EmEs_etherious
patreon
Chapter 82- The Stars align
🕑 Added 2023-08-14 01:06:43 +0000 UTCIt had now been exactly twenty-four hours since Arthur's participation in the battle against Shade and he had now fully recovered from the injuries he’d suffered during that fight. With him were the spoils he'd gained, the promised monster core that the government had rewarded him and most importantly, the Dragon core he needed to fix up his soul.
Sadly, he wasn't quite ready to use it yet as Ayesha had told him. She'd been annoyingly vague with the details, saying that he needed to learn the value of patience. It was even more annoying that she was right. He'd made quite the blunder because of his over-eagerness. In his excitement of gaining tier-two system access, he'd gone and spent over two hundred of his saved-up stat points to unlock the Paragon Series Titles for both Endurance and Intelligence. It wasn't the worst decision to make, but he'd limited his future options by doing so.
Alyssia had told him that he needed to consume three more monster cores before trying to have a go at the Dragons. Something about his soul being damaged badly, but not badly enough to let the super core work its magic on healing him. This was apparently one of those cases where you had to get worse before you could get better.
He was also pretty sure that this was what Ayesha's Seer had interpreted when she looked into his future and the damnable woman was just pulling his leg trying to act all mysterious with her cryptic remarks of 'soon enough.' More importantly, however, was that since receiving the Alverin's instruction, he'd already gone and absorbed the kingfisher's core as per her advice and gained the Preception attribute. That meant he only had two slots remaining before he had to go for the big one. And I don't know how my half-breed title will evolve in the wake of that. Will I still be able to gain power from monster cores?
He didn't know, and that was the crux of the issue. By spending his stat points prematurely, he'd tied his hands on which monster cores he could absorb for his final selection. Not literally, of course, but at least if he was chasing the optimal path for himself, which he was.
He had three of the paragon titles already, Endurance, Intelligence and Vitality. With 49 stat points banked for future use, and the 224 he'd gain after reaching level 99, he'd have enough to raise either Constitution or Willpower to the 500-point benchmark and gain another paragon title.
By investing my stats prematurely, I might end up being wasteful if any of the cores I use give me Endurance or Intelligence. I could've saved those stats and maybe gained another Paragon Title. Come on Arthur, you were so stingy with those fucking attributes since the system arrived. Why'd you have to go and spend them like a kid at the candy store?
He didn't even want to think about what the Dragon Core would give him. He was annoyed enough with himself already. Thinking about the missed potential any more would give him an aneurysm. Still, all wasn't lost. As long as he was selective about his core consumption, he could salvage this situation. Not everything of course, a little waste was inevitable now, but it wouldn't set him back too much.
In a perfect world, he'd want to get the Paragon titles for every attribute. He was certain there'd be some mega title in store for him if he managed to pull that off, maybe something like Paragon of Humanity, but that was an impossible goal. Yep, Paragon of Humanity has a nice ring to it.
Unfortunately, reality didn't cater to his dreams. A normal human, with the five stats they gained per level, would only be able to obtain a SINGLE title from the Paragon chain by investing all 495 points they'd gain before level 100 into a single stat. With said title only giving a ten percent bonus to the attribute, it honestly wasn't worth it. And that was without taking into consideration the unfeasibility of such a build. Getting to level 100 with such a skewed Status was a suicide mission. It'd take a miracle of epic proportions to achieve it. I guess a year or two of getting carried might get you there.
Still, Arthur was in a unique position where he'd already obtained three of them, two more than was commonly thought possible and it was only due to his special advantages in his increased stat gain per level and monster core consumption. Finding these specific traits in another human would truly be a convergence of fate, a real alignment of the stars.
Sure, he knew with the vastness of space, and the trillions of humans out there, someone had probably already done the same. Still, something told him they hadn't done it as good as him. Maybe it was his ego talking, but Arthur had a strong feeling, instinct perhaps, that he was right.
More than his absurd number of titles, his incredible aptitude for magic, heck, even his ultra-rare soul affinity; his greatest strength was the absolute shit-ton of stats he had. Arthur quickly did the maths. He had 2,595 stats across the board. And he was only level 71.
Two-thousand-five-hundred and ninety-five stats. Level seventy-one. "Two-thousand-five-hundred and ninety-five stats. Level seventy-one." He had to repeat that a few times to let the absurdity of it sink in. That was 500 stats away from an S-grade attribute, a nearly unheard of feat and he hadn't even obtained a class yet.
Humility was great and all, but there came a point where you just had to accept something.
I'm god-damn amazing!
Arthur took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. It wouldn't do to get ahead of himself too soon. Not when he hadn't even reached the best bit. You see, Arthur had a plan, and for once, it was perfect, divinely inspired even.
Alright man, that's enough already. Calm down.
He wasn't altogether successful. Ever since Arthur had first laid eyes on the Paragon of Vitality title when he'd first unlocked it, he'd had a grand idea that he just couldn't get out of his head. What about One-Thousand? What would happen if I reached a thousand in a stat before getting my class?
It was an impossible feat, quite literally in the sense that humans only got half that number before then. And even if someone, somewhere out there in the universe, had somehow walked this road before him, he had something they didn't. He was Twice-lived.
A title he'd gained when the system miraculously brought him back from the dead and one that doubled the effectiveness of Vitality. It was a tier-four title and the number of people with one in a stellar system wasn't a three-digit number.
It was Rare.
And his one, his Twice-lived title. It wasn't even supposed to exist. Well, at least not for someone under level 100. Ayesha had been very, very clear in stating that. An individual's soul was simply not stable enough for one to preserve their essence in preparation for a revival before then.
No, the miracle of cheating death had to be done instantly, perhaps even simultaneously, as Ayesha had told him. Even the system, with its massive reservoirs of energy and access to all types of Ether affinities, operated with a little delay. That was something he'd wondered about, honestly. Surely he wasn't the only death caused by the system's arrival, right? Thousands must've died when it arrived, maybe even millions.
So why then was he the only person that it had chosen to revive? Finally, after so long, he'd figured it out. Ayesha had actually been the one that finally connected all the dots for him. Unintentionally, of course. She'd said something that really stuck with him. She'd told him it didn't matter how special his sister's soul was, it was gone the moment she'd died. Ayesha had tried to help him face reality but she'd inadvertently confirmed something for him.
A special soul delayed the degradation process. The system had told him something way back when. It stated that titles were not something that came from it. Nope, the system merely tried to describe them for its host's viewing. And bar the Paragon series, Titles weren't something that could be gamed.
When he'd unlocked the system, his soul affinity title was right there waiting for him. There was one key detail in its description. It said he'd gained it for possessing a Soul affinity. NOT an awakened one. For a long time, he'd been wondering if his rarest affinity was only a result of his brush with death and the system's subsequent actions of reviving him.
He had his answer now. The reason why he was alive today was because his soul affinity title increased the size of his soul. It meant that his soul had lingered for that extra second when he'd died. Not a long time by any means, but long enough for the system to revive him despite its minor delays. Titles weren't always gained by following the same steps. That was something that the system had told humanity early on. Others with the soul affinity may not even possess the same title he did, along with the advantages it gave him. The stars aligning for his revival and then for his twice-lived title acquirement was infinitesimally small.
At the end of the day though, this was all secondary. He'd gone off on a tangent for long enough. This had all started with the thousand vitality plan. Someone might have done it before him, but no one had done it quite like he would.
After all, he'd lived twice.
