SSS SKILL: DUPLICATE

Edgar opened his eyes. His body is floating in the air. Threads of golden light keep moving in and out of his body. He can feel his physique changing. His hair is also turning white, and his body is developing the best aptitude for magic and aura.

The thoughts that run through Edgar's mind are not the power that he is getting right now but the figures of his family, especially his great-grandson and great-granddaughters in the virtual world. The five-year-old Ian, wearing glassless eyeglasses and pretending to be smart. The three-year-old Emilia, holding a doll of her favorite singer. The shy seven-year-old Dorothy and the genius eight-year-old girl Thea.His life's end in the trial means the end of the virtual world, the end of all life in the virtual world.

Tears form in Edgar's eyes.

"Ian, Emilia, Dorothy, Thea, everyone, I'm so sorry. No one else will know of your existence. No one else will say that you all existed, but you will all live within me. You will keep existing within me," said Edgar. He raised both his arms and looks at the threads of golden lights. A thought is brewing in his mind as he looks at the thread of golden lights. He grips his fists hard.

"I swear I will find the power to give you all life. If gods won't do it, I will become a god and do it myself!" swore Edgar. He wiped his tears and looks at his sea of consciousness. Golden threads are rotating at the center of his sea of consciousness, slowly forming a core. His magic core is no longer blue but golden. All the rune skills he formed in the virtual world are gone, but there is one thing that is still there.

"Swordheart?!!" Edgar is shocked that the white sword is still floating in his sea of consciousness. Rune skills, magic, and aura cultivation will be gone once the virtual world ends. Only the knowledge learned will be kept.

"Why does it still exist? Is it because its a concept? That should be it because I am confident that I can apply my sword concept on my attack as long as I have enough aura. But, I will only be capable of taking out the swordheart from my sea of consciouness when I reach third level of aura and fifth circle.

This is much better though, if I were to form the swordheart again on Earth, it will cause a commotion then the strongest existences will definitely notice me. I can't be on their radar yet. With the swordheart, I should be able to confront Death God even if I don't reach my previous peak of aura and magic in the virtual world. Eliminating the scourge Poison Lord should be faster" Thought Edgar as he looks at the Swordheart.

TNNNG! The golden core has formed, and then a golden skill rune starts forming automatically. The runes are very complicated. Even with a hundred years of study of magic runes, Edgar can only understand a few runes.

The golden rune skill was formed. Edgar was not able to observe it well. He felt his body floating down. He pulled his attention from his sea of consciousness and then observes his surroundings.

The white space that surrounds him is turning into shimmering white lights, and the huge gate of inheritance in the hall is also turning into shimmering white lights. Edgar is surrounded by white light and is floating down.

Flop! Edgar landed on the ground in the hall. The huge gate keeps turning into white lights until it disappeared. His hair turned white and became so long that it almost reached his shoulder. His skin was a bit dark, but it became smooth and fair.

He turned his attention back to the golden rune skill in his sea of consciousness. Rune skills are colored blue when magicians formed them in their sea of consciousness. God-rank skills inherited by hyperbeings are golden. Edgar put mana in the golden rune skill, and a message appeared in his mind.

"Duplicate Skill? Can you duplicate any magic skill of any being? Does it mean it includes beings like other races, magic beasts, and even gods? That Gate of Inheritance is really unusual. I stayed in the virtual world for one hundred years while the others only stayed for up to fifteen years. I don't even know how I passed it. This skill is heaven-defying. Even the skills of gods can be duplicated." Edgar feels excited as he thinks of this. He continues analyzing the skill in his mind.

"The duration of duplicating skill depends on the gap of strength. The distance should also be close. The stronger the being, the longer the time I need to duplicate the skill. To duplicate the skill, I need to close the distance. With my current strength, duplicating the skill of strong beings in close distance is sending myself to death. A heaven-defying skill really has a risk. But that won't be a problem once I reach my previous stage of aura and magic in the virtual world." Edgar smiles as he thinks this, then a frown appears on his face as he realizes a problem.

"Duplicating a skill is useless if I don't have the right aptitude. I have studied powerful magic skills in all elements to bring home to Earth, but I can't cast many of those powerful skills because my body does not have the aptitude for those elements, like water." The frown on Edgar's face became deeper.

"A SSS skill shouldn't be that useless," thought Edgar. SSS Skill refers to a god-rank skill. When Edgar and his magic researchers were researching magic, they found out that ranking magic skills based on the stage of magicians is not accurate. There are magic skills that can be cast at the 7th circle but have the power of the 8th circle or demigod. Rank SS skills are skills at the level of the 8th circle or demigod. Rank S skills are at the level of the 7th circle.

A shocking thought suddenly crosses the mind of Edgar as he continues to analyze the skill.

"What if it can also duplicate the aptitude of the being? If I duplicate the aptitude of beings in all elements, then all those powerful magic skills that I learn—"

Edgar's heart suddenly starts to beat quickly. He subconsciously grins from ear to ear.

"Calm down, Edgar! Calm down! You are already 120 years old!" said Edgar to himself. But he can't stop himself from grinning. He tried to bear it, but he really can't stop himself.

"Hahahahaha!" Edgar can't stop laughing for a while.

He puts his hand on his heart.

"Everyone, there is a way," murmured Edgar.

After calming down, Edgar observes his body closer. He can feel the change in his physique. Aura and mana are being absorbed in his body even if he doesn't actively absorb them. That's how high his body's current aptitude is.

Edgar took a deep breath and took a palm stance.

MYSTIC DRAGON ART

He moves his body in a rhythmic pattern, and then he breathes with rhythm.

Big threads of aura form in the air and rotate around Edgar.

After moving for a while, a red aura suddenly clad Edgar's body. He stopped moving, took a deep breath, and exhaled.

Edgar looks at his body, clad in aura.

"This is truly incredible. A godly aptitude is really different."

Edgar applied his concept to the aura. The aura turned white. Edgar feels pressure on his mind, and it's difficult to control the aura. His aura is also being consumed rapidly. He dispersed his concept in the aura, then it turned back to red.

"I did not have a problem controlling the concept before because my mind had been strengthened by magic cultivation. The more I cannot control it, the more aura I need to consume to use it."

He raised both his hands. He tried to manipulate the aura to clad both his hands, but it did not work. He used his will of concept to manipulate the aura. The aura moves, but it is difficult to move on both hands. He moves the aura on the right hand. It works, more aura clads the right hand.

"I can control the red aura to an extent with the help of my will. That should be enough to clad the sword with red aura. I can even mix my concept with that aura for a very short period of time. It will take time before I could freely control the aura in my body like level two," thought Edgar.

As aura masters cultivate, they gain more control over their bodies and auras. Once they reach a certain stage in their control of their body, they can freely control their aura to increase or decrease in their body or weapon. Peak third levels reach very deep control of the body, so they could accurately control the amount of aura they release to make it compact and prevent a leak.

Edgar sat cross-legged, then started his magic cultivation.

MYSTIC ART OF MAGIC

Threads of mana rotate around Edgar and absorb into his body. Blue threads of mana flow to his golden core in his sea of consciousness.

After a while, his magic core became saturated. He successfully formed a magic circle around his core. He repeatedly did it until he reached the third circle, the current limit of his magic core, body, and mind. The core, body, and mind take time to adjust.

"I was always wondering in the virtual world how those hyperbeings that inherited god's power can be so fast in their magic cultivation. They reached the 8th circle in ten years, while Aira, who had the best aptitude in magic in the Baynard Empire, took forty years. It took me eighty years to reach that stage. A change to godly aptitude for magic and aura makes cultivation a lot faster and easier. it's like heaven and earth compared to the speed of my cultivation in the virtual world." thought Edgar.

When a hyperbeing successfully passes the trial, his or her current cultivation on Earth will not disappear. The lower the stage in aura and magic, the more they can immediately reach after the divine core is formed.

Edgar looks at his fair skin. He touches his face. He feels the smooth skin on his face. A magic circle formed in front of him. A water mirror came out of the magic circle, and Edgar looks at himself in the mirror. A handsome young man with white hair appears in the mirror.

"A golden core has this bonus effect?! I can even become a model with this face!" blurted Edgar with an astonished expression. He dispersed the water mirror, then closed his eyes.

"My body has the best aptitude for earth. Second is lightning," murmured Edgar as he tries to manipulate the elements in the air.

He forms magic runes in his sea of consciousness, and then he is shocked. He could easily and quickly form runes of lightning.

"How could it be so easy and fast?! I could easily form the magic circle on my magic core because I am very familiar with it, but I am not familiar with forming runes for lightning. I just memorized the runes!" thought Edgar. When he was in the virtual world, he was puzzled at how governments, top families and guilds could cultivate magicians quickly on Earth because it takes a long time for magicians to study and form magic runes.

Edgar felt like he was creating software, and a computer was assisting him when he was forming a rune skill.

He closely observes the rapidly forming lightning runes.

"There is a hidden big mystery on Earth."