Chapter 57: Evolving Skills

Some time passed since my little fight with Milim, and fortunately, Guy wasn't that angry over it, so I'm good. Velzard, on the other hand, is another story that I left Guy to deal with.

But back to the reason I fought Milim. With both the skills I needed in my possession, I could go further with the second step of my plan.

My Intrinsic Skill: [Black Heart] is generating magicules for me constantly while Lord of Wrath: [Satanael], I copied from Milim, takes in the magicules from their surroundings and mixes it with their own magical energy. They then collide together in a process similar to nuclear fusion and create more magicules.

So what If I combined the skills together? Satanel will take the magicules my Black Heart generates and collide them together, increasing the magicules it can generate.

In theory, it should work because my Unique Skill: [Mystery] allows me to chain several skills together and should double, if not triple, the number of magicules I generate.

I sat down and started my experiment.

It took me a couple of hours to do it, but with some time, I got it down and working. I could feel the increase of magiucles I gained. I also felt more anger, but nothing I couldn't suppress.

Let's see. I took out the pocket watch I got from Mom all those years ago and checked the time before checking my status.

_____

Magicules: 56,270,950

[Stats]

Strength: 14,140 + 18% = 16,685

Vitality: 13,573 + 18% = 16,016

Agility: 13,879 + 18% = 16,377

Intelligence: 13,705 + 18% = 16,171

Perception: 13,705 + 18% = 16,171

_____

So now let's see how much more magicules I will gain over the period of one month.

Before my Intrinsic Skill: [Black Heart] gave me 400 magicules per day with a status increase of around 0.6 points per day for every stat.

Then for the next 30 days, I will have my shadows stop hunting monsters so I can get the exact numbers down.

---

A month passed in the blink of an eye, and it was time to see how it worked, bringing forth my status. I had a smile seeing the amount of magicules I gained.

_____

Magicules: 56,300,950

[Stats]

Strength: 14,158 + 18% = 16,706

Vitality: 13,591 + 18% = 16,037

Agility: 13,897 + 18% = 16,398

Intelligence: 13,723 + 18% = 16,193

Perception: 13,723 + 18% = 16,193

_____

30,000 Magicules per month that's not bad, a 2.5x boost, but I could probably make it even more efficient. But how would I do it?

"What if..." I mumbled to myself and started using my copied version of Lord of Heaven: [Astarte] to see if I could evolve my Black Heart and Magicule Breeder Reactor combination to something better like a Unique Skill.

After a few hours of analyzing and planning, I calculated that for it to work, I would need to use almost half of my magicules for it to work.

It was mostly due to one skill being a copy of an Ultimate Skill while the other is an Intrinsic Skill on the level of a Unique, if not an Ultimate Skill itself.

But I could maybe optimize the skills so the evolution would take less of my magicules. It's not like having a magicule storage of over 25 million is small, but if I can make it cost less, then I should at least try.

At times like this, I'm envious of Rimuru, who had Great Sage do things like this for him. If I had it, then this would've been much easier.

Hell, without that skill, Rimuru would have died the after naming the first batch of monsters. It was Great Sage that made Veldora a battery for Rimuru to use.

Well, I will try and copy the skill when it's in the early stage and have it do the calculations for me, but now I need to do them myself.

---

Four months passed, with me being solely focused on getting the cost for the skill down.

I managed to reduce it a bit, but it's still 25% of my total capacity.

Should I continue trying to get it lower, or should I just try and evolve the skill now?

While I will eventually get back the magicules, it would take about 30 years at the current pace I'm gaining magicules, including the magicules I gain from my shadows.

But that's without me knowing how much it would increase with the new skill.

No. 30 years worth of magicules is too much without me knowing how much I would gain with an upgraded version of the skill. I need to try and reduce it even more.

---

A whole year passed, and I made some progress in reducing the cost of evolving the skill.

At times I thought about just doing it but stopped myself, and I'm glad I did. During almost a year and a half of trying, I managed to get the cost for the skill from using almost 45% of my magicules to 20%. That being 20% off the magicules I had when I started and not my current amount.

"I guess it's time to do it," I said to myself and activated the Evolution Sub-Skill of Lord of Heaven: [Astarte] and started the evolution of Black Heart.

I could feel the magicules decreasing in order to evolve the skill, and after an hour, I got confirmation from the Voice of The World about my new skill.

{Intrinsic Skill: [Black Heart] and Lord of Wrath: [Satanael] has evolved into Unique Skill: [Black Heart Reactor]}

I grinned as everything went according to my plan. Well almost. I didn't expect both skills to fully merge into one. When I inspected my Unique Skill: [Mystery], I couldn't find the Satanel skill there anymore. Not only did I manage to make a new skill, but I also freed on slot in my Mystery skill.

My new skill, Unique Skill: [Black Heart Reactor], is a mix of both skills.

Now for the final test, I brought forth my status screen.

_____

Magicules: 45,769,760

[Stats]

Strength: 14,449 + 18% = 17,049

Vitality: 13,882 + 18% = 16,380

Agility: 14,188 + 18% = 16,741

Intelligence: 14,014 + 18% = 16,536

Perception: 14,014 + 18% = 16,536

_____

The last test is another one-month test to see how many magicules I will gain.

---

The month passed very slowly as I wanted to see how many magicules I would have gained during this time. Of course, I had my shadows stop hunting for the time being.

Okay... I opened my status with closed eyes before opening them, and I was pleased with what I saw.

_____

Magicules: 45,844,760

[Stats]

Strength: 14,467 + 18% = 17,071

Vitality: 13,900 + 18% = 16,402

Agility: 14,206 + 18% = 16,763

Intelligence: 14,032 + 18% = 16,763

Perception: 14,032 + 18% = 16,763

_____

The number of magicules I gained increased by 6.25 times compared to my original Intrinsic Skill: [Black Heart].

---

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading this chapter.

If you enjoy this story, remember to vote and leave a review if you haven't.