Chương 265: Chapter 262 - Realm six: rewards and decisions

You are now entering a safe zone 35 minutes remaining until you are forcefully ejected from the safe zone Realm 5 -> Realm 6 achieved! Ryan's body shifted. While he had moved his aura of intimidation back into his right arm, he had kept [The Aura Tyrant] class at his chest. He hadn't really seen it as an issue because his skills were reacting far better than they had before. But apparently it wasn't good enough. The Trial System picked up on the flaw and gently changed started changing his body.

The figure-eight circulatory system in his arm extended to his chest. It dipped to where his [Aura Tyrant] class lay without disturbing anything else in his body. Ryan marveled at how the Trial System had changed his body—then he felt a shift in the air and focused. There was no time to appreciate his new body because there was something more important going on. Class levels. [Conceptual Meditation] Sixth Realm S+ achievement rewards: The trialist exceeds ten skills.

Directing achievements to the ten highest rarity skills. Skills increased according to achievement rating! [Class Change] (Epic) Level 4 -> 6! [Resource Overdrive: Aura] (Epic) Level 11 -> 13! [Conceptual Meditation] (Epic) level 7 -> 10 [Aura Crystallization] (Epic) level 3 -> 6! [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation] (Epic) level 3 -> 8! [Aura Command] (Epic) level 10 -> 14! [Arcane Volatility] (Epic) level 13 -> 15! [Manabane Strike] (Epic) level 13 -> 15! [Aura Slash] (Rare) level 8 -> 14!

[Hastened] (Rare) level 14 -> 18! This time Ryan watched it all as the concepts descended on him en masse. He could not see the achievements nor exactly what it was that skills had derived from. But he could see the concepts for each skill as they rushed towards him—or rather, his class. Fundamental, change, beyond, aura, crystals, unrelenting, fear, control—mana—void—aura again, launch— It was so fast that he could only take a glimpse of the concepts behind each skill.

The concept behind the skills flew towards where they made the most sense. [Arcane Volatililty] to the [Saboteur] in his left arm, aura skills to [The Aura Tyrant] class that now lay in his chest. The conceptual skills to the [Conceptual Metamorph]. The [Arcane Saboteur] class in his left arm bulged at the effort of taking in the skill before it returned to normal. [The Aura Tyrant] seemed to take the skills just fine though it did shudder slightly with [Resource Overload]. The [Conceptual Metamorph] however.

It was hard to tell what changed other than the class itself becoming slightly more visible to him. That was— Trial Skill slots: 5/7 Available Trial Skills: - [A Ruinous Insight] (Epic) - [Chaotic Flux] (Epic) - [All Against me!] (Epic) - [Ruinous Mockery] (Epic) - [Guiding Aura of Royalty] (Epic) - [Parallel Cognition] (Epic) - [Fearless Cutdown] (Epic) - [Combat Art: Lu Baizhen's Infinite Requiem of Shattered Fists] (Epic) - [Cleaving Riptide Spin] (Epic) - [Mountain Splitter] (Epic) Ryan frowned.

[Chaotic Flux] was a skill he'd never heard of before. The rarity alone made it tempting because it was second on the list—and there'd only been one skill that had been higher rarity than [A Ruinous Insight]. He checked the skill before doing anything else. [Chaotic Flux] (Epic, Passive) You have managed to defy the predictions of both the >>>Overseer and ascendants alike. Your deliberate designs have both befuddled and frustrated those that have attempted to fit you into a path of their making.

Let this skill be a ward against all those that attempt to divine your actions. Exponentially increases the cost of predicting and settling the future when you are involved. The distance that this skill covers scales with your realm, skill level and how far in the future someone attempts to read. Any attempts at divining your future through fate-reading or probability-modeling will alert you in one way shape or form. Note: Beware, this does not prevent others from noticing an anomaly.

In times past, anyone who had mastered this skill would have been hunted down or forcibly recruited by any Great Civilization. Congratulations. What the fuck? The snide remark from the Manager aside, Ryan wasn't sure he actually deserved this skill. Did the minor pranks with coin-flipping really impact the Manager's predictions that much? This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Surely not.

Ryan was certain that things overall were still working towards a scenario the Manager intended… But the skill description hinted otherwise. It actually confirmed to Ryan that his actions were doing more than just providing a mild irritant to the Manager. Of course, he did not understand the full extent of the butterfly effect, nor did he understand the reach that Gamielle had with her spies and the Fallen.

If even a single advertisement could change the outcome of everything, well multiply that by thousands of prominent people all flipping probabilities and… The Manager had stopped trying to plot out every minutiae of the future. Something it had never done before, in all of its 878 iterations. While Ryan didn't know all of that, he did know that the only reason he could be given an Epic for this was if some part of his machinations had been having the intended effect.

"Or maybe it's that just being able to annoy the Manager even a little is worth a lot?" Ryan muttered that one out loud specifically. It was… possible that he was coming to the wrong conclusion from all of this. But then again, Ryan had received a Legendary feat just from shaking the Manager's resolve. It was very likely that being in a slightly adversarial position to the Manager meant outsized achievements to the effort put in. The real question was whether he should take it or not.

Precognition skills other than [Dangersense] were quite rare. Some off-combat roles like [Shamans] could gain them There was also the message about 'in ages past' meaning that perhaps it wasn't the case—then Ryan caught himself. It said 'ages past' not that it wasn't happening now. Unless of course it was exactly what the Manager wanted Ryan to think. He sighed.

While Ryan enjoyed playing mindgames with most people, he did not like playing it with cheaters like the Manager with its endless time and the Witch Tyrant with what had to be hundreds of different mental threads. If this skill could guarantee that their predictions of him would always be off he would take it in a heartbeat. Though he had a feeling that this skill wouldn't counter the Manager at all. Exponential costs didn't matter when the entity had infinite time.

He decided to shelve the problem and check out the second of his new three Epics. [Guiding Aura of Royalty] (Epic, Passive, Active) You have been acknowledged and have accepted being the spiritual successor of King Theskar. You have fought for the future of Earth, The Realm and the Kingdom of Valmere. Guiding the future generation in the way. You have competed on a board against the rulers of each world for its future. The only thing left for you to do is to publicly stake a claim and prosper.

Passive: Minorly increases the learning efficiency for all of those within your acknowledged Kingdom. Anyone that is within the range of your [Royal Aura] also gains the same benefit, increasing in potency the closer they are to you physically. Active: Inspires those that claim to be your citizens. Boosts their morale the more they look up to you. Note: You cannot simply put a flag down and claim the entirety of Earth as yours. What… the hell was this skill? The scope was…

whatever was acknowledged as Ryan's Kingdom? But exactly how big could that be? The Kingdom of Valmere spanned a good third of the habitable area of the Trial world. Considering it was several times bigger than Earth… It was possible that Ryan could influence billions of people if he was acknowledged as Earth's de-facto ruler. That was… insane. Even if it was only a minor increase in learning efficiency, a ten percent boost—no, even if it was only a five percent boost it would be insane.

What would happen if I leveled it? There were [Strategists] out there with skills that could influence thousands. It wasn't a class that was picked up in the modern era because the [Strategist's] buffs weren't as good in a limited team. But Ryan had never heard of a skill that could potentially influence millions—maybe even billions of people. There had been a few [Warlords], but nobody ever took wide-area skills like these, or if they did, they didn't talk about it. His mind kept racing.

A Trial having a maximum capacity of ten means that a ruler's wide area-of-effect skill is pointless. Not to mention that anyone with a ruler class would be hard countered by the dragon in the tenth Trial. The Trials weren't designed for rulers to rise and stability to form. But it still offered the skill to me. That meant there was a disjoint between the skill granting portion of the Trial System and the design of the Trials themselves.

There wasn't enough to make conclusions beyond that so he shelved his thoughts—or tried to. It failed. Insanity. Ryan's mind whirred. The minor bonus in learning efficiency did not discriminate between ordinary humans and adventurers. If even dragonslayers benefited from these buffs… Now Ryan was trying to figure out how to at least claim a city as his Kingdom. Maybe he could do it as a joke? If he claimed it and everyone went along with it maybe it would work? Ryan shook his head.

It would be too much effort and bring too much of his real identity into question. It was better to wait until he was a lot stronger to do something as silly as claiming a Kingdom for himself. Ryan scrolled to the last Epic on the list. This at the very least, was familiar territory that didn't make his mind race. [Mountain Splitter] (Epic, Active) You have made mounds of mother nature your enemy.

From exploding small hills to shattering plant infested spiral mountains, follow the path forward and use this skill to show that no rising monument to nature is safe from your attack. Active: Enhances one attack, scaling up the larger the mountain is. Note: Impressive in effect, not so in usage. Now this was a classic Epic. None of that weird chaos or world-spanning dragonshit. Just one attack against a big target. While the greatest effect would be against a mountain, there were ways to manipulate it.

You could put a target between you and a mountain and as long as they were in the way, they would get obliterated by [Mountain Splitter]. It was an Epic just from the sheer amount of scaling damage you could do, but well… it was a low rarity Epic. Ryan had a moment of surrealism pass through his mind. He was looking at a list of ten Epic skills once again and rejecting one purely because it was considered too low in rarity. He shook his head ruefully at his ever-rising standards.

Final Realm Five achievement rating: S+ Due to your achievement rating, you may choose two different rewards to receive amongst the following S tier rewards: - An additional Trial skill slot - A chance at a mutation on any maxed skill below the Epic rarity - An additional Trial skill point allocation - Upgrade to an existing piece of equipment - New equipment, randomized but given an option to select out of ten. - Experience and practice of any single skill in a dilated time chamber. - Guidance from the Manager.

This one was the same as always. Unfortunately his standards were not matched by the Trail System. Though the familiar rewards screen did mean he could follow his original plan. One of the S+ rewards was going to be reserved for the time dilation chamber for [Class Change]. This had been the original plan before he entered the sixth Trial. Master the [Class Change] skill so he could get rid of Pinkie's [Aberrant Shapeshifter] class and complete his Legendary Title Quest.

Though now that he knew [Class Change] was effectively modelling off the Trial System itself, things had changed. There was more to the skill than met the eye and Ryan had a feeling he would need to truly master it to complete the [Conceptual Metamorph]. The other S+ reward would be spent on getting an extra Trial skill. It would fill all of his seven Trial skill slots. He was no longer concerned about picking the additional skill slot reward either.

Ryan had gained a bit of confidence in being able to pick up skills on his own. Though the problem remained. The three new Epics didn't actually solve his biggest weakness. He had been hoping for an aerial maneuverability Epic but his work in the fifth realm wasn't enough for either of them to hit the Epic threshold. A quick glance at his Rare skill list offers and he could see them there. Skills that any sixth realm adventurer would love to have.

[Aerial Maneuverability] (Rare), which was effectively an upgraded [Instant Dodge] he could use constantly. Useful for short bursts of combat and unpredictability. [Air Steps] (Rare). Which was effectively treating the air like it was ground. Better if you were more confident in your direct combat and it was good for long distances. There was also [Poison Resistance] which came along because he had fought the Apex Noxious Weed.

It wasn't actually a bad idea either considering he had plenty of everything else and covering weaknesses was just the natural step. Beyond that, there were just too many Rares to even look over. [Guided Teaching] (Rare), [Advantaged Negotiations] (Rare), [Valmere's Sword School: Diamond], [Sword Art: Aura Pierce]... Too many, all amazing and skills he would have picked in another life maybe. Two skills to choose out of hundreds.

Ryan closed his eyes and imagined himself debating the researchers at Fetterue's mage tower.