novelBasilisks Breath 2
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Standing in an open space and making sure that there was no one surveilling him right now, Daneel took a deep breath before saying, "Activate the Basilisk's Breath."
Suddenly, he felt as if something was... different.
Initially, everything looked the same, so Daneel why he had this feeling.
However, when a small insect flew past him, he understood, and tried to control his shock.
He could see each and every individual beat of its wings, along with all the details of its body, complete with the almost microscopic drop of blood on its stinger which meant that it had just fed somewhere.
It was moving slowly, but Daneel could tell that it would have zipped past him by now if this strange inheritance weren't activated.
Was it only his senses? Or his body too?
Curious to check it out, he raised his hand in an attempt to catch the insect.
He had taken care to move normally, but with disappointment, Daneel watched as his hand also moved in slow-motion.
What was even stranger was that when he tried to change the direction of movement of his hand to accommodate for this slow-motion, there was a delay during which it continued its earlier path.
All in all, the end result was that the insect continued on to its next target easily while Daneel could only stand and keep watching it.
"Deactivate"
[Inheritance Deactivated]
As everything came back to normal, Daneel finally managed to regain control of his body.
It was... weird.
He had had high hopes for this inheritance, but what use was it if all it could do was let him analyze things faster?
Yes, this was also very impressive and made him understand partly how Skrrag had been able to attack him before he even landed an attack, but if he couldn't move faster to take advantage of the fact that he could observe things sooner, wouldn't it all go to waste?
As he placed this question to the system, the answer made him hit his head in realization.
[The Inheritance places Host in a heightened state where all aspects are magnified. This also applies to the effort put forward by the body, with the drawback being the time delay, which is something that host must adapt to. ]
He was tempted to ask how the inheritance worked too, but Daneel had decided that he would figure this out by himself.
So, Daneel activated the inheritance once again and focused on a distant point in the house.
He had chosen the hall as his practice ground, and as the mansion was quite large, there was a distance of at least 15 meters between him and the other end.
The problem before had been that he hadn't put too much effort into his body when he tried to catch the insect.
And of course, he hadn't accommodated for that weird time delay.
Now, the latter didn't matter, and he was going to take care not to repeat the former.
After activating the inheritance again, Daneel took a deep breath but was annoyed when he saw that there was a delay while doing this too.
The only thing which didn't seem to have a delay was the speed at which he observed things, as they seemed to have been happening in real time even though his body felt like it was stuck in mud.
Determined to overcome it, Daneel put his full force into his legs with the intention to shoot forward with a burst of speed.
BOOM
After that delay, the stone floor under his feet cracked as his whole body hurtled forward.
This speed was... incredible!
The system had been right: EVERYTHING was magnified, along with the speed and strength that his body outputted in this state, which was apparently proportionately to his effort.
CRACK
However, as he watched, his elbow bent in a weird angle, making Daneel realize something with horror.
He had forgotten about one thing: due to the time delay, he couldn't figure when to send the appropriate command to the rest of his body to run.
This was something which any normal human would never have to face.
If someone could control their body normally, after urging their legs to use the ground beneath them as support to shoot forward, anyone would be able to instruct their hands to swing at the right moment so as not to decrease the momentum.
Daneel couldn't do so!
"Deactivate! Deactivate! Deactivate!"
As he screamed this thrice, he crumbled into a heap on the floor, head first.
Both of his hands were bent backward in weird angles, and if it wasn't for the baptism of pain that Daneel had gone through just the day before, he would be screaming due to it right now.
The problem had been that his command to his hand made it move in the opposite direction to the momentum, and because it was already weakened from the day before, it had bent backward and snapped out of place.
Wonderful.
With just the first try of the inheritance, he had dislocated both of his hands!
Why the hell were inheritances so weird?
The first one he had gotten had almost made him go crazy, and the second made it so that he was more harm to himself than anyone else when he activated it?!
Cursing softly, Daneel used magic to first make a block of wood appear at his teeth which he bit down on.
Next, using telekinesis, he tried not to break his own teeth by biting down too hard while he reset his hands.
It was only then did he realize that even his legs hurt like hell, and that he was also feeling very fatigued.
Was there any good news at all?
Thankfully, there seemed to be some.
[Analysis Complete. 'Basilisk's Breath' Inheritance puts the user in a heightened state where all actions are magnified i. e the body enters into a state where it burns its energy reserves to maintain peak performance. This means that information is analyzed at a much faster rate, and the brain also functions faster, letting the user have more time to react to his surroundings. Amplification Factor: Power triples while endurance is cut down by half. Drawback: The nervous system is not sped up in this state, so the user must figure out how to control his body in the right way while accommodating for the increased power output and analysis time. ]
3-time increase?!
First, it was 5, now it was 3!
Daneel shut up when he heard this.
For a 3 time increase in power, he didn't care how many times he had to dislocate his hands: he would keep doing it until he got the hang of it.
Of course, one more thing became clear with this information: this inheritance was seemingly of a tier lower than the one he had obtained in Lanthanor.
But wait... back in Lanthanor, the system had been able to assimilate a trough of information to get the name and method of the inheritance.
How had it placed a name here when he had just been beaten up to obtain it?
[The inheritance has been named as per the legend of the Basilisk, which is linked to the Hidden Kill Sect. In the records, it was stated that the breath of the Basilisk contained the ability to send those who injected it into a frenzy where they killed themselves after obtaining a boost in power that they couldn't control. Hence, system has given this name to the inheritance. Would host like to change the name?]
"No, keep it."
Well, it sounded good.
Like the system said, it was apt.
Not daring to test it out again without having a proper plan first, Daneel encased his hands in ice to help with the swelling that came from being dislocated.
Easing himself down into a chair, he started to think of the other question that had been plaguing him.
One thing that the Sect Leader had told him before had jumped out to Daneel when he learned that he had obtained an inheritance: that it was the instructions of their ancestors to use this technique on those who wished to learn but didn't satisfy the conditions to do so.
Did they intend for someone skilled to be able to obtain something so precious if they had enough talent and willpower? If so, what was their motive behind this?
He didn't know, but Daneel was even more curious about the origin of this Sect now.
One thing was clear: there were clear rules laid down which HAD to be followed.
Could there be a rule which might allow him to challenge the Sect Leader in some way to take control of the Sect?
Daneel doubted it, but he couldn't know for sure unless he found a way to read their records.
And while thinking of a way to do this, he was reminded of that'dream' where he had bonded with Skrrag.
Now that he was completely conscious, he started to doubt that it WAS a dream. After all, it felt real.
Walking to the door, he decided to talk to the man to find out the truth.
However, just as he was about to open it, a knock sounded.
It was Skrrag, but he was accompanied by someone who had a very angry look on her face.
"Formation Master? Humph! Name yourself, and where you come from! How dare you break the rules of the Big 4 and fraternize with a Kingdom? By the order of the Matron, I will make you pay!"
If these words were said by anyone else, he might have panicked.
However, it was Sister Xuan, who actually winked secretly to him after making sure that Skrrag wasn't looking.
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