Draco's clone performed the first Sword Skill Draco possessed, which was Inclined Slash. This was a Sword Skill that was pretty simple, and had a normal motion as well as a normal effect.
However, it was enough for this purpose. Draco had never used Counter Kill in this life so far, because honestly, he was not sure he could.
It was like the strange transformation from one of those evergreen Dragon Ball anime series, where Goku became grayish and could avoid almost all attacks due to some special instinct.
In the beginning, he could not willingly activate that mode, but after he had successfully grasped it the first time, it was - relatively - easier to do so the second time.
The same applied to Draco. Thanks to the way his memories of the previous timeline worked, he could perfectly remember the feeling of using the technique and entering that mode, as well as what that mode felt like.
As such, when he tried to activate it, he felt himself on the cusp of success before it escaped him. His ability to remember it really helped, but it was still difficult.
Draco understood that the state he had entered was something transcendent, and it was unlocked through Control mostly. The foundation of Control was to reduce the biological limiter the brain put on the body, and that state was sort of like removing the limiter completely.
At least, for the mental aspect. To compare, that strange state was like the 'General Aspect' of Control which could only be activated through careful means and could only be used for a moment before it was gone.
Draco's clone landed the hit on Draco, but the damage done was negligible. He then had the clone reset itself and tried again on command.
The special state was activated slightly, but the duration was far shorter than in his previous life, despite his Control and body being of a higher level in this one.
However, the tradeoff was that Draco noticed the special state had been much clearer and more fluid than in his memories. Possibly, it was strengthened because his base Control had since been strengthened as well.
Draco smiled despite his repeated failure. He signaled the clone to try again, and they repeated this process over and over.
Draco went through 20 attempts before he finally managed to get the hang of the timing, so with his 23rd attempt, he was able to pull off the technique.
When the slash came towards him, time appeared to slow down. Draco saw the trajectory, the future path of the slash, its weakness, the amount of force in the blade, and the momentum of it.
His sharpened mind was able to quickly derive a means to capture this force and re-direct it with ease. As such, Draco raised his blade, and countered the skill.
Almost like magic, the blade that rushed at him stopped. Then, Draco used the remainder of the trapped force to send his blade toward his enemy's weakness, a single spot in the lower right of their abdomen.
Even though the clone Draco had been created with the same Dragorugio armor, Draco's sword pierced through it like it was butter.
Despite clone him having his stats, bloodline and abundant life force, he was instantly killed by this simple pierce into his abdomen that Draco could even laugh at normally.
Counter Kill was an ability Draco had used but could not understand. It felt less like something he innovated, rather more like an 'ultimate skill' that was part and parcel of Control.
In essence, he theorized that every Control master would be able to access this state should they receive enough of an impetus, or have enough talent like Draco. This made Draco ponder.
Humans had been the number 1 in Gerdo Galaxy before their fall, and so many species had teamed up to take them down. Even with that, so many of the assailants were slaughtered that they couldn't even finish the battered human race off.
The human race had technology on their side back then, but technology wasn't enough to kill so many species. One should know that species similar to Dragons, Devils, Angels and whatnot definitely existed out there.
Otherwise, how could such elements be present in their bloodlines? Did such powers come from the sky?
So, it might be that Control was something unique to humans. It might even be a default/racial ability humans possessed. If so, then human elites should have the Counter Kill ability.
Thinking about it like that, Draco's doubts faded significantly. As someone who could use the technique, he understood its terror. It was an insta-kill technique that had a high requirement for activation, and getting the timing right was another serious issue.
After all, even he, a superior human to those from the Gerdo Galaxy, could only stay in the state for a few split-seconds. If the humans from Gerdo Galaxy could use it at will, they would not have lost a single man, but slaughtered all their enemies.
In fact, a single warrior who could use this technique at will could kill trillions without taking a hit, but other issues came up that made it a secret technique that was more of an unreliable trump card.
Draco was sure that with years of training, a person could become skilled enough to deploy it a few times in a short amount of time. That was probably why those other races got royally wrecked.
But it wasn't perfect. The incoming attack needed to be of the same form as your current weapon. In other words, Counter Kill worked on swords if one was using a sword, and on spears if one was using a spear.
One could not deploy the killing aspect with different weapons, but they could certainly neutralize parts of the attack, depending on the type of attack.
Draco certainly doubted if an energy beam could be easily countered like a sword skill, but that was yet to be seen. After executing the attack, he quietly waited for the AI's assessment of it.
"Recording complete, removing unnecessary information… compiling… assessing…"
"Complete. The sword technique 'Sword Skill 360: Counter Kill' has been assessed to be a valid technique. Generating Rank… complete."
"'Sword Skill 360: Counter Kill' is graded as a Legendary technique. Would you like to record another?"
Draco shook his head. "That will be all for now. Thank you for having me, Satine."
"Not a problem, Scrivener. However, make sure to visit the Vault of Techniques often to record new techniques." Satine subtly threatened in a very robotic manner.
"Yes, yes." Draco made some half-hearted concessions. He left the vault and returned to his workroom, where he began to convert them into skills.
This part cost Aether Crystals, but the fellow had so many of them that he felt happy. Of course, he had thrown the ones from the Player Auction into the Anomaly Realm, only keeping the ones that he made himself.
Still, with more than 2,000 of them, of which 40% were top-grade, he truly had the capital to be arrogant. For the Common techniques which were Sword Skill 1-90, he could use a single top-grade crystal to pay for them all and still have money leftover.
For the Uncommon ones, which was Sword Skill 91-250, he had to cough up 5 top-grade crystals, which made him frown but he still paid it up.
For the Rare ones, which was Sword Skill 251-319, he had to pay 25 top-grade crystals! This time, Draco felt the pain of it, despite having so much of them.
Top-grade crystals were a priceless resource in this era, even if the old era valued it far less. To drop so many of them into this at once was still heart-rending.
For the Semi-Epic Sword Skills, which were 320-350, he had to pay 70 top-grade crystals. Now, Draco could no longer remain calm, as the price was increasing to strongly.
He understood that the different tiers had starkly different prices, but it should not be so exaggerated! However, Draco's complaints were stifled in his throat.
After all, the standard used was the old era. Back then, a top-grade crystal was expensive, but not impossible to acquire. A successful Scrivener would probably be worth billions of platinum, so it would be a drop in the bucket for them.
Screw the old era, who asked them to be so successful and advanced? Why could they not be backwards and broke like the current era?!
Draco was almost reluctant to check the price for the 8 Epic techniques, but he still went ahead. He instantly regretted doing so, as blood seeped from his eyes, and lips.
Each one was 10 top-grade Aether Crystals, coming to a grand total of 80! One should note that these were only 8 skills, compared to the amount he spent on the hundreds that came before, this price was steep!
However, he paid up with a blank look, as if he had sold his soul to the Devil. The truly ironic part was that he was the true incarnation of the Devil!
Draco gazed at the last two. Both Overcharge and Counter Kill sat there quietly, waiting for the 'Chosen One' to pay the price to turn them into skills if they had the balls.
Draco steeled his heart and checked the price for the two Legendary techniques. When he saw their cost, he didn't have any exaggerated reaction, but he coughed a little.
It was truly a harmless and cute little cough, yet one could see a bit of his organs mixed into the exhale.
It was 100 top-grade crystals for each technique! Draco paid for it, and saw that his stash of top-grade crystals was reduced to roughly 50% of the original amount.
Draco wanted to cry but could shed no tears. He could only dumbly acknowledge the conversion time for the techniques. It would take approximately 3 months for all of them to be converted, so he could only see their stats then.
Draco took a deep breath and seated himself at the table. He took out all the remainder of his Common papyrus and cut them into sheets. He then turned them into special pages needed for Scrivening using Aether Crystal shavings.
After doing so he didn't align them, but only kept some pages out while he stacked the rest into his inventory. Preparing the multitude of sheets from the many rolls had given him almost 10,000 pages.
This would be enough to tide him over for a very long while. He then took some pages out and bound them using the web of a ferrous spinner to make a book.
After putting his trademark design on the spine and cover of the book, he then prepared his Special Ink. It was the same as making normal ink, only that he had to infuse it with Aether Crystal shavings to give it the necessary properties.
He didn't have to use his Special Inkstone for Common skill/spellbooks, which was a blessing. It would only be necessary when he began working on Epic and above skills/spells.
After making his preparations, Draco worked on penning all his Common skills down.
Since most of them required time to be converted, Draco frowned. He then decided to see if there was a way to expedite the process.
After fumbling around with the menus a bit, he saw that there was indeed a way. He had to fork over both Platinum and Aether Crystals!
What the f.u.c.k!
Why was everything with these Tradeskills about Aether Crystals and money? Couldn't they just give something out every now and then?
All they did was take, take, take! Draco was at his wits end!
However, he only chose to expediate the process for the 90 Common techniques into skills. It cost him 50 high-grade crystals for the speed up, which made him pull his hair.
It was almost 90 times more expensive that paying for it to be converted!