Chapter 259: Without Any Cost (23)

Isaac had manifested before me in human form. Wasn't he supposed to be trapped inside the crow doll? I recalled him saying that his powers had been sealed by the goddesses' curse.

I knew he was extraordinary, but to slaughter two tower masters in a row? And here I thought I'd gone through so much that nothing could surprise me anymore...

Is this his true power?

Lying on the ground, I stared at him in a daze, asking, "How did you become this strong...?"

Instead of answering, Isaac chuckled softly and placed his hand on me. A dark energy flowed from his palm, and my torn parts slowly sewn themselves back.

[Blessing of Dusk: Increases your Luck stat until the end of the day.]

[Gift of the Monsoon: Wind direction will favor you for a while.]

[Calm Illusion: Grants 5 resistance to all forms of mind control.]

[Sword of Anti-Magic: Increases damage dealt to mages.]

[Shadow Veil: Increases the chance enemies lose track of you during combat.]

Energy returned to my limbs.

"To lose to some spiders that left the tower, you still have a long way to go. Still, using the Force Shield as an offensive move wasn't bad. I never taught you that. How did you come up with it so quickly?"

Two years in a sealed barrier with nothing to do, I ended up experimenting out of boredom. Of course, I didn't say that out loud.

Instead, I turned my gaze toward the two dead tower masters. "Were you hiding your power all along?"

Those monsters looked capable of wiping out 110,000 soldiers, yet Isaac felled them in an instant, blowing their heads open.

He stared straight at me and replied, "What, is it weird for the main character to keep a few tricks up his sleeve?"

"Don't joke with me. Did you sacrifice those human soldiers to gain power?"

Isaac smiled faintly. "Kid... not even thirty thousand human sacrifices would've been enough to manifest even a fraction of my power."

"So, you killed them all?"

He shook his head. "While that might've bought me more time, offering up 110,000 souls would've just been supplementary. I did gain more strength, but offering and spellcraft are two different things."

"What do you mean?"

Crack... Craaack...

Isaac began to split apart. He drew on Malphas's energy to hold himself together, slowing the destruction—but only for a moment. Soon, his skin tore open like paper, emitting a transparent light.

"The power drawn by a spell is causal. Unlike mana or divine power, there isn't a fixed hierarchy."

I couldn't understand what he meant.

Bzzzt... Crackle...

Like parched earth after a decades-long drought, he cracked apart. Yet, no blood spilled, as if nothing had ever been there. Before long, only a transparent outline remained.

"If you still have strength to talk, fix yourself first!"

Even if he'd killed Rubia and deceived me, I still didn't want to see him being torn apart!

Isaac went on as if reciting his final will. "In this case, the price I paid isn't objective, but subjective. After all, for me, offering up a million living sacrifices would draw far less causal weight than sacrificing myself."

"Sacrificing yourself...?"

“For your sake... I gave up a life I endured for hundreds of years. I threw it away in this life, without asking for anything in return. That absurd cause-and-effect... is what let me manifest this strength for a short while."

CRACK!

The force he had used to forcibly stabilize himself shattered like glass.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Half the energy making up his form burst into fragments and scattered.

"Why... Why would you do all this?"

BOOM!

Half of Isaac's face exploded. Yet, not a single drop of brain matter flew out. Again, as if he'd never been made of flesh and blood. Nevertheless, his message echoed directly in my mind.

"If we ever meet again... let's be a little more honest with each other."

With his remaining hand, Isaac raised my sword and collapsed onto it, releasing the last of the energy encasing him.

THUD!

[You have slain Malphas's High Priest.]

[You have achieved an Impossible Feat.]

[Due to a causality intricately set in advance, the Demon King's curse does not fall upon you.]

[Level Up.]

[Level Up...]

.

.

.

[Level Up.]

"What the hell..."

Isaac vanished into smoke. On the blade of my sword, a familiar crow doll was impaled and dangling.

"Be honest...? What does that even mean..."

I stared blankly at the doll, from which a stream of silver liquid dripped, trickling down the blade.

***

The green glow had finally vanished. The bodies of Isaac and the two tower masters lay at my feet. I opened my status window, which was filled to the brim with newly absorbed skills. The ones from the Tower Master of Lightning were listed at the top.

[Lightning Wave Lv. 5 (new!)]

[Trait: Paralysis (new!)

— May paralyze targets struck by Lightning Wave.]

[Trait: Spread (new!)

— Lightning spreads more effectively to nearby targets.]

[Trait: Chain (new!)

— Lightning Wave's damage drop from chaining between enemies is reduced.]

[Trait: Mana Burn (new!)

— If the target is a mage, the lightning burns their mana, dealing additional damage.]

Besides increase in raw power, several traits had also been added. There were absurd effects too—like a lightning explosion on every magic kill, or Health restored with each Lightning Wave hit. However, those were Epic-tier, so I couldn't absorb them yet. My Essence Absorption experience bar hadn't moved. Perhaps the third tier was the limit.

[Spell Insight Lv. 3 (new!)

— Allows you to perceive hidden magical power.

— At the current level, you can only identify elemental attributes.]

[Stack Amplification Lv. 2 (new!)

— Stacking the same spell increases its power by 1.5 times.]

This would pair incredibly well with Dual Casting...

[Mana Distortion Lv. 1 (new!)

— Causes hostile spells to question their true caster.

— Grants a chance to nullify incoming spells or reduce the damage taken.

— Nullification and damage reduction rates increase with level.]

With this, I could honestly start identifying as a full-fledged mage. The abilities from the Tower Master of Innocence weren't to be underestimated either.

[Magical Alchemy Lv. 3 (new!)

— You've begun to understand the extraction, transformation, and fusion of elemental substances.]

[Venomous Eye Lv. 3 (new!)

— Easily detects toxic components in any material.]

[Plant Material Harvesting Lv. 2 (new!)

— Allows the extraction of useful substances from plants and trees.

— At higher levels, you can use it to create new plant species.]

[Animal Material Harvesting Lv. 1 (new!)

— Allows the extraction of useful substances from beasts, birds, and fish.

— At higher levels, you can alter extraction results through systematic abuse.]

[Fungal Harvesting Lv. 1 (new!)

— Allows the extraction of useful materials from mushrooms and moss.

— At higher levels, you can culture fungi in plants or animals.]

[Material Refinement Lv. 1 (new!)

— Stabilizes and transforms extracted substances into usable forms.

— At higher levels, allows crafting.]

If elixirs were the pinnacle of this path, it would have to be something like the marquis's own. I'd need to identify the materials before extracting anything. Meanwhile, I only had the Venomous Eye, so I could only craft poisons. Still, just having venom was decent enough.

Thanks to Purson's snake follower, I had three poison-related skills, but they were all active skills that consumed energy. Still, with the Tower Master of Innocence's abilities, I could likely pull off a mass killing just as easily as he did against the army of 110,000.

Of course, these abilities weren't just limited to killing. The chemical knowledge told me that these substances could also drive people insane or cause hallucinations. Perhaps, I'd be able to cultivate a powder that rendered mage unable to use their magic. That was still a long way off, though.

Next was Isaac.

[Occult Knowledge Lv. 5 (new!)

— You understand the following concepts.

— Retribution (Basic), Jinx, Malice (Basic), Grudge (Basic), Possession, Proof of Sin, Delusion.]

[Barrier Knowledge Lv. 5 (new!)

— You understand the following concepts.

— Dual Barriers, Barrier Compression, Barrier Erosion, Barrier Release, False Mimicry.]

[Tactics (Ground) Lv. 9 (new!)

— High proficiency in Flanking Maneuvers, Encirclement and Annihilation, Cavalry Charge, and Diagonal Formations.

— Taonier Circular Formation: You have mastered the one-strike-and-retreat tactic of mounted archers.

— Codetalker's Maxim: You have mastered phalanx tactics for Ironman-style formations.

— Neo Fidelity: You have mastered the golden rule of defeating enemies one by one.]

All these astonishing fields of knowledge were quickly being assimilated into me. Knowledge so overwhelming, it was hard to hold myself together. Just sorting through it took a long time. Besides that, there wasn't a single skill I could absorb from Isaac.

I recalled the moment I had tried to absorb his skill.

[Curse: Tilted Causality

— When you curse someone, there's no need to dig two graves. You'll be fine, while they die miserably, denied even a proper burial.

— You tip the scales of causality entirely toward your opponent. The curse will never come back to haunt you.]

It couldn't be more appealing on paper, yet I couldn't pull the light into me.

[Curse: Self-Hatred

— When cutting away the parts of your opponent that mirror your own, the threads of causality become easier to pull.]

[This power is Epic grade. You cannot absorb it.]

[This power is Soul-Bound. You cannot absorb it.]

[This power is Soul-Bound. You cannot absorb it.]

[Grade is unmeasurable. You cannot absorb it.]

The same went with the rest. The light merely lingered near me, refusing to go further. I couldn't even identify what they were. All I knew was that every single one of them was far,

far

too high in grade.

Ultimately, aside from knowledge, the only real power I gained came from the two tower masters. Even so, I felt reborn. Now, only one thing remained.

"..."

I stared at the silver liquid leaking from the crow doll. It was still upright, so the Lurium hadn't flowed out yet.

Before I regressed, Rena had possessed eight vials of Lurium. Even the past had been altered by their influence. By the time I last saw her, she had risen far beyond her original identity as a T&T branch manager.

Lurium... the catalyst that transforms the world.

To absorb all the Lurium within the doll, or preserve it. Isaac's next life would be determined by that choice. Agonizing over it until the end, I finally made my decision.

Shhhhhh!

A soft, silvery light soaked into me, and a new status window opened midair.

[Determining Race...]

[Analyzing possessed skills...]

[Assimilation Rate has decreased.]

[A new class has been unlocked.]

[Lich]