Chapter Thirty Three, Esmerelda Ashpalm.
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Days were spent, absorbing information, and interacting with the young gods. For the first time since their creation, Jora spent more than a fleeting moment in their presence. They discovered the affairs of Aeternum, Jora helped them in their Hell Project, and opened the dimensional gateway to this new realm, stabilizing it. That was a simple endeavor, Ana was the one that would have to govern and control it anyway.
He listened to their banter, joined in on the fun. He watched over a couple spars, that let him get an understanding of real S-rank power... A little head start of knowledge on what he would be dealing with in Yara.
Most importantly, he siphoned an ability from each of these four S-ranks. He consumed their main Soul Skill, refraining from taking anything more just yet. Ana had notified him that he would need to level up some more before he did that...
With Power Descend he easily replaced their skills, and that little act boosted Power Descend into it's evolution.
A grand one, thanks to his new Adapting Evolution Soul Skill.
Jora smiled at that. Just one evolution boosted the Intrinsic skill up to an unfamiliar level.
He felt it was a powerful as a Soul skill in itself...
He couldn't wait to evolve his skills and combine them into more Soul skills... He could only imagine their power after going through supercharged evolution!
But he chose to focus on what he currently had.
Beneath him, was a massive A-rank dragon, an ancient beast that had power rivalling the S-ranks of Yara...
He glanced at his Status, for the last time before he returned to the outside world.
Two of the Soul skills from his children, even brought about new entrances to his Status. Chaos Element and Belief Energy... The skills had altered his soul to be able to store the elements of chaos and belief... It let him see, and manipulate them as well.
He had gained two more elusive energies, but they did not function in the same manner as mana. They were not replenishing pools, but containers for the elements. He could harness the energy, and store it, for it to be used as another source, like mana. But it would not replenish..
He would simply have to cultivate the element. Absorb chaos and belief!
Two more Soul skills with massive potential...
As for Blood Deity, and Aeternal Saint... He had obtained perfect control over blood. The ability to enchant it with energy, hardening, manipulating, and controlling. Best of it, he could imprint his soul into his own blood, effective immortality.
He could store pieces of himself in drops of blood, to later revive in. Or he could store his power into his blood, being able to boost another with it. Blood Pearls. Little experience orbs. If he wanted, he could sacrifice his soul power for experience. The half of his soul power that catered towards his skills... That way, he could trade out the power of his skills, in exchange for more experience!
Or he could just condense the soul and blood of others into Blood Pearls...
Aeternal Saint gave him an unparalleled healing ability... His soul was imprinted with the ability to heal, and revive others. Boost their power, unlock classes, evolve.
An auxiliary skill, but with great miscellaneous benefits.
He smiled deeply.
As a slime, his whole body had somehow fallen into the category of being blood... Blood Deity indirectly gave him perfect bodily control, and he didn't complain at that.
Soaring through the air, his hand slushed, swapping forms like water with a mind of its own.
He stood to his feet, the dragon he was atop, weaving around clouds.
His hand slushed, and he watched as it's colors swapped, its density changing, becoming harder, and softer.
Thanks to Biokinetic Mastery, he was able to change the composition of the smallest bits of his body.
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Cells, as he had learned they were called.
With a chuckle, he leapt off of the beast.
He soared through the skies, pulled downwards by gravity.
His back faced the ground, and his arms were outspread.
"Now... To get stronger. Find the two humans. Find the gods? That should be up there as well... Less find, more so draw them out? The emperor could get me an audience... But he's SSS-rank. Got to be strong enough to comfortably stand by him first... Or maybe I visit the World Dungeon? The Dungeon Core of that place should be able to get me an audience as well... But once again, I'll probably have to be SSS-rank to reach the depths..." He fell for a long while.
But he was undisturbed.
He questioned his next moves.
And then he quickly touched down on the ground.
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With a jolt, he awoke within his body. Darkness surrounded him, dirt pressing against his body.
And then, his mana seeped outwards. Instantly, his body seeped into separate spatial layers, being unbound by his coordinates. He phased through the dirt, urging himself upwards in space.
His mana carried him in that direction, having adopted the spatial composition, carrying the properties of that element.
Notifications chimed in his head, as the new activity opened up more understanding with his soul. Despite the fact that he was using mana to tamper with space, his mind could easily infer the way to do it with soul power as well.
His Spatial Manipulation skill, instantly skyrocketed upwards in usability.
Another Intrinsic skill, that he inherently felt was far more powerful...
"[Yeah... You really became a whole lot more, cheat-y...]" Ana spoke to him, and he smiled.
He missed her mental narration.
His body rose through the land, appearing upon the surface, the high strung sun bearing down on his body.
His body moved forward within the spatial layers, becoming physical once more.
His feet touched the ground, and he looked downwards.
"Looks like I lost my pants..." He murmured.
"[Makes sense... Flamehold collapsed, exploded, and you were spit out somewhere random... In the ground, as we can see.]" He nodded, having made that assumption already.
He flicked a finger, shedding some of his flesh, his blood... With Biokinesis, he controlled the cells, altering their form, turning them into a biopolymer... Rather quickly, he was equipped in black pants once more, baggy like those he wore in Aeternum.
Just an outfit he was used to...
On his feet, bindings appeared, taking that sense of fashion from Joriah.
He stomped down a couple times, his hands on his hips. Then his face raised back towards the sky.
"Mid day." He noted, blocking out the beaming light.
He glanced around. He was in a random plain. A hilly terrain, with green grass, and flowers strewn across the landscape.
Sniff...
A smell filtered into his nose.
He turned his body in the complete opposite direction he was facing.
Atop a small hill just in the distance.
A woman.
And they had locked eyes.
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Esmerelda Ashpalm. In her young eighty years of life, she had strictly seen her kind. And the wildlife of the world. Of course, she had visited Dungeons, and seen monsters. She had seen monsters in the wild. She had hunted them. She had grown pretty well. She was above the curve. C-rank and not even an adult yet. Even though she had only ten years left until true adulthood, though... That was when most of her people reached C-rank.
The point was, that in all eighty years, she had never encountered another humanoid...
But now that had changed.
She had rounded a hill in the great plains outside of the forest. Just looking for some fun, a few animals to speak to. But she had come across something different.
A man.
One that she did not recognize.
She knew every face from this corner of the Romar Forest... His was not familiar.
He did not have the pointy ears. She did not feel that same connection with him... Though, the elements did flock to him. Mana did seem eager to be used by him...
If she was missing that inherent connection, and he was adorned with their pointy ears...
She would have surely thought he was a wandering elf.
Their eyes had met, and honestly, her heart sunk. As he stared, a small blip of energy entered her, and she could easily recognize it.
She was just surprised he had succeeded... Yara's mana usually denied most from easily peering into her Status... Just a benefit of her blood, a benefit of being Sensitive, and blessed by the elements...
A hint of surprise grew onto the mans face, and Esmerelda's brows furrowed.
And then he was right in front of her face.
"Ah!" She yelped, jumping backwards. She lost her footing, stumbling back onto the ground.
She glanced upwards, looking directly into the man's face.
She was shocked, her face flat. She brushed her grey hair out of her face, keeping eye contact with the person before her.
He spoke words.
A language she didn't understand.
He seemed to understand her confusion.
And then, thoughts entered her mind.
"How are you on this fine afternoon, Esmerelda?"
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He stared at the woman beneath him. Her blank expression giving him a strange feeling.
She had long, silvery hair, that fell loosely around her shoulders. A part of it was braided on one side, drawing attention to her hair in its entirety. Two ears poked out of her hair, sharp and pointy, non-human clearly. Her eyes were vibrant, a honey gold, reminiscent of the likes of Ana'fae. Her skin was a dull color, pale, but with a grey hue. She looked rather worn, but he did not judge.
She wore tattered clothes. Fabrics that were frayed at the edges. A dress, of a similarly dull color, a dirty ashen blue.
Eerily enough, she seemed to be unflinching... Minus the small surprise he had given her, teleporting right in front of her face...
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He tilted his head, his eyes glancing over towards the screen he had summoned.
"You're an Elf?" Jora spoke.
The woman only stared back.
In that brief moment of physical silence, he tuned into Ana's background noise.
"[I WANT IT!]" She yelled. "[We need to add Elves to Aeternum... I should have thought about the High Races beyond humans... There's only humans, and demons... The rest are monsters and beasts... Let's do it! We can harvest from Yara so that I can easily replicate their bloodlines in Aeternum!... Or we can just steal souls and bodies! Transport them directly! Transmigration...]" Ana rambled.
'So you want me to eat her?' He asked.
"[No. Eating her wont reap any benefits... Look at her. She's a bumpkin... I guarantee she has no profound knowledge, and she definitely doesn't have anything else worth obtaining... I presume you use her to get in contact with the Elves. They definitely have a means of boosting your power... If we're on the same continent, which I assume we are, this should be the Romar Forest behind her... They should have a World Dungeon... They're relatively kind people, if you trade something worthy, they should let you dive in...]" She replied.
Hearing that, he nodded.
"[You can eat any Elves that enter the Dungeon... I still want their blood in Aeternum. The repercussions should be far lesser in the Dungeon, if there even are any...]"
Of course, he would rather just eat everyone, get their powers and souls, and then dive into the World Dungeon, but that wasn't feasible.
He knew the Elves were powerhouses... They surely had an SSS-rank amongst their population. Who knows how many S-ranks...
So, he equipped a smile, his psionics seeping into the Elven girl's mind.
"How are you on this fine afternoon, Esmerelda?"
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