Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1099: Personal Configuration



"Rather than explain what all these are verbally, it's probably better for me to impart understanding instead," Serenity said as Replicus gawked at the notifications, his thought phantoms scrambling to find what they meant.

Serenity then sent a soft stream of Null Life Essence into Replicus' head, and before the Penetrator knew it, he understood what Personal Configuration, Flaw De-demonization, Class Reinforcement and In-Verse glimpse were!

An indescribable burst of excitement rocked the Penetrator. Each of these things...

Replicus stared at Serenity with flaring sockets.

"Really?!" he said, awed.

Serenity merely nodded.

Only the dark void knew how long she had been waiting for Replicus\Skullius to reach this Tier so he could enjoy all these benefits and finally stand proud as a bearer worthy of contending with the others she had seen.

Replicus had been anticipating to see just what was so special about this Fourth Tier, and even before seeing the evolutionary options available at this stage and choosing one to adopt, he was already gushing with elation. It seemed worth it.

Just Personal Configuration alone blew his mind.

He couldn't wait to get started.

"This is a nice surprise," he said, his hands rubbing together maniacally.

Usually, when evolving, other than the actual process of evolution, Replicus would only get to speak to Serenity, but that hadn't even been an option for his third evolution since Serenity was with Skullius before a while ago.

Replicus came to appreciate the anomalous situation between himself and the original him. This reveal setup was twice as enthralling this way.

"Let's do this. Should I start with Personal Configuration?" he asked.

"Whichever you want to start with," Serenity said.

After a determined nod, Replicus had the guidance field begin the process of configuration.

However...

[Additions have been noted in the host body post 'Bringer of All' activation]

[Please wait...]

"Oh, right," Replicus said.

He didn't factor in that the guidance field was going to identify the tweaks he had done to his original body using the elements he had borne as the amalgam.

There were more than a few, after all, and it seemed the guidance field had to familiarise itself with these before proceeding with the Personal Configuration.

[You have learned 'Null Life Demesne']

[You have learned 'Reflective Null Cage']

[You have learned 'Soul Sense']

[You have learned 'Soul Resistance']

[You have learned 'Greatest Manamation']

[You have learned 'Manastanding']

[You have learned 'Manamorphosis']

[You have learned 'Budget Tug-of-War']

[You have learned 'Offender's Vacuum']

[You have learned 'Manalarity']

[You have learned 'Essence Deconstruction']

[You have learned 'Mana Centurion']

[You have learned 'Resource Vault']

[...]

[You have gained an affinity with 'Absolute Frost']

[You have acquired a Null Core]

Replicus would have grinned if he could.

Indeed, he had been learning all these skills when he was the amalgam through Red Rage's [Blessing of Serenity]. Some of them were too good to let pass, especially [Mana Centurion] and [Resource Vault] which practically made his mana reserves inexhaustible.

Unfortunately, he couldn't learn class or race specific skills from Red Rage and Araeyn, but that was fine. That would only render them useless as Apostles.

Even better than skills, Replicus had learned through having Araeyn's Null Core how to create one of his own. The process was vastly different from that of creating a mana core, and it had taken pretty much his entire duration as Prisma Vohnvolt Exonn to learn it.

Now, his hard work had paid off.

[Null Core: 150,000/150,000]

Currently, this was all Replicus could manage. His independent reserves of Null Life Essence from before, and his use of [Greatest Null Weaver] had allowed him to expand the core to this extent, but this was his current limit.

"Now," he said excitedly.

The guidance field quickly continued.

[Personal Configuration enabled]

[Please note, you will only be able to configure your body three times, which each configuration (modification) giving a single allowance for a special trait]

[Please choose Configuration 1]

Personal Configuration was simply an allowance given to Replicus for him to add physical

modifications to his body.

After he added said modification to his body, he was allowed one chance to give the modification a special trait - something supernatural or mystical.

Replicus already had a few ideas.

"I want to configure arms," he said.

As he was inspired by his Bringer of All form, he decided that having more than two hands was quite beneficial. However, he felt that the six he had before were a bit overkill.

"Give me two more," he said.

[Processing...]

According to the rules of Personal Configuration, modifications done to one specific part of the body with a specific change in change in mind, like Replicus' current demand, only counted as one modification. This worked very well in his favour.

A second later, Replicus felt his body churning, and his torso experienced several width and length adjustments before two arms identical to his original two spewed from it! Because of the Hollow Dusk's Prison's properties, these two arms were also covered in the smooth, starry design of the armour, which made the figure of the Penetrator look a lot more monstrous than regal - as it had looked before.

"Not bad," Replicus said as he tried to move his extra arms. At first, it was slightly difficult to coordinate them all, but soon he got the hang of it because of his experience as the amalgam. Red Rage and Araeyn stared at Replicus with amazement, the former more so.

"You look truly evil, master, and perhaps a step away from deserving an exorcism," Red Rage

commented.

"Shut up," Replicus barked.

At that moment, the Outworld Attic shook, and a few cracks appeared on the ground before everything quickly settled again, as though there hadn't been a disturbance to begin with.

Replicus' socket flames narrowed.

"We should hurry this up, Skullius," Serenity said.

"Right."

Replicus then commanded the guidance field to add another modification he had been passed

by his phantoms.

"I need some kind of nervous system that links my thought phantoms to my entire body,

especially my limbs," he said quickly.

[Processing...]

This was the second modification Replicus had thought of. If his thought phantoms actually

had more to do than just theorise and debate, his reaction speed could be bolstered manyfold. Despite how chaotic the phantoms could be, they actually had perfect synergy. It would only show now that they could assist Replicus in more than one way.

As he thought about the merits of this, Replicus felt a sensation akin to tiny cords of electricity spreading through his body from his head where they pooled, all the way to the

ends of his fingers and toes.

His body then shook as though walloped by vicious cold.

"Oh, I could get used to this."

"Now we can all get to have some fun."

"Hey Replicus Prime, mind transforming into your Hybrid Luman form for a bit? I want to...

test something."

"All hands on deck!"

As the phantoms joked and yelled excitedly, Replicus' arms swished about, some of them

shaking each other and performing strange greeting gestures that the Penetrator was baffled

by.

"Enough," Replicus said and took control of his arms.

"Are you going to settle for THAT Configuration we told you about next?" one of the

phantoms said giddily. "We have a lot of world-ending threats to beat. This might be our

ticket out of one of them. A fresh ticket."

Replicus sighed.

"I don't think we have a choice. We'll probably need it, as you say," he said ominously before

calling the guidance field and specifying what he wanted for his third modification.

[Processing...]

[Modification will take 00:02:59:59 to complete]

"Fine by me," Replicus said.