Since he couldn't use the sacrifice exploit at the moment, he decided to move on to something else. Looking at his cards, he noticed he still had a Fork and two Merges. The only issue was it was just one Fork, so he couldn't really upgrade a skill.

He wondered if he should just use the Fork to clone Mana Recovery to boost his recovery and use the Merge to combine some of his skills for easier management just like he'd planned to.

After some thought, he decided to keep the Fork. His mana recovery was already good as is.

Although it seemed like a no-brainer - after all, he would still need to upgrade Mana Recovery anyway, so why not just clone it and enjoy the benefits while waiting for the other cards - he still felt that it was better to keep the Fork as he needed to stack loads of them to make the free sacrifice skills.

He moved on to merging. But what to merge exactly?

He had quite a few that seemed compatible. Since he just had two Merges, he decided to choose the two pairs he found most useful. This was: Phantom Step (C) + Assassinate (E) and Mana Manipulation (A) + Mana Disruption (A).

He began with the first pair.

[Skill: Shadow Assassin (C-Rank)]

[Type: Active]

[Edition: Elemental]

[Cost: 90 Mana]

[Cooldown: 30 Seconds]

[Description: Burst forward up to 30 meters at extreme speed, leaving behind a shadow clone that lasts 5 seconds. When you attack during this burst movement, strike with lethal precision, dealing 400% physical damage and an additional 400% dark elemental damage. If attacking from behind or while the target is unaware, this attack becomes a guaranteed critical hit. The shadow clone can perform basic actions such as moving, attacking, or blocking.]

[Note: The shadow clone cannot deal or block damage, just perform the actions.]

This was actually quite good, he thought. He had expected one of the skills to be nerfed with just a few aspects being absorbed into the other, but the Merge card seemed to have integrated them quite nicely.

It had even boosted some of the aspects - like the increase in distance from 25 meters to 30 meters, and the damage from 300% to 400% for both physical and elemental damage. There was even the upgrade to the shadow clone.

He moved on to the other pair and merged them:

[Skill: Mana Dominion (A+)]

[Type: Passive]

[Cost: 0 Mana]

[Description: You have achieved complete mastery over mana, both your own and others'. You can manipulate mana seamlessly throughout your body and adjust mana-related skills, limiting or increasing the mana they consume. Additionally, you can disrupt the mana flow of others by sending your own mana into them, stopping their skills or magic from activating. You can also sense and analyze the mana patterns of any skill or spell within your perception range.]

[Note: The amount of mana needed to disrupt a skill must be at least a quarter of the required amount to cast the target's magic or skill. Limiting the amount of mana a skill uses could lead to a lesser effect, and increasing it could lead to a greater effect.]

Cipher observed. It didn't seem like much had changed. It looked more like the skills had been smashed together. Inspecting more carefully, he noticed a slight addition where he could now sense and analyze mana patterns of any skill or spell within his perception range.

It was like an inferior version of Iris's reverse engineering. He would look into it later.

Just as he was about to dismiss the skill, he noticed something else. The rank had changed from A to A+. This was actually quite a big deal. Before, he would need four Forks and four Merge cards to upgrade the two abilities to S-rank. But after merging them, they were already at the halfway point to progression.

Meaning he just needed a single Fork and a Merge to upgrade both as they were now one. This was the benefit of merging abilities. He needed to do it more, especially now that it seemed the Merge did not remove aspects of certain skills but rather merged them all seamlessly.

He waved to close the skill and returned to the cheat shop. Although he didn't level up much this time, he had leveled up a major level and thus could roll for a cheat. He looked at the roll button.

"I honestly don't mind the ESP duplicate this time," he thought as he pressed the button. After all, if he was to go back to Gate 2998, he would need a larger ESP range to detect things underground as well as to help in looking for the saintess.

…

[Congratulations! You have awakened a cheat]

[Cheat: Parallel Thought (Level 1)]

[Type: Passive]

[Description: Your consciousness splits into two independent threads of thought, each capable of processing information, making decisions, and performing tasks simultaneously.

[Note: Both consciousnesses share all sensory input, memories, and other resources, operating as two minds with one body. Each thread can focus on different tasks or thoughts without interfering with the other.]

"Huh, what's happening?" Cipher wondered, looking at his hands. They seemed real but also not. He looked around him. He saw both his bedroom and an endless number of dead worlds.

He clutched his head, feeling a sharp headache.

[Hmm, well this is interesting] the Heavenly Demon spoke.

But her voice sounded much closer this time. He turned around, noticing the wall of his room but also the Heavenly Demon before him.

"What is this?" he asked.

She extended her hand, grabbing his. [Close your eyes] she said, and he did.

After doing that, he felt the sharp headache slowly disappear. He still felt disoriented though. His thoughts seemed to come in duplicates and he heard two voices in his head instead of just the usual one.

The Heavenly Demon sighed. "This thing is actually quite dangerous," she thought.

[Your mind has split in two. The thoughts of both parts are disorienting you because they're overlapping. You need to focus on your two trains of thought and distinguish them. Acknowledge them and separate them, while still maintaining the link at the root.]

"Separate while maintaining the link?" he asked in confusion.

[That's right. Think of it like two branches from the same tree. They grow in different directions, but they're still connected to the same trunk. Your consciousness is the trunk, and the two thought processes are the branches. Let them diverge, but keep them rooted in you.]

He tried to follow her instructions, focusing on the chaotic mess of overlapping thoughts. It was like trying to listen to two conversations at once - overwhelming and impossible to follow either one properly.

[Don't try to force them together. Let them exist separately. Feel the difference between them.]

Slowly, he began to sense it. One stream of thought was focused on her words, analyzing what she meant. The other was observing his surroundings, processing the strange double vision of his room and the dead worlds. He tried to acknowledge both without mixing them.

[Good. Now maintain that separation. Let each thought process complete on its own.]

It took several minutes, but gradually, the disorientation faded. The two streams of thought became distinct - still connected, still sharing everything, but no longer interfering with each other.

One could think while the other merely observed. One could question while the other analyzed.

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