Bro, I'm not an Undead!

In the spirit of celebrating his progress, Skullius continued with his absorption spree. Coming out of the City which was constantly under surveillance made him feel free to explore his Insurgent Magnus self again.

He had sworn to never use darkness and light without cover in the City streets and even in the Premium Age Royale as he had a few hunches about their distinct nature drawing unwanted attention but now, he could go wild. There was one thing he could use related to that but that depended on the situation.

The snow covered lands made his journey as the sun hung low quite enjoyable, but the thought of the missing Red Rage was enough to ruin it.

There were no traces so far of that Apostle since he left the city and worry piled onto Skullius' mind.

Where could that bastard be?

The Hybrid Luman let go of the subject quickly though as stressing over it wasn't going to help.

Instead, as he crossed woodlands, he absorbed the shadows of trees like a maniac, also including a few shrubs and animals while he was at it.

Unfortunately for him, animals appeared with a greyish colour in Crude Vision's sight. Since they acted on instinct, they were deemed neutral, neither evil nor good. Plants were the same. Therefore, he couldn't absorb any darkness from them like with humans.

After an hour, Skullius was practically begging for the infamous bandits that had harassed him to show themselves so that he could abuse [Basic Evil Sanction] which had levelled up to Level 2, shockingly.

Perhaps more complex usages would allow it level up faster but even those didn't make the skill budge previously.

Sadly, Skullius' journey continued without interference and when he reached 900 pieces of darkness acquired, he didn't continue.

The first reason was because after the 500th piece of darkness, Skullius had started to feel a bit of additional weight piling on him, as if with each shadow he absorbed, he took on some portion of its weight.

Weird. What was that about?

After 900 pieces of darkness, he felt like he had added a average human's worth of weight to his own, which was bizarre. He had to stop and analyse this.

The second reason was that...

"This might be useful..." the Hybrid Luman thought while gazing at a lake before him.

Chunks of white ice floated over the chilly waters that hid their depth with a vibrant blue hue, wisps of frost daring any external living thing to enter.

Skullius figured that he might as well work on the sub Task while on his way.

He hadn't paid much attention to [Just Light] as he did [Evil Darkness] after all. The only issue was that unlike [Basic Evil Sanction] that allowed him to complete his Task discreetly, what he needed to do was anything but concealable.

Therefore...

Skullius dared back the freezing waters and leapt into them after making sure there was no one in the surroundings. Even for natives of the region, the cold here wasn't one that called for jackets, fishing poles and jolly drinks.

With bubbles rising after his descent, Skullius increased his weight with his natural mana property, the mass he gained quickly landing him at the bottom of the lake.

Several species of fish grew in here but they all rushed away, giving the Hybrid Luman his private space.

'Alright. Let's see this again,' Skullius thought. He pulled up his Task with his guidance field.

~~~

EXP : 500/500

Twelfth Task : Absorb 1,000 pieces of darkness (912/1000)

Sub Task: Create your own Precept of Light.

~~~

A Precept of light.

The way Skullius understood it, [Just Light] was like an absolute control mechanism. At least that was what the plaques he had found in Fulgardt's chest said.

The element's whole thing was to control stuff.

By that logic...

'A Precept must be... something that I can identify with. Maybe a basic structure that I use to control the light better. Or something that makes it easier to use [Just Light] to control others things?' Skullius thought as he settled in the water, sitting on a smooth rock.

That seemed right.

Maybe when he could make this Precept, the Task of using [Just Light] would be smoother. Perhaps that was the fundamental difference between light and darkness.

'Let's see how far I am with moulding the light. I have [Basic Light Weaving] now so it should make it easier.'

The Luminant Seed had not only rewarded Skullius with an upgrade in his affinity with [Just Light] but also unlocked the skill [Basic Light Weaving] which he didn't have before. It was one of the reasons why Skullius hated practicing light to begin with. Without that skill, it was hopeless.

The Hybrid Luman activated [Basic Light Weaving] and [Basic Light Production], the quality of the mana from his blue core guaranteeing that these two normal skills would work on overdrive for him.

Surely, streams of golden white light were expelled from his body, their contrast with the dim atmosphere in the water creating a magnificent picture.

Surprisingly, though, not much light appeared compared to what Skullius hoped.

He expected a whole damn sun's worth of light but he was disappointed to find that the amount of the element he could produce was greatly strained.

[Just Light] created a small halo that expanded a meter and a half around him. That was it.

'Could it be that [Just Light], since it's meant to control stuff doesn't need large quantities unlike with [Evil Darkness]? Well, darkness seems to work better when I overwhelm my opponents with it? So light could be the opposite,' Skullius thought.

It made sense as far as hypotheses went but the Insurgent Magnus hoped it wasn't because there was another restriction he wasn't aware of.

With all the light he could produce now present...

'I think I should make a unique shape. Something I feel comfortable with for this thing.'

It was only natural to think so, right?

Unfortunately for the Hybrid Luman, he found that he couldn't really think of anything in particular that he would be fond of except... bones.

1000 years of seeing bones, bones and more bones couldn't be erased with a few weeks in the human world.

It was a sad realisation really.

When Skullius thought about skeletons, a myriad of ideas on what kind of material Precept to create flooded in!

In fact, since he had the skill [Beyond the Hype] that passively forced him to process everything at twice what would be his norm, an incredibly marvellous blueprint was already forged in his mind, making him giddy.

The Hybrid Luman lamented.

This was his reality.

He just had to live with it.

He wasn't human.

'Let's begin. Oh wait. I also have that thing too. Might as well see what it really does since its related to this.'

Indeed.

There was another boon from the Luminant Seed that Skullius had yet to explore too.

It wasn't a skill per se, but a feature of his existence as a Hybrid Luman.

With a thought, an expansive wing bloomed from Skullius' back, its bright, golden white hue overpowering the depressing lighting at the bottom of this lake!

Detached from his flesh and clothing, with its build beginning inches away from him, the [Wing of the Just], which had been the [Wing of Embrace] before it was possessed by [Just Light], appeared grandly.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.421).

Its appearance gave the impression that a divine being had grabbed strokes of light, stretched them taut and gave them pristine garnish. It was gorgeous.

As it appeared, sparking glitters popped into existence on and around Skullius, making his handsome figure all the more so.

With a breath, the mana around him became subservient, even more so than when he used [Greater Mana Crafter].

A lull ensued.

The light around him which had yet to be fashioned into a Precept grew brighter, responding to his every action, even the blink of an eye.

Manipulating [Just Light], which had been a chore became as easy as taking a breath now!

'I see. This Wing...' Skullius, with a languid gaze that expressed the excessive and shockingly immersive feeling he got from this racial feature, turned to the Wing at the centre of his back, unfurled and unhindered. '...it is like [Crude World Projection]. It makes manipulating an element much easier. The light is so... light now.'

Skullius raised his hand, which caused the water to moan.

Strings of [Just Light] followed its move.

He tilted his head slowly.

Strings of [Just Light] followed its move.

This was bliss.

So that's how it was...

On top of this omnipotent feeling, Skullius felt like everything about him was bolstered massively.

His mana, his strength, agility, endurance and all was amplified fivefold. He nearly drowned in the feeling of power.

However, this feeling quickly began to turn dull.

A pang of weakness screamed from the distance.

This state wasn't meant to last long.

Skullius snapped out of his god-like reverie.

'If it works like how [Crude World Projection] used to then I guess it should sap all my strength away with longer durations of usage. I thought I was strong enough to handle it but, it's clearly on another level,' Skullius thought as he refocused.

While in this state of super powered affinity to mana and [Just Light], he would create the best Precept of light he could, provided he interpreted what a Precept was correctly that is.

The Hybrid Luman locked his hands together, his white eyes producing a dull light.

His creativity ran wild in the limited time he had and surely...

---

[Author's Note]

Hey guys. I will be releasing a new book soon. I hope you can support it as much as you support this one. It will be different, less comedic, more mysterious with a lot of emphasis on character and world building as well as SOME romance. I hope you'll give it a shot when it releases. Cheers!