73 Deconstruction and Combination

Alex stayed on his place for 2 hours, as he waited for the pain of his engraving to disappear.

To Alex's relief, the monster spying on them did not make a single move on him.

"Good thing nothing happened."

Alex had the fleeting thought that the monster might attack him while he was recovering, since he just finished breaking through.

Alex thought that maybe the spying monster could be worried about his new power level and that it will attempt to destroy him while he was vulnerable.

But luckily for Alex, the monster did not do anything against him.

This however gave Alex another worry.

And that was the possibility that the monster did not attack Alex because it was confident of its strength, even after Alex had broken through.

If this monster has this kind of mindset, then there is a chance that this monster might be a powerful one.

"Don't tell me the one spying us right now is as powerful as that Divine Knight?" Alex vehemently shook his head as he thought of this.

There is no way for Alex to know that, unless he confronts the spying monster right now.

"Well, with the amount of crazy strong Monsters in the World, I am sure that the chance for me to meet one of them is fairly low." Alex muttered to himself, thinking that the spying monster was not at the General Class.

"Time to see all my spells now..." Alex muttered to himself as he checked his Abyss Tome.

[Level 1] -------- Minor Telekinesis, Voice Warp

[Level 2] -------- Major Telekinesis, Skin Warp

[Level 3] -------- Deconstruction, Muscle Warp

[Level 4] -------- Combination, Bone Warp

[Level 5] -------- Needs Grade 5 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 6] -------- Needs Grade 6 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 7] -------- Needs Grade 7 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 8] -------- Needs Grade 8 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 9] -------- Needs Grade 9 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 10] -------- Needs Grade 10 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 11] -------- Needs Grade 11 Abyss Energy to access.

[Level 12] -------- Needs Grade 12 Abyss Energy to access.

"Okay, they all look impressive to me…" Alex muttered as he looked at the spells in Levels 3 and 4.

"Time to test my new spells…"

*******************

2 weeks and 5 days ago.

It was during this time that Alex reached Grade 3 and allowed him access to Level 3 Spells.

Since this happened before the presence spied on them, Alex was able to test the Level 3 Spells Deconstruction and Muscle Warp with ease.

Alex proceeded to try out Muscle Warp first, and the results that he got were what he had expected.

Muscle Warp basically allows Alex to mimic a muscular structure of any being possible.

Aside from that, it also allows Alex to perfectly manipulate the muscles in his body.

This spell gave Alex tougher muscles that covered and protected his organs, and it also gave Alex muscles that made his movements more flexible and more powerful.

Of course muscle mimicry is the main power of this spell, although Alex did not try this feature out yet, since he was waiting for another spell before doing muscle mimicry.

As for Deconstruction, Alex can say that this power is somewhat unique.

Just like what the name says, Deconstruction will allow Alex to force a material that he touches to deconstruct into its building components.

The object that Alex tested this power on was an abandoned cart, and Alex watched with wonder as the cart separated into piles of wood and nails.

Upon seeing what happened, Alex got the gist of Deconstruction.

Alex was now sure that if he used Deconstruction a car, the car will separate into separate pieces, with the wires, wheels, metals, and leather seat all sorted away from each other.

Similarly speaking, if Alex touches a gun, that gun will break into its constituent pieces, as if it had been forced to be deconstructed.

This power also works on living beings, although Alex can only use Deconstruction on small mammals like rats.

However, using it on living beings is quite… unpalatable.

Believe that statement, as the sight of a rat being deconstructed is something that was not great to see.

Alex could only sigh in relief at that time as he realized that he was not yet powerful enough to Deconstruct humans.

Using Deconstruction on humans is something that Alex will not do… for now.

Imagine seeing a person suddenly breaking down into their constituent organs, bones, and muscle because of Deconstruction.

Something like that will be a traumatic sight, even for Alex.

"With the way that I train now, it will take me some more time before I can even use Deconstruction on animals like pigs.." Alex thought to himself as he gripped his fists.

"As for humans… even I am not sure when I can do that."

After Alex made more experiments with Deconstruction, he realized that there is still more to it.

If Alex can use Deconstruction to force an object to dismantle, then maybe Alex can use it to dismantle objects at a finer level.

What Alex meant by this was Elemental Deconstruction.

This could be possible, as elements were also stuff that basically built an object. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, while wood was a combination of several elements.

Alex knew that if he can do Elemental Deconstruction, then it will be easier for him to create some unconventional things that require some elements.

But that will all depend if Elemental Deconstruction is indeed possible.

So in order to test if Elemental Deconstruction is possible, Alex decided to attempt it on a nail that he found lying on an abandoned village.

<{| Deconstruction |}>

At first, nothing happened to the nail, since it has no mechanical components that can be dismantled.

Upon reaching that point, Alex decided to add more power to the spell, widen its scope, and make its application more precise.

Alex also applied his knowledge in chemistry in the process, just to make sure that he was right in what he was doing.

This seemed to have done the trick, as moments later, Alex saw a pile of Iron and small pile of carbon, both separated from each other.

"Now we're talking."

Alex smiled as he knew that the nail that he got was a soft-carbon type of steel nail, which contained 0.1% carbon and the remaining portion as iron.

From what Alex can see in front of him, the pile of carbon and iron that he made seems to match his percentages.

This confirms that he indeed can do Elemental Deconstruction and that it is also accurate.

"Ok, so I can do elemental separation..." Alex muttered as he suddenly felt a little light-headed.

"What the hell?"

It was then that Alex realized that what he did with the nail managed to shave off 50% of his entire storage of Abyss Energy.

"So separating a nail into two elements consumes almost half of my reserves." Alex shook his head at this realization, as he realized that right now, his Elemental Deconstruction is VERY inefficient.

Emphasis on VERY.

Alex realized that if he wanted to use Deconstruction and Elemental Deconstruction in an efficient way, then he must increase his Abyss Energy reserves.

*******************

Back to the present time.

With Alex reaching Grade 4, his Abyss Energy reserves were much higher, and his Abyss Rune also reduced the energy consumption.

Naturally, this could have tempted Alex to try out Deconstruction again.

But Alex's focus this time was on the Level 4 Spells Combination an Bone Warp.

If Alex is not wrong, Bone Warp allows Alex to mimic skeletal structure on any beings.

Not only that, but it could also allow Alex to manipulate his bones freely.

This of course made Alex somewhat excited, as he already imagined the applications that he can do with Bone Warp.

"I can make bone shield, bone armor, bone swords, bone spears, bone katana, bone axe, bone morningstar, bone flail, bone chain, bone nunchakus, bone club, bone bat, bone saw…" Alex shook his head as he tried to stop himself from drooling.

"Well, I better try it out a little first…"

Alex's Great Elderitch Body also had its own skeleton, and Alex basically used his Bone Warp to manipulate it a little.

"Schiik…"

Alex grinned as he saw blade-shaped bones protruding from his forehead. They all sprung out of his forehead menacingly, like they were weapons made to slash a throat.

Alex nodded after seeing the protrusions, making them disappear after 10 seconds. "So I can really control my bones now…"

As for the Skeletal Mimicry Part, Alex decided to test it out later, as Alex was sure that it could be a little… rowdy once he uses both Skeletal and Muscular Mimicry later.

This brings Alex's attention on the other Level 4 Spell, Combination.

"What does this spell do?" Alex mused to himself as he tilted his head. "Does it combine two things to create a single thing, with the properties of both? Or does it just create an abomination?"

"Tsk, my only choice is to experiment a little."

With his previous experience with Deconstruction, Alex had the feeling that Combination might also require lots of Abyss Energy.

Because of that, Alex decided to just start small.

He picked up two stones of similar sizes but of different colors.

One was brown, while the other one had bright shades of red.

They clearly look distinct compared to each other.

Alex was not sure why, but he felt that using Combination on two different-sized objects will not be as efficient compared to using Combination on two same-sized objects with different colors.

"Well, maybe it's because size is an important aspect of Combination…" Alex thought to himself as he placed the two stones beside each other. "Not that I complain…"

Alex then closed his eyes as he activated the spell.

<{| Combination |}>

Threads of power flowed out of Alex's tentacles, covering both the stones.

The outflow of power continued for 10 more seconds before it slowed down to a trickle.

"…" Alex then stared at the object in front of him after the flow of the Abyss Energy has stopped.

What Alex was staring at right now was a single stone, with its size and mass equal to the addition of the two earlier stones.

"So this means that the extensive properties like mass and volume are added when objects undergo Combination…" Alex cupped his chin as he stared at the Combined Stone with wonder.

"But how about the intensive properties like color, refractive index, density and more? How will they turn out?"

With Alex's vision he could see that the stone had both the red and brown colors of the earlier stones, although Alex could not see any pattern that was similar to the earlier stones.

"Tsk." The result of his little experiment had frustrated Alex a little, as he realized that he must do more experiments if he wanted to discover the extents and limits of his Combination Spell.

"But before I do that, I must deal with that guy first..." Alex muttered to himself as he gave a passing glance at the direction of the spying monster. "I can't really experiment in peace with a monster staring at me like that."

"Rustle…" After making this decision, Alex stood up as he walked towards Alina and Asteria.

If he wanted to finish that Monster off, both he and Alina will have to work together.

As for Asteria? Well, she can be their cheerleader, as long as he will not include obscene words in her chant.