Chapter 651: 651 Penny's Advancement
Cain was on his way back to the tent at the end of the day when he finally got the System Notification he was waiting for.
[Quest Complete] 0 Guild wars invoked. 0 Deaths. 0 Damage Dealt.
[Reward Granted: Tome of Mana Transformation]
[Bonus Experience Calculating.]
He was a bit worried since Vala wasn't back at the camp yet, but he could sense that she wasn't in danger and hadn't been captured. Her presence was enough to keep the Cultivator that she was accompanying safe all the way back to her Sect Compound, but for some reason, she didn't come straight back to him.
It might be because he forgot to give a direct order, but she was a Supporter, so direct orders of that nature weren't usually necessary, and she wouldn't have hung around a Sect if she wasn't welcome.
[Vala, what are you up to?] Cain asked, making sure that his perception wasn't mistaken.
[I am teaching a Sword Combat seminar near the Shadowed Blade Sect. We shouldn't be much longer. I only have to defeat two more fighters to win the sword.]
Cain wished he had been paying closer attention, but he could always ask her later what had led to a situation where she got herself involved in a situation that ended in her defeating opponents without dealing any damage.
The system certainly would have counted it as his damage if she had been in actual combat, and it would have been reflected on the quest's completion message.
"Master Cain, do you have a moment? I have an idea for my advancement, and I wonder if you can help me out with it." Penny asked.
"Of course. You mentioned earlier that you had an idea. What are you thinking would be the best tactic for you?"
"There is a skill in the Druid tree that increases damage done while the moon is up. That skill resonates with my Lycan nature, which increases in power when the moon is nearly full. If you can do something that adds to that, I think I can make an excellent combat class out of the transformation skills." She explained.
That didn't sound bad. Transformations for extra damage were a core part of Druid's skills, so following that path to even more power made perfect sense. There should be a basic progression class for that, but they could do much better since that wasn't a proper Second Advancement class.
Cain searched the skills he could find for the word Moon and came up with a rather interesting one among the Dragons. They had a Moonfire Dragon, who actually had primarily shadow skills, but transformed them into light skills when the moon was up. That seemed like a good spot to start since they were Legendary creatures.
Most of the skills were pretty mediocre, but they had one spell that looked promising. [Wrath of the Moon Goddess] was a spell that boosted their combat power in all aspects. That was the sort of thing that Penny was looking for, and it had a relation to the Moon, which fit with her Lycan nature.
Cain summoned one of the Moonfire Dragons at Spirit Rank so that he could make the most of their skills and checked the change in the one he wanted.
It wasn't a primary skill of the class, so it had only evolved to Legendary Quality, but that might be enough to set Penny on the right path, even if it wasn't a super overpowered trump card.
Legendary Skills were much easier to make books from as well since he could use the desk.
"I have found one skill for you. [Wrath of the Moon Goddess] sounds like something you would like, so we will try this first and then give you another skill if it doesn't trigger a hidden class." Cain explained, then began to write.
They were starting in the later afternoon, and the creation took hours, so even Vala was back and waiting by the time he had finished. She had an Immortal Rank sword in her hand, leaned over her shoulder as a prized trophy of her day's accomplishments.
Cain wasn't sure how the Cultivators would perceive her since she was summoned by him, but she was a proper Spirit Rank Demon at the moment, and with all of the bonuses that he gave to his summons, she shouldn't have any trouble using the average Immortal Realm fighter as a training dummy.
If she had challenged a large group of Spirit Realm Cultivators to a match where she wouldn't hurt them, it would have been nothing more than plain and simple bullying of the weak.
With the tome finished, Cain handed it to Penny, who absorbed it instantly. She activated the skill, and Cain could feel her combat power soar, with the Interface showing a 100 percent increase in damage and speed, with a 50 percent damage reduction bonus.
Even for a Legendary skill, that was incredibly overpowered. It had to have been enhanced by her species bonus.
Once she threw a couple of punches at the air to test her new strength, Penny sunk into the Class Change options, standing idly by for ten minutes while she analyzed the options that she was given.
Cain watched as her status changed from [Druid] to [Moonblessed Lycan], and her body quality went from Normal to Spirit Rank in an instant. She wasn't just awakened now. She was a true Spirit Beast of the Lycan Clan, with all of the extra durability and strength that you would expect from the higher quality body.
"What do you think of the new class?" Cain asked once she returned to the waking world.
"It's incredible. Not just the quality increase, I don't even have to change again. It will automatically upgrade me to Immortal and Demigod when my combat power reaches high enough. The number of combat skills is crazy, and I've got a load of points left over since I only went through one hundred for Druid, and I am over level three hundred now.
How long do you think that it will take for me to get to Immortality?" Penny asked.
"If it is automatic, likely by level six hundred unless you are really slacking on the combat power. How powerful is your transformation now?" Cain asked.
Penny smiled and activated both [Wrath of the Moon Goddess] and a new skill [Moonblessed Form] which turned her into a four-meter tall Spirit Lycan with bright white fur all over her humanoid body, Wolf's head and glowing pale blue claws on her hands.
The two bonuses stacked to give her 400 percent additional damage, on top of her already high base damage, and the Claws counted as a Spirit Rank weapon, so they wouldn't have a low base, to begin with.
"Why don't you spar a few rounds with Vala before bed? It will help you get used to your new power." Cain suggested.
"Her? Are you sure it will be a fair fight? I am twice her size." Penny asked.
Vala snorted and activated [Wrath], which doubled her size, putting her on an even footing with Penny, and alarming the entire camp.
A pair of four-meter-tall monsters, one a Lycan and one a Demon, weren't something that normally appeared inside their camp. The two of them walked to the training area, and the Disciples of the Lotus Blossom Sect realized that they were transformed Cultivators, not a threat to the Sect. They all began to gather around to see the fight, so Cain called for a Seraphim Inquisitor in his Merger.
[I need an arena for teammates to train.] Cain requested, unsure what the skill was, but he had seen Seraphim use it before during the trials his friends underwent in their realm.
[No problem. I know the Training Grounds spell] The Inquisitor replied, letting Cain activate the skill.
A large white stone Coliseum appeared around the fighters, and the ground turned to sand, surprising them both and confusing the Disciples of the Lotus Blossom Sect that were standing nearby. They were now in a huge building, larger than their camp, that hadn't been there seconds earlier. It was only when they looked out at the distorted form of the Camp and then back at the fighters that they realized it was a skill that made a space that was larger on the inside.
Most Immortals and all Divine Realm Cultivators could do similar things, and they had seen it before, just not quite so suddenly.
Inside the Training Grounds, no competitor would die. If they were seriously injured, they would be ejected from the ring and into a recovery room under the stands, where they would be isolated from the world until the spell ended or they chose to leave, giving them time to recover.
The faint image of a Seraphim appeared over the ring, dressed in a striped black and white toga and holding up a white flag.
[The match begins when the flag falls.] The ethereal voice announced, then dropped the flag and moved further up in the air.
The two lunged at each other, claws clashing against steel in a blaze of sparks. The two seemed evenly matched, unable to push the other back, but Vala didn't stay engaged long, spreading her wings to flip over Penny and continuing a furious assault.
Cain could tell that she was holding back. Not on the speed, which was oppressing Penny and keeping her attack skills mostly suppressed, but on the force behind the blows and the skill that she could activate to overcome most enemies her level.
They went back and forth for five minutes before Vala decided to play dirty, using her whip-like tail to pull Penny off balance and kicking her clear across the ring and into the barrier, ejecting her from the match.
"That was dirty fighting," Penny complained a few seconds later when she reappeared, glowing with green healing light.
"Winner, Vala." The referee announced, bringing cheers from the crowd.
"My tail is as dangerous as a third hand. Not using it was a mercy." Vala replied, unconcerned.
"Let's go again," Penny growled as soon as her health and mana reached full.