Synexus sat down on a mat inside one of the guest rooms. It had been decided quickly that Gene would need to be in one while he was in the other in order to protect the party from any hidden mental attacks. Being able to see mana was the only way to detect them, especially if they were subtle like the one used on Kumo.
Before the others slept, he decided to do something that he had been attempting for nearly a week. He was finally going to select a skill.
Skill Selection Available!
Architect’s Blueprint (Rare): Whether it’s a design for a new structure or the foundation of a new life, having a blueprint to recreate your work is important. This skill allows you to store blueprints of any creation to instantly recreate it using your mana. Mana cost is slightly more than making the original creation.
Synexus smiled at the skill and thoughts ran through his head of all the possibilities a skill like this could provide. As of right now if he wanted to recreate one of his creations, he had to basically alter the elemental makeup or genetic code of something similar. So technically he could already save and recreate what he had already created before, but this skill would streamline it. Using his mana, he could simply recreate a duplicate without having to go in and manually make the changes himself. For plants it wasn’t a big deal since he could use Instant Growth until the plant produced seeds with the new genome. But for projects like the bio-bridge it could prove extremely useful. Then thinking about the future, when he was dealing with technology more, this skill could prove itself invaluable. He marked it as a maybe mentally before moving to the next skill option.
Demolition (Rare): Sometimes the work of an architect is to tear down what is already there to build something new. Using mana, dissemble any material to its base elements. Mana usage and time to complete the demolition is based on the material.
Again, it was an option for a utility skill, and he could see how it would be helpful. He could use it to break down materials to be more manageable. He would also be able to break a material down into its base elements and then recreate it to be a purer material. It would be a useful skill, but it didn’t excite him enough to mark it as a maybe.
Branching Intelligence (Rare): Your creations are a reflection of yourself and your path. Now share more of yourself with them. Using your mana, create a link for you and your creations to share your intelligence. Gain any perception available to the material, or that the living being may have. Use any material or living being that you have modified as an extension of yourself. Gain the ability to give mental suggestions to any creations with an intelligence.
This skill scared Synexus after he read it. It was riding the line between a utility or combat ability which was right up his alley, but it also had a darker side if used with malintent. If his understanding was correct, he could alter a human that had consented and then use this skill to give them mental suggestions. Now to be fair, it sounded like if they had a high enough intelligence, they would be able to disregard the suggestion completely, but still there was a sense of wrongness in that aspect. However, the positives completely outweighed the negatives. He could finally command his plants in battle and become a little more strategic. In the moments before he almost blacked out, he remembered sending a mana flare to his Razor Hydra Plant to get its attention which was something similar to how this skill would work except his intentions would be clear.
Another positive was that he could use materials in battle if he went this route. From the description it sounded like he could use mana to control any material that he had modified. That could be used to surprise an enemy and throw them off guard or confuse them enough to create an opening. It was certainly a strong choice, but there was one more to look at.
Raining Destruction (Legendary): Use mana to summon all your stored materials into the sky above your enemies. Your creations will rain down upon your foes demolishing anything they have created. High mana usage. You will be able to recover the materials unless they get destroyed.
Synexus knew he lacked a big finishing move. Kumo has her Tempest Surge. Prith has a few himself that utterly destroy the battlefield. Vorin has plagues that he keeps in his back pocket. Zuls has several combination attacks with her bonded that will decimate most defenses. Yu has her vortex of fire. Shell can drop a whole ocean onto her enemies. He on the other hand doesn’t have a big flashy skill that does an instant large amount of damage. This would be that skill for him. He could even alter specific materials to deal more damage when the skill was used, but was it really his path?
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He recoiled at the thought of getting rid of all the materials that he stored in his Progress Garden even if it might save his life. He also believed that with enough time he could sort of do this on his own even if it wasn’t as instantaneous. It just wasn’t for him.
With the last skill choice weighed against the others, there were only two clear choices. Both Architect’s Blueprint and Branching Intelligence would move his progress forward to new heights. One looked more to the future and could improve his creative path. The other used the creations to both push him forward and keep him alive. This was the toughest decision that he had so far when it came to skills. What ended up being the deciding factor was that he could mimic Architect’s Blueprint to an extent already. He couldn’t mimic Branching Intelligence yet. That’s why he chose to select it as his level thirty skill selection.
Knowledge of the skill flooded into his mind, and he knew he made the right choice. The possibilities for use were endless. Flashes throughout his mind gave him ideas for the skill and he knew it would be a long night of keeping watch and practicing the skill.
He took out some modified metal that he had picked up off the Nexus. Nothing about the metal was too exciting except that it was incredibly lightweight. Before he had modified it, it would break extremely easy, so he used Elemental Modification to change that. Now it was a lightweight material that was quite strong. Not the strongest thing he had ever made, but decently protective.
Using a little mana, he created a link through Branching Intelligence to the nitrinium which netted him a level of his new skill. Through the mana thread, he could sort of sense the surroundings of the piece of metal. He could feel his hand putting pressure on the ore and feel the vibrations of the air around the material. His mind’s eye became that of the metal, and his mind processed the feelings as his own. Next, he tried to will the metal to bend. A surge of mana went through the thread and the metal slightly bent and through the connection he could feel the movement like he was simply bending a finger. Finally, he willed it to hop. Another surge of mana went through the thread and the material wobbled until it pushed off his hand for a moment. Synexus felt the sensation of being in the air for a split second before feeling the warmth of his hands once again.
He opened his eyes and released the connection. It was an amazing skill and again the possibilities for what he could accomplish were endless. Mana made anything possible through the will of the user, and he could now make his materials come to life in a sense. That’s when he got another idea and pulled out a boulder of regular stone that he had collected for his attempts at fixing Yu’s skill but hadn’t used. He quickly modified it to become slightly softer so that it counted as one of his creations. A mana thread connected him, and he started to send instructions to mold itself into particular shapes at particular times. Half an hour later he had a golem that was an exact likeness of himself.
Sending complex instructions to have it walk proved challenging, but thanks to his high intelligence and Zaxillian heritage he was able to keep up the instructions for the golem to start walking around on its own. The steps looked clunky and sometimes the golem lost balance thanks to the swing of the arms, however, for a first attempt it wasn’t bad. Synexus laughed at himself as he made the golem do all sorts of actions and started noting the various responses the material had to certain instructions and how much the mana usage was.
Just when he was going to call it a night for experimenting, another idea popped into his head, and he had to try it immediately. A mana thread went from his head down to Soul. The two were already connected by his soul and the living armor had saved his life multiple times through its quick reactions to his will. However, when the thread connected a flood of thoughts came through the connection and Synexus realized that his armor did have a semblance of intelligence. It wasn’t to the point that they could communicate through words or thoughts, but it was definitely there. With a few instructions he found that he could suggest the armor to turn into certain materials or grow into certain shapes to better fit his combat style. He even suggested that it completely cover his body almost like a second skin for only a few minutes and it was incredibly intuitive. Almost no mana was used through the connection. He knew that it would be the best use he had for the new skill. There was a chance that Soul would eventually become sentient and when that happened, they would be able to communicate even better through the mental link.
Finally, after nearly a week, Synexus was able to clear the notifications about the skill selection, and he could focus on grinding out levels on his new skill to progress his class even further. Better yet, he got a skill that would provide him with endless experimenting and would take his combat, as well as his projects, to boundless heights. Sadly, while in the village, he had to focus on researching the science behind memories and how mana could erase them.
