A long list of skills that began with his plethora of common skills and ended with universal language adaptation then appeared. That Ronan was able to select absolutely any of his skills for alloying was something of a surprise, but he realised this first attempt would be absolutely free of charge. He would make the most of it.

Beneath the list of skills there was a similar list containing his traits. As he'd suspected, his personal trait, fate alignment, was not shown. Either he wasn't currently able to alloy it, or it would never be eligible. At the moment he wasn't interested in the list of traits, however, as he'd already decided to create a skill.

One of his initial ideas, that he'd had before he ever knew that fusing skills was a possibility, was to combine the stat-boosting skills into a single skill that increased all of his stats. Unfortunately he didn't yet have all the prerequisite skills, and thus would have to put it off until he had collected them.

He had leaned towards creating an upgraded version of magic strike or double strike, perhaps even combining the two. However, with sorcerer now a permanent class of his, Ronan felt he might be able to improve magic strike on his own merit, instead of using the Chronos Forge to accomplish such a feat.

That left double strike as the most likely base for his new skill. Leaving out magic strike was also beneficial, as it meant the final, combined skill would likely not require mana to use.

While his recent iterations had seen him reach prodigious stat numbers, thus having a decent mana pool, he preferred relying on stamina. Not only because his endurance went up far quicker, but also because it regenerated upon leveling up, which for Ronan, was easy enough to accomplish.

That only left the question of what other skills Ronan wanted to combine with double strike. Adding random skills into the mix might end up harming the outcome, instead of creating a truly incredible final product.

He could cross off universal language adaptation, reverberating path, and learn through suffering. His three highest rarity skills would add little to a combat-based skill. That left Ronan to decide from his uncommon and common skills, of which he had plenty.

Of the uncommon skills, only sacrificial strike and counter-parry made sense to combine with double strike. Even counter-parry was… tentative at best. It was more of a defensive skill than one he could utilise to empower an attacking skill.

Then there was the question of the critical combo. Critical tempo and critical experience. Ronan was tempted to add them, as the final skill might benefit from both, giving him a way to guarantee multiple critical hits and gain some bonus experience on top. That was a risky path to take, however, as it could just as easily ruin the final skill as it could bring it to an unprecedented level of power.

Then again, great rewards only came to those who were willing to take the risks required to earn them. And Ronan was no coward. Still, the final decision could wait a little longer.

When it came to common skills, there was of course double strike, which Ronan hoped would be the lynchpin of his new skill. As for the rest, none had direct combat utility, but there were two skills Ronan hoped might shift course if combined with the others and produce a truly potent finished result: impact leech and overcharge.

The first allowed him to produce stamina when he was hit by an enemy, while the second allowed him to convert his health points into stamina. Ronan hoped that by combining them into an attack skill, he might produce an outcome such as regaining stamina upon a strike, and converting health or stamina into extra damage.

While that might be wishful thinking, he had already seen firsthand the raw power that his heritage possessed. Modifying a few common and uncommon skills to fit his line of thought shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

After a little more deliberation, he decided to leave critical tempo and critical experience out of the mix. While it might have worked, he preferred to keep those two skills separate. That way he would still have a method of producing guaranteed critical hits and bonus experience without relying on the skill he was about to forge.

He was willing to roll the dice on overcharge and impact leech. Based on the description of the Chronos Forge, his own thoughts on the matter should help shift the final skill in the direction he wanted to take it.

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He also decided to leave out counter-parry. The skill had too much defensive utility to lose out on, and he was leaning towards an offensive style of battle where he struck constantly without giving his foes time to retaliate. Having a skill to ensure he could turn any potential enemy attacks right back into a strike of his own would go a long way in securing that style.

With the final list of skills he was going to alloy decided, it was time for Ronan to use The Chronos Forge for the first time. He was excited, and a little nervous, but most of all he was curious to see what the finished result would be.

You have selected [Sacrificial Strike (Uncommon)], [Double Strike (Common)], [Overcharge (Common)], and [Impact Leech (Common)] for alloying!

Would you like to designate one skill as the foundation of the alloy, or evenly fuse all selected skills?

Ronan hadn't known this would happen, but he was all the happier for it. That he could actually designate double strike as the most important skill of the four was perfect. He didn't hesitate to do so.

[Double Strike (Common)] has been designated the foundation of the alloy! [Sacrificial Strike (Uncommon)], [Overcharge (Common)], and [Impact Leech (Common)] have been designated as secondary components!

Alloying these skills requires 41% fuel capacity. Fuel reserves are insufficient to perform this alloying!

Minor Blessing of the Chronos Forge has activated! Fuel cost for this alloying has been paid!

Alloying is ready to begin, please enter the forge, Chosen Son of Chronos

That the 'free' fuel cost wasn't even over half the maximum capacity stung the cheapskate in Ronan, but he wasn't overly bothered. He could have spent a hundred iterations finding dozens more skills to combine, but that sounded boring as hell.

Better to create a powerful skill with what he had on hand, then keep pushing the limits of his strength. The forge wasn't going anywhere, and he could return in future to create better skills.

Stepping through the gap between two of the twisting spires, Ronan stared down at the obsidian disc at the base of the forge. Am I supposed to just stand here, or sit down? he wondered.

In the end, Ronan decided to sit down. He'd rather be relaxed and comfortable for whatever was about to happen.

As he sat down on the disc and crossed his legs, he heard a gentle humming sound. It emanated from the four spires, travelling up them and then back down as the four twisting constructions joined at a single point; the stalactite whined and started to glow bright purple.

The light grew, gathering power. Ronan felt it had a substantial weight, but it was a mostly unfamiliar sensation to him. He'd only experienced anything adjacent to it when his heritage had interrupted the tutorial, and the soul-link with Serenaeth 7.

Along with the growing power of the forge, the eerie whine crescendoed. Ronan grew nervous as the forge gathered its strength. Then, without warning, the sound cut off.

There was barely a moment for Ronan to realise that before a beam of purple light shot out of the stalactite and into his floating consciousness.

When Ronan regained awareness, he had no idea how much time had passed. It didn't really matter, because he wasn't certain time existed in the white void. Within his consciousness, he felt four strange pulses.

One was more powerful than the rest, and he soon realised they corresponded to the skills he was preparing to combine. He focused intently, hoping that he might be able to feel his other skills within himself in future, if he learned enough from the alloying process.

Not wanting to let that minor task distract from his real goal, Ronan began to develop a picture of what he wanted his new skill to be. He didn't know how much his own intent mattered for the process, but he wasn't willing to leave anything to chance.

The strongest pulse, double strike, was the first to be struck by the purple energy of the forge. Ronan felt the skill bathing in the nurturing, searing power as it became the foundation of his future skill.

Then, the energy split into three, before striking the other three skills individually. Describing what was taking place was difficult, as he didn't exactly see, but it resembled a tree, with the stalactite as the root, double strike as the trunk, and the other three skills as the branches.

He wanted a skill that would let him strike multiple times in a single instant, certainly more than twice, and ideally with no upper limit, but he was aware that might not be possible with the low rarities of the skills he was alloying. He wanted each strike to deal devastating amounts of damage, empowered by the sacrifice of his stamina, and possibly health points. Where the strikes landed, he wanted to regain stamina from the destruction of his foes.

Those were the key tenets of the skill Ronan hoped for. What the forge would produce might differ slightly—it might even create something better than he'd even thought possible. But, as long as it did most of what he wished for, that would be satisfactory.

His attention was captured wholly as the three skills were dragged towards double strike. Ronan couldn't wait to see what he'd created.

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