Chapter 145
I ramped up my physical training more, slowly bumping up the Gravity while adding in lifting boulders and trees, sprinting, and exercising my various weapon skills.
When I was not breaking my body and reforging it constantly, I trained with Rin, who was quickly getting the handle on his demonic energy.
After testing his affinities with another ritual that Jean performed under the guidance of Yao, we got back results that surprised everyone, even Yao.
Power Accumulation
Adaptation
Kinetic
"This is starting to get ridiculous," Yao said, looking on in disbelief.
"Is three good?" Rin asked sheepishly, causing her to quickly cycle through a multitude of emotions before answering calmly. "Yes, having more than two affinities is almost unheard of."
"Wait," Rin said, face scrunched in thought. "Haven't I seen the boss man use like four magic types?"
"I've only used three technically, but I have eight," I said, offhandedly.
Rin's mouth flopped open in surprise mixed with disgust.
"How? Why?."
Don't take it personally," Yao said.
Despite Yao's advice, Rin did, in fact, take it personally. He threw me a face, and I wagged my brows in amusement before he declared.
"Well, that just means I have more time to focus on my strengths."
"Great attitude," I smiled. "Doesn't mean you'll win, though, but great attitude."
"Don't let him get in your head," Jean encouraged, but I knew it was already too late.
On a hunch, I had Professor Hank look into Rin's genetics.
I was curious how much had changed since his awakening.
His demon side was virtually invisible medically before our last mission.
Now, I wasn't so sure.
Professor Hank confirmed my suspicion the second he peered through the microscope in his newly assembled lab.
"Holy shit," he said, and I nearly chuckled. It was odd hearing him swear.
Several projects were under construction. A few were very recognizable—the jet, for one, and the Danger room.
"His cells are like nothing I've ever seen before. I'm not sure I even recognize the structure," he explained.
"I think I can help with that," I said, producing the corpse of a demon I fought during the raid. "There's plenty of fresh blood there. He and I are distantly related to these things." I also provided my blood and some of Isha's. He had regular mutant blood in spade, so he didn't need that point of reference.
He was silent for up to an hour, during which everyone departed except for me.
It was like a dam burst when he finally looked up.
According to him, Rin was a whole new Species. He wasn't quite human or demon or mutant.
He was like all and none of them. Professor Hank theorized that he would have all of the advantages of each species and none of the drawbacks.
Like mutants, he would quickly gain a handle on the basics of his ability, but unlike them, he would grow stronger with every interaction if he so chooses. Because of his adaptability, he would not age as quickly. Finally, age would make him naturally stronger, like the Cambions.
In the Professor's own words, "Rin is like an Omega-level mutant who will never reach his peak."
It now made a lot of sense why the demons wanted to make more of him.
It was like what I got but with a lot fewer restrictions. I was kind of jealous, but then again, I had two energy sources to pull from, an ability to learn seemingly complicated things on the fly, and a class that lets me empower myself directly. So, who was I to complain?
Still, the thought of my apprentice overtaking me in the near future lit a fire under me that made me take to my Demon and Angel Energy training with a fury.
A few days of constantly burning both energies had bumped me up some numerically. My control had also never been better.
It made what came next easier.
Cloak, according to Isha, was a move only a few demons could pull off and was literally the difference between the extraordinary and the faceless hordes.
Cloak gets ridiculously powerful and energy efficient at higher levels. It gave triple-digit damage boosts, better defense depending on your affinity, and a signature skill tied to the form.
For Isha, who'd mastered her Wind and Fire cloaks so completely she combined them, it was her White Fire Cloak. On her command, it could render anybody stupid enough to touch her to ash, and it turned all of her fire and wind attacks into White Fire. She was also considerably faster in her White fire form.
The benefits had my mouth watering, and I had practically demanded that she teach me how she trained her fire to be so hot. It was shockingly nothing revolutionary. She set things on fire every waking moment, worked on temperature control and energy condensation, did a lot of restriction training, and just kept at it for an ungodly amount of time.
She had the same answers for her Wind magic. She didn't always start out with Wings. It was only after she trained enough that she could handle a set of Devil Arms, whose primary benefits were halving your weight. A little fine wind manipulation, and she could fly on command.
Isha, however, had a ton of advice for Cloak.
Since I had more than one affinity, I had to explore each one first before I thought of combining them to create something even more ridiculous.
As for improving my energy expenditure and defense, she recommended ramping down the input and working on controlling the output before raising it back to the former limit.
There were artifacts designed to help with just that, but Isha recommended I learn by practice. It was the superior method, in her opinion.
And so, I followed her instruction, which had been begrudgingly given, and finally tried channeling my affinities into Cloak.
I started with Density since it was the affinity I had the most success conjuring aside from Fire.
Energy sputtered out of me, first as a red and black film before slowly shifting hues to Maroon.
It wafted off me in a thin, long line rather than flickering like a flame, and I got a fresh notification as my strength swelled.
You've gained two new Cloak Form.
Density: Grants a 50% immunity to ALL Density magic and effects, improves the potency of all Density Techniques by 50%, and grants a flat 25% Strength, Agility, and Endurance boost.
Nether Fire: Grants an 80% increase to all Fire techniques and grants a flat 50% Endurance and Strength boost.
Cost 40 DE to activate and 1.5 to maintain every second used.
I grinned. All I had to do was develop a Density technique.
I put that to the side for now and focused on completing my set. Slowly, I ramped down the technique and switched to Mind affinity, which oddly came off as a pinkish hue. I had an inkling that it was supposed to be transparent, but because of my inadequate control skills, some of the raw demonic power bled through.
Mind: Grants a 50% immunity and increase in all Mind Skills and boosts perception, cognitive speed, and energy control by 25%.
This version of Cloak was like an adrenaline shot to the brain. The world slowed down, and my mind sped up. For the first time ever, I realized that my mind affinity could do just more than read minds. I could grant myself a cognitive boost, trick my brain into feeling less pain, and increase my focus to make energy training, in particular, more intense and productive. The sky was the literal limit.
Before I lost myself to a fairly obvious epiphany in retrospect, I switched to the last demonic affinity I had—Gravity.
Gravity: Grants a 50% immunity and boost to all Gravity magic. Boosts Strength, Agility, and Endurance by 25%
The Gravity cloak was a Dark, almost earthy green that made me feel connected to the planet's gravitational field. It felt its weight and draw and implicitly understood that if I had enough energy and control, I could make it work for me, disrupt it temporarily to keep me suspended in the air, or generate Gravity myself and push and pull if I wanted.
The experience so enthralled me that I said fuck it and gave it a go.
With considerable mental strain, I gathered a clump of energy in my hand and infused a boulder at the edge of the property with Gravity energy.
With a herculean effort, I tried tipping the gravity scale in the weightless direction with my Cloak still activated for the extra boost.
The rock only rumbled slightly before it stopped.
"That was anticlimatic."
For the next three hours or so, I tried it over and over again, getting closer every time until I felt the energy merge with the rock, and a notification flashed onto my screen.
New Demon Technique—Gravitational Touch: Increase or reduce the relative Gravity of an object or person with demonic energy by touching them. Technique lasts for 5 seconds. Cost: 30 per activation.
I grinned like a madman and spent the next 30 minutes testing it out. For such a binary skill, it had far more complicated uses than I envisioned.
I could use it to do everything from making myself and objects lighter to upping the Gravity on my target and temporarily disabling them. When I touched a poor wolf on the edge of the property. It sunk to its knees, body shaking as it tried to get upright.
I was giddy with excitement at the possibilities.
Next, I moved onto Density affinity and tried to create a skill, modeling it on what I'd heard about Domina's technique.
Shifting your density and the density of inanimate objects.
I easily got it down in under an hour.
Density Shift: Alter the density of your body and objects you touch. Affect your density by 30% for variable physical enhancement. Density Increase grants 40% strength boost and 20% speed debuff. Density Decrease grants 40% speed boost and a 20% strength debuff. Costs 15 DE per second.
I had mixed feelings when I read the description. On one hand, I could push my weapons much farther with the same restrictions more or less, but on the other, I was gaining a structured skill that seemed to apply to everything I touched not just my weapons.
I held on to creating a new powerful technique for my Mind attribute since I already had one and focused on testing and synergizing what I already had.