Bro, I'm not an Undead!

[You have chosen 'Kintar Aladaster' as an <Attachment>. Are you sure you want to proceed with this action?]

[You have chosen 'Sila' as an <Attachment>. Are you sure you want to proceed with this action?]

"Yes."

[Processing…]

[Guidance field generation in progress...]

[Guidance field generation in progress…]

[Patronage Rank 0 benefits loading…]

[Process will be completed in 5…4…3…2…1]

[…]

Ever since he became a Divine, the extraneous benefits Skullius earned from the guidance field had increased.

His potential <Attachments>, people he could grant guidance fields, had increased from 4 to 6.

His <Marked Spots>, markers he could place anywhere and be able to warp to them any time he wanted, had risen from 5 to 15. Serenity had told him not to waste those, and thus, he had yet to use them since ascending.

His pieces of <Counsel> had also risen from 2 to 4, but Skullius had already used another one when asking VOW about TITEMIUS, leaving him with only one. It was still a wonder what he'd use it for.

All these extraneous qualities of the guidance field had indeed been bolstered as a result of Skullius' Patronage Rank rising to 3. That was also the reason why inputting a guidance field in both Sila and Kintar didn't take as long as when he'd done it for Kenno and Yuyui.

"This is… handy," said Kintar with a bright smile, looking around at everything in sight. She must have been appraising the objects she could see. When her eyes landed on Skullius, she sighed. "Of course, I'm not allowed the honour of seeing what your status looks like. Stingy."

Skullius tsked.

Sila, on the other hand, was beaming.

"Now this is more like it," he said, and with the way his eyes raced, it became immediately clear what he was looking at. "Serenity's Free Marauder. Hmm. Not bad. Not bad at all."

Skullius chuckled.

"Serenity changed your body drastically when she used it earlier. That would explain why your stats are so high," he said. "The potential in this body of yours is incredible. You're going to have to decide what kind of abilities you want though. You should be able to do that easily."

Sila concurred with the sentiment fully. He was looking at his status, appraising every individual quality open to him.

~~~

[Name : Sila]

[Race : Serenity's Free Marauder]

[Tier : 76]

[Level : ---]

[EXP (Null) : 12,000]

[Core : ---]

[Class : ---]

[Race : Serenity's Free Marauder]

[Inv. Status : Absolutely thrilled]

…

~~~

While it might have seemed as though Sila's Tier was extremely low, especially when considering the absurd values some of the top tier guardian and Cluster beasts on Aigas carried with them casually to denote their power, a keener eye would have recognised the difference between the Tiers held by Null Lifeforms and the Tiers held by beasts in this world.

None of Skullius' Apostles were at a Tier higher than 10 at the present moment, by they eclipsed all of the beasts on Aigas… save perhaps one that had been giving Eaniss, the Mad Bishop, and Em-Sul a hard time.

Even disregarding the Apostles, Skullius himself had been dominating powerful combatants in Pelian as a measly Tier 2 and Tier 3 Null Lifeform, and he had then acquired nigh Divine powers by reaching Tier 4.

This was all to say that Null Lifeforms had ranks of Tiers on a greater qualitative scale.

And thus, for Sila to already be at Tier 76 while being ranked as a Null Lifeform…

The only downside to his prowess was that his body didn't have a lot of skills or abilities. To make matters worse, the ones he had weren't noted on the guidance field, which was why Skullius assumed that his body had the powers of the Blessing, Graceful Monolith of the Eminent.

Sila also had the abilities stolen from Dellan, which had allowed the Stolen Angel to mimic Replicus' physique just by watching him, but that also wasn't noted.

Skullius imagined that it was because these abilities, strong as they were, were so deeply tied to Sila's race that they weren't considered separate parts of him branded into his body.

In fact, Skullius had seen cases like these before.

Some Cluster beasts had abilities so intrinsically tied to their being that calling them skills was pretty much an insult.

Even Skullius had been a victim of this back in the day. In the Tremur Forest, Skullius' Vehement Bone Nullmancer Class had granted him the ability to extract skills from artefacts, but said ability hadn't been noted as a skill of his until later, when he bonded it with other powers.

Because it required some additional implements to even be able to work on stronger artefacts, Skullius judged that another reason for why it wasn't noted was because, compared to everything else he had, it was supposed to be inconsequential, even though it had been extremely important to his survival back then.

And thus…

"You'll need to evolve some of these abilities as you go in order to start seeing them on the guidance field. Compared to everything else you are, that measly Blessing and that unique trait aren't that important. It's how you bond them to stronger abilities that matters," he explained to Sila.

The Tower General gave repeated nods, humming his understanding. But he had peeves.

"I'm overflowing with great physical power, tomato flinger, and I'm sure these unique qualities you mentioned will be useful, but I need a familiar arsenal of powers to start. If this body really has as much potential as you say, then I wouldn't mind starting with smaller skills and growing from there. I'm sure I can raise their efficiency rather quickly," he said before frowning. "I suppose I'll need a Class too."

"I'll handle that. If you and I are going to be fighting side by side, I suppose I'd rather you be a competent complement," Kintar said, making Sila turn to her.

"I'm charmed," he said, looking the most uncharmed anything could look.

Kintar narrowed her eyes and then snapped a finger.

She gave her first gift to the Tower General, a core with a bizarre sheen that had never been seen before.