madnovel Chapter 170 - Titles
Chapter 170 - Titles
Lucien was silent for a long while.Though brief, the fragmented memories he’d seen from the Magus Goblin carried weight beyond comprehension. It doesn’t look like mere recollections. They were windows into another civilization.
The monsters... they had taken a different turn in evolution. Their world was alien and unrecognizable. It’s a place where the laws of nature bent under a foreign logic.
Where the Thousand Races clung to structure, the monsters had embraced chaos.
Their technologies were twisted reflections of creation. Organic machines that breathed. Living weapons. Towers grown rather than built. Everything reeked of creation untamed.
And they were up to something.
The small worlds that the Primordial Slime had created.... The sanctuaries for the last remnants of humanity and vaults for the fragments of the Origin Core. They were being destroyed one by one.
Each conquest granted the monsters unimaginable inheritance and a new piece of the Origin Core fragment.
Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
If his suspicions were correct... the Origin fragments from the monsters’ side and from the thousand races’ side were close in number.
And if the monsters ever gained more fragments than the rest...
they could collapse the Black Mass entirely.
And when that happened... the world itself would tremble.
The cycle of war... would begin anew.
But what truly disturbed him was that final moment in the memory...
The thing that had noticed him watching through the Magus Goblin’s eyes.
It wasn’t supposed to be possible.
He had been a mere observer... yet something unknown had looked back.
It was aware. And it had recognized him.
Lucien’s voice barely escaped his throat.
"Was it... a Primordial Being? Or... the Black Mass itself?"
He shut his eyes, unwilling to wander too deep into that abyss.
Some questions were best left unanswered... for now.
Still, another realization dawned on him.
The monsters... were not as united as he thought.
They too had their own factions. Rivalries and alliances. Betrayals and feuds.
The Ancient Beings were the glue holding their stillness. But even they were at odds. Their interests clashed beneath their veil of eternity.
"Power blinds everyone," Lucien muttered. "If it’s that way among monsters... what more of the Thousand Races?"
A weary sigh escaped him. He feared the answer.
Lucien shook his head and forced himself back to the present. He looked down at the pile of drops before him.
"Too bad..." he whispered. "There wasn’t a single skill from the three Monster Lords."
His gaze then fell on a single glowing card.
Malrik’s Skill Card.
False Genesis.
Lucien’s lips curved slightly. Without hesitation, he pressed it to his forehead.
A burst of searing light consumed him. The card dissolved, merging into him.
[Skill: False Genesis learned]
Immediately, he felt it. The weight of creation and the hum of infinite possibility.
He could imitate existence.
He raised his hand and grabbed an object. A slime plushie.
Channeling divine energy, he whispered the skill’s name.
"False Genesis."
The world rippled.
Lines of light erupted from his palm, forming intricate characters that branched across the ground. They were not drawn but woven into reality itself.
They weren’t runes or magic circles. They were something deeper. The code of existence, the script that shaped matter and thought alike.
A hum filled the air.
It wasn’t sound. It was the vibration of reality responding to his will.
Divine energy surged and condensed before him.
Shapes twisted from nothing. The threads of light gathered, folded, merged... until at last, a second slime plushie stood beside the first.
Identical... and yet, not quite.hing.
"How long was a cycle...?"
He sighed, deciding to study about it later.
Then the notifications continued...
***
[Ting!]
[CONDITIONS MET.]
[You have fulfilled Ellen’s lifelong wish.]
[Ellen’s Loyalty has reached 100.]
[You may now Copy one of Ellen’s available skills.]
[Ting!]
[CONDITIONS MET.]
[You have fulfilled Maxim’s lifelong wish.]
[Maxim’s Loyalty has reached 100.]
[You may now Copy one of Maxim’s available skills.]
...
...
...
***
A lot of people had reached maximum loyalty during that battle.
Edric, Maxim and Ellen were among them.
They had fought with him to the very end. Their lifelong wish to destroy Golddust and avenge their families had finally been fulfilled.
Because of that, Lucien gained access to their skills.
From Maxim, he copied Perfect Calculation. From Ellen, Perfect Loop.
They were a pair that complemented each other flawlessly.
Edric, on the other hand, didn’t have any unique skill to offer... unless you counted one strangely named skill he learned called Flex.
When Lucien chose to copy the skills, his vision momentarily shifted.
When he clicked on Perfect Calculation, equations flowed before his eyes. Reality itself was reduced to lines, variables, and patterns. The world unfolded before him as if made of pure logic. Lucien smiled. He finally got the full version.
And Perfect Loop interlaced with it flawlessly. It allowed endless simulation, repetition and refinement. It can perfect the calculations until they reached their ideal form.
He could now plan with surgical accuracy, control his energy expenditure better, and predict battle outcomes.
And the best part... he could activate or deactivate them at will just like Divine Sense.
He grinned. "Yeah... these two were worth it."
Lucien let out a long sigh.
Even after the war, he had grown stronger. Unreasonably so.
Then after a moment of silence, he rose from the bed and walked toward the mirror.
He took off his clothes, examining himself out of idle curiosity.
He clenched his fists.
Flex.
His muscles tightened. His veins stood out like sculpted cords. His well-defined body gleamed faintly under the light.
Lucien tilted his head, smirking at his reflection.
"What a handsome guy."
Then realization hit him.
"...Oh crap. This is addicting."
He frowned and muttered toward the empty air,
"System, can I delete a skill?"