Interlude:
Maximus groaned loudly out of boredom as his pale slender assistant read out a long and dull colonization report for all their colonization efforts in the newly discovered and integrated sector of the multi-verse. Then, the assistant reported something truly unusual. The hulking general interrupted the boy, causing the boy's bushy brown tail to wag up and down due to a suddenly heightened anxiety.
"A native species on a newly integrated planet brought down a mothership? Is that even possible?" Maximus asked, his voice interested but still monotonous. He had heard a lot of odd things in his time alive and so he rarely found anything even slightly interesting. Yet, this was an exception.
The boy stammered out a studied reply, "It was only a [Vermin] Class mothership sir and the nations of Earth's combat ability and their weapons technology seem disproportionately advanced in comparison to their general technology level. In particular, their nuclear weapons technology seems to be particularly advanced, with the preliminary firepower rating given by the mothership's shield showing that their most powerful nuclear weapons are around [D] grade in terms of destructive power."
The hardened overseer's interest rose from mere superficial interest to full-blown curiosity. He asked, "What were the results of the preliminary population assessment?"
The boy hurriedly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. He tapped his long fur-covered fingers on the device and scanned the report once again, before announcing the results.
"The planet is completely dominated by Humanoids, with no other sapient race being present. The humans of Earth and their hundreds of different languages were mostly rated as [Highly Complex] by the vermin drone pilots. There are about 30 different..."
The boy was cut off by an irritated Maximus cutting in, "I don't care about whatever it is you were about to tell me. Just tell me about the Imperial potential grade, then what the assessor advised the colonization fleet to do moving forward."
His assistant fidgeted with the device nervously for a few seconds before saying, "The Imperial potential grade was initially [D] sir."
"Initially?" Maximus asked, amused.
"Yes. Initially. After the humans attacked our mothership unprovoked, their potential grade was automatically set at [F] for the foreseeable future, per Imperial colonization protocol #2091."
"I see. And the assessor's advice?"
The boy shifted on his feet, before replying, "The assessor has yet to conclude his assessment, sir. However, Major Theodora has requested permission to issue a general population extermination order, sir. Apparently one of her blood sisters was on the mothership that was shot down."
Maximus huffed, "Permission Denied. The Grand Imperium is not like that damn Dusk Bringer Sect for heaven's sake. Go tell the Major that if she can't secure the planet and the native population with around 40% of its pre-integration population, then she and her damn blood sisters shall face being court marshaled for wasting precious Imperial resources asking me pointless questions."
His assistant nodded and replied, "As you wish sir", before saluting and walking towards the massive space station's communication facility. His face clearly showed the fact he was dreading having to actually convey the exact words of the general to the hot-headed major. He knew he would spend the next 3 hours being abused verbally by the major, as it was far easier to bully him than to actually meaningfully disobey or challenge the orders of the general. His judgments were absolute, their interpretation simple, and they carried the full weight of imperial law.
Maximus may have been a bit of a lousy boss, but he was a folk hero of epic renown and a talented commander with immense influence and thousands of momentous victories under his belt. So much was he revered in Imperial society, that it was rumored that the Grand Emperor himself was going to personally entrust the training of the young Crown Prince in the art of war to Maximus. Though, as the prince was far too young to undergo such training just yet, nothing about the rumors could yet be confirmed to be true or false.
Yet the rumors served to bolster the general's prestige and honor to whole new levels of significance and so even if the major felt mutinous, it would only be if she were totally mad/suicidal that she would dare openly defy his commands. Yet, Jackson, the general's assistant, knew full well that she would find a way to maliciously comply with the general's words. And, just as had happened many times before, Jackson would somehow take the blame for not being clear enough with the general's instructions.
'What a pain', Jackson thought to himself.
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Arthur let out a slight laugh at his own thoughts and bold proclamations. He couldn't leave the cave until the explosions ceased, otherwise, he risked Lucas' life, so all his future diplomatic work could only start once the aliens stopped bombarding Earth. He had never tried to be a hero before or be anyone of any kind of major importance, the last few days had been quite the extreme exception in Arthur’s life. Even just thinking about all he’d done made him wonder whether this Battle State perk was truly such a good thing for him after all, but he quickly dismissed that thought.
For it might have made him into something that he fundamentally felt that he wasn’t, a warrior, temporarily, but he knew he’d make all the same decisions again and again if it meant saving Lucas again and again. Yet, now, sitting alone with his thoughts, with the huge explosions outside becoming background noise, Arthur felt his mind release all the tension it had built up recently and he began to contemplate whether his bad outcomes recently had truly resulted from bad decisions made in his past and present.
Perhaps if he’d just been a bit bolder against the wolves, a bit faster driving to Amelia’s house, or maybe even if he had been just a bit closer to his youngest son, enough to know immediately where he lived, he could have saved more of his family and saved the young Lucas a lifetime of trauma. These thoughts of possible worlds in which things had turned out much better haunted him and his newly system-enhanced mind only seemed to make everything worse.
The familiar cold, gnawing sensation began spreading through Arthur’s chest – cooly burning away much of the old butler’s tattered emotional defenses. Yet, the old man let no tears fall from his eyes, he couldn’t afford to show signs of visible distress in front of Lucas. No child should have the bear to emotional load of their guardian, they just wouldn’t be able to handle it, no matter how much they wished or insisted that they could.
Arthur pressed his back up against the wall of the cave and tried processing his demons. Last night he had mourned his children’s passing, which was a first step in the process of grieving, but now he had to truly come to terms with how he might have played a role in their deaths. And, while shedding tears may expedite expressing grief, the same cannot be said about tears absolving you of guilt. Especially as guilt was something that Arthur was an expert at piling onto himself.
As he sat there struggling internally with his demons, he felt himself enter a strange meditative state. All his senses faded away and he was left alone to interrogate and sort out his own mind. Not only in the form of an ‘internal monologue’ as usual, but also literally fighting his internal demons. In that, in a totally spectacular fashion, his mind actually imagined him an avatar body with which to fight hideous-looking beasts that Arthur could tell represented his fear, his anxiety, and his overwhelming sense of shame.
His demons were indescribably repulsive to look at, intimidating beyond all belief, and they possessed sharp claws that were more than enough to cause Arthur what felt like actual mental pain. He had mindlessly fought with the demons for what felt like an eternity, but neither his perks, nor his skills, nor anything else he had gained since integrated had aided him in even so much as wounding the monstrosities that stood before him.
Yet, he felt himself on the verge of something. Something big. Some kind of revelation that would help him finally crack open the demon problem and defeat it. But, as he was, he could not think of what it was that he needed to do. Perhaps he needed to apply more stat points into the Mental stat or something, then he’d probably be smart enough to be able to figure out an answer. Upon thinking that however, he felt the rising power he’d been feeling start to recede within his chest. He realized that this must not be the answer that his mind or whatever this mental place wanted.
He tried thinking about the issue once again, until something seemed to click into place, and anger built in his heart. Where once the power had risen slowly in his chest over the course of hours, right now, the power seemed to explode into being with such force within him that even Arthur was shocked by it. And the force grew only more intense as Arthur finally unleashed his fury in a long tirade directed at the demons. “I was too weak to save my children I admit it. But it was not my fault! It was not by my will but because of the passage of time that I had been weak when the system arrived. It was time and not me that had sharpened the dagger that then took the lives of my precious children. Time is the hidden culprit behind it all! I shall not take responsibility for what I did not do!”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
His words were seemingly infused with the power from within him as the demonic entities retreated away from the origin of the words, retreating into the odd mist that surrounded the strange battle area that his mind had set up. Only one demon remained standing in the arena once Arthur had finished his tirade. It was the demon that represented his fears. It had not been that much affected by his words. In fact, Arthur could have sworn that it had grown bigger. However, before he could do anything, he was suddenly pulled out of his mental space and back into his physical body.
There in front of him was a sobbing Lucas. The crying boy was overjoyed when he saw the light of consciousness return to the physical eyes of his grandfather. The boy wiped away some tears and tried speaking in between hiccups and sniffles, “Grandpa I thought…”, the boy took a deep breath before continuing, “I thought you were gone…”, the boy then lost control of his breathing before he could finish his sentence and his crying just became more intense as his condition grew worse.
Arthur quickly embraced the boy and said softly, “I am sorry for scaring you like that child. I was just in some sort of trance; I swear I shall not leave you alone like that if I can help it.”
The boy simply burrowed deeper into his grandfather’s arms and cried more. Arthur realized that he could no longer hear any explosions going off in the background. Then noticed something else odd as well, he had received 2 system notifications. He pulled them up as he held Lucas closer to himself.
You have gathered enough Qi and have entered the [Qi Gathering] realm of Cultivation!
Current Realm: 2nd Step of the [Qi Gathering] realm.
Reward: +3 Points into the Spirituality Stat
(Note from User Manual: Cultivation is a process through which you accumulate, absorb, then refine, and finally internalize Qi so as to enhance your own body/mind/personhood.)
(Note from User Manual: Each realm of Cultivation has 12 individual steps.)
(Note from User Manual: Increasing your Cultivation Realm will provide all of your perks with a general boost to their potency, with the higher the realm, the greater the effect. The major realms of cultivation are, in ascending order of power: Qi Gathering, Qi Condensing, Qi refinement, Foundation, Lesser Spirit, True Spirit, Transformation, Saint, King, Emperor, Dominator, God)
You are the 2nd person on Earth to have successfully taken the first step on the path to true everlasting power.
Reward: +10 Stat Points in the Spirituality Stat
Arthur almost stopped breathing upon reading through all of the system notes. He could improve the potency of his system perks just by sitting around and pondering his own feelings. He could actually hear the snide laughter he would have gotten from his own father had he told him that contemplating one’s emotional/mental state might do good for one’s bone/muscle strength. Though, the world had very much changed since the days of Arthur’s father.
Arthur quickly refocused his mind on the fact he had made an important discovery about the importance of cultivation, even if by accident. Arthur was now very glad that he had saved up some of his stat points, as it seemed that boosting his spirituality stat might be very useful for his overall abilities in the future. For, as cultivation gave ALL perks a boost, that would also mean his social stat perks would see a boost, as well as his system-related perks.
Of course, Arthur knew that it was still important to invest in the other stats, as without investing in them as well the boost from cultivation would be too minor, especially at his low level, but he was now very tempted to invest some, if not a lot, of his stash of stat points into spirituality. Sure, the system had already given him 10 points to spend, but if Arthur wanted to truly guarantee his future, he would need to ensure his cultivation was always leagues ahead for the best bonuses. He just knew it somehow.
So, despite his more than a handful of doubts, he put 25 of his horde of 40 stat points into the spirituality stat and, with a thought, the spirituality point shop he hadn’t seen since the first hour of the system’s arrival appeared before him. Arthur’s jaw almost hit the floor immediately, and his facial expression clearly gave away to Lucas that he was looking at something other than him.
The teary-eyed boy looked up and asked, “Something wrong grandpa?”
Arthur shook his head, feeling slightly guilty for doing system stuff while he is supposed to be looking after Lucas. However, what he saw in front of him had the potential to solve a great number of his problems, though once again, he was flabbergasted by the immense cost the system was imposing.
SPIRITUAL POINT SHOP:
Balance: 38 Points
Qi Breathing (Lvl:3 -> Lvl:4) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
Qi Gathering (Lvl:3 -> Lvl:4) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
Qi Condensing (Lvl:0 -> Lvl:1) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
NEW: Palm of Fury (Lvl:3) | Cost: 5 Spiritual Points
NEW: Enhanced Qi Senses (Lvl:5) | Cost: 10 Spiritual Points
NEW: [II] Automatic Cultivation (Lvl:1) | Cost: 25 Spiritual Points | Premium Cost: 35 Spiritual Points
(Note from User Manual: Perks prefixed with [II] are 2nd-stage perks.)
(Note from User Manual: 2nd stage perks are either: an upgraded form of a 1st stage perk, or a more advanced perk only available due to the user’s high tier or personal achievements. Perks shall now show their stage prior to them. Eg. [I] Bone Strength, etc. )
Arthur was being offered the ability to automatically cultivate. That was an ability with incredible implications. He had imagined he'd have to sit around meditating for hours on end, pondering his own demons or some great question of the universe to truly cultivate, yet it seemed to be something that could be automated.
The only issue with it, however, was that it would cost nearly all of his points. He knew the perk was incredibly valuable, perhaps the most valuable thing he'd received from the system so far. No. That wasn't right.
His memories returning to him meant far more to him than receiving any power would or could ever come close to. He had to constantly remind himself of that fact, not wanting to accidentally lose himself in the absurdity and excitement of the world's new situation. Of his own new situation. Plus, it had only been thanks to his recovered memories and strength that he had been able to achieve any of what he had so far.
His mind was finally made up when he recalled the terrified look on Lucas' face after he had exited his cultivation state. He couldn't do that to the boy again. He had promised. And, if he was gonna spend a lot of points anyway, he may as well go premium. He purchased the Automatic Cultivation perk, alongside putting the remaining three points into the Qi condensing perk. He had no idea what the three different basic perks did individually, but he hoped that having an even spread of Gathering, Breathing, and Condensing, would make his auto-cultivation more efficient or something like that.
Upon finalization of his purchase, he felt his entire body engulfed in a heavenly kind of bliss. It was the most powerful system experience Arthur had yet experienced and he was left totally without words as he experienced potent heaven. Once the initial surge subsided, Arthur groaned out in pain as his head throbbed with the most painful cluster headache he had ever experienced. Suddenly, a system prompt hurtled into view.
Your [III] Automatic Cultivation (Lvl:1) perk is OVER EXERTING YOUR BRAIN! FIX SOON OTHERWISE YOUR BRAIN WILL CEASE FUNCTIONING. 100% FATAL.
Arthur read through it and hurriedly put the remainder of his 15-stat point horde into the Mental Stat and frantically brought up the relevant stat point's perk shop.
!! Brain Processing Speed (Lvl:5 -> Lvl:6) (Recommended Minimum Level to Avert Accumulating Prolonged Mental Damage Lvl:8) | Cost: 1 Mental Point
! Brain Capacity (Lvl:4 -> Lvl:5) (Recommended Minimum Level to Avert Discomfort Lvl:5) | Cost: 1 Mental Point
!!! Brain Subconscious Function Capability (Lvl:2 -> Lvl:3) (Minimum Level Required to Avert Imminent Death Lvl:10) | Cost: 1 Mental Point
Battle State (Lvl:2->Lvl:3) | Cost: 3 Mental Points
NEW: Enhanced Memorisation (Lvl:3) | Cost: 5 Mental Points
NEW: Instant Arithmetic (Lvl:5) | Cost: 10 Mental Points
Without even thinking about it, Arthur spent as many points as he needed to bring the Brain Subconscious Function Capability perk to level 10, his Brain processing speed perk to level 8, and his Brain Capacity perk to level 5, and finalized the purchase and he felt the incredible pain from just moments ago vanish completely. However, the stat point shop did not close, as he still had 3 points left to spend. However, he didn't care about that and simply sighed in tremendous relief as he had evaded death - again.
Lucas looked up at his grandfather with terrified eyes as he had witnessed the old man's face filled with pure unadulterated terror for a moment. He frantically shook the older man and asked, "What's wrong Grandpa?!"
Arthur simply pet the crying boy's head of hair and smiled gently before saying in a reassuring raspy voice, "I bought a perk that my mind wasn't yet ready to handle. But, don't worry kid, your grandpa's fine now."
And in that statement, Arthur was telling the boy information that the former butler doubted most people knew yet. That information was that a stat's perks actively relied on other stat's perks to function properly, and it seemed if you didn't balance out your stats enough, you would bottleneck eventually or cause significant damage to yourself. Arthur guessed that it was kind of intuitive if one thought about it but that didn't make it any less vital to know. If Arthur hadn't saved up a lot of stat points then he'd have effectively condemned himself to death by purchasing the Automatic Cultivation perk.
Arthur yawned, he was actually tired. Well, more like exhausted. He hadn't been all day, yet now he was exhausted. He nearly slipped into unconsciousness but realized that this would likely freak out Lucas more. So he said as gently as he could, "Your grandpa needs to sleep for a bit. Can you be a big boy and watch over me as I sleep?"
Lucas nodded uncertainly before wiping his face with his hands, clearing it somewhat of tears as well as snot. The boy had nearly been traumatized again, this time by Arthur's own foolishness. He couldn't help but feel guilty for that, but before he could apologize, unconsciousness finally claimed him.