Samir leaned on the railing of the crown vessel of his Armada on the eve of his invasion, admiring his work. Hundreds of ships travelled alongside him; their deck was abuzz with soldiers loyal to the Avatar of Fire, loyal to him.
On the deck of his ship, his young dragon languished, napping in the warm morning sun. Finding it was a real treasure, especially so far from the Sun people's civilization.
While it was pretty low-tier in the grand scheme of things, he planned to take the monster with him when he moved on to the next world. There, he could power-level it and ensure it grew to its full potential. If the show was anything to go by, Dragon Fire could do a lot more than just burn things, and he'd need every advantage going into a new world with even more reincarnators or travellers like the locals like to call them.
But Samir wasn't worried. No. Luck had nothing to do with all he had amassed. Behind him stood Jon Jon, arguably the third most powerful fire bender of Aang's time, and Wulcen, a young combustion bender he'd enthralled. He was a cousin to the original Sparky Sparky Boom man.
He chuckled a bit at the ridiculous name, but he couldn't keep a grin from spreading across his face.
Of course, his greatest treasure of all was the knowledge he'd gotten from the Phantom, Misha. He knew what the Phantoms were capable of, and he'd learned of their foundational techniques and the extent of their information network.
It was why he'd withdrawn himself from the world and why it'd been easy to dispose of Wang, the greatest threat bar the Old man, in his opinion.
He shivered, reviewing the memories he'd pried from her head.
That Grandfather dude gave him Dumbledore vibes and the feats he'd heard him accomplish. He scoffed. The man was acting like this was a cultivation world.
But soon, even he wouldn't be a problem.
All his ducks were in a row, and Samir was ready to shoot.
"This world is fucking mine," he grinned ", and so is the next one." He had a second chance at life, and he'd be damned if he wasted it.
He'd been reborn with shackles that threatened to take him out of the race before it started.
Samir path was all but set for him when he woke up in the body of an emaciated noble from a disgraced military family.
Add to that pressure a sick mother, an alcoholic brother, and a disabled sister; he was half-convinced that his wish for "the perfect body for his greatest talent."
So, Samir chose not to fall for it.
He vanished from his former body's home that night and enlisted in the army the next morning.
It was where he needed to be. Better a silent goodbye than a tear-filled one.
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Desperate to progress in the army, Samir leaned on his talents, going off a hunch he'd read in one light novel while he was younger. His system rewarded his interest in the spear with a skill, so he figured he might get something for his natural affinity for people and his humble mastery of the unscientific practice of Hypnosis and persuasion.
Nothing happened for the longest time, but he stuck with it until he signed up for active duty. By then, his Fire had turned blue when it reached intermediate rank at lv 25.
After half of his unit fell to an Earth-bending Veteran, he'd been the one to end the man. It'd been more luck than skill, but it earned him the attention of the higher-ups, and he received the rare honour of sitting at the commander's table.
When they looked onto him for entertainment, he offered to show them the exotic arts of magic he'd learned from a wandering traveller.
He half did it for fun, but it was a casual misdirection disguised as Hypnosis.
He and everybody in the room froze when the misdirection worked a bit too well. He asked the man to sleep, and he did.
A string of messages flowed in a second later to confirm the nagging suspicion he'd had.
(R)Charm Lv1: Influence somebody with your words and actions, making them more agreeable towards you and open to your suggestion. Charm is less likely to work if you have less Chi and a larger spiritual presence than your target. Chances of charming somebody with a higher spiritual presence go up by 0.1 % per level
(R)Hypnosis Lv1: Place people in a fugue-like state, making them more susceptible to your orders and suggestions. Hypnosis can be triggered using hand movements and last for up to 1 hr (Adds 1 more hr for every level gained). Requires two times your target Chi or spiritual presence to hypnotize your target. The requirement is halved if the target has been charmed.
Hypnosis can be dispelled if the command contains self-inflicted bodily harm or intense physical damage.
It was a simple matter to convince everybody at the table what happened was of no importance with his new skill.
Taken back at how easily it worked, Samir was convinced the God of reincarnation was playing a trick on him. When he woke up the next days, and the skill was still there, he allocated the stats he'd been stupidly saving up before the fight to Mind, figuring the stat was somehow tied to a spiritual presence.
Player: Samir
Level: 20/50
Class: Firebender(150% increase in learning speed and effectiveness of all Earth bending skills and sub-skills)
Subclass: Locked (Available in the next world.)
Stats:
Body: 14
Mind: 26 + 5
Health: 250
Chi: 450 ((Body x 10) + (Mind x 10 ))
Undistributed Stat points (4)
Stat points earned via training: 19(1/2)
And he'd been right.
In a world where half of the world had paltry Chi reserves, and the other half had barely any at all, his new skills made him a god, and he wasted no time in exploiting them.
He led his group to victory, charming and hypnotizing them to put their full trust in him despite being a fresh soldier.
With a word, he also had his leader's ear, slowly poisoning their Mind over time with suggestions and honeyed reassurances. He was promoted four times in two weeks. It did help that he decimated every opposition that came their way with just his words.
All he needed to do was move his and whisper sweet nothings to people, and they went on and did his bidding. At level 30, his command lasted days. Poisoning the water supply and learning formation secrets was barely a challenge.
And each win brought him swathes of XP. Within a month of work, he was over lv 30, and when his most used skill, Hypnosis reached lv 50, and he got a skill upgrade that changed everything.
'Embed memory: Embed a memory or several memories into the Mind of those you've charmed and hypnotized, engendering them to you further. Cost 100 chi per cast. Subsequent memories embedded double in costs. Costs double if the target's Mind is comparable to yours or stronger than yours.
Receive minor backlash for each failed cast of embed memory. 1 hr cooldown. All restrictions to self-harm can be bypassed if enough memories are embedded.
2/3 Rare skill slots used in this world.