Refusing My God’s Advances

Well, I should have seen that coming, but I wondered if that was to rank it up to a divine class item, or just a unique legendary? It was a reasonable question, but I wondered how I would even get that many skill points. Even if I saved them, and they kept increasing by 50 points each 100 levels, I would be close to level 700 if all the stars aligned before I could rank this up! That felt a little bit too long for my liking.

Looking over my skills, the first thing I did was get rid of paint with Skill Delete. Once I used it, there was a 7-day cool down time, but it was a pretty good ability regardless. Now I had 4 slots open, so I decided to check out my passive skill list, but the tree that had been there before had changed, and there for 5 more new choices.

1. Name: Master Crafter's Vision
Description: "Empowers the creator with unrivaled mastery over craftsmanship, imbuing every touch with the wisdom of the ages. This transcendent understanding elevates the quality of creations beyond mortal limits, ensuring each piece is a masterpiece."

2. Name: Lightning Forge Technique
Description: "Channels the speed of lightning into the art of creation, enabling the crafting of items with blinding swiftness. This unparalleled technique ensures superior quality remains intact, defying the constraints of time."

3. Name: Arcane Agility
Description: "Bestows the wielder with preternatural agility, honed for the dance of combat against the arcane. Enhanced senses and swift movements provide the edge needed to outmaneuver and counteract the eldritch forces arrayed against them."

4. Name: Celestial Aegis
Description: This passive skill weaves the protective energies of the cosmos around the user, granting a divine shield that absorbs a percentage of incoming damage. The celestial barrier regenerates slowly over time, its resilience scaling with the user's wisdom and connection to the astral planes.

5. Name: Phantom Step
Description: Grants the user ethereal movement, allowing them to phase briefly through physical objects and attacks. This skill enhances stealth and evasion, making the user's movements unpredictable and ghost-like, perfect for avoiding detection or escaping tight situations.

6. Name: Elemental Symbiosis
Description: Harmonizes the user's essence with elemental forces, granting them resistance against elemental damage and enhancing their own elemental attacks. Over time, the user can adapt to the dominant element in their environment, further increasing their affinity and resistance.

7. Name: Time's Favor
Description: Manipulates the flow of time around the user, slightly slowing down everything except the user. This subtle alteration grants them more time to react to their surroundings, effectively increasing their speed and reflexes in comparison to the rest of the world.

8. Name: Echoes of Power
Description: Each time the user casts a spell or uses an ability, there's a chance to echo that ability, casting it again with a fraction of its original power without additional resource cost. This echo does not trigger further echoes, maintaining balance while providing bursts of enhanced capability.

Considering that I had grown over 150 levels since I last checked this list, I wasn't really surprised at how crazy the skills were. Still, it was hard to deny how giddy it made me feel just from reading each of them! I only had 2 choices, so there was no way I was going to try the skill gacha.

Each of the passive skills looked great, and if I was being honest there were many I liked. The last one, Echo of Power was pretty cool, but it seemed very restricted at its stage. It might get better if I dumped some skill points into it, but then the first three skills looked like an upgraded version of ones that I hadn't picked before.

If that was the case, then it might be better to let this skill cook in the skill selection. Knowing this added another layer to my selection. Part of me just wanted to quickly pick a skill and get it over with, but these skills would change how I did things. I couldn't just haphazardly pick skills without really considering all the information I had.

With that in mind, I focused on Time's Favor, and Lightning Forge Technique. Time's Favor would give me a significant advantage in terms of reaction time and agility, making it easier to dodge attacks and counter swiftly. Not only that, but it would make using my hidden ability easier to use. The other skill, Lightning Forge Technique, while not really helpful in a fight, would be very helpful with my printers, and anything else I was working on.

Satisfied, I made my selections and sighed. As I did, Scarlet took one of my hands.

"That must be a lot of work trying to decide what skills to pick. You had to do it with Lyra and me as well," Scarlet said and I nodded.

"I try to think about what we all want and need from the skills. I also try to think about how the choices will match your personality. If anything, picking my own skills is somewhat easier, but there always tends to be a bigger selection. Either way, I don't hate doing this, it is just time-consuming," I explained as I opened my Active Skill List.

1. Mana Storm Cannon: Amplifies the Mana Cannon's power, allowing it to unleash a devastating barrage of magical energy projectiles that can decimate multiple enemies within a wide radius. The intensity and spread of the Mana Storm Cannon are directly influenced by your magical prowess.
Pros: Massive area damage, effective against groups of enemies.
Cons: High magical power consumption, longer recharge time.

2. Void Shift: Elevates Dimensional Escape to the next level by allowing you to navigate through the void, granting you the ability to appear at different locations within a certain range. This skill not only makes you intangible but also unpredictable on the battlefield.
Pros: Enhanced mobility, temporary invulnerability.
Cons: Spatial disorientation risk, limited number of uses before needing to recharge.

3. Eternal Enchantment: Transforms Enchant Weaponry into a more potent version that permanently imbues weapons with dynamic magical effects that adapt to the wielder's needs. These enchantments can now evolve based on combat experience and magical affinity.
Pros: Permanent weapon enhancement, adaptive enchantments.
Cons: Initial setup requires significant time and magical power, enchanted weapon bonding.

4. Phantasmal Legion: Upgrades Spectral Mirage by creating a multitude of more resilient illusions, each capable of executing a simple attack against enemies. These illusions can now coordinate in complex strategies, providing not just a defensive buffer but also an offensive presence.
Pros: Enhanced defensive and offensive capabilities, and strategic depth in combat.
Cons: Increased magical power consumption, complexity in control.

5. Arcane Web: Expands upon Arcane Threads, allowing you to weave a vast network of magical energy that can ensnare, damage, or protect across a larger area. This network can also channel magical effects, amplifying their power or extending their duration.
Pros: Area control, versatile application (offensive, defensive, utility).
Cons: Requires concentration to maintain, diminished effectiveness over extended distances.

6. Chrono Warp: the ability to momentarily warp time within a localized area, affecting all within its bounds. This can accelerate allies, decelerate enemies, or even freeze a moment in time, offering strategic advantages during critical moments.
Pros: Versatile time manipulation, affects multiple targets.
Cons: High magical power requirement, temporal aftereffects on the user.

7. Primal Elemental Forging: Enhances Elemental Crafting by incorporating primal elemental forces, significantly boosting the properties and potency of crafted items. This skill allows for the direct harnessing of elemental energies, creating gear that is alive with elemental power.
Pros: Superior elemental enhancements, and dynamic item abilities.
Cons: Necessitates mastery over primal elements, increased resource rarity.

8. Master Builder's Manifestation: Takes an Architect's Dream to new heights by enabling the instant manifestation of structures from the ether. This skill allows for the creation of not just physical forms but also magical constructs, imbued with specific functions or defenses.
Pros: Instantaneous creation, enhanced scope, and complexity.
Cons: Vast magical power and focus required, limited by the user's imaginative capacity.

Why wasn't there a "take all" option? Ugh, these skills were so nutty I just wanted to take them all! Again, I only had 2 open slots, and that seven-day timer on the skill deletion was starting to seem more unreasonable by the second!