Chương 26: Ability Stone

When Kayzen returned to his room, he was greeted by the mess he had created last night. Now, here was the thing: he could clean it up, but then he was going to start the research right after. A better way would be to transform his bedroom into a lab and continue the experiment. He did just that. It was well beyond his physical prowess to move the bed, dressing table, and other heavy furniture out of the room on its own. So, with a few shoves here and there he had a mostly empty room for himself.

The dressing table was converted into his temporary shelf for holding various reagents and materials extracted from the fiends. The bed would act as his working table when he was dealing with non-volatile things. Such was the case now. He put on the gloves and sat down cross-legged. In front of him were two different objects: One was the eye of the crow, while the other was a shard fragment.

In theory, it shouldn't be that difficult to extract the records from the crow's eye and then transfer them into the rift fragment. Kayzen didn't have any issue in the first step of extracting the records. The problem lay with transferring them to the rift fragment.

'Or I can just imprison them.' He changed his thinking direction. Imprisoning or sealing records should be more feasible considering the authority he had gained as the Warden of Records. As Kayzen thought deeper and deeper, the vague outline of a plan formed in his mind. The core components were his ability of record extraction, coupled with his authority of imprisoning records. He had already figured out the first and the last part. Extracting records from the eye was simplicity itself.

Sealing them into the shard fragment wouldn't be difficult either. He didn't have an ability for it, but he could use record extraction enhanced by the shard fragment. He had accomplished something similar before as well. The difference was that now he would seal the shard fragment instead of using it for Hex. Kayzen took a deep breath and put his plans into motion. His left hand held the shard fragment while his right palm hovered above the crow's eyeball.

With a single thought, he activated his ability of record extraction. Accompanied by a deep crimson hex the night vision ability was drawn out from the eye. Next, he used the shard in his left hand to increase the intensity of the record extraction. There wasn't much he could do when it came to improving the night vision ability, but that wasn't his goal to begin with. All he wanted was to establish a connection between the records and the shard fragment. And he succeeded.

With his authority as the Warden of Records, Kayzen saw, read, and understood what records lay within the shard fragment. As he had thought, they didn't mean anything. Analyzing the shard fragment was like reading a book full of jumbled characters that made no sense no matter how many times he looked at it. It wouldn't change even if he gathered many shard fragments and fused them into a whole. These records were discarded. They had no meaning. They never would.

Right now their role was to act as fuel and connect both objects in his hand. As Kayzen's hand imprisoning the night vision records overlaid the shard fragment, Kayzen realized that he had overlooked one more thing. A very important thing. He had to remove the useless records from the shard fragment. All of them. If he didn't, then whoever used this shard to gain an ability would also be assimilating the 'nonsense' records.

He didn't know what would happen with that, but his gut told him that the outcome would be anything but pleasant. Affected by the momentary distraction, his hold over the imprisoned records faded. The result was a mess. The eyeball burst apart and the shard fragment disintegrated as well. An unfortunate turn of events, but not unexpected. Failures were prevalent when one was trying out new things. Kayzen understood this all too well. He picked up the pen and paper to write down the details of the experiment.

There were a few shards remaining and more than enough eyes of the crows. He could afford some trial and error. The process continued and it took Kayzen eight hours before he tasted success for the first time. He didn't stop and continued with the experiments, all the way until 8 o' clock in the night. From all the shard fragments, the ones that succeeded in storing an ability were only three. And it had yet to be tested whether the said ability could be transferred to anyone or not. Nonetheless, he was satisfied.

The research data alone was more valuable than gold; not to mention there was another tangible benefit. His record extraction ability was already on the breakthrough stage, and now, it had reached the medium rank. Rank: Medium This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Record Extraction: You are able to observe and isolate targeted records. Your acquired knowledge allows you to trace and even extract records from an organism's DNA.

By using shard fragments you can extract more records, or store them inside the fragment itself. Efficiency depends on the Rank of targeted records. The description had gotten bigger; so too did its range of application. The fact that he could observe and isolate targeted records directly was a nice change. The ability would also work with just a trace of an organism's DNA; a huge improvement Kayzen hadn't even hoped for.

So far he had yet to come across a situation where he had little DNA to work with, but he was sure that such a thing would occur once he went up against tougher and mightier foes. Finally, his eyes landed on the three shard fragments that had taken on a more blackish color. Unsurprisingly, he was able to read information on them just as he had done with his own shards. Ability Stone Rank: Low Night Vision: Upon assimilation, grants user the records of night vision.

There is a significant chance that the records would result in the formation or improvement of a related ability. Hundreds of ideas popped up in his mind as he thought deeper on how to best use these shards. The simplest way would be to sell them, and that's what he planned on doing. In the future he could use a similar method on a bigger target and extract more of its records. He looked forward to using multiple shard fragments in order to collect, extract, and even store the entirety of an organism's records.

What would happen when he transferred them to another organism? What would happen if he fused records with something inanimate?

'I have a lot of research to do.' Kayzen yawned and went to the kitchen for some coffee. The door of Vasser's bedroom was still locked, and it didn't look like the Crusader planned on coming out anytime soon. This suited him just as well. The four paths of the Warden he had forsaken had given him bits and pieces of knowledge, and he wanted to assimilate them as soon as possible. There was the book of the Chimera as well, which he planned on studying starting from tomorrow.

Thus began the monotonous yet enriching life of Kayzen in this town. The suns rose and fell, and soon, it was the day when Vasser exited from seclusion. As a Xin. … D +30 Of the Apocalypse"I see that you have done some renovations." Kayzen lifted his eyes from the book and smiled at Vasser who was leaning against the door. One glance was enough for him to judge that she had succeeded in her breakthrough. The Ether was flowing around her as if she was the center of a hurricane.

"Congratulations." He walked over and bumped his fist against hers.

"I take it that you have become a Warden as well?" Vasser asked.

"Naturally."

"Good then. Let's go for a spar." Vasser grinned and hopped her way to the veranda. It looked like the poor plants' doomsday had come. They had survived the apocalypse, but doing so today would be difficult. Vasser and Kayzen stood on opposite ends, and as much as they were eager to show off their powers; there was a critical issue. Neither of them could go all out the way things were. The one at the biggest disadvantage was Kayzen.

His perception and Hex would only show their true worth when he was at a distance away. Engaging in close-quarters combat didn't suit him much. Vasser believed the same as well.

"I won't be using my divine laws to make this fair. How about it?"

"Sounds good to me." Kayzen nodded and made as much distance between them as possible. They hadn't seen each other for over a week and there was a lot they needed to talk about, but for now, it was time to have some fun. Kayzen stretched his arms wide and extended his roots of perception towards Vasser. Her response was the same as always. Clenching her fists she kicked the soil below and jumped at him with a flash. Kayzen didn't see her coming, but that was well within his expectations.

Her glowing fist passed right through his chest without causing him any harm. Phantom Shift was just as useful as ever.

"You're going to lose if you keep relying on that ability."

"I know. My turn now." Kayzen grinned in response and used his authority on Vasser. She, who was about to punch him once again, faltered and keeled over on the floor. He had imprisoned her records of strength. Making the best use of this opportunity Kayzen made a run for the other corner. It didn't mean much when she could cross the distance in a step, but it was better than being passive." That was interesting. You're able to block other's abilities?"

"Sealing records to be exact," Kayzen replied with a strained expression. It wasn't easy to imprison Vasser's record as it had been with the plants. She was a Xin afterall, a damn strong one at that.

"I see then; get ready." Vasser shifted to a crouching stance and took a deep breath. Kayzen saw with his bare eyes that golden currents of Ether were converging towards her heart. This was the power of a Xin. They were able to absorb the atmospheric Ether and use it to refine their heart; allowing them to fuse their blood with traces of Ether. A Xin also had the authority to wield their element. Unlike an Eikon who could only manifest in a single image, a Xin could do much more.

They could use an element to reinforce and empower what they desired. Numerous golden fists manifested in the sky above the veranda. Kayzen also became serious and began drawing a pentagonal Hex in the air. Before the two could move on to the next phase though, an alarming knock halted them.

"Looks like we have a guest." Kayzen shrugged and walked to the main hall. Judging from the impatient sounds it was apparent that there was some trouble at bay. Vasser followed behind him in frustration. She had barely gotten warmed up, but now she had to stop before checking out her own powers. As Kayzen opened the door, the duo saw who was standing outside their house: A squad bearing the insignia of the Ironheart town.

"Greetings Lord Kayzen, Lady Vasser. Pardon me for interrupting your morning, but we have an emergency. Baron Huiyan is summoning you, right now."