Draco re-entered Boundless, appearing in the Aether Hall. By the time he returned, about 2 days had passed in-game since they had spent around 12 hours in the real world doing miscellaneous stuff.
After all, now that Draco was a part of Supernatural, and as a high-tier member, he had to research on the organization and its members. After seeing some of the names, his heart clenched.
Those were all bigshots! The power and reach of Supernatural was not a f.u.c.k.i.n.g joke at all, they were literally the stuff conspiracy nuts screamed about but no one believed.
Most of the Superior Lords were even big players in the top 50 Rankings from the previous timeline. Eva was also surprised by this, and she became thoughtful.
Draco was surprised to learn that CERN was the main organization behind Superhuman, and every other part was just a sub-branch. It poured cold water on his fire of desire for their anti-matter to coalesce his Black Dragon in the real world.
It became apparent that in the case he and Eva had attempted to infiltrate them, it would have been a horrendous failure. Whether they would have survived it also became a valid question.
Right now, he could only take matters concerning the real world slowly. Every step had to be clear and concise, not allowing for any mistakes as it would be game over there.
As for Boundless? Hehe, Draco had come here to vent his unhappiness at having to lie low in the real world.
He first went to his workroom that he had asked Vitae to create in the Aether Hall for all his Tradeskills. He activated Scrivener and chose to record his techniques.
When he appeared in the familiar dojo, he was greeted by the sight of Satine, who - just like her daughter - radiated unhappiness. Already used to being passive-aggressively threatened by these yandere orbs, Draco pacified Satine before displaying more techniques.
Draco spoke again. "Begin recording, this is a sword technique called Sword Skill 101: Piledriver."
"Acknowledged. Please display the technique fully." Satine replied monotonously.
Draco displayed this sword skill with ease. After all his boons and boosts, he felt like he was unstoppable. He moved faster than he ever could before, and felt not even the slightest bit of strain.
Displaying a complex sword skill was about as tiring as relaxing on a sofa while eating gr.a.p.es for Draco.
"Recording complete, removing unnecessary information… compiling… assessing…"
"Complete. The sword technique 'Sword Skill 101: Piledriver' has been assessed to be a valid technique. Generating Rank… complete."
"Sword Skill 101: Piledriver is graded as an Uncommon technique. Would you like to record another?" Satine asked with a light bob.
Draco smiled and continued. He went through all of his various sword skills from where he last stopped because of the mental strain the time dilation put on his body.
He had to pause at Sword Skill 100: Riposte Curve last time, but he easily went up to Sword Skill 355 without stopping or feeling any mental strain. This had nothing to do with his class, as it was something that affected his real body.
It was simply the fact that the pods afforded full synchronization. Matters like that which would have caused his brain to overheat with the Virtua Helmets were easily solved by the nanites that entered his brain and acted like heatsinks.
They also boosted his cognitive functions as well as other bodily functions. This was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to benefits the pods brought to human life, which was something only GloryGore Labs could produce.
As such, he easily reached his last two sword skills. These were the two techniques he had used in his previous life to finally defeat Riveting Night with the help of a Hidden Power he hired to suppress Darkrow.
"Begin recording, this is a sword technique called Sword Skill 359: Overcharge."
"Acknowledged. Please display the technique fully." Satine replied monotonously.
Draco took a deep breath. His final two sword skills were leagues above the others because they were made at his prime, and they were created based on all of his acc.u.mulations as a Swordmaster, Control master and his Mana Sword.
Fighting with Worldly Energy fueling one's attacks was a common method for players above Rank 2. Draco though, inexplicably had issues with doing so in combat.
In essence, he fought with Control and his skill alone, but had been able to trounce players around the world who used Worldly Energy in their attacks.
This was what led him to craft his greatest creation, the Mana Sword. The only Pseudo-Legendary item in the game had allowed Draco to channel Worldly Energy through the sword instead of his body, bypassing his weakness.
As such, he became twice the monster he had been back then, and he was crowned as King of the playerbase. He had dedicated six months in practice creating these last two Sword Skills, and even Riveting Night had only seen them used once before she was vanquished.
However, things were different in this life. He didn't need to rely on the Mana Sword to channel Worldly Energy, he had three different ways to do so. The first was his Willpower, the second was Control in conjunction with Willpower and the third was his State of Being.
Optionally, his State of Being could be combined with the other three to make things even smoother. Thanks to his Devil's Guile passive, he no longer drained Willpower, so it was all about how much Worldly Energy he himself could hold.
Draco decided to go to the highest point, so that the technique would be recorded at its strongest state.
He pulled in swathes of Worldly Energy. In this technique space, the Worldly Energy was infinite, so he could pull and pull till he felt like he would burst, and his weapon would shatter.
The amount of Worldly Energy Draco had pulled could even transform into an extremely impure low-grade Aether Crystals!
He then placed his left foot back and leaned on his right foot slightly. He stretched out his left hand like he was using it to aim a throw, and pulled his right hand back in a thrust motion with a standard sword provided by the dojo in hand.
Like a bow fired from an arrow, Draco shot forth with abhorrent speed, using his right leg to shoot himself forward. It was like he was gliding upon the earth, so fast was his movement.
He pieced out with his sword, a blueish-green glow surrounding the blade as it tore through the sound barrier, a wave of recurrent energy surrounding it as the air itself was sliced by the blade.
The sword impaled the dummy that was used for the assessment and for a split-second, it was as if time had stopped. All the energy the sword carried was slowly absorbed, entering the body of the dummy casually.
After it was all swallowed into the chest of the dummy, time resumed. Draco pulled out his sword and walked back to where he began his attack calmly.
As he did, the greatest explosion one could ever witness blew the dojo apart. It was as bad as a small missile being dropped on a village, a blaze as well as a shockwave that ripped everything apart, tearing it all asunder.
Only he was unscathed as he crossed his hands and activated a natureless Mana Shield that was instantly shattered. He quickly sprung up another one, but it was also shattered.
It took 10 Mana Shields to weather the blast, and Draco felt the pain on his mind. Having one or two shields shattered was easy, but more than that would hurt him.
Thankfully, it drained no Concentration, so he could summon another one if he wanted. However, he would have to suffer the pain of it shattering if he did so, so he decided to refrain.
After all, even if Devil's Guile made him broken, his Mage God title was still Rank 1. He was limited to what a Rank 1 Mage God could do and had no way to bypass it other than to Rank Up.
Devil's Guile seemed OP on paper and it really was, but it also had limitations. It only prevented him from having to pay up in terms of system-calculated mental resources, but didn't remove the effects.
Basically, it was being given a coupon by a filling station that you could buy unlimited fuel as long as it was for your car. You were able to buy as much as you want, but you were limited by your car's petrol tank's size, as well as the amount of fuel the petrol station had in total.
However, just the fact that one did not have to pay made it exemplary. The same analogy could be used to describe how his Demonic Might worked.
"Recording complete, removing unnecessary information… compiling… assessing…"
"Complete. The sword technique 'Sword Skill 359: Overcharge has been assessed to be a valid technique. Generating Rank… complete."
"Sword Skill 359: Overcharge is graded as a Legendary technique. Would you like to record another?"
Draco took a deep breath. In truth, he had expected something like that, but seeing it was truly mind-blowing. Due to the way he performed it, it ended up being Legendary.
For scale, only the last 8 Sword Skills of his 360 had been graded at the Epic Rank! Majority had been Uncommon and Rare, with a few Semi-Epic like those from Sword skill 320-350.
Now, his last but one Sword Skill was not even Semi-Legendary - which was what he had expected - but actually Legendary, exciting him greatly.
However, he could only smile bitterly as he watched the dojo's sword crumble into ash. Using such a blade for such a technique was just asking for death.
Luckily, he had the mana shield, so he could survive the blast. The skill was truly powerful, but it was like asking your military base to fire a nuke while you were in the middle of a skirmish with an enemy.
Not only would it blow up the enemy, it would blow you up too!
There was also the issue of penning it down. Since he was still stuck at Amateur Rank, there was no way he could write it out and sell it. He would have to become a Grandmaster in Scrivening first, and who knew how far away that was?
Still, he went on to the final Sword Skill in his arsenal. Taking a new blade from the rack, he entered a strange stance and spoke.
Of course, the dojo had long reset itself after the explosion. It would be a joke for it to be made for recording techniques and be crushed by a technique.
"Begin recording, this is a sword technique called Sword Skill 360: Counter Kill."
"Acknowledged. Please display the technique fully." Satine replied monotonously.
This skill was vastly different from the one before. It was his final skill, and something he had only pulled off in the midst of his hellish final battle with Riveting Night, who used every single bit of her skill, Control and bloodline to fight him who only had skill and Control.
It was a skill he had practiced endlessly, but never succeeded.
As one could image, even with Overcharge, Draco had been struggling to beat her as usual. In that moment, his anger and hatred had coalesced into his mind and gave him unprecedented clarity.
He had unlocked a strange state, one where he was able to see every facet of her moves, not only before she performed them, but also the very essence of them.
This had allowed him to automatically move in a way to nullify her attack and use its own force to slay her in the most optimal way, winning the tumultuous fight of the century.
Draco's eyes narrowed as he spoke to Satine. "Create a version of myself that uses Sword Skill 1 to attack."
Satine bobbed up and down. "Acknowledged, generating."
A model of Draco appeared opposite him, with the same armor, skills, bloodline and stance as himself. He smirked at the real Draco in a manner that was quite characteristic for the original fellow.
"Please indicate when you wish for the interactive dummy to attack." Satine prompted.
Draco smiled and watched his clone with a strange light in his eyes. "Attack!"