153. Flirting Beneath the Clouds

< ACTIVE: Liquid Fire >

< EFFECT: Release a torrent of sticky, liquid fire. Flames last momentarily. Deal 3,000 MAG ATT damage. Apply Severe Burn Condition if RESIST is less than 90 and MAG DEF is lower than 600 >

< Cost: 5,500 MP per second >

Napalm.

It couldn’t be anything other than magical napalm. The only difference was that there was no black plume of smoke that followed. It was a clean, gelatinous flame that smothered the cliffside, instantly blackening it.

The stream had launched from the palm of her hands, and it lasted for only a single second. But that single second was all it would take to render someone entirely incapacitated if they weren’t already dead.

Severe Burn was the logical condition that Burn stacks eventually became, although, this was not always the case. Frost never received Severe Burn when she fought the Iron Candle and only accumulated absurd amount of Burn Stacks.

Apparently, Severe Burn was the equivalent of a full thickness burn, or worse. It only occurred to those that were able to have their bodies incinerated by Burn Stacks, unlike Frost and the Moons due to their immense DEF and RESIST stats.

Interestingly enough, Liquid Fire did not inflict Burn stacks. It jumped straight into the Severe Burn Condition.

That being said, Frost’s last Active Conflagrator skill was [Thermal Propagation].

< ACTIVE: Thermal Propagation >

< EFFECT: Create miniature thermal explosions within your palms. Deal 500 MAG ATT damage >

< Cost: 500 MP >

This was self-explanatory. Frost held out a palm and a small, toasty shockwave erupted. It did little damage, and it was easily the most lackluster out of her newest skills. There was no such thing as a useless skill in her eyes, and only time could reveal if it was anything truly worthwhile.

Maybe it was highly effective underwater?

She felt unusually excited. Being in the possession of magic other than healing and Corrupted manifestations made her happy. She finally had ranged offensive capabilities. They were limited of course, but it was better than nothing.

And she was not going to just stop there. There were several skills left to uncover.

< LEADERSHIP >

< We must never be divided >

< ACTIVE: Inspiration! >

< EFFECT: Temporarily inspire allies. Grant resistance to Trepidation stacks if allies RESIST is lower than 50 >

< Cost: 200 MP >

The Corrupted were horrifying beings to begin with, and so were the Impuritas. But Frost had never actually seen anyone afflicted by Trepidation stacks. Unless it was similar to Burn stacks which was no more than common sense, meaning that if anyone was afraid, then they were already inherently afflicted by it.

It was sort of useless within their group, but she could certainly see it working in larger more unorganized groups. She kind of wished she had this skill back in the Derma layer. That way so many people wouldn’t have had to be afraid…

And finally, she went over her final Profession and its only Active Skill.

< COMPREHENSION >

< Comprehend the incomprehensible >

< ACTIVE: Non-Euclidian Interpretation >

< When active, automatically interpret and map non-Euclidean spaces imperfectly >

< Cost: 100,000 MP per minute >

Frost nearly choked on her breath. 100,000 MP was insane for what simply allowed her to interpret completely alien spaces that did not normally exist. At least not on Earth.

“Nav. Can you explain why this takes 100,000 MP?” She had to ask for the sake of her sanity.

“Mapping. That’s the key word. Jury had an experience with non-Euclidean spaces within the Eternal Library. What she experienced can be summarized as a scrunched piece of paper.

Now imagine that every crimp is a flat plane of existence, and no matter where you were on that, it will always appear flat, but you’ll see everything else all around you. Up, down, sideways. Could you then tell where on that scrunched piece of paper you were at?”

Frost could marginally understand what Nav was trying to explain. Coming from a science background, she was no stranger to absurd concepts. But merely fascinating about them verses trying to comprehend them were two very different things.

“No. No way. That sounds like an impossible maze. Jury was able to find her way through that?” Her mind throbbed just trying to picture it.

“She just needed to follow the books. The Archivist states that there are people that do find themselves within the Library, but they become long lost and perish to dehydration, starvation or insanity.”

“Aren’t I glad I arrived at the Nexus. Hm… Oh. You know what, maybe I gained this skill in preparation to visit her.” Frost reasoned. “But man. Jury’s incredible, huh?”

Somehow, she felt Jury’s gaze fall onto her as if she heard that.

“Let’s see. What about my Passive Skills?”

< PASSIVE: Fight, Never Flight! >

< EFFECT: All stats increase by 2% for each 24 hours spent in combat. Combat state will be significantly more difficult to dismiss >

< PASSIVE: Origin of Flames >

< EFFECT: Assimilate all flames as your own >

This essentially allowed her to take control of any and every conceivable flame within a 15-meter radius from what she tested. The name ‘Origin’ gripped her heart with dreaded mystery.

< PASSIVE: Instinctive Drive >

< EFFECT: Your body is proficient enough to move with instinctive prowess >

< PASSIVE: Ultra Coordinated >

< EFFECT: AGI increased by 20 >

< PASSIVE: Heart of Hearts >

< EFFECT: Your voice can more easily reach people’s hearts >

< PASSIVE: Comprehension I >

< EFFECT: Comprehend basic literacy of all kinds. Marginally comprehend incomprehensible existences >

The last one confused her. Incomprehensible existences sounded like the Corrupted, but Nav clarified that it was likely other concepts that people couldn’t feasibly comprehend.

But that was all Nav understood. Unfortunately, much of the Comprehension Profession was subjected to mystery. Time was, once again, their greatest source of answers…

And now that Frost was done, and with 15 red slime cores collected, it was Jury’s turn to test out her two Beholder-esque skills. They first needed to leave.

Frost had gathered the attention of the other neighboring parties thanks to her dangerous magic. They risked wiping them out if Jury’s magic turned out to be another assortment of weapons of mass destruction.

Therefore, they found the largest clearing the could and had Jury stand 100 meters away from all signs of life, including themselves. She stood there for a short time after having received the Nex from the triplets, and she waved at them once before finally gazing off into the distance.

A prompt then flashed before Frost’s eyes.

|| Localized Entropy ||

A distant hill seemingly wavered, as if they were peering at it through a heatwave. Then, and to their immense shock, the hill itself began to disintegrate before their very eyes. Matter decayed faster than they could blink as a cloud of particles lifted into the air like a swarm of locusts. The wind carried off what was essentially the carcass of the earth itself.

A 50-meter-wide patch of flat dirt was all that remained.

“Jury says that it’s freezing suddenly. 25,000 ATT and 25,000 MAG ATT. 50,000 in total.”

50,000 damage was insane, and it toppled Frost’s Prejudice. But the cost of 250,000 Nex was equally insane, and it felt incredibly disproportionate. It was better to save up another 750,000 Nex and use [Retrocausality].

|| Doppler Strike ||

The attack cost 250,000 Nex, but this had a higher damage potential than [Localized Entropy]. Jury dashed from one end of the field to another, creating various afterimages of herself which followed like a trailing shadow.

The further she went, the more of these afterimages formed, and when she struck a lonely tree; every single one of her afterimages struck all at once, dealing her base ATT times the number of after images.

There were 20, and it totaled to an astounding 160,000 damage.

But this carried its own side effect. It drained Jury’s stamina 20 times over. She collapsed onto her knees at the base of the tree, instantly prompting Frost to dash over to her in no time.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” She asked, wrapping an arm around her as she began casting healing magic.

“Drained… That was… intense. Did I at least look cool in front of you?” Jury grinned, baring her razor-sharp teeth.

“Geez. Don’t worry me like that.” Frost sighed, before smiling back. “But yeah. That was awesome. I guess you can’t judge people on their base stats at all. Can you stand?”

“Mhm.” Jury said, right as Frost felt something slither around her waist.

“H-huh? Yes?”

“Come here~”

Jury’s soft, cuddly tail suddenly tugged her down onto the grass. They laid side by side as the thick tail supported Frost’s back, with the bulbous tip resting behind her head like a pillow. No one dared to interrupt. As much as she knew Cer wanted to step in, her sisters had her restrained by the arms.

“It’s pretty. I’ve noticed that there are all kinds of clouds overhead. But I like those wispy ones the best.” Jury commented, her tail vibrating slightly.

“I like the rolling ones. The giant, dark ones that eat up the skies.” Frost said, just noticing now that the tip of Jury’s tail was entirely different. It no longer appeared like an blossomed flower.

Instead, the tip was layered with multiple petals that opened and closed like a mouth. It was feathery, fleshy but beautiful in a way. Like a flower, funnily enough.

“That’s right! I never showed you what my tail can do now.” Jury said, closing the petals of her tail right as a long, thick needle sprung out, spraying a sweet liquid. “I can secrete a neurotoxin!”

“… U-Uh. Aren’t you too excited about that?” Frost wryly said. “Please don’t inject me with that. I hate needles.”

“But weren’t you the kind of person who gave people needles?”

“Well, someone has to do it.” Frost laughed. “Thick needles like that were used to inject people in the spine.”

“To put them to sleep?” Jury genuinely asked.

“Huh? No way. You are not going to go to sleep after being stabbed by a big needle like that. What are the effects like.” Frost brought a finger to it, poking the length of the needle much to Jury’s amusement.

“Paralysis.” She casually mumbled. “To put bad people to sleep.”

“I see... Wait. Did your tail get thicker? I could have sworn it was smaller.” Frost noticed, tapping on the loop that pinned her down. As she brushed her hands along the fuzzy surface, Jury suddenly moved Frost above her.

Their hairs intertwined as Frost pinned Jury down.

“What’s wrong?” Frost asked, wondering what had gotten into her. “Tired of seeing the clouds?”

“Mhm. I wanted to look up at something prettier.” Jury flirted. “And… I wanted to see what it was like to be under you. It’s nice. But –”

They tumbled in the grass again, and this time, Jury had Frost pinned down beneath her.

“I like being up here.”

Her lover dominated her in every conceivable way. Her eyes were filled with Jury, and the sweet scent of roses assaulted her nostrils, and even permeated into her mouth. The ticking and deep breaths drowned all other sounds, and the overbearing warmth of her large lover made her incredibly happy.

Jury’s tail kept her in place, and her arms anchored themselves by her head. Her assertiveness had reached a new level, but Frost was not going to let her lover take the lead so easily. So instead, she wrapped her arms around Jury’s neck and pulled herself up for a kiss, surprising her.

“How’s that for a counterattack?” Frost chuckled, right before Jury joined her in a small giggle.

“It’s super effective.” Jury hummed, eventually freeing Frost much to her disappointment. “But it tastes different from our first kiss.” She commented, licking her lips.

“What do you mean by that?” Frost asked before Jury drove her head close and pecked her on the lips.

“Skewers. Our first kiss tasted like skewers.”