now was what to do first. He could join his body with his Class perks, and gain a unique body based on what he already had. Or he advanced his secondary Path first, tried to somehow incorporate Stillness into it, then merge with his Class and gaining a unique perk.

He was just not sure what his upgrade from the second path would be. The nature of the Path and of stillness was more related to endurance, to protection rather than regeneration. He could dilute his bodys power, he didnt know what the Framework would grant him as choices.

He stood up and made his choice, he stored both potions and started pulling his Qi out of his core.

Techniques first, he said.

I agree, Tali added.

He focused first on his primary Path and his Void Aspect. He had figured out many things about Paths, but there were things that he had only learned from Tali. Primarily, how exactly the technique naming works. He could change his techniques but he was slightly confused why the changes didnt always register with the Framework. He had made a dozen different variations on his techniques, but the names and descriptions hadnt changed for him now. When he had complained to Tali about it she just scoffed at him. Its your Path, not Frameworksshe told him. He was the one that made a choice, he only had to accept them. To declare the new primary function of his technique, simply by accepting that that was what it was going to be from that point on. He hadnt been exactly sure so far. Also, she told him that doing that meant that he could also change its name. He hadnt known that, he had always left it to the Framework.

He turned around, away from Tali and moved his Qi in a pattern, activating his {Empowering Null Mantle}. He hadnt changed the core of that technique at all, it was exactly what he needed. He had only worked on making it more effective. His experimentation had allowed him to boost the base boost to 60%, which gave him a 104.5% boost after his Cultivation Bonus. After he activated the technique he let it seep into him, and mentally decided that this was the version of the technique that he would use as primary. He navigated his screens and found the name of the technique, with a slight mental effort he forced it to change and gave it a new name{Mantle of Gathering Twilight}. Tali had convinced him that if he was going to be a Sect Head, someone prominent in the Sect world, he needed to look and sound the part. Obnoxious technique names were apparently part of that. Though, he had to admit, it was cool. He had though a bit on the naming scheme for his techniques, and came up with something that could work well. He attached his techniques to the name of his sect, something that was dear to him.

He had tried to use it with his Stillness too, the effect was slightly different, and he could see it in the description now too. He had two now, one for each Aspect. The Stillness version increased only his endurance, to a really insane level, but it also had serious drawbacks. He doubted that he would ever use it in any real fight.

He moved to his branch technique, gathering the Qi in his arm. He had changed the {Void Beam} technique the most. Its biggest downsides had been the amount of Qi that it needed, or rather the amount that he wasted on it. The beam was fast, but it wasnt that fast. In the tournament he had seen opponents regularly being able to get out of the way, which made him try to follow after them while he kept channeling his technique. The original version of the technique had been {Burst} and he kept in the spirit of that technique. He stored and compressed Qi in his arm, but didnt allow it out. Once the conduits in his hand and forearm were filled, he raised his hand and pointed at the sky with two fingers. Then he rapidly pushed the Qi out, focusing even his will on it. A thin beam of Void blasted out, splitting the sky for a moment. Less than a second, but in combat that was enough time for him to cut someone in half. He had gotten good at charging it quickly, and in time he would get better yet, the small charge time and the lack of constant channeling were offset by the improvement in damage.

He focused on the technique and just like before changed its name. Tali had told him that when he used it the technique resembled a flicker in the air, a quick flash of violet and black of the Void. He named the technique{Twilight Cutting Void Flicker}.

Ryun had realized quickly what naming his techniques meant. It was another advantage, a way of hiding his power, it was why he had debated just making false names. When someone managed to inspect him, they would see these names, and try to assume what his techniques could be. Keeping them vague would be the best. Tali had went with more impressive sounding names. She claimed that being pretentious was part of being a Cultivator. And in the end he had agreed.

His branch technique was also completely useless with Stillness in its current form. Charging and holding Stillness in his body for a prolonged period of time made his hand freeze in space. Not something that he could afford. Not that the technique even worked, he could expel Stillness, but it simply hit the Essence outside of his body and started to still everything around it.

That meant that his fruit technique was unable to use it either, it froze his body without any real benefit. He moved the Void Qi, bringing it to every part of his body. He hadnt changed the technique much, he had gotten rid of the three waves, and instead went with one big one, which increased the charge time. He focused and changed its name, back to the {Final End}. He had always liked that name.

Then, he turned to his second path, his second Aspect.

The two of them had experimented with his new Aspect, and he had done experimenting by himself too. Using Stillness was dangerous. The longer he moved the Qi through his body the more it influenced him. So, he had adapted his techniques to be quick techniques, that expelled the Qi out of his body as quickly as possible.

His first technique, shaping, had been hit hard by the change. The range was shorter, mostly because his control over Stillness wasnt quite there yet and he couldnt keep it from influencing the Essence around it when projecting it outside his body for very long. He had been able to make it work quickly enough in the three and a half meter range around himself. So he would still be able to create his platforms, though now they would work slightly differently. He would create a shape and fill it with stillness, which would then basically still the Essence that came in contact with his Qi, making it solid. His tinkering had actually made it go down in Qi requirements a lot. He didnt need to create big shapes for them to be strong, the stillness was naturally averse to change, which made it tough. He could create thin plates instead of large boxes to hold himself in the air. The walls too could be razor thin and still retain the same toughness. The other thing that was great was that Stillness was invisible to ordinary sight. In his vision it had a grayish color, but Tali had told him that she couldnt see it. It didnt have a violent reaction to other Essence and Qi, so it was harder to detect. It just influenced other Essence. When he created a wall in front of himself, it just stilled the Air, Light, and any other Essence in the area he affected.

He had found very interesting ways of using it. His growing spikes werent really viable, forcing Stillness to move was hard, but, razor sharp wire-like areas that were tough and invisible to most? Oh, there were a lot of things that he could do with this. Plus, the Stillness would affect any Essence it came in contact with for a while before it dissipated. Any attacks that hit his walls would be affected, even those powerful enough to get through. The stillness would slow or stop the first layer of Essences that hit it, and while the Essence that was coming in from behind would be harder to stop, the force pushing forward would eat at his Qi, it would slow any attacks it caught. They had tested it, and the effect did look strange. He had Tali use one of Zenkers wands to throw fireballs at him.

The ball of fire would hit the area of stillness and flatten against it, freeze in the air, until it burned through enough of the stillness to get through, but the change of shape robbed the attack of much power and accuracy.

He focused on the technique and changed its name to {Twilight Shaping Cast}. He could still use it with the Void, and probably would continue to do so, hiding what his second Aspect was and how it changed his techniques for now.

His branch technique was harder and had undergone the greatest change. It was an evolution of the base technique, a simple wall, or a brace as it had been at the start. A shaping of Essence into a crystallized form. He had improved on that, and could now have it take on a form of mist. Ultimately, it was projection of Qi outside of his entire body, like his Final End. So he had taken that idea and ran with it, creating a dual technique. One would blast out Stillness at his max range of three and a half meters and create a still spherical wall around him, a barrier in a way. The second was the mist form version. He could blast a wave of mist that would catch anything coming at him, still any Essence around him. It took some doing to force the Stillness mist wave to move and not impact everything it came in contact with, it still lost some of its effectiveness on Air and Light, but through his will he could force it to target things that had a bit more substance.

It worked, though it did make his surrounding somewhat hard to move through, though with his stats he could just crash through. Any attacks that came at him though would be frozen in the air around him, giving him the time to evade. When used on other people the Stillness did everything in range of freezing them in place to just slowing them down, depending on their power.

He changed the techniques name to {Field of Twilights Calm}.

His last technique still worked better with Void, but it could work with Stillness for a short time before becoming a statue that just radiated Stillness, which could be useful on its own. He altered the name slightly.

With that done, he pulled out his notifications, he dismissed the ones informing him of technique names and then looked over his techniques in full.

Path of the Final End Techniques

Mantle of Gathering Twilight

Increase any or all of your stats by up to 104.5%(60%) of their total while technique is active based on amount of Qi provided. You can empower any individual part of your body. You can shift the bonuses from any stat to any other.

Increase your endurance by 684%(360%). Your body will quickly come to a complete stop and make you unable to move.

Twilight Cutting Void Flicker

Send out a beam of concentrated Qi out of your body, dealing Void energy damage after one second of charging time. Base damage equals 15.2x(8x) of your wisdom. The beam marks anything that it touches, dealing one-quarter of total damage over the next four seconds to anything it touches.

Final End

Unleash a sphere of Void energy in a wave all around you, the energy deals Void damage. The wave will deal increasing damage based on the time it had been charged, one second of charging will deal 17.1x(9x) the damage will increase by x1 every half a second of charging time to the max of 47.5x(25x) your wisdom. Anything marked by the attack takes one quarter of the total damage over the next four seconds.

Path of the Unbreakable Wall Techniques

Twilight Shaping Cast

You may create any shape or anchor out of your Qi. The anchors can be fixed in space, and their durability is equal to 15.2x(8x) of your wisdom. The Void anchors are tied to you with Void Qi and can be moved based on your commands via Qi control. The Stillness anchors rapidly become fixed in place

Field of Twilights Calm

Create five anchors in the shape of armor on your body. Fill the area between these anchors with Void Qi that will disintegrate anything it comes in contact with but will use up and deplete your Void Qi to do so. You may spend 5.5%(10%) of your total Qi to crystallize the outer layer of your Void Qi. Durability of crystallized armor and anchors is equal to 19x (10x) of your wisdom. Destruction of anchors will result in the dissipation of Void Qi.

Send out a spherical anchor of Stillness Qi that shapes a wall around you, the durability of the wall is equal to 19x(10x) your wisdom, or send out a wave of Stillness Qi that will affect everything it touches, the more mass something has the more it will be affected. Max effect is equal to 19x(10x) your wisdom.

Avatar of the Twilight Reaper

Partition your mind and split a minor part of yourself to create a Qi copy of yourself that will have limited initiative and intelligence but will obey the main parts will. It requires 5.5%(10%) of your total Qi to create, and will be able to use your techniques by drawing on your core at the rate of 1.1x(2x) of the techniques costs. The techniques will be only 57%(30%) as effective. The Avatars durability is equal to 3.8x(2x) your wisdom. When made with Stillness Qi, the avatar will quickly become still, and begin radiating the Stillness Qi that had been used to create it.

With that done, he turned back to Tali.

Now I advance my Path, he said.

Tali took a deep breath. Lets hope that your body upgrades are useful enough for what you plan.

Ryun shared her sentiment. He turned his attention to his secondary Path and started advancing.