-----
Frank felt like his entire soul was having an internal battle!
Although the battle outside was over, a battle within the realm of his soul and mind, the Starlight Mind Realm, was continuing!
The monstrous mass of darkness and chaos fiercely battled against Frank's very soul, which tried to suppress and refine the creature to make it his own power!
"I have to do it… just like father taught me! To refine entities inside of my soul that I devour to make them my own power…!" thought Frank, as he put all of his minds inside of his Realm, generating a large avatar made of starlight within it!
Using this avatar, Frank used his enormous fists to hit the creature into the ground!
BOOM!
And then, he raised his legs and began to kick it, crushing its amorphous face!
Clash! Clash! Clash!
"Nnnggrryyaaaahh…!"
"You are now mine! Obey me, or perish!" roared Frank, resembling an abyssal horror himself, his entire body shapeshifted!
He became even more monstrous, hungrier, and voracious!
The beast roared in agony and fear, as Frank quickly entangled it with his monstrous soul, using the power of the Ancient One, Wrath, and Gluttony fused, he finally managed to suppress the creature!
"Now… refine it!" he thought, as he began to pour his own consciousness and will inside the monstrous creature.
Refinement.
Refinement was a special technique that Frank learned from his father through the years he spent training with him.
The technique was simple yet incredibly complex.
It was about using one's soul and will to overcome another being or power.
By pouring your very soul and will, Refinement was supposed to give you the power to take over an entity's mind and body, making it your own power.
There were several types of Refinement, but the one Frank learned was the method that encompassed all types of Refinement, the Infinite Refinement!
With Infinite Refinement… As long as Frank had the power, he could even Refine Gods!
"GRROOOOOWL!"
The beast roared in agony once more, as it felt as if its entire self was being filled with billions of tiny bits of light!
These were Frank's Wills!
Wills was a copy of one's mind, which was made through the use of soul and mana.
Refinement needed Wills to successfully refine something, and as long as Frank kept pouring his Wills inside of the creature's body, he was slowly being able to refine it!
"Become my power!" roared Frank, he had changed.
He seemed fierce, monstrous, and even greedy and gluttonous!
By showing off his might, he was able to intimidate the creature, lowering its resistance to his refinement!
Like a sea of bright tiny dots of light, his Wills quickly took over the beast's entire existence!
"I will give you a hand too!" roared Hades, emerging at Frank's side in the last moment, and pouring a lot of his power into the beast!
"Hades!" said Frank.
"GRRRYYYYAAAAHHH…!"
The beast groaned in agony, as it was completely taken over!
FLASH!
Refinement… was a success!
Suddenly, the beast stopped thinking, as it simply became Frank himself, fusing with his soul once and for all.
Then, Frank finally felt a large amount of Mana and power pouring into his soul!
This was the same feeling when he devoured the Dungeon Core back then!
No, it was even better!
"Indeed… This beast… was a spawn of the Demon King…" thought Frank, as he had access to all the monster's memories.
He learned that the monster came from the depths of the world, that was born as a piece of an even larger and monstrous creature, whose aura could not be described as anything but abyssal.
And after connecting the dots, he quickly realized some things, however, to learn more, he needed to do some research first.
Feeling satisfied, Frank came back to the outside world, as he was showered in System Notifications.
[You reached Level 50!]
[You can now change Jobs again!]
[You acquired the [Fate Guardian: Level 1] Skill!]
[You acquired the [Overseer Successor] Title!]
[Due to the effects of the [Overseer Successor] Title, you acquired the [Agent of Chaos: Level 1] Skill!]
[All Your Stats have increased!]
[Bonus App Points and Skill Proficiency Earned]
[The Levels of Several Skills have increased]
[The [Thought Acceleration: Level 10] Skill has awakened into the [Thought Super-Acceleration: Level 1] Skill!]
[The [Prediction: Level 10] Skill has awakened into the [Foresight: Level 1] Skill!]
[The [Arithmetic Processing: Level 10] Skill has awakened into the [High-Speed Processing: Level 1] Skill!]
Frank suddenly felt the insight to fuse his awakened Skills with others he already possessed, and by using System Administrator and spending some App Points, he created a new Skill at the very moment!
[You exchanged 5.000 App Points!]
[The [Thought Super-Acceleration: Level 1], [High-Speed Processing: Level 1], [Concentration: Level 10], and [Parallel Minds: Level 7] Skills have been merged into the [Super High-Speed Group Thought Processing: Level 1] Skill!]
[The [Hades Soul: Level 10] Skill has awakened into the [Aberrant God Soul: Level 1] Skill!]
Hades quickly felt the strange changes… as his appearance as a floating skull changed!
"Mmh?! Eh?! What am I now?!" asked Hades, as he now realized that he resembled a large mass of shadows that coated a large skeleton wearing black armor!
"It seems that the Skill Hades Soul evolved into Aberrant God Soul, so I guess it meant that you also changed now. Maybe you can finally interact with other people than just me," said Frank.
"Oh! About time!" laughed Hades.
[The [Enhanced Five Senses: Level 10] Skill has awakened into the [Supernatural Six Senses: Level 1] Skill!]
[The [Soul Materialization: Level 10] Skill has awakened into the [Spectral Soul Embodiment: Level 1] Skill!]
"There are some Skills that didn't awaken… let's fuse them too!"
[You exchanged 4.000 App Points]
[The [Magic Hoard: Level 10], [Blessed by Mana: Level 10], and [Mana Infusion: Level 7] Skills have merged into the [Ultimate Magic: Level 1] Skill!]
Ultimate Magic seemed to be a Skill that encompassed all of the effects of the Skills it was made of, giving Frank the power to hoard large amounts of Mana, to increase his mana regeneration and usage, alongside its growth per level, and also to infuse Mana into items or even people, giving items the power to become Magic Items, and people to receive boosts into their stats momentarily.
"These other Skills as well…"
[You exchanged 4.000 App Points!]
[The [Mapping: Level 6], [Compass: Level 4], and [Geomagnetic Detection: Level 4] Skills have merged into the [Phased Mind Radar: Level 1] Skill!]
Phased Mind Radar gave the user the ability to sense an entire 3D area within a fixed range, have no blind spots, and will even detect invisible foes through wind currents and other things, this merged with his Six Senses Skill made for an amazing detection Skill.
However…
"Wait for a second…"
[You exchanged 10.000 App Points]
[The [Detection: Level 10], [Supernatural Six Senses: Level 1], and [Phased Mind Radar: Level 1] Skills have merged into the [Divine Sense: Level 1] Skill!]
Divine Sense!
Frank knew it! Thanks to his Foresight Skill, he had predicted and sensed that a new and powerful Skill would come out of this fusion!
However, the amount of App Points was enormous…
Thankfully, when he woke up, he had a bit over 100.000 App Points, so he still had a fair amount left.
Divine Sense was a Skill that simply encompassed all of Frank's senses, environment perception, and more, it could show itself as a map, or anything he desired, and it gave him the power to detect anything within a certain range around him.
There were still several Skills Frank wanted to fuse, but that would need to wait for later, as he had finally reached the town.
However, there were a few other System Windows that emerged when he ate the Beast.
Ding!
[Due to the effects of having eaten a [Spawn of Chaos], your Stats have increased!]
[Bonus App Points and Skill Proficiency earned]
[The Levels of several Skills have increased]
[You acquired the [Chaos Magic: Level 1] Skill!]
"Another magic and I got a ton of new bonuses as well, good… And it was indeed a Spawn of Chaos, huh?" wondered Frank, reaching the floor, as Hades hid once more inside of his soul to not startle everyone.
The town was almost in ruins even after he stopped the giant ball of black flames from consuming everything… but it was better than nothing.
"Frank… you're safe!" said Kamei.
"You're… really back…! Frank!!!" cried Cathyl, jumping over Frank and embracing him with her large body and long arms.
"I-I am also happy to see you again, Cathyl, I missed you as well," said Frank with a gentle smile.
"FRANK!" cried Hilvera, jumping over him.
"ANIKIIIIII!" cried Asterion, jumping over Frank too!
Suddenly, Frank was being squeezed by three Minotaur at once!
"Ungh… I appreciate your love, and I really missed all of you, but there is another way to do this?" asked Frank, he couldn't help but feel very happy as well, yet overwhelmed at the same time.
"No! We missed you so much, idiot! And you went away now and killed the monster for us… Sniff, does that mean that we got stronger for nothing?!" said Hilvera.
"N-Not at all! Please do not think that of yourself, I believe all o you have become very strong!" said Frank.
"We missed you, aniki!" cried Asterion.
"BUAAAAAH! FRAAANK!" cried Cathyl, like a little girl, way more than her own children.
"Fraaaaaaank! You woke up!" cried Annabelle, jumping over Frank!
And then, even Gwendolyn!
"UAGH! Okay, please stop now!" cried Frank, as he was smothered by everyone's love.
-----