Chương 121: Chapter 126: Tired

For the rest of the day, the town looked like a beehive of activity. Everyone was excitedly talking about what kind of bloodline to take. My teammates were actually arguing that there were some good options to get, but the best ones cost an arm and a leg, or better said, millions of points. I spent my time helping people decide what to get and how it would better fit them.

Most women went for an elven bloodline, alongside two older men tempted by the increase in life expectancy, something that would come naturally with higher stats too. But artisans had a harder time progressing compared to the more violent classes, thus requiring more time, and for people way past their prime, it wasn't actually a bad choice.

Among the strangest choices were some cat-like species for some reason, a couple of men going for a kind of giant alien bloodline from a race called Darub, while another one was tempted and had to be dissuaded from buying a driader kind of bloodline. Quinn explained that it was a kind of monstrous spider-person, and the man wanted to see if he could become like Spider-Man… really, I had no words about that. A guy instead went with a lesser treant bloodline.

The man apparently was a special kind of woodworker from what he told me, and was inspired by the town. He said that the wood here was so strong that it could take a missile and not get scratched. I wasn't that sure, but the spar with Vix showed me that it was extremely resistant, and the man wanted a bloodline related to nature, so that was his choice. I wouldn't want to start growing bark or leaves, honestly, but to each their own. It sparked a ton of jokes about his morning wood…

Anyway, most of the people got their potions, drank them already, and were waiting for the effects to apply. Apparently, it wasn't that easy of a transition. Many were in bed moaning, their bodies feverish and sweaty. We were keeping an eye on them, but by tomorrow the potions would have worked and changed them slightly. I hoped. But it got me thinking. What kind of changes would something like a stronger race bring, or even just not a lesser version of a bloodline? Would it mess with our physiology much?

Would it even be safe to use? Maybe some would be so incompatible with humans that we would just die. But there were some options that tempted me, even if I never thought of changing race. Actually, there were no other humans in the multiverse we discovered. We weren't alone in terms of life. Alien species were aplenty, and some were so similar to humans that it made one wonder what the relationship between us was, but none were just human, only humanoid. Like the elves, or the gorgs, or the giants.

And inter-species procreation was hard, but not impossible between humanoid races, so that was another factor leading to the theory that we had a common ancestor. A creator… a god? I didn't know, and honestly I didn't really care. I had much more pressing needs than finding out who made who. One of my more pressing needs was to check for the right skills to acquire, the new equipment, the potions, the curses. The System shop seemed infinite in its choices.

But after some more scrolling, I found out that there were items of such an exorbitant cost that I wondered how they would even be possible to acquire. Actually, I had an idea to make some more points quickly. And I would need them. One of the skills I was most interested in was so damn expensive it boggled my mind. But I wanted it. ──────────── [Accelerated Processing Lv1] – 87, 000 TP Use mana to multiply cognitive speed, slowing perceived time.

──────────── Intelligence was my second highest stat after Willpower, and it would probably remain so. The stat already granted me a faster processing speed compared to non-mages, and I wasn't about to start investing heavily in physical speed. But what Vix said, and the spar we had, told me that I didn't really need to move faster. I just had to be able to perceive faster enemies.

Then I could mobilize my aura or mana faster too, and paired with multicasting, that I would evolve very soon, the two skills could make me far more lethal, even in close quarters. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Then there was the matter of keeping my enemies from escaping. That gremlin outing had been incredibly frustrating, so much so that I was planning for a skill that would allow me to track or at least prevent them from running.

I was offered a mark-like skill back then, something that would have synergized with my hexes really well, but I went with Drain the Accursed, something that I didn't regret in the slightest. Still, I had to rectify this weakness of mine. The reality was that compared to a more physical class, I was very slow.

By now I was keeping up with my inflated stats, and probably would even in the future, but even just a skill related to increasing one's speed would be enough to bridge the gap, and someone specialized in movement would run circles around me. Accelerated Processing would allow me to attack and defend, but I wanted something to keep those kinds of people from fleeing. And I think I found it.

──────────── [Aura Tether Lv1] – 24, 000 TP Tether your aura to beings and objects, enabling interactions through the connection. ──────────── As usual, the System gave a barebones explanation, but the high cost and the fact it was aura-based gave me some pretty nifty ideas. Keeping in consideration that we could evolve the skill four times, I was already starting to think of many ways to use an aura connection.

I could hex my aura and slip curses through the tether into my enemies directly, especially those not capable of using aura but resistant enough to not be much affected by my hexes, like the Dodder and the Mask did. Not only that, but it would synergize with my Aural Manifestation too. After establishing a connection, I could manifest it physically and probably weaponize it against them.

Other than maybe tethering objects and bringing them to me, what if I tethered the weapon an enemy had and then tugged it away from them? Honestly, the applications were plenty. But I didn't know if I could manage to recreate the ability by myself, and that was what stopped me from buying it already. I would have to do some more tests. I went back and forth, searching for good skills. Ideas swam in my head.

Theories, synergies, and just plain cool skills like a meteor skill, or mind control, reading thoughts, elemental skills, teleportation skills… those were something I really wanted. I could understand past me for getting one, but they probably needed something else to be properly used, maybe auxiliary skills or traits. Given the high prices, it was a high-level skill for sure, but there was one that surpassed any other.

The highest-priced skill I found wasn't something like a death ray or something stupidly overpowered like reality manipulation. No. It was walking. ──────────── [Walking Lv1] – 1, 000, 000 TP??? ──────────── That was strange, and for some reason I wanted it. What kind of evolution could that lead to? I had no idea, but for now I thought I'd just go and ask Vix for advice again, especially about the aura one. I decided to purchase a maximum of three or four skills, leaving some space for later.

I was mostly inclined toward thought acceleration and the tether, but there was a skill about detecting weaknesses, and that could be really good paired with my hexes or curses. Better yet, some skills were related to using the eyes for said detection, and given that I could already enhance my vision with aura, maybe I could improve on them too. So many possibilities. I planned to get at least one curse for affecting every stat, maybe more. Even there I had choices to make.

Some objects had really interesting curses, but I needed to find something to store them in. I couldn't go around carrying a dozen wooden figurines. I needed something better. And I think I already had the tool. My grimoire had seen little to no use since I got it, but there was a chance I would be capable of storing the curses in its pages… but I had to take the time to work on that too. I was tired. So tired of having to run around doing things for others.

I could only hope that this venture would prove useful in the future, because right now it was a straight loss. We spent something around fifty thousand points for the bloodlines, and it was days I had been working toward freeing these people while I stopped improving or progressing toward the beacon. While my teammates trained and evolved their skills and classes, I was left with little to no time to even think about myself.

I managed my research only during the time I was perusing the shop to find other people's bloodlines. I was honestly starting to dread the meeting with Adrian. If there were more people in need of assistance in the other safe zone, they would stir my curse until it would take my fucking soul. I had to move faster, subject myself to more curses, evolve my trait, kill a snake, and go toward the safe zone. Then I would force Adrian to tell me where I could find the Tyrant of Aaranor. And finally be free.