Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius took a look at the corrupted gift info of Jacob.

Hell Energy Corruption: Lesser

Info: The creature will have increased physical strength that can be increased further with the use of hell energy. The creature will also have slightly higher intelligence than before and can understand commands.

Corruption level: Lesser

Corrupted Gift: Unlocked 

Corrupted Gift: Tainting Dust

Description: The creature can continually release tainted dust from the many orifices on his body. Whatever surface this dust touches is 'tainted' and will contain traces of hell energy. Any person or thing that touches this tainted dust will have this stuck on them for a long time.

The dust is unaffected by external factors and will only disappear after a certain time period. It can also be forcefully be dispelled by the owner of the gift..

The thing that was certain for Lucius was that the initial gift and corrupted gift of Jacob were vastly different from his actual gift. Not only had it turned from an 'Active' skill to a 'passive' one, but its effect had also changed significantly.

Where there was no offensive aspect to this, the ability to 'taint' a person or object could be used in many ways. Lucius knew very well how he would use this and could not help but smile upon seeing this.

"A rather useful tool," Lucius spoke.

Even though the rank of Jacob's gift was lower ranked than the other lost right now, it had the potential to be the most useful of them all if used right.

"What are you happy about?" Kiana asked, feeling curious.

"Just something that might help us do a lot of things," Lucius replied.

"Things like?" Kiana asked.

"Imagine being able to tell where everyone is at all times," Lucius said with a smile.

"Huh?" Kiana was confused upon hearing it, but after a few more moments of thinking, she started to understand.

And about a minute later, her eyes went wide as she fully understood the ramifications of this thing.

"How far will this work?" Kiana asked.

"I have yet to test it and I still need to figure out the intricacies, but it should be enough for our city at least." Lucius spoke.

"And it will be working through this creature's gift?" Kiana questioned.

"Indeed. It is a bit different from normal and I think only I would be able to sense it anyway." Lucius answered.

"I see… but how did he create an explosion earlier? His gift isn't capable of something like that." Kiana asked the question that had been plaguing her for a while.

"Oh, that? Why don't I show you," Lucius said before looking at the newly transformed Lost.

"Jacob stand up!" Lucius ordered as he sent a streak of hell energy into the Lost's head. 

In the next second, Jacob stood up from the table and came to stand before Lucius. He then kneeled down and let Lucius put his hand on him. After injecting a sufficient amount of Hell energy along with several commands into Jacob, Lucius spoke again.

"Shoot a dust ball there," Lucius pointed towards the empty wall.

"ENG!" Jacob responded and pointed his hand towards the wall.

~Whoosh~

In the next second, a brownish mass of air came out of the orifices on Jacob's arms and coalesced on his palm. It then shot out and turned into a ball of smoke that was about twelve inches wide.

Just as it was about to reach the wall though, Lucius sent out a small ball of flames from his hand as well. Both of the balls met at the very last moment, but the reaction that happened from it was far more stronger than expected.

~BOOM~

An explosion happened and the dust ball expanded the fire ball shot out by Lucius by over three times. The force of it was also stronger and made Kiana's hair flutter.

"What?!" Kiana was shocked to say the least.

"That is something we call a dust explosion. While I showed you a quicker demonstration using the fireball, don't think that it is the requirement. Even a small spark can be enough to ignite it if it's in the right proportion." Lucius explained.

"Then… isn't this the same as gunpowder?" Kiana asked.

"Well, not exactly at the same level of power, but it's enough to create a greater fire. It needs to be controlled well too." Lucius replied.

"Then, is this how he managed to blow off the door of the counseling room?" Kiana asked.

"Mmmhmm, usually he shouldn't be able to cause explosions like this as the compositor of the dust ball would be too uneven. But over time, I reckon the man learned to control his gift better and learned how to change its uniformity as well. He might have accidentally discovered this ability and had been biding his time to use it.

Shooting it at a small flame would have been enough to trigger the explosion." Lucius answered.

"No wonder… never thought I'd see a gift like this. And it's so… weak too. But with this, it's pretty much the same as a Rare ranked gift." Kiana said in amazement.

"Kiana, the one thing I've learned from reading about all the gifts and even observing them is that the ranks of the gift matter less when the user of them is capable. I reckon if used correctly, even a common ranked gift might be able to defeat someone at the Epic rank." Lucius stated.

Hearing this, Kiana was intrigued.

"There was indeed a saying that we used to listen to in our childhood. It came from the idioms of Etara." Kiana said after thinking for a bit.

"And what was it?" Lucius asked, feeling curious as he had not heard this before.

There were a lot of religious, semi-religious and philosophical texts in this world, and there was no way he would be able to read all of them by now. Thus, if he got the chance to learn something new like this, he may as well take it.