[Skill-Eater 2] Chapter 100: Frozen Solid (Patreon)

Riding the high of acquiring an amazing new upgrade, Edge spent the rest of the afternoon hunting within the islands comprising the city.

He had reprioritized his needs after bonding the Frostfury Medallion and put all the experience he Absorbed into Elemental Blade, filling the skill’s cup to the brim. He stepped into his inner world to watch it advance, thrilled to have stolen enough high-rank powers to finish the job in one day.

The skill (Elemental Blade) has advanced to rank 3.

Its mana efficiency has been enhanced.

Upon reaching rank 3, you may control the volume of mana the skill consumes, adjusting its output at will.

When the rune-covered sword stopped shining, its blade was longer and thicker, and its wintery blue glow was even fiercer than before. After Edge spent a few minutes praising the skill’s avatar, he left his core with a smile on his face.

He was eager to test out the upgrade, conjuring his iceblade while packing every scrap of mana into the manifestation he could.

He chuckled as he stood there shivering, reflecting on how much the weapon had changed over the last few weeks. After stealing the skill from a prisoner who was trying to kill him, Elemental Blade had begun as a tiny crystal dagger. Over the course of his adventures, his iceblade had gradually grown to the size of a longsword.

The changes from binding the Frostfury Medallion were just as pronounced, although they took another form. Intricate, swirling runes had been engraved into the surface of the crystal, granting the weapon a lethal elegance. They glowed with a soft silver light, complimenting the arctic radiance of the subzero sword.

The cutting surface was sharper than ever, but the biggest upgrade was the temperature of the crystalline weapon. Before, Edge’s iceblade had been cold enough to fog his breath, despite the dungeon’s pervasive heat. Now, holding it encased his arms in a layer of frost, which crunched as he moved the sword through the air, leaving a billowing cloud in its wake.

Only Regulate Temperature kept him from suffering severe frostbite despite his high Durability, and the iceblade’s touch would be devastating to soft tissue. On top of everything else, he had the sense that the runes bolstering the skill’s power would render it less susceptible to his enemy’s Disruption field, making the weapon more lethal across the board.

Edge dismissed his iceblade, laughing as the rime covering his body melted and dripped to the ground beside his boots. Before I’m ready to face the hydra, I need to test it against a lesser foe.

He made his way from island to island, looking for a suitable opponent. He eventually spotted a monster that resembled a poison arrow frog the size of a golden retriever. Since it was blindingly obvious that the creature was toxic, he waited until it was pulling a fish free from the river with its tongue before making his move.

The moment that the bright orange frog was distracted, Edge Shadow Stepped behind it, manifesting a maximum-strength iceblade along the way. It was a costly combo, but he was planning to end the fight in a single blow. After moving into the monster’s blind spot, he rematerialized, then jabbed the point into its back.

The creature screamed as frost billowed from the wound—blood solidifying before it had time to spill. He had assumed that the amphibian’s touch was deadly and was prepared for it to spit venom too. Thus, it caught him by surprise when a toxic spray began misting up from the surface of its skin. A mist that froze half a heartbeat later, coating the monster in icy venom that blocked its glands from emitting more.

Edge had known that his sword was far colder than before. Even still, he had underestimated the extent of the skill’s cumulative upgrades. When he tried to yank the blade free, he discovered that it was stuck—bonded to the tissue it had flash frozen.

In less than ten seconds, Elemental Blade had frozen the frog’s body solid. He shrugged, deactivated the skill, then prodded the remains with his naginata. The corpse shattered into ruby fragments that coated the ground in frost.

He let out an appreciative whistle, astonished by the extent of his gains. I’ll have to be careful how I use this going forward, or I’ll kill my opponents before I have a chance to steal any skills. I need to pay attention when adding Elemental Blade to my polearm and chakram. If their blades stick to my enemy’s tissue, I’ll risk disarming myself until I can break them free.

Feeling more optimistic than he had in days, he resumed his hunt, eager to take on the hydra the next day. Edge managed to kill another monster before running low on mana. He thought about using his mana-berry to refuel but decided to save the valuable resource for the fight with the elite and the boss after that.

He made his way back to his shelter, tweaking his strategy for the ordeal to come. When he opened his menus to check out his gains, he was pleased to see that he’d picked up another cycle.

You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is: 9.

You have 5 attribute points awaiting allocation.

He put the points into Amplification, praying that the attribute was high enough for what he was planning. When the potentia finished working its transformative magic, he moved on to the last item on his pre-fight checklist—a necessary step that he wasn’t looking forward to at all.

Just like the elite ape, the hydra belonged to a category of core-wielder commonly referred to as hyperspecialized, devoting most of its skill slots to one powerful strategy. It meant that its skillset was narrow yet highly synergistic.

The advantage to specializing to such an extreme degree was that it allowed a core-wielder to perform well above their stage with their chosen aspect—insanely fast, seemingly unlimited Regeneration in the case of the hydra. The downside was that if they encountered an enemy that was strong against their specialty, such skillsets could be beaten by opponents that were considerably weaker overall.

It was the reason why Edge had been able to defeat the gorilla general despite the stage-gap between them. Intimidating Roar had been a perfect counter to its specialization in troop command, taking the grunts out of the fight and leaving their leader exposed.

If the four-armed monkey had devoted more skill slots to close combat, he wouldn’t have had a chance of beating it given the disparity between their raw attributes, although he couldn’t have won without Overdrive regardless.

For the hydra, he was hoping that one counter to its specialization was intense cold. That tissue couldn’t Regenerate if the cells were frozen solid.

Even if that were the case, his strategy wouldn’t work if he couldn’t overwhelm the elite before it counterattacked. While the hydra was hyperspecialized, it was less so than the monstrous monkey and considerably more massive. Each of its heads was a deadly weapon, not to mention its breath attacks, any of which could take him out in a flash.

Although Edge had experienced explosive growth after evolving to stage two, he needed to overpower the monster within a matter of seconds if he were to have any chance of victory. He had to close the distance before it knew he was there and then hit it as hard as he could. A head-to-heads engagement wasn’t something that he could survive for more than a few seconds.

Taking all that into account, before he risked his life trying to take out the hydra, there was something that he needed to test first. He didn’t think it was possible for frozen tissue to knit itself back together, but he had to be sure before he made his move.

Fortunately, he had all the ingredients he needed to perform a trial run—Elemental Blade and his own tender flesh. He wasn’t looking forward to this at all, but rather than stalling, he forced himself into action.

The first step was to remove his runic medallion. Taking it off didn’t break the bond between them, but the distance served as an off switch to the benefit the item bestowed. He needed to freeze a part of his hand before activating Regeneration, not turn his entire arm into a solid chunk of ice. Or whatever you call frozen blood.

Next, Edge set the skill to minimum output, then manifested his iceblade and held it out to one side so that he could reach the point. Not letting himself think about what he was doing, he proceeded to drive his palm onto the tip of the blade, screaming as the subzero sword parted his flesh before jutting out the other side—cerulean surface tinted rose with a patina of icy blood.

He counted to five, watching as the patch of rime spread to cover half his hand. Then he deactivated the skill, leaving a blade-shaped hole through the middle of his palm. He forced himself to focus as he pushed past the pain, which had already begun to dull since his nerves were chilled.

He kept his breathing slow and steady, resisting the urge to hyperventilate as he held up his hand and took a close look at the wound. He could see straight though the gash, revealing a cross-section of tissue below. Everything was frozen solid, just as he had planned. Fortunately, his fingers and wrist were still okay. If he worked fast, he wouldn’t have to worry about losing his hand.

With the prep work complete, it was time to continue with his experiment. Edge activated Regeneration while staring at the wound. The frost-bitten tissue around the periphery began to heal—savaged flesh regaining a healthy hue.

He winced, then grinned when he saw that the frozen flesh refused to budge. He could sense that his healing skill was melting the blood-ice faster than it otherwise would, but as he’d hoped, Regeneration couldn’t restore tissue that was so cold the cells were locked into place.

In addition to being something that he would have to watch out for going forward, it meant that his plan might work. If Edge could freeze the hydra solid, then finish it off while it was helpless, he might be able to kill it, despite its incredible regenerative power.

He wished Skill-Eater was awake so that he could confer with a skill expert, but the big guy didn’t rouse even after knocking on the black door. In the end, he didn’t have a choice, despite the considerable risk. If his cold wasn’t sufficient to get the job done, the monster would tear him to shreds before he had time to regret his mistake.

Edge returned to his body, then emptied his canteen over his wound to melt the ice, grimacing as his frozen nerves returned to life in a red wave of agony. The pain vanished a few minutes later—once the frozen patch had thawed enough for Regeneration to stitch his flesh back together.

Now that the last piece of the puzzle was in place, he spent the rest of the evening maintaining his gear, stretching out his body, and refining his plans—ready to battle the hydra and take the next step toward conquering the Savage Garden.