Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A few minutes later, Kintar placed her hand on Sila's abdomen. The Tower General was deeply uncomfortable being touched by the little wretch, but he soldiered through the awkward feeling.

This was Kintar's sixth time making contact with him, doing as she had claimed to be able to do earlier: fashioning skills for him to use in the upcoming battle.

White mana from the vermillion quality core slinked out, coursed through one of the large mana pathways that had been established by Kintar before, and gathered in the node at the end. As soon as a large pool of it settled, Kintar began her work.

A lot went into creating a skill. For most people, this happened through repeating a certain action many times. For experts with high potential and rare abilities, this usually came as a result of their unique weapons or Classes or bloodlines prompting a process where they received abilities that were programmed to be inherited by them when certain conditions had been met. (At times, possessing said unique weapon, Class or bloodline was the required condition.)

In tandem with these circumstances, however, there was another factor that influenced the generation and use of a skill, and for most experts, it was rather difficult to control.

Indeed, it was the mana core.

Other than a matter of differences in Classes and Class categories (Energy Forming, Form Using and Arma Using), mana cores made it difficult to inherit or learn certain skills, after all, other than Mages, most other Class holders weren't able to interact with their mana cores on a deeper level.

A mana core consisted of three facets: a Centre, a Refinery, and a Shell.

The Centre passively generated pure mana (mana its most raw, untouched form) as a result of the its direct connection to the soul.

The Refinery tweaked the pure mana, giving it special properties that allowed it to charge certain types of skills. In a way, it could be said that it made an individual's mana gain an affinity with certain types of abilities, which then allowed them to activate and use them efficiently.

The Shell contained and distributed said mana through pathways that led towards skills etched into the body.

Experts on Aigas had attempted to breach the gulf between Class Categories for many years using Class Branching, an exercise done through a series of varied means. While many had earned some insights that made them more powerful – like Form Users learning the deeper secrets about mana manipulation from Energy Formers like Mages, and Arma Users learning Form Using, and thus gaining the ability to be competent even without relying on weapons – there was never a way to completely remove the gap between different types of Class Categories.

The only way to cross such wide gaps was with abilities that touched upon the Divine.

Kintar was a freak whose talent couldn't be replicated by the current prodigies on Aigas, but Vali was a good example given her most recent attainments.

Vali was an Energy Former, an Advanced Healer with the ability to copy techniques. However, during the Premium Age Royale, she had only been able to copy abilities that were tied to her own Class Category.

She had been able to copy Kurtish Oldd's barrier abilities because he was an Energy Former, a Wardlock.

She had been able to copy Rias EverSword's Imagining Technique because he was an Energy Former as well.

But when it came to attempting to claim Shura Desmonn's Cursed Mind's Eye, a Form Using technique hailing from Mind Casting, she had known she'd need a different mana core than her original. Hence, she had created a clone with a different mana core using her empowered Imagining Technique.

With all these things in mind, it was a truly baffling thing to imagine that Kintar was…

[You have successfully created the Supreme Skill, 'Tamed Knuckle: Charged Frenzy']

Kintar barely had on a look of focus on her face as she was crafting the skill. Well, at this stage, she was perfecting it. Prongs rose from the node she had filled with the vermillion quality mana, creating a miniature array set to deploy a specific effect.

Indeed, skills were like miniature, extremely intricate arrays with a special effect; instructions on the duration of said effects; its drawbacks (if there were any); its cooldown; mana requirements, and more sets of instructions in some cases.

Kintar could see the skill nestle in the node after she withdrew her fingers. She was indeed a perfectionist. The array was just as she had imagined it. It had no flaws, and using the outlandish quality of the mana she had drawn from Sila's core, she made it so that it didn't have a cooldown or drawbacks.

Skullius was marvelling at all this.

He had created skills before, but not like this. Most of the time, the guidance field streamlined the process, and thus he never got to know the exact nitty gritties on how he could create a skill in a living body. He'd made powerful skills for artefacts and transferred skills into living bodies, but not this.

From what he'd seen, the process wasn't all that difficult, but performing it as quickly as Kintar did was probably beyond all the Mages on Aigas.

First, the dimensions of the body that would house the skill needed to be introduced into the budding miniature array that would become the identification of a skill in said body.

Second, an individual's affinity with mana had to be discerned and also inputted into the skill to ensure that it wouldn't strain them. For most people, it was impossible to accurately judge how well or how bad someone else was with mana; all they could give was a rough estimation.

The last step was the completion of the miniature array. It had to be established in such a way that it became part of the body and would be restored, just like flesh, bone and blood, if the host was ever harmed. It was also essential to ensure that the array was located in a spot within the body that would not clash with other bodily functions.

Skullius shook his head.

'She was already capable of this without the guidance field. Now she'll be even quicker with all the crazy crap she can do.'

Was he making Kintar too strong?

As surprised as Skullius was though, Sila was leagues ahead in perplexion.

"This skill, Tamed Knuckle… It resembles one of the skills I had back in the day, and it feels… too natural," the Tower General said with a look of suspicion at Kintar. "How does an Energy Former like you know so much about Form Using?"

Kintar looked as though she would gag from the question.

"Kintar is about half as skilled in Form Using as she is in Energy Forming," said Skullius in her stead, "Well, I made sure everyone had a background in everything so…"

Sila turned to him frowning.

"Half? That's too much, tomato flinger,"

Skullius sighed.

"I know."

Right then, someone came up the stairs with an air of someone sharpened for battle. She stole away the flavour of the previous atmosphere at once.

"What did I miss?" Uyuniya asked.