Chapter 318: Rewards for a Job Well Done

Chapter 318: Rewards for a Job Well Done

Congratulations, Planet Earth! The World Boss The Leviathan has been slain by the hand of countless people. The matter of the final blow was therefore random and immaterial.

All those who participated will be rewarded based on their contribution, with XP, Aspects, and monster materials.

So, the damn thing was dead, but werent there billions of tons of materials floating out there?

And that was when the swearing started.

Understandable, after all, the body of the monster theyd just been fighting, the literal treasure trove that, if things hadnt been devalued by the sheer amount of stuff present, would likely have surpassed the GDP of most of the planet.

But good grief, the language being used Isaac had literally never heard the like, his crass vocabulary had tripled in mere seconds.

And then, the next message slammed home.

The Rewards Levels are listed below, however, there are some

1. Body Pieces may be either a tooth, scale, tooth-sized piece of bone, 50 Leviathan steaks, 1 liter of any bodily fluid, or 50 m^2 of leather

2. World Boss Aspects must be stacked atop a compatible Aspect, but can override previous Skills if so desired, allowing their recipients to customize how they use their rewards.

3. Regardless of how many people hold each rank of reward, only a maximum of 15 Aspects will be handed out.

4. Level Boosts are not immediate, their recipients will receive them and trigger them whenever they choose to (they will trigger automatically if doing so would push their recipient to the maximum Level of 200).

Infinitesimal: Those who participated but failed to reach any reward higher tiers will receive 100,000 XP

Minor: Those who participated in the battle and contributed will receive 200,000 XP

Small: Those who participated in a way that would be noted as being above average in reports will receive 500,000 XP, half a body piece (own choice), and have a 0.1% chance at receiving an Aspect

Sufficient: Those who have done enough that a million like them together would have been able to beat the World Boss will receive 1,000,000 XP, 1 body piece, and have a 1% chance of receiving an Aspect

Significant: This tier requires one to single-handedly affect the battle in some way, be it by briefly restraining the foe so others may land a solid hit, or landing a significant hit on their own. As such, they will be boosted by 1 Level or 2,000,000 XP, whichever is more, gain 5 body pieces, and have a 10% chance of getting an Aspect

Massive: Those who will go down in the history books as having helped slay the Leviathan are going to be boosted by a full five Levels, receive an Aspect of the Leviathan

Decisive: This is a rank that can only be held by a single person per battle.

In this battle, this person was one Isaac Thoma, who both used one of the strongest cooldown Skills in existence to keep the Leviathan pinned for half an hour and eventually flung the beast into space.

As such, he will receive a boost of 10 Levels, an Aspect of the Leviathan, 25 body pieces (24 by his choice, 1 Leviathan Fire Gland), and the World Item [Soul of the Ocean].

This is an item that can affect the world as a whole, altering the entirety of the Earths waterways, in ways that may be humanitys boon or bane.

The [System] was being helpful. That was never a good thing. Almost as though it were trying to incite people to be stupid during the next [World Boss] battle, and make them fight in the here and now which was exactly what it was doing, of course.

The damn thing had told everyone what he now held, and while he generally didnt expect anyone specific to try and steal the World Item, considering how many people there were in the world, chances were someone would.

Not to mention that it had just specifically told him that he had a stupidly powerful capability in his hands.

It was only then that he received his personal message.

Congratulations, Isaac Thoma! You have been the thing to make or break the battle against the Leviathan, and, well, you made it!

Due to your accomplishments, you gain the ability to increase your Level by 10 at a point in time of your choosing, however, it will automatically trigger upon hitting Level 190.

One Aspect of the Leviathan has been deposited in your Personal Storage.

One Leviathan Fire Gland has been deposited in your Personal Storage.

Twenty-four Leviathan parts will be deposited in your Personal Storage once you decide on which you wish to receive, your Personal Storage will temporarily expand to hold them should the space not suffice.

You have received one [Soul of the Ocean].

Isaac only had a brief second to frown at the final message before a smooth, blue and green marble around the size of a baseball appeared in front of him, serenely floating in space.

Why oh why could that thing not have gone into his storage too? Did it have to flash itself to the whole world?

He grabbed it and tried to put it into his Personal Storage, which should still have some space left as he hadnt yet selected any body parts.

The enruned Lesser Space Elemental Core crumbled to dust, he felt the storage open, he extended the hand clutching the World Item and the storage snapped shut.

Okay, lets see what the rings do oh, for fucks deep breaths Isaac, deep breaths.

What was most likely the single most valuable item in existence had slipped from his hands like a greased egg the instant hed tried putting it into his storage ring, but hed thankfully caught it, and then [Continent Strode] to the far side of the Moon so hed have a little privacy with his new item.

The next thing he tried was putting it into his pocket and then used [Fully Geared] to swap armor, but doing so caused the World Item to not only pop out, but also go flying.

Ok, that was unacceptable. This item could not be stored, could not be hidden, everyone knew he had it and knew it was valuable.

He needed to use it, now, everything else could wait.

Requirements for Activation:

100,000 XP

Open Aspect Slot

Grants:

+100 Agility

+50 Strength

Progressive Invulnerability

Moment of Immortality

Sea of Damnation

Mantle of Indomitable Scales

Transcendent Hellflame

As a World Boss Aspect, it may be slotted onto any compatible Aspect stack, and override previous Skills to slot its own.

Hed also already had all the needed XP, so hed slotted it the instant hed pulled it from his storage.

The obvious pick was [Progressive Invulnerability], as it was pretty powerful and more durability could never hurt.

Progressive Invulnerability (legendary)

The true power of a World Boss, that makes them functionally invulnerable to many kinds of attacks capable of taking down titanic enemies.

Every time you lose a body part (with skin/muscles/bones, ten percent of total volume), all remaining instances of that body part will take half as much damage for the next five minutes, this effect compounds.

This Skill can be activated once every month and will remain in effect for half an hour once triggered.

This increased survivability would be incredibly useful, especially combined with the next [Skill].

Mantle of Indomitable Scales (legendary)

The scales of the Leviathan offer some of the greatest degrees of protection of any natural armor, practically requiring divine intervention to break.

This Skill allows the user to cloak themselves in those very same scales, summoning armor that lasts for 24 hours or until dismissed.

Cost: 1,000 points of mana

Isaac was pretty sure that that [Skill] was slightly overselling itself, and hed have to check if it messed with his flexibility any, but it should be really useful.

His favorite [Skill], though, was the one hed dropped the Aspect-based Hellfire one, which had become utterly superfluous when hed gotten [Divine Fire].

Sea of Damnation (legendary)

Thalassophobia is the fear of deep or large bodies of water, such as the ocean, particularly deep lakes, or other vast and unexplorable nastiness. But the definition of phobia is an extreme and irrational fear.

When someone wielding this Skill is angry, that fear suddenly becomes very, very, rational.

Up to 50,000,000,000 (50 billion) liters of water around the user can be made to be incredibly dangerous, making falling in a near-death sentence.

It can be activated once a week and will be active for one hour after a five-minute ramp-up period.

It was the Aspect version of the Leviathans ability to turn the sea itself against anyone who fell in. In any area with water, this would make him a deadly threat.

Congratulations, Challenger of the Apocalypse, for defeating a monster of the end times!

As such, you will receive 3,000,000 XP, and due to your Skill Aspects of the End, you have received the sub-Skill Sea of the Leviathan, and your time pool has been increased by 10 seconds.

Ah, that old chestnut. Apparently, [World Bosses] were the Monsters of the End Times the [Skill] had talked about.

Sea of the Leviathan (Subskill of Aspects of the End, gained by killing a Monster of the End Times)

The ocean. Deep, unknowable, and a place that makes it almost impossible to fight without highly specific adaptations.

As such, dumping someone at the bottom of the sea tends to be somewhat problematic for ones foes.

This Skill summons a 500-meter diameter sphere during which all enemies suffer the negative consequences of being underwater (no breathing without water breathing abilities, weight/resistance of the water, pressure equivalent to a depth of Aspects of the End Level * 50 meters) while granting the user all benefits of underwater combat (swimming in any direction with a body temporarily optimized for underwater existence, ignore all negatives).

It was slightly weaker than the version he could have bought with [Skill] points, but it had been free. And it would be nasty as hell when he applied [Sea of Damnation] on it.

And it was one hell of a noob-stomper, capable of alternatively crushing them with water pressure or drowning them in conjured water.

Also, summoning a ball of water in the path of someone moving quickly would lead to an uncomfortable collision.

Almost as uncomfortable as the countless conversations hed have to have after this.