There is a Chapter before this. I put a Chapter wrongly before, but i corrected it to a new Chapter. Read that to avoid confusion, in case you missed.

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Caelus immediately became excited. To think pushing himself to the absolute brink would actually work! This was exactly the breakthrough he had been waiting for.

Just then, a secondary notification popped up in his vision.

Ding!

[Your Origin Spirit, Menes The Pharaoh Knight, has learned the Skill: Battlewill.]

"Oh?" Caelus raised an eyebrow in surprise. To think the knight would passively pick up his newly acquired skill.

But it made perfect sense. Menes was his Origin Spirit; their existences were intrinsically linked.

....

[Origin Spirit]

[Name: Menes, The Pharaoh Knight]

[Rank: Bronze III]

[Combat Score: 56.11 (Silver II)]

[Skills: Origin Sword Will (Mythical), Solar Beam (Epic, 2-Star), Battlewill]

....

Menes was doing incredibly well on his own. The Pharaoh Knight was Caelus’s ultimate trump card, so there had been no need to summon him just yet. In fact, Menes was overwhelmingly strong primarily due to his Origin Sword Will. Once the knight unleashed his blade, it dealt a flat +10 damage.

"Is my use over now?" Rachel inquired, leaning against her massive ice hammer.

However, before Caelus could answer, Sylvia stepped onto the reinforced floor.

"Not yet," she said, her red eyes burning with determination. "I also want to awaken Battlewill."

This ability was absolutely terrifying. It could instantly change the tide of a desperate battle, and she wanted a piece of that power.

Soon, Sylvia was tirelessly trading blows with Rachel. She unleashed all sorts of blood and spatial powers, pushing herself to the absolute limit. But even after an hour of grueling, exhausting combat, she wasn’t able to awaken the skill.

’It isn’t that easy, it seems,’ Caelus thought, observing from the sidelines.

He was actively absorbing their battle using his new Aura Perception skill. Seeing the fight in this state made his perception break down every single micro-movement into raw, digestible metadata. If he possessed a combat adaptation talent, pairing it with this perception would instantly make him an untouchable god among players. He would be able to physically map out perfect counters in real-time. In that regard, his Divine Calculation skill was going to be incredibly handy.

His perception would take in the raw movement data, and Divine Calculation would split his consciousness, forcing his brain to work at maximum capacity to execute the perfect counterattack.

Eventually, Rachel wiped the sweat from her brow, stated she had urgent ] matters to attend to, and took her leave. Sylvia collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily, having failed to trigger the awakening.

"It is fine, Sylvia," Caelus said, walking over and gently comforting her. "The only reason I managed to get the Battlewill skill so easily is probably due to the fact that I am an Ender. The system explicitly stated an Ender’s will can crush a world. If not for that hidden modifier, I might have been doing far worse than you."

With his physical training concluded, Caelus sat down to focus on his magic.

His natural mana affinity was currently stuck at D-Rank. But ever since he acquired the Mage talent, that restriction had become somewhat irrelevant. Mages used Hex Papers to forge entirely new spells. These spells operated on the concept of ’borrowing’ power—just like how Volcra borrowed destruction from an ancient dragon, bypassing his low natural affinity entirely.

Speaking of which, it was time to merge his clustered skills and forge new spells.

He opened his skill window.

Blood Manipulation (Common, 2-Star)

Lightning Trail (Common, 2-Star)

Tremor (Rare, 2-Star)

Thunderclap (Rare, 2-Star)

Stream (Epic)

Laser Shot (Rare, 2-Star)

Point-Defense Grid (Epic, 2-Star)

Lightning Singularity (Legendary, 2-Star)

Glacial Prison (Epic, 2-Star)

Icicle Spear Impalement (Epic, 2-Star)

Myriad Moves of the Heavenly Sword (Mythical, 2-Star)

Divine Calculation (Legendary, 2-Star)

Water Dragon Soaring The Heaven (Mythical, 2-Star)

These were all the skills he had. Excluding the Aura ones.

He was thinking of merging Thunderclap and Tremor. As standalone abilities, they had outlived their usefulness to him.

But before crafting, he needed materials. He pulled out a stack of Hex Papers.

Whenever he held an item, his system would passively prompt a duplication popup if the item was eligible. The Ancient Hex Paper and the Chaos Awakening Stone from the Trial of Osiris were unique items and could not be duplicated. But these standard Hex Papers? They were completely fair game.

DIVINE DUPLICATION!

He swiftly activated his talent.

Ding!

[10x Multiplier Achieved!]

[1x Multiplier Achieved!]

He instantly received 22 Hex Papers. He wouldn’t have to worry about running out of crafting materials anytime soon.

He immediately selected Tremor and Thunderclap and channeled them into the parchment.

Ding!

[You have combined the skills ’Tremor’ and ’Thunderclap’ using a Hex Paper.]

The parchment lit up with a blinding light as ancient runes began inscribing themselves onto the surface. Soon, a new notification popped up.

[You have successfully created the Spell: Tecta (Epic, 2-Star)]

[Details: An area-of-effect spell. When cast into the ground, it violently disrupts the earth while releasing a deafening burst of concussive lightning magic. Deals +5 Base Damage to all targets hit within the radius.]

[Cost: 3 CA / Mind Power]

"Not bad, not bad," Caelus commented with a satisfied nod. Now his useless, low-tier skills could finally be put to good use.

Next, he selected Laser Shot and Point-Defense Grid. These were technological skills he rarely utilized in fast-paced combat. He swiftly merged them together.

Ding!

[You have obtained the Spell: Xera (Epic, 2-Star)]

[Details: Summon a massive area-of-effect beam of pure light that can pierce through any physical or magical barrier. Alternatively, Xera can transform into a defensive grid that absorbs exactly 100% of a single incoming attack’s damage before shattering.]

[Cost 3 CA / Mind Power]

Xera and Tecta. Both of these would come in extremely handy for crowd control and emergency defense.

Just as quickly, he opened the global market interface and purchased two cheap skill books: Sword Projection and Weapon Barrage. He immediately threw them onto a Hex Paper. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Ding!

[You have obtained the Spell: Ferra (Epic, 2-Star)]

[Details: Summon ethereal sword projections to deal rapid, piercing damage to your enemy. Every consecutive hit that lands on the target greatly stacks and increases the overall damage output.]

"With that out of the way, I believe it is time for me to add in some Faction Benefits," Caelus smiled.

He had some grand plans in mind for his newly expanded Region Domain. The fact that Factions existed within the system meant there was far more to the overarching war than met the eye.

His eyes locked onto the Resource Point Gacha Roulette.

The ultimate grand prize in that specific roulette was a golden ticket that allowed the user to create a brand-new Faction Benefit for absolutely free. The gacha itself only cost 100 Resource Points for 10 pulls. For someone with his passive income, it was an absolute steal.

He weighed the pros and cons. Even if he ran out of personal Reputation Points to maintain the Faction, he could always rely on Sylvia’s massive banked pool.

He also fully understood why the initial ’Benefit Kit’ had given him two free benefit creations at the low cost of 40 Reputation Points. It was a trap to get players hooked. After using the free creators, simply opening the Faction Benefit creation menu cost a flat toll of 100 Reputation Points and they called it platform fee. And that didn’t even cover the variable creation fee, if a Faction Leader tried to implement an unreasonable or overpowered benefit, the Reputation Point cost would skyrocket into the thousands.

Sighing, he pulled up the roulette interface and began rolling.

[-10 reputation point]

He begin with single pulls.