Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 178
🕑 Added 2023-07-28 18:48:50 +0000 UTCThe History of the Solar Empire is full of unsung heroes and their accomplishments that saved our civilization from collapse or pushed it forward. It is the battle prowess that often made figures like the Queen of Poisons, Sandman or Lord of Winters famous, while ignoring other important aspects of what can be considered power.
One of the best examples was Tay Tark. A young woman, who had her ceremony shortly after the first outbreak. Her Talent was deemed generic and ignored for the most part, pushing Tay into the public sector.
Tay quickly discovered that her Urban Planning Talent took into account the outbreaks and even the Dominion of Monsters. This seemingly underwhelming detail turned out to be a game changer.
But her path wasn’t an easy one. The war between the Resistance and the World Government reduced the importance and urgency of non-military matters.
This forced Tay to travel to Arshem where she found employment but only after the third outbreak did she rise to the top. Arshem not only withstood the outbreak but thrived like no other city in the world. She quickly amassed wealth that allowed her to attain Level 5 and gain an incredible Minor Talent Upgrade - Regional Planning.
When the fourth outbreak hit, Tay’s planning shone, bringing confidence and wealth to the city. Shortly after that, she visited many cities around the world as an urban planning expert. She realised that the next outbreak, if followed the power scaling of the previous outbreaks, would break the world. Only a handful of cities were prepared to handle Level 5 and runic rarity monsters and they too were going to see a heavy toll.
The sixth outbreak, Tay predicted, would end humankind. It wasn’t only that the walls were not high enough but the sheer gap in the strength of Level 6 monsters and Level 0 and 1 materials was too vast. The fourth outbreak brought the biggest variety of monsters with many previously unseen abilities, many of these abilities deadly and problematic.
Her warning was echoed by others, but she was the only one who could point out the exact shortcomings and knew how to fix them. The issue was, Tay Tark was one woman and there were thousands of cities that had to be prepared for the fifth outbreak.
***
“You took your time,” Keynes smirked, offering Kora a hand.
“I thought you’re going to rescue me,” she said.
“You’re higher Level than me. I am the one who should expect saving.”
Keynes saw the shock on Kora’s face. She didn’t expect him to joke with her so easily. But he was no longer the same guy she had known.
Kora was quite shy, though with Keynes she had shown in the past that she could be outgoing and outspoken. Keynes wondered how she would behave today.
“Keynes,” she said quietly. “I don’t think this is something we should joke about.”
Keynes disagreed. Maybe he was a bit arrogant but he was very confident that Lem Solaris would not have let Kora die. This thought allowed him to make the kidnapping less traumatic and serious. But as Kora became solemn, Keynes’s mood slipped a little.
“Who did it?” he asked as he put his hand on her shoulder.
“The Solar Council.”
That was what he thought. He didn’t expect any other organisation to be capable of pulling this off at this point, except for Untainted Paradise maybe…
“Keynes, are you okay?”
He glanced at her and realised that he had zoned out. He quickly rectified his initial behaviour and smiled, saying, “I am happy you’re safely back, Kora.”
“But?”
“Oh, there is no but,” Keynes replied, trying to keep his voice innocent.
“Out with it,” she said, surprising him with her confident attitude. That was new. It widened his smile. Spicy.
“I am just wondering why she brought you now not earlier,” he said. “If she wanted she could stop the kidnapping altogether.”
“She said you need a company and should focus on the challenge she’d given you,” Kora replied, and though she told the truth, they both knew it wasn’t true Lem Solaris’s motivation. Keynes was quite sure she didn’t care about his well-being enough to go against the System and directly intervene. Could Keynes’s demand hold any weight in this case? No. He didn’t think Lem Solaris was the kind of a being to be ordered around, except for the mysterious Traveller. Her challenge was more plausible, although Keynes couldn’t see the point in it.
Kora saw that Keynes was unconvinced and added, “She also gave me two skill shards.”
She handed Keynes a [Psychic Mastery].
“According to her, [Mind Fortress] will allow me to handle [Nature Aura].”
“[Psychic Mastery]? Is it for [Telekinesis]?”
She nodded and it clicked in Keynes’s mind.
“Oh, that is what she’s trying to do,” he said vaguely. “When you were away, I managed to start maxing my attributes out again.”
“I…don’t understand how it is relevant,” Kora admitted, clearly confused. “But I am happy for you.”
“Kora, I was wrong about maxing out attributes. I believed it was like training. That all I had to do was to push myself to max out my attributes. But it appears to work on a different set of rules,” Keynes explained. “There are requirements I must meet to trigger the process. For one, the monsters must be at least one Level higher and of rare rarity. Also, using items slows or disables it. If I don’t struggle, it doesn’t work.”
“You are afraid that the passive enhancement skill would hinder the process,” she said.
“It’s a possibility. Your Talent may as well have some effect, but we can easily test it.”
They spent the rest of the day sharing their experiences after the kidnapping—with an exception of the encounter with Chaos and the Greater System because Keynes knew the System and Lem Solaris were listening and he was waiting for the time when he would be out of their earshot, if ever. After hearing about Turtelli’s offer to help fight Sandman, Keynes informed Wagner. It was clear that the Solar Council was removing lesser threats from the board before they were going to take on Untainted Paradise. On the other hand, Kora was very excited to learn about the target farming of the dominion monsters.
After finding a safe zone and sorting through their belongings—luckily Lem Solaris returned everything Kora had possessed at the time of the kidnapping—they spent a night there.
This close to the centre, the safe zones were sparse, but so were the monsters.
The next day, they went after the heartwoods, though mostly for Keynes to compare the process of maxing out the attributes with and without Kora’s Talent. Keynes didn’t absorb [Psychic Mastery] yet.
On the other hand, Kora absorbed [Mind Fortress]. With it, she was able to handle massive informational input of [Nature Aura] but she had to use her Talent on [Mind Fortress], while blacklisting [Nature Aura] to keep it going. The effects of the aura were peculiar. She felt the nature around her as if she was a part of it. The aura also gave her a sliver of control over it. It didn’t turn her into a druid but any monster with a nature affinity could be made weaker or stronger in the presence of the aura, she could also influence trees and bushes, increasing or decreasing their growth.
[Mind Fortress]’s benefits didn’t end there. Keynes used [Mind Illusion] and his spell was completely blocked by the Talent enhanced [Mind Fortress]. Without her Talent, [Mind Illusion] barely affected Kora for less than a second. In the fight, a second might be the difference between death and life. Nonetheless, Keynes had to admit that the combo of [Empower] and [Mind Fortress] was nasty. The latter covered some of Kora’s weaknesses quite nicely.
But there the good news ended and Keynes was proven right. Kora’s Talent had a detrimental effect on maxing the attributes out. Keynes killed several heartwoods and didn’t gain a single percent in any attribute. They also tested out Kora’s direct help—without her Talent—but the effect was the same as with her Talent. It appeared that maxing out attributes was a lonely endeavour.
“Is it even worth it?”she asked.
Keynes’s eyes widened so hard he thought they might pop out the sockets.
“Kora, I’m not sure how to say it but the Perfect State is an insane power creep.”
“I get it. Your attributes are the same as mine despite a Level difference but if what you’re saying is correct then you will be left behind as others gain Levels.” She raised her hand, stopping Keynes from interrupting her. “I know there is a Level 10 cap but at some point, people will break through it and even if there is another cap at Level 20 what Level you would have to be to match it as a Perfect State ascender?”
Keynes had done calculations a long time ago but even so Alice could give him a ready answer now if he wanted to.
“At Level 20, a rift ascender without a single maxed out attribute, will have 436 points per attribute. To surpass that, a Perfect State ascender would need to be of sixteenth degree, or Level 17 with 492 points per attribute.”
“Can you get to Level 17 before rift ascenders get to Level 20?” Kora’s question was sharp and merciless but she missed several things.
“Without higher Level rifts, this is a moot point. We both know there is an essence penalty for killing lower Level monsters. If anyone can get through the cap and level up, how long would it take to get to Level 11 or 12 with Level 4 rifts? Years,” he replied. “But what you don’t see is that stats are the least important part of the Perfect State. Each time I level up, I receive an Orb of Perfection, an Orb of Insight and some extra skill like [Purify] or buff like the Pure Body. The latter does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to dealing with debuffs. I expect more outlandish stuff as I go higher,” he added with a smirk. She didn’t like his reasoning.
“You’re forgetting that some ascenders have dangerous Talents that could be combined with skills, techniques and items that would offset your gains from the Perfect State.. You don’t need to look far away. I can defeat you…”
“No you cannot.” He shook his head. “[Chaos Aura] alone would kill you before you could land a punch. Besides, all I have to do is to keep my Level in line with the current highest rift’s Level and the risk of anyone out-levelling me is non-existent.”
Keynes felt a faint disagreement via his bond with Alice but then she fled and a second later he realised why.
“You are a fool, Keynes Kid.” Lem Solaris stood on an upturned tree with her back to them. “If you believe you can achieve what you claim, especially, in the face of your previous conclusion about the Perfect State requirements. It is not a mere process of pushing yourself but a journey against all odds. If you foolishly think you can achieve sixteenth degree, then I’m convinced you don’t understand the odds or the ordeal itself.”
If Lem Solaris thought she could provoke him or even make him feel bad, then she was the one who was the fool. He briefly felt her presence as she read his thoughts and it made him drop to his knees. Keynes tried to defy her but whatever had given him the strength in the Chaos Realm now was silent to his plea. She knew it and was ruthless.
“I despise arrogance. I despise when a speck of dust thinks of itself greater than a planet it dwells on. You are nothing but a speck of dust, Keynes Kid,” Lem Solaris said, her voice drowning everything else in Keynes’s mind. “You will show proper respect from now on or you will be on your own and given the number of schemes against you, your chances of survival are extremely low. That said, if you still think yourself smarter than someone of my age and power and decide to continue the chase after the Perfect State, I will not stop you. However, I reserve the right to not intervene to save your life in the process of your foolish pursuit.”
She vanished without a warning and with her the pressure that flattened a forest in a kilometre radius.
Comments
Cyril Sarnath
Definitely I need to sit down and write a bunch more chapters in one go.
JB
Cyril is going to hit us with a cliff hanger like that!?!? Come on. I'm desperate for the next update. Thanks for the good updates :D
vdv9
Tyftc
