"Arslan," said the hologram of the First Emperor. "I have received the information you gathered on the four rounds. I think I have a plan."
Arslan, who gazed at the hologram, listened respectfully. "Evaluation will be similar to the Cosmic Alliance, but I can't know which method they will utilize," Fatih continued. "But we don’t need to pay attention to that. What’s important and will gather the most interest is the second round. The closer your bets are for the third and fourth rounds, the better. And the safest option seems to be betting on yourself.
"Although risky, it’s clear only those who are confident in themselves can win without missing out. As for the third round, the show, you don’t need to do any tricks. You just need to show what is unique about you. And what’s unique about you is your journey so far."
"How can we leverage that?" Arslan asked with doubt. Although he understood that his development through the years was unique, presenting it would be a challenge.
"I think you’re not up to date with the latest in the entertainment industry," Fatih smiled, a little pervertedly, if someone dared to mention. "Now, there are tools that can record your experiences and paint the surroundings with them."
"So, a hologram?" Arslan asked, but the answer was, "Not that simple. All you need to do is feed your life experience with your Mind Energy into the recorder I’ve sent. The Empire will handle the rest."
They smiled after that. He was not alone! "Now, regarding the fourth round, the arena, it will be important because it will be a test based on experience. Making a concrete plan is plain stupid. Just go along with it." Arslan thought he was speaking bluntly, but it bridged the gap between them and a living legend. Not every day could he see his millions-of-years-old ancestor speaking like that. Even the sons and daughters of the First Emperor had a gap between their descendants, but Arslan was fine with it. The royal family of the Empire, although seeming like a few people, was only the current ruling family. Not all of the direct descendants wanted to rule when they could cultivate instead.
"I think stepping into your new path will be the key to the fourth stage," Fatih said, searching for better wording. "So far, your experience with life has been challenging. Now that those challenges can be regarded as the past, you can tackle the fourth round's challenge with your new Path. So, what’s the Path that you have settled on? Let me guess, Science, with the Physical forces?" He smiled knowingly.
"I admit, it’s impressive," Arslan asked jokingly. "Are you a God or something?"
Arslan could swear that Fatih used every part of himself to avoid laughing like a madman, but he couldn’t prove it. Instead, Fatih gave him a good-natured nod. He cleared his throat unnecessarily and said, "Where was I?" For someone with perfect memory, he was really into mortal habits. As Arslan had thought before, the more they were raised according to their stage, the more decent they turned out. Most of his family was raised like that, and it was one of the best decisions they could enforce.
"Now, let’s discuss your Path, Science," Fatih said, as if hearing Arslan's thoughts. "Don’t go with Electromagnetism if you were planning to. What are you going to do, shoot lightning? Go with vibration instead. It can be used with Domination hand-to-hand, while also providing you with the necessary control over your strength as opposed to momentum, which usually only rose, or Domination that worked at maximum. Assuming the fourth round will start in four years, you can have four different sub-paths."
"Why not Strong Force and Weak Force?" Arslan interrupted. "I can easily learn those two in four years."
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"You will learn them, but they would lower your attack strength," Fatih answered patiently. "Until now, you had the advantage of Divinity. Do you want to lose it? Those forces are strong in their own right, but they couldn’t compare to Divinity. You need something that will cover your weakness, not create abilities that would be useless after a few uses. Like using the Strong Force—will you control decay with it? Its utilization is limited. With the Weak Force, will you manipulate aging when you don’t need to, or the Sun when you have no chance of affecting it if it's not natural? Let’s not mention Immortals could survive most of these utilizations of the Universe thanks to their adaptation.
"Sure, there are other methods, but they just couldn’t give you the same level of strength as Domination." Fatih rejected Arslan’s thought. "You might as well not study the new Path for any benefit while in the Mortal Realm. Use vibration; it will give you combat power that can be used with momentum. For the second one, go with the Wave Path. It will also add to your other two paths. These two focus on Physics.
"For the last two, you should focus on a Biological Path and replicating those changes with Innate Energy. It will be somewhat foreign, but it should be a good starting point for you. If you’re going to go big, you have to make sure you’re going all out. So, let me give you the device."
Arslan understood Fatih’s intentions. Don’t pursue long-term goals, but pursue short-term improvements. After Fatih ended his speech, Arslan received another device in his inventory that he was sure Derin had used before. This reminded him that he hadn’t called Derin, and she hadn’t called him, probably not wanting to interrupt anything. He decided he should call her after this talk.
He received the item, a dreamy silver ball, and injected Mind Energy into it. He made sure it didn’t include anything too private and trusted Fatih to handle the rest. This competition didn’t limit outside influence, as others couldn’t even enter it, but as always, there were little details that could be taken advantage of. Arslan believed he wasn’t the only one to understand this, but he also guessed the Divines themselves wouldn’t ask for help in any way. However, nothing was conclusive, as he had little data on them.
After this thought, he sent the ball to Fatih, and they ended their conversation. Now, for the most important thing.
He called Derin.
***
Derin was having a great time in the world of Luvi 1. It was a special place, ruled by kings and queens through generations. It got the name Luvi 1 because they were the first to ally themselves with the Empire and had flourished ever since without betrayal. Arslan had also heard that some of the queens and kings were married into the Imperial Family of the Luvi, although the Luvi Empire didn’t consider themselves truly imperial. The real ruling power lay in the center of the cosmos, so only the first generation of the First Emperor’s children was considered imperial. Even their seals were named Imperial Seals. However, many successful Demigods received the same treatments as some members of the Imperial family, taking their own Imperial Seals. These were important resources, as they could utilize the entire Empire throughout the cosmos. It didn’t matter whether they were in the center of the cosmos or still in their own galaxy.
As an Empress, Derin sometimes forgot that many other worlds respected her, unlike the Shattered Continent, where everyone was used to her presence. Here, she was one of the most beautiful women and a role model for other women. After all, she had streamed quite a lot on the Luvi Network for some of her research. It might not compare to some of the Eternals and such, but as someone with a unique Path that wasn’t seen before, she contributed a lot in her own right.
Now, though, she was going through the Path book while in a milk bath, as it had an interesting pathway for her to consider.
“Pathway 1: Bloodline (Personalized, Religion)
5th Grade: Path of the Unseen
Incalculable Grade: Bloodline (Personalized)”
She saw that it was very general. So far, she had seen paths with names like Immortal Phoenix and Path of the Savage Sword, but this one was really to her liking. When she saw how her Path of the Unseen was considered 5th grade, she compared it to other paths listed in the book. First, she looked at the Path of Momentum, her husband's path. As expected, it was lower in grade. Then she ignored it and looked more thoroughly at her personalized path. She hadn’t known it could do that until she read the comments on an article the Academy had published. They all had generalized paths, unlike her.
While going through the details, she chanced upon how she needed to cultivate. She had a priceless look and when Arslan called, she answered with: “We’re going to have a lot of babies when you’re out.”