Chapter 57: Skill Combos

Chapter 57: Skill Combos

The first thing I want to try is the skill combination I was able to glimpse before, just for a second. I'd been able to combine Firestep and Triplestep into Accelerate but in the process, I'd noticed something strange. There was another way the two skills could be combined.

I let them thrum through my body, trying to figure it out without the help of the Eye, at least at first. Without it, though, the Firmament is nothing more than energy pouring through me. I don't see the individual pieces that lock into one another, the way that energy can be fused into something new.

I try for a while anyway, because I don't want to rely too much on these Inspirations. There's a moment where I think I see it just the smallest glimpse of the underlying mechanism that the Eye makes so easy to see.

But it vanishes just as quickly, and my head is throbbing. I grumble. Maybe I'm not ready to do this by myself yet... but I'm definitely going to try again.

For now, I activate the Eye.

[ A new Skill Fusion has been found. Would you like to log the results into the Interface? ]

Yes.

[ Flashstep (Rank B) obtained! ]

Inspect.

Flashstep is fairly predictable in effect it moves me at great speed across a short distance, leaving a trail of fire in my wake. Where it differs is in sheer speed and Firmament efficiency. It uses less Firmament to do the same thing combining Triplestep and Firestep does, gives me about twice the speed of those two skills combined, and can't be stacked with either of its lesser skills.

That works for me. Less skills to think about in battle, if there's one skill that's objectively superior.

What's interesting is where it differs from Accelerate. Accelerate is similar they both keep the fire element from Firestep but unlike Flashstep, Accelerate can be stacked with its parent skills. It ramps up over time, making it a little more suitable for long-distance travel, especially combined with Triplestep and Flashstep.

Unfortunately, I can't stack it with Flashstep itself. Flashstep is barely a travel skill at all. As efficient as it is, the skill burns itself out in seconds, untwisting in some fundamental way that can't be supplemented just by providing it with more Firmament.

There is, I realize, so much more to learn about Firmament.

I look over my skill list, pondering which other ones might be good to combine; as much as my Firmament base has improved, I can tell I can only handle a few more skill combinations before I start to wear it down I've been doing a lot with my Firmament today.

It's still a far stretch beyond what I've been able to do before, though. I would have exhausted myself hours ago before my phase-shift.

My skill list, at the moment, looks like this:

Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C), Concentrated Power (Rank B), Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A)

Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Second Wind (Rank B), Barrier (Rank D), Crystallized Barrier (Rank C), Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Reflex Skills: Quicken Mind (Rank B), Inspect (Rank B), Iron Mind (Rank A)

Speed Skills: Firestep (Rank C), Triplestep (Rank E), Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A), Accelerate (Rank C), Warpstep (Rank A), Flashstep (Rank B)

Firmament Skills: Temporal Fragment (Rank D), Firmament Manipulation (Rank D), Color Drain (Rank C), Tetrachromacy (Rank C), Temporal Static (Rank B)

It feels pretty good to have a more rounded out skill list now, as much as it's getting crowded. I run Inspect and the Eye through the list, feeling out the skills that are the most compatible.

Concentrated Power is compatible with almost everything it's the reason I picked the skill to begin with. It feels like an empty vessel just waiting to be filled, and while normally it would only accept force, the All-Seeing Eye allows me to make the adjustments that would be needed for it to hold other, more nebulous things.

In many ways, it's essentially a weaker version of the Accumulator Inspiration. The issue with it is that I have to fuse the skill before I can use it, instead of being able to just pull it out mid-battle like I would have been able to with the Accumulator.

So I pick the one that I imagine will be the most useful: Quicken Mind. I can forego my ability to think fast for a while, build it in the background, then unleash it when it's time for combat; that will give me plenty of time to react to opponents, even when they're faster than I am.

One second. I can't help but wonder if there are some inefficiencies in the skill I could smooth out. Maybe the Eye isn't perfect, and there's more I could do to even out the combined skill.

But even if that's the case, a lot of it is down to my still-baseline-human body. A better Durability skill than Tough Body will help, but the truth of the matter is that I worry about getting too durable.

"Stupid," Tarin says when I voice that concern. "You too squishy. Need more protection."

"He has a point, actually." Ahkelios hops down from my head to look up at me. "You're worried about the loop, aren't you?"

"Time only resets if I die," I agree reluctantly. "I don't know any other way to force the loop to reset right now. If I get a regenerative skill that's too powerful, or something that makes me physically invulnerable, I might not be able to loop anymore."

"That not bad, right?" Tarin says. He folds his wings. "You not loop, I not forget. We stay friends. Is good."

He's not wrong, technically, but there's an important detail he's kind of glossing over.

"You'd still be dead if not for the loop," I say quietly.

The fact of the matter is that the loop is a tool, and I have to use it as such. The Hestian Trialgoers like Naru, and presumably the others, though I haven't encountered them yet are still stronger than I am. Looping gives me power, information, and the ability to revert events; it's not something I can afford to give up.

It's probably too early to worry about that, anyway. I'm probably still a few steps away from functional immortality. I basically just need to be less durable than I am strong.

It's a bit of a morbid thought, I have to admit.

Tarin doesn't seem to have a response prepared, so I go back to experimenting with my skills. There's one aspect of Warpstep that I haven't tested, and it's one I'm a little apprehensive about testing but it's better to test it now than in actual combat.

It's a simple question: Will Warpstep let me teleport inside a solid object? If it does, what happens to me?

I extend a hand. Worst that should happen is I'll lose part of a finger. I don't intend to die for an experiment.

Warpstep.

I pay attention to the way the Firmament moves this time. There's a powerful surge of Warpstep Firmament, both where I'm standing and another at my destination. Which is... interesting. There's no travel time involved. Firmament just appears, silhouetted in the rough shape of my body, positioned exactly where I intended.

There's a moment of disorientation as I'm instantaneously displaced

there's a sharp crack

and I reappear at my destination.

Three observations.

One, my finger isn't broken.

Two, there's a hole blasted open in the tree, around where my finger would have been.

Three, the whole ordeal cost an enormous amount of Firmament. I can sense the tree's own intrinsic Firmament like it's been torn apart just around where the hole is, so if I want to Warpstep into something, I have to tear apart its Firmament defense.

That's cool, I decide, and promptly tip over. I hear a half-worried, half-angry caw from... Mari? I think that's Mari coming to look for us.

Oops.

And then I slip into blessed unconsciousness. Again.