The next day flew by before he was mentally prepared to go into another skill cube when something hit him like a sack of potatoes in the gut. Unlike the usual growing pains he experienced while cultivating, what he felt now was as though every aspect of his being changed suddenly. His breathing wasn’t bad, but now it was as though he had never taken a breath before. He could feel the life energy he was adding into himself while cultivating and as he did so, double what he’d done. He understood what cultivation was, it was taking mana into oneself and converting it into one being, the process of which would slow down in areas barren of mana.
“What's going on?” Fonta’s voice was now deeper, and he didn’t need to think about it. He looked out the window and noticed the wings of a bee two streets over. He could hear it buzz when he focused on sound, as though his perception had vastly improved.
“Status?”
Name, Fonta Pain
Race: Precursor (Twin)
Level: Cultivation 1, Magic 0
Stats
Strength: 32(48)Dexterity 27(40) Vigor: 30(45) Endurance: 30(45) Intelligence: 32(48) Wisdom: 27(40) Charisma: 21(31) Mind: 30(45) Luck: i
Age: 18
Precursor Boon: Two for the price of One
Talents unlocked: 2
Paths unlocked: 1
Perks points: 2
Updates:
Two for the price of One: Your mental stats improve your physical capabilities and vice versa, Base Strength<->Intelligence, Dexterity<->Wisdom, Endurance<->Mind. In addition, when you choose a perk you may choose 2 that are synergistic. Also if you are in a situation where more than 3 options are present, you will always receive at least two where you should receive one.
Mana Path Unlocked: Choose between Sound Magic, Water Magic, Rage, Bodily Enhancement, Healing, or Summoning. This can be delayed for 6 more months. Two for the price of one triggered. You may choose two paths instead of one.
“How!? How did I unlock sound magic!? Wait… my boon gives me two!? Oh…I think I get why so many precursors end up in polygamy. They’re sellouts. To be fair, if I needed to do so to save anyone in my family I’d do it in a heartbeat, but I’d rather not. Awesome!” Fonta stomped on the ground and raised his fist.
“Shut up! It’s three in the morning!” Zara stomped on the floor above him. Shaking the ceiling fan above him.
“You’d think she would have learned by now. Fonta stated as he looked outside and saw that the sun was nowhere near rising.
“Wait…is this why Molta grew so fast so suddenly? It was because she unlocked this. Which also explains how she ended up with healing magic. She needed it to save Ted. You would think she’d unlock it after I almost died so many times.”
There was a knock on his door and Fonta answered it. Only to come face-to-face with the Puppeteer.
“Did you get your boon?” The Puppet asked inches away from him.
“What are you going on about?”
“Your hair has a luster it didn't have before and you look 20 times as handsome.” The puppet said in a monotone, it seemed to eye where the bracers should have been, scowling as they noticed that the enchantments failed.
“Is it always 20 points?”
“Yes, for most, some have more innate charm, others use perks to raise it further.”
“So I get 2 perks so long as they synergize.”
“That’s not one I know of, though it could be because you are a twin. Is it just that? There is more, but I don’t want to bring that up here. Or at all. Are boons always genetic?”
“Yes, and no, depends, sometimes they fuse if there are 2 precursors involved, if there aren’t then the power is transferred at least one generation. Wait, how do you even know the word genetic?”
“No idea. Anyhow, if anyone were to find out about the other half of the boon I'd have to flee the planet.”
“Then stop. You are less trusting than usual, which means your intuition has grown and I can infer from there, that your boon increases your base stats. Don’t react aloud, it's a simple deduction as I knew you a bit before you became a cultivator. I bet it’s something cheesy like two for the price of one.”
Fonta’s eyebrows raised as he took a step back.
“On the nose. Anyhow that doesn’t change anything aside, I still want you to lead the sect. So you know, using your skill cubes will slowly increase intelligence as for the language cube I talked about. That was a lie. What you want are two perks, one is Precursor Decrypt, which will allow for the language of the precursors to become actual letters while the other is called The Written Word, I thought I’d need to convince you to get two different perks but those should allow you to read every written language that exists, has existed or will exist.”
Fonta focused on Precursor Decrypt and the word appeared under a list of perks highlighted, he then thought of The Written Word, and that one was also highlighted. In moments memories and understanding rushed through him as he accepted the perks.
“Did it work?”
Fonta pulled out the Mal Dynamis and was greeted.
Welcome Owner! This is the Mal Dynamis! The one-stop shop for anything you can think of, from shoes to souls! We have an ever-growing list of items we can generate using what people now call Ducks. The following categories are available: Clothes, Weapons, Food, Medical, Utility, Enhanced Items, Electronics, Vehicles, Furniture, Cultivator Gear, Mage Gears, and Souls. This artifact is locked at tier 2 until it has absorbed 10,000,000 Ducrates(Ducks as you call them) from purchases or donations. You have currently put 187,452 Ducks into the book.
Fonta scowled. “I can read it. It gets stronger as I use it.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
He then touched the soul's category and his face fell. All of his dead siblings were in the book, and he could buy their freedom.
Ashton, Vhan, Lucy, Miradeth, Gordon, Victor, Percival, Nala, Trent, and more. Many of which he hadn’t recognized. Clicking on Ashton Fonta saw that for, 1,000 the kid’s soul would go into an item he chose, while for 10,000 he could reincarnate his sibling, they would be reborn with vague memories of their past life somewhere else in the world, and for 1,000,000 Ducks he could bring him back to life with a new body that was a copy of the original but without any injuries or defects.
“I can bring them back, but the cost is too great right now. Though it’s better than being a thrall.” Fonta muttered aloud as he resolved to get as much money as he could.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Selling more than just clothes to the auction house to buy my siblings' resurrections. 1 million Ducks per.”
“That is a brutal price to pay for a life.”
“Aye. But if I give those people access to more items via a limited page, I could get it much faster.”
“Or they would try to kill you for full access.”
“Won’t work but I get the point.”
“I’m sure you do. So you know base stats don’t matter much once you pass the nascent realm. Not unless you manage to get them high. The multiplier increases by 1 or double your base multiplier for each tier. So eventually your meridians will allow you to jump tiers in stats and power. Which is normal for precursors.”
“I see.”
“No, you don’t, you’ve been punching above your weight for a while, which is how you’ve gotten by so far, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
“What about my other perks?”
“Up to you. The list is long.”
“Teacher, what exactly is a perk?”
“Huh, it's tricky. When under enough stress, sometimes you will receive a sudden surge of information, or understanding, that is known as enlightenment or an epiphany. When you increase your cultivation level, the number of perk points you have increases each time you jump in tier or level. Usually what I had you learn from cooking would have become a perk, but due to your talent encompassing all weapons, it increased your talent's ability and didn’t use a perk point.”
“Thanks.” Fonta nodded.
The puppeteer left in a hurry and seemingly disappeared.
Perk Categories: Combat, Utility, Passive, Active, Skill. Magic(locked), Precursor
Fonta focused on combat.
Subcategories, Weapons (Locked), Enhancements(Locked), Aura, Projection.
Fonta then concentrated on the aura and saw that anything related to weapons was locked, the only available auras protected him from either a little of everything or a lot of one specific type or improved his mobility. While projection was locked all save for an ability that let him create illusions.
Backing out, Fonta looked at Utility.
That list was a lot more useful with things that made him more effective at cooking, calculating, managing, and remembering, among other things. It would make him good at noncombat stuff but he had skill cubes for that.
Passives were abilities that were always active unless willing to deactivate from eagle sight, which increased his eyesight more, to bloodhound nose, which made him better at tracking people by smell. Orator's Presence increased his charisma by 5 when speaking while Haggler’s cunning increased it by 5 again when talking about prices. He’d get those skills if nothing else mixed.
Moving onto Active skills he found most were useless or locked behind prerequisites he didn’t meet. Not that they were bad, but more that they were limited and not on at all times. For 10 minutes he could become really fast but for an hour he’d be exhausted. These were trap perks.
Going to the last list, skills were purely skills that were similar to passives and utility which made him curious as he wondered if he was missing something.
Going back to passive Fonta found a skill called, Font of Chi, your cultivation technique can now absorb and hold more chi based on your mental capabilities, this utility perk stacks. Fonta then moved back to passives and found the skill that caught his eye. Body over Mind, Chi increases your physical prowess based on the amount circulating through your body. Combined with his boon, the numbers were boosted both ways.
Fonta selected those and noticed that his stats increased slightly across the board.
Name, Fonta Pain
Strength: 32(52)Dexterity 27(42) Vigor: 30(47) Endurance: 30(47) Intelligence: 32(52) Wisdom: 27(42) Charisma: 21(32) Mind: 30(47) Luck: i.
Age: 18
“Decent, and an investment. Now I'm going to sleep.”
----------------------------------------
Fonta did not in fact go to sleep, he stayed up thinking. He’d never done that before, usually, he could pass out when his head hit the pillow but now, he felt like every second not used was wasted, and began adjusting to his strength before noticing something odd. The weights on his hands had come off when he woke up.
“When did it happen?”
“They broke when your strength increased suddenly.” The puppeteer said as Fonta ate breakfast.
“Is that so?” Fonta asked.
“Yes, now then.”
Casimar came down from his room, looked at Fonta, then scowled. “Did you break through to the awakened stage?”
“Something like that, now do you want to spar?”
“No thanks. I’m still a bit injured. I'll need to be at my best tomorrow.” Casimar nodded.
“Bah, doesn’t matter, are you ready to go see your dad?”
“I should have one more day to prepare.”
“So we head out then.” Fonta nodded.
“What?” The puppeteer looked at Fonta having not been informed.
“Right, I’m going to see Cas' dad, and we’ll tell him the truth. I forgot to tell you that. Sorry teacher.”
“You damned idiot, do you want to die?”
“Will there be a fight?” Fonta asked.
“Explain to Casimar that you won’t be able to make it.”
“But if Cas is to join our sect we need his approval.”
“Ah, and dad will likely call off the war if we get to him in time.”
“Back up, he sent the notice that spoke of the betrayal on our part right?”
“I did not,” Casimar stated.
“Damn it. That means someone is impersonating you. They are likely hiding in the castle.”
“What are you going on about?”
“A plot! So I’m gonna get to get my fight on!” Fonta bounced in glee as he grabbed his umbrella.
“He seems excited, for someone who nearly died 5 days ago,” Shinra said as she stepped out of Fonta’s shadow, then made her way to a carafe containing a brown liquid Fonta was banned from consuming, lest he break the universe.
“I did not almost-”
“Zip it, it’s coffee time.”
Angel arrived minutes later in a nurse assistant uniform. “What did ma.Bronter Fonta do to his face?”
“Does it matter?” Fonta asked.
“No, not really.” Angel noticed Yang walk down the stairs, followed by an Angry-looking Zara.
“Wait…Yang, are you and Zara?” Casimar started.
“No!” Zara protested.
“She has a weird thing for Fonta.”
“Ah.” Casimar nodded.
“Weird thing? I don’t need any presents right now. Although I guess today is my birthday.”
“What type of gift do you want?”
“A few knuckle sandwiches. In a free-for-all all tavern brawl.” Fonta added
“Everyone declined.”
Zara seemed confused.
Angel walked up to her and shook her head. “That’s called rejection your highness. He doesn’t see you in that way.”
“Quit your teasing.” Zara commanded. The command didn’t work, and the two bickered for a bit.
Fonta had already left, he had an absurd amount of energy today and started it off with a dash around the city that ended as he broke a sweat after thirty minutes of extreme movement. He increased the level of wall running and building hopping on his next trip finding the limits of his body, higher than he expected.
Returning, Fonta found himself getting drilled on court procedure and etiquette as he was forced to buy nice clothes and shoes.