Book 2: Chapter 31 — New Abilities

Book 2: Chapter 31 — New Abilities

Noah took a moment, just feeling the strength in his body. He felt a powerful itch to test just how much he could do now, but he resisted the impulse, opening his Astral script to take a look instead.

Astral Script:

Name: Noah Brown

Race: Human (Symbiont/Modified)

Rank: E

Paths:

Exsanguinator (Rare) - level 72

Astralwalker (Epic) - level 69

Void Hunter (Epic) - level 70

Attributes:

Power: 299

Agility: 246

Constitution: 286

Mystic: 359

Attribute points: 122

After nearly a month of nothing, his attributes had jumped up all at once, and Noah could keenly feel the difference this time. His higher sub-attributes meant each increase of his attributes translated to more strength, making the actual changes even more substantial than they had ever been previously.

Taking his attributes, he added fifty one in agility, thirteen in constitution and one in power.

Power 299 → 300.

Agility: 246 → 300.

Constitution: 286 → 300.

Free attributes: 122 → 57.



He felt his spirit straining once again and decided to leave it there for today. “Phew, that’s a jolt,” Noah said, feeling the energy distributing itself across his body. He stretched his limbs, feeling a rush filling his head urging him to run till he dropped.

“You’re feeling the post rank up high. I can’t imagine dealing with three at once with my first rank up.”

“It’s definitely... something else,” Noah replied, letting out another breath, yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but burst out in laughter every few seconds. To distract himself, he decided to open the description of his new abilities.

[Blood Debt (Unique/Basic) - level 1]

A debt is owed with each reaping.Target any opponent with your aura, reaping the blood they owe. Consume each instance of [Poison], [Bleed], [Toxin], [Rot], [Necrosis], [Madness], [Frost], [Burn] and any other damaging status effect from your target, while doing the damage the abilities would do within fifteen seconds immediately.

Noah stared at the ability dumbly. He went back through the description, reading it carefully again to make sure he understood what he was seeing correctly.

“You look shocked, what did you get?” Aurelia asked, walking closer.

Noah gathered his mana, this time putting half of everything he had into the ability. The world distorted in front of him once again, as another clone formed.

“You can use all my abilities right? Including Lifeblood?”

“Yup,” the projection replied.

“Great. Let’s do this then,” Noah said, reaching into his Dimensional Pocket, as he took out his spear. The projection turned off its resistances and Noah used [Bleed] as he slashed it across the chest.

You’ve inflicted [Bleed] on [Astral projection].

You’ve inflicted [Crimson Rot] on [Astral Projection].

“I’m so glad we have pain tolerance leveled to Advanced rank,” the projection said as it bled freely from its chest.

Noah didn’t stop, letting Bloodfly Swarm manifest as he let it attack his projection.

The projection had a resolute expression as the swarm of bloodflies descended upon him.

You’ve inflicted [Bleed] on [Astral Projection] x 15

[Bleed] has increased to [Bleed - II].

[Bleed - II] has increased to [Bleed - III].

As the notifications poured in, Noah reached out with his aura. Red mana flowed around him in a swirl as he reached out with his hand, and then with a pull, reaped the status effects.

[Blood Debt] has affected [Astral Projection].

A flood of lifeforce moved from the projection, forming a sword of blood above its head. The projection blinked away, trying to dodge, but the sword remained above his head as it struck down, striking his body.

Within a moment, lifeforce exploded forth as the projection collapsed. The memories flowed into Noah, and he fell onto his knees. There had been no pain, yet the sensation of the power tearing apart his body within a second still sent him reeling.

Groaning, Noah slowly stood back up. “I’m not doing that ever again,” Noah said. Tony sent him a shiver of agreement.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories of abilities like that going wrong, so I’m with you there,” Aurelia replied.

Noah moved on to the final ability.

[Netherflame Burst (Unique/Basic) - lvl 1]



The flames of the Nether realms are yours to command. Use your lifeforce to launch a burst of netherflame, inflicting the fire upon your target. Upon infliction, the flames will eat the target's lifeforce for a short amount of time.

Noah shared the ability with Aurelia one last time, reading through it. The idea was fairly simple with this one. A flame that ate life-force. With everything else relating to the void following the same concept, this was just a natural extension of the ability.

“Simple but effective. Fitting for a Path like Void Hunter,” Aurelia said.

Noah nodded, before he reached out to the ability. Letting his lifeforce flow into the ability, Noah saw a ball of black fire manifesting in his hand. Aiming the ball forward, he continued to pour more lifeforce into the ability, till the ball of fire was sucking in the light from its surroundings, casting a shadow around it.

With a simple command of his will, Noah launched the flames. A burst of fire exploded outwards, spreading throughout the arena. Dark flames covered the ground, erupting up into the air. Noah watched in fascination as he felt the lifeforce from the air itself being sucked into the flames as they burned. Aurelia had stepped back, behind him, not willing to let the flames touch her body.

After a few minutes, the fire ran out of fuel, burning out. Noah looked down at his fist, clenching it, as Lifeblood had already recovered the lifeforce he had lost.

“You know what Noah?” Aurelia said, looking at the last vestiges of the black flames before she turned to face him. “This was already true, but all the more so now. I would hate to fight you,”

Noah simply grinned back at the woman.