Chop

*There is greatness in simplicity.*

## Summary

Chop is a non-upgradeable F-Grade class skill received at level 25 for his **Hatchetman** class.

Chop was fused with Nature's Barrier to create the E-Grade Nature's Edge in Book 7, Chapter 72.

## Skill Quest

*Chop (Class): First chop wood. Then their bodies. (0/10,000)* **Book 1, Chapter 25**

* He also confirmed that the Chop quest did not progress from battling, even though it mentioned chopping bodies. **Book 1, Chapter 26**
* He decided to put the ten days as a deadline. He would also match the quest for **[Chop]**, so he’d chop a thousand times a day. **Book 1, Chapter 29**
* This time, Cosmic Energy didn’t enter his mind, but information. This time, the impartatation was akin to when he’d bought [Eye of Discernment] from the Nexus Crystal. **Book 1, Chapter 39**

## Skill Window

**Chop – Proficiency: Early. There is greatness in simplicity.**

**Book 1, Chapter 39**

## Early Proficiency

* The skill was another fractal, and the usage was similar to the identification skill. It needed him to circulate Cosmic Energy through his energy pathways in a specific manner, then imagine it entering this fractal. The difference was that while [Eye of Discernment] placed the fractals inside his eyes, the new one was on the top of his right hand. It wasn’t a physical manifestation; rather, it superimposed itself on his pathways. **Book 1, Chapter 39**
* The **[Chop]** skill’s fractal seemed to actually merge with his class pathways. It didn’t look out of place or messy, but it felt as a missing piece of a puzzle was added. **Book 1, Chapter 39**
* He started with using a small amount of energy and channeled it through his new fractal as he swung the axe. The energy transformed as it ventured out through his hand and into the axe. As he swung down, he could see a translucent edge formed by Cosmic Energy. It was like the axe-head had gotten a bit larger, as the translucent edge ran a few centimeters in front of the actual edge, and its length was roughly ten centimeters longer compared to the actual steel edge. The edge created from Cosmic Energy looked like a copy of his axe’s actual edge, with some faint fractals added along its length. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* He tried using the skill once more, but this time, he put far more Cosmic Energy into the skill. The translucent blade grew quite a bit larger, now stretching noticeably outward. The blade was now over one meter long, making his once short-ranged axe have almost as long a range as the great sword he had commandeered. Luckily, the edge didn’t grow downward along the haft, but rather outward. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* As he continued putting more power into the skill, it kept growing, but Zac soon felt that he was starting to lose control over the skill. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* After some experimentation, he knew that he could keep the blade stable at roughly one meter. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* It was also a brutal instrument when fighting against multiple enemies. If he pushed it past its point of stability, he could wield a huge blade and slash at multiple people at once, at least for a short duration before the skill broke. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* It seemed that cutting through things would use up the energy faster compared to simply having it summoned, but even while not cutting things, it continuously drained him slowly. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* He then brought out a sword from his pouch to test whether he could use **[Chop]** with other weapons, but it at least didn’t work with swords. **Book 1, Chapter 40**
* When he fought the monkeys, he always used his skill **[Chop]** to create the translucent enlarged edge to cover his actual axe-head. Still, his actual axe was worse for wear. It seemed that the skill didn’t just copy the edge of his weapon, it rather projected it. That was a disadvantage he hadn’t expected, but then again, it still was an extremely powerful and diverse skill for being the first attack skill the class offered. **Book 1, Chapter 44**

## Middle Proficiency

* Anger and desperation filled Zac’s mind as he maniacally tried to increase the reach of the blade. “REACH!” he roared as the edge was moving horizontally in the imp’s direction. Suddenly, the blade detached from his axe and continued outward like a wave. It moved as fast as his swing did, and soon reached the back of the fleeing herald. **Book 1, Chapter 53**
* **[Chop]** had improved, as he suspected. In his fight with the herald, he’d actually shot out the edge like a projectile, something he hadn’t been able to do before. The desperation in the fight had helped him break through from early to middle stage of the skill. **Book 1, Chapter 54**

## Late Proficiency

* He started to charge up his **[Chop]** skill until it was five meters long, then with a mental command, the edge multiplied into five identical parallel edges. They were right next to each other with less than a centimeter between them, making the edge look like a thick block of fractals. Zac rapidly swung his axe horizontally five times, and with every swing, one of the edges flew out in a different direction. **Book 1, Chapter 87**
* The new attack was the result of constantly being in pitched battles for weeks. Both his [Axe Mastery] and **[Chop]** had improved once again, reaching Late Mastery. **Book 1, Chapter 87**
* The improved **[Chop]** currently held stable at five meters instead of one, and now allowed multiple blades to be created. **Book 1, Chapter 87**
* Initially, he had only managed to create two, but as his control over Cosmic Energy improved from constant battle, the number of blades he could maintain stably increased. **Book 1, Chapter 87**

## Peak Proficiency

* **[Chop]**, the first attack skill that he had obtained, had finally evolved from Late to Peak mastery, becoming the first skill to do so. *[It did this after being used to chopped the tree for his Deforestation skill quest.]* **Book 3, Chapter 101**
* Cosmic Energy effortlessly entered the fractal as usual, but when he infused the fractal with his energy, Zac noticed a startling change. For one, he infused over ten times as much energy as usual before the blade assembled, but that wasn’t all. As the fractal edge materialized, he also formed a mental connection he had never felt before. Suddenly, it was as though the large five-meter edge was a part of his body, and with a simple mental command, it detached from its position in front of his axe. However, it didn’t shoot off toward Salvation and his metallic rivers but rather started to hover around him like a large scythe of death. **Book 3, Chapter 102**
* It looked like the change in his skill was that he received one special edge, while the others remained the same. **Book 3, Chapter 102**
* The function of the special blade from **[Chop]** was still unclear, as it still hovered around him. However, Zac noted that it had barely cost any Cosmic Energy to maintain since he’d formed it, meaning it might be possible to keep a permanent edge on hand. **Book 3, Chapter 103**
* The next moment, the blade detached and started to hover by him like a silent sentinel. **Book 4, Chapter 41**
* He was still only able to maintain a stable edge that was around ten meters, whereas anything larger would start to destabilize after a few seconds. **Book 6, Chapter 14**

## Fusion

### Justification

* The basic skill **[Chop]** couldn’t really keep up with the latest improvements of **[Verun’s Bite]**, but it still had a terrifying cutting power between the Fragment of the Axe and the skill itself. **Book 6, Chapter 51**
* Cutting through powerful E-grade beasts took a lot of energy, and **[Chop]** could only contain so much, being an F-grade skill. **Book 6, Chapter 76**
* but he decided that an E-grade equivalent of **[Chop]** was of the highest priority. It was the bread and butter of his class, the very foundation of his fighting style. **Book 6, Chapter 77**

### Result

* This was exactly what Zac had wanted to see, and he was extremely relieved relieved to see that his fusion of **[Chop]** and **[Nature’s Barrier]** had worked out just as he hoped. **Book 7, Page 682**
* Meanwhile, **[Nature’s Edge]** was a perfect fusion between Nature and Axe, using the form of **[Nature’s Barrier]** and the function of **[Chop]**. Losing his only real defensive skill was a bit of a shame, but **[Nature’s Barrier]** had long lost its ability to protect him. **Book 7, Page 683**

## Commentary

* He was lucky that he had found the pouch, as he was starting to accumulate a ridiculous amount of firewood. He had decided to leave most of it in a few dry spots around the island. ... The lumber was proof of his effort, and it felt wasteful to just throw it away. **Book 1, Chapter 36**
* But with the reach of his weapon infused with **[Chop]**, no monkey maw really managed to get close to him, ... **Book 1, Chapter 43**
* He madly flailed the axe around; the only thing keeping him safe was the great reach of **[Chop]**. **Book 1, Chapter 45**
* As he kept fighting and swapping back and forth between **[Chop]** and the Dao, something suddenly clicked in his mind, and he once again summoned the fractal blade. This time, it was different, as it held a darker hue and emanated the aura of a lofty mountain. Even the fractals on the edge had grown denser, weaving another line of inscriptions along the edge. He’d finally managed to integrate his Dao with his skill, and the result wasn’t as simple as one plus one equals two. Something new was born out of the fusion. *[Note: This did not change Chop's proficiency]* **Book 1, Chapter 62**
* The general tried to deflect the force, but the Chop of Heaviness was intractable as it pushed his blades down. **Book 1, Chapter 62**
* It **[Axe Mastery]** did, however, also incorporate both his Dao of Heaviness and his skill **[Chop]** into the mix. ... new usage methods for the skills, such as using **[Chop]** like a retractable lance, almost instantly impaling enemies as the energy edge expanded when he held the axe at the right angle. **Book 1, Chapter 79**
* **[Chop]** was more and more turning into an area skill, but it didn’t really improve the power of his strikes. He would have to imbue his Dao into the blades in order to improve the lethality compared to a normal swing. **Book 1, Chapter 87**
* The beast **[Fiend Wolf]** wasn’t using any skills, only the power of its body empowered with its Dao, and still the effect was even greater compared to when Zac used **[Chop]**. **Book 1, Chapter 92**
* **[Chop]** was still great against hordes of monsters, but against strong singular enemies, its effect was limited. **Book 1, Chapter 93**
* Zac simply snorted as he charged up **[Chop]** far beyond his limit and swung down. The edge tore straight through the whole building as it fell down upon the leader of Greenworth. **Book 2, Chapter 5**
* **[Chop]** [*at late* proficiency] was still good for weaker targets, but his only good attack for stronger enemies was **[Nature’s Punishment]**. **Book 2, Chapter 71**
* The speed of killing beasts was still worse compared to the carnage he could unleash when using **[Chop]**, but it was a clear step up from waiting for his enemies to kill themselves from **[Deathwish]**. **Book 3, Chapter 31**
* It also seemed to differ from how **[Chop**] worked. That skill was based on the actual weapon he used, so when he changed weapons, so did the strength of the fractal edge change. **Book 3, Chapter 32**
* His skill had no problem adapting to the increased quality of the axe, making him wonder if there was any limit to how strong **[Chop]** could become. The skill wasn’t upgradeable unlike most of his other ones, and he had worried about what he would do about it. But perhaps there was no need to worry. He only needed to upgrade his axe and the skill would follow suit. *[Wishful Zac]* **Book 3, Chapter 39**
* He found that the improved **[Chop]** was almost as lethal as when he’d imbued the edge with the Dao of Sharpness before his axe [Verun] upgraded, and when he imbued the upgraded edge, it emitted a terrifying aura, like it would almost cut space itself. **Book 3, Chapter 39**
* He also found that he could imbue his edge with the Dao of Hardness without a problem, though the effect seemed quite limited. ... The Dao of Sanctuary couldn’t be infused, ... **Book 3, Chapter 39**
* When Zac saw what happened to the fractal, he suddenly had an idea, and he imbued the next **[Chop]** with the Dao of Trees. The edge flew toward the arm of death, and as he hoped, it didn’t immediately break. **Book 3, Chapter 68**
* Zac quickly summoned a fractal edge with **[Chop]**, and just as he thought, the fractal gained a murky green color when it was imbued with the Seed of Rot. ... However, a wet sheen of some green liquid was left around the rift, meaning that the attack was more akin to adding poison to the blade. **Book 3, Chapter 69**
* As he had grown stronger, he was able to create a longer and longer edge with **[Chop]**, though it was still unstable above ten meters in length. **Book 3, Chapter 101**
* The edge from **[Chop]** grew with rapid speed until the edge reached ten meters, ... He needed to instantly push it to thirty-five meters or so from there, and do it as quickly as possible. Zac simply decided to push his energy control to the limit and completely flood the fractal on his hand with as much energy as he possibly could. He found that his training with the mental puzzle helped somewhat, as it also made the control of his Cosmic Energy smoother. To stabilize the skill further, he imbued it with his recently improved Dao Seed as well. The edge gained a silver sheen from his Late-stage Dao of Sharpness as it stretched out from his axe until it started to gain ridiculous proportions. ..., but he felt it was starting to become unstable the moment he passed fifteen meters. He did everything he could to have the Cosmic Energy retain its shape until it finally reached the necessary length. *[Using Chop to complete his Deforestation skill quest.]* **Book 3, Chapter 101**
* The blazing heat from the Golem King’s body caused constant strain on the blade, and Zac was forced to infuse it with a huge amount of Cosmic Energy if he wanted to keep it going. It was more economical to use **[Chop]** to create disposable blades that only lasted one swing. **Book 4, Chapter 53**
* His weapon was just average if you discounted the uncommonly high spirituality of the Tool Spirit, and **[Chop]** was as basic a skill as they came. However, each blade still managed to crush a dozen beautiful and intricate skills that sailed toward him before they ran out of steam. **Book 5, Chapter 51**
* **[Chop]** was a pretty simple skill, but it had become a staple of his fighting style, something that could be used in almost any situation. **Book 5, Chapter 74**
* A pillar of light rose toward the sky as a shockingly large fractal edge appeared. It glistened with sharpness as it stretched almost a hundred meters into the air, far exceeding the height of the wall. **[Chop]** might not be able to evolve, but just being able to cram five times more energy into the skill fractal before he lost control made a huge difference. **Book 5, Chapter 84**
* However, Zac could always move around with the help of **[Chop]** as long as he had some fixtures to generate momentum with. He could probably even generate some push by simply swinging in the air quickly enough. **Book 5, Chapter 84**
* This time, the defensive array was expended, and a fifty-meter fractal edge cut the massive tower clean off after Zac bombarded the skill fractal for **[Chop]** with Cosmic Energy. Zac really felt that the skill description was right; there was greatness in simplicity. Now that he could control far more energy thanks to his improved pathways, **[Chop]** had grown all the more lethal. **Book 5, Chapter 86**
* However, a change quickly spread out through the blade as a powerful twinned surge of energy shot into the fractal edge from his left arm. The shaky blade immediately stabilized before it started to transform. The blade grew even larger and more robust as a new set of overlapping fractals covered its length, one golden and one black. *[Zac using Chop with Rapturous Divide.]* **Book 6, Chapter 14**
* Zac never used the Dao like that when it came to **[Chop]**, for example. He just crammed a bunch of Mental Energy into the fractal edge before he launched it at his enemies. But he understood now that he didn’t actually need to disconnect his soul from the strike immediately, though it did free up his concentration for other things. **Book 6, Chapter 25**
* He tested things further and shot a few fractal blades at the special roots, but his eyes widened when he couldn’t even cut them apart when he imbued **[Chop]** with Fragment of the Axe. **Book 6, Chapter 45**
* It was incredibly crude, a mockery of his old skill **[Chop]**. The blade flickered like a dying flame, utterly incapable of maintaining a solid form. Yet, as his old skill said, there was greatness in simplicity. **Chapter 1,135**