The last time Grey saw one of these seeds, he had just touched it and it shot itself into his body all on its own. This time, he felt the very same hunger he had felt when he saw the arms of the Old Ones. It was like his body was salivating at the prospect of taking it, like it couldn’t wait to evolve.
Grey almost immediately checked his status page to see if there were any changes to his INT and PER again. Last time, he had gained an outrageous +100% boost to each of them.
But he had only taken a single glance when it felt like his body exploded.
Streaks of lightning tore a path out from his pores and from a third party’s perspective, it almost looked as though he was being torn apart from the inside out.
Yet, though Grey felt a little bit of discomfort, he certainly wasn’t feeling anything that could be said to be close to pain.
The feeling was similar to what he experienced when he tried to take on the Command and Dominion Class Cyber Warps, like his mind was being forcefully expanded.
But maybe because he had already survived the trauma of both of those things, and he had rested enough that his soul had healed once more, stronger and firmer, and more elastic than ever before for that matter, this was...
Easy.
Grey’s hair stood on end, swaying in the air. Sparks of electricity pulsed in his eyes like he was activating Core Sync continuously.
His connection with his Abilities deepened. His resonance with what they were, what they could be, and where they originated from growing vastly more polished and perfect.
Grey had already reached Core Sync with all of his abilities. Something that was impossible for most just came as easy as breathing for him.
Grey this somehow felt... different.
That was when Grey recalled something that Sir Trolley, his master, had explained to him, something that he had been so busy he hadn’t really put much thought into.
Abilities came in three categories.
Passive Link, Active Link, and finally... Core Sync.
However, Core Sync, as Edmun had told him, was further divided into percentages.
Meaning... from 0% to 100%.
Grey had never really thought about what percentages his Core Syncs were at because he didn’t really have time to train in the first place. He hardly even looked at his status page anymore because they couldn’t really give him a good grasp of where his strength was at.
Plus, he had dozens of abilities now, and keeping track of all of them felt like a waste of time. They were all somewhere between Level 15 and Level 20, but at this point the enemies he was facing all had stats in the Level 40, to 50, and even some in the 60 ranges.
The worst part was that his core stats were just too weak to level them beyond where they were now. While he could reach thousands of points using his mechs, his body was limited in what it could do.
This was the reason why his abilities had been stagnant for such a long time and barely shifted about.
His base stats were around 500, which should have been more than enough to at least reach the Established Class and start pushing his Abilities to Level 30. But... because he had so many Abilities and Frames, his body needed to be far stronger than normal to do that.
He was being limited by his own body’s bandwidth.
As talented as his mind and his Neural Frame was, he had the body of a human from a Cracked World. His starting position couldn’t have been any lower.
Making it to Core Sync in even one ability at Level 20 was already a miracle given how poor his base stats were.
Making it to Core Sync with dozens of abilities, well... that was the makings of a monster. A truly untouchable one.
And now, while Grey’s body didn’t gain another +100% boost to his stats... it felt like his mind had opened up like a blooming flower and his Core Sync percentages finally starting ticking up from 0%.
Grey could feel it spreading, and as it spread, the feeling was quickly becoming diluted.
’I can’t let it dilute... otherwise...’
Grey took a deep breath and made a decision. He had too many Frames, and these lightning seeds weren’t coming around all the time. He didn’t know how many Volthari were coming, but Thi Lan’s contract only said she had to kill two. So there were good odds there wouldn’t be many more than that if at all.
And as much as he would like to go and find where their zones were and start the same killing spree they had started here, he had no idea where they were and there was no way, even with his advantages, that he could fight so many of them.
So, he had to make a hard decision.
Give the benefits to just one of his Frames.
Time slowed to him and his mind felt that there were only two logical choices. Either his Last Paladin Frame or his Mechanical Jaw Frame.
Last Paladin being stronger would help him and Amunet alike because he would be able to make better use of the Bringer of Light gloves, not to mention the fact it was the only Frame he had the bloodline for. Right now, it was probably his strongest asset with Dark Sovereign being right behind.
However... his Mechanical Jaw Frame was the reason he was able to unlock this hidden ability of the lightning seed. It felt like he was gaining far more out of it this time than he had the first.
The problem was... he didn’t have any Abilities for his Mechanical Jaw Frame even now. And to make matters worse, he wasn’t yet clear on how to get them.
Was there a trial? Did he have to make them on his own? Some other method he didn’t know of?
’Make a choice.’ Grey said, knowing his time was running out.
So that was exactly what he did.