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The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 203
🕑 Added 2025-09-04 20:05:36 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 202 | Index | Chapter 204 >>
You have accepted the Sponsorship offer from [Princess Petalania]!
+Inscribed Skill Scroll [Resonant Regeneration (Rare)]
+Inscribed Skill Scroll [Ductile Dexterity (Rare)]
+Inscribed Skill Scroll [Accelerated Acuity (Rare)]
+Inscribed Skill Scroll [Unlimited Tenacity (Rare)]
+Thesaurus of the Trillion Traits (Rare) x2
You have agreed to a [Mutual Growth Benefit Clause] with Princess Petalania. Specifics have been verbally agreed between the sponsoring and sponsored parties.
Ronan was pleased to see that she’d managed to squeeze two thesauruses in on top of the rare skills. It was a windfall, and he hadn’t even taken a look at the gifts yet.
Gift offers available to you are presented below, ordered from most to least valuable:
1. Anonymous [Myriad Skills Tome (Epic), Elite Shard Lv.75 (Soul)] [Mining Rights Contract Clause]
2. Magellan Pyrax [Thesaurus of the Trillion Traits (Epic), Thesaurus of the Trillion Traits (Rare)] [Invasion Defence Clause]
3. Anonymous [Myriad Skills Tome (Epic), Skill Upgrade Shard (Epic)] [Prize Fighting Clause]
4. Anonymous [Thesaurus of the Trillion Traits (Epic), Legacy Grimoire 104BY8 (Uncommon)] [Dark Space Exploration Clause]
…
31. Jareth K’oul [Infused Power Pomegranate (Rare)] [Path Insight Clause]
32. Anonymous [Fortified Tenacious Tomato (Uncommon) x2] [Path Insight Clause]
The gifts were mostly one or two items. They ranged from the top offers which Ronan was genuinely surprised at the value of, all the way down to simple stat fruits.
And the announcer said there was no limit to how many of these gifts I can take? This is absurd… Even if I didn’t have my heritage to abuse this it would be a huge power boost for anyone who makes it this far. Ronan realised that not only would he be able to return to this point in future iterations to use all the items again, but he could even use a branch path to reuse everything he received multiple times in the same main path iteration.
He planned to take all of them, of course, but he looked over the top few to see which to pick first. He might get the opportunity to talk with them, after all, and most of the gifters had chosen to remain anonymous.
The clauses were interesting, too. Mining rights seemed obvious, but that also implied that once he successfully invaded the planet he was going to he would gain ownership of it. It also meant that the people outside knew about the path, even though the announcer had said the specifics of it would remain obscured.
Perhaps they were just operating on past information and guessing he would acquire some sort of territory during the path. Perhaps it was a constant, regardless of the minor variations the system introduced?
He decided to start with the second gift. Magellan Pyrax hadn’t obscured their identity and he was curious to learn what an invasion defence clause was. He had told the system to remove all servitude clauses, so clearly this wasn’t some sort of forced fighting, but he wasn’t sure he liked the sound of it.
WARNING!
Accepting a Gift from [Magellan Pyrax] will prevent you from accepting the following Gifts due to faction conflicts: 3, 5, 9, 12, 18, 22, 23, and 29
What the fuck! This is bullshit, system. They don’t even want to share their identities but they won’t let me take their gifts if I take one from their enemies? Ronan cursed the stingy bastards in his head. After taking a few breaths to calm down, he realised it was actually a reasonable exclusion, but it still pissed him off. He wanted all the gifts.
Ronan was glad for his exceptional mental maths and somewhat decent memory. Over the next few minutes he ran through all of the gifts, checking which of them excluded which others. If he couldn’t take them all, then he simply had to figure out how he could get the most possible.
In the end, he figured it out. It was more complicated than just maximising the quantity of gifts he took, because some of the gifts were more valuable than others. He needed to ensure that the gifts he took had the highest combined value compared to any other combination of gifts.
You have accepted the following Gifts:
1, 3, 6, 8, 14, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 28, 30, 31, and 32
As it turned out, Ronan wasn’t allowed to meet any of the gift-givers in person, the way he had been allowed to meet sponsors. He realised he probably should have spoken to more of his sponsors before making the decision, but he didn’t regret his choice of going with Princess Petalania.
They were allowed to attach messages to their gifts, along with an explanation of the clause. Ronan wasn’t really sure how much the clauses applied to him. If he wanted to get out of most of them he could just kill himself and start a new iteration. He was only wary of the more powerful forces, but most of those probably used the sponsorships rather than the gifts to tie gladiators up and lock them into a nasty contract.
Most of the messages were pretty basic, boiling down to a variation of ‘good luck’ along with some sort of bootlicking regarding his class and other accomplishments. A few of them also mentioned that they’d made wagers on him, wishing him success and to make them money. He found that amusing and realised why the system imposed limits on the gifts and sponsorships.
A wealthy enough person could make a huge bet on a gladiator and then just give them enough resources to breeze through the path and make a profit if the limits weren’t in place. Once he read the final message, which actually extended him an invite to the gifter’s homeworld once he completed the path, Ronan received another notification from the system.
You have accepted your Sponsorship and Gifts!
Congratulations on making your first multiversal friends and foes, Gladiator. You will now have 3 days to use your items and prepare yourself for the first step of your path. Use them wisely!
Three days was a long time, but also not much time at all. Compared to the usual length of time the system offered between its challenges, three days was practically an eternity. However, when he considered how many items he had to use and the number of shards in his possession, he would be stretched thin trying to prepare himself as best as he could.
The first thing Ronan did before using any of the items was to try and start a branch path. He expected it would be expensive given how many potential skills and traits he could acquire, but was still shocked by the message his heritage sent in response to his request.
You are attempting to set a time anchor, and initiate a new path. Would you like to start an anchor path, or a branch path?
He wanted to start a branch path. Moving his start point forwards wasn’t something he would even consider until he’d at least completed the nightmare difficulty tutorial a few times. Even then he would risk losing out on old connections and rewards…
Estimating chrono cost based on implications of branch path…
Estimation complete!
Chrono cost of this branch path has been determined on a cascading iteration basis, accounting for the descendant’s soul weight!
Chrono cost exceeds descendant’s ability to pay!
Branch path cannot be initiated!
Well, that’s a bummer. Ronan was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to completely abuse this whole gladiator schtick, but it wasn’t the end of the world. He could just do it again and again in successive iterations. The effect would be the same, but it would take a little longer than if he was using a branch path.
With that figured out, it was time to start using his gifts and sponsorship rewards. He decided to begin with the four final stat boosting skills. While he wouldn’t be able to attempt the alloying until he next died, having them all in his status was a big step that Ronan was excited to take.
Inscribed Skill Scroll [Resonant Regeneration (Rare)] has been consumed!
You have received the skill [Resonant Regeneration (Rare)]!
Resonant Regeneration (Rare): Gain +1 to regeneration for every 7 points of regeneration you possess. Does not include stat bonuses.
Inscribed Skill Scroll [Ductile Dexterity (Rare)] has been consumed!
You have received the skill [Ductile Dexterity (Rare)]!
Ductile Dexterity (Rare): Gain +1 to dexterity for every 7 points of dexterity you possess. Does not include stat bonuses.
Inscribed Skill Scroll [Accelerated Acuity (Rare)] has been consumed!
You have received the skill [Accelerated Acuity (Rare)]!
Accelerated Acuity (Rare): Gain +1 to acuity for every 7 points of acuity you possess. Does not include stat bonuses.
Inscribed Skill Scroll [Unlimited Tenacity (Rare)] has been consumed!
You have received the skill [Unlimited Tenacity (Rare)]!
Unlimited Tenacity (Rare): Gain +1 to tenacity for every 7 points of tenacity you possess. Does not include stat bonuses.
A brief glance at his status informed him of the enormous gains he’d just made by using the four scrolls. And this was only the beginning of his powerup. Looking through all the other items he’d received from the generous gift-givers and his sponsor, Ronan couldn’t help but rub his hands together in anticipation.
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