Finally knowing that he could remove skills that did not serve any purpose to him other than to make his skill list look cluttered, even though he had to pay a price for it to happen, Aurus was quite happy knowing that it was possible in his Inanimate form.

All of the places that allowed skills to be removed from skill lists in Aurus' memories were all places that could only be accessed by players in the late game. To be more specific, only those that at least have an existence level of Transcendent would be able to access such a place.

"Now that I think about it," Aurus started to ponder over the words the system said as it confirmed the ability of skill removal. "What does it mean by removing levels proportionate to the grade of the skill I'm removing? If I'm getting this correctly, a C-grade Mortal skill would cost a level to be removed, while an X-grade Mortal skill would cost 5, presuming that my calculations are correct."

Although there was nothing wrong with asking the system about these things, Aurus decided to not ask the system, lest it actually had a conscience of its own and it grew annoyed from Aurus' consistent questioning.

"Well…if my calculations are seriously correct," Aurus muttered to himself not long after. "Then there's no problem for me to use up some of my unused experience. If not, even the few million points of experience that I have is definitely not going to be enough."

"System, open up a list of active and hybrid skills that I have," Aurus commanded the system, putting aside pa.s.sive skills since more pa.s.sive skills would help Aurus out rather than become a burden.

Ding!

________

Ruler Skills:

[Zenith Nihility Dash Lv. 1], [Dark Universal Blade Lv. 1], [Impenetrable s.h.i.+eld of Nil Lv. 1], [All-encompa.s.sing Nothingness Lv. 1]

Cla.s.s Skills:

[High Spirit Spell Core (Wind Variant) Lv. 1 [Grand Spiritas Deification Lv. 1], [Supreme Spirit-Vitality Unification Lv. 1], [Unworldly Flux Weapon Fabrication Lv. 1], [Unworldly Flux Armor Fabrication Lv. 1], [Third Heaven Flux Enhancement Lv. 1], [Grand Flux Samsara Lv. 1]

Species Skills:

[Transient Spiritas Dash (Special) Lv. 1], [Nine d.a.m.nation Spellswords of Ruination (Rare) Lv. 1], [Infinite Primordial Morph Lv. 1], [Berserk Lv. 1], [Invincible Lv. 1], [Heavenly Spiritas Revival Lv. 1], [False Nil Teleportation Lv. 1], [Spirit Clone Lv.1], [Boundless Spirit Domain (Rare) Lv. 1], [Alliance Call], [Judgement], [Unbreakable Spiritas Flux s.h.i.+eld (Special) Lv. 1], [Soul Transcendence], [Wisdom Transfer Lv. 1], [Nine Worlds Soul Morphosis Lv. 1]

Life and Will Skills:

[Blooming Vitality+++++ Lv. 1], [Indomitable Will+++++ Lv. 1], [Sentience+++++ Lv. 1]

________

Looking at the decently long skill list that appeared in front of his field of vision, which only const.i.tuted up of active and hybrid skills that he had obtained all along his journey to where he was now, Aurus could not help but imitate of clicking his tongue inwardly as he could not help but say, "Man, how did it get to this point?"

As he tried to recall where his skills came from, he remembered that almost all of his skills were obtained through the evolutions he did as a species. Unfortunately, a lot of those skills haven't even seen the light of day, never being used even once in a fight.

He looked at this list a few more times, deciding on what skills to remove. Eventually, he decided to remove the Life and Will skills he obtained from evolving into a Spiritas. The only useful Life and Will skills he obtained were the Life and Will vessel and stat boost skills, both of which were pa.s.sive.

As for the three skills, the only gimmick they had was a stat boost, and it was not even close to the boost given by [Grand Spiritas Deification].

And so, with his choice set in stone, Aurus commanded the system, "System, remove [Blooming Vitality+++++], [Indomitable Will+++++], and [Sentience+++++]."

Not long after saying it, he could not help but add, "G.o.d d.a.m.n, these skill names are a mouthful. Not only that, it feels like I'm trying to persuade a cat to come closer…as if there was one in the first place."

Ding!

It took a few seconds for the system to process Aurus' command, a screen appearing in front of his field of vision not long after as the text written on it said, 'The system cannot delete these skills as these skills are the core of Life and Will skills.'

"Are you serious?" Aurus mumbled in slight annoyance. "Ain't the core skills of Life and Will the vessel and the pa.s.sive stat boost one?"

He commanded the system to delete the three skills a few times, all of those attempts ending up fruitless. In the end, he could not help but sigh as he decided to not mess with those skills, looking for another skill he rarely used to remove instead.

"Hmm…after obtaining a great amount of FP, plus an incredibly good FP regeneration rate, I think this skill can go now," Aurus said to himself after looking at a specific skill categorized under Cla.s.s Skills. He tried to remember the last time he used that skill, which ended up becoming fruitless as he could not remember it anymore.

"System, remove [Supreme Spirit-Vitality Unification]," Aurus commanded not long after, obtaining a screen which showed him good news this time.

'This skill is an S-grade Mortal skill. Would you like to sacrifice 4 of your levels to remove this skill?'

"Finally, a skill I can remove! Wait a second…my calculations were correct as well!" Aurus was slightly ecstatic to remove this skill, as well as finding out that he was correct, confirming without hesitation as a notification appeared not long after, informing him of his level dropping down to Level 16.

Ding!

'[Supreme Spirit-Vitality Unification] has been removed.'

Whoos.h.!.+

And just like that, the skill was also removed from the list of active and hybrid skills that Aurus had open. After removing that skill, he focused his sense of vision back towards the list of skills he had, finding a few more skills he could hopefully remove since it seemed that a lot of skills could not be removed due to their connections with his evolutions.

Eventually, a few minutes later, Aurus found two skills he did not use that often, although he grinded both skills to C-grade Transcendent level. One of those skills was the reason why he was admitted into the Tempest Branch Alliance, but after obtaining a defensive skill that did not lose out to the skill's effect, he decided to remove it. As for the other skill, he did not use it at all, hence he was going to remove it.

"System, remove [Berserk] and [Invincible]," Aurus commanded the system. Not long after, he could not help but think about his decision twice as he came to a realization that these two skills came from his Spiritas evolution. It was then that he expected to obtain a screen that said he could not remove those two skills.

Ding!

'Both skills are C-grade Transcendent level, costing 6 levels each to remove. Would you like to use 12 of your levels to remove both skills?'

"Eh?" Aurus was not expecting for the system to actually allow him to remove these two skills. "Are these two skills not an important part of becoming a Spiritas?" He thought about it a few times, but then decided that it was useless to think about it any further, accepting the prompt as a notification appeared not long after, informing him of his level dropping down to Level 4.

Ding!

'[Berserk] and [Invincible] has been removed.'

Whoos.h.!.+

And just like that, two more skills Aurus did not use that often had disappeared from the list of skills in front of his field of vision. Just as he was about to continue finding skills that he could remove…

Ding!

A notification sound out of nowhere resounded throughout Aurus' mind, prompting him to open up the notification screen as only good things came from the notifications of the system. And as he continued to read through the notification he received, that idea was fortified even further.

'Due to the user removing 3 skills out of their own volition, the Skill Fusion ability of the system has been unlocked, allowing the user to fuse two or more skills into one, at the cost of their levels as the user has not yet reached a high enough existence level.'

"What the…" At first, Aurus could not believe the fact that he had unlocked such a late game skill, as he could remember quite vividly that although there were only a few places where skills could be removed in exchange for permanent stat boosts, places where one could fuse skills together were extremely rare. In fact, Aurus only knew of one place where he could do so!

"Are you serious?" With this question in mind, he nervously commanded the system to open up Skill Fusion, with the system responding not long after with a screen that appeared in front of his field of vision, asking about the skills he wanted to fuse together.

At that moment, Aurus finally believed that he had unlocked skill fusion, causing to cry out in happiness, "To the heavens that look over me, thank you for giving me this opportunity! Kurohana, thank you for giving me this opportunity of being reincarnated as a stick!"

Of course, he could not cry out that loudly, lest he startled Fenrir and Charisa while they were grinding their skills. It took a while to calm down his excitement, but he was still slightly excited nonetheless. As he looked at the Skill Fusion screen, he could not help but say, "Although I did not get permanent stat boosts from removing skills, allowing me to fuse up skills are always a better trade off."

He then decided to test out the Skill Fusion ability first, remembering to max out his level as the Skill Fusion ability used up his levels as well. After maxing out his level, he then looked at the list of active and hybrid skills that hovered beside the Skill Fusion screen. He pondered over his first choice for a bit before muttering, "Since all three of them are useless, why don't they be the first fusion skill I obtain from this ability? Who knows, the skill that comes out might actually be incredibly overpowered, I can make it a trump card."

Whoos.h.!.+

Commanding the system through his mind, he inserted three skills into the Skill Fusion screen, all of them ending with multiple plus signs. Not long after willing the system to fuse the three skills together, the system asked him, 'Would you like to fuse [Blooming Vitality+++++], [Indomitable Will+++++], and [Sentience+++++] together? Since all of them are of the same grade, 5 of your levels will be consumed.'

Although he did not know the price ratio of levels to the grades of skills he was fusing, since it was below 19 levels, which was his maximum at the moment, he confirmed the prompt, instantly reducing his level down to 14 as multiple whirring sounds resounded in his mind.

Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+

Within his mind, three motes of light, that corresponded to the three skills he wanted to fuse together, manifested in his mind as they collided with one another not long after. From what Aurus could see, the collision of three motes of light was akin to an elegant dance of nature, with the three gradually melding into one large yet vibrant mote of light as it dissipated not long after.

Ding!

Obtaining a notification from the system, Aurus opened up the notification screen at the very instant he could, looking at the byproduct of the skill fusion.

'Skill Fusion is successful. The active Life and Will skill [Omnipresence (Rare)] has been created.'

Reading such an overbearing name from the notification screen, Aurus could not help but open up the skill's description, wondering if the skill's description was worthy enough to have such a name.

Ding!

At the very instant the screen which contained the skill's description opened up, Aurus took a quick look over it, maintaining silence for quite a while before silently muttering, "This is disgusting."

"Incredibly disgusting."

"This skill is so powerful that it's incredibly disgusting."

"Hehehe…I'm going to fuse even more skills up!"

"Let's see how much combat power I'll have by then!"