A/N: Just a quick update/disclaimer. The MC doesn't know what Tensura is. He is from the same Earth as Rimuru, so while he will know about other manga and anime, he has no meta-knowledge to work with.
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(Veldora POV)
'I thought learning Magic would be a lot more... complicated' I thought to myself as I looked down at my draconic hand now coated in fire.
From my previous life as a human, whenever I thought about how cool it'd be to learn magic, I always thought that, even if I, somehow, COULD learn how to use magic, it would require intense training and focus for my first few spells. I'd have to be careful since I didn't want to accidentally strike myself with lightning due to shooting it in the metal corridor of a ship, for example, or suffocating myself by using fire magic in a cave, but that appeared not to be the case. I imagined how cool it would be to use magic and thought of doing a flaming punch before my hand caught fire.
Of course, the fire itself didn't harm me and I didn't pretend that it would either. I was the source of the flames and with my durable body, I doubted I'd be harmed by anything less than a super-heavy artillery bombardment from my previous world. It may even require that humans would require actual nuclear weapons to damage me if I was downplaying myself too much. This pitiful flame wasn't enough to do any real damage. It seemed like I could control and generate most 'mundane' magical effects simply by thinking of them, though obviously, I had stronger connections to some over others.
For example, I was currently surrounded by an orbit of balls of magical elements, Fire, Water, Earth (Rock), a ball of wind, and even a weird ball of 'Space' which appeared like a 4-D cube, complete with the animation of it folding back in on itself somehow.
I closed my eyes and skimmed over everything I knew about magic. Even though I had assimilated the memories of the old Veldora, it seemed like he wasn't the best student when it came to learning the more foundational stuff. For example, I KNEW what Aura and Arts were, but did I have any?
No.
I grumbled slightly as I thought about how much fun 'I' used to have just rampaging around and breaking stuff. I didn't even really NEED to do more than use my intrinsic magic at that time.
Speaking of which, Storm Magic was really busted.
It was something called a 'Soul Magic' according to [Investigator]. 'Soul Magic' is magic that is encoded into the very soul of a Spiritual Lifeform that allows them to use their magics instinctively. The power is so natural and ingrained, it can even ignore the limitations of other magics, such as an Anti-Magic Area Spell by directly altering the laws of physics to achieve its effects.
This got me thinking on the greater Magic System this world relied on. From what I gathered through [Investigator] and my own memories, there were really 3 Power Systems at work in this world. The first was the one I was working with, Magic.
Magic is a sub-category of abilities called Arts which are the manipulation of magic power to accomplish various types of techniques. It was entirely possible to create fireballs and sword beams using various different kinds of Arts depending on the user's ability to manipulate magic power, their willpower, and their imagination.
I flicked my claw towards the [Unlimited Imprisonment] barrier that surrounded me and watched as a curve of white light flashed from the tip of my claw, flew through the air, and slammed into the barrier before dissipating as though something crazy didn't just happen. I did not flick my claw fast enough for the flash to be caused by 'air pressure' like is explained in most anime, which means the method I used functioned entirely on laws different from that of the normal laws of physics.
I looked back to my still-burning other hand and swung that one, though at a much faster pace, making sure to keep an eye on the resulting technique. The fire that surrounded my hand seemingly left it and surrounded the energy I created through my claw strike, seemingly empowering it until it hit the barrier, burned for a few moments, and then dissipated.
I hadn't intentionally commanded the fire to do that and yet it broke the laws of the universe that I knew of and acted on its own to accomplish it. [Investigator] flashed through my head, granting me the information on it that I sook. Apparently, what had happened was that I'd used a 'Mystic Art', or the combination of an Art or non-magical technique, with a magical technique layered over top of it. Apparently, according to [Investigator], using 'Mystic Arts' like this was actually far more deadly, as it was hard to counter both magic and a 'physical' strike at the same time, especially when empowered by the Second of the three Power Systems, Aura.
Aura manipulation was fighting ki from most other anime and manga. It was a highly versatile substance that every person leaked from their bodies in various amounts. I closed my eyes for a moment, centering myself before opening them again, and looking at my fist. It was surrounded this time by a shimmer of invisible power which radiated from it. It almost looked like the air above the pavement on a very hot summer's day, as the waves were visible, if only barely.
Once again [Investigator] came in clutch, informing me that the 'waves' were directly interfering with the magical power in the air, directly dispersing the particles of magic, called magicules, and altering their direction. If I used this Aura correctly, I could punch through all manners of magical defenses with ease and even hit intangible enemies such as ghosts or elementals.
In a way, it reminded me of Armament Haki from One Piece, although the more I looked into Aura, the more I realized it was a bit more complicated. Aura can be measured through one's senses and right now, mine might as well be the best in the world. I looked around the cave I was in. There was no light save for the faint glowing of some strange crystal-like formations all around me and in the cave ahead. Despite that, I could see clear as day, the drops of stagnant dew forming on the petals of the weird otherworldly flowers that littered the cave's floors and walls, even from hundreds of meters away.
'What are those anyway?' I wondered aloud.
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I was surprised that, for the first time, [Investigator] had given me such a warning, though it seemingly wanted to 'explain itself' a moment later because I understood the reason why. It was because of [Unlimited Imprisonment] blocking the way. I felt one of my eyelids twitch at that but ignored it and continued with what I was researching. I watched my aura begin to twist around my claws for a moment as I willed it to empower my, before I quickly took a step forward, and thrust with all my might, even putting my back into it, and striking the barrier that held me in prison.
*BAM!!!*
My claw was stopped by the barrier, however, my Aura continued to pass through it, making its way to the opposite side of the wall in the cave and drilling a massive hole in it. Yes, this was the crux of my dilemma right now. Aura itself could pass through the barrier due to the fact it penetrated through the magic keeping the 'imaginary space' isolated from the outside world, but that didn't mean that I was suddenly free. This skill wasn't a Balloon, it wouldn't 'pop' even if I unleashed a simultaneous Aura strike on the entire surface of the prison and that's because of the last Power System of this world, Skills.
Skills were... odd. They acted a lot like Skills in Video Games at first glance. You can use them instantly and without any hesitation. They are powerful and reliable, requiring next to no training to use effectively, however, they were not omnipotent. If Arts and Magic were techniques that had to be performed manually, Skills were techniques you could perform automatically. All it required was a 'will' to activate them in most cases, and they would activate. No training or even understanding is required.
The reason why my Aura Amplified Claw attack worked was that it would have worked on the technique if it were magic too, but if it were magic, it WOULD have popped like a balloon, or at least collapsed in on itself and erased its existence, along with myself inside it. Skills though... they were more permanent. Skills like [Unlimited Improsonment] aren't just magical barriers that keep something in, they are closer to status effects that tell the world not to let whatever is inside out.
"In a way, I guess this entire world works on some kind of supernatural computing software. Magic and Arts are commands you enter into software that is, 'the environment around you' while Skills alter the parameters of the Software itself." I muttered to myself.
My analogy could use some work, especially since it wasn't quite true, but for now, it was the answer I'd go with. I designated research on magic to one of my parallel thought patricians going on in the back of my mind and then created a second thought partition which would do something similar for Arts and for establishing myself a 'Family' of Arts that I could practice once I freed myself and could train. Hopefully, I could translate at least some knowledge of anime, manga, fighting games, and comic books into creating a cohesive combat form with little to not weaknesses. I even activated [Rioter] so that [Certain Outcome] would run alongside my efforts to create and guarantee I'd have a faultless martial arts family powered up my mystic arts and weaving in my Soul Magic into itself to make me unbeatable.
While that was going on, I also decided it was time for me to get free of this prison I was inside of. I knew that if I were careless and just simply overpowered the prison using my higher authority as a higher-ranked being, it'd eat up way too much of my energy and be like lighting up a bigass beacon on my location telling my sisters to come and 'check up on me', which would probably lead to them, trying to kill me. Even then, without [Rioter], I probably wouldn't have been able to get out as easily either way.
No, I needed a MUCH more nuanced approach to this. I was already an Ultimate Existence, the fact that I could even interact with the outside world of [Unlimited Imprisonment] rather than being trapped inside of a different dimension was already a testament to how strained the Skill already was to contain me. the only reason my attacks themselves didn't break or weaken the barrier was that the Skill's 'code', for lack of a better word, had it flagged as 'impervious to physical and magical damage' in the world files, meaning no amount of magic or force would even affect it, let alone damage it, however, if an ability with higher authority were to attack it...
"Let's see about creating an Ultimate Skill, huh?" I muttered aloud as I closed my eyes and concentrated on my Skills.
I felt my consciousness dive deeper and deeper into myself as I searched inside my soul for the resonance of my Skills. Every time I used one, I felt the core somewhere deep inside myself, and with both [Parallel Operation], and [Certain Outcome] running from both of my Unique Skills, all I had to do was follow the two Skills to their source and I'd find them.
It took me much longer than I'd like to admit to finding them, however, once I did, I found myself floating above a large sphere of what looked like clear glass with a kaleidoscopic light shinning from its center in every color in the universe, even in some colors I couldn't recognize or describe. It didn't take me much time to realize I was looking directly at my soul, though the hundreds of thousands of other smaller lights that surrounded my soul surprised me greatly. They looked like smaller versions of my own, but while mine looked as big as a mountain, there's was as small as a baseball.
I reached out to touch one and images and memories flashed through my mind in a rush. A lifetime of a woman named Kelly played out in fast-forward through my mind. I watched her grow up from being a small child to her first crush on the son of a baker to growing up and going through the hell that is menstrual cramps in medieval European society. I watched her give birth to a young boy named Ars and how she was so proud of him for becoming an important part of the Luminous Church, all before, on one fateful day, the Daemon Dragon of Storms, Veldora appeared and burned her city to the ground. I watched on in horror as she became trapped under a pile of debris in her burning inn she ran with her husband and slowly suffocated to death.
The next moment, I was back in my 'Soul Room', holding the soul of the woman.
"Oh... right." I said as I looked around and calculated the millions of souls I had stored with me here, each collected after another rampage of myself in the past.
"I'm going to not touch THAT for now." I thought, ignoring how disturbing it is for me to just casually carry around all these souls. At some point, I'll have to release them so they can move on to their respective afterlives or be reincarnated.
I ignored that slightly disturbing news for now and continued on with what I was doing beforehand. It didn't take me long to find the section of my soul in which my Skills were located. It almost appeared like I was reading a list of Skills, their ranks, and their functions and sub-abilities on a tablet of some kind, as the view itself was like a hologram. It was now time for me to begin messing with my Skills, seeing if I couldn't edit them a little and make an Ultimate Skill that would allow my escape.
I pondered for a long while and even began to mess with my lesser Extra and Intrinsic Skills a bit to see how things would go. After a process that probably took me several hours, I managed to improve the efficiency of most of my Skills and repair the 'damage' that I'd done to them when messing with them, though I could feel a drop in my internal energy value while doing so. I couldn't completely alter my Skills. I was basically told I didn't have that authority, requiring someone named "Raphael" in order to do that, however, I was able to discover a way to upgrade Skills into new, more powerful variants pretty easily, by dumping a massive amount of magic power into them.
"Alright then, let's upgrade [Investigator] and [Rioter] then... please don't fuck this up, Veldora," I said to myself.
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I blinked for a moment. I was being asked to fuse my Skills together rather than upgrade them individually. I was hesitant to do so, as the potential for holding 2 Ultimate Skills was amazing, however, my gut was telling me that backing out now would make my next attempt much harder. If this was me from before, as Christian, I would have taken the safer path and backed down. I'd lose nothing in the long run and even if it were more difficult, I could always try again later, however, the me now didn't even hesitate.
"Do it!" I said to the Voice of the World as I dumped all of my remaining magical energy into the fusion to force it to succeed
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<<[Fuast] has received enough energy to evolve itself into [Faust: King of Truth]>>
As I heard the announcement, I felt my soul twist and shift as [Faust] was not just placed on the list of my soul like the other Skills, it was etched into the very surface of the crystal that contained my essence. There was now no real difference between myself and [Faust] now as my soul cried out in what felt like bliss.
It was at that moment I lost consiousness.