Seed of Titan-Chapter 158: Testing Out the New Skills

Drai petted Horsie a few times before sitting down by the unlit fire pit.

"You’re really something, you know?" Max suddenly remarked.

Drai threw him a puzzled look.

"You didn’t let out a single sound earlier even though I could see your whole body trembling," Max explained. "I didn’t think anyone could do that without being aided by some desensitizing equipment. Even I had to grunt and yowl through my transformations—though I usually stuff my mouth with some cloth to muffle the sound. Unlike you, I had no one to watch over me."

"Well, I’m pretty used to pain, and I even got a pain reduction skill, so the process wasn’t too bad," Drai said. "But yeah, I’m pretty lucky you’re here to keep guard. Thanks."

"No problem. So, how’s your new class? Is it still absurdly strong?"

"Maybe. I have to test it out first."

Hearing the doubt in Drai’s voice, Max raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem with your class? Don’t tell me you picked something you didn’t want."

"Don’t worry, I didn’t choose a ’wrong’ class by mistake. But the thing is, I lost my enlarging ability."

"What?! How?!"

Drai then told Max about his new class, including that it was some kind of variant along with his modified augmentation skill. The only thing he kept to himself was the name.

Max contemplated briefly before saying, "Although you haven’t tested it out yet, I think rather than being inherently ’weaker’, your new skill might just be ’different’, and how it fares in practice depends on how you use it. Besides that, I’m pretty sure you’ll need to go through an intense adjustment period before you can wield this skill freely."

"Huh? Why’s that?" Drai asked.

"Heh, I don’t want to spoil the surprise—you’ll find out after trying out the skill," Max said with a mischievous look. "By the way, keep me updated about your flight capacity. Maybe we can use it to bypass the strip."

"Sure," Drai said as he stood up. "I’ll be leaving now. Oh, right—let me cook supper later. I want to see how good my new cooking skill is."

Max gave a thumbs-up and watched as Drai’s figure left the camp.

"Look how fast the lad is progressing, Horsie. Soon, we’ll be leaving this place," he muttered while brushing the foal’s mane.

Horsie simply neighed in reply.

Moments later, Drai finally arrived near one of his training spots. He stood at the foot of a tiny hill, gazing at the vast meadow before him.

’I guess I’ll try out Nexus Augmentation first since it’s simpler.’

Drai immediately activated the skill, starting with a twofold multiplier. Almost instantly, his whole body became more robust, and based on how his feet had sunk a tad deeper into the soil, he had become heavier too.

Drai tried pinching his arm and discovered that both his skin and muscles were tougher than before.

"Is this the alteration mentioned by the skill? It just makes me tougher and heavier? Isn’t that too simple?"

Feeling somewhat unsatisfied by the effect, Drai increased the multiplier to threefold. Once again, his whole body turned more robust and heavier, and his feet sank even deeper.

Drai looked pretty disappointed. "Yeah, it just amplified the effects. Well, at least I won’t be growing extra limbs. Now, how about the strength?"

Drai walked to a boulder embedded in the slope nearby while leaving a trail of deep footmarks behind him. He dug his fingers into the boulder and lifted it with relative ease.

"Looks like the strength increase is accurate. Now, let’s see the power," he said right before tossing the boulder slightly and punching it. But to his surprise, the boulder completely shattered.

Drai looked at the countless pieces of rock scattered around before inspecting his fist.

"That’s weird—my punch shouldn’t be this strong. Did I hit its weak point or something?"

Drai decided to test it out again. He walked around until he found a similarly sized boulder and repeated his test.

The result was the same—the boulder shattered into bits with a loud bang.

"Looks like my first attempt wasn’t a fluke at all. Hmm... Is there a problem with the stat multiplier? No, there shouldn’t be. My lifting strength is pretty accurate, it’s just my punches that have somehow become much stronger, and I didn’t even use my grab-punches."

Inspecting his knuckles again, he suddenly noticed something—or rather, the absence of it.

"The impact left no mark at all? I’m pretty sure the three times multiplier doesn’t make me this impervious."

Putting aside the issue of his punching strength, Drai decided to test this new finding. He deactivated his skill and climbed up the hill until he arrived at a cliff. The ground way at the bottom had been devastated, covered in numerous craters with varying sizes.

"The last time I jumped down using double size, I almost broke my back. Let’s see if it goes differently this time."

Drai reactivated Nexus Augmentation twicefold and leaped down without hesitation. He curled his body midair and protected his head, leaving his back to bear the brunt of the impact.

A deafening boom resounded as Drai’s body slammed into the ground, creating a crater deeper than the rest. Seconds later, he finally climbed out.

"Shit, I forgot to take my clothes off," he remarked upon seeing his tattered attire.

Just then, his eyes widened, and he suddenly twisted his body repeatedly and even jumped around before shouting, "Holy shit, I’m barely injured!"

Drai immediately sprinted forward while upping his amplification by one level and slammed into the cliff wall, creating a human-shaped crevice.

Walking out, he remarked in delight, "Damn, my defense just rose to a whole other level. Even my speed increased a lot. Are these the effects of the feature alteration? Then are my punches a result of these alterations too?"

Drai lowered his augmentation back to twofold and sent a barrage of attacks against the cliff wall. The wall wasn’t as hard as the boulders, so it was merely dented in multiple spots. But because of this, Drai finally realized the reason for his power discrepancy as he looked at the dents with varying depths.

"How could I forget? All that multiplied strength is now concentrated in this small fist—no wonder my punches are so powerful. Shit... I think my brain lacks work here. I definitely would’ve realized this sooner if I were still studying routinely. Oh well, who gives a damn. At least I now know this Nexus skill isn’t too bad. But the problem is..."

Drai raised his augmentation to the max, and he instantly sank to his knees.

"Yep, I figured so. This is definitely why Max mentioned the adjustment period earlier. My weight increase doesn’t affect me at all, but my surroundings can’t take it."

Drai deactivated his skill once more and stepped out, returning to ground level. Looking at the two deep holes he left behind, he scratched his head helplessly.

"Have I been trolled or what? Doesn’t the skill description say that it’s been adjusted to suit the Scion of Gaia’s environment? Is this world actually fake Gaia? How come this skill is so impractical?"

Drai sat down and thought about his new predicament.

"I guess I had been crushing the ground too whenever I became a giant in the past, but I didn’t really notice it because of my size, and it didn’t hinder me at all. Obviously, shelving Nexus Augmentation would be extremely stupid. Like Max said, it’s different but definitely not weaker—in fact, it might be stronger in certain situations. But utility-wise, it’s way worse than the Colossal version. I lost that absurd reach, though the flight ability from Nova Flux might just compensate for it.

"My extreme weight would still be useful for attacking and defending, so I don’t want to completely nullify it, which means the ideal solution would be to have something that counters my downward force. I wonder if any of those fancy gems has such a property? But that’s a farfetched idea."

Drai’s gears spun as he tried to formulate a feasible solution, and after some time, he finally came up with something.

"I think there’s no other way than to maneuver around the problem by triggering it at the last moment, just like when I exploit Aspiring Grabber. So now I just have to figure out the timing for different situations. Maybe I’m supposed to pair it with flight, but that would mean I’d have to constantly keep track of both skills’ timers and make sure their cooldowns stay short and always overlap. It’s a reliable method if I can end the fight before the flight duration runs out, but I still want to reliably use both skills independently, especially since Nova Flux has other uses besides flight."

With a solution in mind, Drai finally stood up.

"I’ll deal with Nexus Augmentation later. Now, let’s try flying."

He silently activated Nova Flux, and a white aura instantly enveloped him.

"Ooh... I look more like the titans now," Drai exclaimed as his eyes gleamed in astonishment upon witnessing the otherworldly aura. He tried touching it, but the aura wasn’t affected at all, as if it was merely an illusion. It didn’t even sway like a flame.

Drai tried adjusting the output, but the aura remained still.

"I guess there are no levels to the output. But I remember seeing titan bro’s aura surge before he smashed that poor planet. Hmm, maybe his skill is an upgraded version or entirely different from mine. Anyway, how can I fly?"

The moment he willed himself to fly, his body began to levitate.

"Hahaha! It works!"

Drai attempted to move sideways and effortlessly glided in that direction. Then, he visualized himself turning around, and his body spun precisely at the speed he had imagined.

"Well, that was too easy. Is it supposed to be this stable though? I thought I’d have to balance myself midair. Whatever—let’s try going higher."