The Turret Tortoises unleashed their guns at him, and the air quickly became thick with mana bullets. Atlas grit his teeth tightly and created a wall out of stone, trying to block the bullets on its thick frame. The bullets were far more powerful than he had expected, however, and the wall was ripped to shreds in less than a second after he created it. He let out an undignified squawk and fell on his back, scrambling to get away from the barrage of attacks and throwing up a few more walls, each thicker than the last.
The bullets were relentless however, and Atlas quickly found himself in the risk zone once again. Atlas quickly backtracked, feeling bullets begin to slam into him, dent appearing on his armor with every shot. He panicked, teleporting away and breathing heavily, glancing at the tortoises. They slowly turned towards him in ground shaking, sluggish steps, turrets firing the entire time.
Atlas hastily teleporting again, appearing directly behind the tortoises and swinging his scythe in an arc at the nearest tortoise, cutting into its shell before teleporting away as the turrets once more sent a flood of bullets at him. He coughed up blood as a large chunk of the damage he dealt was reflected back at him. He had been prepared for this but it hurt so much worse than he had expected, truly showing off the power of a Z-grade skill. He waited for the tortoises to turn again before teleporting to the same tortoise and swinging once more, only to find not a single wound on the tortoise in front of him.
Looking at the tortoise's other skills quickly, he realized that it had a skill called Regeneration which meant that not only did it take almost no damage from melee attacks, it also regenerated its health quickly. It was a cheat type set up, with the only weakness being powerful ranged or magical attacks. Atlas realized that he would have to win this fight solely relying on the power of Elemental Affinity.
He teleported away once more and started to create spikes with debuffs loaded onto them and managed to make 18 of them before the tortoise's bullets reached him, causing him to teleport away and attack the nearest tortoise with all of them inflicting 90 debuffs onto it.
He teleported away and did this three more times, barely evading the bullets and filling the tortoises with spikes of earth with debuffs on them.
On the fourth repetition, something changed. Atlas once again began to teleport away, only to get an unexpected message.
Out of Mana.
Atlas checked his mana bar, finding the notification to be true. His mana had reached rock bottom from all of the constant teleporting and magic use. Bullets slammed into him, tearing into his chest and ripping into his chestplate, destroying it and dealing a lot of damage to him, bringing his health reserves dangerously low. Gritting his teeth he managed to teleport out of the bullets, appearing on the other side of the tortoises to recover as much mana as he could. The tortoises turned far faster than he had expected, sending more bullets flying his way.
In the split second before the veritable wave of bullets hit him again, he activated his most recently gained skill, Perfect Awareness.
Time instantly stopped, and Atlas’s head was filled with knowledge and understanding that he had never even glimpsed before. Just the mere presence of the skill evoked mind power that felt transcendent and omnipotent. Atlas’s eyes sharpened and multiple things happened at once, all in the span of a second.
Atlas perfectly understood and copied all of the skills that the tortoises had, adding three new skills to his repertoire. Ultimate Mirror Defence, Mana Turret, and Regeneration. All three of these skills filled him with more power and it was instantly utilized. Both Ultimate Mirror Defence and Regeneration were passive, so there was nothing that he needed to do there, and the charge up time for Mana Turret was too long to justify using it.
Atlas took control of his mana control skill, Weak Mana Monarchy, fixing its flaws in a mere instant and activating it, absorbing more mana in one second than was ever possible for Atlas before, but with the brain in a state of perfect concentration, it wasn’t even a passing thought, his entire being was devoted to saving himself. He aimed at a random patch of earth in between the tortoises and softened it with magic.
He then used Misty Step to appear in the air above the tortoises, using pure mana to hold himself up and combining various elements in an instant using Elemental Affinity, creating Hellfire and raining it down upon the tortoises from above. With .001 seconds remaining, he used all his mana to power Consuming Light for the maximum effect.
The tortoises groaned in pain as the hellfire burned their very being before they were silenced with a pillar of light so large it hit all of the tortoises in the same instant, erasing their bodies from existence itself. Atlas’s mind went blank, without Perfect Awareness activated, his brain wasn’t able to understand anything that had just happened, forcing it to shut off to prevent damage.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Atlas slammed into the ground, landing on the softened earth he had prepared for himself just a few seconds before and falling into blissful unconsciousness.
***
Atlas awoke with the most terrible headache of his life. It was agony to even think and he felt as though his brain was both frozen solid and on fire at the same time. As he blearily held his head in his hands, he tried to process what had just happened. He remembered activating Perfect Awareness then… He remembered everything he had done, just not how he had done it. He knew he had perfectly copied all of the tortoises skills as effortlessly as breathing, then jacked up Weak Mana Monarchy to instantly fill up on mana, then raining down hellfire upon the tortoises before ending them with Consuming Light.
He felt as though he wasn’t remembering a memory, but rather remembering a movie that he watched. He just had absolutely no clue how he had done it.
As he sat there stunned, he saw a blinking notification in the corner of his vision and held his breath as he clicked it.
A wall of text showed itself to him. Atlas hurriedly tried to sort the notifications, managing to put them in a comprehensible order before reading the information the system had laid out.
Level Up! x86
Skill Created: Ultimate Mirror Defence (Z): Everytime you would take melee damage, instead reflect 99% of damage back and take 1% damage. Your Defence rises by 5% on every activation of this skill, further reducing all damage taken. Defence buff resets at midnight.
Skill Created: Mana Turret (Z): Create and Charge up a turret made out of mana, it takes 10 seconds to charge up the turret but after it is charged, it can sustain itself off of the ambient mana in the air, allowing you to shoot endlessly.
Skill Created: Regeneration (S): Your natural rate of absorbing mana, lifeforce, and stamina is strengthened, allowing you to use skills and abilities far more often. Increases regeneration by 150%
Your understanding of Weak Mana Monarchy has drastically improved, leveling up the skill by 36 levels.
Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Weak Mana Monarchy (S)?
Tiering up…
Weak Mana Monarchy (S) -> Mana Monarchy (S)
Tiering up…
Cannot tier up any further…
LUCKY BONUS!
With both your perfect understanding of Mana Monarchy and Lucky Bonus, the skill is tiered up anyway.
Mana Monarchy (S) -> High Mana Monarchy (S)
Tiering up…
Cannot be tiered up any further…
Ranking up…
High Mana Monarchy (S) -> High Mana Monarchy (SS)
LUCKY BONUS!
High Mana Monarchy (SS) -> True Mana Monarchy (SSS)
Your understanding of Elemental Affinity has drastically risen, causing it to level up by 13 levels.
Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Elemental Affinity (SSS)?
Tiering up…
Elemental Affinity (SSS) -> Elemental Connection (SSS)
LUCKY BONUS!
Elemental Connection (SSS) -> Elemental Union (SSS)
Absorbing Skill Exp…
Scan has gained 89 levels.
Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Scan (B)?
Tiering up…
Scan (B) -> Intensive Scan (B)
Tiering up…
Intensive Scan (B) -> Focus Scan (B)
LUCKY BONUS!
Focus Scan (B) -> Deep Scan (B)
Tiering up…
Cannot tier up…
Ranking up…
Deep Scan (B) -> Deep Scan (A)
Tiering up…
Cannot tier up…
Ranking up…
Deep Scan (A) -> High Scan (S)
Tiering up…
High Scan (S) -> Great Scan (SS)
Tiering up…
Cannot tier up…
Ranking up…
Great Scan (SS) -> Grand Scan (SSS)
Tiering up…
Grand Scan (SSS) -> Deep Focus Scan (SSS)
Tiering up…
Deep Focus Scan (SSS) -> Elite Scan (SSS)
Tiering up…
Cannot tier up…
Ranking up…
Elite Scan -> Master Scan (Z)
Gained title: Glimpse of Transcendence: You have become the first to become an almost all knowing being and touched on the power of transcendence. Your transcendence skills last twice as long. (If instant or one attack power is multiplied by 1.5)
Atlas was in awe at the insane changes and power he had earned. He had gone from two Z-grade skills to 5!
