It had been a while since I gained a new skill or a title, and I believed I may know the reason for this, and it must be tied to the loop.
In the beginning, I was very weak, and my deaths were so pathetic and violent that I needed skills to survive, and every time I did something that someone of my level was not supposed to achieve, I gained skills and titles.
However, the stronger I became and the fact that the loop was bringing me back from death, the threats I could face became more manageable, and to acquire new skills and titles, I had to give far more than anyone else ever did.
My skills and spells had fused and grown from achieving ridiculous feats and surviving when I should not, and I was aware that any new spells or title I would be gaining would no longer be normal, due to the fact that I was now a very abnormal being.
To further understand this new spell with its unique tag, I called up my status screen and focused on it, and the System presented it to me with a flourish that surprised me... it was almost as if it was happier than I, who just gained a new spell.
[ Titan’s Marrow ]
Rank 1 — Unique — Broken-Celestial
The bearer commands the density of his own flesh. What may be pressed inward may be driven outward: bone, sinew, and substance unfolded in true proportion. The enlarged form does not weaken with size. It is fed by the density it spends; with greater mass comes greater force.
Fuel: Celestial Marrow. Anima is not consumed.Spent marrow regenerates slowly.
-The lesson of the giant is written in the marrow of one who learned to be small.
The small quip at the end there was almost too personal. I don’t know if the system was fully aware of the loop, but I knew that it seemed to be communicating more and more with me as I was getting stronger, and I wondered when I would be able to understand the true capabilities of this System and how it was fused to my soul.
However, these were questions for another time. For now, I read through the details of the skill, trying not to let my excitement bleed into my face, but I know I had failed from the wide grin I was wearing.
My first Unique Celestial Spell, Abyssal Toll, lived a very short life before it was fused with Surge and Lightning Cascade to create a Legendary Discipline, Lightning Edict.
I had not had much time to use that spell, and I did not regret its loss since I believed that Lightning Edict was far more powerful than Abyssal Toll, and I had not even begun to scratch the surface of what this skill could do.
Now with a new Unique Celestial Skill, I could not wait to sink my teeth into it. At first, I wanted my entire body to enlarge, but I could not, and I nearly slapped myself in embarrassment.
Unlike my disciplines that began at the Adept Rank, every Celestial Skill I had gained started from the Initiate level, and I could not change my entire body with this skill at this point; I had to grow the skill until it reached this level.
Shifting my attention from my entire body, I held up my right hand in the grey light and willed it to be bigger.
I had gained experience using Lightning Incarnate and Soul Forge, and so I knew that Celestial Skill did not need incantation or any mystical signs or gestures; only a firm will was enough.
Titan’s Marrow did not run on Anima the way my lightning did, and this caught my interest, because I now effectively had a new power system inside my body, my own marrow, the dense Celestial substance the gates had built into my bones, and I could spend it like fuel.
I told my hand to be bigger, and I felt the marrow in the bones of it answer, and the hand grew.
The transformation was filled with a unique charm, and it was not bloated. Bone, sinew, and skin scaled up together in proportion, the fingers lengthening, the palm broadening, until my right hand was three times the size of my left hand, and yet every part of it still worked, and it did not resemble a balloon.
My hand was stronger due to this transformation, as I felt as if the current size of my hand was now my true size, and my previous smaller hand was something that I was pretending to have.
It was an odd feeling, but I kind of liked it. With a bigger hand, I had more marrow, and that meant more of the dense Celestial substance driving the muscle, and the larger hand with a force the smaller one could not have managed.
I brought the hand to my face, and it covered my entire head; my fingers could even touch themselves at the back of my head, and a disbelieving chuckle came from me... damn, magic can be so cool, especially Celestial magic.
Then I let it go, and the hand shrank back to its own size, and the marrow it had spent ached as it refilled, and I closed my eyes, feeling what it meant to be spending my marrow instead of Anima.
From what I could discern, my Marrow regenerated more slowly than my Anima, but I hoped that as I kept growing Titan’s Marrow, this skill would begin to enhance my Celestial Marrow and become more refined until the cost would become something I could manage for the long term.
I had spent nine loops learning to be faster and denser; Lightning Incarnate had made me quick. Mortal Shell had made it hard for me to break, and now I could be larger.
I was usually the smallest thing on the battlefield, and remembering how Vrakth used his size and strength to break me multiple times in battle was a very humbling example of what size could get you, even in a magical fight.
There may be spells that could expand the body, but I doubted they worked like Titan’s Marrow, and with one hour left until the eruption, I could not wait to see how far I could go.
I had decided that in this loop, I would complete Cor Telluris, enter the pyramid, and begin the final preparation of stopping this eruption, and I tried not to think of what that would mean for me.