"Let's start with 'the thinker' skill," Ruth spoke as she rose to her feet. Ellia also followed her example and stood up.
With a swift movement, Ruth lifted her hand up toward the sky. As her palm faced upwards, a swarm of tiny, metallic creatures began to swirl around her palm and take the shape of a ball.
"Alright, when I throw this towards you, you will focus on this ball with everything you have."
"Huh?" As Ruth's words reached Ellia's ears, her mind became a tangled web of conflicting thoughts.
Though it was too late by then, Ruth had thrown the ball of iron at speeds that had Ellia baffled.
"Ugh!" Ellia's eyebrows furrowed in consternation, and her eyes darted at the ball hurling toward her.
At that moment, a strange and surreal sensation overtook the surroundings. It was as if time itself had become a plaything in the hands of some unseen force as the world around them began to distort and bend.
The once-raging waters of the ocean came to a grinding halt, frozen in time like sculptures in a museum.
It wasn't just the surroundings. Ellia also found herself unable to move a single muscle, but also at the corner of her eye, she also saw Ruth frozen.
As these pivotal moments unfolded, a tiny army of nanobots swarmed through Ellia's brain like a legion of microscopic soldiers. With precision and skill that belied their size, the nanobots began to release a series of electric jolts that crackled and surged through Ellia's nervous system, igniting a fiery burst of activity within her mind.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to bring out this much just from your first attempt." Ellia suddenly heard Ruth's voice ring inside her head. "After all, you did bring out less than one percent of the effect of the skill."
'What?!' Ellia yelled upon hearing this.
"Yea, if you were to use a hundred percent of the skill, then one second would be 31.71 calendar years."
As the weight of Ruth's words settled heavily upon her mind, Ellia's concentration began to crumble, causing the iron ball to plummet toward her face. Without fail, the iron ball collided with Ellia's face with a bone-jarring impact.
"Arghh!" With fiery intensity, Ellia's pained cries echoed through the air as she desperately clung to her bleeding nose, her eyes fixated with an icy gaze upon Ruth. "How hard did you throw this damn thing!"
In an instant, the flow of blood from Ellia's battered nose came to a sudden halt, as if by magic. The deep red liquid that once dripped down her face now seemed to recede as if being summoned back into her body. Gradually, Ellia's injuries began to mend, and the color returned to her ashen complexion, leaving behind only a faint memory of the injury that had been inflicted upon her.
"Are you really complaining when you felt no pain?" Ruth's eyes involuntarily spun in their sockets, expressing her exasperation, before fixing their gaze intently upon Ellia.
"Eh?" Ellia's movements came to an abrupt halt as she realized, with a sudden recollection, recalling that there was indeed no pain. "How?"
"Well, with the skill 'God's longevity,' there is no need for pain since any injury is instantly healed," Ruth explained.
"Then what does it mean, 'Temporarily slows down aging.'?" Ellia's eyes widened with curiosity as she leaned forward to take another look at the system interface.
"It's just as it says. It slows down aging."
"By how much?"
"About sixty percent?" Ruth answered.
"That's a life changer," A soft giggle escaped Ellia's lips, her eyes crinkling with amusement. "Quite literally."
"Now, this is 'Almighty creation,'" Ruth spoke, drawing Ellia's focus back to her.
With a swift motion, Ruth lifted her hand once more, and nanobots swarmed together, coalescing into a shimmering dagger that gleamed in the light as a thousand stars came to life in her palm.
"It's simple to use," Ruth spoke. "Just imagine the nanobots merging onto your palm, kinda like how you use mana."
"If it's like using mana, then," Ellia's lips parted in a soft whisper as she focused her mind and summoned a swarm of nanobots to dance across her skin, their metallic bodies seamlessly merging together to create a razor-sharp dagger that glinted menacingly atop her hand like a lethal work of art.
"You can also use the nanobots inside your bloodstream," Ruth spoke, enlightening Ellia yet again. "But it's not advised since the nano are the things healing you. Though you can also use some of it."
"Alright, next," Ellia spoke, feeling that she was now quite used to the skill.
"Loki's smile, an skill for clandestine missions or spy work. Just like before, imagine yourself being covered in nanobots." Ruth continued to explain. "Then-"
"Done!" Ruth heard Ellia shout, causing Ruth to whip her head around with lightning-fast reflexes. But the instant her gaze landed on Ellia, her eyes widened in shock.
"Eh?" As Ruth's gaze fixed upon the figure before her, it was not the alluring and enchanting Ellia that greeted her eyes, but rather the commanding presence of Ian, standing tall in his fully masculine form, emanating a sense of strength and power. In attire, the same military uniform he had worn back in days.
"Oho?" With a beaming smile spreading across her face, Ellia lowered her gaze to the body that now belonged to her. Overflowing with pure elation, she spoke with an air of triumphant joy.
"I didn't expect you to change into your…"
Though as Ruth was speaking, Ellia lifted her pants and looked down at her crouch. Upon doing so, Ellia was met with disappointment. "It's still not here."
A sudden fit of coughs overtook Ruth, causing her to shift uncomfortably and struggle to regain her composure before finally managing to speak. "For that, you're going to need more control over the skill."
"That so…" Ellia spoke while her body contorted as it morphed back into her original feminine form. "Is that why it was uncomfortable?"
"Yea, after all, it's only your first time using the skill."
"Well, either way, it's a useful ability to have," A pleased smile graced Ellia's lips as she remarked, her eyes alight with a sense of wonder and satisfaction at the power that she held within her grasp.
"Then let's look at the final one," Ruth spoke quite excited. Ellia nodded as she prepared herself.
"Ummm, actually there's nothing to show for this… haha…" Ruth let out a hesitant laugh, her fingers fumbling over the tangle of hair on her head like a group of clumsy birds trying to take flight. "I can't upgrade anything if there are no materials…"
"What were you planning to upgrade?" Ellia asked with a glint of intrigue in her eyes.
"Well… something that can supply energy to quadrillions of nanobots."
"And that is?"
"A neutron energy core," Ruth spoke. "It's one of the things that we need, but it's going to take some time to create."
"And why do we need this?" Ellia asked.
"So we can end this war," Ruth spoke daringly.
"Are you saying with this we can end the war?" Ellia's eyebrow arched upward in disbelief. Her questioning tone carried a hint of skepticism.
"No, not end the war, but to triumph, an overwhelming victory unseen in any past wars," Ruth's eyes widened with a wild gleam in her pupils, like two blazing comets streaking across the night sky while her voice carried a hint of madness.
"How long." Ellia couldn't help but gulp. "How long will it take to create this…"
"It will take exactly two years and four months to complete the build. Considering we meet the requirements to start."