Secret Art Incantation

The essence of Secret Arts was a kind of curse.

Secret Art Incantations combined mysterious items to draw out the mysterious energy within them and apply it to the target.

Because mysterious items came in all shapes and forms, and Secret Arts lacked the established principles of Magic, they were a practice built on experience. Behind every mature, controllable Secret Art Incantation lay countless failures.

Those failures could very well cost lives.

Most Secret Arts practitioners might spend their entire lives without discovering a single Secret Art Incantation.

Having one or two Secret Art Incantations of their own was the greatest dream of every practitioner.

But players, who weren't afraid to die, had far fewer qualms.

Professional Secret Arts players could even put together compilations of failed incantations featuring "ten thousand ways to die" and post them online for everyone to marvel at.

As players continued developing them, Secret Arts had rapidly grown from an obscure system in Era into a popular one. And as supplies became more abundant, players had more and more top-grade items to use up in experiments, giving rise to all kinds of outrageously powerful Secret Art Incantations.

In the later stages, Secret Arts—with no upper limit—became the most powerful system in Era.

Just look at Clear Sky's Wings of Time and Space, and you'd know how overwhelming Secret Arts could become in the later stages.

But with the resources currently available, Luke couldn't perform anything too extravagant.

He could only choose from the materials at hand a Secret Art that would let him quickly gain some ability to protect himself.

An accidental discovery inside the Whisperer's Mystic House had convinced Luke which Secret Art Incantation to perform this time.

Bloodline: Taotie

The name sounded impressive... because this Secret Art had been developed by players, who had named it themselves.

It wasn't especially advanced, but it suited Luke's needs right now.

Clear Sky took out the black wooden carving she had bought from the Whisperer's Mystic House and placed it in Luke's hands.

Controlling two bodies at once was a little awkward, but once she got used to it, she could manage some simple interactions.

Luke cupped the carving in both hands, pointing the snake's head toward himself.

Rhythmic drumming filled the secret chamber.

Then, in the candlelight, the phantoms of trolls wearing animal-skull masks appeared one by one. They gathered around Luke, beating waist drums and dancing a ritual dance.

They chanted in unison, their calls steady and rhythmic.

The Viper carved into the wood in Luke's hands moved.

It slithered upward, then coiled like a lump of droppings atop the cylindrical piece of wood. Its head kept its eyes fixed on Luke as it flicked its red tongue.

Clear Sky stepped closer and held a small piece of meat in front of the little snake.

The snake swallowed the meat in one bite.

Then it began to writhe in agony.

A pair of dragon horns pierced the skin on its head and emerged, while four dragon claws sprouted from its belly.

The black snake skin peeled back from head to tail. Its tiny scales turned into large, crystal-like Dragon Scales, and its color changed to red.

It raised its head and let out a faint dragon's growl, then breathed a small jet of fire, like a lighter's flame.

A pair of leathery wings unfurled from its shoulders.

After eating the dragon meat Clear Sky had fed it, the little snake had become something like an Eastern Yinglong. It spread its wings, circled Luke once, then landed on the back of his right hand.

Its tail curled around his wrist, and its body gradually sank into his skin.

A red Dragon Snake tattoo appeared on the back of Luke's right hand and extended to his wrist.

The troll phantoms' dance shifted to a joyful rhythm.

They swayed their bodies, beat their waist drums faster, and danced toward Luke.

One by one, they merged with him.

The drumming and phantoms gradually faded away.

Now Luke felt a fierce restlessness welling up from deep inside him. His muscles twitched out of his control, and his bones cracked.

The agonizing pain made him open his mouth wide, but no sound came out.

Clear Sky handed him a bottle of Mind-Focusing Potion. Luke took it and gulped it down.

Clear Sky handed him a bottle of Stamina Potion next, and Luke gulped that down too.

The potions took effect quickly. The pain remained, but it was bearable.

The changes to his bodily functions rapidly consumed his stamina and energy. Whenever he was about to reach his limit, he took another potion from Clear Sky and drank it.

Luke was beginning to be glad he hadn't chosen a high-level Secret Art Incantation. If he'd tried one, he probably would have burst apart in an instant.

The pain and physical changes continued.

It took a full two hours for things to gradually settle.

Luke's clothes were soaked with sweat, and more than a dozen empty potion bottles lay scattered on the floor.

At the same time, Luke could feel the changes the Secret Art had brought him.

His body and appearance hadn't changed much, but the surge of strength and heightened senses were things he'd only ever experienced in Clear Sky.

He still didn't feel as strong as level-60 Clear Sky, but compared to his former self, he'd entered an entirely new realm.

He was probably stronger than a two-star hero, but slightly weaker than a three-star one.

Once the strain brought on by his increased strength had finally passed, Luke let out a long breath.

Then he raised his right hand and looked at the tattoo on its back.

Taotie: A Troll Bloodline developed by players from a tribe of Carnivorous Trolls in the Mandel Jungle.

Players with the Taotie bloodline possessed troll strength and their powerful regenerative abilities.

The Carnivorous Trolls had another special ability: by eating meat, they could temporarily gain the strength of the creature it came from.

This ability came from the totem they worshipped... the Svenbornbarry Snake.

Players called it the "Greedy Snake."

The Carnivorous Trolls sealed the bodies of old Svenbornbarry Snakes that had died of old age inside a special kind of tree found in the Mandel Jungle.

As the tree grew, the Svenbornbarry Snake fused with it, forming a Svenbornbarry Snake pattern on the outer layer of the trunk.

The pattern looked as if it had been carved into the wood.

The Carnivorous Trolls would cut down that section of the tree and perform a ritual. By feeding the Svenbornbarry Snake meat, they could gain the strength of whatever creature the meat came from.

The meat had to be raw, and there had to be a lot of it.

The ritual itself was a kind of Secret Art.

After a player learned this Secret Art, they improved it through experimentation, eventually creating the Troll Bloodline Secret Art called Taotie.

Players with the Taotie bloodline didn't need to eat raw meat themselves. They only had to feed the meat to the totem snake, and they could also store the gained strength for a period of time.

When the snake on the back of Luke's hand was in Dragon Form, it meant that some of Red Dragon Nilcolon's power had been sealed inside the Dragon Snake's body.

Luke released the sealed power of the Red Dragon.

The Dragon Snake flew out from the back of his hand.

It roared. This time, it didn't make the "squeak-squeak" sound from before; it let out a true dragon's roar.

Its body grew larger in an instant. After circling Luke once, it quickly turned into a shower of sparks and burrowed into his body.

At that moment, Luke's eyes became dragonlike, with vertical pupils. Golden light blazed outward from them.

Red Dragon Scales spread across his skin.

His face also took on a slight draconic appearance. Each time he breathed, sparks flew from his nostrils.