In truth, it wasn't that Skullius couldn't wrap his mind around what the paper cut-out had said. He could and he did.
However, the idea that the operation of Nullmancy worked in such a… manual fashion threw him off.
Indeed, Skullius knew that owning a guidance field changed the way he progressed with his powers, but it was a far cry from being spoonfed all the stupidly powerful abilities there were. Skullius recalled when he had used [Depths of the Core], a Nullmancer-specific Skill that allowed him to temper with mana cores.
The process of augnting the quality of a core from white to blue, for instance, had been rough, even with the aid of the Skill – if it even aided him in a way that could be defined as spoonfeeding.
All that Unnio Lak said about there being so kind of essence that a Nullmancer had which was divided into ten portions was foreign to him. Even if he used the guidance field to make the process of using Skills easier, as he grew, Skullius knew how each Skill operated from its perch in his body. He was that experienced now.
So how on Aigas did a Skill like [Apostle Summon] function with so 'essence' that he couldn't detect? Did it only work like that for native Null Lifeforms?
"Well, I'm not sure if my Class works the sa," he said to Unnio Lak. "I don't sense this essence you speak of. I just know that I am only capable of summoning ten Apostles. That part matches with what you said, and sure, I can only resurrect creatures that I've killed on my own too, but the process isn't as complicated for ."
He looked at Serenity before continuing.
"I simply use, or I guess I used to apply the Skill [Apostle Summon] - which is now [Apostle's Liege] - on a dead target, then I can decide which race they begin with, and then they beco my Apostle. Of course, I understand that my abilities probably function in this way because I operate outside the Null Verse, but it feels like I'm missing a lot of information still."
Unnio Lak gave three nods.
"I thought as much," he said, and he inspected Skullius again. "You are a Null Lifeform by definition, but you're a little different at the sa ti. I suppose you are unshackled. So of the limitations that apply to us natives don't apply to you since you have the freedom to wander outside the Null Verse. No wonder you achieved the Nullmancer Class upgrade while you're still tender. You shouldn't be more than 1,000 years old, right?"
Skullius didn't know how the piece of paper could have known that, but he nodded regardless.
"It's supposed to be rather difficult to climb the Nullmancy ladder from a Bone Nullmancer, to Flesh Nullmancer, to Soul Nullmancer. Did you pass through all those stages?"
The Hybrid Warmoth folded his four arms.
"Nope. I was a Vehent Bone Nullmancer and then I was a Nullmancer," he said.
"Hm. That explains the lack of bone summons, I suppose."
"What?" Skullius asked, frowning.
"If you were a Vehent Bone Nullmancer, you must have seen a lot of bone-focused evolutionary options, did you not? Most Nullmancers are stuck with bone summons for a majority of their journeys."
Skullius reeled.
"Wait…" His mind almost failed to compute the information. "I was only supposed to be able to summon bone Apostles?"
"Well, since your Nullmancer Class has the word 'Vehent' in it, I suppose that ans you had the option of seeing evolutionary options outside the bounds of bone creatures" – Unnio Lak looked at Araeyn – "but just barely. Most Nullmancers must go from Bone to Flesh to Soul."
It should have been obvious to Skullius, but it blew his mind still.
'So, the reason I kept finding those bone evolutions…' he thought.
No wonder Red Rage looked like that!
Even Ferex. He disguised it with his threads which could form an assortnt of materials, but underneath it, he was just a bone wolf.
Araeyn might have been the exception, birthed by the 'Vehent' in Vehent Bone Nullmancer, but even then, his prestigious race was neither Flesh nor Soul. It was pretty much bone with swathes of skin layered over, powerful as they were.
Only after he had beco a pure Nullmancer did Skullius summon Beyrmir and Weaver.
"Co to think of it, you have the Voice of Worlds, right? I imagine that during your evolutions, you had a choice. So, when you beca a Null Lifeform from whatever you had been before, were you given a choice as to which Class you could have chosen? If so, did you really choose Nullmancer?"
Skullius frowned.
"What's wrong with the Nullmancer Class?"
"Nothing at all. I imagine it's much more convenient for a bearer like you, but if there's another option, most Lifeforms will choose that one over Nullmancer. The cost of finding truly good evolutionary paths to pass to your Apostles is rather rough here. What else were you offered in terms of Classes?"
Skullius hesitated to answer for a little while.
"I guess… I was offered Berserk Skull Hegemon, Spirit Walker, and Revenant Forcemancer." The mory was still fresh in his mind.
"FORCEMANCER?!"
Everyone except Serenity shuddered at Unnio Lak's booming voice.
Skullius sighed frustratedly.
"I know, I know!" he said, waving a hand at the paper cut-out.
"No, you don't!" Unnio Lak cried out. "There's several leagues' difference in potency between a Forcemancer and a Nullmancer! The forr is a Class that can allow a savvy expert to stand toe-to-toe with an Authority!"
"I know, you sockethole!" Skullius snapped. "I've fought a Forcemancer before. I know how devastating that Class can be."
He decided to spare Unnio Lak the details about how he fought and killed the Null Devil King, Caxellac. The more reasons Skullius found out about why he won that battle, the more he didn't like considering it an absolute victory of his.
In any case, the reason he chose Nullmancer over the Forcemancer back then, was because he had needed the Mana and Intelligence stats obtaining the Class would have offered him. Even if he had picked up Forcemancer, a lack of Intelligence would not have helped him use the Skills it offered; and they required imnse skill to use indeed.
The Hybrid Warmoth quickly steered the conversation back to the right track.
"What about Apostles persisting even after their summoner is gone? What's the reason behind that?" he asked.
Unnio Lak took a few seconds to calm himself. He had been muttering sothing about his accursed Bug Beater Class being a contender against Nullmancy when he exhaled… sohow.
"It's because death here might have a different aning from the outside world. Passing on, dying, kicking the bucket, eating the big one… Here, it just ans becoming part of the Cycle – becoming one with the chanism that keeps our world small yet imasurably vast."
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