With that problem solved Randidly turned to look at the amount of skill levels he had gained As he looked at the total next to PP he couldn’t help but grin
In order of increasing magnitude Randidly had gained 3 Skill Lvls in Manual Labor and Cooking 4 Lvls in Potion Making Refine Meditation and Mana Strengthening 5 Lvls in Circle of Flame Calculated Blow and Agony 6 Lvls in Pierce the Skies Shatter the Earth 8 Skill Lvls in Mental Fortitude and Incendiary Bolt and 10 Lvls in Ghastly Slash and Fighting Proficiency
In addition Randidly also gained 13 Lvls in Haste Grace and Eyes of the Spear Phantom 14 Lvls in Summon Pestilence Empower and Mana Engraving 15 Lvls in Phantom Thrust and 16 Lvls in Physical Fitness
But to put the icing on the training cake he had gained 19 Lvls in Bacterial Regeneration 20 Lvls in Spear Mastery 21 Lvls in Spear Phantom’s Footwork and a monstrous 31 Lvls in Root Manipulation
Even so Randidly knew that he had gained something else too or rather it was something that he recognized that he had the strength and execution to push himself farther than he thought he could go and not just when his life was on the line He had the discipline to continue for weeks under than harsh environment reaching new heights
All in all his PP total read 282 Randidly quickly used 37 PP to finish off the Empower I path
Congratulations You have completed the Empower I Path The Strength in your body is ephemeral and you grow increasingly skilled in its manipulation Although the path here was desolate and without reward as you turn to regard the distance crossed behind you you cannot help but marvel on how far you have come Stamina +30 You have learned the skill Battle Intent Lvl 1
Battle Intent Your strength now flows slightly beyond the bounds of your body and is discernable by others Ability to gauge the strength of others of similar or lesser strength increases with skill level Ability to influence others with your battle intent increases with skill level Ability to resist the influence of other Intents increases with skill level Ability to slightly control how strong you seem increases with skill level
Randidly thought the skill seemed rather useless currently but it had potential Being able to influence was a rather general statement but anything helped especially in a tight battle And if it could be used to resist the influence of others
The one thing that gave him pause was the fact that it simply said you could resist other Intents without specifying Battle Intent So there were other Intents available
But he could experiment with that at another time For now Randidly looked at the paths available to him
Watcher 0/ Heretic V 0/ Oathbreaker 0/25 Initiate of Ash I 0/75 Path of Carnage I 0/ Fighting Proficiency I 0/80 Root Manipulation I 0/75 Advanced Phys Fitness 0/100 Nexus Traveler Cohort 5 0/50
Again if he wasn’t going to take a class he sure as hell wasn’t going to risk taking Heretic and somehow weirdly ending up with a class through it Watcher he had for a while but didn’t interest him because he already had Eyes of the Spear Phantom Oathbreaker was also one he had carried but he wasn’t sure he wanted whatever rewards an Oathbreaker would receive
Initiate of Ash definitely had some allure but Randidly still wanted to power up a little further before he took that path Which made him consider that he could ask Shal about Patrons and some more information in general about paths If they had some sort of database to inform young individuals which Patrons to choose and not choose it would make a lot of sense Over time there would probably be enough people who made it to the Apprentice path to unlock at least that much and give them an idea of which ones were the best choices based on bonuses and mortality rates
Path of Carnage was still intriguing but was likely a chain path of an unknown length Even though Randidly had over 250 PP left it might be better to put it into subjects that he knew would be beneficial to him taking advantage of the skills and stats in areas where he would use them more often
Nexus Traveler Cohort 5 Path was a terrible name but it was likely some bonus for traveling to a world in the 5th Cohort It was hard to tell whether this bonus would be a big one or a small one but it clearly was some sort of rite of passage or reward so Randidly would probably put points into it eventually But for now
Randidly turned to the options that really drew him Fighting Proficiency I Root Manipulation I and Advanced Phys Fitness With his 245 PP he would have enough to finish off 2 of them but not 3 Which meant he had to pick which two he wanted immediately
Although he believed that he would be focusing mostly on the spear in the future he couldn’t not use the Root Manipulation I Path even though it was counter intuitive After all most of his gains in the use of the spear wouldn’t have been possible without creating the root avatars and using them to check his form And based on the results it was incredibly useful
So the next 75 PP went into the Root Manipulation I path Every 5 Lvls he received 5 mana totalling a sizable 75 mana addition to his pool He also received the completion reward
Congratulations You have completed the Root Manipulation Path Your will moves and the roots follow Roots are the lifelines of plants and you tread freely upon them climbing ever higher on your path For the deeper among the roots you go the more paths stretch before you Root Manipulation has been changed to Root Control All skill levels have been retained
Branching Path You can see in the maze of roots a variety of roots like knives that sink slowly into its prey and syphon the life out of them You also see powerful roots that twist around enemies shrugging off resistance and performing the will of their master Towards which area will you head
If it was a choice between some sort of life sucking root and strong roots Randidly hesitated As strong as the life sucking would be as an effect he knew there would be a lot that needed to go his way in order to take advantage of such a thing Anyway fire was his offensive skill while roots would primarily be used defensively to pierce and bind
As you walk deeper down your path the roots around you grow large and ancient You feel their awareness as you wind your way slowly deeper down this path seeking their implacable strength They have given you their approval You have learned the skill Plantomancy Wisdom and Control +10
Root Control A more powerful version of Root Manipulation Your ability to change the size and shape of the roots has increased
Plantomancy Due to your insights into the ancient life giving roots you can create beings of roots to serve your will The variety and strength of the created plants will increase with skill level Mana costs will decrease with skill level
Seeing the notifications Randidly simply smiled
Chapter 123
But that wasn’t the end of it Randidly still had 170 PP remaining and two very viable paths remaining open to him
Between the two of them Fighting Proficiency had a slight edge because Randidly suspected that it would provide another active skill Meanwhile he suspected Advanced Physical Fitness would provide a passive skill but it would also likely be more generally useful
In his mind these two draws weighed rather evenly against each other making it difficult for Randidly to decide which he would rather use Plus they both were related to physical stats so he probably would get similar stats or stamina rewards from going through the path
Sighing Randidly got up and walked to the side of the room to a small water basin The wood planks underneath his bare feet swayed slowly keeping him on his toes but his high stats and Grace skill were enough to keep him firmly planted on the ground He picked up the basin and took a long drink considering
Well when there wasn’t an obvious option go with your gut
So Randidly picked Advanced Phys Fitness Path because it included the word Advanced in the title and this world placed a great emphasis on labels and tiers and also because it cost more PP which made him think that the rewards might be just a little higher than the other All and all he received 10 Endurance for this one one every 10 levels as well as the completion bonus