Mixed Blessing System

Two days later...

After leaving Natali, Lothur made his way north, heading towards the border between Rablus and Norid.

He now had plans to enter one of the outposts of the Seraphim Church and get information about that soul fragment, as well as seek more information from outposts of the Cultivation House further north.

No longer interested in passing through cities until he reached the vicinity of the Ancestral Region, Lothur followed the path of the forests of that state.

On this journey, after meeting Natali, he returned to train in some of his professions, including that of poison master.

As he could not casually activate his bloodline ability and improve his affinities and resistances by stealing it from others, Lothur had not been able to improve his related characteristics since leaving the Imperial Prison.

Thus, he had bought several items to train on this trip, things to poison master and formations master, which could be used to train his resistances.

With that, he had been doing 8 hours of travel, 4 hours of training, and 4 hours of rest, then repeating the cycle.

Because of this, he had already improved his resistances a little in these last two days of travel!

...

[Gold-grade poison resistance.]

[Progress: 69% -> 81%]

...

[Gold-grade flame resistance.]

[Progress: 41% -> 50%]

...

[Gold-grade frost resistance.]

[Progress: 31% -> 45%]

...

[Gold-grade wood resistance.]

[Progress: 14% -> 25%]

...

[Gold-grade darkness resistance]

[Progress: 5% -> 11%]

Finishing another training session, Lothur looked at his most advanced resistances before looking at his status.

[Name: Lothur Ritter]

[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]

[Bloodline: Life Devourer]

[Soul Cultivation: level 20]

[Body Cultivation: level 19]

[STR: 860] [CON: 1,707] [DEX: 840] [AGI: 960]

[INT: 374.2] [PER: 880] [WIL: 670] [SOU: 1,881.8]

[EVF: 2]

'Not bad... I think I can reach Platinum -grade in two or three of my resistances before my advancement to the 5th stage.' He smiled, knowing that this would be a great advantage for him.

Having resistance to anything of Platinum grade was the same as being resistant to Sage attacks!

Obviously, this wouldn't give one invulnerability to all Sage possibilities, but it would give Lothur important protections that could save his life when facing someone of that stage.

This could be the difference between dying and resisting and having the chance to regenerate and activate his Physique ability eventually.

Knowing this, Lothur did not underestimate the importance of developing his resistances and affinities, training his professions to the limit.

But as he contemplated his status, suddenly, Lothur heard a battle noise approaching his position.

He put aside his system and looked in the direction of these sounds, quickly peering through the trees to get a closer look at the confrontation unfolding in his vicinity.

Four Divine Soul Transcendents fought intensely over there, bringing the battle to where Lothur stood.

Seeing this, Lothur again noticed the inscriptions that appeared during the activation of techniques.

The same did not happen for Physique, bloodline, or Soul Bone skills, but it happened for any kind of technique.

Noticing these inscriptions similar to the rules he wrote on his formations for them to work, Lothur narrowed his eyes and decided to do a little test.

'Since you came to me, then don't blame me for this...' His eyes glowed, and he began to move his hands through space, manipulating something.

Immediately attempting to manipulate the inscriptions of one of the techniques in use by one of those fighting men, Lothur decided to simply erase them.

He didn't know if he could only see them or if he had any chance of altering them. So was there a better test than erasing them?

As he made his moves, he managed to erase some of the inscriptions but soon felt like something was stopping him from continuing.

'So I can't erase everything?' He asked himself as he saw that man under his manipulation form a strange expression on his face as he saw the structures of his technique disappearing just when he thought he would hit his opponent's chest.

At that instant, the enemy realized the problem of the person trying to kill him and immediately attacked in the direction of that person's head.

"Die!"

"Shit!"

Swooish!

A blade cut through the air, and soon after, a head split in half, revealing that person's brain to the world.

Lothur saw that and decided to try something else on another one of those people. 'I can't erase everything, but erasing a few key codes already gives me the power to disrupt one of those people's techniques...

What would happen if I inscribed something into their technique?'

Looking at the two men who suddenly got the numerical advantage in the confrontation, Lothur immediately chose one of the two when he saw one trying to end the confrontation.

He erased something in that man's technique and inscribed something new, smiling.

The next moment, that man's great spiritual sword, heading towards his opponent's back, trembled momentarily before red flames surged from its body.

"Aaaaagh!"

That man holding it screamed in pain as he felt his hands being burned by flames powerful enough to injure him.

Since he had no resistance to flames, this man immediately faced a very tricky problem!

One could withstand enemy attacks, even when those attacks were focused on his weaknesses. But against an effect of his own technique, one would have all his defenses open to it!

Seeing the man about to deal him a mortal blow, that remaining individual against these two frowned and did not miss the opportunity.

He immediately used his axe and split his opponent's burning body in half!

"Die!"

One more body fell to the ground of that forest while Lothur watched the remaining two.

'Hmm, I can change the rules of those techniques, but not only that.' He stood up as he thought of something, and a second later, a sword appeared in his hands, exactly like the one of the man who had just died.

'By trying to manipulate them, I can also learn them without any effort!'

At the thought of that, Lothur used a part of his soul power and made several swords like that appear above where those two remnants were, in a single instant raising his understanding of them to Master level.

Then, the two could only tremble in fear as they saw swords like the one of that man killed a moment ago fall on their bodies.

Screams arose from their position, lasting only a few moments before the two died under Lothur's technique!