NOVPUB
Chapter 45: Ouroboros Library (2/2)
3. [Bloodlash Veinforge Strider—Blood/Metal—Assassin/Ranger type. Difficulty: ☆☆☆]
The maximum difficulty was three stars, and John’s choice was clear.
"Well, there’s not much for me to think about this. I’d like the third one."
John could see more details, which was that all ten Monster Geno Arts were of Emperor-rank.
’I wonder if these are better than the ones available in the Monster Geno Art selection box?’ John wondered while Azelis waved her hand slightly, causing the two bubbles to go back.
The third bubble containing the scroll of Bloodlash Veinforge Strider remained.
"Put your hand on it and infuse a bit of soul energy into the bubble."
John did as told and was surprised in the next second.
"Looks like you already saw it. Most of the newbie Tamers take a few days just to properly perceive it." Azelis smiled. "Now that you’ve got the spiritual copy of the scroll, you can open it in your mind and practice. There is a step-by-step method to establish the nexus of this Monster Geno Art. Once you establish the nexus, you’ll just need to absorb spirit energy to make progress until you reach the limit of level 1."
"Afterward, you’ll need to absorb Silver-rank resources of Blood and Metal attributes to breakthrough, which will also result in the development phase of your first Geno Ability."
"Geno Ability?" John raised his eyebrows.
"Yep. Each level breakthrough allows you to develop a Geno Ability. Bloodlash Veinforge Strider has a pool of Assassin and Ranger-type Geno Abilities, and it’s up to you which one you want to develop."
John’s eyes glimmered. "So we can make a set of abilities eventually—a type of combat build we can create to display our ideal combat style? That’s awesome."
"Yep. And these abilities consume only your stamina, while Soul Techniques only consume your soul energy. At Silver-rank, you can have two Soul Techniques, with the capacity of one more increasing per rank, while Monster Geno Art will give you the first Geno Ability in Silver rank, so you’d have one less Geno Ability than total Soul Techniques."
John blinked and looked at Azelis. "So Soul Techniques can be arbitrary and flexible...while Monster Geno Art’s Geno Abilities are supposed to be a proper set. We can fill what each other’s missing."
"Exactly. But unlike Soul Techniques, which can be changed without much hassle, changing your Monster Geno Art is a big hassle, so you can be experimental with Soul Techniques, but choose the Geno Abilities and their development wisely." n𝚘𝚟pub.𝚌o𝚖
’Yeah, that...I’m doing something different about that,’ John internally thought while he nodded outwardly. "Got it. I will make my choices wisely."
"Next, look at the Soul Techniques." Azelis turned to the other side and waved her hand, causing 12 bubbles to fly toward John before stopping a meter away from him.
"These are all the techniques with Blood and Metal attributes. Do you want me to filter techniques with both Blood and Metal in one, or varieties?"
John rubbed his chin. "If it’s Blood and Metal only, I’d learn it faster, right?"
"Yep."
"Then I want that one... Blood Alloy Sculpting," John said as he looked at the scroll.
Azelis was not surprised. She knew John would choose it. It was one of the highest-difficulty Soul Techniques available—six stars and there were only two Soul Techniques with six-star difficulty in this library.
"That is the most difficult and useless Soul Technique we have. The other six-star difficulty is at least guaranteed to be a lethal hit within thirty meters of yourself once you learn it, but this one requires very high control and sensitivity, with a high requirement of attribute mastery."
John smiled. "Yeah, I’ll take that one."
"You should," Azelis looked at him. "If you master it, you will sweep your peers, but the learning curve is deep. If you want to change it after taking a look at it or trying and failing, you can tell me. If you can’t make any progress within ten days, don’t waste your time anymore on it because you don’t have much time."
"Alright, but that just makes me want to master it more and more," John grinned.
"You can learn another technique and learn this later if you can’t make progress...unless, of course, you don’t want to become my apprentice," Azelis narrowed her eyes.
"Ahem, I understand. Yeah, becoming an apprentice is more beneficial overall, and for that, I need to display my prowess at the tournament eighty days later. If I waste my time on a slow progressing technique, I’d just be hindering myself."
"Looks like you understand. Good."Azelis smiled and said, "And good luck. I do hope you make progress because that’d just make you more powerful."
Waving her hand, she brought the scroll and had John touch the bubble.
"Learn it your way. If you find something confusing or something you need to know, you can ask me."
John blinked. "Will you be available the whole time or can I use some kind of communication device?"
"..." Azelis, "What?"
"What?" John tilted his head.
Azelis rolled her eyes. "You save questions you get for when I come to meet you. Make a note if you have to."
"Understood," John somberly nodded.
Azelis shook her head smilingly and turned around. "Come on. Let’s show you the resources. As promised, you can pick—"
"For that," John suddenly interrupted. "Can I request certain resources?"
"Hmm?" Azelis was surprised. "Do you know what you want?"
"Yeah, I’ve had my fair share of study, a little bit more than average students," John modestly smiled. "But honestly, I want to go with my intuition and feeling, and feed my Abyssal Darkwind Eagle some certain resources, which I believe would bring out something interesting and powerful."
"It’s not exactly rare to create new species, but it’s not exactly easy either," Azelis raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure you want to do an experiment with your really talented and powerful monster, which would have a chance of failure and that would hinder your progress as well as a chance to inflict the monster with a major loss in certain areas, loss of potential?"
’I need to reply with something that doesn’t make me suspicious in case I succeed...which I fucking will, duh. I want to evolve my Pymon into a monstrous speedy and lethal predator. If that evolution has a 1% chance, I need to increase that chance by evolving Pymon into a form closest to it. Only then will; Pymon evolve into Skyrend Reaver Tyrant Roc when he breakthroughs to Gold-rank.’
To achieve Skyrend Reaver Tyrant Roc evolution, Pymon must first evolve into Thunder Storm Falcon when breaking through to Silver-rank!
"Well, you know how I evolved Alfred, right?" John probed Azelis with a question instead of outright answering her.
Azelis blinked. "I have no idea."
’So she didn’t watch me in the cavern. So she must have observed me when I electrocuted myself alongside Pymon after feeding him that fruit. Good.’
"I actually managed to evolve my Alfred by not only gambling but also following my guts that may have been aided by soul sensitivity, as you said I have it at a rather high level."
"You fed him conflicting attributes of resources and it managed to evolve despite the odds. If you really did that based on your guts, then you may have more than just higher soul sensitivity," Azelis’s eyes glinted. "Well, that’s indeed interesting. If you want to follow your guts, then do so."
