"Let's see... I'll need a Stamina and Mana sink. I definitely want to get Limit Break to a reasonable cost, as well as level up gland and aura. Maybe Denial, as well. The mana sink can just be Rejuve, as I'm probably going to be using that with RCD to train LB, anyway. And with RCD active, my Stamina regen will basically be a little under 3 with Rejuve, so I guess I don't really need a Stamina sink.

"Well, maybe I do, but it wouldn't really be worth the effort of keeping my Stamina at reasonable levels while also using RCD. That'll come when Rejuve is a lot higher. And maybe I should make another healing skill, as well. Rejuve's path reward was perceiving healing easier, so maybe I can figure out how RCD and Rejuve do their work and use that to make a new skill.

"Also, why wasn't that a skill? What constitutes a non-leveling skill in the eyes of the system, if something like that isn't a skill, but Capacity for Talent is, for example. Anyway," he waves his hand in front of his face, "that's beside the point of what I'm doing. I need to max my skill levels right now." He snaps and points up for a second, "Oh, yeah, Haste also costs Stamina and I'll have that on constantly.

"Well, maybe I don't need to worry because I'm only going to have RCD active while LB is. It probably won't make much of a difference for those few seconds I can have it active before it overwhelms my suped up regen." He checks Regeneration Gland's experience and sees it's climbing at 0.13 per second. "Also, where is-" just thinking about the gland's location makes him feel something pumping like a second heart next to his original one.

"Good enough location for it, but let's see if moving it grants more experience..." He then moves it through his sternum and to the front of his chest, where he has it compact down and flatten before moving it to his left cheek. He checks his experience and finds that it has gone up by about 20 more experience than he'd expect. He feels the warm pulsing on his cheek.

"Ok, so moving it does make it gain experience faster. How about the aura," he says, popping up its experience. He sees it's not moving from 9/45. He tilts his head and yells for Degriclone to come back. As soon as his clone enters his aura's range, it begins gaining 1.3 experience per second. Nodding, he casts Omen of Death to not only refresh its thoughts, but also give it more power, should any more powerful monsters show up.

His clone then goes to the edge of his aura's range, then they both thinks of something and call out, "Oh, and- oh, we both figured it out." Degritone then returns to his skills. "Flash is good enough. If I ever need to go further than way more inches than I feel I'll ever need, I can just use Flash Space, instead. Let's just go for 100 gland and see where that gets me for now." He shrugs and says, "Good enough of a plan," and goes to work training.

After two hours and being nowhere near done, he realizes just what he got himself into by picking this route, but decides to let it be, continuing his grinding. He sets his HUD to pop up a large message in the center of his vision if his health is below its maximum at the end of a second so he knows when to deactivate Limit Break; sets it to record how long he's had Limit Break active, add 60, and count down while it's deactivated and throw another popup once it reaches zero; then lays down and raises his right arm.

He's immediately immersed in his image of a stormy, rough ocean, with the only calm being in a column around him, a golden rope in his hand. Immersed in that image, he says, "So, from what I've gathered so far, to become a skill, you need function and process. You have neither. At least, in terms of conveying it to the system. You definitely have the function of calming me, whether the system agrees or not."

He lays there for multiple Limit Break loops before saying, "So, what are you, as a skill? The only thing I can really think of would be something similar to a domain, if not flat out the same thing. Maybe give a debuff of some sort to everyone but me, who gains regen and high resistance to mental effects, or maybe something similar to Randidly's rain skill, but neither really sound correct."

A few more loops and he says, "I don't really know. You aren't calming because of something. You're just calming because you are, in the same way that the number four represents the concept of fourness. You just are, and have been, even without the system, mana, stamina, and all that other stuff. You're just my," he raises his eyebrows slightly for a second as he pauses slightly, "little safe haven from all the bad."

Many loops later, he continues, "You are separate from my 'as long as I have the will to raise my arm, I have the will to live' thing, but that is mostly just a way to get through the bad days when I can't stay down to rely on you to actively calm me." He silently stares at the rope for over one hundred loops, taking in the calming sensation this image gives, before sighing. "I don't know about a skill, but in terms of image..."

He never finishes that thought as he lowers his arm, the image dissolving as he does. He sits up and sees Degriclone staring at him, arms crossed. They both tilt their heads at the same time. "Well, it's definitely Artisan. I felt the rain, as well, though I'm not really sure if that constitutes Adept or not. I didn't feel like there was something bigger going on, so it might not be whatever the third thing was, and it's definitely not Master, if we're going to use Randidly terms."

"How long was I in there?" Degritone asks, rubbing his eyes.

"About 2 hours, give or take. Monsters have figured out to stay away, so I only got 3 more."

Degritone nods and checks the skill progress for his arm thing, and sees it hasn't budged from 58%, though Visualization went up 52 levels, despite that. He very slightly squints his left eye for a fraction of a second in confusion before Degriclone comes over with a few rocks and sticks and they begin making up games to play for the next 7 hours.

A little after a total of 11 hours and 32 minutes, Regeneration Gland finally surpasses 100, bringing Revitalizing Aura up to 68, Rejuvenate up to 421, Haste up to 290, and Limit Break up to 43. This allows him to permanently have Rejuvenation active. "So, what next... Maybe Mana Armor? I feel around 97% DR is good enough for now, and getting it any higher won't really be worth it except maybe as the last few levels. Rot G is probably fine for now, as well, though having a lower CD after death and higher percent power is always nice...

"Maybe Denial. It sounds like it could be really OP. More Rejuve and the regen things would always be nice. Maybe use Rejuvenator's reward to make a new, more efficient slash powerful healing skill." He crosses his arms as he looks at his skills. "We've still got over 8k skill levels to go before I feel like we should challenge the boss that is probably in that coliseum, since I want to get maxed out, but also I've been bored for hours now. Also, still no new paths.

"A ton more SP would always be nice. Maybe help Chuuni figure stuff out somehow?" He shrugs. "Too many choices, none of which sound fun, and none are obviously the optimal path. Maybe organize my skills into categories that I can put images to? Wait, I've been doing that thing Randidly did for multiple hundred chapters where all I cared about was numbers, and not whatever he ended up calling what I'll deem proficiency. I should really fix that, but I feel like this instant isn't the time for that.

"Probably after the boss or once I find someone like spider lady that I forget the name of at the moment to set it up for me. And I don't have a good way to fix it like he did. Except maybe Mana Manipulation, but that... Well, maybe it's not so bad of an idea. It costs 0.016 mana per second per point of mana I manipulate. Making an avatar like him wouldn't take too much more mana than mana armor."

"It would be training a skill we have no intention of using beyond that specific use, though," Degriclone pipes up.

"True. It would probably be best to do it after maxing skill levels for now, then, as that'd let us do that method without wasting levels on essentially useless levels..." The two Degritones stare at the same rock for a while. "I think we leave Chuuni to his own devices. He's always had the ability to think of the strange much more than we can. And, unlike the previous time... today? Has it really been less than a day since we did our last Numbers Go Up session?

"Anyway, unlike last time, our options aren't exclusive due to required expediency. I know Yorick is bro, but I say we do image stuff first. Or maybe making a new skill first, so we don't have to add new avenues of healing to the Immortal Troll image. And, if we're going to get DF-esque necromancy, I say we take Rot G, GSM, and that skill we may or may not make after a healing skill and put them all into the Necroknight.

"Imagine the Forgotten Realms art of a lich, but replace the staff with a greatsword. Well, I guess we're doing the sorting part of the image stuff as I'm speaking right now. Anything else we can do? We're going to have a cactus skill, so maybe give the Immortal Troll spikey skin or something?" Degritone monologues.

"Don't forget to put Soul Grasp and Sight into the Necroknight. And Cleave and OHS, though you're me so I shouldn't have to say that. And instead of the Necroknight, how about... well, leaving it Yorick wouldn't work very well because he's a pretty static image, so go ahead and swafil," Degriclone says with a wave of his hand, "him into a normal necromancer. With a pre- slash suffix, assuming this system cares about specificity as much as Randidly.

"And the reason we'd do that is to take the weapon stuff and Flash and try to make Degritone. Well, the Imagination Warrior, since having two things called Degritone would be really annoying. See if we can't somehow make the Cloak of Infinity into a skill. Really, it'd just be a reskinned Mana Armor that, instead of being percent DR, would be flat DR that can only respond at a certain, though near-instant, speed and blocks zero damage from anything that deals more damage than it blocks.

"Maybe even reshape our sword to be more like the sword from Chuunibyou, since his is that one. See if we can't also make mana change to black to better match the image," he pauses for a few seconds before continuing. "We'd also need the ability to turn anything we can imagine into reality, but Mana Manipulation already fills that for mundane items. We'd just need it for more abstract stuff, like gravity wells, changing the power of, say, the strong nuclear force in a localized area, etc..

"That path would be a bit more tricky because it requires doing things we aren't quite capable of doing at the moment, but could potentially lead to better power later, and we're never about the here and now. I definitely agree we should have some form of necromancer and the spiky Immortal Troll, but I'm not really sure what else we should do. Maybe just those two, maybe the three image route."

They continue to stare at the rock like it's the most interesting thing. After about a minute of letting those thoughts ferment, Degritone says, "You know, it's really interesting how Endurance also reduces the need to blink." Degriclone looks at him like, "What are you on right now?" and Degritone bursts out laughing, followed by his clone.

After their laughter dies down, including the post-laugh giggles that come back when they look at each other, Degritone says, "Yeah, I think we'll go the two image route. Degritone - actual Degritone, not us - seems too far in the future to have any real impact. Imagine Power wouldn't translate well, I think, as it'd probably just say it's image exclusive, rather than something backed up by the system as a skill, so it'd take too much willpower for us to accomplish in reasonability."

He remakes his clone and it gets to work making mana chairs, which really should have been done hours ago. "So, images sorted... Well, it also includes the calming image, but that has no skills associated with it. Maybe replace the Immortal Troll with it, since we already have a calming image that could be seen as mental 'healing.'" They both sit down once the chairs are completed and wobble their heads at the thought.

Decriclone pipes up first, "Well, it would make Spikiness need a new home. And we could potentially add some CC to its rain and ocean. It's not a bad choice. Closer to a domain than a thing, but maybe that's a good thing. Especially if domains aren't an actual thing here. Imagine if we could remove the activation conditions and just permanently have it active."

Degritone laughs evilly at that. "Ok, yeah, calming image it is. It already took me from as close to suicidal as I can get with my order to not die to completely calm, so it's close enough to 'immortal' to work. We will need a name for it, but that comes later. For now, let's make another healing skill to add into it. Though, thinking about it now, how in the world does a thing inside my body get a bonus from the calming image?

"The troll would work a lot better for gland. And really, all of them, as we can imagine all the healing stuff being his blood and... sweat? Like, his sweat really easily evaporates, so it becomes this aura around him for healing aura? Thinking about it deeper, I think Immortal Troll is better for regen and stuff. Plus the cactus skill and probably Limit Break, too," he says, nodding his head to the right. "We'll leave the calming image for later. It'll figure itself out, or maybe become an actual domain, if they, or a renamed version of them, are a thing."

He aggressively slaps his legs and says, "ANYWAY, new healing skill. RCD activate!" He removes his left gauntlet, manually removes his left glove, and moves his Regeneration Gland to his left middle finger, having it extend off and becoming a cartoon heart, pink and all, as it pulses before Degriclone takes his sword and cuts a deep gash into Degritone's hand, revealing cut bone. Degritone inhales sharply at the pain, his eyes beginning to watter, but he pays close attention to his hand and how his mana and stamina - and whatever his gland and his clone's aura do - interact with the wound.

As he tires to take in every detail, he sees the mana and stamina washing over the wound, which rapidly closes, shift in color ever so slightly, to a slight purple and red, respectively. He tilts his head lightly and picks up his vitalower, looking at where the stem was severed. Rather than plat insides, he sees the stem's cut bottom is fully covered in normal stem material, as if it were always the way it is now.

"Again," he says. Once again, he watches as mana and stamina shift slightly toward red before disappearing. In the few fractions of a second before his wound heals up, he cuts the bottom of the vitalower off and more of that liquid flame pours out for a second. He makes sure at least some of it lands on his hand and his hand is fully healed.

"Ok, so health is also a substance like mana and stamina. It's just usually imperceptible, except when excessively concentrated, like inside a vitalower...? Best guess. Anyway, so, the two resources somehow shift into that substance. I need more time to watch it play out. Ro-" before he can even finish saying "rock," Degriclone hands him a relatively small, elongated rock, roughly oval shaped.