Chapter 543

Randidly chuckled wryly at the rewards for this Path. The attributes were a nice boost, but what was the focus of his attention were the allocatable Stats. He wondered whether 6 was high, relatively speaking. In terms of rewards for Paths, it was undoubtedly high. But Randidly wondered if he gave Neveah an even bigger amount of power through his enormous Stats.

This did remind Randidly that he needed to contact Neveah and see what she was up to. Obviously, she wasn’t in any danger, but her just hanging around that political man made him somewhat nervous.

As for the bonus ability… perhaps there were situations where that would be useful, but the cost was somewhat hard to bear in the short term. Obviously, there was a lot of strategic value of one of them being able to go into battle, while the other could summon them out if things grew too sticky. It was worth considering, down the line.

Satisfied with the gains, Randidly looked at his available Paths. Honestly, he was starting to grow somewhat weary of the proliferation of options.

Heretic XXV 0/???, Nexus Traveler Cohort 5 0/50, Experimenter I 0/50, Fighting Proficiency III 0/???, System Transgressor 0/1, Steps of the Godling II Path 0/200, The Road to Mastery 0/500, Growth of Yggdrasil II 0/500, Crown of Yggdrasil 0/500, Friend to Humanity 0/100, War Leader 0/200, Path of the Patron 0/500, Metallurgist 0/300, Advanced Mana Engraving 0/400, Aether Convergence I ???, Perfect Soul Bond 0/1000

After the Judgement once more descended at 20, Heretic continued to climb steadily upwards. Strangely, that Judgement hadn’t been that difficult to handle; the yeti that had attacked him the previous times wasn’t summoned on that occasion. Instead, just hundreds of the empowered minion yetis came. They were extremely annoying but weren’t a serious threat without their larger counterpoint.

It was honestly a pleasant surprise. But at the same time, it gave Randidly a chill. It felt… too weak to be purposeful. Another option then, was that the yeti was still alive on Shal’s world. It seemed impossible, but…

Shaking his head, Randidly considered his other options. He could worry about the Judgement later. Nexus Traveler 5, Experimenter I, System Transgressor, and Friend to Humanity were all immediately discarded. None of them seemed to yield useful Skills, which was sorta what Randidly was looking for now. Although he had a limited number of slots finding quality choices for those slots were important.

And Randidly had the feeling that he was beginning to be deep enough in the Path tree to find them.

Because he was unsure of how it would affect him, he discarded Steps of the Godling. Lucretia had taken over much more directly in handling the issues of his Soul Skill, which freed him up from that responsibility. She didn’t rule it directly, but as far as Randidly could tell, she had an organization on the ground inside of it. When there was trouble, she dealt with it decisively. Internal weakness could not be permitted again.

War Leader was intriguing, but he was not one who would ever be leading an army. That was not the Ghosthound’s MO. Although Path of the Patron was extremely tempting, it was discarded for similar reasons. Becoming a Patron, which is what Randidly believed that Path would result in, was an official process. Randidly would not take the System lightly.

A new arrival, Perfect Soul Bond, was discarded just because its cost was a monstrous 1000 PP. Randidly shivered. Depending on how quickly he grew, that might take him as long as a year. It was hard to imagine keeping a Path for that long.

Another new Path open to him, Aether Convergence seemed tempting. But Randidly was wary of what heading down that Path might mean. After all, what changes had he made that would lead the System toward rewarding him with an Aether Convergence Path? What if the effect was to combine his Aether’s with the System…?

No, better to avoid it, Randidly decided. Which left a much-reduced list to choose from.

Fighting Proficiency III 0/???, The Road to Mastery 0/500, Growth of Yggdrasil II 0/500, Crown of Yggdrasil 0/500, Advanced Mana Engraving 0/400

Fighting Proficiency was another shot in the dark, but it was growing slowly, and the prior two Paths cost 80 and 100 PP, respectively. Therefore, the next leg of that Path couldn’t be very long. On the other hand, the Skill he had obtained previously from that string of Paths was Counter. Although Counter was a useful move, and one that Randidly had been able to grind recently for experience, its power was only so-so. Honestly, Randidly had suspected that Shal’s way of teaching was the real problem; Randidly was simply not very skilled at counters.

Growth of Yggdrasil was another leg of something he had completed, in the 6 months of training before the borderlands opened. He had earned a pretty sizable amount of Vitality from putting points into it and was rewarded with a boost in the Rarity of his Yggdrasil Skills at the end, which was extremely tempting. He put that as a maybe.

Road to Mastery was the next step in the Newbie, Trainee, Apprentice, Journeyman, Adept line of Paths, or so Randidly believed. It was something that would probably yield Skills. So that was another maybe.

Advanced Mana Engraving might help a lot now, as Randidly struggled to figure out how to make these runes that he wanted. But that was a red herring, and Randidly knew it. He wouldn’t receive the knowledge from a Path. He might obtain a useful Skill, but the actual knowledge of its use would only come from himself.

For this, Randidly had a new plan. He wanted to go back and make a sizable chunk of metal, and then use that to buy all the different blueprints that he could afford. He would learn the runes involved in them, and then use the Mana Engraving Encyclopedias he had been given all that time ago on Shal’s world. With both these sources of study, Randidly refused to believe he wouldn’t be able to make progress on the creation of his own style of runes.

There was a ghost of a smile on his face. The Spear Phantom Style of runes.

But Randidly knew what he was taking. For a long time, he had wondered why he had not created a Skill Set with the Yggdrasil Skills. One explanation was that there was a special process to do so, but Randidly had done it with the Ashen Spear without doing anything at all special. Then what was missing was not a random input, but a Skill to hold it all together, and make it a Skill Set.

The Crown of Yggdrasil had a certain solemnity to it that drew Randidly’s eyes. It made his skin tingle. Instinctively, he knew his answer was there.

Of course, when Randidly put his PP into it, nothing happened for a long time. It was only after he dumped fully 50 PP into it that it gave him 10 unallocated Stats. Randidly shook his head unhappily but tried not to pay too close attention to it. It would give him the reward he sought, he had no doubt. He wasn’t sure of the details, but from the treatment of Skill Sets on Shal’s world, it was clear they held a special allure.

The fact that he had a high-Level Skill was interesting, but not enough; a Skill Set at his Level made him exemplary. Randidly was looking forward to seeing how obtaining a Skill Set would change his Yggdrasil Skills.

Before Randidly rushed back over to the metalworking factory to put his plan into action, he took a glance at his Stats and rolled his eyes. Honestly, at this point, it was getting hard to follow all of the changes to himself. But in his heart, he knew, he was becoming strong.

Randidly Ghosthound

Class: Planting of the Forest of Enmity (+x5)

Level: 24 (81%)

Health(/R per hour): 3522/3253 [+730] (1477 [+165])

Mana(/R per hour): 4109/3616 (699 [+9])

Stam(/R per min): 3211/3094 [+60] (482 [+45])

Vit: 322 (+15)

End: 153 (+20)

Str: 342 (+52)

Agi: 362 (+24)

Perception: 356 (+20)

Reaction: 322 (+15)

Resistance: 277 (+45)

Willpower: 430 (+10)

Intelligence: 360

Wisdom: 299 (+9)

Control: 554

Focus: 293 (+4)

Progenitor’s Influence: 9168

Skills (Soul Skill): Seven Lands of the Spectral Tree Lvl 1346

Combat: Spear Mastery Lvl 178, White Phantom’s Half-Step (Un) Lvl 73, Heavy Blow Lvl 94, Dagger Mastery Lvl 10, Iron Skin Lvl 47, Dodge Lvl 98, Fighting Proficiency Lvl 137, Block Lvl 74, Phantom Onslaught Lvl 42, Sweep Lvl 54, Spear Deflect Lvl 10, Calculated Blow Lvl 89, Roundhouse Kick Lvl 67, Idiosyncratic Cut (Un) Lvl 99, Pierce the Skies, Shatter the Earth Lvl 57, Body Control: Freeze Lvl 37, Stalemate Breaker Lvl 29, Talon Strike Lvl 38, Counter Lvl 51

PoFE Class Skills: Plant Dominance ® Lvl 110, Spray Holy Sap (Un) Lvl 9, Sharpness Lvl 69, Call Grove Defenders ® Lvl 34, Earthquake (Un) Lvl 43, Invigorating Call (Humanity)(Un) Lvl 14, Four-Shaded Domain (A) Lvl 29, Phantom’s Lantern (Un) Lvl 33, Grasp of Lava ® Lvl 67, Erode Image (L) Lvl 7, Vengeful Bloom (Un) Lvl 19, Gallant Intervention (Human) Lvl 4, Spriggit’s Tinkering ® Lvl 23, Aether Understanding (A) Lvl 43, Summon Lava Golem (Un) Lvl 22, Aether Infusion Lvl 41

The 7 Kata of the Ashen Spear (Ru): The Spear Advances, Ash Trails Lvl 81, As the Sun Stills ® Lvl 1

The 6 Signs of the Spear Phantom ®: The First Sign- The Inevitable Phantom Arrives Lvl 101 (Un), The Fifth Sign- The Wild Phantom’s Embrace (A) Lvl 180, The Sixth Sign- The Breath of the Spear Phantom ® Lvl 49

Aether Skills: Aether Detection Lvl 91, Aether Manipulation Lvl 97, Living Aether ® Lvl 100, System Interference Lvl 10

Spells: Spearing Roots Lvl 92, Mana Bolt Lvl 28, Mana Shield Lvl 32, Arcane Orb Lvl 22, Fireball Lvl 30, Magic Missile Lvl 4, Healing Palm Lvl 12, Pollen of the Rafflesia Lvl 20, Summon Pestilence Lvl 54, Wall of Thorns Lvl 29, Yggdrasil Soul Seed ®, Inspiration ®, Incinerating Bolt Lvl 91, Circle of Flame Lvl 75, Plantomancy Lvl 35, Hammer of the Dawn Lvl 37, Burning Footsteps Lvl 23, Ashes to Ashes (A) Lvl 49, Touch from Beyond ® Lvl 24, Gravity Affinity Lvl 52, Incendiary Eruption Lvl 22

Crafting: Potion Making Lvl 73, Farming Lvl 34, Plant Breeding Lvl 19, Mapmaker Lvl 7, Analyze Lvl 29, Refine Lvl 62, Extract Lvl 47, Mana Engraving Lvl 104

Yggdrasil: Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 105, The Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 125, the Emerald Sap of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 130, the Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 127, the Indomitable Spirit of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 127, the Cruel Indignation of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 111

Auxiliary: Sneak Lvl 46, Acid Resistance Lvl 22, Poison Resistance Lvl 21, Pain Resistance Lvl 63, First Aid Lvl 16, Pathfinding Lvl 18, Fire Resistance Lvl 99, Sewing Lvl 11, Cutting Vegetables Lvl 2, Manual Labor Lvl 6, Digging Lvl 5, Cooking Lvl 72, Clockwork Mastery Lvl 16, Aether Connection (A) Lvl 15, Soul Bond Lvl 102, Chef’s Palette Lvl 30, Nether Resistance Lvl 13, Child of the Rain (Un) Lvl 16, Chosen of Fire ® Lvl 66, Engineering Savvy ® Lvl 15