Chapter 228: Big Cat
Zarek wasn’t actually sure if he was on the right track or not. But the world Axiograft had opened up for him was truly something else.
He had been able to feel this with just D Class Mastery. Despite the relatively low Mastery, it still allowed him to grasp something so interesting about an A Class Skill with B Class Mastery.
Who was to say that more secrets wouldn’t become clear to him later on?
Ironically enough, things were working out perfectly. Zarek’s foundational understanding of \[Ash Reborn] and Ashen Gate was so deep that he already understood exactly how best to utilize these additional abilities.
Rather than needing an adjustment period, it felt more like he was gaining exactly what he needed to take the next step forward. And thanks to this, his forward progress actually became countless times easier.
When using an Ashen Soul, the cost of \[Ash Reborn] actually plummeted. Due to that, it hardly took much effort at all for Zarek to continuously swap in a new Ashen Soul for every kill he had.
Also, from what he could tell, the deeper his comprehension of the Turned, the easier it was to deploy it, thus lowering the difficulty even further.
There had to be some sort of connection between himself and the Ashen Souls, otherwise Axiograft wouldn’t work on them. But regardless, Axiograft seemed to be such a high-level Talent that Zarek had yet to come across an Ashen Soul he couldn’t fully comprehend in a single instant of time.
As he moved ahead, Zarek was slowly beginning to realize that it wasn’t that Axiograft had some shocking, unique synergy with \[Ash Reborn] or the Ashen Gate Talent in general—it was instead that Axiograft, by design, could bolster the power of his various abilities in roundabout ways that were just as numerous.
There might not be a single Skill or Talent he could get his hands on that Axiograft wouldn’t provide a huge boost to. And that made Zarek’s attention turn to \[Tempting Fate] once again, a Skill that he was progressing by far the most slowly in.
’Hm... let’s test it out, then.’
He had months of time before he reached his destination. If he didn’t use it for more training, what else would he use it for?
...
’Perfect.’
Zarek lay crouching. Before him lay a plain that he hadn’t been to yet but felt familiar nonetheless.
It was a sea of tall grass not much unlike the location he and Thalion had spawned directly into at the start of all of this.
Not long ago, he had been attacked by a lurking big cat Turned. It was so fast that Zarek couldn’t pin exactly what it was or what it had evolved from, but this was exactly what he wanted to test.
\[Tempting Fate] was a taunting Skill. But it was only B Class. So, at D+ Mastery, there was no way it could worm into the mind of a B Class Turned to make it give up its stealth and attack.
Of course, Zarek also didn’t want to use \[Tempting Fate] like this either. He didn’t plan to use the Skill as intended to begin with. But if he wanted his plan for it to work out, he needed to first raise its Mastery sufficiently.
Unfortunately, he had never had this particular taunting Skill. So though he had some familiarity with taunting Skills in general, a week was only about enough for D+ Mastery.
Now, it was time to see if a new approach for using Axiograft might work.
’I managed to find a new way to use \[Ash Reborn] because I had already mastered all of the external uses of the Skill. What I had never mastered was its internal connection with myself. That’s where Axiograft thrives.
’The Ashen Souls are tethered to me—my own soul. Due to that connection, Axiograft was able to comprehend them as though they were an extension of my body.
’In which case... what I need to do is focus on not the way \[Tempting Fate] triggers change in an opponent, but what it does to me in specific...’
It was easy to only view \[Tempting Fate] as a Skill that altered the mental state of an opponent, an auxiliary Skill reliant on Charisma. But was that the only way to look at it?
What if one looked at it as a Skill that made a person more tempting, that made them a shining beacon that Turned and people alike couldn’t help but come toward...
Like moths to a flame.
Zarek’s eyes flashed as he activated \[Tempting Fate]. He focused, feeling out the changes to himself.
’Not quite.’
He could feel that the big cat Turned was still prowling. It was cautious, feeling that Zarek was far too dangerous.
Zarek had done this on purpose. The first time it attacked, he had triggered his Ash. He could have killed it in a single strike, but he chose not to do so—instead planting fear within it.
Turned didn’t feel fear in the natural sense, but their desire for evolution was so strong that after they surpassed a certain level, they would gain strong self-preservation characteristics that would read like fear in the eyes of most humans.
It was precisely this sort of difficult target Zarek wanted.
’Come on... give me something...’
And then it clicked for Zarek. His Godsfall seemed to shift all on its own, sliding into place.
The Taunting Type Skills he had learned in the past seemed to mix and mesh, their overlapping principles sliding into place for Zarek one after another.
—
[Skill {Tempting Fate} has undergone an Evolution, becoming {Unholy Beacon}]
—
Skills:
...
>[A Class Unholy Beacon: A+] <A+>
...
—
Zarek’s eyes flashed—another surprising change. But all of a sudden, a blackened gold aura radiated from him, and the growl of a feral beast echoed in his ears.
BANG!
The big cat Turned launched itself forward, streaking so fast lines of grass were mowed as though rotating blades had passed by.