Gathering Wives with a System

Chapter 687: Skill Fusion, Luminar Species

A groan escaped her lips as her mana pool began to drain rapidly. Her brows furrowed, and her body soon began trembling from the sheer scale of what she was attempting.

Isaac looked down at the city and was surprised to see that Catherine had already covered nearly three-quarters of the Sky City. The city itself was not particularly large compared to some of the other places he had seen, but concealing an entire structure in such a precise manner was still an extremely complicated task.

What impressed Isaac even more was that Catherine could already use evolved Aura to modify her skill to such an extent. He felt proud when he saw her progress, but at the same time, there was a faint ache in his heart whenever he thought about how she had reached this point.

Catherine could not level herself or her skills during her Trial, nor could she increase her stats through the usual methods. She had told Isaac that she had spent those years focusing almost entirely on training her evolved Aura, and the mastery she possessed now had been forged through countless years of difficult training in that miserable Trial.

Isaac took a deep breath. He knew that this was not the time to let his emotions distract him, especially when Catherine was already pushing herself so hard.

He extended his own evolved Aura and carefully touched the camouflage skills he had shared from Catherine. He did not try to alter them because those skills did not belong to him completely yet, and he would not be able to modify them with the same ease Catherine could.

Instead, Isaac used his evolved Aura to give the effect of the skills to Catherine. Even Isaac was shocked when Catherine asked him to try this in the morning training. According to her, it should be possible since both of them had same skills, and they had powerful bonds. She had been correct. It worked.

Isaac’s evolved Aura made his camouflage skills connect to Catherine’s skills, allowing her to wield them to a minor degree.

Catherine’s body suddenly trembled. It felt as though her skills had become twice as powerful, and the strain that had been weighing down on her immediately became much easier to manage.

"Thank... you..." she muttered through her clenched teeth as Isaac continued supporting her.

The camouflage rapidly expanded until it covered the remaining portions of the Sky City. From outside, the entire structure would now appear to be part of the surrounding clouds, making it extremely difficult for anyone to notice that an enormous city was floating beneath them.

Catherine’s brows remained furrowed, and she was still trembling from the strain. The pressure on her had decreased considerably after Isaac began helping her, but maintaining such a large-scale camouflage skill still consumed an enormous amount of mana.

"Go and tell everyone to search through the Sky City," Catherine said after taking a moment to steady herself.

[I’ve already sent my clone,] Isaac replied.

"You can send your real body as well. Just keep a clone here with me," Catherine said.

Isaac shook his head. He had already made his decision.

Catherine felt a strange warmth in her heart when she saw his reaction. She knew that unlike her, Isaac treated his clones and his real body differently, and she also knew that he would naturally want to explore the Sky City with his real body rather than leaving that task to a clone.

Yet he was still staying with her. He had chosen to remain here and help her maintain the camouflage instead of taking the opportunity to explore the city himself.

The warmth in her heart made Catherine feel inappropriate things, especially after everything that had happened the previous night. She chuckled inwardly when she realized that Isaac’s influence seemed to be making her act like a young girl who had just fallen in love.

She quickly crushed that thought.

This was time for work. She had to focus on work.

...

Isaac and the others prepared to fly toward the Sky City. Before they went up, Isaac noticed Selene looking at him from the side, and from the way she kept glancing at him, it was obvious that she was hoping he would carry her the same way he had brought her up to the mansion while riding the giant tortoise.

Isaac understood what she wanted, but he could not do that now. This body was only a clone. Instead, he used Telekinesis to wrap around Selene and gently lift her alongside him. He then looked toward Emily.

"Can you fly up that high, or do you need me to bring you up?" Isaac asked.

"I can. I’ve been training for a while, so it should be possible," Emily replied.

Isaac nodded. He did not say anything else before flying upward, and the others followed him toward the Sky City.

Emily was a ghost, and her innate bloodline allowed her to fly. Previously, however, her ability had been limited to lower altitudes, and she could not maintain much speed once she climbed too high.

It seemed that she had managed to overcome that weakness through her recent training. She was still not as fast as Isaac, but she had no trouble keeping up with the group as they ascended.

Eventually, everyone landed on the ruins at the edge of the Sky City. The moment Isaac stepped onto the broken platform, he noticed that the architecture here was considerably different from what he had seen from above.

There were strange stone structures scattered across the ruined streets, some of them resembling enormous statues while others looked like ancient mechanisms whose original purpose had long since been forgotten. Several buildings had been constructed around huge circular frames, and strange symbols were carved into the surfaces of almost every remaining wall.

Isaac was about to examine one of the structures when he noticed Althea suddenly stop. She was staring at a relatively simple stone monument positioned near the edge of the ruins.

The monument depicted several small creatures standing together while holding up a large orb above their heads. The creatures themselves looked somewhat like humanoid geckos from Isaac’s previous world, although their bodies were covered with strange patterns that Isaac could not immediately identify.

Althea’s expression suddenly changed.

"This is a Luminar species!" she exclaimed.

Her voice contained so much excitement that Isaac immediately looked toward her. He had rarely seen Althea react so strongly to anything, and the difference between her current expression and her usual calm demeanor surprised him.

"What are they?" Isaac asked.

Althea stepped closer to the monument and examined it carefully. "They used to worship the Moon Dragons. The Luminar species existed a very long time ago, and many of their ancient settlements were connected to the Moon Dragons. We have encountered several relics connected to them before, and there have even been attempts to recreate some of their technology, but most of those efforts failed."

Isaac raised an eyebrow. "So the Luminaries were really that advanced?"

"Yes. They were technological giants. If this entire city belonged to a civilization connected to them, then there could be countless treasures buried beneath these ruins," Althea replied.

She looked around at the ruined city, and her eyes became brighter. "The Seventh Queen will absolutely love the treasures we can excavate from here."