C77: End of Refinement, Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater
And returning to the Dungeon after this.
6/11/26
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The next set of abilities that I choose to upgrade are some of my higher tier skills, though they are from the regular set of skills but just their advanced forms like Chaos Step, Visceral Attack and Advanced agility.
With Advanced Agility, I learn that it upgrades into the next tier of the same skill which is Expert Agility and from there it turns into a new Skill called QuickSilver. As the original forms had only decreased the stamina cost while increasing distance that my natural dashes did.
I never thought it would have this big a leap in technique that it outright becomes a new movement technique to enhance my running to supernatural speeds. It's not quite at the level of quicksilver from Marvel nor flash from DC but there is nothing listing it as having reached it's limit and sealed away.
I only keep it at the first level of Quicksilver to better gauge the increase in speed for when I test it out in the dungeon. Maybe after that I will increase it to a suitable level for myself.
The next on the list was Visceral strike, the basic of basics, even though I already evolved it twice, it only got the two modifiers in this time but based on experience with the Life Creator, either one would mutate to a higher form or the skill would evolve entirely.
Since it's one of my most used skills, it's already at the third tier so the price is a bit higher but I can easily afford it.
Pushing the Sp into it, I get it to T4 where the skill does evolve and even loses one of its modifiers, the Hollow aspect as it seems to be absorbed into the new version of the skill which goes by the name of [Termor] Soul Ravager.
Moving onto the last which Chaos steps, a skill created from the merger of light steps and shadow steps. Light steps were acquired from the light step runestone while the other was an original skill acquired from Darkness mastery due to my own creation of it to be more stealthy.
Chaos Steps was truly a chaotic skill as while it protected me from it's effects, it was far too random that even learning anything about it would cause me to suffer migraines for a single percentage of mastery in it.
As such, this is one of the few skills that I will actively level up one at a time to make sure to comprehend all that I can from the changes. I will likely screw up the gardens here in the hunters dream. As such, I move over to the rubble of Iosefka's clinic, while it had burned down, the lamp itself was unaffected except a small shift in it's location as it was partially underground but all that became a mix of ash and dirt.
I begin by leveling it up to level 4 and then pairing it with my skill Quicksilver, I begin running all over as a mirage of effects occurs around me, some elemental while others are straight up alchemical reactions like the dirt turning into tungsten which I naturally collect lest it gets shattered or mutates into something else.
I continue this for about half an hour before I have to stop since I encounter 2B, my little pet robot who greets me in her signature pose.
"Hey there, just testing a few things out, don't pay me any mind. Though ill likely need to call you soon since I feel as if I'm on the brink of a breakthrough which will be beneficial to you. Though of course it depends if I succeed, it has a high chance of failure though no personal risk so you don't have to worry."
She just shakes her head. "I have already slain all the creatures here, there is nothing left."
"Ah, I see. My bad, I have a habit of monologuing when I'm bored. Hmm, along the floor path in the sewers is a ladder that leads up to the the Oedon Chapel and from there is the cathedral ward which splits up into multiple directions, so take your pick of hunting spots and ill let you know when or if I'm ready to give you an update."I give her permission to explore further into the land of Yharnam.
"Ah right, one last thing, if you see a bipedal monster called the cleric beast. You do not have permission to kill it but you rough it up on my behalf. Just make sure you hit it hard for me. Again, no killing, that's reserved for me alone." I then proceed to give her a warning should she encounter that specific Cleric Beast as it is my prey, and only mine.
"Understood, Glory to Mankind" She strikes her pose once more and departs. I simply shrug in response as I continue my experiments. My chaos mastery rose along with the level of chaos steps and said understanding.
This continued until it finally reached level 10 but didn't offer an evolution prompt which weirded me out for a solid five minutes before I just continued until it reached level 15 and I got 25% chaos Mastery.
This was useful as every 5% I got to understand something new about Chaos steps and integrate it into my other techniques. That changed with the 25% as I instead learned to control which random effect actually occurs next. Well, only partially as it's more akin to decreasing the size of random effects to a smaller grouping which in turn allows the ones I prefer to happen when I pair with other skills. Of course this doesnt effect the normal chaos steps which only got more complicated as it indoctrinated more random effects.
A wabbajack or Rod of Wonder has not enough effects to make my chaos steps even sweat.
I then move onto the next set of abilities that I choose to upgrade are some of my higher tier skills from the advanced set which includes Loot magnet, Dual Handed Weapon Mastery and All Weapon Proficiency.
At this point, im surprised the two weapon skills haven't fused yet, might need to be the same level in which case All weapon Proficiency is one level higher since it has the [Frenzied] prefix. So I will take care of that first.
Dual handed Proficiency acquires the [Diverse] prefix and then the merger prompt appears
[Dual Handed Multi Weapon Proficiency acquired]
"Very nice" I move onto Loot magnet next which is honestly a skill is fine in it's current state but I still upgrade it anyways
Since it's an advanced skill, it's considered as T3 which means it evolves into a T4 skill and obtains a strong modifier of [Amplified]. Far increasing its range to the point that I can cover a fourth of Central Yharnam in my skills range.
From here is the last of my skills including my current physique which has risen to level 9 under the current level of Energy flow along with me giving it 3/4s of my current stamina limits. As it was level 4 before. It means i've gotten around 25 points to my mind, endurance and arcane, thus providing extra energy to Energy flow. While strength, skill and vitality got 15 each.
With these levels, my blood tinge has finally returned to last place with the sole exception of mind but it is still the newest arrival and thus hasn't gotten a single natural point from levels and only gotten boosts from my race and physique.
I might have to let Energy flow upgrade one more time at this rate. Afterall, it just feels so good to get stronger with zero effort.
But for now, it's time to get to the meat of the bone. That means Overwhelming gets a big boost now as it was T3 like loot magnet and becomes T4 where it gets something that I did not expect was possible as I've only ever seen this modifier on one boss in particular.
[Arch Tempered] PowerBoost acquired] The evolved form gets a new name and a prefix. I knew it was gonna be strong but not this strong. The previous skill at level 5 already got a 2.25x boost to the next attack or any attack within the 1.3 second time frame.
Yet this new version boasts a massive power boost of 5x for an entire 2 seconds, while a brief time. With my shadow mastery, combined with all my other buffs. This is essentially a 20-25x multiplier when combined with the new and improved Greater Rage. It's insane if I combine it all with Astral Movement which provides a damage boost my damage the further I travel in a single instance.
The only possible downside to the skill is that I have to weaken energy flow to even use it as it consumes an entire 270 points of my stamina for a single two second instance. That's crazy. Though with a max of over 900, it's doable when I regen a total of 180 per second. Especially with QuickSilver, or at least its previous state enhancing my stamina and reducing most basic physical skills stamina cost whose effects were transferred over to the new version.
Next up if my most important physical skills which are riposte strike, Shatter echo and Weapon Echo. Since shatter echo was obtained from a high quality rune, it was considered a higher grade skill than Weapon echo so im sure if I upgrade that first then there is a chance that they would fuse together.
Once I do so, I'm surprised to find that this was not the case, weapon echo only gained a new modifier [Compatible]. 'I don't know what this fucking means, but I guess ill find out soon enough]. Since both skills are now the same tier of T3, I continue to upgrade both into T4. Weapon Echo gains the [Sharp] modifier while Shatter Echo gains the [Demoralizing] modifier.
I get the impression that Sharp makes all my weapon echoes into proper serrated weapons even when it isn't logical to be so but I won't know for sure until I test it out.
From here I proceed to upgrade Riposte strike which is the variant parry that can stun enemies when I time my attacks right and this is talking about normal attacks and not just guns. With it reaching T4 since it was T3 from the start like Overwhelming and Loot Magnet. The T4 version gains [Temporal] prefix which I can only feel as if it can improve the general timing of when I can actually stun enemies rather than only be treated as parries. Though perhaps this can also act as a guide to begin learning time mastery. But thats a thought for later.
And thus I am only left with Three skills left. The best for last. Cosmology, Harvest, and my Physique. Of course there is also the Eldritch arm but again, im not touching that without a ten foot pole. My physique is at its last level and I'm sure by the time I clear up the other two, I'll reach the next level. At that point, I can just look at the cost and compare it to Advanced Energy Flow to see which is better to actually upgrade.
Harvest is first though I'm not too reliant on it anymore since I started tearing souls apart but it's a good change anyways since it scales everything else up after it.
As this was a skill I got very early and surprisingly enough, it's never evolved before. That makes this a momentous moment as it reaches T2.
T2 evolves the skill into Great Harvest where at level 1 it gives 12% increase in echoes or .12x. Every level increases it by 2% again and so by level 10, it reaches 30% or .3x. Which is very nice and comparable to the moon rune I have. With T3, it evolves into State Harvest which sets it up to 34% at level 1 or .34x with a 4% increase each level.
Reaching level 10 means that I now had a 70% or .7x increase to all my echoes. T5 increases it to 77% at level 1. That means by the end, the value actually doubles to 1.4x or 140% echo increase.
At this point, I try to typically stop with my skills as they need about a million to evolve anymore but strangely not harvest. It's still in the tens of thousands to evolve it once more. So I will give it a try.
T6 actually changes how the skill works completely as it is now called perpetual Harvest. The entire skill no longer increases my echo count after killing but grants me a constant flow of echoes every single minute. The current level 1 echoes is set at 5,000. It receives bonuses from my moon runes but not my other ones. Though it can also give or take away due to the randomness of my CoK. Since that follows a 1% or 0.01x multiplier, it's not too drastic a change but still a nice bonus and essentially frees me from ever needing to actually farm echoes again.
"Hmmm, why do I still feel this need to go into the dungeons then? What is guiding me there?" I question myself as while the echoes I get there are nice, it's not something I rely on as they don't provide even 1% as much as Ludwig did even though the system still boosts the dungeon echoes by 10.
'I'll deal with that later, I'll find out in time. ugh Why does my head keep hurting?' I move onto the last skill, Cosmology.
A fairly recent skill as it was obtained from my race. It has subsumed plenty of skills, originally starting as simple mana manipulation to strengthen my own body with said mana. I then obtained skills from Gerald. That was Earth and Wind manipulation. Both very powerful skills but a far cry from the level of a control skill that my 'pet' has.
Speaking of Gerald, he has long stabilized his body and I had previously released him into Cathedral ward. From a mental communication he sent me some time ago, he had reached Yahar'Gul properly and had been slaying the various peasants and even the Amygdala there for me.
Im sure new ones would take their place once I teleport at all or Gerald does but for now I have to refocus on my skills. During the level increase of my Pet Bond skill, i had gotten the personal skills of Gerald that he had developed which were the hydro wall and storm Augment amongst others. These too were subsumed by Cosmology but only to bolster the levels of said previously subsumed manipulation skills.
Out of them all, I have mostly used wind manipulation since it was directly linked to my expansive senses. Which is why it's the highest level at level 8 while others hover around 3-6 with earth being the highest after wind. Fire, water and ice being others with fire being lowest even though im a total chump for fire elementals.
Cosmology itself is at level 4 and upon evolving it, it gains a prefix by the name of [Wide-ranged]. After a few tests, it seems that I can more easily cast aoe spells or cast spells further away from me. Both of these are reduced in price. I also see that upon evolving my skills, the subsidiary manipulation skills also rose by one level.
It has to be noted that Cosmology started as a T4 skill which means I just brought it up to T5 but I'm not happy with that as it doesnt feel all that strong other than increasing my mind state by another 50 points as an extension of my race.
All I can do is just dump more mana into my skills to increase it's power which is the dumbest thing I have ever heard which is why I will accept Cosmology into the current rare rank of T6.
In doing so, I got another prefix of [Mana Meister] which filled me up with magical energy until I realized that it was not another small boost like the previous evolution to Cosmology but outright change to the mana gained from my mind stat.
Originally it was 1.5x of my mind stat which determined my mana count. Before the current T6 evolution, I was at 210 mind and had 315 mana at my disposal. I got another 100 to my mind but the previous 1.5x is now a 3x multiplier which is why im not overflowing with energy.
Afterall, how does a paltry 315 mana compare to 930 now that my mind stat is at 310. 'It's a whole new worrrrrrlllllllddddd' I give my best mental Pocahontas impression which only goes haywire in my own brain.
[Astral Hunter Physique has gained enough experience to reach level 10. Evolve Skill?]
'Oooh, just in time' "Yes"
[confirmed]
[Due to certain achievements, Past and Present, A unique physique has been acquired]
[Eldritch-Hunter Physique has been obtained]
"Um system, I don't like ... .ughjlasdflj" I collapse on my back as my entire nervous system seizes up as my entire body begins to forcefully mutate. If I had any traces of the previous 40% of the Curse on my body at this point and it wasn't nullified by Lunar Moon then it would have been purged regardless.
It's as if my already powerfully enhanced bones were made into a semi solid state, malleable but still strong. The cell count of my body outright quadrupled yet then reformed until only half remained without affecting my bone marrow or future cell count, ensuring I didn't just add multiple years to my life, instead I feel I got predominantly younger by about 3 or 4 years.
Returning me to 21 once more. At least that would be the assumption but I'd say 31 is the case unless I somehow didn't age at all during my decade long coma.
My muscles made use of the discarded skin cells to further be strengthened as if a new flow of sugar and fat was added to them, bulking up tremendously before being compressed once more under the flow of strange blood echoes.
If anyone was looking at my body from a distance, they would think that an Amygdala was lying down beside me with its frenzied aura spouting out in all directions. A state of being that even a frenzied being such as a winter lantern would have gone mad from.
It would take another hour before the full transformation which I would be awake for the whole duration of to finally finish.
"HAAAA hAAAAA cough cough, fuck that hurt" I rub my head and feel some sort of tube on my forehead, no not a tube, like a small stud on my forehead, two of them.
I manipulate some water to my vicinity and take a look at myself to see that I got some pretty sweet oni horns. They aren't sharp at the moment but that might change in time or further leveling of the physique. Though i'd say that even with Advanced Energy flow, it would take a while as I can distinctively feel that the new physique is akin to an energy well with every single cell of my skin, muscles and bones are energy storage devices akin to nuclear level batteries but currently have no charge except whatever stamina I have.
[warning, Max level of current Physique is set to 20. Further Evolution not possible at current state, requirements not met]
[Knowledge has evolved due to Experience. T2 Level 1-> T3 level 1]
"Uhuh, interesting. Well that's fine. But now I really wanna make you regret for putting me through so much pain. At least knock me out first like you did when I first got my physique" I complained before putting my long term plan into action.
With a pout on my face that quickly morphs into a mischievous smile. I sat down upon the deformed ground which had sprouted strange plants due to the rampant frenzy surrounding me. Said frenzy had already withdrawn back into my body.
"Sealed State Release: Life Creator" I verbally command the skill to release as the full skill which I had reset all the way back to t1 level 1 as a simple multi crafting profession rises back up to full power and then further beyond it's original level 1 power as the sealed state skill ensures a 1.5x increase based on whatever xp was sealed away by it.
Originally it flowed quickly, level 2, level 3, level 4, level 5, but gradually slowed down until it reached level 10 and evolved past it into World Creator.
Since i broke the rules again, I got the temporary knowledge of World Creator which included the full knowledge of Life Creator which I needed to properly upgrade 2B like I promised.
Unluckily enough, the system intervenes again and resets my level back to level 1 Life creator. Yet the knowledge still remains in my head as Curious George gets another level. The system doesnt even bother to give me a disappointed message or insult for breaking the rules.
Instead my pants were set on fire and my head was encased in a pumpkin which I burst out of both, leaving me naked for a moment until I fixed up my hat and pants back to normal.
"I guess it was upset" I recall 2B back to me before returning her to the system as I get to work on her 'update'.
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Word Count = 3713
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