Chapter 712: Shouldn't Be Possible (Patreon)

Chapter 712: Shouldn't Be Possible

"What... is that?" Dave asked with a frown as he leaned in to get a better look.

"What do you mean?" Derek asked. "Wasn't your plan all along for me to create this?"

"Uh... what?" Dave asked, confusion littering his face. "First, tell me what exactly it is that you are holding there."

"Well, my skills list calls it Channel Void: Draconic Flame Aspect," Derek replied. "Isn't this what you were planning when you gave me the Dragon Flame skill scroll? Isn't that why you were upset that I gave it away to Silvi?"

"Dragon Flame Aspect..." Dave muttered. "It certainly crossed my mind," he finally said. "But since you gave it away, I put all thoughts of it out of my mind. Do you know how hard it is to find a B-rank, non-general skill scroll? You wouldn't believe the price I could have sold that skill scroll for. But we can talk about that later. How did you create that aspect? Did you find another draconic flame skill to use to familiarize yourself with it?"

"I did not," Derek replied.

"Then how did this happen?" Dave asked. "I thought that you would end up with a lightning aspect because of your previous experience with Chain Lightning and borrowing your companion's Void Lightning Bolt skill. At best, I thought you might further push your void in a spatial aspect direction because of your experience with a few spatial skills."

"How did it happen?" Derek repeated Dave's words, then he shrugged. "I don't know. I've been around Silvi for a long time, and she uses the skill often. She uses it for cooking and fighting. She's even indirectly hit me with it a couple of times. I figure I just got familiar with it because of that. We share affinity and stats, after all. Do we not also share experience and familiarity?"

"No, no, you do not!" Dave slapped his forehead with his palm. "If that were the case, then everyone would take the risk of raising a companion—even with how hard it is to sever the bond once it is needed. This may not be as impressive as already having such a high affinity... no... it may be even more impressive than that." Dave rubbed his chin, then muttered, "I wonder if the two are related in some way."

"Related?" Derek asked. "How could my void affinity and familiarity with draconic flames be related?"

"It's not just experience," Dave said. "Your body should need to be used to using the aspected affinity. You've never used a draconic skill a day in your life, right?"

"I don't think so," Derek replied.

"Then this shouldn't be possible. The only thing that I can think of is that when you were trapped in the void with no assistance from the system to help gather and convert affinity, your body naturally began gathering the affinity around you—which was the void. But... what if it also easily gathers other affinities? Since you've been around Silvi using the flame so much, perhaps it has unknowingly attuned itself to the flame somewhat. That's the only explanation I have. I'll have to think more about it."

"Does... that mean that I could increase multiple affinities at once without combining them?" Derek asked. Alex had spoken to him about certain combined affinities into one, like ice and fire, but it didn't seem possible to have two primary affinities.

"Unfortunately, that is not possible. You can only have one primary affinity. You could certainly work on your draconic affinity and perhaps combine it with your void and have some type of Draconic Void Affinity, but I wouldn't recommend that. Combining two affinities will always take away some parts of both affinities. For basic affinities, that is fine, as the resulting affinity can sometimes come out stronger or at least more versatile. For something like a void affinity, though... I wouldn't want to risk the strength from having such a pure primary affinity."

"I see..." Derek said. He didn't actually plan to do that, even if he could. He really just wanted to know if it was possible.

"Yeah..." Dave replied, shaking his head. After that, he held his hand out, palm up. "Let me see it," he said.

Derek shrugged, then reached over the table and placed the small flame into Dave's hand. Dave nodded, then brought the flame closer so he could examine it. He bounced it around in his hand like Derek had done previously, then he even took it into his body.

"Wait!" Derek half-shouted as he saw the flame disappear into Dave's body.

"Shh..." Dave quieted Derek and closed his eyes. As he did, he began muttering. "Draconic devouring properties. Extreme reaction to mana. Fast spreading. Chaotic void properties, along with time and space. Hmm... let's separate it from the mana." Dave then looked to be focusing even harder. He continued with his analysis. "Targets mana first and foremost. Devours stamina once mana is depleted. Devours health after stamina is gone... dangerous."

Dave let the flame come back out onto his palm, then stared at it for a moment. A few seconds later, he released a breath and blew the flame out. After that, he looked back up at Derek and smiled.

"What is it?" Derek asked.

"You've created quite the aspect," Dave said. "Quite the dangerous aspect. One wrong move and the results could be devastating. The flame does not distinguish between friend and foe. It is also very hard to manipulate—even for me. I would suggest avoiding using it until you learn control—and a lot of it. There is no telling what would happen if it were allowed to spread out of control. It could have a snowball effect. If it were me, I would find a small, dead planet with only some vegetation and mana remaining, then release the flame and study it."

"You would go that far?" Derek asked.

"I would," Dave said. "You shouldn't."

"I shouldn't?" Derek frowned. "Why not?"

"At least not until your progression is over 75% with the skill. What happens if the flame consumes the entire planet but doesn't stop there? Naturally, there is mana throughout the universe. What if it spreads throughout space as well, and you are unable to control or extinguish it? Have you used it in battle yet? Do you know if it can survive in a vacuum?"

"I have used it in battle," Derek said. "And I hadn't thought about the vacuum thing."

"Were you able to control it?"

"Partially," Derek said. "But not enough to be comfortable using it often."

"But you were able to extinguish it when needed?"

"Uh... Silvi smothered it in her Dragon Flames," Derek explained.

"Smart," Dave said with a nod. "A pure draconic flame would have the properties needed to do such a thing since the draconic portion of the aspected void is weaker than pure draconic properties. I imagine it still took a lot of flame to smother a small amount, though, right?"

"It did," Derek replied. "How did you know?"

"Because it also has void properties, which makes the flame extremely elusive," Dave explained. "I imagine that whoever you hit with the flame is dead?"

"And then some," Derek replied.

"Did they shrivel up?"

"Pretty much," Derek said. "Silvi turned everyone to ash."

"Smart," Dave said. "If she used her Dragon Flame, it should mask any void usage." Dave gave Silvi a calculating look, then turned back to Derek. "Have you learned anything else about the flame?"

"Boy, have I," Derek replied with a chuckle.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, watch this," he said as he pulled out a runic light from his storage. He then made the tiniest of flames appear on his fingertip and placed it at the beginning of the rune. It took all the focus he could muster—so much so that a bead of sweat even dropped from his forehead—but in the end, he was able to burn some of the rune away without destroying the light.

"Oh... oh my..." Dave muttered. "That shouldn't... no... none of this should... how is that possible? Do you know what this means?"

"I think I have a good idea," Derek replied.

"I don't think you do," Dave said. "You're seeing all the advantages, correct? Possibly being able to remove runes from items or deplete them of mana—allowing someone to study the runes without any alarm or trap runes activating—right?"

"Exactly," Derek confirmed.

"Have you thought of the downsides?"

"Downsides?" Derek asked. "I can't really think of any."

"What happens if a Transcendent blacksmith learns that you have an ability that could steal their work?" Dave asked. "You wouldn't only have the Void Emperor to worry about, then. Who all knows that you can do this?"

"Silvi and Alex Loomis," Derek replied. "Possibly Sheen Loomis—he tested the flame out similar to how you did. Though he didn't go as far as you did."

"I see..." Dave said.

"Alex is under a system oath not to reveal anything about me that has the potential to harm me or my friends until I reach a certain strength," Derek said. "And honestly... I trust Sheen. He's been good to me—beyond the point of doing so just in case I become powerful one day."

"Ah, yes... the Loomis Clan," Dave said. "Not a bad family based on what I know of them. Soul String users. There have obviously been a few bad apples in the bunch, but that is true about every family in the System Universe—mine included. Their patriarch... Logan, I believe... he should be closing in on his Transcendence, as long as he isn't assassinated before."

"Maybe..." Derek shrugged. He was surprised that Dave knew so much already, even though he shouldn't have been. It was only natural for someone in Dave's position to know things about most of the more powerful families in the universe.

"No... I'm sure he's at the point where he can transcend whenever he chooses," Dave said. "And I'm also sure he's made preparations for any opposition that may try to stop him."

"Have any of these assassins gone after Aestra?" Derek asked after remembering that Aestra was in a position where she could transcend any time she wanted.

"Have they?" Dave laughed. "Oh yes, they have. And Aestra enjoyed every minute of it until they classified her as 'do not offend.' So many dead assassins."

"And what about you?" Derek asked.

"Me?" Dave shook his head. "No. No assassins ever came after me for that reason. First, I am a Gravenholt, so that is enough to make any assassin think twice. But also, nobody even knew I was close to becoming a Transcendent before I became one—not even my own family."

"Oh... I guess that is certainly one way to not become a target... have a great backing and not let anyone know how strong you actually are," Derek replied.

"Exactly," Dave replied with a nod. He then took a deep breath, smiled, and said, "Now we can get to any of the questions I'm sure you have for me later. There is something I need to talk to you about and show you. I've been waiting and hoping that you would make it here before I had to do certain things."

"Oh," Derek muttered. He did have a giant list of questions for Dave that he had been compiling for quite some time. However, it was the first time Dave had really acted like this around Derek, so his interest was piqued. "Then, what is it that you want to talk about? And yes, I do have some important and not-so-important questions that I would like answered."

"I thought that would be the case," Dave said. "Now... as for what I've been waiting on you for... you know how you and many of your friends were rewarded by the Origin System for your roles in the system invasion?"

"Yeah?" Derek replied. He wasn't sure where Dave was going with this.

"Well... the owner of the system, which is me, also received rewards for an invasion win," Dave said.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes," Dave replied. "We also receive certain bonuses for having users of our systems ascend to higher systems, along with multiple other ways."

"Is that so?" Derek asked rhetorically. "Then, what was your reward for the invasion and all of that? And what does it have to do with me?"

"Well... you're either going to like what I'm about to say or hate it. Just know I am sorry I couldn't tell you before you arrived in the Origin System. Rules and all that..." Dave said.

"Okay... should I be worried?"

"Not particularly," Dave said. "But... system users aren't the only things that can ascend."

A/N: Okay, so, the little 'thing' in Little Rock will be held from 4PM-7PM at the Pocket Dimension Bookshoppe in North Little Rock on Saturday, Oct. 3rd. CJ Astrea is launching a book and asked if I wanted to come out for it when we met at LitRPGCon, and I figured, why not help support a fellow author in the genre. So, if you are in or around the area and want me to sign a book or chat or buy one or anything, you should come out and check it out. I'll have around 20 books on hand with me, and I have 4 plushies that I plan on bringing.