Once he killed the rat mother and made it back to the streets of New London, as he'd begun to call it, Ronan found a place to hole up so that he could use all of his shards. Unfortunately, even using conversion cultivation on his non-energy-aspected shards didn't allow him to push into the next realm of mystic energy cultivation. He reached about three-quarters of the way. It was annoying, but no big deal. He could push through in the next iteration.

Finding Vulparis and pretending not to notice the illusion was easy. As he suspected, he ran into Rockmore's goons soon after, Keith in tow. He battered them all senseless, especially Keith—some lessons were taught better with force. Later that same evening, Rockmore himself turned up.

The fight was easy. Rockmore actually lived longer than he usually did, because Ronan dragged it out so that he could steal the man's skill.

The moment he received the pulse from the skill-stealing mirror, Ronan blew his head open with a devastating punch. He took the time to slaughter Vulparis afterwards, too. The Trickster deserved no mercy in this particular matter.

His task complete, all that remained was to absorb the skill the mirror had stolen, finally discovering just which skill Rockmore had used the skillbound conduit ring to empower to such absurd levels that he'd used to one-shot Ronan. He was extremely curious to find out.

Skill Stealing Mirror (Epic) has been successfully consumed!

You have obtained the skill [Magic Strike (Common)]

Magic Strike (Common): AInfuse mana into your strikes to bolster their power and apply extra magical damage as a percentage of the original blow's physical damage. (Cost: 5 Mana + Variable Mana Cost based on power of strike)

You've got to be fucking kidding me… And it's only common? Fuck that. Damn scammer through and through. Not even a real noble, and now you're telling me his overpowered skill is just magic strike. Stupid system. Ronan threw his hands in the air, annoyed that he'd wasted one of his limited uses of the skill-stealing mirror. But the world wasn't done rubbing salt in the wound.

[Reverberating Chronosphere has subsumed duplicate skill potential towards free chronos merit accumulation. Current progress: 8.3%]

There was nothing to be done. The world wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Even with this one failure, he had still managed to steal four great skills and would hopefully have the boss' skill to rob, too.

When he arrived outside Veloxis' lair in this iteration, Ronan practically raced inside, wanting to get this crappy life over with.

In the sixth and final branch iteration, Ronan's goal was to use the skill-stealing mirror to obtain one of Veloxis' skills. The Dreamweaver had been a devastating force of nature that was still insurmountable to him, with all his advantages. There was one way he could beat the devious nine-tailed fox, however, even while remaining unable to defeat it in battle.

Stealing one boss' skills. It felt like reparations. Justice. Even more poetic would be if Ronan was able to use the skill to eventually defeat Veloxis. Now that would feel incredible.

First, though, he actually had to steal the skill. While he wasn't close to being able to hold out against Veloxis long enough to steal a victory, simply surviving long enough to grab a skill was another matter.

This time, he skipped out on going to the camp. He'd learned everything he could about it. In a future iteration he might seek it out, purely so that he might get a chance to encounter one of their new neighbours. For now, though, it was a waste of time. All that he wanted was to cultivate, hopefully reaching the next realm this time around, and then fight Veloxis.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The cultivation session went as expected, for the most part. With just a quarter of the progress remaining to reach the next realm, Ronan was already knocking on the door by the time he picked up the boss shard to consume it.

Not only that, but he had almost mastered the Nine Mouths Delta Mystic Energy Art. He could split the shard energy into eight streams, cycling them individually and then returning them to one stream that settled into his spirit. He could now safely say that cultivating with the art was far more efficient than without it.

It was hard to judge the absorption rate without a tool to measure it, but Ronan estimated he was absorbing about a quarter to a third more of the energy than he'd been able to before. Less waste was a boon that meant he was charging through the realms. He hoped to find arts for the other three cultivation paths soon, so that the incremental benefits would continue to stack.

When he finally reached the limit of the fifth realm, Ronan prepared for the breakthrough and the notification that would follow. However, he suddenly felt his body start to shake.

His energy channels felt as though they had been set aflame. The pain was bearable, but the sensation was truly strange. Not only did they feel as though they were expanding, but also evolving in some indiscernible way.

It wasn't limited to them, either. His muscles, brain, and even his lungs seemed to feel as though they were being compressed and smashed with hammers. Ronan lasted for fifteen minutes until passing out.

When he finally woke up, he received two surprises. The first was the complete absence of pain. Not a single ache or minor headache remained. He almost convinced himself it had been a bad dream. All his experiences with the foxes meant he couldn't rule out an illusion.

However, the system message floating in front of him confirmed beyond doubt that it had been real. Ronan had been ready for improvements when he broke through; he hadn't been ready for quite how much this particular one gave him.

You are attempting to break through the first threshold in Mystic Energy Cultivation!

Challenger possesses at least two energy-based masteries at tier I or higher!

Congratulations! Your hard work and effort have allowed you to reach the sixth realm of Mystic Energy Cultivation!

Mystic Energy Cultivation has advanced from [Sparkling ★★★★★] to [Pulsing ★]!

All forms of energy regenerate 100% faster

Energy costs are reduced by 25%

Efficacy of endurance and regeneration +45%

Potency of endurance and regeneration +5%

So, the sixth realm is some sort of threshold. That pain was my… energy channels evolving? All of me, I suppose. Health, stamina, and mana are all forms of energy I guess. Ronan read the messages again as he pondered the implications.

That he required masteries to cultivate beyond a certain realm was an interesting limitation. He wondered which masteries the other three cultivation paths would require to break through the first threshold. It was a question that didn't really merit further exploration. He'd find out when the time was right.

Breaking through the threshold brought significant improvements in all aspects that energy cultivation boosted. There was even another benefit—endurance and regeneration potency. He'd seen potency mentioned before, but still wasn't sure what exactly it was. The answer was probably self explanatory, but it was better not to assume.

He cultivated a little longer, consuming the rest of his shards, but the progress bar to the next realm barely ticked over one percent. Not only had the benefits skyrocketed, but clearly the quantity of shard energy required to break through had also done so.

It was dark outside now. The sun had long since set. Feeling mentally fatigued despite his prime physical condition, Ronan settled in to sleep. He needed to be on top form to survive long enough against Veloxis to steal a skill.

The boss' level was less than his by the time he reached it, with his experience multipliers being what they were after so many iterations. Even with his mental resistance, damage resistance, raw stats, a plethora of skills, and masteries, Ronan couldn't survive longer than forty seconds against the nine-tailed monster.

That was all he needed.

Ronan was ready to rob the Dreamweaver blind. First he needed to ascend the hundred-floor tower to where the fox waited at the base of that majestic tree. The tree that Ronan suspected was the sector pillar, though he had no proof.

Once he'd defeated all the foxes on the way to the final floor, Ronan took a breath to steady himself. There was a lot on the line here. For the first time in this branch path, he was putting a chance to steal a skill at risk. If he died before the mirror did its job then he was paying a chrono cost for little benefit.

Hell, if he died after the mirror successfully absorbed one of Veloxis' skills, but before he himself had a chance to use the mirror, he was screwed. That only meant he couldn't make a mistake. Ronan refused to waste his final shot at stealing an overpowered skill.

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