Alex studied the golden words that made up his status screen floating before him, sharp and bright against the darkness of his Mind Palace. He’d managed to amass three Title Fragments. Lone, Top Ranker, and Forerunner.

He tapped a finger against his leg. There was some primal monkey part of his brain that wanted to smack things together until they worked — but a slightly smarter — if considerably smaller — part of his brain that had a much better plan.

I really want to use Lone, but I don’t think either of the two titles I have right now is the best combination for it. It definitely has an enormous amount of potential. Any Title with Lone in the name is probably going to end up being something that can scale really hard. It should be put together with a fragment that is really likely to give me a huge edge.

Putting it together with Top Ranker would be a waste. I don’t want just a flat boost to Lone, I want it to hyperspecialize. Using together with Forerunner could work a bit better… but the Forerunner achievement came from being the first person on Earth to kill a Field Boss.

There’s no way for me to know if it’s going to give me a combat boost or not. If they were the only two options I had, I’d probably combine them. It definitely wouldn’t be a bad combination.

But if I combined Top Ranker with Forerunner… then I just magnify the results of whatever it gives me. It would also let me save Lone for another Title Fragment that fits it better while still getting something good now.

He made his mind up. And, as soon as he did, black letters scrawled across the surface of the marble basin in the corner of his eye.

Would you like to combine any of your Title Fragments?

“Yes.”

Black lines traced down from the gem at the top of the basin. Darkness bloomed across its surface like ink rising to the surface of water as words took form upon the marble.

Lone

Top Ranker

Forerunner

Alex selected his choices. The backs of his palms tingled and his fingertips buzzed like he’d stuck them into a live electrical socket. Two motes of light slipped out from the stone and twisted up to float before him.

He reached out to the motes and felt power press back against his hands as he placed his palms upon them. The force was faint but constant. Just like the last time he’d combined two Title Fragments, it seemed that they were not particularly eager about being pushed together.

And that was their biggest mistake. If they’d wanted to remain separate, then they should have chosen any other form of resistance. There were few men that could resist the urge to smack the positive ends of two magnets together — and that was exactly what the titles felt like.

Alex drove his palms together, drawing on all the extra power that the System had infused his body with since the start of the Apocalypse. That was quite a considerable amount, and he felt it almost immediately.

The last time he’d tried to combine titles, it had been quite difficult. The energy had put up a serious fight and he’d had to fight furiously for every inch he could claim.

But this time around, the process was smooth. His hands pressed together steadily, relentlessly, and the Title Fragments’ attempts to resist him evaporated in the wind. Wind blew his hair back and ripples passed over of the surface of the lake. The misty blue energy swirling above the basin churned and undulated as waves of energy emanated out from Alex.

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His palms connected with a clap. The motes of energy collided and exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Power surged and drove into his hands like tiny blades of glass, drawing a surprised curse from his lips as he was momentarily blinded.

Holy shit. I didn’t expect them to combine so easily!

Alex blinked the stars away from his eyes. A single black line sat upon the basin before him.

A new Title.

Ascending Forerunner: Attune with the fluctuations of power on your plane caused by the awakening of powerful monsters. While this Title is equipped, you will be able to sense the location of monsters at the rank of [Region Boss] or higher as they awaken.

Wait. What? That can’t be right.

Alex stared at the words for a long second, trying to see if he was misreading something. They looked so inconspicuous, betraying the immense potential the Title was promising him. If he understood what the Title was saying, then it meant he’d know where every single Region Boss was.

Nothing in the skill said anything about range. It didn’t imply it would get stronger with him either, which meant it was a flat benefit. Even more than that — the Title would let him do more than just tell where the bosses were.

The description said he’d sense their location as they awakened.

Not after they awakened.

As.

It let him know when they woke up.

Alex’s heart started to beat faster and, for a moment, his mouth almost started to water as he contemplated what a skill of this strength actually meant. The most obvious benefits were already immense.

He’d be able to show up to every Region Boss fight that he wanted to. Nobody could hide their locations from him. The Title would warn him when he had to go over and ensure he always had a chance to wrest experience and rewards from it.

When he got strong enough, he could literally hunt Region Bosses. They wouldn’t have any way to hide. Even the most secret, well concealed monsters would be laid bare before him.

But there was more to the Title than that.

It wasn’t like he could kill every single boss — but he wouldn’t need to. Information about the monsters would be beyond valuable.

Thus far, it didn’t seem anyone had figured out there was a Region Boss in Towntown. That meant the Outworlders didn’t know where every monster had popped up… but they’d absolutely be willing to pay immense amounts of money to find out.

I could charge ridiculous prices for the monsters’ locations if they’re too out of the way for me to deal with myself.

Wait, fuck that. I could recruit people to my side and use the bosses as a way to catch them up and compete with the Outworlder families.

Alex swallowed heavily. He held tightly onto the edge of the basin to keep himself from falling off in his excitement. It would have been deeply ironic to manage to die inside his own Mind Palace.

The Ascending Forerunner Title was basically a key to a city of gold, so long as he had the strength to take it. There were so many possibilities to strength that came from the Title that he was certain he couldn’t think of all of them in a reasonable amount of time.

Even as that thought passed through his mind, his eyes still lingering on the words upon the basin, his eyes widened slightly.

Alex hurriedly reread the start of the skill.

It didn’t specify anything about Planet 274-50.

He had no idea if Region Bosses existed in the Mirrorlands, but he didn’t know why they didn’t. There had to be at least one or two of them somewhere. And if that was the case, there was nothing to imply the Title wouldn’t work just as well in the Mirrorlands as it would on what had once been Earth.

Alex looked up to the twisting ball of magically charged blue mist above him. He swallowed heavily, summoning his status screen just to confirm that the title was actually there. Then he dismissed it once more.

As badly as he wanted to return to the Mirrorlands right now and test the Title out to see how it worked, he was far from done in his Mind Palace. He had a huge amount of magical energy stored up. Enough to give his Mind Palace a significant boost and get him a few levels while he was at it.

He had three Units of energy left over to work with from the last time he’d advanced in levels. Leveling twice would get him enough to advance Monster Medley and Requiem to the King — and that wasn’t all.

Alex hadn’t forgotten Absolution’s display back in the Assembly. He’d watched the man practically dismantle his Outworlder opponent, ripping through her domain even though he was supposedly weaker than her with his Partial Domain.

There was precious little information for him to call on, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that if a full Domain came at the third stage, Adept, then a Partial Domain could be made before then.

And if that was the case, then he was determined to get his hands on it.