Sanguine Paradise - Chapter 148 (Patreon)

∼ Day 116 ∼

The creaking of the carriage as it rolled along the cobblestone streets was ever-present inside the muted interior of silky drapery and lavish decor. The ride was rather accommodating as even Bob as well as Mia, myself, and two other figures were easily able to fit inside it. But even more so impressive than the transportation itself, was the creature dragging along the carriage.

Tall, great, and mystical was the scaled steed of a behemoth that pulled along the transport. I had a hard time figuring out if the animal was either some reptilian creature or downright draconic seeing as its form hinted towards either direction. The sparse and sleek scales along its thick hide, or the colorful horns crowning its head and running down its spine and all the way to the tip of its thick and swaying tail.

An impressive creature in all its rights, which inadvertently also made me itch to know what kinds of evolutions such a magnificent beast would face down the road of power. It wasn't hard to guess that I would love to possess such a steed, but current events prevented me from pursuing that at the moment.

I had attempted to ask about our situation, if not just the beast itself to try and extinguish this awkward silence, but the two ever-so silent and mysterious cowled figures in the carriage with us reacted to none of my words; also being the cause of this... muted silence.

They had been assigned to us by that Executrix woman apparently, and after they stated their purpose of escorting us to the main plaza, they've remained utterly silent ever since. The only real reaction I had managed to get from them was when I attempted to use Appraisal on them as it failed spectacularly against their hidden magical talismans.

The same had happened when I off-handedly tried to pull up the Executrix's status, but I had hoped that even these grunts of hers didn't also possess such extravagant means against divination-type abilities and skills.

The only comfort I could find was that I was confident in my ability to take on both of them as no matter how well they hid their auras and core emanations, the simple fact was that their presence paled in comparison to my own beefed up one.

However, they clearly weren't here to detain and keep us from running as there was no doubt in my mind of the fact that there were many - many more of these hidden assassins lurking all over this city, making it nigh impossible for us to even succeed if we truly did try. But for what exact purpose they were here to escort us and not some random guide, I wasn't entirely sure.

As the ride was quite long since the city expanse was simply massive in scope, I returned to the things I had been pondering over the last four days. Having nothing better to do, I had quite thoroughly spent my time reviewing my options for how I could best possibly synergize my skills.

With both an abundance of skill points and no lack of skills to fuse together, it was reasonable that I should clear up some of the space in my skill list as it was currently full.

Most of my debating in which skills to choose was what skills would be best to simply fuse now and not wait until I either reached their maximum levels or advanced them as I might end up missing out on additional skill points.

Of course, if I were to min-max the amount of skill points I could get, then I would have to simply max out each skill until they could no longer advance. As such, many of the possible combinations I put on hold until I further leveled those specific skills. But others that I've noticed beginning to either lack behind, or simply be of no use any longer, I've decided to put them up for availability for fusion even though they hadn't yet reached their thresholds.

An example of such a skill was Greater Paralyze. It not only has been seeing less and less useful as of late, but it's also greatly dropped in progress. This was mostly due to the skill simply having out-lived its efficiency. It was a potent and useful skill in the early stages of power, but as my opponents are growing stronger for each time I myself do, their means of countering such a petty trick is growing endless.

While against foes weaker in the physical caliber like humans are more susceptible to something like my paralytic compound, my new way of fighting simply does not complement that skill in any way shape, or form. And besides, when all my recent enemies and foreseeable enemies are monsters, their innate powerful physical bodies are the natural counters against the effects of Greater Paralyze.

Anyways, going over the options I had for Synergize at the moment, I could already put away Language Adaptability and Blood Profiling, two tier-1 skills I've maxed-out. This was because I've found they hold quite a high compatibility with Appraisal, but seeing as that skill was only a measly one level away from reaching its threshold, I was going to wait and see what would happen with that first.

Then there was Blood Conversion, another tier-1 skill I've maxed. This too was put on hold seeing as it has an uncanny compatibility with both Blood-Born and Lesser Eldritch Vitality, both skills of which I was dying to see what they can hopefully advance into.

With that taken into consideration, I was left with two different synergies that I had been looming over the last four days.

[Synergize]

[Blink - Soundless Flight - Soaring Flight]

[Compatability rate - 92%]

[Cost - 16 skill points]

[Want to fuse?]

[Yes/No]

[Synergize]

[Infusing Slash - Greater Puncture - Greater Paralyze]

[Compatability rate - 97%]

[Cost - 9 skill points]

[Want to fuse?]

[Yes/No]

As for the first synergy, it was of course a bit unfortunate that their compatibility was less than stellar, but those were the only combination that the three of them even remotely had a chance of fusion. But seeing as my Blink skill was ever so slowly beginning to fall behind, the surprise and speed that it gave me barely able to rival the innate speeds of even the bodies of my enemies, I had to push it to the third tier in hopes of improving it as it's been a stable of my fighting style for so long.

As for the other two, one gives me a whole lot of speed and maneuverability whilst flying and the other has become rather redundant. But that is mostly because of the fact that my wings are made of literal shadows, and the magic combined with my set of skills that I wield already does most of what Soundless Flight does.

For the second synergy, I added Infusing Slash to the combination I originally had already intended for just Greater Puncture and Greater Paralyze. The superb compatibility rate was simply too high to pass up on, and the cost was also quite cheap.

Seeing as I no longer had time to be mulling over all the possible options laid out before me, I finally decided on going through with these two. I had many other skills I wanted to fuse and see their results, however, they would have to wait until I leveled and advanced them further.

So for now, I had to settle with these.

[Synergize]

[Skills - Blink, Soundless Flight, Soaring Flight has been fused into - Blitz]

[Skill - Blitz has been added to the skill list!]

[Synergize]

[Skills - Infusing Slash, Greater Puncture, Greater Paralyze has been fused into - Imbue Rake]

[Skill - Imbue Rake has been added to the skill list!]

Letting out a sigh of relief, I gave another once-over of my newly fused skills. I had been stressing over fusing two very important and useful skills of mine, Blink and Infusing Slash, but it definitely seems like both skill fusions ended up quite well.

Although I currently didn't really have the opportunity to test them out right this moment, their descriptions promised that they couldn't be all that bad so I was rather satisfied with the outcome.

After that, another two tedious hours rolled by with Bob snoring away in the corner of the carriage and with Mia snuggling up to me before the loud excited voices of thousands and thousands of monsters began coming from everywhere. Although the carriage didn't really allow for much visibility outside, it was clear that the surroundings were filled to the brim with monsters of all kinds, eager to see this highly-anticipated tournament.

As the carriage finally crawled to a halt, both of the cowled figures stood up abruptly, one of them turning to face me.

"We've arrived." They said, distinctly feminine.

A/N - Hello all my amazing readers, I just wanted to let you in on some news and some new upcoming art.

For those who haven't joined my Discord, you may not have heard that I've started a re-write of Sanguine Paradise's earlier chapters, (And no, the current chapter release schedule won't be affected in the slightest. You can still expect chapters every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.)

This process will be quite long as I will only be re-writing when I find the spare time. But other than that, thank you all for reading my story and for your continued support!

Secondly, I just wanted to announce that I will be commissioning new art for Sanguine Paradise again. It will probably take a little while, but you can most likely expect some group character art and landscape art.

Thank you for your reading my novel and for your continued support!