Damon sucked in a deep breath, finally understanding why his powers were rated so highly. Whether it was Probability Manipulation, Avatar or Devour, each of these Abilities were enough to make a person a legend in the world. Having two of them would make one a myth, an impossibility of truth. However, having all three…
Damon understood he was an abomination.
He may not have done any research on the social aspects of their universe, but if he used sapient human behavior as a benchmark for other sapient species, he could somewhat predict and appreciate the storm he and his fellow humans were about to cause.
A new species whose representatives all had Abilities no worse than A Grade… this was a species destined for the top 10 or top 5 at the very least if Damon guessed correctly.
But you see rankings worked very straightforwardly. For someone to go up, someone else would have to go down. Very simple.
The person going down, DOES NOT want to go down. Usually, they can't really do anything about it. However, here's the case humans were jumping from unranked right to the Top 5.
The Top 5 have likely had time to consolidate their power and influence in the IUAS and the universe as a whole.
The laws written may restrict them from directly annihilating humans, and let's even say the laws were strictly enforced thanks to the Universe Will. As a politician, Damon knew perfectly well how most that laws always had loopholes left in them, especially laws meant to restrict the strong from bullying the weak.
Of course, laws restricting the weak from revenging or disturbing the strong were always fullproof and solid. No matter how indignant you felt, if you sat down and read all your countries laws, you'd be able to notice this easily.
So Damon realized immediately that his species - and himself especially - were super fucked. Yeah, he had read all the laws, but that had only equipped him to know the dos and donts, as well as defend Earth in case of a legal battle.
As for the loopholes, he would need time to sit down and sniff them out. He wasn't Einstein or some legendary genius. He was just cunning and well-trained by his parents at best.
There had to be a way out for them, but he would need to sit down with the others and plan something. This kind of feat required more heads than one.
Fortunately, Damon knew just who to start with. The woman who screamed intelligence and confidence, Felicia Rothschild.
.......
Felicia gently ruffled her own hair which was messy as always, but she could never be bothered to comb that mess. She gazed at Selie before her and nodded her head after she asked similar questions to Damon and received similar answers.
Like him, she had also checked her Abilities and marveled at their power.
[Eternal Providence - Stat Manipulation Type]
[Grade: EX || Stage: F]
[Effect: The owner of this ability has the power to gain an extra stat point in Providence whenever they 'Level Up'. This is automatic and requires no input from the owner, not any cost towards energy or essence. The growth of the Providence stat is not limited as long as the owner can keep 'Leveling Up'.]
[Empower - Energy Manipulation Type]
[Rank: EX || Stage: F]
[Effect: The owner of this ability has the power to replenish the energy of any living or non-living thing through direct touch. The replenished energy given is obtain from ambient energy, which is converted to Worldly Essence. The speed of conversion is dependent on the quantity and quality of ambient energies.]
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Felicia was amazed. She had read the history of the IUAS and the general universe, so she understood how important Providence was. Providence was the proverbial luck, though actual luck did not truly exist. Rather, the Universe Will would 'imbue' more of its 'essence' into you, and this essence would influence you subtly, guiding you to locations of treasures, making you avoid danger and granting you sudden precision during strikes.
The frequency and quality of this depended on how high Providence was. As currently, the highest known Providence user was the Prime Minister of the 39th ranked Turtle species, Roushin. He had an estimated 300 points in the field.
It was said that during a battle with the 1st ranked Dragon Species' king, Alexander, Roushin had just stood there while the fellow unleashed his greatest powers, but it was all for naught. The cosmic power of the Universe had literally manifested itself to protect him 'indirectly'. A claw strike would suddenly miss, a fireball would explode at the wrong distance, the fire would split into two and pass over Roushin.
If one didn't know better, they would think Alexander was a weakling and Roushin an ancient expert who was teaching him humility. However, the truth was far more amusing and disgraceful.
Roushin had fainted from fear the moment Alexander had roared, for the Dragon King was rumored to have stats in each field above 500 expect Providence which he hardly anyone invested in. Just his presence alone felt like being sat on by a 300 pound obese person, much less fighting him.
Felicia then cast her mind back to her current situation and sighed. With this, she could eventually surpass the Turtle Prime Minister, and in half the levels needed too. Not only that, she wouldn't need to be known for only having Providence, but could freely invest in other stats.
"Why do I feel like I'm turning into Lucky Girl?" Felicia mumbled to herself.
Felicia raised her head to gaze at Selie. "Do stats affect Abilities?"
Selie smiled. "Yes and no. They indirectly enhance the execution of abilities. Power will enhance offensive body manipulation abilities, Mobility will enhance supportive body manipulation and marksman/trajectory based abilities, Fortitude will enhance defensive body manipulation abilities as well as all other defensive abilities, Mentality will enhance psychic, or mind based abilities and Providence enhances everything equally."
"However, Abilities will work as they are supposed to without the input of stats. So even if you have 1 point in Power or 300, your Ability will still be at its full power for its Stage, stats only play a beneficial supportive role toward Abilities."
The more Felicia heard, the more her heart sank. She too came to the same conclusion as Damon, that Abilities guided the universe's scale of political balance more than stats. Stats were something everyone could have, but abilities weren't, not to mention high-tiered abilities.
The fate of humanity was grim. Her expression became solemn when she thought about this because while she may not be a humanitarian, the value of humanity as a whole to each and every human had greatly increased because they were no longer alone in the universe.
Petty racial squabbles and political schemes to take advantage over each other seemed like foolishness before the various behemoths of the universe who would be breathing down their necks soon.
Felicia dug through her mind to find any species that had gone through something similar and found more than a few. However, her face became ashen when she saw that they had one of two fates.
Either be degraded through legal loopholes until they became near extinct or become a slave to a stronger species who would exploit them to death. There had been a few who tried alternative routes, but it han't fared well.
Felicia felt like she was going to get a headache. As such, she decided to finish this tutorial and then seek out someone among the humans to form a plan with. Her first choice was that African fellow who had the three EX-Grade Abilities, for there had to be something special about him.
......…
Ambrose sat in a high chair within the control room, watching all the humans go through the special tutorial. He saw them marvel at the nature of the Universe and learn about their Abilities, majority of them feeling excitement for their future.
However, around half of them also wore grim expressions as they came to understand the fate of their species in this great political meat grinder called the IUAS. Ambrose smirked when he saw their expressions of despair and worry, feeling amused.
He himself was shocked that such an obscure species that lived in the outskirts of the universe could be so special. He had no idea why humans had such strong souls compared to their weak bodies, or probably it was because of their strong souls that they had been handicapped by nature?
Ambrose pondered this as he sipped his favorite blood wine. He idly wondered what the humans would choose to do next. Given his favor towards them, they should know the obvious decision to make.
Either submit to the Vampires as a 'vassal' species, or suffer the wrath of the greedy top IUAS clans, especially the 5th ranked Behemoth species who would do anything to see every human exterminated once they found out.
But then again, looking at the determination in the eyes of Damon and Felicia, Ambrose felt like things would take an interesting turn in the future.