Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The Discount Human had had many thoughts on how to bring back Red Rage. Naturally, his collection of Null Life Essence was because he had this particular objective in mind.

However, as far as he knew, raw Null Life Essence did nothing but simply prolong Red Rage's existence, which led him to theorise.

Null Life Essence was good for sustenance. At least for Null Life species like him and Red Rage.

Then that meant moulding Null Life Essence, weaving it as an independent power source in an intricate way could probably save Red Rage.

The problem Skullius encountered when his thoughts reached this juncture was how to manipulate Null Life Essence.

He could use it for skills but couldn't manipulate it as he did with mana.

Was there a way to manipulate it outside of already established skills?

Nevertheless, outside of this thought process, Skullius had come to one other hopefully useful method to mend his Apostle.

This was through one of the class skills he had heavily neglected until now.

Apostle Armament.

~~~

[Apostle Armament | Lv.2]

A servant needs great strength to protect their master. Using Mana and Null Life Essence, grant your Apostle skills so that they remain useful while standing by your side. Please note that this skill is more effective when your servant has obtained Class.

<Current Limit: 0/2 Common Skills>

Mana Requirements: 250 Mana Points + 2000 Null Life Essence

Duration: None

Cooldown: None

~~~

This skill's purpose was to grant Red Rage a skill from the Null Life arsenal.

At its current rank, it could only grant <Common> skills but from the Discount Human's experience, he knew that <Common> for Null Life was higher than that for Aigas.

An example was the Grand Sword of the Hedonist which he had summoned against Aikil.

It had been a <Common> weapon but if it was appraised by Aigas standards, it would undoubtedly be <Rare> or even <Unique> considering that some of its effects were locked.

(A/N: Rarity rankings for weaponry go from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Unique, Legendary, Mythical and Transcendent. I last mentioned this quite a long time ago.)

He hoped that this skill would spur for Red Rage's repair as it dealt with granting something to the Apostle.

At first it was a passing thought, Skullius merely considering it as a possibility, but then, it turned out to be his only option.

'I hope it works...' Skullius thought.

It was unfortunate but he had to wait until morning before [Flesh It Like You Mean It] could time out.

Thus, this goal of his had to wait for a little longer.

With that time, Skullius pulled up his status.

~~~

[ Name : Festos Dawn ]

[ Level : 7 ]

[ Experience : 64000/64000, <Pending Task> ]

[ Class : Insurgent Magnus ]

[ Race : Discount Human ]

[ Inv. Status : Still doomed ×2, Cursed ]

-------

[ Stats ]

[ Strength : 150 ]

[Agility : 50 ]

[ Intelligence : 70 ]

[ Endurance : 85 ]

[ Luck : Atrocious? ]

-----

[ Health : 249/249 ]

-----

[ Mana : 189/285+(250) ]

-----

[ Null Life Essence : 6000/6000 ]

------

[ Skills ]

[ Advanced Mana Manipulation | Lv.14 ]

[ Greater Communication (I) | Lv.2 ]

[ Flesh It Like You Mean It | Lv. 3 ]

[ Revenant Flames of Ecstasy| Lv. 1 ]

[ Artless Dodger | Lv.2 ]

[ Manassault | Lv. 1 ]

[ Null Extraction ]

[ Mana Shroud | Lv.4 ]

[ Mana Blast | Lv.2 ]

[ Quick Strike | Lv.1 ]

[ Brawn | Lv.1 ]

[ Great Rush | Lv.1 ]

[<Class>]

[ Advanced Evil Weaving | Lv.1 ]

[ Basic Evil Production | Lv.8 ]

[ Basic Evil Invasion | Lv.1 ]

[ Basic Evil Sanction (Special) | Lv.1 ]

[ Basic Light Production | Lv.1 ]

[ Crude World Projection ]

[<Arts>]

[ Pseudo Evil Veneration (1%) ]

[<Oddities>]

[ Luminant Seed (Dormant) ]

[ Binds of Fukal ]

[ Fruit of World Myths ]

----

[<Affinities>]

[ Evil Darkness - B ]

[ Just Light ]

~~~~

"Hmmm.... right. Since I'm level 7 now, I might as well work towards getting to level 10 so that I can finally see what the Luminant Seed can do. I hope it's something good," Skullius thought as he perused over all his stats and skills.

The more he thought about these, the more he realised how much he hadn't used his Penetrator form in such a long time, which was a bit disheartening but not anything to cry about.

The Discount Human form was growing stronger and Skullius could see how in the near future, he would be able to enjoy using both his sides equally.

When a sufficient amount of his mana regenerated, Skullius used [Luminant Healing] to heal up his flesh and changed his clothes.

He was slowly developing a habit of being conscious about his appearance due to his surroundings.

He decided to wait out the time, beginning to read the books he had in storage which really passed the time well.

After another few hours, his mana was back to full and the Discount Human shifted from reading to spamming skills in order to level them up.

While he could start learning about what [Evil Darkness] could now do, he put that off to the side for the time being.

He also put off messing with all his class skills for a bit.

The reason for this was related to what he had termed as his plan for after clearing the Clusters. He intended to clear another few Clusters on his own and for that, he hoped to have more options than just his class skills.

He had quite the good amount of other skills that could be useful if he gave them more attention and his class skills would probably only grow so much if he focused on them until sunrise.

Time passed, with Skullius spamming and reading while also thinking about his other contingencies should his current plan fail.

He still found nothing else that he could rely on.

On the bright side, by the time the sun was emerging from the horizon, Skullius had made some progress with some of his skills.

[Mana Shroud] became [Mana Shield] which added a rather powerful and bright layer of protection over Skullius' body that exceed that of [Mana Shroud]. As far as he could remember, he barely felt [Man Shroud] protect him when he was assaulted by Yamogogofafa.

[Mana Blast] become [Mana Force], which produced even more condensed bursts of mana.

In reality, Skullius didn't know what he would use this skill for, but he would find out in the future.

Finally, Skullius also managed to level up [Advanced Mana Manipulation] which had been level 14. This had taken him the most time as he had reverted back to using the mana condensing technique. However, the Discount Human also added something else to the mix that provided a fun result.

With his memories from the Sage Monkeys and how they developed their skills, Skullius managed to try new and different ways to manipulate Mana which crazily levelled up the skill.

In an unexpected twist, Skullius learned a skill called [Untouched], which used the same principle as [Indomitable Sage's Will] but was vastly weaker.

He had to clasp his hands together to activate the technique and use huge amounts of mana to negate damage.

On top of this, Skullius naturally levelled up [Advanced Mana Manipulation].

This was his first skill to evolve twice, becoming [Elevated Mana Manipulation] which enhanced his sensory range greatly and bolstered his ability to control mana at a level that exceeded [Advanced Mana Manipulation].

The moment it evolved, Skullius felt his connection to mana greatly expand and trickles of ideas infiltrated his mind on how to use mana. Which was weird.

Nonetheless, this raised him to an even greater league.

Unfortunately, Skullius couldn't level up skills like [Great Rush], [Quick Strike] and [Brawn] because they required actual combat to effectively spam on top of a large amount of mana to evolve each of them.

In training with these, Skullius noticed the major differences in his body post Enriching gem absorption.

He was much faster and stronger than he thought. It wasn't just exciting visual aesthetics. His body truly felt like a weapon as it became lighter and more reactive.

This was particularly compatible with [Great Rush].

Soon, it was time for his cosmetic flesh to take a temporary hike and for his dark blue bones to rise.

Skullius pulled out the Null Devil's Aegis of Damnation where his Apostle was housed and his four sockets blazed with a light blue flame.

The Silentburn Levin on his bones crackled silently as he removed Red Rage from the armour and set him on the ground, watching the broken white core within his ribcage that had a golden glowing 'U' and 'T' symbol, start to fragment.

"Let's bring you back on your feet," Skullius said to his bro.

He quickly lay his hand on Red Rage and cast [Apostle Armament].

Though the requirement for the skill was steep, being 250 Mana Points and 2000 Null Life Essence points, Skullius had more than enough.

The light of Null Life gushed from his body as Null Life Essence, unlike Mana, was an energy shared between his two forms.

It engulfed the body of Red Rage in its entirety, swirling endlessly like a whirlpool, a presenceless energy bubbling around.

Red Rage's body gained a bright glow that encased his figure brilliantly, raising him up to float a meter above ground.

Skullius became hopeful at this, watching Red Rage's shattered figure in hopes of seeing it integrate again into its full form.

"Is it going to work?"

Suddenly...

[The subject's core has been damaged. Unable to grant any skills]

"Damn it!" Skullius cursed in a hoarse voice.

However, another notification appeared.

[Subject's body is in a broken state. 'Apostle Armament' can repair the subject's body core and body provided a fee of 5000 Null Life Essence is paid]

"....bro, that's a lot of Null Life Essence points. Argh! Fine, I can't put a price on my bro's life. Wait, what? Let's do this already!"

Of the 6000 points he had, Skullius used 5000 into Apostle Armament, a profound change beginning to happen!