Bro, I'm not an Undead!



The guidance field spawned in Replicus' sight.

[What would you like to upgrade with 'Unbound'?]

"Armour," Replicus responded lazily while also admitting the amount of Null Life Essence he wanted to use.

[15,000 Null Life Essence points expended for 'Special Bonus Random Upgrade']

[Upgrade processing...]

[Special Bonus Random Upgrade decided]

[Random Upgrade complete]

With Skullius evolving to Tier 2 a long time ago, the reserves of Null Life Essence he could store increased from 6,000 to 12,000. This allowed him to get benefits only attainable after using [Unbound] with 10,000 or more Null Life Essence on.

Said benefits were obtained through a Special Bonus Random Upgrade, which, different from a Permanent Random Upgrade, gave a higher grade reward, and added a bonus quality that was usually equal to, or higher in quality than the main profit reaped.

In this case...

The slender armour of brass tones lit up as [Unbound] blessed it. Under the gaze of Replicus, it gained additional design features, and grew slightly bulk-wise, shapes and contours added to its overall body.

In the next moment, what was revealed was a... 'porous' sort of armour. A series of fist sized holes could be seen at its sides, though their purpose seemed to be far removed from subtle ventilation.

It had a bold chestplate that pushed out proudly, as though to force whoever would wear it to be proud too. It seemed to have layers to it in the form of bladed plates, because the holes on its lower torso exposed four sharp plates aggregating within to pronounce why it was so heavy.

Overall, the armour possessed a sullen golden hue, with a faded sky blue to its interior. By all accounts, at least in terms of design, it was magnificent, and power-wise, the creepy, yet dominant force of a Mythical grade tool rushed from it.

But of course...

[A Special Bonus Applies!]

The bonus came.

[The skill 'Not Today' has been added to the 'Maiden's Chattering Husk']

"Hooo. To think it has feminine origins..." Replicus remarked.

With his finger, he called upon the mana around this place to move the armour as he pleased, making it stand before him.

It was a beautiful piece, but it still wasn't worthy of being called a Granted Armament yet.

Replicus leaned forward, and touched the armour.

His hand blazed with mana, and [Wealth of Spoils] grunted forth from his hand, imprinting the skills and stat bonuses he had extracted from the sets of armour which he had selected prior, onto this new one, the Maiden's Chattering Husk.

The armour gave a gush of light, and trembled as it inherited aspects that were not inherently its own.

Replicus tilted his head.

Often, sets of armour could be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stats or skills he granted them, and watching as the armour started vibrating violently as he imparted gifts onto it – and making clear why it had 'chattering' in it's name, a result of the loud noise it made, probably because it had multiple plates, and was uninhibited – he removed some of its own abilities.

As he did, the armour stabilised.

"There..."

But still, it was still not worthy of being called a Granted Armament.

Replicus snapped his fingers, and pale grey flakes of lightning smote the air to open a void momentarily. A set of coiling tube-like objects and three large cans dropped to the floor.

"Now, let's get to the real work..."

Replicus leaned to the side from his chair, and touched the floor.

A pulsing flood of energy turned the entirety of the ninth floor blue, attracted by the call of the Vehement Bone Nullmancer.

It then rushed to gather under Replicus' hand, and started to funnel into him rapidly.

This... was Null Life Essence. After expending a significant amount of his own reserves with the use of [Unbound] just now, Replicus replenished them to full.

How?

Well, that was a funny, but long tale that could be succinctly explained by saying Replicus had created a storage system inside the Honing Fortress, where he stockpiled Mana and Null Life Essence, all of which could be accessed by him and his subordinates. When he wasn't using Null Life Essence, but gathering it during hunts, he would send it all to storage, from wherever he'd be.

By now, the total reserves Replicus had in storage were...

"Nice and full..." the Penetrator said as he then turned his focus back to the golden armour. He leaned forward, and with what seemed like an ungodly level of focus, he gathered mana to the tip of his finger and extended his hand out, close to the still slender armour.

The mana turned so bright, it became a white glare like that of the distant summer sun on the tip of his finger, and then began to turn dark like the lightless night. Only mana so condensed it looked like darkness worked for this next bit.

Replicus then began to scribble in the air, what he wrote remaining as black etchings hanging up like wireless laundry.

It wasn't a language, but a command.

Scribble scribble dash, scribble scribble dash...

The mix of what looked like gibberish and a sharp, neat line at the end, showed.

Four piles of text carefully separated into four parts hung in the air after fifteen minutes.

Replicus emitted a sigh. But it was only out of habit. His endurance was still limitless.

This part was done.

All that was left was...

"Null Life Essence to connect it all into a fluid network..."

A shocking burst of Null Life Essence was expelled from Replicus at once, and he quickly shaped it into blue chains that connected the four piles of mana text together.

Ah... if only Skullius could see how easily his avatar manipulated Null Life Essence, as if it was second nature, which it was...

What was the difference between the two in that regard?

That's right. After so long, Replicus, simply by exploring his Class, the Vehement Bone Nullmancer, had managed to awaken a skill that allowed him to manipulate Null Life Essence, and evolve it with intense and monotonous practice.

[Greatest Null Weaver].

As soon as the texts were bound by the chains, Replicus pushed the whole construct into the armour. As he did this, he also pulled on the tubes he had summoned, and had them meld into the armour which he carefully disassembled and reassembled for perfect fitting.

All was done simply by Replicus twiddling his fingers, his non-existent butt on the chair.

The four texts and chains were branded into the armour, and it gave a groan of acceptance as well as a hiss, as if it had been burned thoroughly.

Now, it was complete. Some of the tubes Replicus had placed showed from the exterior of the armour, and in some places, they were a glaring distraction from its overall beautiful design.

But that could all be fixed with the final touch.

The three cans left on the floor opened, and the blue, silver and white contents within them were emptied out over the armour which rotated as it was rained on by different colour on every single spot, hidden and otherwise.

Shortly after, it embodied what its lord intended, and soon, it would be settled over the newest Unlimited.

~~~

[Maiden's Chattering Husk]

-Mythical Grade-

The daring Lady of the Seven Serene Seas carved out this armour for her unwanted follower, a clingy maiden with a loyal heart. As the fierce Lady would not have a liability on her quest, she gave this armour to the loyal maiden, both to test and to protect her.

-Defense-

300,000

-Durability-

635,000/635,000

-Special Effects-

• Informs the user about how to use all its skills

• Heals itself with Null Life Essence

• +270,000 to Stamina with Absolute Conversion

• +195,000 to Endurance with Absolute Conversion

• +102,000 to Agility with Absolute Conversion

• +250% efficiency to Innate abilities

---

[Skill: Not Today]

Each hit the armour takes, lethal or harmless, increases the effectiveness of all skills and boosts stat bonuses proportionally, with the minimum increment being 1.5%. Effects last for two minutes per hit, and can be stacked.

-

[Skill: Granted Compound Seal]

...

-

[Skill: Aggrante]

...

-

[Skill: Granted Restoration]

...

-

[Skill: Limited Granted Warp]

...

~~~