Bro, I'm not an Undead!

(A/N: Bonus PS Chapter)

~~~

[Omniscient Thought Cracker]

You have developed a 'brain' with a maximum of three structural compartments that can manage your thoughts more efficiently, dividing each segmented idea into a separate space where it can be fully explored without interrupting thought threads.

---

[Celestial Hack | Lv. None]

With the Omniscient Thought Cracker as a prerequisite, send your awareness beyond the folds of worlds, of certain Rules and ethereal barriers to visit spaces within the SAME TIME junction, provided a sturdy image as a reference.

Mana Requirements: None.

Duration: 2 minutes

Cooldown: 10 days

~~~

"What the hell..?" Skullius thought as his body went through the final calibrations of this initial modification.

A brain and a skill that could... look through worlds?!

This was cracked!

Insane!

Skullius could feel the [Omniscient Thought Cracker] forming in his head, though it wasn't what he had expected. He understood what a brain was because of the information he retained through [Basic Evil Sanction] but the mass of bulged, worm-like flesh he expected to sprout inside his brain wasn't what he got.

Instead, a tiny sparkling object the size of a grain of sand, hardly what one would call an organ, nested in his noggin instead.

This was his brain.

The [Omniscient Thought Cracker].

With a closer look, one would find that it had rough, white edges like a white stone, as well as three clear demarcations of the compartments that the skill description expressed.

When the [Omniscient Thought Cracker] appeared, a steady ease fell on Skullius' mind and he felt his thoughts become exceedingly clearer and... free.

Furthermore, there seemed to be a buff on how on he thought and strangely, he could decide to place a thought in this brain of his or leave it empty.

Like this, it would simply be maximising his mind's ability to think!

"Woow. Who knew thoughts could feel so... light..." Skullius voiced with a refreshed breath, one that felt real.

It really didn't seem like he was an imitation or a discount of something anymore. It was like he was becoming something... Celestial!

Yes.

Not only was he no longer something fake, certain limits that had existed in him were lifted and with this came another notification!

[+15,000 to Intelligence]

This was incredible.

If Intelligence meant smartness, Skullius would have been a professor by now, or at least the equivalent of one.

Getting this weird brain gave Skullius a lot to think about for sure but what he couldn't get off his mind was the skill [Celestial Hack].

This skill was like [Beyond the Hype]. It couldn't be levelled up. There needed to be a special catalyst to make it evolve like the Luminant Seed or something similar.

Its effects...

'That's ridiculous. Can I really look into another world?' Skullius asked himself, hung up on this idea specifically.

Even if it was for 2 minutes, this was insane!

As long as he had a vivid image of what he wanted to focus on, he could see it apparently.

'The more this skill levels up, the crazier it becomes...' Skullius thought.

When he thought about the evolution of [High Cosmetic Body] he shook his head.

Truly, given its name which had the word 'Celestial' in it, something as absurd as this was possible.

No.

Rather, given the fact that this skill was a Supreme level skill, this shouldn't be surprising at all.

What was a Supreme skill?

Sure, it was the highest form of skill one could attain, its power being above normal, Special and Super skills. But what else was a Supreme skill capable of? Was it only power?

Skullius checked the description of [Great Celestial Counterfeit]. It didn't change much from the original when it was still [Flesh It Like You Mean It] besides a few relevant switches in terminology as the skill fundamentally served the same basic purpose.

In fact..

"It's effects still last for 24 hours, huh?" Skullius said, his new brain helping him process his thoughts.

So... given what his body was capable of so far and the limits this Supreme skill had...

Skullius cranked his mind and his brain.

"Does this mean that a Supreme Skill is a skill able to perfectly ignore some Rules of a world or worlds but has to be bound by one specific condition?" he thought with narrowed eyes.

That seemed like the logical route to think through.

Otherwise, why wouldn't the time limit for his transformation increase?

You could be walking around as a Hybrid Luman for days on end by now!

As he recalled, VOW stated that [Flesh It Like You Mean It] was a complementary skill to the [Lifeless Evolution Package], its main use being to allow Skullius to blend among the humans.

If that was case...

"Then I'm definitely right," Skullius said with a chuckle.

This subject was one with tonnes to explore so he pushed it to the back of his mind for now as he had a Cluster to deal with right now.

Still, several more notifications flew in.

[The basic effect <WEIGHT> applied to your mana grows stronger]

[The skill 'Primal Caution' reacts favourably to your strengthened internal musculature]

"Oh," Skullius expressed surprise.

His WEIGHT property actually grew some more?

Hehehehehehehehehe!

Dear skies!

The Hybrid Luman grinned maliciously.

Quickly following these notifications that made him wonder how much stronger his mana would grow...

[A random skill from your 'Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator' form will now be selected for your permanent use in the 'Hybrid Luman' form]

"This is it!" Skullius resisted the evil thoughts from just now and voiced expectantly, his body finally settled down. Thankfully, since he was wearing the VergeRider armour, he could have expanded to be the size of a small hill and it still wouldn't have been torn or damaged. Even if it was, it would recover with his supply of Null Life Essence.

However, Skullius' thoughts ran to what was about to come.

A skill from his real body into this one.

[The skill 'Static Limbo' has been selected]

...

Skullius' mood instantly became sour.

Seriously?

"Ugh," Skullius voiced in disappointment.

[Static Limbo].

This was one of the most basic Null Life skills there was. It could freeze only a SINGLE opponent in place, the success and duration of this skill depending heavily on the overall difference in strength between Skullius and his opponent.

The worst part was that unlike [Unbound], which had an <Upgradeable> tag, this skill apparently couldn't be evolved.

This was why Skullius rarely used it.

"You know what? It doesn't matter. I should be grateful for what I got," the Hybrid Luman spat the negatives and instead focused on his body.

He was several times stronger than before physically and with the new organ, his brain, he could process a lot more information at once. That was benefit enough for one day.

'Maybe it's like a pattern...'

This thread of strength, mental strength, made sense if he took the time to think about it.

With [Beyond the Hype] to help him process information faster and now [Omniscient Thought Cracker] to compartmentalise said thoughts...

It seemed [Great Celestial Counterfeit] was leading him somewhere.

Somewhere grand.

His mentality and awareness seemed to be the general focus of this skill.

"Interesting," Skullius said with a charming smile while brushing his hair back.

"Are you done sulking and chuckling to yourself, Master?" Red Rage asked from above.

"You bet," Skullius said as he held the hilt to the sheathed sword at his waist.

The sheath was dark, with a golden red mouth, the golden hilt to a modified and bettered Demion's Dance which had several new points of decoration lit up a beautiful sheen, proudly giving an elegant glimpse at its fullness.

Honestly, the advancement of [High Cosmetic Body] only accounted for extras to Skullius. Save for [Celestial Hack], the powers he got added quite a bit to his arsenal but in his mind, they could not compare to the strenuous amounts of work he had dedicated himself to in the last month and a half.

The skills he had generated from his hard work mattered more to him than this and they were strategically produced to form Skullius' perfect combat style as the Hybrid Luman, something only those he had killed in the past chunk of time knew.

The world was yet to know just how monstrous Skullius was, skill-wise as he had also been keeping a low profile. At least by limiting his public presence.

His long list of unused skills was gone and the confidence he exuded right now was well earned.

A third of that was something he owed to Silrat and he could say the man was very happy with results he had seen so far.

"Let's go, Red bro," Skullius said, taking steps towards the large, arching blue crack hanging in the air above the large field of green grass. Purple bits thrummed around it like the rhythm to an audio spectrum, making it seem alive.

The large volumes of mana hissing from the Cluster made Skullius excited and they did the same for Red Rage as well who decreased his altitude, his long cape billowing in the wind.

"Finally!" the Juvenile Pelvic Arbiter said as he and his master walked into a massive space filled to the brim with familiar monsters.