Mind Demon's Path of Domination

"So, lass, what Savage Magic are you going to choose?" War Slayer asked.

Yuri knew what she wanted. "Mark says he wants me to have Glass Dome so that I will have that for one."

Mark nodded. He wanted her to have Glass Dome due to one particular reason. Yuri’s Hunter Ability, Shadow Curse, could move through solid objects to attack an enemy by biting their shadow.

The biggest weakness of the defensive ability, Glass Dome, was that its users couldn’t use an attack ability while using the dome for defense. But Yuri’s shadow could just hurt the shadow that moves in or out of the Glass Dome.

She might even be capable of completely bypassing the double-edged defense due to the nature of her ability.

"What other abilities should I inherit?" she asked, doubtful.

Mark said, "I’d say, take Aura Teleportation and Glass Dome. Then, you can move around in a battlefield while having good defense with Glass Dome, and good offense with Shadow Curse."

The Armor remained silent.

"I..." Yuri hesitated. "What about Eye of Heaven?"

Mark rubbed his jaws, aware of her thoughts. Unlike him, she was not a fighter—she was a scientist. To him, the priority was utmost battle prowess and utmost efficiency in crises, but to her, that priority was different, she wanted more scientific tools under her belt.

"I’ve always been envious of the Soul Sense that demons had," Yuri said. "Can the Eye of Heaven be used as a replacement?"

The Armor shook its head. "Barely worthy of comparison. The eye of Heaven is useless without Soul Sense.

"I myself do have a weird system of Soul Sense that works in tandem with my Eye of Heaven, so it can see through many things. But without Soul Sense, you shouldn’t go with Eye of Heaven."

Yuri rubbed her nose.

The Armor added calmly, "And your man is going to face his true tribulation soon—if he had told you about it—and you should be strong in battle to help him out."

The Suffering of Man, Yuri thought, it knows.

She said, "I know I might be helpful if I am strong in a battle. But I think I can be more helpful to Mark if I can unleash my full scientific potential. For battles, there’s Dona already and I don’t think I can catch up with Mark himself in this regard.

"What he doesn’t have is a scientific mind, I can be that for him!"

The Armor nodded. "The Eye of Heaven is just more pairs of eyes that can float in the sky. It will not really help you."

Ignoring Yuri, the Armor turned to stare at Mark. "With my senses, I can see that your luck, which has been astronomically high, is growing worse and worse. It is already at the level of a normal Tier 2 demon now. It will soon enter the levels of being unlucky."

Mark’s heart skipped a beat. He said with a wry smile, "My luck is supposed to grow worse, but I never knew it could be measured so clearly. The Suffering of Man seems closer than it is."

"Your astronomical luck is turning into misfortune," the Armor said. "But that also means your enemy currently has incredible levels of luck on his side, he is certainly becoming more fortunate. More luck than even your astronomical count, I think."

Yuri, Dona, and Reol’ran listened silently.

Mark raised his palm and stared at it. "Lucky or not doesn’t matter. In the end, I just have to be absolutely stronger than the enemy and since I know he would be Tier 2 just like me—I will not doubt myself and just try my hardest."

Yuri focused back on her selection and with a determined expression, she said, "I will take Aura Teleportation and Glass Dome. Then, I will try to use those as best as I can for my own purposes, too."

She and Mark exchanged a glance. All other options were just average but this at least had huge potential. Decisively, Yuri stepped forward and faced one of the seven symbols on the wall that represented the Glass Dome.

The points of congealed light, looking like little fireflies, converged around her and entered her body, then, fused into her heart.

Mark brought out his own Mask of the Savage, using his peak performance Soul Sense to see the process. The firefly-like lights had a strangely similar vibe to the weird energy by which the Seal of Destiny was created.

Now, all of that energy transformed and a new ability was created, entering her list of abilities.

"That’s Cosmic Energy," the Armor said. "Only the World Wills have the power to use Cosmic Energy in the universe. Cosmic Energy allows for the creation of things like the Seal of Destiny, unique magical abilities, and such."

Mark was filled with awe, but at the same time, he began to understand how improbable the chance of him being capable of creating Seals of Destinies using Alchemic Shapeshifting was.

"So the Savage World Will used Cosmic Energy to create inferior versions of your abilities en mass," Mark said to the Armor.

"Well, it doesn’t work well for Silver Savages. They have to train to use even the inferior versions. That’s because they are incomplete abilities at Tier 1. They are able to use it only because they have my fuel—Heart Blood—in them."

"What about Golden Savages?"

"For them, even though the ability is still inferior to my own, it is still a whole ability. So, once it becomes theirs, it functions the same as a demonic trick does. She would have gotten Glass Dome inside her mental scape now, but for Silver Savages, their abilities reside in the blood itself."

The systems by which it all functioned was a curiosity, but Yuri didn’t linger on it and focused on her next choice. So, she moved in front of the Aura Teleportation wall and stared at it with hard eyes.

She was not afraid of losing out on a chance to gain something similar to Soul Sense. But she was afraid of choosing something wrong and being useless to Mark when he might need her. What if she chose the battle option and ended up being useless to him?

Was it the better option?

Mark held her hand.

"Don’t be too stressed," he said. "Battle or not, you won’t be useless. You are learning Reol’ran’s knowledge, you have experience, and you have great potential according to her. I won’t deny that I have high expectations for you, but be calm when you choose something so vital."

He was not ashamed to say that he expected Yuri to be strong enough to be of great help. He actually wanted, and expected, her not to be useless. She was not supposed to be a burden on him, and even though he loved her much, he also wanted her to be better.

It was a rather harsh requirement to ask from a loved one.

To say that you had to be better was hard—as if one wouldn’t love them as is. But Mark knew Yuri, he enjoyed her presence, and thus, he also knew just how far she could go if she wasn’t held back.

Saying she was fine as she is now would just hold her back!

You are good as you are, but you could be way better.

I love you, but that’s why, I know you could be better.

Yuri rolled her beautiful yellow eyes at him and gave a quick smirk to Dona. "Demoness, I am going to once again surpass you in battle strength—you better not be the useless one."

Dona scoffed. "So what? I have Soul Sense and you don’t!"

Mark and Yuri chuckled. Then, the scientist moved forward and the congealed points of light once again converged on her. She was bathed in the light, her hair that was now gold looking as if it was on golden fire. Soon, the lights dimmed down, and she suddenly vanished.

In a second, she appeared, holding Mark’s hand.

Her shadows stretched all throughout the room, and to her, her shadow itself contained her Aura. Thus, anywhere her shadow could touch, she could also teleport there. And terrifyingly enough, if she wanted her shadow to move, she could also make it move using Shadow Curse.

When she used it, her shadow would turn into a snake made of shadows and it could move.

Shadow Curse, Aura Teleportation, and Glass Dome!

It was a deadly combination.

With a gentle smile, Mark turned on Clown’s Circus. Other than him and the Armor, everything came to a halt, and in that stopped space, he began to transform Yuri’s body with Alchemic Shapeshifting.

The Armor just watched.

When the transformation was complete, Yuri’s body gently fell on Mark’s chest.

Mark kept the smile and threw a small vial at the Armor. It caught it simply.

It was the vial of Heart Blood that was used to transform Yuri into a Golden Savage. She had gained the Mask of the Savage Trait, the two new Savage Magics and she no longer needed the Heart Blood to be within her.

That might have made a normal Golden Savage grow weaker since it was the source of their physical and mental prowess, but for Yuri, that came from being an A-rank Hunter. She was just using the Heart Blood to transform her into a Golden Savage.

No longer did she need it! Especially not when it could be used against her!

Mark briefly examined her stats.

=•=

[Hakase Yuri]

[Tier 2—Golden Savage]

[Physique: 1000 (Pinnacle)]

[Mind: 1000 (Pinnacle)]

[Traits]

Dungeon Heart Seed Bearer.

Mask of the Savage.

[Hunter Ability]

Shadow Curse (T2 Pinnacle)

[Savage Magic]

Aura Teleportation

Glass Dome (T2 Pinnacle)

[Resistance]

Shadow Resistance (Tier 3 Low)

=•=

With a simple flick of his sleeves, Mark absorbed both Yuri and Dona into his World Space.

The Armor praised, "A job well done."