Chapter 32: He who rides the Mist

Chapter 32: He who rides the Mist

Priam began by opening his Tree of Merit.

Trees of Merit

Each new Title opens a new Tree of Merit and allows you to upgrade a Tree of Merit once.

Upgrading a Tree of Merit to Tier 9 uses 10 Titles and thus condemns 9 other Trees. Be careful which trees you upgrade...

[Heartless] - Tier 0: Once a day, your heart regenerates instantly.

[Brainless] - Tier 3: Locked. Requires a Silver Title.

[Questor - Silver] - Tier 0: Your instincts are sharpening.

[Pseudo Phoenix] - Tier 0: Your affinity for flames allows you to manipulate uncontrolled fires.

[Axolotl or Hydra ?] - Tier 1: You can now regenerate your limbs faster.

[Apprentice of Hermes] - Tier 0: Future messenger, you are temporarily accepted by traveling to other worlds than Elysium.

[Moon Baron] - Tier 0: You are getting familiar with the mist.

[Upgrader] - Tier 0: You begin to feel the ethereal workings of your skills.

[Forerunner - Silver] - Tier 0: Your META (chance) increases temporarily when you work on a project capable of improving the standing of humanity. The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.

[To the Moon] - Tier 0: [Bullet time] is automatically triggered when you are in danger of death.

6 Unused Merit Points.

He had six points to spend, and some Trees interested him more than others. First, [Axolotl or Hydra?]sMerit had incredible potential but was only moderately interesting in Tier 1. Priam could get his limbs back once a day by resurrecting. Even with a thousand points of Vitality, and the Tier 1 of this Merit, he wouldn't regenerate a leg in less than a day. However, he wanted to become more resistant and restore his body more quickly.

Priam had been thinking. If each Tier was more potent than the previous one, he should favor completing one Tree. Spreading his Merit Points over several Trees might be better in the short term but not in the long term. The important thing was to get to the top tiers as quickly as possible. To do this, he had to focus on titles he could easily upgrade. Indeed, the Bronze rank Titles did not allow him to unlock more than their third Merit. He had to upgrade them to the next rank - Silver - as he had done with [Questor].

With [He Who Eludes Death], he was pretty sure he could upgrade [Axolotl or Hydra?]. What better way to improve a regeneration-based title than to injure his body as much as possible before regenerating by resurrecting? Only, the Merit was not synergizing with his resurrection skill. He needed to change that to progress faster.

He connected to his Potential and touched the Merit. He had to be quick, every second filled his head with ideas and consumed the precious resource.

"[Bullet Time]," he declared. The world slowed down and Priam's brain sped up. If the Potential was related to the time spent under its influence, he might as well think faster.

Priam did not communicate his desire to the Merit. Imperious, so connected to the Concepts, he was no longer a man. He was a God. He ordered Merit to submit and evolve.

[Axolotl or Hydra ?] - Tier 1: You can now regenerate your limbs faster... Transformation due to the use of Potential.

New Merit!

[Axolotl or Hydra ?] - Tier 1: The Tier 0 Merit synergizes with all resurrections, recreations, regenerations, and other means of restoring your body to its optimal state.

POT -80

Priam validated the Merit. Tier 1 now allowed him to benefit from the synergy between his Title, [Humanity adapts] and [He Who Eludes Death]. The next time he resurrected, his stats and resistance increases would be impressive...

His Vivacity informed him in real time of the loss of his Potential, and Priam hurried. He had no time to lose. The resource was too valuable to be so easily wasted. He consulted the following Merit.

[Axolotl or Hydra ?] - Tier 2: When your body is in perfect health, your Vitality accumulates. The subsequent injury you receive will be healed all the faster because your Vitality has accumulated.

The Tier seemed excellent but lacked synergy with [He Who Eludes Death]. Also, despite using Potential, he didn't know how fast his Vitality could accumulate. If he waited a week, could he instantly regenerate a lost limb? Priam didn't plan to survive a week. He planned to die every day to maximize his growth. If I can synergize this Tier with my resurrection, it might be interesting...

Under the epiphany of his Potential, he understood that the more drastic the modification of his Merits, the higher the cost in Potential. The first Merit had cost 80 points of Potential because it was different from the primary Merit. Fortunately, Priam had chosen a Merit close to his Title's objective and thus limited the consumption of Potential. But he did not have an unlimited amount of Potential. His next modifications should be more refined, closer to the original Merit.

Without missing a beat, Priam focused on his other Trees of Merit. He began touching them one by one to learn about the trees. All were excellent, but Priam immediately realized that some would help him less than others, depending on his goals. There were a myriad of different ways to reach the Zenith and the Eighth Throne. But not all were for him. He had to choose a path that he could walk to the end.

However, these trees gave him ideas and thanks to his Potential, Priam did an introspection and understood himself.

He had always enjoyed optimizing his characters in video games, but this was now his real life. He couldn't afford to get lost. He had to choose a martial path because, unfortunately, it was the only one that would ensure that he would retain his freedom and gain the power to protect his family and his ideals.

For this, many offensive builds attracted him. Strengthening his body to become an immortal juggernaut. Becoming a shadow to silently assassinate his enemies as soon as they let their guard down. Sending devastating spears to annihilate his opponents from beyong the horizon. Preparing rituals, summoning elementals, imprisoning consciousnesses in their dreams, creating and feeding stars, drowning minds in a flood of false memories, manipulating probabilities to cause death... Each of these paths could take him far, but they were not for him. But there was no reason why they couldn't become his tools. He would use anything to achieve his ends. Poisons, spears, rituals, domains, energies, information... Everything would be helpful.

Once again, Priam realized that he wanted to be free. He wanted to be the thief who could penetrate any fortressunseen. The warrior whose arrival made dragons tremble. The guardian who could protect his possessions and his loved ones. The mage who delved the depths of the arcane. A Jack of all trades, Master of All.

Opening his eyes, Priam smiled. He was in the center of the arena. He could now travel through its mist. Or rather, ride it. Instinctively, Priam knew that where his mist was, so was he.

Well, almost. The trip had been instantaneous, but Priam's aether reserves had been impacted. He had used nearly a quarter of his reserves to make the trip. Moreover, Priam accomplished this feat on the first try because he used his Potential. Without this resource, he knew he would have to train hard to do this kind of feat so easily and quickly.

Finally, Priam felt he needed to rest his body. Despite the Potential, riding the mist and using [Bullet time] is not good.

"My last throw depleted my body and my aether ducts. Or is it passages? Meridians? Always more questions," Priam grinned. He refocused.

[Moon Baron] - Tier 3: Locked. Requires a Silver Title.

Priam knew that [Moon Baron]'s Merit synergized exceptionally well with his intentions. Defense, perception, camouflage and now movement. [Moon Mist] covered all of his needs except attack. But maybe not for long...

Potential: Creation of a Talent.

[Bound Weapon] - Potential cost: 310

Already, 40 points saved. I made the right choice... Creation!

His connection to the Concepts intensified. With his new Talent and his previous experiences, Priam was ready. A supernatural force took hold of the spear in his hand and the weapon flew away. A flash of lightning fell from the sky, illuminating Priam's vision. A second later, he opened his eyes to see a new weapon. The spear was no longer hoplite, and it wished to be his.

The tip was just ten centimeters from his forehead and Priam breathed in. If he was going to bond with his spear, he had to trust it. He nodded mentally, and the weapon leapt forward, piercing his skull.

Five minutes later, Priam left the arena. Behind him, the empty stands awaited a new match. The warrior stood erect, his clothes laced and a gleaming spear in his hand. A few hours ago, an observer would have described Priam as a muscular young man armed with a spear. Now, the same observer would naturally have referred to a master spearman. This observer would have been wrong. Priam was not a master spearman. Not yet.

As he reached the second-floor lobby, Priam's green eyes focused on an armed group. The Mercenaries turned to the newcomer before shuddering as they noticed the wisps of mist dancing within Priam's irises.

Hey.

Status: (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)

PHYSICAL:

Strength 86

Constitution 103

Agility 116

Vitality 164

Perception 176

MENTAL:

Vivacity 132

Dexterity 107

Memory 33

Willpower 69

Charisma 84

META:

Meta-affinity 77

Meta-focus56

Meta-endurance 1

Meta-chance 40

Potential: 198

Tier 0