The scars in my soul carried over; those, the loop cannot reset, and therefore it became both my blessing and my curse.
I could imagine a scenario where my scars did not carry over, then that meant I would have no memories of what had happened, and so I would spend this one hour of my life, forever in a loop, and I would not be aware of it.
This thought made me shiver in fear, because I felt that this could be very possible, and perhaps whatever made me stay in the loop, that mysterious grand engine in the darkness, what if it was unable to bring back all the changes in my soul and push it into my body when I wake?
I assume it would be easier to reset me without the scars from the future.
Still, these were all speculations that would get me nowhere, and the loop was the way it was, and I had no say in how it operated.
So I lay on my cot in the light of the early morning, and I opened my status screen, and looked at what fifteen deaths and one rebuilding had made of me.
∞
I pulled it up whole. All of it, at once. I wanted to see the shape of myself, the way you want to see a whole map and not one road.
[Name: Elric Voss]
[Age: 16]
[Title: Demon Slayer (Epic) — Third Earth Gate progression]
[Available Titles: Death-Touched, Acolyte]
[Anima Depth: 50 (Acolyte) Broken-Celestial]
[Reforged Shell — Cor Telluris]
Geometry: Ancient Shell
Channels Grown: 312 / 10,008
[Disciplines:]
Lightning Dominion: 68 (Adept — Epic)
Surge: 69 (Adept)
Lightning Cascade: 51 (Acolyte)
Threadwork: 56 (Acolyte)
[Attunement Skills:]
[Lightning Resonance: 59 (Acolyte)]
[Staff Resonance: 43 (Acolyte)]
[Force Resonance:1 (Initiate)] - New
[Auxiliary Skills:]
Endurance: 60 (Broken-Celestial)
Concentration: 64 (Adept)
Observation: 61 (Acolyte)
[Meditation 49 (Acolyte)]
Marksman: 59 (Acolyte) — Uncommon
Anima Sensitivity: 53 (Acolyte)
Demonology: 59 (Acolyte) — Rare — Unregistered — [Blocked]
Inscription, First Aid, Cooking, Cartography (minor)
[Celestial-tier Skills (Broken-Celestial):]
Mortal Shell: 79 (Adept)
Hollow Avatar: 45 (Acolyte)
Abyssal Direction: 10 (Initiate)
Soul-Forge: 23 (Initiate)
Lightning Incarnate: 29 (Initiate)
Abyssal Toll: 1 (Initiate) — Unique - New
Stored Essence:19,002 / 50,000
Soul Condition: Welded
∞
The changes I could see were stunning, and they grounded me in a way that nothing ever could, because this was the testament that everything I was enduring in these loops was real and mattered.
For a moment, I just sat with my growth because it was almost overwhelming. Without the loop, this was all years, if not decades, of slow growth, and I had managed to compress them to a few short loops.
Some of these changes I had glimpsed during the last loop, but all of my skills had seen growth, especially mortal shell and Endurance... that skill had grown back up to 60, even after nearly all of it had dispersed away when I transformed my marrows.
However, all of this was expected; what was not was that I had gained Force Resonance. How did I acquire it?
Closing my eyes and thinking about the last loop, I smiled when I realized how I had been wasting one of my most potent tools for quickly acquiring resonance in the disciplines of my choice.
I did not know all the abilities of an Arcanist, but I think one reason I was able to fool Orath into thinking I was an Arcanist was that I had effortlessly wielded my element without a focus, even changing my body into lightning.
That sort of change to the body of a mage should only happen when the channel of the body is properly developed and very powerful. Normally, this would take decades, even centuries, for the body to be able to adapt to moving all of these forces inside the body; however, my broken celestial skills and my ability to push my body until it shattered into pieces had given me the tools to wield all of these forces in advance.
When my staff was destroyed, I began to fight using my body alone, and I applied Surge to my spells anytime I had the space for it, and moving all that power of Surge through all my channels had essentially given me the practice of a few years into a few moments.
The channels being built by Cor Telluris were different from my previous channels. They were wider, more durable, able to store and conduct power far past what was normal, and when I placed my new and enhanced Anima into the picture, then gaining Resonance should be incredibly easy.
Before the eruption, I would see if practicing Threadwork without a Staff would give me an unexpected surprise.
This path of exploring other elemental disciplines was usually left to Adepts and Arcanists with their long lifespan, but with everything I had seen in the loop, it would be impossible for me to make any relevant changes if I did not push myself beyond any sort of common sense.
My Anima Depth was growing faster than expected, and I did not know what was at the end of this path for me. With over a third of the requirements for the Third Earth Gate completed, I could see myself even reaching it in this loop or the next if I really pushed myself and focused on the demons.
Cor Telluris had nearly exhausted all the materials from the Narghul Sorcerers I had killed, and it meant that killing more sorcerers was always my greatest priority, because reforging all of my channels would give me a power spike that could change this entire loop.
Even an Arcanist should have fewer than fifty primary channels, but I would not be a mage any longer with 10,008 reforged channels. By that time, I don’t know what sort of being I would become.
In addition to all of my growing spells and skills, I did not doubt that the moment all of my channels were complete, I would emerge from this loop.
Maybe this was all wishful thinking, but I had a solid grasp on my powers and the changes that I was experiencing, and I had no doubt that I would change my fate with that power.
Finally, I checked the last Celestial tier spell that I had just gained, and this was not just any celestial spell; it was unique.
I had never seen a tag like this or read of any tag like this being possible for a skill, at least not at my level. However, this did not mean that I did not know the meaning of unique.