EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 84- Branching Pathways
🕑 Added 2023-08-16 22:46:48 +0000 UTCIt is still the same day where I am, so I'm still on my chapter a day streak. (Technically) Seeing the view count yesterday on RR made me realise that this time was better for posting. Anyway, we'll see going forward what specific hour I should release chapters. Nothings set in stone yet.
Arthur Ward Level 71
Unallocated stat points: 49
Strength- 120(100) [1.2*]
Vitality- 700(500)[1.4* or 2.8*]
Endurance- 550(500) [1.1*]
Constitution-679(485) [1.4*]
Agility-118
Intelligence-550(500) [1.1*]
Willpower-250
Charisma-95
Perception-92
Health- 11,200/14,000 (1540(700)/hour)
Ether- 5500/5500(550/hour)
Endurance- 4580/5500(550/minute)
Arthur took a look at his new status sheet and calculated just how much he'd grown. It looked like his hopes had been fulfilled. The monster core had pushed him to another paragon Title, this time in Constitution, and he'd also received a hundred points in vitality.
With his titles boosting the stat, it meant he had a health pool of 14,000 total points. It was a number so large, it was about time he started thinking about regen rates in minutes instead of the system-provided hours. He quickly did the math. Twenty-five health a minute. That's as much as a newly awakened human makes every hour. Arthur shook his head. It was amazing to think of how far he'd come. With a health pool of over ten-thousand points, he probably gave tanks nearing level 200 a run for their money. Well, at least tanks with common and uncommon classes. He wasn't too sure about those with rare classes and above, but even then, he didn't think he'd be too far off. Arthur grinned.
He didn't have any reason to delay anymore. It was finally time to shake off the shackles of mundanity and evolve, leave this pitiful human form behind. A famous anime quote came to mind. I sound like a villain when I think of it like that.
The evolution fruit probably had the strangest-sounding name he had ever heard of since the system’s arrival. Fonkey Dypulp seemed almost like someone had taken a random selection of words and meshed them together, though Arthur did not doubt that it must have had some profound meaning in another language. Still, it was one of the few things since the new world came to be that struck him as truly alien.
His myriad tongues skill gave him absolutely no details when he identified and re-identified the fruit, and Arthur briefly wondered if his skill was acting up. The abilities description did say that the skill wasn't a perfect match for the system, something about it using ether in strange ways. Maybe that was why it wasn't working here.
Arthur shook his head, trying to dismiss the random thoughts from his head. He had never been good at handling situations when he was excited, and his pre-evolving moments were as exciting as any he'd been in. That was the main reason why his thoughts were going all over the place and why he couldn’t focus on the task at hand.
Taking a deep breath, Arthur tried to calm himself down and centre himself on the task at hand. He took a good look at the fruit and realised that he had one slight problem. How in the world do I eat this thing, Arthur wondered. Was it important that he ate it at all in a single bite, which would prove difficult with how large the thing was. Did the fruit even have to be consumed in a single sitting? He briefly considered contacting Mira about what he should do before quickly shutting that idea down.
That would be opening up the door to a whole lot of temptation and he was struggling with indecision as it was, without worrying about whether or not he should try and enhance the fruit’s properties as the poison mage had done. Arthur had already decided that he wouldn’t risk doing such a thing, he wasn’t sure how strong his resolve would be when he came face to face with the woman who had succeeded in such an endeavour and Arthur didn’t want to test his willpower.
Arthur sighed. Why the hell didn’t this thing come with an instruction manual? He cursed inwardly. After he thought about it a little, Arthur realised that maybe he was overthinking things. It was just a fruit and eating it couldn’t be that hard. Right? Praying for the best, Arthur picked up the not-strawberry and brought it to his lips.
Before indecision could claim him, Arthur took a large bite. The fruit tasted like nothing he had ever eaten before and if asked, he wouldn't quite be able to describe its flavour. It tasted like the nostalgia one felt for something they had never experienced before, like a contradiction given from, nature's beauty and wrath all contained within a single bite.
Before Arthur knew it, the fruit was gone and he felt the forlorn emotion of one who had just woken up from a pleasant dream. Had the fruit tasted sweet or was it bitter? Arthur didn’t know. He couldn’t even remember eating it, never mind how it tasted and he cursed himself for not savouring its flavour for longer. Though Arthur knew deep down that nothing he could have done would have changed this particular disappointing outcome in the slightest.
The entire experience felt underwhelming, or at least that was what Arthur initially thought. He suddenly felt something inside him crack and Arthur fell to his knees as he felt a gut-wrenching pain rush through him. Every fibre of his being felt like it had been lit on fire and Arthur panicked when he realised that he was unable to move. He could only kneel there, in his kitchen, frozen in place, unable to even fall to the ground as his body underwent some sort of metamorphosis.
Arthur could feel his cells changing, evolving into something more than just human, thousands of years of natural selection condensed down to a few scant moments; a change far more significant than even the hundreds of attributes he had gained over the past few weeks.
It was in that eternal moment of change that it truly hit Arthur that he was no longer the same man he had been a month ago. He had changed on a fundamental level, and Arthur couldn’t even attribute that to his growth in power. No, Arthur was something more than human now and the future would only bring with it more changes. Sometime later, a few hours, a few days, perhaps a single second - Arthur didn’t know- he suddenly regained control of his body. Flexing his limbs, Arthur realised that though he didn't feel like he'd gotten any stronger, it didn’t undermine any of the changes he had gone through.
It was almost as if Arthur had now consolidated all the power he had gained since the system’s arrival, really made it his own instead of it being a few numbers on a status screen he could only see. Now, he really was Arthur Ward, a level 71 magician, and it wasn’t jusst because the system told him that was what he was.
He closed his eyes and opened them again, marvelling at how different the simple natural bodily process now seemed. Breathing in, Arthur realised that even the oxygen he took in felt charged, like every intake of breath he’d ever taken in the past was filtered through a cotton mask. And yet, despite all these significant changes, Arthur knew that he hadn’t really evolved yet. At least that was what the system message in front of him was telling him.
Congratulations! After consuming the Fonkey Dypulp (Rare) you have now reached the cusp of evolution and entry into the Rank F of the human species. A choice however lies before you and you must select which path you wish to take in your journey to power.
Be Aware! The first step is the most important one, and it determines the route of your future evolutions.
Choose wisely, Arthur Ward.
Arthur stopped reading the system message there as he tried to understand what it was trying to tell him. It seemed that he had a choice before him, something that both Mira and his friend Elizabeth had never mentioned to him, which led him to believe that it was either the fruit that he had consumed that was slightly different or maybe he was just a little special.
Or they didn’t tell you cos they didn't have to, Arthur’s rational thinking inserted itself. Whatever the case it seemed that he would only be able to choose one evolution sadly and the system warned that he’d be foregoing the other by doing so. Arthur frowned. He’d have been much happier if he only had one way to evolve as the one thing Arthur didn’t want to be burdened with right now was a difficult choice.
He knew even before looking at them that this would be one of the hardest decisions he’d ever make and Arthur wasn’t mentally prepared for such a momentous choice right now. Unfortunately, he also worried that delaying such a thing might have adverse effects, and so reluctantly Arthur began to read the lines that would define his future.
Vital Surge- increase your vitality by 30% (Note-Evolution effects take place on an attribute after all relevant titles do their work, not in conjunction with them)
Prodigious Title bearer- Increases all title effects by 10%.
Okay, he was wrong. This was one of the easiest decisions he'd ever made. Arthur smiled and made his choice.
