Footprints were left in the dirty soil of the barren wasteland. The sun had just settled down a while ago and the bloody moon was now slowly rising up to the sky which was covered in thick, black smokes. An eerie silence was present in the vast lands of the barren wasteland.
Lloyd and the others were dragging their tired bodies towards the distant south of the barren wasteland. They haven't been able to stop to rest ever since they climbed down from the giant hand. As they go on and on for hours, nothing seemed to change in the landscape. It was as plain as they could see and no other things such as trees, animals and structures could be seen.
At some point, one of them was close to collapsing so they had to stop for a little bit to rest. They had considered going back to the giant hand to seek for a higher ground that would protect them from the magma, but that area would also become a death trap for them as they would be swarmed by the burning dead until the sun sets. They wouldn't be able to survive another one of those vile abominations.
Klaudia once again took out the vase of the endless spring that was stored in her spatial ring and filled all the emptied bottles from their fight with the burning dead and distributed it to the cohort while Luna also took out the saps for their meals. No one had the energy to keep talking so they ate in silence instead.
Lloyd didn't feel like joining them in their awkward situation so he was sitting a little bit farther from them. He suddenly had the feeling of creating another equipment lately. He also remembered that he still had to craft a spatial storage item so he won't have to carry such a heavy load all the time. However, he had no idea how to make them yet.
Before he started to craft, he took a look at his status first. He wanted to know if he got any points upon killing those abominations that rose up from the pits of hell. And sure enough, he received quite a large number of kills from them just by using purified water. If he remembered correctly, His kills probably reached almost a thousand of those things since there were like endless burning dead that keep on rising up the moment one died. He also bet that the others have killed plenty enough too.
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Name: Lloyd Claudel
Rank: I
Title: Awakened Aspirant, Eternally Stagnate
Innate Ability: Midas Hands
Skills: Materia Generator, Materia Refinement
Ascension Requirement: 1071/1000 enemies killed
Do you want to Ascend? Yes/No
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His eyes widened in shock upon seeing that the kill count has exceeded the requirements and a new set of options showed below, asking him if he wanted to ascend or not. Before they fought the burning dead army, his kill count was just somewhere around 35. Now, it had totally went past the required amount. It seemed that he didn't just kill around a hundred or so, but thousands instead.
After thinking for a bit, he chose the 'Yes' option. Suddenly, his body was inflicted with intense pain which made him scream. The others were quite alarmed by his screams and drew their blades immediately, only to find out Lloyd was lying on the ground, tormented with agony.
"What's wrong with you, Lloyd?" Klaudia asked with panic showing in her voice.
"D-don't mind me… I am just… ascending!"
Lloyd was having trouble in replying as the pain invaded not only his body but also his mind, disrupting his thoughts.
"Blasted Hell! It… hurts so much!" He cursed.
After a short period, the pain receded and he could now relax and breath properly. Even though he was exposed to the unbearable pain earlier, he now felt that his body was a little bit stronger than before and his mana essence had also increased. He checked out once again his status screen to see if there were any changes.
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Name: Lloyd Claudel
Rank: II
Title: Awakened Aspirant, Eternally Stagnate
Innate Ability: Midas Hands
Skills: Materia Generator, Materia Refinement
Ascension Requirement: 71/2500 enemies killed
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As expected from the Eternally Stagnate title, he didn't acquire any skills and nothing else changed aside from his rank climbing to rank II and his kill count went down to seventy-one.
"I didn't know that ascending could be so painful!" He cursed out loud.
"How are you feeling now?" Luna asked.
"Wonderful! I feel a little bit stronger than usual. And my mana seemed to have increased as well."
"I see." Luna, back in her aloof self, plainly replied. She then took a look at her status screen and a small trace of flicker in her eyes was seen by Lloyd.
'It seems that she had also reached the required threshold to ascend.' Lloyd thought.
However, Luna didn't proceed immediately to ascending and just turned around to go back to the place where they had previously eaten their meals. The same goes for Shane and the others. Their looks showed a hint of envy instead of excitement which indicated that they still haven't reached the requirement to ascend.
"What about you, Klaudia?"
"What?" A hint of confusion appeared on her face.
"I mean, have you meet the requirement to ascension?"
"Ah, no, I still need a few more kills." She shook her head. "My current number of kills is 980. It must have come from killing those undead."
Lloyd nodded and didn't say anything else. Klaudia also went back to the group and he was now left alone. He was currently low on soul orbs and he didn't have any higher ranked soul orbs, so the most he could craft tonight would probably be just one or two items of the lowest rank.
He used the Materia Generator skill and chose a random material instead of the ones he currently knew. Lights flashed and two objects have now appeared instead of only one. His skill was upgraded. Looks like the Eternally Stagnate title only prevented him from acquiring new skills when ranking up. He smiled in satisfaction as he picked up the two objects to inspect it.
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Name: Sun Stone
Description: A bright-red chunk of stone imbued with intense light from the god of flames.
Name: Adamantine Ingot
Description: A large block of metallic alloy that is very durable and almost indestructible.
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The first one was quite interesting compared to the second one. It said in its description that the stone itself is somehow connected to the god of flames who was mentioned in the back of the palm of the giant hand. This had to be a rare material. Once he generated something random, his system would be able to remember the form and characteristic of that material and he would be able to generate it again by choosing the custom option instead of the random one.
He had an urge to try infusing more soul orbs on the equipment instead of using only one. He fetched out from his backpack the remaining three soul orbs he had acquired from killing the sentinels in the forest. Since the burning dead didn't have any soul orbs, he couldn't gather more than what he had since leaving the forest. Now that he saw this amount, he remembered that he also only had three soul orbs before coming to the academy which was given to the guard of the gate in order to bribe him.
He hesitated for a bit, thinking that it might result to the destruction of the materials just like what happened to the elite soul orb and the bone scythe of the sentinel, but then he remembered that he had already ranked up and his Materia Refinement skill should have ranked up as well. He gulped as he casted Materia Refinement. A screen popped out which let him choose three options: Weapon, Armor, or Tool.
"Well, I guess I should craft an armor this time?" Sunny said out to himself.
He chose the armor option and since he didn't have any idea for armor designs nor did he want something like the ones Shane wore as it would be heavy and greatly decrease his movement, a random design was chosen instead which meant that the soul tree system would decide what form it would materialize. Lights flashed once again and consumed both the sunstone and the adamantine ingot. He waited for a few seconds until the light finally receded. A white coat with red lines on the shoulder and collar down to the bottom of the jacket popped out from the residing white light.
"Wow! This thing looks cool. But it doesn't really look as hard and unbreakable as how the adamantine was described..." He once again talked to himself.
He inspected the armor by tapping on it with his finger and a screen appeared.
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Name: Dawnbringer's Radiant Cloak
Rank: III
Soul: Grunt
Ability: Unyielding, Sacred Soulguard, Last Stand
Description: A cloak forged by a master artificer with his magical hands blessed with alchemy. With the combination of both the light of hope from the god of flames and the unbreakable steel, this armor is capable of protecting its owner from heavy attacks as well as soul-damaging attacks, or even death.
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He found a jackpot this time. As he finished reading the description, a wide smile formed from his mouth and he felt like screaming so hard. But he tried to hard to control his overflowing excitement and joy, afraid that he might cause a misunderstanding again with his cohort.
He quickly went back to read the ability description. Unyielding was a passive ability, a type of ability that doesn't consume mana and is permanently activated or only activates once a condition is met. This ability belonged to the former which meant that it was always activated. Unyielding causes the cloak to be as hard as the adamantine ingot which meant that it could be almost indestructible as long as Lloyd wouldn't receive attacks from something like the gravebound ghoul or something much stronger.
This would replace his current attire which was already full of tearing from the constant fighting since the beginning of the trial. He learned from the others that armors crafted and infused with soul orbs usually repair themselves slowly over time, so he didn't have to worry about changing armor. He could also use the water from the vase of the endless spring to wash himself from the dirt and bad odor that might cling to him.
He then moved towards the other ability. Sacred Soulguard was another passive ability that gave him a slight protection against soul and mind attacks. It was another useful ability since they might have to deal with a horrendous monster that could control the mind or even play with their memories. Mind attacks were just as dangerous as soul attacks since the target would be completely oblivious to the damage it would cause if target didn't have any protection against it. Soul attacks are like physical attacks, but damages the soul instead of the target's physical body. Once their soul is destroyed, then their body would just be empty husks which would be the same as dying.
Lastly, he read the third ability's description. Last stand was an active ability and just by reading its effects, Lloyd knew that this one would definitely devour his mana in an instant since this ability prevents him from dying from fatal wounds by consuming his mana until there was none. Even if he was decapitated, or his body would be sliced in half, he will not die as long as he had mana. But even if he did, his mana would continuously be devoured by the skill unless he had a way of reattaching his severed body part or repair his broken organs. He had to decide carefully when to use this skill as it would be pretty helpful in the future.
He took out the sentinel's dagger to test its durability and tried stabbing the cloak with it. The blade of the dagger just bounced off after making a clanging sound and producing a spark from the friction. It was really indestructible when only using an equal or less superior weapon. Smiling from his achievement, he closed the screen and equipped the coat. Too bad, he didn't have a mirror so he could examine how he looked like right now.
As he had changed his outfit, Luna noticed his new coat which sparked an interest in her intense stares towards him.
"So, you have crafted a new equipment. And it's an armor this time." She stood up and approached him.
"Yeah, I got lucky this time and I have upgraded my skill." He replied.
"Then… maybe you can create a weapon for me?"
The two of them stared at each other as Luna asked him to make a weapon for her once again.