Chapter 572 A Slight Hiccup

Chapter 572 A Slight Hiccup

A Skill was essentially something one earned, or it came as a privilege from the world.

In both cases, they represented a special ability that a person possessed. Usually, Skills were meant to evolve, not disappear from a person. Since Skills were an intrinsic part of a person—especially those earned—they were a permanent addition to the individual.

Skills, in a sense, could not be created nor destroyed.

... But Rey was an exception.

By using [Merger], he essentially bent the rules a little. He broke down Skills and used them to mold new ones, or more advanced versions of one.

This, in a way, was still following the rules... but teetering on the edge.

However, the complete breaker was [Sacrifice], which caused the permanent loss of Skills, changing them to Stat Points.

In this case, the nature of the Skill was changed into another kind of power—Stats.

It was possible that Skill essence could be lost in the process, but ultimately, Skills would be converted to something else—never fully destroyed in a sense.

Still, according to the rules of the world... Rey could no longer use any of the Skills he had fed to sacrifice. He also couldn't use the Skills that were combined using [Divine Merger] to make his current Skill-set.

"Tch. This sucks..."

Once again, Rey found himself listening to Ater's lectures as they discussed the current problem.

All of this started when Rey asked Ater about what happened to his Inventory, going further to explain the whole [Divine Merger] and [Sacrifice] bit.

The short version of Ater's answer was:

"Your inventory and everything inside it is gone forever."

In essence... all of Rey's money, resources, and everything that he had kept within that space were completely lost to him.

It was beyond devastating to hear.

'The more time passes, the more I realize just what I've lost by giving up all those Skills of mine...'

'Seems I'm stuck with only Ater. It's not a bad deal, but... I wanted more.'

"Why are we leaving, Master? What about the binding vow? Don't you want to tame your new Familiar?"

"Hm?" Rey raised an eyebrow and stared at Ater's confused face. It was a surprise to see that the usually sharp and competent guy didn't take the hint this time around.

"We can't do that anymore."

"Oh? Why?"

"I mean... I kept the purple egg in my Inventory, remember? All the items inside are gone, so... it's pretty much lost to me forever." Rey felt a little annoyed that he had to explain all of this to Ater.

It felt like he was opening fresh wounds.

'Just take the hint already!' He wanted to scream internally, but he was stopped by his emotion control, and also by Ater's amused reaction to his words.

"Oh, that..." Ater stretched out his hand, and a purple egg appeared right on top of his hand, with darkness coating the surface.

Rey's eyes nearly popped in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"How do you have that?!" He yelled out, nearly losing his composure. His emotions even reached the threshold, so the System had to forcibly suppress them.

It seemed he still had a lot to learn in that department.

"I never said you would have to bring forth the Beast from your inventory, Master. This thing has been with me for a while now; since the time it was supposed to hatch."

Rey's emotions were checked, so he was a lot calmer now. Still, he couldn't shake off his confusion.

"I don't... understand."

Ater smiled, shrugging as he spoke calmly. "The Beast is meant to hatch next to its summoner. That is the rule. The egg was transported from wherever it was to your location—same as those Phoenixes who did the same in your battle against Dagon."

"O-ohhh!" Rey's eyes widened as he listened to Ater's tale.

"I managed to contain it before it fully hatched. If you look closely at the egg, you'll see cracks here and there."

Ater had been using the darkness to seal the egg and preserve it until Rey woke up. And now that the moment of truth had arrived, it was finally time to leave the rest to the hands of his Master.

"So, I ask you once again, Master... why are we leaving?"Updated from novelbIn.(c)om