Chapter 80 – Curated Prizes

Once he entered the newly-renamed champions’ foyer, he could immediately see the differences introduced to it.

The layout had changed, even if the smooth metal walls were the same. The floor plan had expanded slightly. There was a door to his left that, as the knowledge deposited directly into his brain told him, led to the lobby where he could meet other people. Right above it was a countdown clock that showed it would be almost four days before he could have his first official fight. Based on the missing minutes, he was sure it was exactly four days from when he declared he was taking the available spot.

Then on the opposite wall, there were buttons for both a store and a curated purchase list.

Tom smiled and wondered how close this was to his system room of old.

“Status!” he ordered in a confident voice.

He felt a brief thrill of excitement as the text populated the wall; then he frowned as he realised that it was not one created dynamically by the system, but rather the version he had compiled by hand with no new additions.

“Well, that sucks.” He muttered even though he had never truly expected that loophole to exist. If this had given him access to his system early, it would have been a massive unexpected bonus.

“What else can this room do?” he asked himself. He guessed it should have the same functionality as the pseudo-system room, at the very least. Tom shut his eyes momentarily and focused on the layout he had used for the weeks the assassins had trapped him in here. The room shimmered as the desired furniture came into being. There were large monitors to show what his body was doing, and a convenient couch to lounge on.

Absently, he checked the monitor - and then jumped in surprise.

His body was about to push the button to leave the room.

That was not something he could afford just yet. Hurriedly, he took back control and immediately went over to the ritual status screen. The presenter had said they were all going to get a title, and he was worried that, if he left it until his next session in an isolation room, he might not be able to find it again, as he had no idea of what it might relate to. He placed his hand on the ritual control, focused on revealing the most recent addition to his status sheet, then triggered the ritual.

Instantly, the text appeared:

Title: Divine Challenge Contender: Eligibility for classes reduced. Any class that you satisfy all but one requirement for can now be selected.

Awarded for: Being a contender for the Divine Champions Trial.

Legendary Title: Competition Rank 8th. 50 Ranking Points awarded

Tom first noted that seven other people had gotten as far as him in the competition. Given how long humanity’s reincarnators had been around, it wasn’t really a surprise when he thought about it. Then he re-read what the title gave him.

For someone in his position, it didn’t seem particularly useful, but he could see the immense value that it would give to a diminishing race. Besides, was clear, at least for DEUS, that her focus was on leveraging the most she could out of the Divine Champion’s trial. For them, the usual reason they became diminished was an inability to teach skills and spells to their young. Over time, it meant the newer generations would lose the ability to meet the requirements for classes, which would further reduce the quantity of abilities they had available. Those small effects would keep compounding, until the entire species were caught in a death spiral.

Even if someone didn’t get in and get access to the additional resources, this title would be a huge help. It would explode the number of class options available to them, and hopefully enable them to seize an otherwise unobtainable, powerful class that could form a new backbone for their species.

It was, he had to admit, clever.

For him, someone in the competition who could buy most class requirements with experience, it had limited utility. On the margin, it could help. Who knows, there might be a perfect legendary class out there that he would only get access to because of this… but he kind of doubted it. The most likely outcome was that the best class for him would be something he qualified for anyway. After all, by the time he turned fifteen, he expected to be a powerhouse.

With a shrug, he returned his mind to the champion’s foyer. He flopped onto the couch and watched, amused, as his body left the room and, looking absolutely terrified, started the process of sneaking back to bed with a hilarious lack of skill.

A wry grin split his face, and, his mood recovering slightly after the disaster of the contenders contest, he turned his attention to the additional functionality that this new room granted him.

With a thought, the basic store interface opened up and displayed itself on the wall, ready for him to browse.

Tom got to work quickly. Since he was familiar with them from his training developing Spark, he checked the lightning spells first. From what he could see, it was identical to what had been available in the experience shop. With mounting excitement, he dug deeper into the myriad of options. He reviewed the traits, titles, bloodlines and items. Everything was the same as he remembered. apart from items being greyed out with a message stating:

Need a solution to teleport into the real world before physical items can be purchased.

Tom didn’t care too much about the restriction. The fact the message had come up at all meant that there would be a remedy. Plus, items weren’t that important. What mattered was knowledge, and this place had everything he needed for his advanced planning.

He would be able to map out every single spell, skill, and trait that he wanted in his final build, and create a plan for the optimal way and order to acquire them. It was amazing. He was getting the functionality he needed four years early.

So many of the grey areas in his knowledge could be cleaned up now. He could get hard data on issues that had troubled him since he was reincarnated.

In response to that thought, he had an idea. “Domains,” he ordered, and the interface responded instantly, showing five random domains.

“Show Multipurpose Domains only.”

A random selection came up. Tom leant forward from where he was still sitting on his couch, suddenly attentive. He hadn’t expected such a broad search term to give him what he needed, but he had anticipated that at least one of domains that would be shown would be partially along the lines that he was after. Instead, none of them advanced his understanding.

“I mean, show domains with multiple elemental types.” He clarified, leaning on specifics to dig into what he wanted.

Another eight domains appeared. They were all wide, general ones, with three constructed to boost magic and five focused on buffing.

He shook his head. While he now had effectively unlimited time in here, he was being careless with his word choice. “Show domains that support both Earth and Lightning elemental spells.”

He frowned when the same jumble of domains as earlier appeared. There was a lovely tier-ten domain.

Skill: Domain of Elemental Mastery – Tier 10

All Elemental spells originating within a hundred metres of the caster are ten times more powerful.

It did what he wanted, and a lot more on top of that. But Tom could tell that he would never meet the requirements to create something like that. It covered every type of element, and he didn’t have the time to build expertise in so many directions.

Impatiently, he flicked through the first few pages of the listed domains. None of them were a specific lightning and earth domain. They were all general ones. Annoyance and concern flared inside him, with an edge of panic.

This was not what he expected, and it was not good news.

“Show me domains that only have Lightning and Earth aspects.”

For a poignant moment, nothing happened. Then, almost reluctantly, suggestions were populated. There were lightning domains that specialised in damaging fortifications: earth domains that were resistant to lightning, and lots of similar examples. It was all technically what he asked for, but not what he was looking for, and he knew that probing the system further wouldn’t help. It had known from his questions what he had wanted it to display, and these were the best options it could come up with.  

The brief flash of amusement he had felt while watching the avatar of his younger self sneak back was gone. This was a spanner in his plans.

The domain he had been planning to create, which was a fusing of his other abilities, apparently didn’t exist in a ready form, or else was going to require some creative thinking to establish. He needed to get more information or to revise his plan completely, which was something he wasn’t prepared to do. He shut his eyes so not to let the anger show.

Tom forced himself to breathe in deeply and consider everything rationally.

His knowledge of domains which he had incorporated into his plan had been clearly flawed. The question was, what could he do to fix that? He thought about Dimitri, and then looked at the door to his right.

Hopefully, there were sources of knowledge available in the champion’s lobby that could fix this. Everything he was interested in should be basic knowledge to the experts in the open section. Hopefully, one of those could help him. Failing that, Dimitri, and possibly his own elbow grease, would have to step up. If he spent sufficient time scouring the shop for all available domains, it was possible he would get a clue about what was happening.

He very much hoped that there was a simple solution to his problem. As it was, his plan to merge his different elemental spells and skills into a single domain, was dead on arrival. That fact would also screw his plans to get the maximum value out of the bonus granted by the title, for getting a fourth class.

He guessed those plans could be adjusted if a domain of everything was not possible.

For now, he had better things to focus on.

The last thing he wanted to do before seeing what was on the curated list was to baseline the cost of traits. He quickly brought up the traits he had purchased previously, and whistled at the price. It was expected, but still, seeing each of them costing hundreds of coins really highlighted both the opportunity and the danger associated with the Divine Champions’ trial.

On the plus side, buying a trait meant as little as a few months of fighting, but that was assuming everything went perfectly. More practically, they could be guaranteed. He would be able to actually acquire them. It would take a year, but, given that Everlyn hadn’t been able to source a suitable trait despite the resources of a hundred thousand people, having this option available at all was a boon. The fact that he could get a customized trait which was perfect for him if he put the work in was significant. Not that he was likely to bother, as an eighth of the Divine Affinity Fruit was probably more valuable.

While he had a plan of how to maximise coins while avoiding undue risk, he doubted he would be fighting regularly without a GOD’s shield, let alone winning every fight when he did so. Given how weak he was compared to the other two of DEUS’s champions, he expected to lose pretty consistently - at least, until he beefed up his skills. 

Slightly annoyed at the thought of him being impotent, he focused on the curated list, and the text printed on the walls changed.

Slowly, he read through the list and then raised his eyebrows at how few items were included. There were only six in total.

·        Trait: Spatial Storage – Cost 17 – Discount 96%

·        Trait: Dimensional Body – Cost 95 – Discount 90%

·        Divine Affinity Fruit – Cost 7000 – Discount 95%

·        Skills Pack: Lightning Starter – Cost 9

·        Skills Pack: Earth Starter – Cost 9

·        Skill: Shadow Spear – Cost 12 – Discount – 30%

Before diving into the detail, he took a moment to think about what these entries implied.

Those first three, with their massive discounts screamed at him to buy them as soon as possible, even if such thoughts were impractical. Spatial Storage would allow him to purchase equipment directly from the shop, but, given that he didn’t want to waste valuable coins on physical items, he wasn’t sure if he would put it on his shopping list immediately. On the other hand, it would be useful in real life, which made him mentally push its value up slightly.

The storage was interesting, but it was the Divine Affinity Fruit that caught his attention. His mind struggled to calculate what that implied price represented. It was a tier-eleven or twelve item, and, even with its massive discount, he felt that it was unobtainable. It would literally take him over two years with a perfect record, with every fight being without a GOD’s shield, to get it. Even if he managed to keep his spot for the next nine years, Tom was not sure he would ever win sufficient coins to afford it, especially since he would need to be spending them on boosting his strength just to stay in contention.

It hurt to do so, given how unattainable it was, but he couldn’t help but dive in and read what a tier-twelve natural treasure could do.

Consumable Treasure: Divine Affinity Fruit*.

This item improves every affinity of those who consume it.

·        Improves the affinity of all minor affinities (less than forty) by 30

·        Improves the affinity of all medium affinities (40 to 60) by 20

·        Improves the affinity of all major affinities (60 to 80) by 10

·        Improves the affinity of all blessed affinities (80 to 90) by 4

·        Improves the affinity of all divine affinities (90+) by 2 (without exceeding 99)

Note: At the lower and upper point of the range the increase granted may be higher and lower respectively than expected due to smoothing. These values are a guide only. i.e. If your starting affinity is 39 a full fruit will raise you affinity by 28. At this increase will only be 27 not the 20 average of that tier.

* Can be purchased in segments of an eighth of the fruit. Note if an affinity is raised by a partial number a lower impact of the increase is expected than linear interpolation would suggest.

Tom absorbed the information, especially the note. While he doubted he would be able to afford a full fruit, he might manage to save up a sufficient amount for a half. That would boost his precognition impact by sixty percent and his lightning and earth spells by thirty percent, while the rest of his affinities would also get a similar gain. Basically, it was a permanent and significant increase to his magical abilities, which was something experience couldn’t buy. And, if he managed to crack the duels and bought the full fruit, the power of his precognition, instead of increasing by sixty percent, would jump by over five times.

That was the true value of the offering.

The whole thing was clearly the long-term carrot DEUS was dangling in front of him to encourage him to perform as strongly as he could. It might be manipulative, but he didn’t care. He was doing it, Tom swore to himself. He was going to get it.

The next item on the curated list that he studied was the second entry, and the only one he felt that was out of place.

Trait: Dimensional Body.

Tunes the body to dimensional energy, reducing the cost for portals and teleport-aligned abilities by 60%.

He could see how this fed into his long-term plans, and it was a powerful trait to add, but it felt strange to have it thrust into his face right now. Still, when he considered the teleport options he had possessed in his last life, having the frequency and potential range of them more than double would have been a huge boon.

As he currently lacked anything that could take advantage of a Dimensional Body, he decided to ignore it for now.

Finally, there was the other majorly discounted item.

Trait: Spatial Storage.

Provides four cubed meters of highly responsive spatial storage.

It was not a growth trait. But, given it started with so much, the starting volume that didn’t matter. For a trade caravan, the available space it added was not a lot, but for a warrior that would use it to keep weapons, trinkets and money, it had more than he needed. Four cubed metres was more storage than you could pack into a car without any passengers. It was more than enough for his personal consumption needs.

Before deciding what to do, he clicked on the spear skill.

Skill: Shadow Spear – Tier 3

Create a shadow spear that follows the trajectory of your own weapon within two centimetres and imparts 80% of the primary weapon’s damage.

Note: This can be delivered in three ways.

1.      Granted immediately.

2.      If spatial storage is available, as a skill stone.

3.      If spatial storage is available and a relevant training trial is accessible, then it can be taken as a skill plan to be used within the trial.

Personalised Advice: If the skill is invested into the training trial you will have 45% chance of acquiring after 40 hours of training, 65% after 80 and 72% after 120 hours.

Tom stared at the note.

It explained exactly why the spatial storage was first on his list with the largest discount. It was needed for him to do this. Having only a seventy-two percent chance of acquiring it might have seemed like bad odds, but that was a risk he was willing to gain. Even if he failed to absorb some of the skills, which what that acquisition rate suggested would happen, that high of a percentage meant he could acquire three or four higher-tiered skills through his own effort each year. That would be absolutely massive when it came to advancing his title.

Smiling brightly, Tom rubbed his hands together.

He still needed to find out what the lobby was like, and whether it was a place that was worth investing time in. Short-term, until he learned the lay of the competition, so to speak, he had no choice but to spend time there, as he was in desperate need of more information about how the coming fights were going to play out.

He looked at the door, and knew that was his next step.

AG. Technically this is tomorrow's chapter early, but I'll try to finish two more chapters this week but it might be difficult as today's busy.