NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 569: Punishment Ability
"What did you say?!" Charlotte looked shocked but soon calmed down. "No, wait. You're able to alter the world's record by using the Soul Contract, so changing one's skill is not impossible. I shouldn't be too shocked from this…"
Nathan nodded. "There is one thing that piques my curiosity, though."
"And that is…"
"The Soul Contract seems to be able to evolve further. It has evolved once, allowing me to utilize the contract even more efficiently. So, once I reach a certain threshold, I might be able to evolve it once more."
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"!!!" Charlotte's expression turned grim. There was no research about the innate ability, so she didn't know if an innate ability could be evolved or not. She stood up and hurriedly grabbed a notebook. "Let me record that first. An evolution for an innate ability… The potential of further evolution. Is this the norm? Hmm. Without enough data, I can't really draw a conclusion.
"Do you have anything you want to ask regarding the contract? Or maybe you have experienced something weird?"
Nathan crossed his arms. "Not at the moment. I've been trying to use it in a different way, but there's nothing extraordinary."
"Tell me every way you've used your Soul Contract."
"Hmm… A contract with an element, a contract without using ena…" Nathan recounted all the contracts he had ever made. It took him a while, but he managed to recall all the contracts.
"I see." She nodded her head, recording everything in her note.
"That's all. In that case, why don't you tell me about innate ability and skills? How does one differentiate them?"
She shook her head. "It's not that hard to differentiate them. If a human has an ability, it's called an innate ability. If it's the familiar who has it, it's called skills."
"But my identity…"
"That's…" Charlotte scratched the back of her head. Nathan was a human and a familiar at the same time, so should they call it an innate ability, or should they call it a skill?
Charlotte couldn't answer that question. "Well, I don't know the answer. Let's call it an innate ability for the time being. After all, you're a human and you only have one ability."
Nathan was still not convinced, but there was no way to find the answer right away, so he had no choice but to continue with the next question. "In that case, what are skills? Let's get back to the main topic, which is whether I can unlock Anubis' skill permanently or not."
She looked like she wanted to discuss more about the innate ability, but it would be better to satisfy Nathan first before asking him other questions.
Hence, Charlotte raised a finger. "In that case, let's talk about normal skills. What differentiates a normal familiar, a strong familiar, and a familiar who locks their abilities?
"For a normal familiar, you usually have a few skills at most. As I mentioned previously, you would be getting all those skills right away, and they were related to your myth.
"Most of the normal familiars aren't required to lock their abilities because summoners call them at their peak.
"On the other hand, a stronger familiar will be judging whether they want to accept the call or not. In the first place, the strength of a strong familiar might be high, but not that high. Most of the time, they will be similar to normal familiars.
"However, sometimes, the strong familiars have this weird potential or they could be on the verge of evolution, or maybe have just evolved in their world.
"In that case, once they're summoned in their world, their skills can be locked or not, depending on their strength. This is a rare case, but I will have them in a separate category as a transition.
"Last but not least, the familiars who have to lock their abilities. For them to get summoned will be extremely hard. You can imagine that the divine beasts behind you are waiting for the right time until they can be summoned at their peak… Do you think it's possible?"
Nathan shook his head without hesitation. There was no way they could gather tens of millions of ena just to summon them.
"Yep. And that's why they have to lock their abilities. After talking to several people like me, I have drawn the conclusion that the abilities that are unlocked are the same as the skills that normal familiars bring into this world.
"However, each skill has its own weight, so the progress of their ena should unlock the skills, starting from the lighter skill all the way to their powerful skills."
Nathan thought for a moment. "Do you think it's possible for someone to unlock one skill multiple times? Like in the first unlock, only the first phase of the skill comes or something."
"Indeed. That's possible. I have it myself, not that I have experienced it, though. If it's a very powerful ability, it can have several locks.
"If you're going to try unlocking such an ability, I think it will be easier because you have the lead record that will allow you to track the remaining skills."
Nathan glanced at Anubis. "What kind of skill do you plan to unlock again? Is it something like that?"
"En?" Anubis paused for a moment before nodding his head. "Yes. I think it's something like that. This ability is connected directly to my scale.
"You can say that it's one of the main abilities of my scale. It's called Punishment. During the fight, with the right conditions, I'm able to lock your body.
"Well, considering I'm accessing it much earlier, the strength will probably be much weaker, like locking one part of their body. It can only be used inside my domain, so yeah, it's related."
"I see…" Nathan glanced at Charlotte.
"If that's the case, it's possible to get it. I believe you can see the record of all his skills if you make a contract not with the world, but with the link between the two of you."