Vital Surge- increase your vitality by 30% (Note-Evolution effects take place on an attribute after all relevant titles do their work, not in conjunction with them)

Prodigious Title bearer- Increases all title effects by 10%

It wasn't really much of a decision at the end of the day. The system was a game of numbers, and the math wasn't hard to figure out. Vital Surge was an amazing evolution and it tied into his goal of a thousand vitality quite nicely. It was honestly better than what most people were offered as an evolutionary option, considering that Elizabeth had only received a minor ether enhancement at hers, and if it was the only one, he would have happily taken it.

The thing was, it came with a little pitfall trap. Well, it's not really a trap, but it's something you could easily miss if you were too excited. The title increased your vitality by 30%, quite a significant amount, and this was after all his other titles did their work first. Except it doesn't include all titles, does it? The keyword in its description, something he'd almost missed, was the word Relevant

The evolution worked on the vitality stat, not his total health pool. That meant his greatest asset to vitality, one of his only tier 4 titles, twice lived wasn't affected by the evolution. Let me do the maths quickly. Say I had 100 points of vitality. With my titles boosting it by 40%, it jumps up to 140. Add on this evolution, and 140 would be enhanced to 182 points. Last but not least, my twice-lived title will give me a final health pool of 3640. Without this evolution, that'd be 2800 so a total increase of 840 health.

Whilst that didn't sound like much, that would matter far more with the numbers he was currently playing around with. And now the second evolution. By enhancing all title effects by ten percent, his 40% bonus would become 44%, giving him 144 points in vitality for his imagined 100. By enhancing his twice-lived title on top of that by ten percent, he'd be left with 3168 total health points, just 500 shy of his other evolution, one that specifically focused on vitality to the detriment of everything else. It wasn't a big enough difference to make it special. And what about enhancing my soul affinity Title by ten percent? It gives me three extra stats per level. If the evolution works retroactively, it'd give me 21 extra stats to work with. That narrows down the lead the first evolution gives me already, just by investing in Vitality. It meant his second evolution option was actually better than his first at the only selling point it provided. Embarrassing, really.

Enhancing his soul affinity title would mean- Arthur quickly did the math- he’d be gaining nine stat points every third level up instead of his standard eight. And what about all the titles I might gain in the future? That final thought sealed the deal for Arthur, and he quickly choose the second evolutionary path before idiocy could overtake him. Whilst vital surge may give him a larger burst in power more quickly, Arthur felt that the second option would pay greater dividends over time, especially if he continued to gain titles at the rate he was currently.

As soon as Arthur finalised his choice, he felt an immense amount of energy surge through him that dwarfed the burst a few moments prior. Arthur gasped as he felt himself change irrevocably, and he knew at that moment that he had finally crossed the first threshold of humanity and become a Rank F individual. He blinked a few times, and finding that everything seemed to be working properly, he opened up his status to see exactly how much his evolution had changed him.

Arthur Ward

Level 71

Unallocated stat points: 49--> 70

Evolved: Rank F- Prodigious title bearer (increase all title effects by 10%)

Strength- 122(100) [1.2*]

Vitality- 720(500)[1.4* or 2.8*]

Endurance- 555(500) [1.1*]

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Constitution- 698(485) [1.4*]

Agility- 118

Intelligence- 555(500) [1.1*]

Willpower-250

Charisma-95

Perception-92

Health- 15,840/15,840 (1758(700)/hour)

Ether- 5403/5550 (555/hour)

Endurance- 4580/5550 (555/minute)

Arthur grinned when he saw the difference in his status. In total, he had gained exactly 51 attribute points, 72 if you counted the 21 extra he'd gotten from his soul affinity. If I had one more level, I could say I'd gained a stat for every level. Arthur regretted the lost opportunity. He was certain that had Mathew been here, he'd be saying that this was a sign from the heavens that they were displeased with his choices or some other BS. Shit, I need to go visit him. Without the significant advantages Arthur enjoyed, life was probably far harder for his friend, someone who hadn't even been blessed with a magical affinity.

He was just about to start cleaning up when he felt a familiar aura enter his range of awareness, which had increased considerably since he’d gained the perception attribute. Arthur however wasn’t naïve to think that it would have helped him discover this particular presence at all if the one behind it didn’t want herself to be known.

He knew without a shadow of a doubt, that he was still far from matching Alyssia Sil’Vorken’s masterful use of ether and her magical abilities, even if he had narrowed the gap in strength between them slightly with his evolution. Still, he had expected the dimensional traveller to wait a little longer before coming to contact him. Leaving the kitchen mess for later, Arthur made his way to the front door. This was probably what Ayesha had meant when she'd said he wouldn't have to wait long to absorb the Dragon's core. His strongest associate was here. Hopefully, trouble hadn’t come knocking.

Arthur opened his door just as Alyssia raised her hand to knock on it. It took him a moment to recognise the Alverin woman, what with the strange getup she was currently in. Despite the summer heat, Alyssia was dressed in an oversized star wars hoodie, which seemed a little ironic to Arthur with her realm-traveller status. Her face was barely visible underneath the absolutely massive sunglasses she had resting on her nose and she had a surgical mask covering her mouth.

She had no doubt done all this to cover her unique green skin but the image she presented was just so strange that Arthur couldn’t help but burst out laughing. If Alyssia was offended by Arthur's reaction, she didn’t show it, instead waiting the twenty seconds it took for him to calm down.

“Are you done? Finally going to invite me in, or are you just going to stare at me like an idiot,” Alyssia snapped, though Arthur detected a hint of amusement in her voice.

Arthur was quickly brought back into the moment and he realised that he’d been standing there doing nothing but stare at her getup for far longer than was appropriate.

“Yes, sorry, I was just a little surprised,” Arthur replied before moving over so the woman could walk into his house. He did feel a little self-conscious about inviting a stranger into his home. The last person who had visited it was Elizabeth, who'd come along with Mathew what felt like a lifetime ago though was closer to a month in reality. Arthur wasn’t really sure anymore.

Ever since the system’s arrival, his life had been so busy that every day had felt so much longer than it actually was.

The third week since the world's evolution was only just coming to an end and yet in that time Arthur had done more than he had in the entire previous year. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he made his way into the living room, which was probably the cleanest place in the house due to the fact it saw so little use. Taking a seat on a sofa, he waited for Alyssia to do the same.

“So what’s this visit all about? I didn’t think I’d see you for a long time given the way you left the underground bunker,” Arthur asked, curious as to why the woman had chosen to visit him now of all times. He had a few guesses, but asking was easier.

Alyssia took a long time to answer, during which she removed her ill-made disguise. When she had finished, she sighed wearily.

“Always the same with you Arthur. You always like getting straight to the point. How do you know I didn’t just come here for a nice conversation?” Alyssia asked, a faint smile on her lips.

Arthur was a little surprised by the woman’s response. He hadn’t remembered her as being so informal and carefree. But then again, her brother had been on his deathbed the last time he’d spoken to her. Speaking of which, Arthur could see no sign of the little boy anywhere. “Okay, say you did come here just to see me. Where did you leave your brother? Unless you have some crazy cloaking magic, I’m pretty sure Artemo is not with you,” Arthur questioned. After everything, the woman had gone through for her little sibling. Arthur didn’t think that she’d just leave him somewhere unattended. At the mention of her younger brother, Alyssia became tenser and more serious. Ah, there’s the Alyssia I know, Arthur thought as he looked at the Alverin woman. All her earlier cheer and humour were gone as if it had all been some sort of act she’d put on. Maybe Arthur was being a little paranoid, but he was certain that the woman wouldn’t just visit him for no reason and he was sure that Alyssia wanted something from him.

Perhaps he was wrong, but the difficult life of an orphan had left him a little jaded and world-weary and he wasn’t naïve enough to think that people talked to him simply because they liked his company. Elizabeth and Mathew aside, there were very few people that Arthur could call a friend and he wasn’t quite ready to start adding names to that shortlist when his life was already so complicated.

“I left Artemo someplace safe,” Alyssia answered carefully, not adding any more details. "And I've come to pay you back."