Bab 44: The potential of Crazy combine
----POV: Shiva---
Shiva wanted to win in the Colosseum, not just participate but to Win. By now he understood the fact that the harder the challenge the Tower threw at him, the juicier the rewards would be. That was all fine and dandy, but the problem was that there were going to be more eyes watching him within the Colosseum, and there is no way that a massive guild like Bramhalok was going to miss this chance to finish him off for what he did to them.
The safer path would be for him to not use his summons during the competition, keeping them as a "get out of jail free" card in case something "problematic" rears its ugly head, but to do that he needs to be powerful enough to actually not rely on them. The opposite of what he currently was; his abilities as an individual were almost non-existent.
He was ignorant but not arrogant, he knew with his current skills alone wouldn't be enough to trounce the people who have classes that augment their bodies to superhuman levels, it would not be possible to win the competition with how squishy he currently was, so he chooses the next best thing!
Non-stop leveling!
Currently, he was only lv.10 but with the help of his summons, he was confident in reaching lv.60 at the least in two days, bringing his level to around what his strongest summons was, so he choose to hunt in a nearby hunting ground were monsters from lv.60 to lv.70 resided.
***
While Shiva was looking at his summons tearing apart some monsters, he seemed to be deep in thought.
{Why are you standing around with that stupid look of yours? Actually, that's just your face, but I think you got something on your mind. What is it, Brat?}
"Hmm... I was thinking about how these lv.30 skeleton Ogres are too weak to keep accompanying me now, so I was debating replacing them with other stronger skeletons. The only issue is that all the skills they learned during my nap on the 9th floor would be a complete waste."
{Are you dumb or something?}
"What?"
{Are you dumb?}
'This old cot getting all cocky'
".....Care to explain yourself, Old B*stard?!"
{Why are you worried about that when you have such an overpowered skill that can take care of this problem? That's why you're dumb.}
"Overpowered skill?" Shiva said while scratching his head.
{Don't you have a skill that can... combine or something.}
"Yeah, I do have a skill like that, it's called Crazy Combine. What about it? It's not something I'd consider overpowered; it just mixes two items into one, it's not even guaranteed to be good."
{Let this Wise One enlighten your misbegotten self with some knowledge. Does it say you can only do so with 'items'?}
Shiva thought about what the old b*stard was referring to and soon realized...
"…!!"
"...no f*cking way that works…"
{It took you this long to figure that out. Really!? Such a good skill is wasted on you. You don't even use such a good skill! What the hell is in that mind of yours, Cow Dung!?}
"While your idea has merit, I should look for a better body. The better base material is bound to create something better. Maybe something similar to a human skeleton as well, to better make use of the life skills it'd gain," Shiva ignored the old Sage and mumbled to himself.
{Don't ignore me after I gave u the answer to your problem, you ungrateful piece of sh*t!}
"Kapali, pack up. We are leaving, our destination is the "The Graveyard of Apollyon"!"
******
Graveyard of Apollyon
A ruined, destroyed place that previously consisted of the decorated graves of renowned warriors of times long past. It was said that even one of the Popes from the "Church of Light" was buried there. Sadly, due to the heinous acts of some dark organization, the whole graveyard was trashed and ransacked due to some enmity they had with the Church. Of course, no one had heard of that organization or knew of its existence before that very day.
In front of the wrecked Graveyard now stood Shiva with his skeleton army at his back. As looked forwards he proclaimed, "Cancel Summon."
All the massive skeletons fell to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. He walked towards a small heap of soil, crouched down, and said, "Summon Skeleton". Soon a skeletal hand crept out of the dirt patch, soon a full skeleton emerged from the now uncovered grave.
[You have summoned a skeleton Swordsman lv.68 Cheol Sein]
He looked at the skeleton's level and was surprised. It was a surprisingly high-level skeleton, after all, he just reached lv.50 himself. Something else that was surprising was how it took him almost 1/30th of his mana to summon just one skeleton. Normally it didn't even require a hundredth of his mana to raise a skeleton.
More importantly, it was time to mess around with his unused skill. He looked toward an orc skeleton lying nearby on the ground and said, "Crazy combine"!
[Choose the main ingredient]
"Skeleton Swordsman, Cheol Sein"
[Choose other ingredients]
"Skeleton orc"
[Listed ingredients are acceptable]
[Proceeding to combine the ingredients]
[Combining...]
[Combination successful!]
[A new skeleton, Strong Swordsman's Skeleton, has been created]
[The combination has offset some of the Undead's restrictions, the skeleton can now use 60% of its original power]
"Huh, so that's how it works…"
{You hit a jackpot, brat!}
And thus started his mass frenzy summoning and combining.
.
.
.
Shiva tried to combine many ways of combining to see if he could trial by fire his way to figuring out how his skill works. He discovered a couple of different things to take note of when using the skill, like how if the combined Skeleton was mixed again with orcs and other better skeletons to check if the restriction can be further offset. Sadly, to his great disappointment, apart from the first time he combined the skeletons the restriction offset wouldn't work after the following mix or so he found.
He also discovered that the body of the ingredient has to be on a higher level or more strong than the base for the combine to work or it will just fail. and obviously, he couldn't even try the combine with his main skeletons, Kapali, whose body contained the best of best epics parts, Ugram, one of the strongest race in the tower, and Bhima's body was just on a different level, he didn't even know how strong the calf's body was in actuality. the only relief was that with a better body he could at least try to increase Virupa's power somewhat.
Around sometime later, in the middle of a combination, he got a weird message.
[The soul of the former Pope, Nicholas the Apostle, is approaching you]
[The soul of the former Pope says that unsettling the bodies of the dead is disrespectful and says that you should stop your rude actions at once]
It seemed that his passive, 'Soul Interact', was triggered and he was able to hear the dead Pope. As he was just about to say 'f*ck off', the old Sage interfered.
{Look who it is! It's the brat, Nicholas! Hahaha, hey brat, wait a second. Let me give you some advice.}
Shiva's interest was piqued at this unusual behavior coming from the old Sage.
{Do as he says and ask him where his resting place is, that you want to pay respects to the great Pope of the past. That he was a man you looked up to and that it'd be your pleasure to pay homage to him. After you get him to tell u where his grave is... you get what I am saying right? Bwahaha!}
The old man was a great Sage indeed. A small creepy smile crept onto his face as he kneeled on the ground, kowtowing to the blessed soul.
"Oh altruist, blessed one! Forgive this lowly mortal for my transgressions for I have done a sinful act within your virtuous presence. I shall do as you say and stop this disrespectfully display at once. I am truly enlightened by your words, oh Shined One!" Shiva made sure to put his *ss kissing act to 100% to pull off this shameless display of bullsh*ttery.
{Look at this b*stard, so natural at acting like he truly cares. It sickens me how much I'm enjoying this show.}
[The soul of the dead Pop is entertained and satisfied with your actions and agrees that all is forgiven as long as he learned his lesson]
"Oh, Shinned One, please allow this mortal to cleanse his sins by praying in front of your holy grave." The scheming necromancer has now attempted to take advantage of the elderly holy man.
[The soul of the dead Pope has thought about your request and accepted that it is only right of him to offer this opportunity to the sinful youth to rid himself of his filthy sins and redeem his soul. The soul instructs you to follow his Benevolence.]
{Bahahaha, that bastard is in for it now! I can't wait to see the look on his snooty face. Bahahaha!}
A crazy smile swept over Shiva's face as he followed the bright light that continued to float away to a faraway grave. As this crazy look became plastered, an eerie giggle could barely be heard.
"hehehe..."
****
(edited by JokeDagger)
WSA Entry: New Novels
1. Shadows of Vice 2. Healer's Awakening: Beyond the Game
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