MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Reining in the aura he unknowingly let out, Ataraxia slowly stood up as he extended one of his outward.

Whoosh!

Willing part of the energy he had just upgraded to manifest on top of his palm, the young man immediately noticed that the energy’s color had undergone a massive transformation.

Moving away from its previous light blue, the orb of True Arcana hovering above his palm had taken on an ethereal cyan, making one feel as if Ataraxia had willed part of the sky to appear before him.

Though, amidst the ethereal feeling the orb gave off, the energy itself also gave off a faint feeling of danger, allowing the young man to understand that anything powered it would undoubtedly be at least twice as effective than before.

‘I guess that’s what one should expect from the purest form of Arcana,’ thought Ataraxia to himself, dispelling the orb of energy as he eventually sat back down.

Feeling satisfied with the power coursing through his body after transforming his mana to the highest form it could currently reach, the young man planned to make use of the momentum he had built up to proceed with the next task he had in mind.

Though, just as he was about to close his eyes, he noticed that Valyr was looking at him with disbelief written all over his face.

With his expression soon turning into excitement, the latter asked Ataraxia, “Is that… what I think it is?”

“I’m sure you already had ideas the moment you saw it,” replied Ataraxia, nodding as he flashed a slight grin. “Not gonna lie, I wasn’t expecting to reach the highest level of the scripture this quickly.”

As far as he could remember, back when he was practicing the 81 Phases Mana Reformation Scripture for the first time, it took him a bit over three weeks just to push the scripture to the 9th level.

Though reaching that level had allowed his mana to transform into the Lesser Arcana he’d been using all this time, the fact that it took him just a few more days after that to progress twice as much left him astounded by it all.

Asking his other self to release a bit of True Arcana into the surroundings once more, Valyr intently focused his attention on its properties, faintly nodding in understanding while doing so.

“Compared to the only type of energy I have that’s roughly on the same tier as that, I’ve got to say the fact that it packs that much power is surprising,” the young man said, a hint of anticipation appearing on his face.

“I guess I know what I’m about to do next.”

“You’re gonna try your hand on the scripture?” Ataraxia smirked as he asked, prompting the young man to give him a knowing smile in return. “Speaking of which, what have you been doing while I was focused on the scripture?”

“Well…” Hearing those words, Valyr showed no hesitation in telling his other self that he had successfully created a True Intent-tier skill, which unsurprisingly caused the latter’s eyes to slightly widen in interest.

After all, even with the information and knowledge he’d given him during his time at Aeramis’ inheritance, the skill Valyr made was effectively the first skill he was ever making throughout the two lives he’d lived.

Yet, in just one month, he was able to incorporate and assimilate all that knowledge into a skill that’s of a similar level to the one he made during the trial?

‘Considering how he only had my knowledge as a foundation and had no teacher to guide him, the fact that he only took a month is… probably part of a new normal we should get used to,’ thought Ataraxia, inwardly letting out a low sigh after that.

‘Though we’ve already witnessed its effects, the fact that [Perception of the Grand Origin] boosts our comprehensive abilities by this much still astounds me.’

Whilst those thoughts lingered within the young man’s head, Valyr continued to introduce the personal skill he had created, informing the former about how it was tailored to be used solely with firearms.

Hearing that the skill doubled the speed at which a firearm could be armed and reloaded, Ataraxia raised one of his eyebrows in slight doubt, wondering why his other self would make such a skill.

Though, once he watched Valyr demonstrate the effects of his newly created skill firsthand, the young man was thoroughly convinced of its reason for creation, understanding the advantage it could bring in a fight.

Especially if his other self’s opponent was someone who thoroughly understood how a firearm worked.

“…With the skill out of the way, the last thing I’d probably do as preparation for my ascension is the scripture you were practicing,” said Valyr after he was done with demonstration, sitting beside his other self once more.

“…Speaking of which, should we upgrade all of our skills to their max level now or after the ascension?”

“Also, who’s gonna grind the remaining XP needed to push our level to the peak of Rank 5?”

“Does it even matter?” asked Ataraxia as he told Valyr through their connection that he was responding to his first question. “After all, we would only be able to push our skills to Epic grade only after we go past Rank 5 and become Myths.”

“As for the XP…” The young man briefly rubbed his chin in contemplation. “How much do you think we’d need to grab?”

From what he could remember, back when they checked how much XP they still had, the two of them roughly had around 27 billion.

Though, with the few skirmishes both of them went through during their times apart, it was more accurate to say that the amount of unused XP they had was more along the lines of 28 or 29 billion.

Yet, for some reason, Ataraxia got the feeling that even though the two of them combined had close to 30 billion XP just sitting there, the amount they had wouldn’t be enough to push them to the peak of Rank 5.

“Honestly… I have no idea,” Pondering over the question for a bit, Valyr eventually responded to his other self with a slight shrug. “Should we just think about it after we officially ascend to Rank 5?”

“It’s not like we’d lose out on anything if we do that,” he continued. “At most, we’d just have to spend some more time acclimating to our newfound strengths.”

“…Alright,” replied Ataraxia after giving a bit of thought. “But if we end up needing a lot of XP, then we have to grind all of it together.”

The former could only let out a chuckle in response.

“But of course.”