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CH 169: Reward Choices
🕑 Added 2025-08-06 14:00:16 +0000 UTCPlease select distribution.
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You have completed [The Beast Lords] questline with exceptional performance. You may now choose to distribute rewards to your party or faction, bestow them on yourself, or transfer them to a known and validated contact. (Note: contact transfer highly limited). Your banked rewards and difficulty increase have unlocked new options. Final questline experience will be awarded once reward distribution is complete.
AVAILABLE REWARDS:
- Bonus Stat Points. Converts reward allocations into stat points that may be used by individual, or the individual's party or faction.
ERROR: Stat Point Conversion Unavailable. Allocation exceeds conversion limit.
- Equipment Upgrade. Uses reward allocations to forcibly apply qualitative increases to any type of equipment.
Warning: Upgraded equipment may gain or lose traits.
Warning: Upgrading equipment may have adverse effects on growth-capable equipment.
- Equipment - New. Converts reward allocation into equipment of varying types and rarities, depending on performance.
- Experience Conversion. Converts all reward allocations into experience points and awards them to individual.
ERROR: Experience Conversion Unavailable. Allocation exceeds conversion limit.
- Skill Upgrade. Converts reward allocations into energy used to upgrade an existing skill.
- Skills - New. Converts reward allocation into skills. Multiple skills may be offered based on performance. Skills above Common rarity may be offered, based on performance.
Reid smiled at the familiar notification. The last time he'd seen it was back when he killed the mind-mage Drus, and back then, he'd chosen to increase the difficulty of the questline to get even greater rewards. That difficulty increase wasn't an option this time - and neither were a stat bonus nor an experience bonus. He was still pretty happy with his kit - though there was a chance upgrading the equipment he'd received from the faction wars completion would turn into something interesting and actually worthwhile.
But his real interest was, of course, the skills. Reid moved his attention to them, and started to read through. Some of the ones from the last progress point were still there, and some were missing. Glide, the skill about controlled falls, was gone. So was snorkel - but that had been rendered useless by the Gills skill Reid had picked up anyway. He read through the new ones.
Resource Loans [uncommon]
Scales with level. Allows the individual to loan resources to nearby party members. Causes damage to those loaned resources if resources are not paid back in a timely manner.
Warrior's Cry [uncommon]
Scales with level. Grants the individual a bonus to health and increases attacking power. Reduces stress, fatigue, and fear.
Petrification [rare]
Scales with Level. Active use only. Create stone skin and stone spikes. Advanced practitioners can manually control the application of this skill. Highly advanced practitioners can manifest full petrification.
Lightning Manipulation [epic]
Scales with level. Allows for the control of natural lightning, and increases the individual's resistance to the element. Advanced practitioners may create lightning and use it to attack. Highly advanced practitioners may create and use lightning in other forms.
Arcane Blast [legendary]
Scales with level. Allows the individual to charge and release a cone of arcane-attuned mana from their person. May only be used from a sufficiently mastered arcana. Cone intensity and level of tangible arcana dependent on skill mastery and mana use.
Arcane Wings [legendary]
Scales with level. Allows the individual to fly on manifested wings. Mana use is dependent on flight speed, duration, maneuvering, arcane-flight experience, and applicable arcana mastery. Wings may only manifest from a sufficiently mastered arcana.
Reid swallowed, and forced himself to re-read, and consider each option.
Resource loans would be an excellent skill if Reid was interested in being a piggybank for someone else's mana, but he was a solitary fighter. Plus, the idea of damaging someone for not paying resources back gave him a bad feeling. Warrior's Cry reminded him of the buff he'd felt from Win all the way back in the Warrens. Again, a great skill for someone that fought in groups - not so great for him.
And then there was petrification.
Reid's eyes went out of focus as he stared wordlessly at the option. His thoughts formed a roller-coaster of what-if-isms. What if he'd never had that skill to begin with - would everyone have died at Sanctuary? Or, what if he'd been willing to practice with the corrupted skill? Maybe there was an outcome where he didn't have to sacrifice himself, but just... cut off an arm? What if he hadn't corrupted the skill at all? Would magic rock have been able to get through the Crimson Titan's crystal skull? A deep sigh escaped from his nose.
Reid had come a long, long way from Sanctuary. He was stronger. A bit wiser - with Nyx making up for it when he wasn't. He was experienced, and he was more aware of his own ability. And that meant he refused to let himself be dragged down by thoughts and memories. Petrification was here, again, on the table and there if he wanted it. It would come to him unblemished and unbroken, without the drawbacks of before. It was still a neat thing - turning into stone and beating things up sounded amazing. Except - Reid already had his Osteomancy, and his style of fighting. Petrification was an option, sure, but it wasn't the trump card he'd once considered it to be. Especially in the context of the rest of the options before him.
Shooting lighting out of your hands, for instance, was at least twice as cool as turning into stone and punching something. There was something in that option that tickled the back of his brain and made him seriously want to just grab the skill because it was epic rarity - but that same thing got even more excited at the next option.
A legendary skill - and it was AoE, on top of that. Reid could make a cone attack, just like Crinoptera had done to him - except instead of an ice cone, it would be a bone cone. Shards of his osteal smithing coalesced into something tangible and slamming into enemies. Maybe exploding. Maybe solid. But it was the solution to problems Reid had been dealing with for a long while. He would have something useful against large, massed enemy forces. Something he could leverage in an actual battle with forces on both sides, if he needed to. And all that made his decision much, much harder.
Because the last skill was even better.
Flight. Real, actual flight, on arcane-crafted wings. Reid had lost days and more to travel through the tutorial space, and he knew that an awakening-expanded planet was going to be even larger. So, it was a completely useful and valid thing to choose, and something that was kind-of the smart play.
It was also freaking WINGS.
Who didn't daydream, at some point, of being able to fly through the sky like some kind of superhero? Reid had. Laying down atop the school's monkey bars, or jumping off the garage into the snow in winter when he was young had given way to an interest in board games and fiction with flying characters as he grew into a teenager. He had toyed with the idea of being a pilot for a short while, but Sara came soon after that - and he'd happily shelved the idea. Reid's mind continued to work around the skill. Hell, if Reid could fly, that meant he could carry others - like a wide-eyed friend enamored with the very idea of flight. The idea of Lycra, soaring with him amongst clouds, was as enticing as the skill itself.
Reid tried to get himself to reconsider the other skill options - especially the other legendary one - but he was magnetized to the idea of it. He selected the option - and expected things to end there. But instead of getting his skill distributed and ending the process, Reid was met with another system message.
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Reward Selected: Skill: Arcane Wings [legendary]
NOTICE: You must finalize all selections before distribution can begin.
Additional Allocations Available.
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He pulled the skills list back up, and licked his lips. The uncommon options were still there. He also felt himself able to use the skill and equipment upgrade and creation options. He went back through everything - and though many options he swore off in this new round and the old one were tempting, he didn't select them. He came close with conversational telepathy, but instead moved over to the skill upgrade and creation section.
His half-baked idea fell apart before he had a chance to fully think of the implications. Accelerated growth was not an option for upgrading - but others were. Everything uncommon and below were available to select. Strengthening, Hardening, Calcification, Identify, Darkvision, Warband, and Weather Resistance. He didn't see a need to upgrade... any of those, honestly. They did what he wanted them to do, or they weren't a core part of his kit. Changing them had a chance to break how he used them, and he didn't want that. Reid turned his attention to the equipment upgrade options.
He was, of course, reluctant to even put his self-made kit on the line by trying to select it for an upgrade target. Curiosity won out over caution, and Reid targeted his main weapon and his favorite piece of equipment. And nothing happened. Reid was completely unable to select Requiem as a target of the upgrade. The same thing happened with his shield, and then again with brock.
A mixture of disappointed and relieved, Reid considered other options. Everything he had was comparatively weaker than his real, regular kit - but they could be targeted for upgrade. Reid couldn't see what these upgrades would do, but he was willing to experiment with something he didn't really care about. Reid doubted this would be his last questline, so the lessons learned here would be useful later on. He thought for a moment about asking Nyx for advice, but this was something he honestly wanted to experience for himself. At least the first time.
He removed himself from Crinoptera's head, and then pulled the 'listen to me' gauntlets and the crown from storage, then Gerald's stone bowl. They sat on the cold stone, relatively unimpressive and lonely - though the bowl had sentimental value. They were joined by the bangle after a bit of reluctance. He stared at the sad, small pile for a good minute before a thought hit him like lightning.
Brinkha's coin.
Reid fumbled at himself, tearing away pieces of his makeshift armor to get to his bare chest. In the chaos of the battle, he'd honestly forgotten that he was wearing the coin on its ropelike necklace. There was a serious chance that it was somewhere under the ice - or at the bottom of the mountain. Lost, and unretrievable. The makeshift armor pulled apart with a final series of snapping cracks.
An oversized, opalescent coin glinted in the growing sunlight. It was bent near the hole for the string, and had an ominous-looking crack starting to form, but it was there. Reid took it as a sign, and immediately selected the equipment upgrade for Brinkha's spatial storage coin. When the 'additional allocations available' message greeted him again, Reid added Gerald's bowl to his list. That proved enough.
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NOTICE: Allocations Selected. Please Confirm Distribution.
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Reid did, and felt - actually felt - his new skill settle within him. He could sense the possibility, immediate and tempting. But Reid didn't grow wings, right then and there. Nope. And it was definitely not because he tried to do so, only to realize he was so worn and tired from the Crinoptera fight that he couldn't. A bit dejected at not having his wings as soon as he got the skill, Reid inspected the upgraded items.
The bowl looked, to the eye, to be exactly the same - a stone bowl, rimmed with a series of ornate carvings that looked like vines and insects. But it wasn't.
Smith's Bowl of Purification [E]
May be used by any smith to temporarily purify and preserve crafting materials, ingredients, or resources.
That was pretty damn cool. Reid didn't really need materials purified, but if he could preserve a weapon partway through a particularly intensive crafting process, he could save himself a serious amount of exertion - or at least give himself a break. It just depended on whether things needed to actually be 'in' the bowl. He put the bowl down, and picked up the coin. It had shrunk in size, and looked much harder to break than before. The bend and the crack were both gone, and it seemed to catch more sunlight than before.
Queen's Vault [E]
A subspace device, capable of storing up to 100 stacks of limited materials, depending on total stored mass. Automatically locked to user.
Reid turned the coin in his hand, and smiled. Brinkha had made the thing from the remains of the insect queen, and with her ability alone managed to set it to store something about the size of his head. The initial use had been for a dessert, and Reid saw no need to break from tradition. The coin was, unquestionably, entirely for food. He needed to find Norton - so many meals would be able to fit in his new storage device.
He looked towards Crinopetera's body. Or, maybe, he could store the majority of one giant beast. A new grade meant higher dietary needs, and Crinoptera was a sure source of E-grade meat. There wasn't a guarantee he would find other E grade creatures in the tutorial, or elsewhere. And, if he didn't, Reid could tell he was going to need to feast like a true glutton to keep up with his body's needs.
Reid put the coin back around his neck. It came to rest against his skin, and Reid ran a finger over the smooth surface. He hoped the trio were all doing okay, really. They may never share Reid's drive, but they were good people. Notifications grabbed his attention again.
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Congratulations! Allocations Distributed. Final Questline Completion Confirmed.
You challenged the strongest beings in this tutorial space, and emerged victorious. Not content for simple victory, you managed to best each beast lord in solo combat, and within challenge time limits. Claim your earned crown. Feast like a warrior. And rejoice, slayer of monsters - for this tutorial's end is just the beginning of a new journey and a new challenge against your foes of choice.
Secret Questline Challenges Completed:
Defeated all beast lords within the time limits.
Defeated all beast lords in solo combat.
Achievements Upgraded!
Challenger II -> Challenger III
(Earned for completing a quest on the highest possible difficulty)
When you complete future challenge areas or event quests, rewards are increased.
Lone Agent I -> Lone Agent II
(Earned for completing a secret challenge with more than 90% contribution)
Improves bodily efficiency.
Lord -> Local Lord
(You are the lord of your faction, and have gained the title of local lord due to your quest progress)
Slightly increases your ability to influence others. Allows further influence and leverage over a distinct area.
New Achievements Earned!
Apex Predator
(Earned for solo-killing all beasts in a beast-based questline)
Beasts are less likely to attack you and your allies. Deal slightly increased damage against beasts. Beasts have a harder time noticing your presence.
Beast Lord Butcher
(Earned for harvesting usable parts or meat from at least 75% of usable, intact beast lord corpses during a beast lord questline)
Improves awareness of muscle, fat, sinew, and other internal composition within the bodies of foes.
Tutorial Completionist
(Earned for completing faction and beast lord questlines in full during a tutorial)
Grants slight bonuses to combat and leadership abilities.
Wandering Warrior
(Earned for taking unnecessarily circuitous or nonsensical paths during a questline)
Grants slight boons when wandering.
Solitary
(Earned for spending 80% or more time in a questline without traveling companions or party members)
Slightly improves stamina and reduces the need for sleep when traveling alone.
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Accelerated Growth Skill Awarded: [Arcane Craftsman]
Accelerated Growth Equipment Awarded: [Dreamroll]
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Final Experience Awarded: 30,000,000 xp [E] (+0.85x, + 25,500,000 xp [E])
Experience: 1,720,000 -> 57,220,000
Level: 65 -> 70
Control: 1,110 -> 1,260
Each increase was a welcome sight, and the benefits of challenger and lone agent would be good. He was, honestly, especially excited for lone agent. Needing even less sleep was going to be quite necessary with all the work Reid had ahead of him. The rest of the new achievements were a mixed bag. Apex Predator seemed too similar to Venator, and Wandering Warrior was too vague about what it actually did. Those two were disappointing, really. Tutorial Completionist was okay for its combat boost, but Reid didn't see himself using a leadership bonus. The most useful benefits were Solitary and Butcher. Both went well with the style of travel and exploration and quest completion he'd been doing. Butcher was going to remain useful, even after he finally met back up with Lycra.
Until then, it seemed like Reid was going to have a serious self-improvement session to take on. His top level for stats had nearly doubled from a single questline completion. Sure, it was the culmination of what was normally the hardest questline inside a tutorial, and he had managed to make it more difficult between Accelerated Growth, his evolution, and the difficulty increase on top of that - but... fifty-seven million xp was still fifty-seven million. It was... astounding.
Reid let his attention slip to the last set of notifications, then huffed with breath that slightly fogged the air as he got to his feet. It was time to harvest some lizard meat - while he still had the chance.
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NOTICE: Tutorial Questlines Completed. Tutorial closure will commence in 179D 23H 59M
NOTICE: Accelerated Growth Triggered.
NOTICE: Tutorial Closure Accelerated. Tutorial will close in 0D 3H 59M
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Comments
Adam Ellison
>or transfer them to a known and validated contact. (Note: contact transfer highly limited). Stuff like this makes me want him to attempt to give it to his daughter/wife soooo bad.
