Damon's Ascension

"Pfff!!" Felicia couldn't hold it in and laughed, with the others smiling uncontrollably.

"Right and the other abilities?" Damon prompted with an amused smile.

Felicia tapped her lip and pondered how to phrase this one. "Well, for Data Parsing, it's like having subtitles and a translation guide for the universe. I can read and understand anything, no matter the language or distortion."

"Great, you'll be our translator for all things weird." Kyle encouraged with a thumbs up.

Felicia glanced at him askance. "Its not limited to just that, but sure, I'll do my best."

She shook her head slightly. "And for Tactical Computation…"

Felicia's tone grew a bit more serious. "This is what you'd call the scary part. I can simulate up to one million outcomes per second. These are not just guesses, but are akin to actual scenario branches. Like Doctor Strange in that one scene where he was checking outcomes, except I don't need to wave my hands."

Connor exhaled through his nose. "That's… genuinely insane."

"So you have a time based ability to predict the future?" Henry asked with hesitation.

"Not with a hundred percent accuracy. I can compute based on information and trajectories so the more information I have, the more accurate my projections." Felicia responded casually.

She then snapped her fingers. "And with Information Detection, you can see it as a form of picture echolocation, but instead of just seeing things, I feel invisible rules. I can sense cloaked enemies, fake environments, hidden traps and stuff that's layered in the 'code' of a place. I don't even need to look, just being nearby is enough."

Marshal nodded appreciatively. "A spiritual radar, basically."

"Heh, you're like a high tech orca. So are you saying that your illusion proof now?" Connor asked while sizing up Felicia.

"An orca's echolocation is one step below what I do." Felicia stated confidently.

"And then there was one. Virtual Simulation sounds interesting." Damon prompted once more.

"Yes, that is the one I'm most excited about this time to be honest." Felicia admitted.

She placed her palms near each other and spread them out slowly. "I can mentally enter a sandbox where time moves fifty times slower. There I can train, test abilities, model weapons, or just rerun fights to see what went wrong. It's like… having a personal Holodeck."

Henry let out a long whistle. "So what you're telling us is, if we give you five seconds, you get four minutes to prepare?"

"Pretty much." Felicia grinned.

Kyle scratched his head. "Forget the casino. Let's just give her all our skill cards and let her fight the next war on her own."

Bane smirked. "As long as she lets us be in her simulations, I don't mind."

Felicia's eyes sparkled, and she gave a small wink toward Damon. "Well… if you ask nicely, maybe I'll make you the main character."

Damon smirked faintly. "Noted."

"Alright Damon, no need to act mysterious. Show us how your mighty Internal Force skill has evolved." Felicia prodded with curiosity.

Now thrust into the fire himself, Damon curled his lip with amusement.

"Take a look then."

[Empty Soul Palm - Physical-Based Skill]

[Rank: S || Stage: S]

[Effect: This is an advanced martial skill that allows the user to transmute their physical stats - Power, Fortitude, Mobility, and Mentality - into a unique form of high-purity Qi known as Internal Force, refined from the user's vital essence. Internal Force at this stage gains purity and compression similar to a pseudo-divine resource, and is now capable of the following;

1. Presence masking: Within a 250-meter radius, the user becomes nearly undetectable by spiritual, sensory, magical, or technological means. All methods of detection are suppressed up to 80%, scaling with Mentality. This masking now includes intent suppression, making it extremely difficult to predict hostile behavior from the user.

2. Energy Infusion: The user can inject Internal Force into other people, objects, or constructs, granting them temporary enhancements based on the user's own stats. At S-Rank, the infusion can now adapt to the host's physiology or function, creating a specific effect like giving a machine temporary energy self-sufficiency, or accelerating regeneration in a wounded ally.

3. Regeneration: Internal Force can now regenerate lost limbs or repair critical organs over time, assuming the user has sufficient reserves. The effect now scales with Fortitude and includes pain nullification as well as bleed suppression during healing.

4. Enhancement: When used to empower martial skills or physical attacks, Internal Force now grants a base multiplier of 3.0x to all output damage or effectiveness. This scales with Power, and if the attack is a compatible martial skill, it is further doubled multiplicatively. Additionally, the elemental attribute of the Internal Force - detected to be Penetration - can now be consciously tuned.

5. Energy Emission: The user can now externalize Internal Force as ranged attacks like blasts, beams, pulses, or waves based on intention and Power stat. The intensity and control now rival advanced technological weaponry, and emission techniques can inherit the martial arts' structure if used alongside an external martial art.

6. Flight: Internal Force manipulation now permits freeform flight, not just gliding or levitation. The speed, altitude, and control during flight scale with Mobility, with the added bonus of aura streamlining, making the user frictionless and nearly invisible while airborne.

7. Energy Barrier: A powerful defensive dome of Internal Force can now be summoned, taking various forms (spheres, walls, directional shields) based on user control. Durability scales with Fortitude and total Internal Force reserves. This also reflects low-tier projectile attacks automatically.

8. Spirit Sense: The user can now sense souls, killing intent, lingering wills, and spatial disturbances within 500 meters. This awareness bypasses most illusions or sensory dampening and acts as a sixth sense, offering perfect combat spatial mapping.

9. Void Pocket: A personal sub-dimensional storage realm forms inside the user's Internal Force network. Can store up to 100 items or constructs (non-living) up to medium size. Items inside are suspended in stasis and do not age or deteriorate.

10. Dantian Expansion: The user's Internal Force storage multiplies according to the formula: (Fortitude ÷ Power) x Base Pool, where the base pool = (Power × Fortitude x Mobility). At S-Rank, this Internal Force pool now regenerates passively over time when idle and under no combat stress while also absorbing ambient energy if available.

Current units of Internal Force: 840.]

The Vanguard Team looked at the skill, then at Damon, each of them wearing strange expressions.

Damon, seeing their reactions, was amused. "What, can't reconcile the fact that a person with my heritage is in possession of such a skill from a whole other ethnicity?"

Henry tsked dramatically. "Boss, this is cultural appropriation, please turn yourself in."

The group burst into laughter, unable to hold it in.

"Not just appropriation, Boss Damon has basically looted a whole cultivation sect and made it look fashionable." Kyle said while wiping his eyes.

"I mean seriously, you're out here doing Daoist kung fu in a tailored tuxedo with a flintlock pistol tucked into a quantum holster." Nicholas added with a slight smile.

"Don't forget the flying bit! Our man's got flight now, literal qi flight. You gonna start reciting scriptures next, Damon?" Connor chimed in with a smirk.

Damon shrugged coolly. "If the scriptures teach me how to kill gods faster, I'll read them cover to cover."

"Damn right you would! Still… that Regeneration and Spirit Sense combo? That's monstrous in a real battlefield." Bane muttered, cracking a grin.

"Not to mention Enhancement. Three times base output… and double again with martial arts synergy? That's a 6x multiplier if he uses the right combo. Who gave this man permission?" Levi observed with a low whistle.

Felicia lifted a finger. "Technically, he earned it. Or rather, extracted it from the poor fools who stood in his way."

"I'm starting to think Damon's just a skill vacuum. You throw him into any world and he's gonna steal its best techniques then repurpose them." Marshal mused while rubbing his chin.

"Then he'll master them, and that's what makes it worse." Protizen added flatly, as though reciting a fact of nature.

Henry held up both hands in surrender. "You win, no complaints. Just remember us little people when you become the first Chaos Emperor of dual worlds."

Damon smirked again and flicked his wrist. "I'll build you all shrines. Felicia gets hers on a floating island."

"I accept." Felicia gave a satisfied nod.

Then the rest of the team focused inward as they began using their own Skill Completion Shards. None of their core powers needed enhancement since they all had either EX or SSS-rank abilities that evolved through natural leveling up but they also had supplementary skills, passives, or tool-based tricks that could benefit from a development boost.

Xela closed her eyes and let her shard sink into her body. Light flickered around her, but she said nothing, choosing to internalize the changes.

Henry grunted as his card flared brightly. "Okay, not bad. My new replication module skill just got a major buff."

Kyle's card flared next, and his face split into a wolfish grin. "Oh, now that's what I'm talking about. This is going to make my shockwaves sing."

Levi, Bane, and Marshal followed one after the other, each reacting with their own subtle expressions. Levi's eyes narrowed, likely calculating combat applications. Bane gave a simple nod of acknowledgment to no one in particular. Marshal chuckled quietly, as if amused by the wordplay upgrade he just unlocked.

Protizen's shard pulsed with a deep red hue, and he looked down at his armor-clad body without a word, running a hand across his chest plate as if inspecting an invisible change.

Connor took his last, his eyes briefly gleaming like shadowed glass. "My portals just got meaner."

Only Nicholas hesitated, holding his shard thoughtfully.

Damon tilted his head. "Need help picking?"

"No, I'm just thinking how best to weaponize subtlety." Nicholas replied slowly.

He activated it moments later, his aura barely shifting… but his mental presence in their shared link instantly felt sharper and more precise.

With everyone done, Damon turned and faced the team. "Now then. We've won the wager, earned the upgrades, and scared half the observers senseless."

Felicia's voice entered the link with a smile. "Now, lets start with the next round. Two more wins and we're free to go."