Chapter 169: 151. Art of Incarnation
"How did you manage that? Wait, you don't happen to have a Talent for Multitasking, do you?"
Hat Senior Sister really was a true big shot; although at first she was a bit taken aback, she quickly collected herself and gradually understood everything.
"But you, a little witch with just over 10,000 Magic Power, how could you have so many High-level Talents/Skills? Don't tell me you actually have great Talent for Magic Power but used it all up evolving, right?"
Fanny looked even more puzzled as she stared at her strange little Master.
What kind of treasure trove of a little witch was this? The more she understood, the more mysterious it seemed.
The Talent for Multitasking was notoriously expensive; to evolve it, you'd generally need several hundred thousand Mana.
Therefore, aside from those Witches who were innately gifted with such Talents, few would evolve such Talents later in life. Even if they did, it was usually only the powerful Witches above the rank of a Great Witch who had the kind of capital to splash out like that.
So, case closed. Dorothy here, who didn't seem ordinary at all, actually had such weak Magic Power; she must have recklessly burned up all her Magic Power evolving this specialty.
That was a huge loss. After all, with the base Attribute of a little witch being so weak and the evolution of specialties not discounted, it was such a low cost-performance ratio.
Normally, at the little witch stage, it's all about evolving some low Level Talents to bridge the gap, all the while boosting base Attributes. Then, when the discounts for higher Level specialties become available, you evolve the higher level specialties. That's the most cost-effective upgrade strategy.
This kind of behavior—paying full price to max out a top-tier Talent in one shot—is like saying you have too much Magical Power and desperately need to burn some. It's quite frankly idiotic.
For a moment, senior Fanny felt a bit like she was hating on iron for not becoming steel. With such a good Talent, you can't just waste it, what a joke to play with your own life. Experience tales at empire
"Not at all, my Magic Power aptitude is really just mediocre. But I do have a bit of an aptitude for Multitasking. The discount was significant, so I couldn't resist evolving it in advance."
Dorothy shook her head, countering senior Fanny's speculation.
"Discount? How much of a discount? If the discount was significant, then it really wouldn't be a loss. That kind of Talent is better the sooner you get it."
Hearing this, Hat Senior Sister felt much better.
If she had been forced to evolve using her original price of several hundred thousand Mana, it would have been too unfair. But with a discount, it wouldn't be such a bad deal after all, as such Talents were indeed powerful and yielded more the earlier you got them, snowballing over time.
Well, for Dorothy's age, getting it for under 100,000 Mana was quite a bargain.
"Emmmmmm, it's not really an issue of how many discounts, how to put it... I spent 1,000 Mana to get it, and I was quite pained when I evolved it; it's the most expensive specialty I have."
A tinge of heartache appeared on Dorothy's face.
1,000 Mana, what was that? It was a tenth of her total Magic Power before, really expensive.
Hat Senior Sister: "???"
Before her tentacles could finish shaping their question marks, she heard her Master add another statement.
"Overall, it was a pretty good deal, because after I got the Multitasking, my Control of Magical Power Talent became dirt cheap; I got it for just 100 Mana. Think of it as a buy one, get one free kind of deal."
Senior Fanny: "???"
In that moment, the future Fourth King sprouted countless question mark-shaped tentacles above her head.
Although it's true that there's a discount when Witches evolve specialties that are particularly well-suited to them, wasn't the extent of your discount a little too much? Even at the Sage Level, she could only get up to a 90% discount with her supermodel Six-Dimensional Attributes, so how could a little witch almost freeload like that?
You're naturally a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder, aren't you?
By now, Fanny had reached a realm where the quantity of her Talents/Skills was no longer meaningful; she had passed the phase of chasing after numbers. She understood that what suited her was really the best. So it wasn't that she was envious or sour or anything... but,
Looking at the little bargain-snatching, smug Master in front of her, she got hard...
Her tentacles got hard, and she felt an urge to smack this wretch to death with one tentacle.
But who made her choose this Master herself? It's not like they could get divorced or anything. Even if angry, life had to go on.
In the end, senior Fanny sighed and said through gritted teeth,
"Dorothy, the fact that you're still alive without being killed by someone is everyone's responsibility who knows you as a witch."
"Senior, you flatter me. I'm actually very well-behaved in front of witches who could really hit me and whom I can't beat."
Dorothy scratched her head, looking somewhat embarrassed as she spoke.
Hat Senior Sister: "..."
So you think I don't have the heart to smack you, huh?
"Senior, look, my Martial Soul should be okay now, right? I just allocated a thread of thought to it, and from now on, this thread will be dedicated to practicing Combat Magic."
Seeing as joking around would probably earn her a real beating if she pushed it further, Dorothy quickly switched gears, earnestly asking Hat Senior Sister for advice.
"It's fine now. Talents like Multitasking and parallel consciousness were indeed meant to be used like this. This talent is a prerequisite for powerful witches when they split off incarnations. Your Martial Soul can no longer be considered a mere Martial Soul, but a Martial Soul Incarnation."
Senior Fanny explained, also feeling a bit weary herself.
The more powerful the witch, the more likely she is to feel that there just isn't enough time, as their studies are vast, and they often have a lot of matters to manage. If they had to handle all of this alone, when would they find the time to improve themselves?
Although magic indeed does contain spells like Cloning, such spells usually have a time limit, can't last long, and also require the main consciousness to control them—no different from a Puppet in the end. It means you end up doing all the work yourself, which is exhausting.
Therefore, to solve this dilemma, witches modified the Cloning Spell, creating the Incarnation Technique based on it.
The Incarnation Technique was actually inspired by an infamous Immortal Law called "One Qi Transforms into the Three Pure Ones" from the Eastern Immortals.
It is said that to sever mundane ties and cultivate in peace, Eastern Universe's Immortals go through a process known as "Slaying the Three Corpses," where the severed worldly thoughts turn into independently existing obsessions, capable of handling worldly affairs for the Immortals.
The Incarnation Technique of witches works on a similar principle. They differentiate a part of their own characteristics and bestow it upon an incarnation, which becomes the basis of its existence, thus obtaining unique incarnations specialized in handling particular tasks.
The easiest analogy is a witch who didn't want to shop and cook every day, so she fiercely severed her culinary arts and talent, creating an incarnation that delights in shopping and cooking.
However, the magic of the Incarnation Technique lies in the fact that such differentiation does not harm the original witch. It's not that the witch can't cook once she has a culinary incarnation; when necessary, the witch can still summon the power of the incarnation, and if the incarnation is damaged, it does not affect the original witch.
With a bit of resource consumption, the incarnation can be separated out again.
Using the trending concept of the Magic Network, you could say the original witch is like a main server where all data is stored, while the incarnations are like mobile devices with access to only specific ranges of data. If a mobile device breaks, it's not a big deal—replacing it is easy since all the data is stored in the main server.
That's more or less the gist of it.
In short, the Incarnation Technique is quite useful and is considered a must-learn spell for powerful witches. Many powerful witches have separated numerous incarnations to handle different affairs, such as sending their battle-hungry side to the battlefield, their power-greedy side to manage territories, and their... well, let's say some desires are better attended to by the witches themselves.
Senior Fanny is also quite adept at the Incarnation Technique. She has three primary incarnations, each representing Divinity, Demonic Nature, and Humanity. The Hat Senior Sister overseeing Dorothy is actually an aspect of her human incarnation, while her true body is still slumbering underneath the Great Library.
Although the Incarnation Technique is quite handy, it's extremely difficult to learn, with a high entry threshold, ranking as a Twelve-Ring Magic. Generally, it's prevalent among Peak Witches and above. If one has exceptional talent, some seasoned Great Witches can also learn it, like Dorothy's affordable teacher, the Spider Witch, who excels at the Incarnation Technique.
Strictly speaking, Dorothy, as an inexperienced witch, wasn't qualified to learn it. But a Martial Soul is one of the best materials for an incarnation. The Martial Soul itself represents the martial artist's pursuit of martial arts, and with a bit of spirituality infused, it naturally becomes a ready-made incarnation.
However, most Martial Saints lack the ability to infuse their Martial Soul with spirit ahead of time; after all, the key challenge in making a Martial Soul transition from intangible to solid and achieving Martial God status lies in this final step of infusion.
Genuine Martial Gods become one with their Martial Soul through arduous practice, infusing everything into it, until the soul and the person are indistinguishable. However, Dorothy, who mastered Multitasking ahead of time, doesn't do things the usual way.
Looking at the now-animate Ruined Dragon King Martial Soul, oh, to be precise, the nascent form of the Ruined Dragon King Martial God, Hat Senior Sister clicked her tongue.
But then a thought struck her, and she couldn't help but laugh.
"So here's the question, Dorothy, do you have enough Magic Power reserves? Incarnations are good, but they share a single mana pool with the original witch. Is your limited Magic Power enough to sustain double the expenditure, especially when making the Martial Soul transition into a Martial God? The consumption of Magic Power is no small thing—don't let your petite frame get drained dry."
Hat Senior Sister reveled in schadenfreude.
Dorothy: "..."
Ah... Is that even possible?
She glanced at her Martial Soul Incarnation and suddenly felt a wave of darkness before her eyes. Her already tight household budget just got even tighter.
.....The homebody witch felt drained....