Chapter 517: Most Efficient Path
[ Name: Moon ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Class: Classless, Cryomancer]
[ Level: 38 ] [2%]
[ Lives: 228,681 ] [Super Lives: 0]
[ Strength: 157 ] [ Agility: 217 ] [ Constitution: 179 ] [ Mana: 259 ] (+20 to all stats)
[ Attribute Points: 10]
[ Skills: Elemental Attack, True Elemental Physique, Tenacity, Golden Skin, Explode, Runemaster, Eye of Truth, Thunderclap Raiju, Calmness, Beastmaster, Minor Mend, Cleanse, Stone Clasp, Heaviness, Air Step, Bird dance, Bullseye, Feint, Rune Enhancement, Weaponmaster, Curse, Mark of Omen, Battle Instinct, Cryomancy, Ice Storm, Frost Pillar]
[ Talent: Grim Reaper ]
[ Class Skills: Class Slot {1/1}, Life Burn]
[Beast Souls: Fire and Nature]
Back in his room, Moon sat on the edge of his bed and pulled up his status screen.
He stared at the long list of skills floating before his eyes.
He had acquired a total of twenty-six skills over the course of his awakening, his time in the two Sanctuaries, his skill merges, and his class copies.
But recently, the rate had slowed.
Moon scrolled through the list mentally, noting the gaps and the patterns. Most of the people he had been encountering had skills he already possessed in some form. The lower-tier mages all carried the same basic elemental skills.
The same applied for warriors. Once Moon had merged six weapon disciplines into Weaponmaster, most physical classes simply offered duplicates of what he had already absorbed.
His Classless skill could copy classes, but it couldn’t gain anything from a class that overlapped way too closely with his existing arsenal.
Moon had been scouting classes constantly during his time in the Sanctuaries, but most of the candidates he had identified had ultimately failed. Either the skills weren’t strong enough, or they weren’t distinct enough, or both.
The tournament was changing that.
The Cryomancer he had copied earlier today had been one of the few times he was able to find such rare skills. Three new skills in a single copy, acquiring ice as an entirely new element.
That kind of skill haul was rare.
The tournament was a curated environment.
Two thousand of the kingdom’s strongest young Evolvers had been gathered into one place, representing almost every powerful class, every major faction, every major skill tradition the kingdom had to offer.
The diversity here was unmatched anywhere else. Even the Sanctuaries, with their thousands of inhabitants spread across vast areas, didn’t concentrate this much variety in a single place.
Moon was confident that tomorrow would bring more surprises. The second stage would force even more classes into the open, revealing competitors who had hidden their full arsenal during the free-for-all.
Every battle in the upper bracket had the potential to expose something Moon could capture. Unfortunately, he couldn’t act on any of it right now.
His copy cooldown was still running from copying the Cryomancer class. Even if he encountered the most fascinating class in the kingdom in the next few hours, he couldn’t take it.
"I’m also restricted to Evolver rank humans." Moon muttered, his eyes drifting across the skill list. "Until I reach Surpasser rank, I won’t be able to copy any of their skills."
The threshold his Classless skill operated under had a hard ceiling.
Anything above his own Order, including the distinction between Evolver and Surpasser despite both being Second Order beings, was off-limits to his copy ability. The River of Paths connection acted as the separating line or so Moon believed.
The skill list Eye of Truth had shown him for Alaric flashed back into his mind. A buffet of techniques developed by possibly the Strongest Order being in the kingdom.
For now, all of it was inaccessible to Moon.
If Moon ever crossed into Surpasser rank himself, the ceiling would lift. The classes that were currently locked behind a wall would suddenly become available for the taking.
Almost hundreds of unique skills tied to people who had spent decades refining their craft would become potential additions to his arsenal.
The thought was intoxicating.
But it was also distant.
Moon was still an Evolver, a high-end one, with a prowess matching forty acupoints, but an Evolver nonetheless.
’The Chamber Secret Realm, perhaps.’
Moon closed the status screen and lay back on his bed, his hands folded behind his head.
Tomorrow was no longer just about making it to the next stage of the tournament. Rather, it was about making it out alive.
No matter how hard he tried, Moon simply couldn’t sleep. The thought of skipping the tournament tomorrow had entered his mind.
He could just leave the tournament behind, and return back to the floating islands until the crisis was averted. But after some thought, he changed his mind.
Tomorrow would be a very fruitful day, a day where killing humans and gathering hundreds of thousands of live would be morally acceptable, in fact, praiseworthy.
Where else could he find such a massive haul of lives. Despite knowing that Ascenders were after him, Moon wasn’t afraid.
Not because he didn’t fear death. But because even if they tried to come after him, he didn’t believe the Awakener’s Association were going to make it that easy. They had their own plan in motion too.
Coupled with his ace-cards, Moon was confident enough that he could survive.
Moon opened his status screen one more time.
[Life Burn]
[Description: Doubles all attributes and expands spiritual Acupoints for a duration of ten minutes. Upon activation, 90% of the user’s total Lives are consumed. Minimum Lives required to activate: Level × 2,000.]
At his current level, he required a total of 76,000 Lives to activate his second Class skill.
Moon had an excess of 152,681 lives with him currently. "I can evolve some skills to Second Order...that will be the best choice."
He had thought about evolving his Fire and Nature beast soul, but after looking at the cost to power, he opted against it for the time being.
[Beast Soul: Fire and Nature]
[Rank: D → C]
[Cost: 200,000 Lives]
"At C-Rank it will only have the power of a Three Star Evolver...this won’t help me in the upcoming battle. It’s better to just focus on my own strengths, and weaknesses." Moon muttered to himself, before he chose his first skill for evolution.
