Parasitic Bone

Then Professor Portland's voice came from outside. "Kronos, it's me. Two people have come to your house and say they want to see you."

Left with no other option, Kronos had to put down what he was doing and let them into the house.

After Professor Portland entered the room, he brought in two people. Upon closer inspection, Kronos realized that they were Roel and Todd.

The two of them came together, and the first thing that came to Kronos's mind was that Beyonder Item made from the bones of Demigod. Regardless of success or failure, Roel would definitely come to find him.

As for Mr. Todd, his duty should be to protect the Artisan's safety; whether he needs to protect Beyonder Item as well is something Kronos doesn't yet know.

It was just an Beyonder Item. Kronos had no intention of hiding Portland's thoughts and was about to ask about it when Portland spoke first.

"You guys chat, I have some things to take care of in the Laboratory, I need to go take care of them first."

Kronos knew that Professor Portland was being evasive, but he didn't force him to stay.

After Professor Portland left, Kronos finally asked, "Well? Did you get what I asked for?"

Roel looked at Kronos with a somewhat evasive gaze, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

Kronos laughed, "Just tell me the truth. I told you before, it's okay even if we fail."

Kronos could tell that Roel hadn't actually failed, but something might have gone wrong, which was why he was hesitant to speak.

Looking at Roel, Mr. Todd couldn't hold back and blurted out, "He succeeded. He forged an Beyonder Item using that Demigod's bone, but the negative effects are quite severe."

After saying that, Todd looked at Roel and said, "If you don't tell me now, I will. You haven't told me much, so I can only guess. If there's a misunderstanding and it causes delays, that's your responsibility."

Upon hearing this, Roel took a deep breath and began to explain.

"Actually, after completing that Beyonder Item from the Dream Stealer, I gained some understanding of how to guide Demigod- level abilities."

"To put it simply, abilities below the Demigod level are just ordinary skills, but at the Demigod, these abilities transform into the rudiments of authority."

"In order to grasp this nascent authority, starting from Demigod, the bodies of Beyonder will begin to transform, until they reach the Sequence Two Angel Level, at which point they will exhibit the state of Mythical Creature, because that is the ultimate form of this authority."

Kronos could understand this persuasion: the end of every Pathway was the True God, and the form of that True God was the form of the ultimate vessel of authority that Roel spoke of, and the form of this vessel could change.

The most obvious example is the Death Pathway. Initially, the endpoint of this Pathway was the Phoenix Ancestor. Therefore, in ancient times, the Mythical Form of this Pathway was the Phoenix.

In the Fourth Epoch, the Death Consul Salinger ascended to the status of True God, becoming the vessel of the Death Authority.

The Underworld Emperor Salinger was the god of the dead, a subordinate deity of the Destroyer Wolf Fregra. After the Destroyer Wolf's fall, he sought refuge with the Phoenix Ancestor Gregari. Unlike the Blood Emperor Tudor and the Night Emperor Trensost, he was not human, but a feathered serpent. Therefore, from then on, the mythological form of this path changed to the feathered serpent.

Kronos could understand all of this, but he couldn't understand how Roel, a self-taught Artisan, could know so much.

Kronos stared intently at Roel, making Roel feel somewhat uncomfortable, but he didn't stop and continued speaking.

"Therefore, this kind of authority is no longer something that can be controlled through other Pathway, which is why Artisan cannot create Beyonder Item of Demigod level or above. This statement does not refer to Artisan of Sequence 6."

"This refers to the entire Pathway. Even Angel within this Pathway cannot fully control the Beyonder Characteristic of Demigod and above. Since they cannot control them, the creation of Beyonder Item is out of the question."

Therefore, Beyonder Characteristic at the Demigod level and above can only be guided, directing their development and striving to achieve the desired outcome.

"At first, I didn't quite understand these claims. I thought that although the bone was Demigod- level, it was incomplete, and I should be able to control the power within it."

"But when I actually tried, I realized that what was difficult to control was not the immense power itself, but the essence of that power. So, although the power of this Demigod- level bone was incomplete, I still couldn't control the power of authority within it."

Just as Roel was intently recounting the situation, Kronos suddenly interjected with a smile, "Your teacher is quite impressive; he can teach you such advanced knowledge."

As Roel was enjoying himself, he casually chimed in, "That's right, my teacher is Roel..."

As soon as he said it, Roel suddenly Consciousness his mistake and quickly stopped talking.

Seeing that Roel had stopped talking, Kronos continued with a smile, "So our Artisan has a powerful teacher, I didn't know that before."

Then he turned to Todd and said, "Mr. Todd, do you think his teacher might suddenly show up and kill us both, since we pressured him so much back then?"

Roel wore an awkward smile. He hadn't said anything at first because he didn't trust Kronos and the others, but he was doing quite well now and hadn't thought about it anymore. He just hadn't expected to let it slip today.

Kronos was just joking, but he didn't expect Todd to be so ruthless. Todd pulled out a revolver and pointed it directly at Roel.

Roel almost burst into tears; why did they just attack him like that?

Startled, he cried out, "No, no, no! I didn't mean anything by it. I'm living a very comfortable life right now, and I won't cause any trouble..."

But in fact, Todd had already put the gun away the moment he shouted the first time. Kronos was just joking; how could he possibly be genuinely angry?

Todd is Sequence 5 Reaper of the Red Priest Pathway. He was Conspirer before, so how could such a person be a simpleton? He was just playing along with Kronos's teasing.

Roel rattled off a long string of words, mostly apologies and explanations. After he finished, he looked up and saw the two of them staring at him with half-smiles. Only then did he realize what was happening.

"Are you two funny? Are you trying to tease me like this?"

Kronos laughed heartily, "This is interesting! What would we be doing if it weren't?"

Kronos had no intention of digging deeper into Roel's background. They hadn't known each other for very long, and there was no need to do anything unpleasant. Although his teacher might be a formidable figure, formidable figures could also cause big trouble.

After laughing, Kronos continued, "Roel, you can continue. You didn't seem to finish what you were saying, did you?"

"Nonsense, I only said a little bit before you guys interrupted me and tried to scare me." Roel rolled his eyes.

He then continued, "After I realized I couldn't control the power within this bone, I had no choice but to try another method: guiding that power."

"Because it was my first time too, I was completely unfamiliar with the process, which is why I kept putting it off until today to see you."

"I can only guide the power within, not shape the appearance, because it's not Beyonder Characteristic. The shape of Beyonder Characteristic is easy to change, but I really can't do anything about the bones of Demigod; they're just too hard."

After speaking, Roel took out the Demigod's bone from his pocket and handed it to Kronos. From the appearance, the shape of the bone had not changed, only the color was slightly different.

Previously, this was bone, and its color was no different from ordinary bone. But now, this bone has become pure white and flawless, looking just like a piece of extremely high-quality jade.

Roel continued, "As you can see, its current state could easily be mistaken for jade, so if you don't mind, you can hold it as a small hand-held piece."

After saying that Roel glanced guiltily at Kronos.

Kronos asked, "Which part of the bone is this?"

Roel said, "I'm not entirely sure either, but I know that the ability to Pathway this is based on theft, so if I had to choose, I would definitely choose the bone in my hand. Judging by its length, it should be a metacarpal bone. As for the others, I'd have to find a professional to identify them."

Kronos nodded, signaling Roel to continue.

"While guiding the power within this bone, I learned that this Sequence is called Parasite, and its methods are very strange, possessing two abilities in total."

"The first is the most basic ability of this Pathway: theft. It can steal conceptual things, such as location and distance; it can easily steal the other party's thoughts without affecting oneself; the strongest is the ability to steal the target's ability. You can choose one of three. The higher your understanding, the higher the success rate of the theft. You can steal three Beyonder Ability, which last for two hours, but you can only steal one at a time."

"As for the second ability, it's Parasitism, which is also a form of theft. It steals life, including Parasitism theft at the physical level. It can Parasitism other people's bodies and comes in two forms."

"One type is the initial stage, which uses the host to hide itself, prolong life, and heal injuries. It can see everything the host sees and hear everything the host hears, but it cannot interfere with the host's thoughts or steal their ideas."

"The other type is deep Parasitism, a comprehensive control that is almost fused with the host's spirit, directly listening to their thoughts, understanding their intentions, and actively taking over the body. The host can only control their own thoughts; everything else is beyond their control."

"When I first learned about this ability, I was scared half to death. It's terrifying."

Listening to Roel's assessment, Kronos nodded. Indeed, although both were considered part of the Cowardly Trio," the other two Pathway were significantly less effective than the Error Pathway" in terms of their unorthodox approach.

Perhaps the problem isn't the Pathway, but rather the people involved.

Amon has truly mastered his own Pathway, while Mr. Door, sealed in the starry sky, willingly helped others upon his return, thus failing to demonstrate his power. As for the Fool Pathway, Klein is still too inexperienced; he was given too little time to showcase its Pathway.

After shivering, Roel continued, "This is the complete power of Demigod's authority. The power contained in that bone is only a little over half of that, so naturally it can't reach this level of strength."

"The current situation is the result of my best efforts."

Kronos could sense Roel's guilt, and he could understand why Roel this way.

Just as Kronos didn't press Roel’s Teacher for details, although they hadn't known each other for long, Kronos already had a basic understanding of Roel.

This person is quite cautious in their actions and is genuinely grateful.

So after Kronos opened the Manor's Treasury to him, he didn't immediately use the resources in the Treasury to practice. Instead, he studied the Beyonder Item little by little, and only began to put his theoretical knowledge into practice after it was solidified.

After each failure, Roel would apologize to Kronos with a sense of guilt.

It was precisely because of his personality that Kronos chose to trust him.

So Kronos waved his hand dismissively and said, "You don't need to feel so guilty. I told you the day I entrusted this to you that you were helping me out, and if it failed, it would be on my behalf."

Todd chimed in, "Yeah, I told you on the way here that the Argel family are all nice people, no one would blame him for anything, but he just looks so dejected, like he can't muster any energy."

Although Todd didn't have a deep connection with Kronos, he knew the Marquis Argel better, so he believed that a magnanimous father wouldn't raise a petty and narrow-minded son.

Although Todd tried to comfort Roel the whole way, it was just what an outsider would say, and it couldn't really put Roel at ease.

But at this moment, Kronos's words finally eased Roel's burden considerably.

"Boss, although this Beyonder Item has been successfully crafted, and I'm quite satisfied with its inherent abilities, there's a fatal flaw."

Having heard Roel's explanation, Kronos naturally understood the situation.

If the item is successfully crafted and its Beyonder Ability are realized as expected, then any problems can only be caused by negative effects.

Kronos said with a wry smile, "Go ahead and tell me, I can handle it."

"Then let me give you a full introduction to this Beyonder Item."

"This Beyonder Item is called the Parasitic Bone, and I named it."

Hearing this, Kronos silently muttered to himself, "What a terrible name-giver."

Roel continued, "This Parasitic Bone possesses two abilities: Parasitism and theft."

"Because the bone originally possessed incomplete power, and some was lost during the guidance process, its power is still far inferior to that of a true Parasite."

"Firstly, there's the ability to steal. I used all the experience I had from creating the previous Beyonder Item made through the same Pathway to preserve its ability to steal concepts. However, it can only steal one Beyonder Ability at a time, and the duration is only half an hour."

"Next is the ability to Parasitism. The ability to steal life is too difficult; I simply cannot retain it. However, both levels of Parasitism can be accomplished. The Parasitic Bone can help the user Parasitism a wisp of their thoughts onto the Parasite."

"This wisp of thought can slowly merge with the Parasite, developing from initial Parasitism to deeper Parasitism, until it completely replaces the Parasite; however, this process takes time."

"Furthermore, users cannot use this ability indefinitely. A user can only separate one strand of thought at a time. Only after this strand of thought is completely eliminated or completely replaced by the Parasite can another strand be separated."

After hearing the introduction of this Beyonder Ability, Kronos was still very excited. The power of this Parasitic Bone was definitely no weaker than that of a Demigod's Sealed Artifact, from which he could roughly estimate how severe the negative effects would be.

So Kronos said, "Then tell me about the negative effects of the Parasitic Bone."

Upon hearing this, Roel's face immediately fell.

"This Parasitic Bone has only one negative effect: each time it is used, one Beyonder Ability will be stolen. The user can choose which Beyonder Ability will be stolen, but the theft will be permanent."

Kronos and Todd were both shocked; the negative effects were truly severe!