Chapter 957 - Tireless pursuer

[Nova Legacy Beacon]:

The weak reach for the stars.

The strong become one.

Cost: 10 000 000 mana

Immediately die.

“...”

“If you’re going to joke around, at least do it properly and write the skill effect before the cost. So what is the actual skill?”

[Nova Legacy Beacon]:

The weak reach for the stars.

The strong become one.

Ignite your light and immediately die, consuming your body and soul to create a legacy beacon.

For the next 43.6 seconds (Skill level/8), awaken your light, doubling all sub-stats.

If used while under 25% max health in battle, also detonate the [Pillar of Creation], creating a bright nova of mana-disrupting starlight.

Leaves behind a legacy beacon that will shine forevermore, empowering nearby Lumians.

Lumians standing within a beacon’s light regenerate 10% increased mana (up to 50%).

Humans, Exidians and Demons that venerate the legacy beacons may benefit from half of this effect for a duration of up to five days at a time.

You may select one legacy class skill, allowing any Lumian venerating your legacy beacons to learn that skill as it was when each beacon was created.

Linked Legacy skill: [None]

Cost: 10 000 000 mana

Cast time: 3 (1.5) seconds. This skill will not resolve if you die before the end of casting.

“... So it’s still ‘immediately die’ but after a three second cast. Much better…”

While Sofia outwardly joked, she was elated inside.

Free mana regen! And all I have to do is die a few times! And the stat boost is huge! And it says all sub stats so it should include Resistances and Aura!!!

On the other hand, the whole ‘venerate’ part of the skill was a bit strange, but considering everything else she could hardly complain about some weirdness.

So, if I leave five beacons in Ser’Extra, can all humans here get 25% bonus mana regeneration?

Too bad the effect is only for Lumian-compatible races. I wonder if Pareth could still get it. It would be the first time a human-specific effect doesn’t work for him otherwise.

I really want to go try it right now but leaving the cube before I finish leveling would just be a waste of time…

The legacy skill is interesting. From how it’s worded, it sounds like a definitive choice. But as it was… So if I pick summon blood and then forget it, what happens? I could re-learn it from my own beacons? Well I wouldn’t want to be stuck with ‘Summon blood’ being my forever legacy… It’s interesting though that as the skill I chose gets stronger the new beacons I leave will get the stronger version.

The idea of a Lumian in the far future tracking down my final battle to learn the strongest version of the spell…

What do I pick, though?

Well…

It probably has to be [False immortality]... The damned skill is too complex for me to alter it at all, let alone teach it to anyone. And if I don’t pick that, then the beacon itself becomes a useless suicide skill for everyone else.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A self-destruction skill that does not come with resurrection is pretty bad as far as Racial skills go.

Can’t go wrong with more resurrections.

[You are about to link ‘False Immortality’ as your Beacon legacy skill, this cannot be changed later, are you sure?]

Yes.

And that’s that done!

Takes exactly one skill slot like the other racial skills. Not bad at all. And [Vessel of ancient evil] at 1.2 slots is not too bad either.

While Sofia was busy leveling, Pareth was extremely far north, in the coldest forests of the human continent bordering the Illusory Ocean Sofia had flown over some weeks before on her way to the Arege union.

He had been constantly traveling north after enlisting the help of Astelia to teleport him directly beyond the red sand desert which was too slow and annoying to cross.

He has amassed plenty of skeletons in his storage ring for Bookie on the way, but his real targets were here. Here monsters with cold elemental magic were plentiful, and he sought to get good upgrades for his signature skill.

The giant trees here were all crooked, almost growing in tall spirals, always bending under the weight of snow. Their dark bark and leaves offered some much needed contrast with the omnipresent snow and frost, and the white-furred creatures lurking everywhere. Keeping the glow of his armor dim, Pareth, currently six meters tall, took careful steps through the knee-deep snow.

He looked down, the blood trail he had been following suddenly stopped.

Lightly shaking his head, Pareth stopped. He unsummoned his helmet, and brushed his long coarse hair away from his face. He had wanted to try growing hair, but it was proving to be annoying, he would probably just stick with the beard in the future.

His prey’s trail was growing cold, but letting it get tired while fleeing was part of his strategy anyway. Raising a hand, he dimmed his senses and used his newest spell, the mirror shard he acquired recently, [Find].

Just by focusing for a bit, he could feel the mark’s location. Putting his helmet back on, he slightly changed direction and departed again through the trees.

The mark was quite far this time. Pareth was surprised, he expected the monster to get tired only for it to continue speeding up, perhaps even healing its wounds, considering the bleeding had stopped. His earlier surprise attack had left the creature with a nasty wound, but it was not rumored as the north’s most elusive creature for no reason. To find it so quickly in the first place had already been very lucky, but taking it down was a different challenge entirely.

Three days of sustained chase later, Pareth finally noticed the beast had stopped moving. It had probably run out of mana or stamina. Either way, it was his cue to speed up.

The snowy forest suddenly gave way to a large frozen lake.

The creature was in its center, hidden by a localized snow storm.

Pareth understood, it was a wide open terrain where he could not ambush the creature a second time, and his heavy weight would play against him, threatening to send him through the ice to the bottom of the lake at the slightest misstep. The creature was perhaps not sapient but certainly not clueless when it came to preparing for battle.

Its mistake was being unable to understand that Pareth did not play by the same rules.

Pareth only took a few steps on the frozen lake, summoned his sword, and silently carved out a hole under his feet. The glacial waters of the lake soon surrounded his bones. But he was immune to frost, and could even benefit from bathing in the underworld water, what could a simple magical lake do? No living being could survive these waters, but he was not one. At the bottom of the lake, Pareth slowly advanced, almost blindly, following the signal of the mark.

The lake’s magical waters hid Pareth’s presence from the creature’s mana senses; he felt that it was almost too easy. Soon the mark was right above him. Standing on frozen sand Pareth started to channel most of his mana into a skill. Then, at the last second, he kicked the ground, swimming up. Nearing the thick layer of ice above, he summoned his [Flying shields of light] underfoot to act as a strong foothold, and with his sword stabbed above while releasing all the mana accumulated into a [Sunless Pulse], directly under the monster.

The creature was stabbed, hit by the magic, and yet it still survived. Since the ice was broken, Pareth jumped out of the frozen lake, triumphant, the long, white-furred creature impaled on his sword. It channeled a spell, it was still trying to run away. Pareth’s chains of light bound its body. They could not contain it for long. Pareth did not need long. He grabbed the creature into a deadly hug. The monster’s bones cracked, its elegant figure contorted, its spellcasting disrupted. All Pareth had to do now was follow the point in the creature’s body with the most mana. He gave it a punch. The soulstone cracked.

[You have defeated ‘Fae-blooded ice shadow demonic fox Lixi’ - Level 389]

Pareth watched the life fade out of the creature’s fearful eyes. He felt a bit sorry, but such was the way of the world. Closing the monster’s eyelids, he absorbed its spirit, replacing the previous ability of his [Chimeric armaments]’s armor slot.

[Lixi’s cautiousness]: +20% to fire resistance.+20% to cold damage.

Once an hour, you can cross thousands of meters in one step through the spiritual plane at the cost of some mana and stamina.

Cooldown reduced to ten seconds in cold and icy environments.