Erudinia, x.x.xX Continent, Tempest Cliff, Tempest Branch Alliance, Tower of Seclusion.

Since Aurus was able to fuse 4 skills together to craft up an Epic skill that would serve as an incredibly superb trump card, the motivation for Aurus to continue fusing up his skills was at an all-time high.

At the moment, he was currently looking through the list of skills he opened up beside the Skill Fusion screen, finding skill combinations that would allow at least three skills to be fused together into one. As to why he was finding skill combinations with that specific amount, it was because all of the resulting fused skills had evolved in terms of rarity. At the very least, the fused skill would become a Special skill.

Unfortunately, no matter how long Aurus looked through the list of skills, forcing three skill combinations to be formed with the most random relation he could find, those fusions did not work at all, causing Aurus to sigh as he decided to not force three skill combinations anymore. He decided to pursue two skill combinations instead as he already had a few that he had in mind which seemed to be a match made in heaven at this point.

"System, fuse [Flux Weapon Mastery] and [Flux Armor Mastery] together," Aurus commanded, to which the system complied as the two names were brought together to the Skill Fusion screen, radiating an amount of light that did not lose out to the weakest three skill combination.

'Would you like to fuse these two skills together? As both of them are of the same grade, 3 of your levels shall be consumed.'

Of course, Aurus accepted the prompt without hesitation, seeing the amount of light that was radiated by the two skills when they were in the Skill Fusion screen. Not long after his confirmation, his level dropped down to 17, while two motes of light appeared within in his mind as they collided to form a decently sized mote of light a few seconds later.

Ding!

'Skill Fusion is successful. The pa.s.sive Cla.s.s skill [Greater Flux Equipment Mastery (Special)] has been created.'

Whoos.h.!.+

At the very instant the notification appeared on the system, Aurus brought up the skill's description. After reading through the skill's description, he could not help but feel satisfied as it would give the equipment he would craft in the future greater stats.

________

[Greater Flux Equipment Mastery (Special)]

Grade: Unknown

Birthed from two skills regarding the mastery of usage of Flux, the user can now peer into the intricacies of Flux and allow the equipment they make to show greater power.

>All crafted weapons gain a 50% boost to all of its stats, and an additional 20% boost to its attack stat

>All crafted armors gain a 50% boost to all of its stats, and an additional 20% boost to its defense stat

>All crafted equipment gain a 10% boost to all of its stats, stacking with other boosts

________

After reading up on the enhanced Flux Equipment mastery skill, he then went on to fuse two skills which were related to his movement. Although he now relied on flight from his Spell Core, as well as limited teleportation from [Nebulous Tempest Blessing], one of the two was still a skill that set the standards for his current movement speed.

"System, fuse [Transient Spiritas Dash] and [False Nil Teleportation] together," he commanded, obtaining a prompt not long after which informed him of the cost. Seeing the radiated light by the two skills on the Skill Fusion screen, which did not lose out to the light radiated by the previous fusion, Aurus confirmed the decision, bringing his level down to 14 as the same thing in his head happened once more.

Ding!

'Skill Fusion is successful. The active Species skill [Omnipresent Spirit Waltz of Nihility (Special)].'

Since the skill was just a movement skill, he only took a cursory glance through the skill description. After a few more cursory glances, he was satisfied with the upgraded effects the movement skill gave him.

He then went on to fuse [Spiritas Seed] and [Spiritas Flux Seed] together, giving birth to [Supreme Spiritas Unity Seed (Special)]. This skill increased the amount of HP and FP he currently had to greater heights, actually increasing the amount of FP he had by 50 percent.

Afterwards, he fused two pa.s.sive skills which were related to Wind affinity, the skills being [Tempest Unity] and [Blessing of the Lesser Tempest Deity]. After reducing his current level down to 8, a fusion of the two skills was created, being aptly named [Boundless Grace of the Greater Tempest Deity (Special)]. He also took a few cursory glances with this skill's description, being slightly surprised that the boost the skill gave in terms of movement speed was greatly beyond what the two separate skills normally gave.

He then continued fusing two skills together into one, eyeing the two pa.s.sive Life and Will skills that he had, slightly expecting a superb effect from the two, just like what happened when the three active Life and Will skills were fused together. And so, with his level going down to Level 5, [Two Worlds' Overseer] and [Hundred Sentience World] gave birth to [Myriad World Unity (Special)]. Combining the purpose of the two skills, the skill did not only increase the amount of Life and Will points he could store, it also increased his stats by a superb amount once he had both Life and Will bars filled to the brim.

At this point in time, the list of skills Aurus had at this point was condensed by a great amount, with all of the fused skills obtaining a great boost in power. Of course, with a lot of skills now being fused, only a scant few were left that could be fused. Not only that, some of the skills that were on his skill list that he had not fused yet could not even be fused. Nonetheless, Aurus did not complain about it as he had already fused enough skills together.

"This is the last fusion I'll do for now. Doing any more than this is fruitless since all of them don't have any relation to one another, may it be in terms of purpose or anything else," Aurus said to himself as he looked at the two skills on the list, having great confidence that the two skills would definitely fuse into one.

"System…" Aurus commanded.

"Fuse [High Spirit Spell Core] and [Nine d.a.m.nation Spellswords of Ruination] together."

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

Not long after commanding the system to do so, the two skills transformed into intangible threads of light that made their way towards the Skill Fusion screen. A few seconds later, the two skills radiated a light that slightly surpa.s.sed the brightness of the light radiated by the fusion of four skills. This brightness could not help but make Aurus highly expectant of the fusion that would happen, as he was incredibly sure that it would result in an Epic skill.

Ding!

'Would you like to fuse the two skills together? As the highest grade among the two skills is B-grade Transcendent, 5 of your levels shall be consumed, allowing the skill to take on the highest grade among the two skills,' the system's voice resounded inside Aurus' head. Just as he was about to accept the offer, the system's voice continued to speak.

'The user also has the choice of paying 3 of their levels for the fusion to happen. The downside to it is that the skill would take on the lowest grade among the two skills, the lowest being C-grade Transcendent.'

'What would the user like to do?' the system questioned Aurus. Surprisingly, it did not take a long time for Aurus to make a decision, using up his unused experience to max out his player level as he chose the option that costed 5 levels to use.

"Since I still have 7 chances to max out my skills, why not let my new main attacking skill be at grade Transcendent?" Aurus said to himself with a slight chuckle as he imagined the destruction he would cause with the skill in the upcoming war.

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

With his level now at Level 15, the two motes of light collided with one another, a dragon's roar resounding with every collision the two motes made. Eventually, the two of them melded with one another to form a mote of light that was at least thrice the size of the two motes individually. Not long after, a deafening dragon's roar resounded throughout Aurus' mind as a dragon made out of the light started to coil itself around the large mote of light.

At first, Aurus was quite confused as to why there was a dragon surrounding the mote of light, but when he obtained the system notification, it was that he understood…

Ding!

'Skill Fusion is successful. The active Species skill [Infinite Tempest Spellswords of Nine Realms' Spirit Ruination (Epic+)].'

"That's a mouthful," Aurus could not help but say as he looked at the name of the newly fused skill and tried to say it in his mind. Nonetheless, what caught his attention even more was the fact that the skill was of Epic+ level, something which he did not expect to obtain.

Although he was happy and excited to get such an incredibly powerful skill, he was now quite numb to the fact that all of the fused skills would become stronger in effect and purpose. To him, the only thing that would surprise him would be the birth of a Legendary skill.

Then again, as he looked at the skill's description, he could not help but chuckle in surprise.

Ding!

________

[Infinite Tempest Spellswords of Nine Realms' Spirit Ruination (Epic+)]

Grade: Transcendent (B)

Birthed from two skills that seem to be on polar opposites of attacking methods, this skill allows the user to use and exert the great power that is created through the fusion of two distinct attacking methods into one, allowing the user to fight against those that surpa.s.s itself in power.

>Has access to all Wind-based magic spells from Level 0 to Level High 2

>Can form spellswords based on the Nine Circles of the Underworld, with each circle bringing a different effect to the spellsword

>Can fuse Wind-based magic with a Circle of the Underworld to form a Tempest Underworld Spellsword

>Can fuse two or more Tempest Underworld Spellswords together

>Obtain access to a lesser ultimate move, Lucifer's Claw of Eternal d.a.m.nation

>Obtain access to a lesser ultimate move, Nine Realms' Sealing Array

>Obtain access to a Level High 2 ultimate move, Immortal Cyclone

>Obtain access to a fusion ultimate move, Ethereal Rebirth of Pazuzu

FP Cost: Depends on the skill/spell used

________

"Just what you'd expect from an Epic+ skill." The more Aurus looked at the skill's description, the more ideas and inspiration Aurus gets as a way to formulate more trump cards and ultimate moves in the war. Nonetheless, he was able to calm himself down from the awe he felt from looking at the final skill fusion he made, prompting himself to focus on making trump cards, just like what Herellia said some time ago to him.

He was about to craft his first batch of Flux equipment that originated from the newly fused [Ancient Modular Flux Equipment Fabrication] skill, until a voice resounded in his mind, with a tone that was slightly urgent.

"Aurus. Aurus, are you there?" This voice was that of Herellia's, who seemed to want Aurus to reply as fast as possible.

"Yes, I'm here." And that's what he just did, reply as fast as possible, postponing the creation of Flux Equipment after taking care of Herellia's situation. "What do you need me for?"

"I need you to come to me as soon as possible." As soon as Herellia heard Aurus talk, she could not help but let out a sigh of relief. "I need to talk with you about something. I'm still at the place you teleported to a while ago."

Although he was curious as to why Herellia needed him to come to her to talk about something instead of talking about it here, Aurus decided to just follow Herellia's wishes, telling both Fenrir and Charisa that he was going to meet someone for a while, before disappearing in front of the two of them.

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

A few moments later, Aurus appeared in front of Herellia, who instantly radiated an aura of slight excitement as she said, "You're here!"

"Well, why wouldn't I be here?" Aurus could not help but ask as he thought that it was odd for Herellia to be excited at a time when they did not know when the war was coming. Anyways, he then asked, "So, why did you call me here? What are we going to talk about?"

Hearing Aurus' question, the aura around Herellia had taken a 180-degree turn, radiating an aura of seriousness. She went silent for a bit before answering back, "The alliance has obtained news of Chonk and his army coming closer to where we are."

"Eh?" At the very instant Herellia was finished talking, Aurus then understood why Herellia wanted him to come to where he was. He then asked, "How close are they? How much time do we have left?"

"We only have two days to prepare according to the news," Herellia responded. "It's better if you make as much trump cards as possible."

"I definitely will," Aurus responded with an aura of confidence surrounding him as he had ideas for a lot of trump cards since he had fused a lot of his skills together. But before he left to head back to where Fenrir and Charisa were, he could not help but ask Herellia, "Who told you about these things, if you don't mind me asking?"

At first, Herellia was hesitant to tell Aurus the answer, which piqued Aurus' interest, prompting him to stay put rather than leave. Seeing as he was adamant to find out who told her of the news she relayed to him, she let out a sigh as she answered, "Fine. It was h.o.r.ell."

"Are you serious?" At the mention of his name, Aurus could not believe what he was hearing. Sensing an aura of confirmation with a bit of hesitation surrounding Herellia not long after, it seemed that what Herellia was saying was the truth and nothing but the truth.

Rather than being angry at Herellia keeping this a secret, he was instead dumbfounded as he did not expect h.o.r.ell to relay news about Chonk to her. Since he was still a bit confused, he then asked, "Isn't h.o.r.ell in Chonk's army? I swear to the G.o.ds that I've seen him there. Why the h.e.l.l did he relay information to you?"

It was then that Herellia kept silent for a while, making Aurus wait for the answer with slight trepidation.