7/10 15:31 (Summer, Night)
A Mana Sword in her hand, Luna jumped in the offensive dodging the responding burst of lava, to thrust it throught the Earth Drake's left eye.
This attack was dodged at the last second as it jumped aside, its eyes seeking the threat and making sure to keep her in its vision.
She, in response, moved towards its left minimazing the threat of her opponent as much as possible as its left arm was still in the process of regenerating slowly throught Vital Energy, depleting slowly its reserves.
Differently from it, however, she had more than enought time to simply regain all of her own Vital Energy during this fight and her own Mana returned to around 75% thanks to her own Unique Arma that allowed her to use less Mana while still being able to deal damage even with its now fully riformed barrier and its scales.
The two were on the platform now, face to face and ready for battle as evident by the swing from the Earth Drake's tail as its mouth spewed forth only for it to be a distraction for a strike from its right arm sending her straight towards the lava only for her to create a Mana platform to jump back on the rock platform, two Mana arrows being launched in before her to distract it from her as they collided with the platform and forcing it to maintain it stable and allowing her to return on the platform already swinging a Mana greatsword at it, blocked with its completely regenerated left arm, its barrier tanking the hit.
A smile on her face her greatsword exploded, destroying its barrier, and she swung up with a Mana sword clad in Vital Energy colliding with one of the claws of its right arm, being knocked back only for the rock beneath her to vanish forcing her to jump over the swing of its right arm, using it as a stepping stone to jump behind it dodging its tail and striking it in the back with a Mana spear clad in red.
The differences between the two were clears.
While it regenerated Mana faster than she herself did, it regained Vital Energy so slowly that it didn't matter in combat she, even with its larger reserves of both, was in an advantage even if she was physically inferior.
After all, differently from true Dragons this process to convert the terrain around it costs exactly the same ammount of Mana it would regenerate and it didn't master this move enought to pull back the range to lower its cost.
Additionally she had no need for breathing and so the smoke didn't interfere with her and neither was she affected by heat of this level, so long as she didn't fall directly in the lava.
And so, even if she was weaker than her opponent, she was actually in a much better situation.
So much so that she decided to experiment a little.
First she enhanced her existence with Mana and then she did the same with Vital Energy cycling them within her body until they mixed together, causing a purple aura to manifest around her.
This would have been immensely harder with the previous rules, but thanks to their increased flexibility, her own nature as an energetic Singularity and her being a Lunarian, it was possible at her level of Power to fuse together Mana and Vital Energy into what was unoriginally called Vital Mana.
She moved matching and exceding its speed and punching it directly in the side as it was turning against her releasing a burst not of Mana, but of Vital Mana sending it crashing away from the platform and into the lava.
It was an Earth Drake and so the lava, especially that it conjured itself, would deal reduced damage, but reduced is not nullified and it had no esperience on swimming and so it found itself forced to make a new rock platform while melting down the previous one consuming even more Mana and Vital Energy.
She looked down on it, safely on a Mana platform, a Mana bow in her right hand and a Mana arrow in her left, already nocked and clad in purple.
The arrow was launched as she had no more need to chant the name of her techniques or spells at this point.
The arrow was stopped by a wall of lava, but the second one wasn't, hitting it in the paw and wounding it before the barrier regenerated.
The former Mad Bear's situation was certaintly dangerous.
Not only was almost 60% of its Mana spent, but its Vital Energy was only at less than 30% and falling slowly as it healed the damage it just occurred.
If it wasn't for its barrier it would have already spent it all only to then die a little time later.
She nodded to herself before cutting her left hand letting her blood cloak her Mana greatsword enhancing it greatly as she fell on it cutting throught its barrier and burying it throught its spine before detonating, forming an hole one and a half meter wide.
She found herself jumping away, most of her left forearm destroyed by its retaliatory explosion of lava, a muffled scream ripped from her troat, before her Vital Energy quickly regenerated her arm.
The battle was in the final phase now.
Its Vital Energy may be able to keep it alive for now, but this would quickly change as its reserve was dropping quickly.
It would die.
Its death was now certain.
The terrain returned to the normal one, lava quickly cooling down in rock and the smoke and ash dissipating slowly from around them.
It fell down, its legs incapable of holding it anymore.
Luna walked up to the Earth Drake, a Vital Mana sword enhanced with her own blood in her right hand.
The two observed each other, their eyes meeting without any hesitation, before the young Lunarian rose her hand holding the sword and it thrusted throught its head, killing the D-Rank Monster.
She held its head before thrusting her fang in its neck, sucking the whole of its blood in an instant.
.
.
.
.
She smiled before condensing the Magicules, 900 in "Lunarian" and 100 in her new Skill "Bood Forging."
Before sitting cross legged in the middle of the cooling rocks entering in her Soul, more specifically within the world of her Racial Skill.
It was different from before.
Said world was still a shining Moon with a sky of liquid yet solid blood and the earth in the distance.
However she moved in the equivalent of the Moon's dark side where, instead of a Moon made of white light, it was made entirely out of shadow.
She stepped in the shadows, sinking deep in them, finding herself before 9 shades, the 7 E-Rank Goblins, the D-Rank Goblin and the newcomer Earth Drake.
Without hesitation, she exercized her authority on them, rendering the two D-Rankers her familiars and sending the E-Ranked ones in the cycle of reincarnation of the Moon.
The choice of Skills of theirs to concentrate on was obvious, Third Eye of Physicality and Imperial Scale.
"Your name is now Vision" she nodded towards the more humanoid shadow. "And yours is Warden." she nodded towards the four-legged one, while nodding to herself, unaware of her own terrible naming sense.
The two were now made of shadows and their outline and eyes made of red light.
She nodded to herself before leaving the Skill World and waking up in the real world, her Unique Arma now covering most of her right forearm.
"Well, D-Rank obtained. When will the ships return to travel?"
"In less than 5 days they are supposed to."
"Very well. But before that…"
She rose her hand and cut it, letting her blood flow out controlled by her Vital Energy in the shape of a sword.
She nodded before doing the same with her own Mana controlling shadows.
She nodded to herself again before deciding to process with the next step.
If with Vital Energy she could now actively control her own blood and with Mana she could manipulate and solidify shadows, what about with Vital Mana?
The result was before her, a sword made entirely out of black blood, entirely liquid, while being at the same time, entirely solid.
She smiled happily before proceding to the final step of this test.
A test that thanks to Singularity was more than a success.
A blade that was made by combining Mana Shaping, her control over blood and shadow, Vital Mana Fusion, Mana Forging and Blood Forging, a blade that she swung lightly without using any technique at a rock, cutting in two completely and without any resistance as if it was air.
It was a blade that looked like black glass without any imperfections outlined by a small purple aura.
She waited smiling as she felt no cost to sustain it thanks to her D-Rank Singularity and no need to think about it anymore as she demonstrated by indicating a faraway tree as the target and the shape, no longer held in her hand, but floating around her, pierced that tree and only that one, before returning to float around her thanks to the D-Rank in Mana Shape.
A laugh escaped her as she dispelled it, satisfied for now.
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7/10 17:13 (Summer, Night)
"Do you know what is the difference between a Dragon and a Drake?"
"The most important one is that a Dragon is a Person while a Drake is a Monster. When it comes to ability the difference is large, but at the same time very small. The two of them will combat similar, but a Dragon is much more skilled. Additionally the process to convert the terrain is passive when it comes to changing the terrain. For example, a Fire Dragon will slowly convert a region in an hotter one to then gain Magicules from it while a Fire Drake could instead instantly convert it to gain an advantage during a fight for Mana. The second biggest difference is, however, that Dragons, all of them, have Soul Sight."
"Correct. Do you know what it is?"
"As Phoenix have Heat Sight and Lunarian have True Sight when at C-Rank and above, Dragons have Soul Sight. The ability to see the Soul of all living beings."
"Correct. Be careful around Dragons. The Growth Skill "Soul Harmony" render our Souls incredibly attrattive to them. And Dragons tends to be quite possessives by nature. However, I have another question for you, if I can."
"Go on."
"Why do you trust what I say without much hesitation?"
"I see you don't know. Try to lie to me."
He shrugged before trying.
No words escaped his mouth, even after a couple of minutes of trying.
"The rapport between a Lunarian and a Vampire is the same as the one between an Ancestor and a Ghoul. The scale is Lunarian, Ancestor, Vampire and Ghoul. At one step you must obey direct orders. At two steps you cannot cosciounsly or not, harm the higher one. Three steps? Your will is dependant entirely on the higher one, to the point that if I were to order a Ghoul to see the sky as green, this Ghoul will see the sky green, independently of anything else."
"I see. I understand now."
"Are you sure you don't want my blood to become an Ancestor?"
"I'm sure. I'm not a fighter. It would be a waste and a danger for you."
"Very well. Let's continue my training and studying until I will have to go on that boat."