Mila
“Well, that went better than expected.” Nana Xara smiled down at them as they awoke, seemingly having waited for them in Training Room 0003, and then she tossed Mila the Twin Dragons in spear form. “But we don’t have much time.
“You two were unconscious for almost half a day and missed the loud voice giving the final instructions for the tutorial, as well as my final message to all the participants containing advice on what to aim for with their trial points, and now you only have two hours before the tutorial is finished.
“Upgrade your artifacts and then run around buying every building better than common.”
Mila put her energy into the green Healer’s Token in her right hand and then she suddenly knew how to make the best use of it. She turned the Twin Dragons into its earrings form and put them on. Then the token turned into green mist, flowed out from her hand toward her head, and flew into the two small dragons’ forms.
Something was odd about the process, though. She could feel the change happening through her bond with the artifact, and that was normal. But she could also hear something, like a breath on the wind, and she somehow instinctively knew it was the sound of a tiny monster awakening, a being of rage and cold logic, one that in the future could destroy stars or mend planets, all while hiding from gods and tricking trillions.
Twin Dragons of Life and Death (G-Legendary) [Growth]
A legacy artifact formed by a Reaper’s Token from the flesh of an Invincible Slime, Formless Silver, and the emotions of Lord Aalam Alvaro’s chamberlain. Due to the chamberlain’s desires, the Twin Dragons can only be used by Lord Aalam Alvaro or one of his servants and has multiple effects, including the ability to absorb the legacy information of other legacy artifacts, the ability to transform into multiple forms, and the ability to store unused nascent energy. It was later enhanced by a Healer’s Token and gained the further ability to act as a Seal of Contract for both Lord Aalam Alvaro and his chamberlain.
Current Legacies: The path of Illusions from a random D rank, the path of The Reaper from the Origin of Death, the path of The Healer from the Origin of Life
Possible forms: Twin Dragon earrings (weight greatly reduced), Twin Pistols, Longsword, Spear, Shield, Reaper’s Gown, Healer’s Raiment, Lord’s Seal, Seal of the Chamberlain
Effects: Legacy Eater, Transformation, Nascent Energy Storage, Conductivity, Contract Seal
Requirements: Lord Aalam Alvaro or one of his servants
“What the Hell,” Mila exclaimed, looking around wildly.
Aalam had walked away a bit to where he’d left his own artifact in the room, a scaled azure fingerless glove for his left hand, and he wasn’t paying attention as he started the process of upgrading it with his own token, but Mila did notice he looked a bit clearer in her vision, like her Perception stat had increased. She just hadn’t noticed when he was closer.
Nana Xara, on the other hand, was watching her with interest. “I blocked off the System. What’s your new uniqueness, Mila?”
Mila stopped trying to find the source of the sound, already having a pretty good guess and realizing she wouldn’t be able to see anything if she was right. “Third Eye Princess.”
“Oh.” Nana Xara’s ever present smile grew wider. “Interesting. That will double your effective Perception, which is the main thing you’ll notice at your rank, but it is the third eye aspect of the uniqueness, a metaphysical direct connection from your Mental Forge to the outside world, which will prove more useful as you grow in power.
“It will grant you extra senses based on your Laws. You will be able to see through illusions and find things hidden by magic, your ability to read emotions through auras will increase, and you should eventually be able to sense karmic bonds way, way before you would normally gain that ability.
“The best part, however, should probably be the interactions between your third eye and your Law Eggs of The Healer and The Reaper. Like I explained previously, those Laws have a resonance effect where acting the roles will grant you divine insight into said roles. Combine that divine insight with a third eye and the results should be interesting to say the least.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I have no idea what the exact effects will be, however, as I’ve never heard of someone with that uniqueness line having divine role Laws, so it is entirely possible the results won’t actually be that good. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Nana Xara then moved closer and reached out a hand to touch one of the twin dragons on Mila’s ears. “As for what you just heard.” She grinned at Mila. “That was the Twin Dragons starting to form an artifact spirit. It is inherently bound to your Laws, so your new senses allowed you to feel the birth, and your mind interpreted it as a sound.”
Mila took a deep breath, taking a moment to absorb the information, and then she started to smile herself. For her, Perception was probably the most useful of the base stats, and the extra senses sounded like they’d be incredibly useful. Granted, it wouldn’t fundamentally change her plans for her build, but it was an overall improvement to what she was already aiming for, and she couldn’t ask for much better.
“Aalam’s new uniqueness is called Prince. What does that do?”
Nana Xara’s expression stayed the same, but her normally controlled aura, for a brief instant, showed an emotion of shock and then annoyance to Mila’s senses. “You don’t have much time, Mila, so why don’t you start running around and buy up every building epic grade or higher other than the church. I can explain to you how Prince works later.”
Nana Xara looked over at Aalam as she spoke and Mila was pretty sure she had quite a bit to say. She just didn’t want to say it where one of Aalam’s minds was almost certainly listening.
So, Mila did as she was asked and ran out of the room, heading to the teleportation platform in the square and teleporting to the University district. There she bought the three remaining Legendary grade crafting halls and three of the originally eight Epic grade crafting halls. Then she also bought the Legendary grade exam hall she’d never used as well as the Epic grade school and dining hall.
She then teleported to the wealthy residential district and found all the Epic grade houses had already been bought, and there were no Epic or higher grade buildings in the other residential district, so she headed back to the market district and went to the only remaining Epic grade or higher building in the tutorial, the Epic gambling hall hidden several streets away from the main square.
When she went inside to buy the establishment, however, she found Nana Xara at one of the room’s slot machines, somehow cheating to win every time. First she walked up to one of the puppets to buy the establishment, and was surprised to find it more expensive than even the original price of the auction house without a coupon, but she bought it anyway. Then she joined her teacher at the slots.
“Remember when I said, ‘By the gods, I wish that boy wasn’t insane.’” Nana Xara didn’t look at her as she spoke and she wasn’t smiling, instead appearing somewhat irritated. “That feeling has doubled now.”
“Is Prince really such a good uniqueness?” Mila put one Trial Point into her slot machine and pulled, quickly losing the point.
“Not just good, Mila, arguably the best.” Nana Xara pulled on her own slot machine and got a jackpot, though she didn’t seem to care. “You might not have noticed, but most higher grade uniqueness lines follow the same naming scheme. Something soldier for Epic grade, something agent for Legendary, something lord or lady for Heroic, et cetera.
“The uniqueness line Prince is part of is the origin of that naming scheme.”
Nana Xara sighed. “Prince is the same grade as both your uniquenesses, Fabled grade, but tell me if it sounds equivalent to you when you hear its effects.
“The Prince uniqueness increases the power of noble category skills to the same level as a Legendary grade ability with the same effect. Useful, but not the main part of the uniqueness. The main ability of prince is to triple a cultivator’s stats when in his own Territory, i.e. the lands he is magically recognized as owning. This isn’t a tripling of effectiveness, however, but a tripling of the stats through a completely different mechanism, with the gained stats able to be increased again if stat effectiveness is higher than 100%. And it isn’t just for one stat, but for all stats, Aura, Attunement, and Luck included.”
Mila just stared at her teacher. From what she’d read, while owning Territory was rare, it was the expected goal of anyone talented upon leaving a tutorial. Hell, the reason none of the Epic homes in the tutorial were still on the market was because quite a few trial takers had learned owning property was a requirement for lord line skills, the skills responsible for magically forming Territory.
“That is so unfair.”
Nana Xara turned to her with the same level of jealousy on her face. “Right?”
“He already learns Laws so fast. What will he be like with triple Attunement.”
“Even more of a monster.”
“And that’s not even counting how he can wipe out a kingdom like it’s nothing.”
Nana Xara raised her hand to show she actually had something important to say, and Mila held back the other complaints which had been forming in her brain. “Remember, Mila, that the effects of the Luck stat are heightened in the tutorial. You were lucky when it came to that kingdom. While what Aalam did was impressive for a G rank, there are many, many people who can release custom plagues in the universe, and most civilizations have contingencies in place which would have stopped both your and Aalam’s attempts at mass murder cold.
“Still, in the real world, don’t let Aalam play with bacteria.”
“Got it.” Mila leaned back in her seat. “The outside world is going to be different, right?”
The smile that had reformed on Nana Xara’s face faded. “Yes.”
“More dangerous?”
Nana Xara looked thoughtful. “In the near future, probably not.”
Mila felt herself perk up at that.
“You and Aalam are connected, and you are also overpowered for you rank, so you’re likely to be sent to a world without any other tutorial monsters to rely on.
“That world will have its own natives and, given your Luck and the probabilities, it will most likely be a world undergoing an apocalypse style integration. There will be invaders from powerful organizations in the universe trying to take over the planet, but they’ll be limited to sending their young, who will have to be G rank when they are sent over. So, to most trial takers, it would be more dangerous than the challenges. But for you and Aalam? There won’t be any E or D ranks for a while, just powerful F ranks.”