Keeper of Totality

[Skill: Rebirth From Death | Type: Influence/Spirit ]

Desc: In times past in an unknown world, the mythology of an ancient empire was spread to other continents and underwent a reformation. Now of another form, the deity represented the cyclic nature of life and death, and all within. A confluence with this mythology and spiritual energy has led to the bestowment of a ______’s resonance blessing upon this weapon, taking on the forces of Order’s pinnacle.

Abilities:

Cyclic Reforming – The strength of one becomes another’s.

• Gives the weapon the ability to obtain the spiritual energy of those killed by its soul twin. {Only active when used alongside Twin Souls: Chaos}
• Gives the weapon the ability to reconstitute skills from the energy of those slain by its soul twin and pass them to its User. Collected Skill Shards: (5/10) Lesser Formicidae Skill Shard.
• Gives the weapon the ability to merge skill shards to form new tertiary or secondary skills. Limitations apply.
• Gives the weapon the ability to reconstitute stats from the energy of those slain by its soul twin and pass them to its User. Stat gain maximum: 50% of Rank Total. {Temporarily Stored Stats: x4 CON, x3 STR, x3 AGI, x1 INT}

• Gives the weapon the ability to shield its User from damage up to the total of its active ATK, MATK and SATK. Shield resets when its User receives unshielded damage the equivalent of what was negated.
• Gives the weapon the ability to absorb damage up to its active ATK using its User’s equivalent MP, while shield is active. Absorbed damage can be reflected partially or completely. Current absorbed damage:

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “It’s named after the monster? What would a Lesser Formicidae skill do? Does it become a Greater Formicidae skill when merged with other Lesser Formicidae skills?”

“Hm?” Scytale used his nose to gesture to a line. “Why is it storing the stats? Also, I don’t remember ‘Stored Stats’ being in the skill sheet last time we looked.”

Lucille shrugged. “I assume that’s because I’m Rank-0. As Rank-0s. we can only obtain free stat points to increase our strength. We can’t use elixirs or eat stat-boosting foods to obtain them.” She held her chin as she observed the information. “Although, can I only obtain one stat for each monster I kill? There are 11 stats here total, and I killed 11 monsters.”

“Well, whatever. Let’s get out of here!” Scytale suddenly exclaimed, flapping his wings. “I want to go beat these stages! We’re done here!”

Lucy shook her head wryly but began walking in the direction of the Ascendant City. “Alright, let’s go do the stages. It’s time for us to begin ‘climbing’ the Tower.”

…

[General Quest: COMPLETED]

Reach Lvl. 10(MAX)

[Rewards: Class Tier +1, Stages 1-5 Unlocked, Novice Title]

[Alert: No Class detected for User Lucille Goldcroft and User Scytale]

[Withholding Reward: Class Tier +1 until Class is detected in User Lucille Goldcroft and User Scytale]

“That’s convenient,” Lucy said.

“… don’t tell me you just left it up to luck whether we would obtain the tier upgrade or not?” Scytale asked suspiciously.

Lucille smirked. “I don’t think that’s relevant now. Didn’t you want to start the stages?”

Scytale narrowed his eyes but huffed as Lucy called out to the System, “Take us to the Stages.”

A white-blue screen appeared in front of them both.

[Do you want to begin the Stages?]

[Alert: Stages 1-10 must be completed independently. User Lucille Goldcroft and User Scytale may not enter the same Stage during the Beast Realm Stages.]

[Yes/No]

Lucille sighed. “This is it.” She looked down at her bond. “Good luck. Make sure to achieve the maximum Completion Rate while you can. You could come back to finish them, but the instant increase in your strength the first time you complete them is more beneficial for us right now.”

He nodded. “Are you going to be okay? For me, once they’re done, I’ll be back outside the Obelisk not even a second after I left and besides a few key memories, it’ll all feel like a dream. But for you, you’ll feel every second as if time’s actually passing…”

She smiled at him. “Scytale, I’ve completed 70 of these things, and done them over and over again. I’m used to it. Besides,” she added, turning back to the screen. “I’ve spent the equivalent of thousands of years in pocket dimensions under time dilation. These are hardly different.”

She pressed [Yes] with a smirk. “And… you know I’m looking forward to it for my own reasons.”

Scytale scoffed and pressed [Yes] on his screen. “Yes, you insane woman. And you call me crazy for my love of fighting.” He shook his head. “Never mind. Time to begin.”

After he said that, their bodies were whisked away into particles of white light, the Obelisk cube empty and silent.

…

[Welcome to the S.T.A.G.E.S!]

Available S.T.A.G.E.S (Beast Realm):

Completion Rate: 0%

Stage 1: Entry into the Deep Greenwood Region (UNLOCKED)

Stage 2: LOCKED

Stage 3: LOCKED

Stage 4: LOCKED

Stage 5: LOCKED

Stage 6: LOCKED

Stage 7: LOCKED

Stage 8: LOCKED

Stage 9: LOCKED

Stage 10: LOCKED

[Please complete Stage 1 to proceed to the next stage]

Taking a breath to prepare herself in the white System space, she pressed on Stage 1. The empty white limbo around her faded, and she found herself tumbling onto the ground. She sat up and brushed the dirt out of her hair as she took in the towering evergreen trees covered in vines and crawling plants, massive twisted roots, and branches thicker than houses intertwined overhead and beyond the area she sat in.

Lucille stood up, taking note of the two daggers still in their sheaths on either side of her.

So, even though they’re sentient, I can bring them in as weapons. I didn’t check their Statuses earlier to see what their stats look like after their level-ups, but considering the nature of the Stages, it’s not relevant right now. Although…

She checked and nodded to herself.

No Status screen for me or them. I’m working with purely pre-System methods. All in order then.

She did, however, have her dimensional bag. It only contained a bedroll, an empty canteen, and a rope, with no food or currency within. It was up to the System’s discretion of who could bring what and how much into the stages. She supposed she was allowed the daggers, the bag, and its contents because of her limited strength.

Then she put a hand up to her right eye.

And… I don’t have my mask… it seems my eye doesn’t work here. I wonder what I’d see if it did…

Taking a look around, she noticed she appeared to be at the top of a hill of some kind and began climbing up a thick tree root to get a better idea of her location. She got on top of it and took in the view.

Stretching out endlessly below was a thick, gargantuan jungle filled with brightly coloured flora and fauna, all emitting different levels of mana. A cacophony of different beast roars and bird cries sounded out below, multicoloured flocks of winged creatures soaring above the jungle. Occasionally, the ground trembled as powerful but unseen magical beasts stalked the region under the shade of trees as tall as skyscrapers. The sound of a System notification rang out.

[S.T.A.G.E.S | Stage 1: Entry into the Deep Greenwood Region]