Ascension of Chaos

The main reason I haven\'t entered a Gate thus far is a rather simple one.

All of these Gates are too high a level for someone to solo. At least, that\'s what Chaos said.

When I reach the Gate, I stop in front of the glowing crimson portal and identify it.

♢ Class E Gate: Avian Heights – Recommended level: 12 – Users Inside: 0 ♢

Then I check my own status.

The main reason I haven\'t gone into these Gates is because the recommended level is for an entire party of six users. Not for a single person to solo.

So I waited, and now my level should be high enough to solo the Gate without much trouble.

I focus on the numbers for my mana to check and make sure that my mana is currently evenly spread throughout the different magics I have. Gravity, fire, lightning, and decay.

Albeit with a bit more focus on decay and gravity than the other two. Since I\'ve spent more time focusing on those.

Fire and lightning are just easier to counter than gravity and decay. Especially since gravity is focusing more on me than the enemy and isn\'t really something to counter in the first place.

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I take in a deep breath after checking everything before reaching into my storage ring and grabbing a couple potions. Then downing them in an instant to recover my mana and health.

Nothing I can do to restore my chaos energy though, simply because there are no potions to restore secondary energies.

Was rather happy to find these potions regardless, even if I can\'t restore my secondary energy.

They were rewards from a couple of the Official System Events I was in.

I\'m also pretty sure that store in my Spire on a lower floor sells them straight from the System, which gets them from other users. But I haven\'t figured out their currency system yet.

Chaos just said to wait until the council meeting.

So I\'m mostly ignoring the stuff down there for now.

Anyways, I take another deep breath, my health and mana filled, before reaching for the Gate and entering it. Making a flash of crimson light shine from the thing, after which I find myself on a large tower stretching high into the skies.

Albeit one without any way to go down, and a bunch of other towers spread out for as far as the eye can see in the skies. And no ground down below.

But most importantly, I also see a bunch of avian monsters flying about through the skies.

Another reason I chose this particular Gate.

I glance at the number on the top left corner of my interface detailing the number of followers I currently have. A number that\'s grown all the way to the five digits by now.

And it\'s still growing. It\'s even about to reach the six digits soon.

In no more than just around a week since the tutorial began.

Rather frightening, if I\'m being honest. Having that many people interested in stalk- err, watching me.

But putting that aside, I flap my wings once while using a gravity magic spell to decrease my weight a little. Then I go ahead and begin sending out bolts of decay magic at the large birds flying around.

After activating Assimilate, of course.

Because I can never have too many Skill Trees available to me.

I kill one after another before they begin to fly after me. Clearly trying to kill me.

Thanks to my own wings along with my gravity magic, though, I manage to avoid them without much trouble. I even get a skill at one point from one of them making flying easier and faster. Which only makes it even easier to avoid the things while fighting back.

But when my mana reserves decrease down to about half or so, I go ahead and stop using magic spells to fight them.

Instead I focus on Chaotic Surge. Using my blades and the random effects that skill gives me to cut the avian monsters apart one after another.

Finding this to be far easier than the Domain I fought in during the tutorial.

Probably because that Domain was a higher level than I was when I entered. With that \'higher level\' being the recommended level for a group.

Not a single person.

So I slaughter one monster after another, slowly making my way through the Domain without bothering with whatever normal route the Domain has for traversing it. All the way until I find the mini boss of the Domain, having leveled up twice in the process of slaughtering the monsters.

After finding the thing, though, I simply turn around and fly away.

Deciding to rest until tomorrow inside of the Domain.

Simply to restore my mana and chaos energy. Not to mention my health, but that one didn\'t get used as much here.

But now that I have some time to rest, I find myself wondering about something.

I\'ve heard about people leveling up their skills multiple times by now. Whether through word of mouth directly or from the System Forums.

But I\'ve never leveled a skill.

At all.

Can I just not level the skills I get from others? Is that why?

I frown at the thought before checking my Skill Trees. Only to not find anything hinting at what\'s going on there.

It\'s strange.

I land on the edge of one of the towers, with my legs dangling over it and my arms folded under my chest as I try to figure out what\'s going on. And after several minutes of this, I finally just give up and move on to my source of information.

It takes me a few more minutes to build up the mental fortitude needed to call him though.

But when I do, I open my mouth and quietly state, "Chaos."

Seconds later, I feel his presence returning as he answers, "You rang?"

I blink at that before almost raising a brow.

Almost being the keyword.

Do you know why I\'m not leveling any of my skills? I\'m pretty sure I\'ve used them enough for it by now.

"That, my dear daughter, is because the skills from Skill Trees you\'ve taken with Assimilate cannot be leveled," Chaos says, sounding a little too happy that I\'m asking him for help.

Okay. And what about Assimilate itself?

"Some skills can\'t level up, sweetheart," Chaos says, once again using that term of endearment that I choose to pointedly ignore.

Thank you.

I lie flat on my back, staring up at the clouds above. Not a single speck of the stars or anything visible beyond the clouds.

"But," Chaos suddenly says, reminding me that he\'s still here. "Do note that, while you can\'t level them, they will automatically be assimilated at the level the user who had them had the skills at. Even if you haven\'t unlocked those skills yet."

Now that\'s nice to hear.

So I\'m not just stuck with a bunch of level 1 skills for life after all.

I continue staring up at the clouds for a bit, glancing at the number of followers in the corner of my interface as I do so and finding it to have broken into the six digits by now. Making over a hundred thousand people following me. Then I close my eyes, feeling rather sleepy. Most likely due to my complete lack of sleep in the past several days. What with having to focus on getting stronger, even if I do still get some sleep.

Fatigue isn\'t only about actual physical fatigue though.

I also only feel comfortable doing this because I know I\'ll wake up if anything gets nearby thanks to Enhanced Perception. Something I only learned about later on, after leaving the tutorial.

After a few seconds, as I\'m starting to nod off, I feel myself floating a little until I\'m lying down on the top of the tower itself without my legs dangling over the edge. So I crack my eyes open to look at what just happened, only to sense some fading chaos energy.

"Don\'t mind me," Chaos comments, making me lazily blink once before I lower my head again and close my eyes. "Sleep well, little one."