With the intention of having a serious sparring session, Stella took Tatsuma to the training ground immediately after getting out of the car.
"Don't rush, I'll give you a buff first."
Stopping Stella, who was eager to try, Tatsuma took out a Rook piece.
As expected, the conversion failed.
As the darling of the world, Stella, who was born with Satan-level mana, undoubtedly had great potential. To convert the other party into a Devil, a regular Rook piece was somewhat insufficient.
However, just as he was about to take out a second Rook piece, Yahweh walked over from not far away.
"Tatsuma, wait a moment."
"What's wrong?"
"I researched it for a while on the way and pretty much figured out how it works."
Yahweh reached out and poked Stella, flicking the Rook piece out of her body.
Grasping the Rook piece, she raised her hand and tapped it, unfolding the program within the piece. Countless dense runes flashed before her eyes, and Yahweh programmed a new sequence into the piece, injecting a wisp of divine power into it.
The next second, crimson light appeared on the surface of the piece, and this Rook piece actually transformed into a mutated piece.
"You're quite impressive."
Tatsuma took the mutated piece and glanced at it, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"It's just that I happened to have a sample to refer to." Yahweh raised her hand and tapped her chest.
To transform her into a Devil, Tatsuma haf used a mutated Queen piece. As the God of the Bible, she naturally had a way to control and analyze the items within her body.
After understanding the structure of the mutated piece, she then analyzed the structure of an ordinary piece on the spot.
After confirming the difference between the two, she wrote the mutation code on the spot and used divine arts to complete the final piece of the puzzle. This way, she could upgrade an ordinary piece into a mutated piece, possessing stronger power.
"How is it? This should be helpful to you, right?"
"Mm, if you can upgrade all the pieces into mutated pieces, I can recruit a few more subordinates."
"That's good."
Yahweh showed a satisfied expression.
According to their agreement, as long as she provided Tatsuma with useful items, she could get the opportunity to study him.
There were still others around, and Yahweh didn't want to attract too much attention, so she temporarily returned to the sidelines.
On the other side, Tatsuma took the mutated Rook piece and integrated it into Stella's body.
After converting Stella into a subordinate, Tatsuma chose a trait to help her unlock all her traits.
[Trait granted successfully. Click to view target panel.]
[Stella Vermilion]
[Race: Human/Devil]
[Strength: Level 5]
[Traits: Psychic energy (Blue), Rook (Purple), Iron Will (Red), Crimson Princess(Red), Vermilion's Sword (Red), Desperado (Gold), Dragon Manipulation (Gold)]
[Rook (Purple): Gathers the power of the mutated Rook piece, can convert one's race into a Devil, and greatly increase strength and defense.]
[Iron Will (Red): Spirit and will greatly increased, can ignore the influence of aura when facing strong enemies, and exert full power.]
[Crimson Princess (Red): Physical quality moderately increases, flame power moderately increases, Training effect +1000%.]
[Vermilion's Sword (Red): Within the territory of the Vermilion Empire, swordsmanship talent +1000%, Training effect +1000%.]
[Desperado (Gold): Soul surpasses the limit of humans, can increase mana without limit during training, and exert absolute suppression on enemies who feel fear.]
[Dragon Manipulation (Gold): Manifests the power of dragons, which are at the pinnacle of mythical creatures, within oneself, and can obtain the power of different dragons through contracts.]
Two gold and three red, enough to rival Ichigo's monstrous panel.
If he hadn't just seen Yahweh's row of glittering gold traits not long ago, Tatsuma would now have to praise Stella as awesome. But now, he could only say she still needed practice.
Closing the status panel, Tatsuma looked at Stella, who was in front of him, adapting to her new power.
"Are you ready?"
"Mm, almost."
Stella nodded slightly and immediately went all out, using Dragon Manipulation. Surging mana ignited, and scorching light flickered on her skin.
Her power, which had already expanded significantly, was further enhanced.
Looking at the man before her, her eyes narrowed slightly, and a serious expression appeared on her face. "Aren't you going to activate Balance Breaker?"
"Since it's not a life-or-death battle, it's naturally better to fight until we're satisfied."
Tatsuma raised a finger and beckoned, "Use your full power to attack."
"Let me see just how far the so-called Vermilion's Sword can go."
"Then I won't hold back."
Stella's figure flickered and appeared in front of Tatsuma.
Power continuously gathered, and a seemingly weak pink fist fell straight down.
However, just then, a surge of Time energy erupted from Tatsuma. Under Tatsuma's manipulation, this Time energy transformed into a massive barrier covering the training ground.
Affected by the time barrier, Stella's movement speed began to gradually slow down. In just the time it takes to breathe, Stella's speed dropped to seventy percent of her original speed.
On the other side, Tatsuma was boosted by the Time energy, turning into an afterimage and appearing behind Stella.
Boom!
A deafening roar sounded, and Stella, caught off guard, was hit by this blow, embedded in the ground below.
However, the next second, she burned mana to activate a dragon's recovery ability and climbed out of the ground completely unharmed.
"Again!"
A roar sounded, and Stella frantically used mana to reduce the influence of the time barrier, attacking again.
"Your attack route is too straightforward."
Tatsuma tilted his head to dodge the blow and casually sent Stella flying again.
"Dragon Manipulation is indeed very strong, but correspondingly, your control over this power is too low."
"When punching with full force, you can't retract freely. When moving with full force, you can't dodge and maneuver."
"If you encounter a skilled enemy of the same level, your fighting style is no different from suicide."
"I understand."
Stella climbed up from the ground again, the fighting spirit in her eyes not weakening at all.
"Again!"
Boom!
"Continue!"
Boom!
"I can still go!"
Boom!
Ten minutes later.
[Congratulations on successfully defeating Stella Vermilion and obtaining the gold trait Dragon Manipulation.]
Gold trait +1.
Throwing Dragon Manipulation into storage, Tatsuma activated Senjutsu to heal Stella, who was at his feet.
A minute later, Stella woke up from her coma, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes.
Staring at Tatsuma for two seconds, she then belatedly realized what had happened.
"Did I lose?"
Tatsuma said, "Otherwise? You didn't really think you could beat me, did you?"
Stella was a little dejected. "Not really, I just thought I'd at least force you to activate Balance Breaker. I didn't expect I couldn't even beat you in your normal state, the gap is so big."
"No, you did very well."
This time, Tatsuma didn't continue to discourage her but unusually offered a word of comfort.
"I originally thought it would be over in five minutes, but I didn't expect you to be quite resistant to beating."
Stella: "..."
Was he praising her?
Why did it sound weird?
"Alright, small talk time is over."
Just then, Tatsuma's voice sounded again.
"Through the battle just now, I already understand your situation. Next, let's talk about your future training direction."
Stella's expression turned serious. "Please tell me."
Tatsuma held up three fingers. "You need to focus on three areas for training next."
"Improvement of endurance, control of power, and advanced usage of Dragon Manipulation."
Stella thought for a moment and asked, "What do you mean by advanced usage of Dragon Manipulation?"
"It's just what it says."
Tatsuma summoned the Boosted Gear, and scales appeared on his arm, showing a dragon-like appearance.
"Stella, the essence of Dragon Manipulation is to manifest the power of dragons within oneself."
"But the power you gain by directly activating Dragon Manipulation is only the power of dragons in the conventional sense."
"Strong physical quality and recovery speed, high physical and magical resistance, and dragon flames that incinerate everything. These are the basic abilities every dragon possesses."
"And high-level dragons like the Two Heavenly Dragons, the Five Dragon Kings, and Evil Dragons possess even more special abilities."
"Have you considered obtaining the powers belonging to these powerful dragons through Dragon Manipulation?"
"Stronger dragon power through Dragon Manipulation?" A hint of confusion flashed in Stella's eyes.
After unlocking Dragon Manipulation, she had always been undergoing basic training to improve her control over her power. Things like what Tatsuma said, Stella had never considered in the past.
But now, after being prompted by Tatsuma, Stella felt as if her body had been cleared, giving her a sense of sudden enlightenment.
***
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