Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 501: Ryun

Aura Authority

Ryun's existence expanded in an instant, his mind was overwhelmed by the enormous increase of information, enough so that his consciousness broke apart under the weight of it. His mind was filled with only noise, and he felt his mind perks kick into gear, a part of him that was still conscious, a piece held separate by his |Divided Mind|, focused and guided his will reinforced by his |Mental Pillar|. First he slowed down his perception of time with Titanic Swift Mind, buying himself time to figure out what went wrong. His perception was having issues, his |I Perceived By My Will| had gone dark in the area surrounding his body. Actually the big chunk of the world around him was just gone, he could only sense things that were far away. He couldn't even tell how big of a chunk had gone dark, but it was massive, enough that it encompassed the hill that Ryun had been on and the one Maleatus was. Hundreds of meters in all directions, more perhaps.

He focused and pulled back his perception, narrowing it down slowly, trying to pierce through the fog surrounding him. As he decreased his range, slowly the fog grew clearer, and when his skills perception reached only a third of its usual range, he felt a real change and froze.

It took him a while to realize what had actually happened, but one thing was for certain. His body was gone. He had expanded, his existence, his being spread across a sphere of nearly a kilometer. He was glad of his decision to focus on making his Oblivion flavored being intangible, otherwise he would've done the same thing he had done when he lost control before and consumed everything. His mind was overwhelmed because he could feel every single grain of Essence within the area he had expanded into, every piece of grass, every tree, every leaf, the air, the ground and stone, and within them all the individual Essence grains that made them up. It was a mind boggling amount of information. He knew these Essences as intimately as he knew his own, they were touching him and his Soul was perceiving them, it was overwhelming and strange. But the more he pulled back his skill, the clearer it became, the more his willpower and skill offloaded the strain. Once he pulled his skill to the edge of his being, he finally felt the strain lessen enough that he didn't need to rely on his mind perks to think.

It was an unfamiliar feeling, he felt his Soul oppressing the meaning of every Essence within his being, or rather his Authority? The Domain Aura Authority name made more sense now. He also knew that just by thinking he could interact with any Essence within that the area of his being, in any way the his power allowed him to. Although, there was one area that he couldn't detect at all, a ravzor shaped one. His perception, both skill and being, tracked Maleatus as he stood and looked around with a frown on his face. Somehow, he could detect Ryun around him, even if he was uncertain what it was that he was detecting. Ryun could feel the man's innate meaning, and he knew that his own couldn't penetrate inside. Perhaps, if he pushed, if he leaned his will and tried, he would've been able to do it, but he didn't want to even try, that would be an attack. What he did know, was that he could manipulate any Essence within his area the same way that he could before, shape techniques from the available Essence. He wondered how all of this would change the way he fought. Very few people had the powers that could detect him in any real way. His core and Qi were shrouded and he was resistant to most scrying powers. There was much to discover.

He also realized that he could manipulate the size and shape of his being, which was logical, he had been compressed into a human shaped vessel just a few moments before. Though it appeared that he had an upper limit, the amount that his being could expand in all directions, but he could shape that freely. So he focused on that, he pulled himself back, compressing his being into a smaller sphere, then he sent tendrils out, stretching farther than he had been able to reach when he was expanded in all directions. Everything that he touched, he understood completely down to the last grain of Essence that comprised it. It was, far more detailed than even his perception, which also helped immensely, amplifying everything. It felt intimate, a deeper understanding, the Essences were in contact with the core of his very being, after all, his Soul.

He would have to adapt, and figure things out, this was a new state of existence for him, but that was nothing new. He had changed before. And it wasn't even an experience unique to him alone. Every powerful individual dealt with it in different ways as they advanced.

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Cultivators dealt with it the most, from what Ryun knew. As one advanced, and their body changed, so did how they interacted with the world. The first change was stats, it happened to everyone. All of them had to learn how to control their body so that they didn't just wreck the world around them with every step, especially when they were in low tiered territories. A simple breath at full power from someone who had high stats could start a gale powerful enough to topple forests.

Then came the changes to their bodies, which could be incredibly difficult to manage, especially for the truly high tiered people. People whose body remained Flesh and Blood got incredibly costly to maintain. Their Essence raised in quality. Once Ryun had asked why there weren't that many people of higher tiers, why the Sects weren't raising people constantly. He got his answer, and later he had seen it for himself. Most of the income of the Twilight Melody Sect went toward providing food for those of higher tiers. Their bodies required ingredients of the highest tiers, the higher the rarity the longer it sustained them. Even with the farms Ender set up, they had to spend a lot of Essence to sustain the growing process of special plants. Ryun himself consumed an insane amount of Essence just to survive, even though he could get by just by eating from his environment. It was why he had learned how to pull in Essence while being active. He constantly pulled it in and converted it to Oblivion, partly to use as sustenance. And then there were people whose being was changed by their perks and Aspects.

Erdania's Aspects and Path for example had turned her incredibly heavy, her weight was equal to a large hill, perhaps a small mountain. And with every step she focused all of that weight onto a small surface area, enough to crack the ground with every step. Thankfully, she had ways of alleviating the drawbacks. Though she had to constantly keep her mind focused, she even used her powers to lessen the pull of gravity on herself to help.

Selia's body was still Flesh and Blood, and as she raised through the ranks she too had gotten denser, not to the same level as Erdania, of course, but it was a necessity. High stats didn't just magically make someone stronger, they altered the structure of Essence they were made out of, made them stronger. And with her perks changing her into a Lindwurmar, she also weighed a lot more than lower tiered territories could easily handle. Her bones were dense and as strong as metals of higher tiers. Her blood was as hot as a flame, a single drop of her blood dripping onto the ground would set it on fire, if the Essence of Air around her was too weak, it would consume it all in an instant. She had to use her |Control| skill when she moved in order not to damage everything around her, and he could only imagine how things changed with her own advancement.

No, adapting to a new body was nothing new for Cultivators. Ryun started pulling himself together, compressing his being back into a human shaped form. As he started, something occurred to him, and he decided to try it out. He started gathering more of his being in the place on the hill where he stood before, slowly compressing his being until enough of him was there for it to have a more physical effect on the environment, the Essences of the world was pushed out as his being gathered, but he had yet to really compress that much. He put maybe 5% of himself into a thin human shape, but he felt like that was enough. He called on the Scorn to make a shell around that piece of himself. It shouldn't be that different than just covering his arm.

Scorn obliged, and a substance of an Unknown Essence covered him whole, a smooth surface that made that piece of him look like a sleek doll. He still didn't know what that Essence was, but that wasn't what he had intended, he focused his will and the shell rippled, turning into Flesh. He adjusted his form, making sure that with the shell covering he was around the same size as he usually was.

New sensations erupted into his mind as the shell was completed and he could see and interact with the world through it. He blinked, then looked down at his hands. It was a strange feeling, being able to perceive the world from three different points of view. One was his vessel, the body covered by Scorn which somehow was feeding information through the shell in a manner an ordinary Flesh and Blood's body would, sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. Then there was his skill, letting him feel the Essences around him and how they interacted with the world, vibrations, movement, change. Lastly, there was his new perception, his being enveloped other Essence, a more intimate experience, almost as if he felt a core of an Essence.

He moved his body, and it stumbled then fell, he grimaced, it was as if he was moving a puppet that was only barely connected to him, which was somewhat true. It was just a small piece of the real him. He was sure that he would have better control if he compressed all of him, but he wanted to practice, he had to learn how to use this new body.

Thankfully, he wasn't all alone here, and he had some time until the others arrived. He pushed his body back to its feet and headed toward the other hill to talk with Maleatus, to see if the man was willing to help him out.