Sol awoke to the loud sounds of cheering outside. When he peeked outside the window, he saw two rowdy adventurers competing to see who was stronger. They were both carrying multiple kegs full of beer. Sol didn't know how the competition between the two began, but it drew a large crowd of people cheering with each new keg added onto the stack. It was no longer just a contest of strength but also of balance in maintaining the tall tower of kegs still and steady.
'Heh, let me cheat a little.'
Sol peeked into their statuses and saw that one was 10 levels higher with all around higher physical stats. Already knowing who would win between the two, Sol sat in his bed and looked at his status page.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer]
Level: 81
Exp: 2,612,100/89,470,000
HP: 1450
MP: 1650
Str: 80 (+70)
Vit: 80 (+70)
Agi: 80 (+70)
Int: 85 (+70)
Wis: 80 (+90)
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX
Siphoned Talents:
[Create Magic Hands] Lv 9
Passive Skills:
[Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Balance] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Relay Magic] Lv 8
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 3, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Spikes] Lv 6, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 1, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disarm] Lv 9, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana Slash] Lv 2, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Chromatic Red] Lv 7, [Chromatic Green] Lv 7, [Chromatic Purple] Lv 7, [Chromatic Blue] Lv 7, [Chromatic Yellow] Lv 7, [Chromatic Orange] Lv 7, [Chromatic Indigo] Lv 7
Sol didn't have a chance to check out his status page after siphoning the talent skill and was surprised by the new section that appeared.
'A new section? I didn't even know that was possible.'
It wasn't that he was specifically told that status pages were static and always the same, but it was considered common sense. Even monster status pages were the same, even though they usually lacked names, leaving that section blank.
'Besides the new section, I have a lot of active skills… Since I woke up early, I have time to combine something into a new skill before I meet up with Amber downstairs.'
Strings of all colors sprouted out of him in many directions. He ignored the usual skills for now and focused on the group of newly acquired skills. As if they were meant to be together, all the chromatic skills were heading in the same general direction, and Sol just had to give it a little push for them to merge. The process was extremely easy, almost as easy as when Sol added [Magic Resistance] to [Invincible Body].
[Learned [Polychromatism] Lv 7!]
[[Polychromatism] Lv 7: Channel the power of all seven chromas. Release one chroma in a monochrome attack. Able to combine two chromas into a duochrome attack, gaining the properties of both chromas. Can further combine the power of all seven chromas into a full spectrum attack, gaining the properties of all chromas. Mana cost varies. Duochrome cooldown: 1 minute. Full spectrum cooldown: 50 minutes.]
'All seven colors into one attack? How would that even look? Though it has a few requirements for me to even use it.'
If one only had [Polychromatism], they wouldn't be able to combine all seven colors into one attack because it still required different focus points from where the colors originate from. Sol could only emit two colors at most naturally. By using both hands to channel a different color, he would be able to perform the duochrome attack. The full spectrum would require more exit points for the colors, and even if Sol used both his feet and head to somehow channel 3 more colors, he would still end up 2 focus points short.
'Good thing I went out of my way for the talent skill.'
[[Create Magic Hands] Lv 9: Summon hands to aid you in your endeavors. Can summon up to nine hands that have 45% of the user's physical attributes. Does not retain the user's intelligence or wisdom attributes.]
'Nine hands? The boss only summoned seven more… Oh, it's because it could only release one color each. But they also have a portion of my attributes?'
Sol summoned a hand to test something out.
'It's not working?'
Sol attempted to use [Analysis] on the hand, but nothing appeared. It reminded him of his Lipon, but even that had a status page once he activated the weapon. If he couldn't see its status directly, there was another way to test its power.
The hand floating in the air curled up into a fist and launched towards Sol. Sol replied in kind and punched back. The two fists collided with a boom, but the results were quickly shown. The floating hand was launched backward into the wall of his room.
'Yeah, it's about half my strength. I didn't even hit it at full strength, and it was easily launched back.'
Continuing with his testing, Sol summoned more hands, and after a bit of trial and error, he figured out how to delegate the colors to each hand. Now, seven hands floated around him, each glowing in its own color.
Sol tried to channel the power of the color red into his hand, but nothing happened.
'So I can still only channel one color at a time no matter what. What do I do with these, then?'
As Sol asked himself, two more hands appeared. Reminded of the strength the hands wielded, Sol tossed a rare sword and rare axe he had from his spatial ring towards both of them. They both caught the weapons easily and began to fight each other with them. Sol silently judged the two hands as they sparred.
'It's not as strong as when I wield it but…'
The floating hand wielding a sword charged mana into the sword and performed a [Cross Slash]. It destroyed the axe-wielding hand, making it poof out of existence, and the axe it wielded was dropped onto the ground.
'They can cast skills as well.'
The only downside of casting skills through the hands was the mana cost being higher, but a new skill helped in that department as well.
[[Relay Magic] Lv 8: Creates a better connection between the user and their constructs, mitigating mana loss and assisting in mana transfers.]
This connection didn't just work one way, where Sol only gave mana to supply the hands with skills. The hands could gather ambient mana and also send it his way, increasing his mana regeneration rate. This would help Sol with his mana management, but now that his magic hands would also be using mana, he would probably be spending it much faster than before.
"Ugh, my head is starting to hurt…"
Sol's head began to hurt, managing so many hands at once. They all felt like a part of his body, and even the sensation when they touched the weapons was felt by Sol. Although Sol had skills that helped in enduring the pain and controlling the hands like [Invincible Body] and [Precise Coordination], having maintained so many hands active for over half an hour of testing was starting to take a toll on his mind.
All the hands disappeared at once, and Sol stood up from his bed.
'It's time to go meet up with Amber anyway. I'll have to continue testing later.'
"One more! One more!"
The sounds of cheering could still be heard outside.
'They're still going at it?'
Peeking over once more, the crowd was even bigger, and it wasn't just two adventurers balancing kegs but 6 of them. The original two adventurers were shaking unsteadily as the 8 kegs of beer began to wobble. Suddenly, one of the adventurers lost their balance as a strong gust of wind hit their tower.
"Noooo!"
The kegs began to fall, but they were all caught by other nearby adventurers. They would never allow good beer to go to waste.
"HAHAHA! Now you have to drink a whole keg!"
The one who won between the original two was surprisingly the adventurer who was 10 levels below the other one.
"Drink!"
"Drink!"
"Drink!"
The audience began to chant as the loser grabbed one of the kegs and tried to drink it all in one go. Without spilling a single drop, he actually managed to drink the entire keg down and slammed it onto the ground.
"WOAAAAH!"
The entire crowd went wild. But the adventurer wasn't done yet. He grabbed another keg and yelled.
"This isn't even my full power! Witness me!"
The keg lifting competition quickly devolved into a keg drinking competition.