Kahn sat up and looked at the corpses of the two people he once had good ties with but later turned against him and tried to take his life.
While both of them had their own reasons that he couldn't have foreseen in any possible ways; the fact was clear to him that just because he felt a sense of familiarity with them, he had indeed let his guard down and came up unprepared or without even thinking of the possibility of these people turning on him.
By the end, it was very clear to him that it was indeed his own negligence that could've resulted in losing his life. Just because someone had a good relationship with him, didn't mean that were harmless or wouldn't look for their interests even if it meant taking his life.
He ordered Ronin to bring both the bodies close to him. The blood was still dripping from the corpses of the duo, especially Arkham who was cleaved in half by Kahn.
First, he started with Arkham and put his hands on both sides of the cut-down body. His sword was lying beside the old man.
"Absorb." commanded and began the ability absorption procedure.
After 35 minutes, he was finally done.
[System, show me the new abilities.] he commanded.
[The host has acquired the following abilities & skills :
Sword Savant (S Rank) (PASSIVE) :
Allows the host to fuse Mana and Aura together to create swords infused with elemental attacks. Up to 8 swords can be created at the same time.
The attack damage, range and effectiveness of the sword attacks increased by 35%.
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Aura Assimilation (A Rank) (PASSIVE) :
Allow the host to infuse mana in long-range attacks with accurate precision and balance.
Note : Time required time for infusing mana & aura reduced by 40%
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Magic Swordman's Will (S Rank) (ACTIVE) :
Allows the host to cover and encapsulate any object with mana & aura as long as the host is holding any long and straight object.] replied the system.
"Noice."
He spoke and commanded the system to show him the merged abilities & skills.
[Following are the merged skills and abilities :
Sword King (SS Rank) (PASSIVE) :
A combination of Sword Lord and Sword Savant.
Allows the host to create a total of 50 swords made from aura, mana & elemental attributes.
The host can create different elemental attribute swords at the same time. All swords can move & change directions as per the host's will.
Time required to infuse different elements, mana and aura reduced by 50%
Attack damage and combat techniques mastery for all sword attacks raised by 100%.
The effective range of all sword attacks is raised by 50%.
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Sword Battlemaster (SS Rank) (ACTIVE) :
Allows the host to control any sword in 1 Kilometre area via the host's invisible aura and mana threads.
The activation time is only 30 minutes. The time will increase with the increase in the host's combat technique mastery.
Congratulations to the host for breaking through Peak Grandmaster Rank for Sword Weapon Mastery.] declared the system.
"This is the way!"
Exclaimed Kahn in joy because Arkham's abilities made a major breakthrough for him and now he had his first SS Rank skills after Sword Lord skill he got from the clan head of Volstov Clan was merged with Arkham's Sword Savant skill.
The end result was even higher and many times upgraded version because not only his proficiency increased, his attack damage, range and the number of swords he could create increased by 3 to 4 times.
On top of it, he could give a separate element to each of these swords as he wished and he could now control any sword in a kilometer from him.
Along with the reduction in mana, aura and different elements, he could even use Dark Lighting Strike attack in half time than before. This would greatly benefit Kahn in the long run.
This indeed made him a total monster because if he faced 100 enemies in a fight and they had swords as their weapon.. He could simply use their swords to kill their owners. Just too terrifying of an ability similar to Magneto from X-men.
Although Arkham hadn't reached the Semi-Saint Rank, the skills he absorbed from the magic swordsman weren't any less useful compared to what he previously got from the clan head.
Ronin then plucked out Arkham's glowing golden core from his heart and handed it over to Kahn.
He cleaned it with a cleansing spell and ate the core in a single gulp.
After meditating for 5 minutes and spending a minute to subdue Arkham's remaining will in the core, Kahn rose by 5 levels and now reached Level 90. Because he was already stronger than Arkham under normal circumstances in terms of stats, and how each level up required more resources and cores; just Arkham's core alone giving a 5 levels boost was a good and acceptable outcome.
"Phew. Thank you, old bastard. I forgive you for trying to kill me.. Even though I killed your one and only son first." thanked Kahn shamelessly.
He glanced at the Semi-Saint rank mage, Solomon. This elf had actually pushed him too far and if not for his immense boost in strength because of the Asura Mode and Berserk God Mode, he wouldn't have been able to kill the mage this at all.
Even there, he had to let the enemy think that he killed Kahn, messed his sense of direction and made the elf drop his guard just for a second. And all of those different skills in the very last minute before he managed to kill this Elven mage who also knew about the Emperor's core.
Thankfully, no one else knew about the core or half of Rakos Empire would be after him if the news leaked out.
Kahn could never let anyone know about this empire toppling secret. Although he currently didn't know how to best use this in his favor.. It was something worth killing for.
And now by right, Kahn was actually the next Emperor of Rakos Empire but the decree no longer held any meaning to it. And Kahn wasn't stupid to think that anyone would even care about it.
Plus the Saint Rank people in the empire would wage a war on him if they heard about the truth and the core. Naturally, they would want the core for themselves and raise to the next stages of the Saint Rank. Unlike him, they'd have the means to utilize the Peak Saint Rank Emperor's core.
So for now, everything must be kept secret. He couldn't even afford to think about the Rise of the Emperor plotline as his circumstances and priorities didn't allow him to shift the story in that direction.
Back to the present moment, Kahn decided to target the Elf and his core that was lying inside his squashed heart. A greedy smirk appeared on his face.
"I wonder how many rewards I'll rake in next."