Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

CRASH!

The moment the Coronal Guard exploded, golden light scattered like shattered glass.

The Three-Star Holy Protection Priest shuddered, his composure forgotten as he desperately used his Flashing Skill to teleport again and again into the forest.

His white robe was torn, his pauldrons were askew, and his Magic Staff, long since broken, had been lost somewhere along the way.

But his enemy was still on him like a shadow.

He had just materialized beneath the canopy of a tree when, without warning, a crimson laser dot appeared on his back.

BANG!

In the next instant, an M1911 pistol round, fired from dozens of meters away, came whistling through the air.

The silvery-white electromagnetic projectile was astonishingly fast.

The bullet pierced through his right back and exited his left chest, kicking up a spray of bloody mist mixed with particles of light. The Holy Protection Priest’s body froze for a moment. His lips moved slightly, and a radiant glow from his Light Healing Skill spread across the gaping wound, rapidly mending the injury.

BANG!

The Triple Technique: Thunder-Piercing Limit Break was unleashed again. Another beam of electromagnetic radiance pierced his skull, completely extinguishing his life force.

’He was surprisingly tough.’

The Lv7 Coronal Guard could absorb damage for him, and the Lv7 Light Healing Skill had even unlocked a passive healing effect. Mechanically speaking, it was indeed a cut above the Wood Element’s Healing Skill.

As for the greatest reward, the Runes his opponent dropped included a Lv6 Flashing Skill and a Lv6 Holy Light Skill.

These were exactly what he needed.

BUZZ!

After Su Chen absorbed them one by one and supplied the necessary Spiritual Materials, his Sea of Consciousness trembled.

Upgrading the Flashing Skill to Lv7 was purely a numerical boost with no new mechanics unlocked, but that didn’t matter. Unless absolutely necessary, he would always keep the triple-woven Technique ’Aurora Flash’ active and had no intention of unbinding its components.

He had already deciphered the effects of the Lv7 Holy Light Skill, and now, through his First Authority, he obtained the effects and traits of that new level.

In addition to greatly enhancing its old traits, it also unlocked a new one: ’Radiant Brand.’ A successfully hit target would be forcibly marked, greatly reducing their Defense Power. Meanwhile, the reactive force of the impact would be converted into pure healing energy for the Spellcaster.

Even if he wasn’t injured, the excess healing—the ’overflowing life-glow’—would be converted into a Holy Light shield.

’Not bad.’

As one of the core components of the woven Technique ’Melted Core Collapse,’ the Holy Light Rune’s inherent attribute-enhancing traits made it compatible with most other Runes, making it absolutely crucial.

This upgrade undoubtedly caused his personal destructive power to skyrocket once more.

What pleased Su Chen even more was that, without him even realizing it, his personal All Elements Rune Map now only had three Lv6 Runes remaining.

And at this moment, the small tree rooted in the spiritual soil of his Sea of Consciousness, after a long period of accumulation, was finally undergoing a transformation.

Everything was falling into place.

WHOOSH!

A tiny point of pearly white light sprouted from the top of its trunk. A new branch immediately burst forth, rapidly growing into a main bough. The end of the bough was empty, as if waiting for a great fruit to form.

A stream of information flowed from it.

At that moment, the Third Core Authority of the Grand Elemental Master emerged.

’Perfect.’

Su Chen was inwardly amazed. To put it simply, the Grand Elemental Master could convert up to three mastered Elemental Runes into other Elemental Runes of the same level and type.

Elemental Transmutation. Same source, different form.

To put it more concretely, he could take an equivalent Lv9 Flame Burst Rune and convert it into a Wind Split Rune, as both belong to the Attached Damage type.

A Lv7 Healing Skill could be converted into a Light Healing Skill, as they were the same healing type, just with a different elemental attribute.

A Lv7 Shadow Jumping Skill could likewise be changed into a Wood Escape Skill, a Flame Jump, and so on.

It was worth noting that this was not a permanent transformation. The effect had a tentative duration of half an hour, during which he could cancel it to revert the Rune to its original state, or even change it into something else.

The Rune transmutation was limited to a maximum of three Runes at a time.

’This is incredibly useful.’

Su Chen was secretly thrilled.

As for limitations, the biggest one was that any Rune he transformed had to be one within his personal understanding; he couldn’t just change them into whatever he wanted at will.

But after another week, that requirement would become practically non-existent.

’I can totally live with that.’

This ’personal understanding’ meant he had to know the three core elements required to synthesize the target Rune.

Su Chen’s Intelligence Attribute hadn’t grown to the point of giving him a photographic memory or a ’memory palace’ like in the movies, but memorizing a thousand or so Rune synthesis formulas was still more than manageable.

And if worst came to worst, he had the brilliant and sharp-minded Ruoruo to back him up.

Of course, there was another hidden limitation: not all Runes belonged to a specific branch or type. Hard crowd-control Runes, for example, were a broad category. While changing Dark Shackles into Radiant Chain made perfect sense, whether it could be changed into the Water Prison Skill was debatable.

Take Water Mirror Refraction, for example. A reflection-type Rune like that couldn’t be classified purely as a shield-type, so it was unlikely it could be transformed into a lightning shield.

As for environment-shaping or terrain-altering Runes, they would also need to be further subdivided even within their own categories.

However, types like Attached Damage, Elemental Weapon, and body enhancement generally all fell under the same branch.

’I’ll test the effects after I unlock it.’

Su Chen thought with interest. Judging by the current situation, he probably wouldn’t have to wait long.

Indeed...

It wouldn’t take long at all.

The requirement to unlock this Third Core Authority was to raise all of his Elemental Runes to Lv7—a prerequisite that was yet another massive hurdle to overcome.

The cost in Spiritual Materials had also increased, now requiring six Spirit Marrow Crystals, but that was a trivial matter.

Immediately, he summoned Xiaoye and continued the hunt.

「One hour later.」

After hunting down and killing thirteen people, Su Chen still hadn’t managed to fill the gaps in his Rune Map as he’d hoped. Many of his targets only dropped piles of Lv4 Runes from other systems, though he did harvest a large amount of various firearms and ammunition.