Chapter-8 | Testing abilities...

An image of a youth standing in a clearing of the forest thinking about something could be seen. Obviously, this youth was Adrien.

After ordering some furniture for his room Adrien came straight to this place. Before venturing anywhere and doing anything, he wanted to find out what he could do with his and Crunch's abilities in the mix.

For a warlock, progress was natural but slow. But intermittently stimulating the bloodline was another way to go. Foods with natural energy and elemental particles that are beneficial to one's health are one way, and using bloodline abilities and comprehending them is another.

Unlike normal food, these natural foods provide energy directly. In addition, the elementium particles were like cream on the cake. While normal humans and apprentices couldn't digest these elementium particles, warlock apprentices could digest them albeit slowly. Plus, these particles would stimulate the bloodline, making progress faster.

For testing and gauging abilities accurately, he could have used tower facilities, but he didn't have enough energy crystals, so he could only make do with what he had.

With that thought, Adrien immediately used [Ability: Starless Movements]. When Adrien used this ability of his inside the Bio-Airship, he figured out why this ability's name was not Starless Steps but Starless Movements.

His ability affected not just his feet, but his whole body, but he still had to control it since it would do pre-programmed actions. Adrien's goal was to remain in that state while he was doing any pre-programmed action.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, he decided he needed a better plan and kept racking his brain. Activating his ability after recovering lightning elementium particles, Adrien for the first time refused to move and remained where he stood.

However, unlike in the past where any action was pre-determined, this time his brain kept asking his mind what to do. In this state where there were no instructions but the ability was active, Adrien felt as if the world had slowed down. In addition, his entire body was covered in lightning, as if encouraging the user to move.

When he did decide to move, his whole body moved like it usually would but he felt as if the rest of the world was crawling at snail's speed. Adrien remained in this state for a dozen or so deep breaths according to his time flow, until the lightning elementium particles finally ran out.

Adrien felt a rush of adrenaline from moving so fast. From predetermined action to free movement, it changed many things. Now he was not restricted by distance. How much he could move in a few seconds depends on his ability.

The predetermined action of the ability, though, was not a terrible thing. Adrien could use it if he needed to dodge during perilous situation. The only negative side to this ability was recharge time. If only he could find a way to store the lightning elementium, he would be able to recharge easily.

Adrien scratched his head and pushed the issue to a later date, and summoned the [Ability: Lightning Grimoire].

Using this ability, he had to find out if the obstacles between himself and the target had any restrictions. There is no guarantee whether the obstacles will be damaged or if the spell will simply ignore them and pass through. He needed to figure it out.

In order to test his ability, Adrien found four trees that were behind each other, in a single line. Seeing this, Adrien pointed at the tree in front of him while thinking about striking the very last tree.

The moment he used his ability before he could see what had happened, he heard the sound of lightning striking the tree, something like a 'bang'.

Adrien walked towards the last tree and was astounded to see the charred trunk of the tree. While the damage was not significant, it was strong enough to kill an unarmed opponent.

Adrien slowly inspected the trees in front of the targeted one and even after taking the time to look, he wasn't able to find a single damaged bark.

"This ability completely ignores defenses!" Adrien was astounded by his revelation.

By now, Adrien was looking forward to Crunch's abilities. His abilities were fairly straightforward, but could you say the same about Crunch?

Crunch's abilities were something that you would call 'versatile'. 'Ever Expanding', 'Star to Star', and 'Born in the Rune Sea'. Each of them could be used in many ways.

He had already seen what [Ability: Star to Star] could do but he had to how far it could go. Could Crunch take him and teleport him very far? Could Crunch teleport itself instead of something else? What else could Crunch do?

Crunch, from what he discovered, could teleport effortlessly, but the object he transported in its place would consume its energy and use space elementium particles. Crunch could not simply teleport wherever it wanted, but only exchange positions with other objects.

But Crunch's skill set was 'versatile'. Couldn't Crunch just store an object and teleport? This is where these two abilities broke the balance. If he entered Crunch's space, couldn't he teleport with Crunch anywhere he wanted?

Crunch could simply swap places with small objects, consuming very little energy. If Crunch were to store any object, heavy or light, the effect on its energy consumption would not differ.

Now, Adrien was really curious. How spacious was Crunch's internal space now? But when Adrien asked if it could let him enter its storage space, it refused, saying the space was not habitable yet. But it also added that the space was large enough.

Adrien was not disheartened, he knew sooner or later, he would have a large enough space that he could call his own. Somewhere, no one can enter and spy on him.

But it was not this versatility in transportation that amazed him. It was the [Ability: Born in the Rune Sea]. At first, Adrien couldn't understand what Crunch was telling him as its explanation was quite cryptic but when he did understand his jaw dropped to the floor. Due to the abilitiy being a gift from Rune Sea, Crunch knew the knows and hows of the ability very well.

If a person or, to put it simply, any living organism approaches Crunch within its hundred-meter radius with a certain negative sense or intention of harm, any task undertaken by that organism won't proceed smoothly.

But this person doesn't need to have a feud with Crunch. Even if a stranger standing next to him is targeted by another stranger, if they are in Crunch's range they would be influenced by the ability.

No matter how much he thought and tried to deny it, it sounded more and more like something intangible which people simplified by calling it 'luck'.

Even if Crunch owns the ability, he will still be affected by it once it is activated. So, one could say it was a double-edged sword. Once activated, every step must be carefully taken.

But Adrien had some ideas. If he could anger someone before activating this skill, then it would be a surefire way to send someone to his doom. Before he knew what had happened, he would be lying in some gutter lamenting his life. Just this thought sent shivers down his spine.

Still, Adrien knew, in real life, no one would give him time to trash talk and let him use [Ability: Aggro]...