Chapter 3: A New Home
A soft, refreshing rain fell on the forest. The drops fell first on the high tops of the trees, before sliding down leaves and branches. Some of these drops penetrated the ground. Others flowed along a rocky outcrop before beading on a sharp angle. From time to time, yielding to gravity rather than capillarity, they would fall and end up in the open mouth of a naked young man leaning against the rock face.
Priam was drinking for the first time in three days, and this simple happiness brought a tired smile to his face. He wasn't physically exhausted because resurrection relieved him of that inconvenience by returning him to the world in top form. For the same reasons, he was not mentally exhausted either: resurrection seemed to give him the benefit of an excellent night's sleep.
Priam was alert, and sound in body and mind, but emotionally worn out. He hadn't talked to anyone in almost five days, but he had always had a lonely side. Loneliness was not weighing on him yet. But he finally had time to breathe while waiting for the rain to stop under his rock. Time to think. He didn't know when he could talk to a man again. Or to a woman...
Coming to Elysiumwas supposed to be hard, but Priam didn't think it would be this hard.
"Without [He who eludes Death], I would have died every day I was here. Without this perk, I wouldn't have been able to feed or water myself. Of the winners of the Tutorial, how many humans will choose to come here? How many of them will be able to survive even a few hours? This world is huge, bigger even than Earth. What are the chances that I will meet this tiny fraction of humans?" Priam asked himself.
Despite his defeatist words, the young man did not allow himself to be overcome by pessimism. If he could believe the Tutorial, the beings at the top of the food chain in this new universe were pseudo-omnipotent or omniscient. Sometimes both. If he stayed alive, he too would eventually become powerful. And if very few humans were to be transported to this particular world, he would escape from Elysium to find the other survivors of the Tutorial.
Almost comfortably seated on the stone floor, Priam thought about his progress.
Congratulations, you are dead!
Your perk [He who eludes Death] brings you back to life once a day.
Number of deaths: 4
Synergy detected with your perk [Humans adapt]. Your body is rebuilt and will be more resistant to what killed it:
VIT + 8
CONST +2
PERC + 5
[Touched by Aether] - Adaptation time: 18 days (previously 21 days)
Lvl Up :[Heat Resistance] lvl 7,8,9
VIT +3
You have gained the skill: [Thermal Resistance].
[Thermal Resistance] lvl 1: Thermal energy is the kinetic energy of agitation of the molecules and atoms of a body. From now on, your body is more resistant to heat energy transfers by conduction, convection, or radiation.
However, it was a bit extreme to immolate yourself to gain this skill.Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.
CONST +1
Lvl Up : [Thermal Resistance] lvl 2,3,4
CONST +3
Three [Passifloras Aether] consumed:
VIVA +30
WILL+10
CHAR +10
Lvl Up : [Osmosis] lvl 2
PHY+1
META (AFFI) +4
[Touched by Aether] - Adaptation time: 15 days (Aether Passifloras accelerate the adaptation of your body)
Title won!
[Pseudo-Phoenix - Bronze] - You have been burned to death. Your entire body turned to ashes. Impossibly, you survived. You follow the path of the Phoenix and learn from your failures. Be careful that they do not cost you your last life. Or worse.
Opening his eyes to this new world, the Drya smiled. A world so rich, vast, and full of aether would allow his people to grow. But the Keeper knew they would have to earn their place. Even as the grass whispered its secrets to him, the Keeper walked away, stroking the blades. The wind whispered to him that a natural enemy had arrived recently.
Drya was serene. It would take him only a short time to prepare for his opponent. His lips parted, and a shamanic whisper flew out to blend naturally into the order of things.
"[Communion]"
As the Keeper disappeared into the forest, the blades of grass lying under him straightened. The wind carried his scent away. Nature was protecting one of her own.
Under the Elysian Suns, on top of a hill, stood a young woman. Eyes too bright, skin too golden, and curves too perfect betrayed an inhuman origin. She was undoubtedly exotic and even attractive, but something was terrifying about seeing such a beautiful woman. Few men or women would have hit on this creature.
With her hair tied in an intricate bun and dressed for a ball, Esme looked out of place in this new world. Coming in second - even before Arnold - she was the only one with a clear purpose. Better yet, she knew what she was doing. Why run around chasing monsters and collecting resources at random? Esme left no room for serendipity.
Of noble birth, her father was the king of a solar system. This did not necessarily give her an advantage until she was twenty. Dragged into a forced marriage, the arrival of the Concepts saved her. There wasn't enough aether on her home planet to deploy her talents. Just enough to inform her of the approach of the Tutorial. The princess had prepared herself. All her life she had worked to increase the quality of her art, to better understand the spells that had made her family so powerful. She had taken a back seat where her siblings had continued the game of thrones. Today, they were lost in a ruthless Tutorial. She knew them well. They were arrogant and would try to pass the Tutorial on the highest difficulty. They would die trying. In the end, she would be the sole heir of her father.
Esme manipulated information and probabilities. She gathered, deciphered, integrated, and then modified her plans. She preferred to call it a story. With a steady hand, she adjusted just what was needed, a simple touch here and there, to bring the chessboard into its optimal configuration.
Why foolishly confront a five-meter-tall mutant bear when you could send it to kill your enemies? Her power was quite literal. As the quill wrote on the ancient grimoire, the bear's story changed. It no longer finished eating every berry in the bush. Instead, it turned because of a leaf that had fallen into a fold in its ear. Normally, it would only have a one in ten chance of turning around. But Esme selected this possibility. The movement caused a fearful bird to fly away a few meters away. The bear's gaze lingered on a scratch on the trunk of a venerable tree. A tree located in its territory. Another monster had ventured into its territory, and the bear was enraged. If it weren't for Esme, it would certainly have eaten some berries before taking a nap. But because of the young woman, the furious bear followed the trail of an enemy. A bloody fight was coming.
She had hardly had to do anything. A little nudge to drop a leaf and a lot of ether to select a possibility. Surely there was a parallel universe where everything would have happened without her, but she had 'helped' things along in this universe. Her power required large reserves of aether, but here the aether density was phenomenal.
The young woman would arrive only at the end, when her adversaries were defeated, and strike them the coup de grace.
Satisfied, she put down her quill and looked away. From her hillside, she watched the newcomers. Her eyes could see for miles. The Drya would be complicated to handle. Its sensitivity to the aether protected it from grotesque manipulation. If a leaf fell off, he would feel her trail. But if she couldn't manipulate him quickly, other rivals weren't so well protected. She had even managed to modify a probability from her native universe. She had to sacrifice part of her Tutorial reward to do so, but as a result, the First had eaten a flower before she arrived. So he hadn't felt her coming. Her anonymity was her best protection. Unfortunately, the First had an annoying talent. If she manipulated a possibility again, he would develop a Resistance. For now, she preferred to go after the other rivals...
Fortunately for her, the First had diverted Arnold's attention. Curiosity killed the cat - or the First. Thanks to him, Var Elegis had not thought to look at the ground. This way, he didn't notice her footsteps. Esme wanted to stay in the shadows. You don't kill an opponent you don't know.
Esme took up her pen and opened a new page.
"[Author], [Prophecy]"
The pen began to trace words on the blank page.
"Arnold felt the portal activate. He interrupted his exploration. Should he go and see? Yes, his orders called for it..."
Status: (Average value for a male Homo sapiens before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)
PHYSICAL:
Force 20
Constitution 35
Agility 29
Vitality 51
Perception 23
MENTAL:
Vivacity 60
Dexterity 16
Memory 28
Willpower 44
Charisma 36
META:
Meta-affinity 8
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