Chapter 226 10 New Fruits

The first fruit he had acquired had been hanging from a tree aflame with golden hues. The fruit itself bore the essence of everlasting combustion, and it was likely that when consumed, it granted the ability to summon and control flames that burned eternally, never to be extinguished.

He decided to call it the Eternal Flame Fruit.

The second fruit he had acquired was this one that was encased in a crystalline sheen, holding the energy of prismatic light. Dante was willing to bet that those who partook in its radiance gained the power to bend and manipulate light, rendering themselves invisible or casting brilliant, dazzling illusions.

This one he named the Aetherial Prism Fruit.

The third fruit he had gotten from a tree adorned with crystalline facets, its bark continually rippling with a buzz that intensified the closer you got, shaking your bones and blood. Those who ate this fruit might be able to shatter objects with a mere thought or create destructive shockwaves through resonance and vibrational manipulation.

This one, in particular, deserved the name Resonance Core Fruit.

The fourth fruit had been hanging from a tree that swayed in a seemingly timeless breeze, its leaves alternating between fast and slow as if someone was fast-forwarding and slowing down a video. Dante was certain based on his own senses that whoever consumed it could specifically slow or hasten time using an element of wind.

Because of that, he called it the Chrono-Wind Fruit.

This fifth fruit had been nestled in the core of a gravity-defying tree that was floating off the ground and made anything that came close lose its gravity as well. It was likely that those who consumed it could crush opponents with invisible pressure or defy gravity to soar through the skies.

In light of this, Dante called this one the Gravity Well Fruit.

The sixth fruit was found adorning a tree entwined with melodic vines, every segment of the tree releasing a tune that synchronized to form a melody. The leaves were shaped like musical notes, the branches like trumpets, and the trunk like the treble clef. Dante did not need to think to know that those who partook in its sweet essence could either create harmonies that healed wounds or disrupted the balance of the world.

As such, this one was called the Harmony Chime Fruit.

The seventh fruit was collected while hanging from a tree that shimmered like quicksilver, the leaves changing colors and styles, sometimes being organic or even inorganic. Those who ate it could mold their form like clay, adopting the shapes of beasts or even inanimate objects, as this fruit dealt with shapeshifting.

Thinking back to that famous book series about teenagers morphing into animals, Dante named this one the Morphic Seed Fruit.

The eighth fruit was dangling from the center of a tree that seemed to absorb all light and sound, the tree seeming to contain the essence of nothingness itself. Dante assumed based on the fruit itself that those who consumed it could traverse the void or sub-space, appearing and disappearing at will.

As such, the name Void Nexus Fruit was apt to describe it. historical

This ninth fruit was a bit different as it was found encrusted upon a tree adorned with chaotic patterns, these patterns seemingly granting the onlooker the power to control over the very chaos of the universe. Dante was solemn as he knew from some bizarre instinct that those who consumed it could unleash unpredictable, chaotic energy, creating havoc or rewriting the laws of reality.

This relatively overpowered fruit was named the Chaos Crystal Fruit by Dante, and he had plans for it.

The tenth and final fruit was found hanging from a tree where the very air seemed to shimmer, its movements containing the essence of echoes across dimensions. Dante was not fully sure, but he guessed that its power was an inferior version of Quantum Entanglement in that those who partook in its essence could communicate with otherworldly beings or even traverse certain dimensions with their thoughts.

Since it was kinda similar to the headmistress's Spirit Goddess superpower, Dante decided to name it the Ethereal Echo Fruit.

Ten fruits for Dante and ten pieces of joy. None of the superpowers were useless on their own, and anyone could find ways to use them in amazing ways for themselves. Even that fellow Mugiwara could make a rubber superpower become overpowered, so what excuse did anyone who got these fruits have?

Anyway, he did not dare eat them as that would be wasting them. It had already been established that 'a dealer could not get high off his own supply' with regards to Dante's superpower. In other words, these fruits were 'manifested' by his superpower and could not surpass it.

So most of the time, rather than get the esoteric superpower within, he could only get the raw Zero Energy that helped the person who ate 'activate' the superpower within the fruit at the F Rank so that they could start out.. as well as some insights from the fruits' detailed programming.

Obviously, there were two reasons. The first was the most obvious, which was that his main body was currently in the Stellar Vanguard II cultivating Zero Energy from the densest place near the Zero Gate.

Even though eating these fruits would allow him to progress far faster, it was only really an issue of time consumption in terms of difference, and bluntly speaking, time was something Dante had in abundance in the home universe.

The second reason was more conclusive, which was the fact that the quantum clone could not grow its power in any way through training, practice, or otherwise. So eating it would basically be eating for the taste, something which could cause any being to have a heart attack at the wastefulness.

Right now, Dante was considering his future plans. His Quantum Replication was pretty overpowered, but it was limited when it came to quantum fruits in that he could only replicate each fruit once.

When Dante tried to do more, the process failed, and he got some strange feedback. He didn't know if it was his own mind or the tree that 'sponsored' him, but the feedback was basically that there could not be more than one of the same active superpower in each universe.

Since Dante could only access two universes, it was useless for him to have more than two. Actually, this second part was theorized by him, only the one-of-a-kind superpower per universe thing came from his superpower's feedback.

So if someone had Absorption out there in this universe, no matter how many times another person in this universe ate a fruit with the absorption superpower, it would always fail. Unless the person with Absorption dies and the superpower is no longer active, could they acquire it.

Dante finally understood after some thought why there was a 'success rate' with eating fruits. If there was someone out there who already had the superpower, of course, your fruit-eating session would turn up nothing.

In that case, every fruit he got was precious. If people could truly eat them in the external universe and get the superpowers without being hit by quantum poisoning, then that would be great.

However, Dante remembered that the biggest problem with virtual fruits was that they were designed after actual fruits that had been taken out and researched in the past.

That meant that they had been eaten before, and it was entirely possible that the user might still be alive given the awesome healthcare of this universe, not to mention the fact that many species had high stats.

However, that was a problem to deal with later. Right now, the quantum clone could only replicate the fruits ahead of time and then place them within the Quantum Depository. After that, he realized that he had nothing to do for the next 21 or so days, so he simply laid back and watched his 'reincarnated troops' train vigorously.

Sometimes, for shits and giggles, he would even join them. Occasionally, he would show off by using his Blood Qi to cause untold havoc in the world, causing the eyes of all these beasts to bulge with shock.

When he buffed them using his Knight's life essence, they wept dramatically, saying that it was a blessing from their emperor and that they felt connected to Dante more than ever.

Dante was speechless.

After that, he continued to pose and posture by using his hellfire - which was featured in the illusion for these guys - to do various things. Even crazier was when he used his offensive astral flare 1st Rank spell to decimate one chunk of the forest into a crater.

Even Dante was shocked by the current damage output of a mere first-rank spell when boosted by 4 spatial cores. Each core was a 150% boost, meaning his base space element damage was 6 times higher than any mage of the same level who used a space element spell with no space element cores.

This did not account for, nor factor in, his own specialness for having 9th Rank level Intelligence as well as his base power as a 4th Rank Elite Wizard.