Chapter 682: New Toys

Chapter 682 New Toys

Ilea grinned to herself, itching to test out all the new toys she had just gotten but there were a few more messages still waiting to be read. She was a little annoyed that they had killed all the undead in the tomb. She gave Pierce a side glance instead.

The woman narrowed her eyes, lightning flashing around her before she vanished.

“What’s happening?” Verena asked, looking at Ilea.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ilea said, taking a sip from her ale.

“Done with the evolution?” the Elder asked as she walked over. She gave the split stone a glance.

“Mostly, yes,” Ilea said. “I’ll want to test a little afterwards.”

“Of course. I can help,” Verena said.

“Great,” Ilea said and smiled.

‘ding’ ‘You have reached level 500 in three Classes while being human – One Core skill point awarded’

‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the General skill: Telepathy – lvl 1

Telepathy – lvl 1

Nice. So just a better version than my third tier of Mental Resistance. But wait… mind magic as a general skill. Does that mean?

‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the General skill: Minor Ice Manipulation – lvl 1

Minor Ice Manipulation – lvl 1

‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the General skill: Minor Lava Manipulation – lvl 1

Minor Lava Manipulation – lvl 1

‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the General skill: Minor Earth Manipulation – lvl 1

Minor Earth Manipulation – lvl 1

“Interesting…,” she murmured. Does that mean I’m now some kind of elemental wizardress or something?

Ilea didn’t have illusions as to the power level of these spells. She opened her palm and focused on the three new manipulation skills she had, a small rock forming first, somehow sourced from the rock around her. Next to it appeared a speck of glowing lava, and last a piece of floating ice. Primordial Avatar more like, she thought and made the three pieces spin around.

“Three new elements?” Verena asked.

“No. General skills based on the evolution. Just minor manipulation,” Ilea answered.

The Elder smiled. “Just minor. You’re likely not aware of how long mages work to gain understanding of elements beyond their classes. But you’re Lilith after all.”

“Don’t say it like that,” Ilea said. A hundred or more people already think me a deity, she thought. And I could’ve taken a first step towards what this system here classifies as divinity. Me? Please gods no. Wait that sounds weird now too.

She checked her status instead of considering deities.

Name: Ilea Spears

Unspent statpoints: 44

Class 1: The Arcane Eternal – lvl 510

- Active: Archon Strike – 3rd lvl 30

Class 2: The Ashen Titan – lvl 508

- Active: Mantle of the Titan – 3rd lvl 30

Class 3: The Primordial Arbiter – lvl 500

- Active: Primordial Shift – 3rd lvl 30

General Skills:

- Ashen Limbs – lvl 17

- Arcane Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 21

Status:

Vitality: 1805

Health: 68590/68590

About as long by now as I am dense. Sixty eight thousand health.

She whipped out her notebook and put her Intelligence score to use, finally putting twenty nine stat points into Vitality.

Health: 69248/69692

And people think me a deity. They’re gonna have a bad time if I ever get that far, she thought with a self satisfied smile on her face.

The first thing she tried of course was healing herself while infusing her ability with the Fires of Creation. Her insides were wracked by flames, as expected. Her recovery prevailed however, the result of the experiment a subdued healing spell. Not very useful. But maybe good for training Sentinels.

While the Fires of Creation were burning, her ash appeared already covered in flames. Her mantle burned as it had before. Ilea would’ve liked to set Pierce on fire through her dominion and reverse healing but the woman had distanced herself far enough away, hiding somewhere in the tomb. Ah, there will be enough opportunity to test. I suppose it’s just a massive power increase to my aura like death sphere. With added teleportation prevention if they’re close enough.

Ilea transferred. A sphere of arcane magic exploded outwards, now bringing with it a surge of white fire that set alight her close proximity. She slammed her fist into the nearby wall, her Archon Strike flaring out in a near turquoise color of both concentrated arcane healing and wisps of flame. Tempered Seal exploded in a similar manner, the fiery color a little closer to white. Ilea charged up just a tiny bit of heat before she cast Embered Heart, the sphere of flames now near white as it flashed out from her.

Ilea looked down at her burning hands. She focused on the heat and power, an entirely different feel altogether. Her health remained steady, her healing and the reductions of the third tier enough to keep her topped off but she could tell the evolved version demanded a literal shit ton more health to sustain. The results spoke for themselves however. She looked at the spreading flames around her, the fires eating through the walls of the tomb with frightening speed. They left nothing behind.

She waved her hand sideways, the flames disappearing all around. “Wonderful,” she mused and deactivated her spell. Let’s see what my new shift looks like.

Ilea could see the wisps around her float away. The fabric changed, both where she stood and close by. Mana and health burned away to start her ability, Primordial Shift activating with a short delay when her perception went haywire. What the fuck even is this?

She could see everything around herself, and not with her dominion alone. Weird bits of writhing space, flame, and flesh moved near her proximity, burning through the fabric itself. Parts of the phenomenon moved through the stone below with no resistance, other bits breaking off pieces instead. Her form remained unchanged and at the center of the spell.

Ilea could see the ground crack below her feet. She raised her arm, the movement slow and strained. It felt as if she had to drag it through mud. Her various perception skills told her that the interpretation wasn’t exactly far off. A mud of space and matter, she thought, looking at her palm.

The flame of creation came to life, a small sphere forming above her hand with brilliant white light that illuminated the vicinity in unnatural patterns. The heat reminded her of the Wyrm’s sun spell, her magic perception unable to determine how much power exactly gathered in the expanding sphere. It’s burning space itself. She dismissed the flame, some parts of her on fire by now. All of it vanished. She tried taking a step with the shift active, her leg going forward with a slow motion. It came down with an impact that reminded her of old monster movies. A boom resounded as a web of cracks spread outwards.

Verena looked on with wide eyes, her arms crossed when Pierce appeared next to her.

“Attack me,” Ilea said. Her voice traveled through what felt like an entire realm until it reached the Elders.

They glanced at each other and summoned their magic.

Spheres of fire and lightning flashed out towards the barriers of moving flames and writhing space, most them vanishing outright, others slowed to a crawl and dissipating with time. A few made it through. And yet most of their energy had been sapped before they reached the central form of Ilea.

She dismissed the spell, the upkeep rather ridiculous even with her high health and mana. Probably best against high level beings that can help me sustain the spell with their magic.

Ilea gestured for them to continue, forming a gate in front of her and one behind her back. The spells moved through and crashed against the damaged wall. Hmm… with three of them I suppose I could…

She formed six fields, covering herself in a space like cube while floating in the middle. This is stupid. Ilea wondered if she was simply invulnerable like this. For a time at least. The cost really did increase exponentially, both for having more than one field out, and for the upkeep. However now that the cooldown seemed similar to her first tier, she would be able to more or less displace any magical or physical attack wherever she pleased. In a certain distance of course.

“How are we supposed to even hit you like this?” Pierce asked.

“That’s the point,” Ilea answered and dismissed the cube. She tried a few more shapes that looked at little more interesting than a cube but found them act the same, other than the aesthetics of course. Ilea remained visible behind the fields but slightly distorted to a set of perceptive eyes.

“Can you try to teleport?” Ilea asked.

Neither of the Elders vanished.

“Space magic is stupid,” Pierce complained. “Now I don’t have anything left.”

Ilea raised her hand and gripped the Elder with Space Manipulation. “There is no escape.” She raised the woman into the air, her form restrained and moving closer.

“That’s… k… kind of… hot…,” Pierce murmured, her face a little flushed.

Ilea whipped her arm to the side and sent the woman flying. So a level three hundred human isn’t a problem for my manipulation. I mean it’s quite a gap to be fair. I wonder how effective it’ll be against a four mark. Does it depend on size? Resistance? Magic type? Weight?

She assumed it was a combination of everything. Even if I can just slow them down a little, it would help immensely. Same with any projectiles that come at me. Dodging will be easier, and if I can’t dodge, just set up a gate or teleport the spells instead. I actually feel like I could become a terrifying space mage. Everything close to me will just be destroyed. Can’t teleport, on fire, reverse healing, and against a self healing being that can barely be hit by anything.

She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. “Feels good… oh it feels so good,” she said with a grin. “You can hear me right?” she asked, using her telepathy on Verena.

“Yes.”

Don’t need the voice module then either, she thought. Ilea decided to get a replacement regardless. Having a deep and booming voice was just cooler than simple telepathy.

Still have the space pocket to test.

She checked to see if there was something new, able to access the space instantly with her skill. Hmm… but where exactly is it… and how does it connect?

It took her a few minutes to find the tiny sliver within her soul perception. A bubble of space whose size she couldn’t discern at all. The same was true for her Essence itself of course, but the results left her with more necessary testing. She moved a few items from her necklace into the pocket. Everything seemed to work flawlessly. The same rules applied as with her other storage items. No living creatures, no spells, and there was a limit to the space. Ilea just couldn’t tell quite yet where that limit lay. It certainly provided more storage space than her necklace and bracelet. Combined even.

And it can’t be stolen, she mused.

She planned to analyze and test the pocket a little more before she could trust it enough for an entire switch. It would be interesting to see if the Taleen Keys could still be tracked while they resided inside, but by now she assumed they could. Simply because they were part of a set, and likely connected in ways that transcended pretty much all existing barriers and pockets. Much like anchors set by space magic in other realms.

Ilea played around a little more with her space manipulation, ripping out chunks of the wall or pushing against it. She could damage the frameworks in any way she wanted, able to rip apart chunks of stone or simply pulverize them entirely. Depending on how resistant the material was or how much she wanted to do, the spell took longer to manifest. It also cost more based on those factors. Compared to her ash unity, her new space manipulation required a noticeable amount of resources.

I wonder if the boosts to the various magic classes will increase my resistances too.

“I decided that I want a space magic class for my third one,” Pierce said, her envy near palpable.

“Didn’t you say you wanted a healing one?” Verena asked.

“That too. First healing then space,” Pierce said.

“I don’t even have four yet,” Ilea murmured, looking at the woman. I wonder if I could just pop her eyes…, no… don’t become Violence. Only destroy eyes with consent.

“Do you want to train your space magic resistance?” she asked with an innocent smile.

“Not with that look on your face,” Pierce said. “I’ll trust the Meadow’s expertise.”

“You said it was hot,” Ilea retorted, a little disappointed.

“No I didn’t,” the Elder lied. “Are you done then? Or do you want us to bow and praise the greatness of Lilith? Her new cleansing flames of divinity the salvation we lowly human souls have craved for all our lives?”

“No, I’m done. We can move on. I’m just excited about my evolution, can’t help mere mortals being awed,” Ilea mused.

Verena snickered to herself and started towards the hall.

“I’m sure you’ll get there too, Dragonkiller,” Ilea mused as she walked past the Elder.

One of Pierce’s eyes twitched before she summoned a stream of lightning onto the healer.

Ilea stretched and yawned, enjoying the slightly prickling sensation.