"Okay, but, how?" asked Andrea.

  "Like this," Bjorn said, walking forward.

  He strode up to one of the pillars, but that was not his destination. The others hadn't noticed, but there was a small platform by that pillar, more like a step, as it was about a foot high and three feet wide. It was also about four feet deep, making it a small rectangle of metal that protruded from the floor. On closer inspection, Beth was able to see the platform was absolutely covered, just dense as all hell, with runes and inscriptions. Val quickly darted over, kneeling just behind it and to the side, intensely examining the platform while taking pictures of all the runes.

  "This is crazy. I doubt even a Sage would be able to inscribe something like this. This has to be the work of…of, I don't know, of a Divine?" Val muttered, staring at the platform intently enough her gaze was likely to burn a hole through it.

  "It was a Hero," Bjorn said calmly before letting a drop of condensed mana drop from his finger to the platform below.

  As soon as his mana hit the enchantments, the whole platform lit up bright as the noonday sun. The swirling mass of energy contained within the various pillars became super charged, surging and seething with an unrivaled force, all the pillars and columns buzzing as they tried to contain the energy. Val, amusingly enough, focused on the platform even more intently, despite it releasing enough energy to blow her hair back nearly directly horizontally.

  The platform only buzzed for a moment or two before a massive surge of energy, enough that Beth physically felt it from where she was standing a couple dozen feet away, poured through the metal slab and into Bjorn's feet. The energy surged into his body, flowing through his feet and up his legs, into his hips and waist, through his torso and shoulders, down into his arms and hands, and up his neck into his head. Beth could see the energy coursing through his body like massive snakes of pure power slithering under his skin. His arms curled up, likely involuntarily, as the power rushed through his flesh. Beth could hear, and smell, something vaguely resembling sizzling bacon, which made her frown slightly, but she could hear Kris starting to quietly retch behind her.

  Veren was rather interested in the process, ignoring Val crouched on the ground and the waves of power to get very close to Bjorn and observe in detail what was happening. The excruciating process lasted a full five minutes, and Bjorn was definitely getting more than a bit toasty by the end of the whole thing. Even more suddenly than it started it stopped, the energy cutting off, Bjorn returning to normal while the light disappeared from the platform in a blink. Bjorn grunted and sagged and Veren easily caught him. The sight was a bit comical and also yet again reinforced how much stats mattered, as Veren basically picked the mountain of a man up with two fingers and tossed him to Kris, who caught him easily.

  The lanky swordsman didn't hesitate or say anything, stepping right onto the pad and activating it with his mana. Of course, he had to show up everyone else, as he activated the pad with a concentrated pulse of mana through the soles of his feet, rather than creating a drop of mana and letting it fall onto the platform. The performance was the same this time, though Veren barely even flinched by the end. Once he was done absorbing the massive amount of energy, he calmly stepped off the platform, adjusting the armored robe he was wearing. For the foes they had been facing, he had disdained his more complex armor, as it was simply unnecessary.

  "You should all go," he said as he stepped to the side and crossed his arms behind his back.

  "What exactly are we doing?" Andrea asked nervously.

  "Getting stronger," he replied acerbically.

  "Good enough for me," Beth said, moving out of Sera's embrace and stepping on the platform. Just to show up Veren, or match his snobbishness, she concentrated and sent a pulse of mana down through her legs, activating the platform through a wave of mana emitted from the soles of her feet.

  The pain was instant, though not as bad as she had been anticipating, as she felt like finger-thick snakes of pure energy were crawling up her legs. Beth didn't passively wait like the first two had; she used some of that intense research she had been doing to connect to the energy streams. Once she had felt the front nodes of the energy and connected to them mentally, she grabbed them, hauling on them. That was both a terrible idea, and a great idea, as the energy slammed into her like a runaway freight train. The pain was absolutely monumental, almost making her white-out for a second, but her Pain Tolerance skill wasn't anything to laugh at, at this point.

  Beth reached into the energy stream even further, pulling it into her body at an incredible pace, feeling it refine her as she pushed the energy to every corner of her being. Her bones cracked and rebuilt, her muscles ripped and reknitted, and her organs melted and reformed. It was a similar process to the elixirs she had taken so far, though her body had been refined enough that she wasn't expelling a bunch of impurities like had happened those previous occasions. This time was also different in another way, as it wasn't just her body that the energy was affecting.

  Her mana reservoir was also being enhanced, increasing a bit in size, but mainly made stronger so that it could hold more powerful mana and release it more quickly. Furthermore, it wasn't just her mana reservoir that was tempered. Beth was unaware at the time, but the way she used the array was the proper way to fully utilize it, unlike what both Bjorn and Veren had done, showing that Bjorn himself wasn't quite all-knowing when it came to old titan technology. As her physical body was rapidly strengthened and her mana reservoir was finishing being reinforced, the energy surged within her spirit, looking for something else to modify. Even without fully understanding what was happening, Beth was still able to make an educated guess; the energy also wanted to adjust one or more skills.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  She hesitated for a second, but in that second, she had an idea, an epiphany, really, and knew what to do. The memories of Liveria, the knowledge and information she had from the memory crystal, once more rushed to the fore, guiding her hand, metaphorically speaking, in remolding a certain skill. She was able to change the skill almost freely, and the memory of Liveria herself undergoing a fairly similar process gave her the guidance necessary, while the former Empress's vast pool of knowledge allowed her to pick a certain skill and craft it to her whims, upgrading it just right. Her flesh and mana finished remolding before the skill was done, but she was able to totally change the skill and upgrade it as well, both done seamlessly and without any backlash. The skill wouldn't be in any way weak or unfamiliar for her; it was customized just how she desired and she understood it even better now than she had before.

  Skill upgrade complete.

  Crush becomes Spatial Obliteration.

  Spatial Obliteration Platinum[2]

  {Manipulate the power of space to create a devastating blow that can fully obliterate the spatial structure around it. Can be used to augment an attack or as a targeted strike to obliterate a specific area. The laws of spatial focus are undone by your will.}

  Beth was finished on the platform, the whole thing shutting down after her skill upgrade was complete. She had to do a double-take, more than pleased at the results she was able to generate; her new skill was far more powerful, to the point where, at the same rank as it had been, it would have been twenty percent stronger, at absolute minimum. Now, with it at Platinum[2], it was incredibly destructive; in combination with Beastly Body, she would be able to dish out almost incomprehensible damage, especially given her current rebirth and stat spread.

  Not only that, but if she was reading the description correctly, the skill could be used at range, similar to Celestial Annihilation. She would have to do some testing, but it looked like she would be able to pick an area of space around her and destroy it, just by concentrating on it. That made it an even scarier skill than Celestial Annihilation, as she didn't need to move or use her body with Spatial Obliteration, nor even fire out the attack from around her; she could just pick an area near her and destroy it. Platinum-level skills were truly crazy, especially ones that weren't just tier one or tier two.

  "That looked…terrible," Kris commented as Beth staggered off the platform, running her healing skill to regenerate.

  "I pulled in more mana and energy," Beth said as Sera wrapped her arms around her. "It gave me a lot of benefits, but it really, really fucking hurt."

  "No thanks. I think I'll just take it on normal mode," Andrea said, shaking her head before giving her whole body a shake and jumping on her toes for a second. "Okay girl, you got this."

  Andrea stepped up on the platform and activated it with a concentrated drop of mana, the same way Bjorn had, not trying to one-up the flashier ones. She gasped as the energy pierced her body, grunting and clenching her teeth as her body was purified. If she had never had any elixirs, which was pretty much impossible for someone of her skill and level, the formation would be hugely beneficial. If she had taken elixirs, like they all had, it would still greatly improve her physical body and do quite a bit to help in improving her mana reservoir, which was the greater benefit.

  Andrea took five minutes, like the first two had, and then had to be helped off the platform, which Beth did easily, simply picking the shorty up and carrying her back a small distance. Kris stepped up next, slowly walking up to the platform and pausing a few seconds before tentatively placing a foot on it. When that foot wasn't immediately blasted off, she firmed up a bit, stepping up with her other foot and standing in the center of the platform. She took quite a few deep breaths before dropping some concentrated mana from her finger onto the front of the platform. Kris was clearly not concerned with competing with the others, as she started cursing and groaning right away, pushed quite far by the pain. Despite her constant nervous state and her timidity, she still stuck out the full time, with plenty of cursing and painful screams. Bjorn picked her up when the platform shut off and carried her to the side.

  Blood and Val each took a turn next, with Blood taking quite a bit more time, just as Beth had. The wolf didn't make any comment, but Beth knew she had taken the opportunity to upgrade herself further like Beth had. The heavy smell of burnt fur and cooked wolf flesh was another clear indication that she had pushed herself rather far, and Val made sure she was alright before taking her own turn. She lasted the standard five minutes and then staggered off the platform, gracelessly collapsing into Blood's lap, though Beth suspected at least some of it was an act to garner some sympathy from the wolf. After Val was done, Sera went last, also taking more than five minutes. Beth was interested to talk to the two of them in a bit, after they finished this run, and figure out exactly what they had upgraded.

  "Is that everything?" Beth asked once they were all healed up, looking at Bjorn in particular.

  "It should be," he replied, though he was a bit hesitant.

  "I think there's one more thing down here," Val said.

  "Really? Where?" Bjorn asked.

  "Northern end," Val said, pointing to their left. The energy device was in the center of the room, but the room was longer north-to-south than east-to-west, so they were going rather far away from the device to get to the north wall.

  "Let me see if I can find anything," Bjorn said, walking over to that end of the room.

  "Do you want me to cut it?" Veren asked.

  "'When all you have is a hammer,'" Beth said.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Veren asked, narrowing his eyes.

  "'When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.' Meaning you think of solving every problem the same way, whether it's a good way or not," Beth answered.

  "How about this? 'In front of absolute strength, all tricks are useless,'" Veren responded sarcastically.

  "Touché," replied Beth.

  "What are we looking at?" Andrea asked, attempting to distract from the argument.

  "A wall, I would think," Veren said, looking at the wall with a raised brow.

  "There's something hidden here," Blood said then, pointing at a part of the wall near the northeast corner of the room.

  "Are you sure?" Val asked a bit dubiously. "I don't think there's anything very different here…"

  "No, she's right," Bjorn said. "There's an inscription hidden here."

  Bjorn ran two fingers along the wall and made a small, thin inscription light up. Val immediately dove on it, tracing it before writing around it with her fingertip with a bit of mana. Val's writing caused a reaction, the original runescript lighting up as she finished with her tracing. Right after Val lifted her finger from the wall, four areas on the wall shifted and revealed far more, and more detailed, runes. Val immediately began analyzing them while the others watched her work. Nobody else in the group was a full Enchanter, and they could only rely on Val to figure it out.

  "Want me to cut it?" Veren asked.

  Or they could rely on Veren to cut it.

  "No," Val answered shortly, still studying the runes.

  Bjorn was the only one who was really of help, though the others did know a bit of runes here and there. As they were written by or made by titans, Bjorn could offer some insight into the unique quirks that his species had in their rune work. That helped Val out quite a bit, and it only took her a couple hours to solve the four new pieces of rune work. Beth and Sera were sprawled out on some random furniture that Sera had produced from her storage, Veren was sleeping, Blood was talking quietly a bit with Kris, and Andrea was training a skill. Everyone's attention snapped to the wall as soon as Val was done, however, as there was a massive change, with a large section sliding open, revealing a passage into a small room.