"... starting from understanding these new skills in depth"
"The first? King’s Aura."
"My second oldest skill," Ryuk mused silently to himself.
[Not a skill you use very often,] the system said—and to that, he had no choice but to reluctantly agree.
"That’s correct. King’s Aura is one of the skills I used the least, and I barely even upgraded it—it’s still only Lv. 1 even after all this time."
[And what’s the reason behind that?] the system asked.
Ryuk thought about it quietly for a minute before replying.
"Because I had too many skills previously."
"King’s Aura is an intimidation skill that also helps bolster Isha and Void’s strength, but I barely used it."
"And that’s because I had a plethora of different skills that were just more effective in dealing with combat situations compared to King’s Aura."
"That’s the sole reason why I almost forgot its existence," Ryuk admitted, nailing the exact reason, but his heart steeled.
"But this time, I’ll take a different path."
"My previous path was about having too many skills—most of them still only at level 1—activated all at once to boost my physical stats."
"In short, I had quantity, but not quality."
"Stacking too many skills truly improves power, but it also causes strain, and truly mastering a single one becomes nearly impossible."
"But now, with just four skills, I can focus solely on each and grasp their fundamental concepts." Ryuk mused, finding a new light and path in the darkness that had enveloped him.
For that reason, he ordered:
"Hey, system?"
[Yes?]
"Input 49 Ability Upgrade Cards into King’s Aura."
[Ability Upgrade Order Has Been Given]
[-Initiating Upgrade Sequence]
[49 Ability Upgrade Cards Recognized]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Stabilizing Path]
[1%...25%...49%...76%...95%...]
[Upgrade Completed]
[Congratulations, Host, on upgrading King’s Aura to Level 50!]
╠════════════════════════════════════════════╣
[King’s Aura] (Lv. 50)
Type: Beast Sovereign Skill
Mode: Passive-Active Hybrid
Description: An overwhelming sovereign presence that radiates from the Host, instilling dominance across the battlefield. Every heartbeat from the Beast Sovereign resonates with primal command, pushing his bonded beasts to ferocity while cowing enemies into submission.
🡒 +200% Attack Power to all bonded beasts
🡒 Enemy beasts within range suffer -50% morale, with an increased chance of retreat or disobedience, based on how weak each beast is compared to the user.
🡒 Wild beasts are drawn to the Host with a significantly higher chance to submit, even without combat.
Bonus Trait:
🡒 Beast Magnetism: The Host radiates a natural pull on all untamed creatures. Beasts instinctively view the Host as an apex existence, not just a master, but a king.
🡒 Beast King Edict: The Host becomes the embodiment of a primal law—one that compels all beasts within range of the Host’s aura to obey any command issued instantly. Only beasts of Ancestral-level or higher may attempt to resist—and even then, they must succeed in a Will Clash against the User’s Beast Authority.
══════════════════════════════════════════════
"Excellent. This is the highest skill level of all the skills I’ve ever possessed, and the effects are very good too," Ryuk mused to himself.
The highest he remembered he had ever upgraded a skill at once was Level 30, but he had upgraded King’s Aura to Level 50.
With this, perhaps he could even command beasts without needing to contract them, and what’s more, they could not disobey, while his contracted beasts would gain a powerful 200% boost upon activation.
’I’ll find a chance to try it out soon,’ he thought before moving to the other skill tabs.
"My next skill is the Sovereign Rewriting, a skill I got from the Annunaki Model fused with me by High Scholar Emeris." He recalled.
It was the skill that allowed him to collapse objects by altering the bonds that made them what they were, and also restructure energy attacks sent toward him to rebound back at the attacker.
A good defensive skill, but now, it had reached its max level.
’Surprisingly, I’ve only gotten one skill from this Annunaki model.’
’I wonder if there are requirements I need to fulfill to acquire other skills—or is this the only one that comes with this model?’ Ryuk pondered.
His previous Annunaki model came with skills like Abyssal Nano-Reaper, Annunaki Oblivion, and more, but this one had only a single skill.
He didn’t know the reason, but couldn’t afford to dwell on it too much.
Since the skill was already maxed out, there was nothing more to do but familiarize himself with it when he had the chance.
Even at just Level 30, it could already rewrite techniques.
At its current max level, he had no idea what it could truly be capable of, but he was expectant.
With that out of the way, he moved on to the next skill.
"I awakened two skills from the new Beyonder Dragon Bloodline."
"The first is the Beyonder Dragon transformation, which I activated during my fight with Elder Nogarasukue."
"Reading through it now... it finally makes sense why I could overpower him with just one strike."
"Upon activation, all of my stats are automatically boosted to 20,000—a level which places me firmly in the mid-Exignis stage."
"No cultivator below Apocrypha stage should be able to resist that."
’And it also has a command skill... called Beyond?’ he thought, recalling the moment when he had shouted ’halt’—and all the remaining elders had halted.
’I must have been using the skill back then.’
’No doubt about it—this Beyonder Dragon skill is very powerful, even now, when it’s only at Level 1.’
’How powerful would it be if I upgraded it to level 30? Or 40? Or—just to match King’s Aura—upgraded it all the way to level 50?’ he wondered.
The idea sparked excitement in him, and in that very moment, he made his choice.
"Hey, system."
[Yes, Host]
"Input 49 Level Up Cards into the Beyonder Dragon skill."
[Ability Upgrade Order Has Been Given]
[-Initiating Upgrade Sequence]
[49 Ability Upgrade Cards Recognized]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Stabilizing Path]
[1%...25%...49%...76%...95%...]
[Upgrade Completed]
[Congratulations, Host, on upgrading Beyonder Dragon to Level 50!]