The rarity of the Skill Set was important but it was almost a bonus A higher rarity skill set would increase the power of the skill but make it more difficult to level and make the image perhaps more unwieldy Although a Common rarity skillset would be laughed at in terms of power it would still be a skill set and the image would be quick and easy The growth speed would be fast
If one still had a choice between a 3 skill Uncommon Rarity Skill Set and a 4 skill Common Rarity Skill Set many would go with the Common Rarity It just made sense in terms of a person’s future potential
After all a Skill Set was technically only one skill in the eyes of the system Spear users had been abusing this for generations to make an aristocracy among their youth where as many skills as possible were Skill Sets giving them that much of an advantage over everyone else Not only were there path benefits but the flexibility of the elites was a level higher than the average spear user They had skill slots to spare for things like resistances and passive skills
Which was why Randidly tempted her in terms of sources of genetics for her offspring Helen slowly repeated the phrase pounded into her head by her own mother A skill from the mother a path from the father
Then Helen pursed her lips Of course the results were fucking random and limited by prerequisites and the like But typically a child would be born with an innate skill from her mother and have access to a path from her father The skill would be direct inheritance the child received a skill that the mother had Which was why Helen had been innately talented in terms of Leatherworking from a young age and obtained access to related paths way ahead of her peers
She of course took great joy in refusing to invest PP in those paths and squandering her once in a generation potential Her mother’s disappointment was the sweetest nectar and her father’s fury was how she learned to behave
Which is why it made sense when she obtained the Building Fury Path on her 15th birthday Which had proven to be a much more useful and fruitful investment Helen believed It certainly had fucking made kicking the asses of all the handsy leatherworking boys much more attainable
She wondered what sort of skill a child would be likely to inherit from her Ideally it would be the Skill Set but anecdotally that was incredibly uncommon Although the Skill Set counted as one skill for the purposes of the class skill limit each skill also counted individually as well as the Skill Set seeming to have an even lesser chance of appearing
Still any of the 3 movements that Helen had would be a fucking blessing to a child More so than Leatherworking Even by the time the child was ready to get the spear user class their mastery over the Skill would lead to future accomplishments More power early meant more opportunities more dungeons more pure Aether from which to focus on your own image it was a cycle that reinforced itself
But really what Helen wanted to know was completely unrelated to her
What sort of path would having Randidly as a father open for a child
Shal sat in meditation watching as his disciple gritted his teeth and read from the diary of Shal’s father Shal knew in his heart he hadn’t been fair to Randidly as they left the prison The killing of the guard was unnecessary but made sense given what Shal had been teaching him about life Given that Shal had okayed the battling and sometimes killing of those inside the prison Given that Shal had encouraged Randidly to kill the guard originally in order to earn themselves a berth in prison
Those had been necessary in Shal’s mind in order for them to go down this path For at his core Shal knew the truth Shal did not fear that Randidly was becoming like his father Shal feared that he himself was making that transition A man who viewed his children and lessers simply as tools
For he remembered something said to him a long time ago in one of the brief times that Shal had seen his father after he had become the Spear Phantom It was one of the last times he saw him leading up to Shal’s father’s trip to see the Devourer
Why did you let him get like this Shal asked tears in his eyes wringing his 12 year old hands
Slowly Shal’s father turned and regarded Shal Then to Shal’s surprise the most unrelenting and stiff man Shal knew sighed The cruelty and the powerful aura of death that the man carried with him vanished them if just for a moment And he said It is easier to walk down the path of strength first and then worry about integrity later only once you have the power to defend it
That Shal found himself encouraging Randidly down a similar path 50 years later disgusted him But there was a fire in his chest that he couldn’t put out And it had a name
Lucrecia
His disciple gasped and dropped the diary Calmly waiting Shal watched as Randidly groaned stretched walked around a bit then sat back down with the diary Continuing along with Shal’s ridiculous request of keeping with just the 1st and 5th entry The proper way would have been slowly immersing in the different Battle Intents for the 6 moves one at a time slowly building up a familiarity with the Style and hopefully mastering them all someday
But Shal had tried that path When he trained in the moves of the Spear Phantom he slowly pushed himself deeper and deeper focusing on his foundation And of course that didn’t turn out well enough to be proud of He had only managed to master 4 of the 6 moves
What was perhaps even more frustrating about the whole ordeal was that those 4 stances were enough to absolutely dominate those below the Adept level The sheer overwhelming power of the image that his father had created was ridiculous And so very different than the father Shal remembered growing up with Even then there was a darkness to him but it manifested itself as a tiredness not as the vicious unrelenting authoritarian that he became in later years even as he was rarely around
In fact Shal had only received one week of instruction in the Phantom Spear Style from his father in real time Some of that had been stretched through dungeon but only up to a month Perhaps if he had more he could glean some secret some trick or insight that would allow him access to all 6 moves
For all of this was for revenge Partially against his father perhaps even a sliver of revenge against his brother Pronto but most of all revenge against the woman who set them on that tragic path
This was Shal’s gamble with Randidly On the one hand Shal hoped that Randidly would really be able to master the Phantom’s Embrace That would increase his disciple’s chances of surviving in the tournament to almost assured It was however his disciple and there was always a chance he would fuck it up
But the real goal was not to increase his disciple’s strength but to see if building a bridge without the foundation is possible If that was true
Shal’s eyes burned The third eye lodged in his forehead stirred
If that was true Shal would skip the 5th and proceed to the 6th the Breath of the Spear Phantom
Chapter 176
Randidly gritted his teeth and forced his gaze to follow along with the words on the page of the diary
And as Randidly read the words it was there Or rather he After hearing the story about Shal and his history especially of his father Randidly could see the man His small smile his broad shoulders his short dark hair Unlike Shal his skin was not dyed blue but was a dull red color
From his shoulders hung a long leather cloak that was shredded at the edges But his eyes
But his eyes burned and as Randidly read that first line he appeared and and began to float towards Randidly
They flinch away from his touch as fear erodes control of their very body Perhaps if they were able to remain equipped with their faculties their struggles would have meaning But before the Phantom
Randidly’s body began to tremble The approach of Phantom carried with it an aura of death that was palpable almost as if Randidly had inhaled the scent of a rotting body The air became increasingly warm and fetid and Randidly clenched his fists He refused to give in even as the image drifted closer