Second Age, year 155, Endless Dungeon Maze, "floor" 157. 27 kilometers underneath the surface. Underneath Calfray, frontier zone, Scorched Continent
----------------------------------------
Bundi slashed through yet another Catoblepas. The rotten goat-like creatures with Death aspect were excellent for grinding, because of their lethality and rarity. They had exactly four sources of instant death, from their gaze, their bites, their bleating, and their stench aura.
> You killed level 178 Catoblepas. You gained...
>
> You reached Scion of Vengenace level 19.
>
> [...]
Finally. Ony one more level to reach 200. He'd been stuck in the bowels of the planet for too long. Twenty years without seeing a single sentient being he didn't murder. Only the former deity's seething hatred and lust for vengeance kept him from losing himself.
The Class he picked for his third and fourth tiers were ultra-rare ones tied to his vengeance. They had awesome Perks that dealt massive damage to his target, but after accomplishing his vengeance, they would revert into rare Classes without these bonuses and the Perks would also be downgraded two categories.
Bundi could care less about that. Once he was back where he belonged among the firmament, Classes and Perks would become trinkets. All that mattered was to kill that fucking bitch.
He heard the dread bleating of the Catoblepas. The rest of the herd was coming to check what kept the others from joining them. He knew he made the right choice. His grind would take four times as long if he wasn't hunting these Death monsters. It was all thanks to the Perks he picked after Wyxnos screwed up with him.
> Instant Death Immunity (unique): You are immune to all sorts of "death-named" multipliers, Vorpal blows, and instant death powers.
>
> Spell Attenuator (unique): When struck by a harmful spell, ignore the two highest multipliers greater than x4.
>
> God of Vengeance (unique): When you kill the target of your vengeance, drain the enemy's soul of power until you gain GP equal to 10 times the Exp award. If you earn more than one million GP, you gain the Vengeance Domain along with the Domains in your Divine Core and ascend. Current domain: [Human].
His Core lost the other domains when he bonded with it. Only "Human" remained. But if his gambit played off, and he saw no way it wouldn't, he would ascend automatically with two domains. Wyxnos was a fool to let him take the third one. Was the God of Logic betting against him? Bundi guffawed. It didn't seem very logical to not bet on the winner.
He readied his sword and dashed to kill more death goats. He needed to reach level 200 and then go hunt his target. He could sense where she was and she hadn't moved in a few years.
----------------------------------------
Second Age, year 156, Mermaid Lagoon, Kingdom of Atlantis.
----------------------------------------
I returned to the reef and lived my life raising the mermaids, preparing my sister to be the heir to the throne, and shedding levels in the secondary Paths to stave off the inevitable. {Bygone Hero} claimed its tithe of one level every single month.
We established trade routes with several coastal nations and even sent some mermaids to work as sailors in the ships. These girls could dive and fight sea monsters as well as to conduct operations in the water better than any two-legged monkey.
Once every two years, I took Callisto to see her father. He'd remarried and his five wives quickly gave him plenty of heirs. She didn't resent him at all. She loved to swim freely in the ocean. I suspect she could even get a mermaid evolution soon.
Ten Yznarian Years passed. One hundred and sixty levels, gone. I've learned that I could accelerate the process. Should I choose, I could burn all levels and die at any moment. I didn't. But finally, I reached a point where I could grab my prize, even if it was a consolation one.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
> Level Breakdown.
>
> Species:
>
> * Dolphin-Mermaid 20
>
> Paths:
>
> * Spell-Singer 20
> * Wanderer 20
> * Garden Warrior 20 [Fused 2]
And as I lost levels, I also lost the Perks from the Classes, along with the Attribute bonuses. I was but a pale shadow of my former self. At least the Species perks and racial bonuses from {Ultimate Surpasser} remained.
One curious thing, my Rank remained the same. My Attribute caps didn't plummet even though my levels should dictate differently. My guess was that SOMEONE didn't account for people losing levels. But I finally had everything equal and a multiple of 20.
> Requirements met. Would you want to use your Quest Reward to purchase [Fifth Path]?
Yes, please.
> You gained the Perk:
>
> * Fifth Path (ultra-rare): You can have up to five Paths.
I immediately assigned the last dregs of Exp I had left to level it up.
> You became a Dark Farmer (common).
>
> As a dark farmer [...]
Moving along. The stats were crap. The Perks were transitory. What mattered was the bonus points for my next life.
> You reached Dark Farmer level 20.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 12 Attribute Points.
I had a hunch. If having four paths at the same level and a multiple of twenty did something, what to say about all five?
> Requirements met. Would you want to use your Quest Reward to purchase [Path Fusion IV]?
Why not? I was curious.
> You gained the Perk:
>
> * Path Fusion IV (ultra-rare): You can fuse up to all paths. The fused path counts as five Classes for all purposes, including but not limited to Exp costs. The Stats are increased by four steps from the most common one. Once five paths are fused, you lose the ability to change Paths.
I had to see it. I activated the fusion.
> Choose one Path to be the main one. The rarity of the fused Path will be: Ultra-Rare (+1)
To hell with those Uncommon Classes. Next life, I would settle only for the top-rarity ones. I went with {Spell-Singer}.
> You became a level 20 Plant-Singer (Fused 5, Ultra-Rare (+1).
>
> You gain:
>
> +20 to Magic
>
> +10 To Dexterity, Endurance, Mind, Willpower, Charisma, Ego
>
> +5 to Strength, Luck, and Soul
>
> 80 (+120) base HP,380 (+140) base Energy
>
> 10 Perks. Your Perks were already assigned.
Now I just had one hundred and twenty months to live. Less than ten years. I would die and become someone else again. It wasn't even my shortest life.
Worse yet, the Class bonus and Perks would be lost. But wait. They were marked as {Transient} because the System needed to flag them for Path changes.
"System. Are you there? Tuisto?" I was alone in my alcove. Nobody would hear me. "Can I make you a question?"
> ACKNOWLEDGED. Yes.
I chuckled. "Okay, smartass. Can I make more than one question?"
> ACKNOWLEDGED. Yes.
"I got {Fifth Path}. Fused all five Paths. Why are the perks still marked as {Transient} if I will no longer switch Paths? That classification is useless. The same for the Attribute values. They don't need to be added as temporary. They can be added to the main values directly."
> ACKNOWLEDGED.
>
> PROCESSING QUERY. Finished.
>
>
> EVALUATING BALANCE. Approved.
>
>
> APPLYING PATCH.
>
> 11 Perk descriptions changed. Your Attribute values changed.
>
> * Path Fusion IV (ultra-rare): You can fuse up to all paths. The fused path counts as five Classes for all purposes, including but not limited to Exp costs. The Stats are increased by four steps from the most common one. Once five paths are fused, you cannot change paths, all Class Perks lose the Transient tag, and Attribute values are applied directly to the base values instead of as a bonus.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser withheld 88 Attribute Points.
>
> You gained the Perk:
>
> * Surpasser XXV (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 250%. You get 25 Attribute Points every 40 levels.
I checked my Status. Truly enough It'd been nerfed even more.
> Level 40
>
> Strength: 30+12 (42) / 42 - Dexterity: 36+14 (50) / 42 - Endurance: 40+14 (54) / 42
>
> Mind: 42+19 (61) - Willpower: 42+19 (61) - Charisma: 40+12 (52) / 42
>
> Magic: 42+12 (54)
>
> Ego: 41+17 (58) / 42 - Luck: 40+17 (57) / 42 - Soul: 40+17 (57) / 42
>
> HP 3.720.790 (841 HP/s)
>
> Energy 7.096.225 (6.286 E/min)
That's it. This was my... Arista's final form.
----------------------------------------
A week later, a {Messenger Bird} came from Kazuyran, telling me to go to Ackerton immediately. A level 200 adventurer was trying to get a ship to bring him here, and spies reported him rambling about his "vengeance against that bitch".
Considering the only bitch in this reef worthy of the vengeance of a level 200 somebody from somewhere I've never heard of was me, I had to go there to stop him from coming here. Not even the heralds could easily contain a level 200 dude, and we had too many children to keep safe.