Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 155: Wonders of Water

Adam closed his status and asked Thalia "Are there different grades to Concepts?"

Thalia, who had pocketed the skill book now, nodded as she took out a manual and said "Everything you need to know about Concepts is in there. Of course, there are also the teachings about the water element. However I do have to warn you, you won't be given the answers, this manual will only show you the way."

Adam nodded and took the book.

[The Wonders of Water]

There was only a title, but no description. Adam opened the book and saw explanations about concepts. Apparently, Concepts were the first step toward understanding the world itself. One would first start with a Concept, which would transform into an Essence, before completing into a Rule.

Those were the three stages of comprehension. A Concept wasn't limited to elements either, as there existed such things as the Concept of Strength, or the Concept of the Sword.

Right away, this made Adam doubt Thalia's claim that every skill above D Rank needed a Concept to be understood. After all, although he had mastered [Barbarous Roar], he didn't get any Concept out of this.

Following that, Adam also found out about something interesting. Not all Concepts were equal. This would actually depend on someone's strength, or more precisely, on their class.

First, it was many times harder for an A Class or lower to start understanding a Concept. It wasn't impossible, but it was complicated.

When they are born, every humanoid would have a certain affinity toward certain concepts. For example, Orcs have an affinity for the Concept of Fire, Northmen for the Concept of Ice and the other races were the same.

But unless one's talent was very good, then relying on this initial affinity to comprehend a Concept was very hard. And this is why Classes were created by divinities, they were made to give humanoids a better affinity toward the different Concepts.

Actually, that was only the case for the best Classes, those S, SS and SSS Classes. This is because even though the gods are very powerful, forcefully changed the inner bodies of beings, changing their affinities and strengthening them was very complicated, and limited.

That's why, the better the talent, the better their affinity to their new Concept would be. A Ranks' talent wasn't good enough to gain a new affinity, and so they would have to rely on their initial affinity.

As for S Ranks, they would be able to connect with the weakest kinds of Concepts, the Basic Concepts. SS Classes would connect with Advanced Concepts, and finally SSS Classes with Sovereign Concepts.

The difference in strength between those different levels was quite big too as it was of the order of 10. This meant a Sovereign Concept was 100 times stronger than a Basic Concept. Moreover, it would be capable of countless transformations. For example, Adam could not only use liquid water, but it's other two forms too and apply his Concept on them.

This also meant that Adam's 0.1% understanding over the Sovereign Concept of Water was as strong as 1% of an Advanced Concept, or 10% of a Basic Concept.

And this led to the next point, the skills. To master most C Rank Skills, one would need to understand 1% of the Basic Concept related to it. For a B Rank skill, it would be 10%, and for an A Rank one needed to fully understand a Basic Concept.

At the same time, 0.1% of an Advanced Concept was enough to use a C Rank skill, and so on. This also meant that to use an A Rank, imagining one has access to a bottomless source of Aura, then even a Bronze Rank could launch an A Rank skill if they wholly understood a Basic Concept.

It would also work in the same way for the higher realms of comprehension, be it for Essence or Rules.

Adam also noticed that the power of comprehension was closely related to the Gates. More precisely, for the Gates starting from the 5th Gate. Once one opened the 5th Gate and opened their domain, this domain's strength would vary on two things.

First was the cultivation of the caster, and secondly was their comprehension. However, only an Essence could be used alongside a Domain. The power of a Concept was not compatible with the power of a Domain, no matter the rank.

This meant, to use the power of their comprehension alongside their domain, one had to comprehend at least 1% of an Essence, so those who understood Basic ones would be advantaged at first. However, it also meant that the moment one was able to understand even 1% of a Sovereign Essence, then the power added to their domain would be as strong as the power added by a basic Essence that had been fully understood.

Finally, after that came the teachings on the water element. After a moment of reading, Adam asked Thalia "Is this waterproof?"

Thalia looked confused, before she looked at the canal and said "It is. I will send you a message when the boat is ready to leave."

Adam nodded at her and left toward the lake. There, he jumped into the water and quickly moved away from the shore.

He saw a lot of sea life under the water, some were harmless, and others not as much but they were all in the weaker levels.

Adam gradually reached the seabed, but he did not read the manual. First, he wanted to really grasp and understand what he already understood.

Because he had understood what he did without realizing it and integrated it into a skill, although the system said so the knowledge didn't really belonged to him. If it did, then with his current understanding he would be able to master [Lunar Smite] in a matter of seconds and fuse it with his [Aqua Slash].

But for now his current understanding of the Concept was too attached to his [Ice Statue] skill, so he didn't really know what he had understood and what was part of the skill.

Adam wanted to start training, but he remembered Neith. Unlike the Gates, every being had access to the power of understanding, and only now did Adam realize Neith had been using it in the past. He tried to reach out to her mind, to tell her about everything he learned, but discovered with a light probe that she had fallen asleep.

So he decided to let her sleep and began his training. He could still tell her later.

Instantly, Adam's entire surroundings were turned into ice, the water forming an ice prison around him. But Adam didn't care, this was his own ice.

However, the surrounding wild life wasn't the same. Because he was at the epicenter Adam was only covered in ice. However, as it extended the ice formed into spikes out of the surrounding water, and many being were killed.

Adam recovered the Aura he spent quickly and changed the ice surrounding him into water once again, before using the area of effect version. This time, everything within a 50 meters radius was turned into ice.

On land, only the surface he hit and those connected would have the frost power transferred through them, but while in water every bit of water would be frozen. After thinking about it, maybe that the next step for this skill, to turn it into an A Rank Skill, would be to learn how to freeze the air as well.

But that would be for later. Adam had mentally compared the two times he used the skill, and was thankful he had understood a skill with two versions. Because they were inherently the same skill, to execute those two skills the Aura had to be manipulated in the exact same way.

But since the two had different effects, then there was obviously something different about the way those skills were launched. This 'something' was his understanding over the Sovereign Concept of Water.

Having started to identify his understanding of the Concept within the skill, Adam turned the ice around him into water once again as he wanted to test one last thing that should help him as well.

He got a little further away from the shore, and also deeper into the canal. However, even at it's absolute lowest the canal was only 600 meters deep, and that area was far from where he was. But he would do with what he had.