C_Mantis
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Chapter 426
🕑 Added 2025-05-30 18:59:01 +0000 UTCChapter 426
Tim sighed and put his head down on his desk, placing his pad in the holder on the side. He could hear as his teacher, Mr. Hasta, started tapping at his own pad to check on Tim’s work. But when Tim didn’t hear him say anything, the boy let himself drift off into a blissful daydream.
It almost turned into a full-on nap, but he didn’t finish quite early enough for that.
He was woken up when Mr. Hasta called out, far more loudly than was actually necessary while standing right next to Tim’s desk, “And time. Put your pads down and go to lunch. We’ll resume with the writing portion of the test after. Please don’t talk about the test during the break. Pl—”
Tim tuned the bland man out and waited until they were dismissed, where he jumped to his feet and slung his bag over his shoulder and was the second out of the door. Waiting, he fell into step with his best friend Garrett.
“What did you get for question ninety five? The one asking about the differential. I got seventy two.”
Tim rubbed his eyes and tried not to groan. Garrett hated when he did that, but it was hard sometimes when his friend could be so dense.
“It was thirty seven point two. If you got seventy two you must have used Haltur’s formula instead of Yellik’s, but you only use that when it’s… Whatever, it doesn't matter. None of this shit will matter in a few days when we get out of school and Awaken.”
Garrett bumped him into the wall. “It doesn't matter for you because you're smart. I need to work at this stuff.”
“No, you don’t. You're going to go work at your mother’s, making leather armor just like she did, and her father did, and his father before him did. This stuff is pointless. Why bother teaching it before college? Then, at least, you are choosing to learn it.”
Garrett, normally one to complain about the same lessons, disagreed. “That's ripe coming from you, when you are going to rank in the top twenty of the class without ever opening a book.”
Hearing a twinge of something new in Garrett's voice, Tim focused on it. “What's wrong, man?”
“Nothing.”
Returning the shove from earlier, Tim asked again, “What's wrong? Don’t bullshit me.”
“I… My mom wasn’t happy with my grades and so I’ve been studying a lot, but it's so hard. The writing and science stuff isn’t so bad, but the math just doesn't seem to stick. There is always a rule and then an exception to the rule and now I’m pretty sure my results were awful and I’m upset, okay? Just let it be.”
Tim looked at his friend. Shorter and a bit stocky instead of his own tall and lanky frame, Garrett was usually a ball of chaotic energy who hammed up everything. But today, he seemed really upset.
“Then why didn’t you say something? I could have helped you study. We still can. Retests are in two weeks, right before awakenings. If we push hard, we can bump your scores up, I’m sure.”
Garrett shook his head. “Do you even know how to study?”
That caught Tim off guard, but he nodded. “I might not need to do it, but I know you and how we can get you to learn the stuff you need to get a better score.”
All at once, every student's personal pad beeped. Tim didn’t bother to check it, but Garrett did and looked like he wanted to throw the pad.
Peeking, he saw his friend hadn’t exaggerated earlier. He had only scored sixty-four percent. Over the fifty percent passing mark, but not by much.
Grabbing the pad from Garrett, Tim opened the report and started skimming the more detailed results.
“See, this isn’t so bad. I can see where you went wrong. If we spend every day studying after school, we can get you into the seventy five percent area easily enough. In the multiple choice section, you got more tripped up by the questions it seems. That's not so much the math, but test taking skills.”
Garrett nodded, agreeing, but there was a melancholy air about him as they walked in silence until they got their food.
The fish wasn’t one of Tim’s favorites, but it was light and refreshing, which landed perfectly after his earlier nearly nap. But midway through, Garrett gestured to Tim’s bag. “Aren’t you going to check on your results?”
“What for?”
“So you know how you did?”
“I already know how I did,” Tim mumbled around a mouth full of rice and greens.
“No you don’t, you think you know, but you don’t actually know.”
Pulling out his pad and unlocking it, he tapped to open the latest message without looking down. “Ninety-six percent.”
Garrett let his fork fall onto his plate, pushing it away disgusted. “Ugh, I hate you. That's better than most college students could get. That last ten percent is brutal.”
“Only the dumb ones.”
Garrett ignored his quip and pressed his face into his hands. “Let's change the subject please.”
Tim was all too happy to do so, and instead pestered Garrett into agreeing to take him to his house, where they could study in peace.
By the time he got home, his mother was thankfully passed out, bottle still at her fingertips.
Making sure he didn’t make too much noise, Tim slipped through the house.
Two weeks and he’d be free.
He had saved up just over one and a half thousand credits over the years, doing odd jobs for neighbors and other students. It wasn’t much, but it would see him housed for a few months as he figured out his next steps.
He had plans, but they would mainly depend on his Talent and just what it was.
Two weeks later, Tim stood in front of a chair along with the rest of his class and closed his eyes, centering himself.
He had been dreaming of this moment for years, and now that he was done with school, he was finally able to Awaken and set off on his own.
Sitting down in the chair, he took a deep breath, feeling the Awakening machine thrum as everyone went through the prompts.
Finally, after everyone finished agreeing not to share their Talents, Tim felt a pulse of essence rush through him.
It felt as good as everyone said it did, and he felt his spiritual perception manifest over his skin as his spirit was Awakened.
He took a minute to revel in the joy of the moment before tapping at the screen to get his Talent readout.
Instead of spitting out a result immediately like he expected, he waited as the device processed.
…
…
…
Tier 1 Talent: Complexity into simplicity.
Primary effect: Simplify abilities into easy-to-understand effects.
Secondary effect: Practice the simplified skill or ability to increase proficiency.
Tertiary effect: Perform, view, or absorb skills or abilities to unlock them.
Quaternary effect: Spend money to unlock new abilities to make them eligible to simplify.
Tim blinked, not knowing how to process his Talent, but got up and cleared the seat for the next person, his heart and mind racing.
Instead of leaving the Awakening center, he reserved one of the private rooms meant for people who needed to consider their new Talent in private. Which he was, he supposed.
An instinctive thought brought up a virtual screen similar to what he had seen an AI would give if games were as accurate as they portrayed themselves as being. It was a simple empty list of his ‘Abilities’ but Tim didn’t know how he’d get an ability to show up.
Drumming his fingers on the table, he hoped for something to pop up, but when nothing happened, he rummaged around in the cabinet for a piece of paper.
Quickly writing a few lines, something finally popped up in his view.
Beginner Writing: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 200 credits.
Instinctively, he understood that his Talent had several ranks, and beginner was only the first, but his mind was more preoccupied on the fact that his Talent was charging him money.
What would it even do with the money?
Did his Talent create a bank account?
Could it link up to his bank account? He didn’t see an easy way to do that, but he had no idea what his Talent was capable of.
What would it even do with the money? His money?
And most importantly, how was his Talent wanting to charge him a week's worth of rent at a shitty apartment for a writing skill? A beginner writing skill.
Crumpling the paper up and throwing it into the trash, he jerked as a new entry popped up in his Talent, silently pinging him. With a thought, the screen opened up and a second entry was there just under the writing skill.
Beginner Throwing(Overhand): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 500 Credits.
Spluttering, Tim cursed his greedy Talent, then got a second piece of paper and folded it into a paper airplane to get a new skill unlocked.
Beginner Paper Folding: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 150 Credits.
Standing up and leaving the Awakening facility, Tim got out of the building and went into the nearby park where he started jogging.
After a few dozen steps, he felt a ping and brought up his screen.
Beginner Jogging: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 1,000 Credits.
Picking up the pace, he sprinted.
It took longer, but he once more felt a ping.
Beginner Sprinting: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 3,000 Credits.
Seeing that such a simple thing as sprinting would cost him more than he had saved up through years of effort, Tim felt like screaming.
He had so many plans for whether his Talent was good or bad, crafting, fighting, or utility, but he had never considered that his Talent would be a black hole of money and he didn’t know how to pivot. Well, aside from just pretending it was strictly useless and ignoring it, but that felt like too much of a waste, considering it seemed like it could be very strong if he was understanding it.
His Talent seemed like an incredibly useful form of an innate understanding Talent, but he didn’t have enough money to get it going.
He could afford one or maybe two of these unlocks, but then what? What did beginner paper folding give him?
Nothing that would make him easy or quick money, that was for sure. But even that wasn’t his main issue. He needed to know how the Talent worked. It talked about simplifying the complex, but what did that mean in practice?
He didn’t know. It could either be really good or useless, and he was too scared to test it.
Heart thumping and breathing hard, Tim slowed down to a walk, letting himself calm down both mentally and physically.
Beginner Breath Control: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 2,000 Credits.
Not letting himself get worked up, he pondered how breath control was a thing but breathing wasn’t and hadn’t unlocked anything. Squinting at a faraway sign, he tried to get a better vision unlock, but nothing happened, so he gave up.
Finding a fairly sword-shaped stick under a tree, he picked it up and went through one of the more basic sword forms he had learned at school.
Beginner Sword Fighting: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 10,000 Credits.
Seeing the sky-high credit cost, he groaned but dutifully went through several of the other martial skills he knew. They all cost over five thousand credits, putting them well out of his price range, but that wasn't all he unlocked.
Beginner Footwork: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 300 Credits.
Beginner Jumping: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 150 Credits.
Beginner Flexibility: 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 2,000 Credits.
The prices seemed semi-random, but he thought he was beginning to come up with an idea.
One of his original ideas had been to use his savings to delve. But it was a last resort, only to be done if he got a purely combat Talent.
He knew how to fight as well as basically any regular new Tier 1, thanks to school. But his original idea, if he had to go the delving route, had been to use the Tier 0 skills to establish a foundation while relying on the combat Talent to make enough to afford housing.
Tim didn’t want to fight for a living, but it was one of the easiest ways to make money fast since Ascender Titan had made the skills public so many years ago.
Another of his ideas was to rely on his Talent and go a crafter route, but that was slow and expensive to start, and he really didn’t want to join a guild or corporation. They weren’t bad, but after being in school and having someone tell him what to do every day in and out, Tim wanted his freedom. The problem was that even if his Talent gave him unparalleled skills in crafting, that didn’t negate both the material costs and the upfront costs of the unlocks and tool purchases to boot.
Pulling out his pad, he checked a few of the local nearby rifts, and when he saw nothing major had changed since he checked it this morning, put away his pad, an idea slowly forming.
Pulling his pad back out, he realized he was now a registered adult and downloaded Ascender Titan’s Tier 0 skill-making trainer, reading through the introductory information until he felt a ping in his mind.
Beginner Skill Making Abbreviated([Solar Flare]): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 120,000 Credits.
Seeing four other and nearly identical entries, Tim wanted to strangle his Talent.
Over a hundred thousand credits.
It might as well be asking for the moon. Sure, a skill cost way more than that to buy, but the price just seemed impossibly high. He could probably make the skill manually before he earned enough money to unlock the skill with his Talent.
Once more, his mind went back to delving.
If there was one way to make money fast, it was delving. But all of that hinged on his Talent actually being useful.
If the unlocked skills were worthless or hard to gain proficiency in, he would have to go with his backup, backup plan of getting a normal job and just… existing.
Seeing how that had treated his mother, working by day and getting drunk by night, he wanted nothing to do with it. He, like pretty much everyone else, wanted to get strong enough to reach immortality, but he also wanted to do it in the best, safest, and preferably easiest way possible.
Knowing he needed to bite the bolt and get it over with, he opened his page and tried to buy the jumping skill, it being one of the cheapest ones, but nothing happened when he mentally clicked on it.
Theorizing he might need to get actual, physical credits, he got up and took a trip to the nearest branch of his local bank. After listening to and accepting the warnings about how physical currency wasn’t digital and so couldn't be retrieved in the event of a scam, he was given his credits.
Four one-hundred credits took up nearly no room in his pocket, as the coins were small, but he felt their weight like they were bricks.
Having gotten more credits out than he initially planned, Tim found a cheaper hotel room for rent-by-the-week and rented it for sixty credits, which were immediately deducted from his digital account, making him wince. It was a shitty, hole-in-the-wall single room without even a private toilet or shower, but it would work for what he needed, which was a place to sleep.
Sitting on the bed with his credits in hand, Tim clicked on the beginner footwork.
Jumping had been cheaper, but he felt footwork was more useful both in and out of a rift, and it wasn’t that much more expensive.
When Tim clicked the skill with the credits in hand, he felt something in his spirit flex and shift as the credit coins vanished into nothingness.
Instead of letting that distract him, he instead watched his Talent display as it updated.
Beginner Footwork: 0/100 Proficiency — Walk to gain proficiency.
Blinking, Tim looked at the words in disbelief.
Getting up, he paced around his room and, after thirty steps, the display changed to 0.1/100.
Some quick math later, he realized he would need to walk about fifteen miles to reach full proficiency.
That wasn’t all, though. Even with just that little bit of proficiency, he had an instinctive idea of how he could walk better. It was more a vague notion than anything concrete, but it was a sign that his Talent might be even more powerful than he realized.
Knowledge Talents were inscrutable, so there wasn’t much he had been able to learn about them when preparing.
Thankfully, walking was on his list of things to do.
One of his plans for short-term employment was to do deliveries for establishments. Normally, they were done on bikes, or by people with speed Talents or the like, to maximize profit, but there was no rule against walking other than smaller or no tips.
He’d both earn a little money and be able to fill his proficiency at the same time.
Seeing he still had a few hours of daylight left, he decided to grab something to eat.
On his way, he tried running to see if that counted but, as expected, he made no gain on his proficiency at all. He also learned that he could walk quickly— but not too quickly— or once more his proficiency gain dried up.
Two days of work and thirty credits richer from his deliveries, he took his final step and his Talent updated.
Novice Footwork: 0/10,000 Proficiency — Walk to gain proficiency.
At the same time, a stream of knowledge rushed into him. It felt like he had spent a decade practicing his martial footwork skills. He had always been light on his feet, but now he felt like he could dance. Walking through a busy street, he felt himself weaving between people as if he were some kind of movie thief.
A gust of wind in between the slow moving pedestrians who were like trees to flow around.
Tim’s mouth went dry as he absorbed just how incredible his Talent was and its potential.
If simple footwork was so powerful, what would something like the skill creation method be like once he ranked its proficiency up?
He might become a master of the craft in just a few weeks.
Rushing back to his apartment, he realized that while his footwork was amazing, it didn’t make walking effortless or anything of the sort. If anything, it made dancing around so easy that he inadvertently tired himself out. Bounding around people was more work than it felt like in the moment.
He had his answer but he just couldn't afford it.
Beginner Muscular Endurance(Legs): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 4,000 Credits.
An unlock during his marathon of walking over the last few days.
Still, with just over a thousand credits left to his name, Tim decided he needed to enact the second phase of his plan, now that he knew how powerful his Talent really was.
Calafor, being a Tier 5 world, had a plethora of Tier 1 rifts, which made the slots cheap, but Tim had a very particular set of criteria for his first rift.
First was a weak enemy, preferably humanoid.
Second was a harvestable resource of some kind.
Such things were more common in Tier 2 and higher rifts, but they weren't impossible to find in Tier 1 rifts.
His original choice of a rift with open iron veins in the cave walls had already had its last rift slots bought out, but he quickly found a rift that had two of the types of herbs used in a Tier 1 brightness potion, even if its monsters weren’t humanoid.
The potion wasn’t exactly valuable, with little in the way of resale value, but the rift having most of a potion available made it semi-popular with people trying to learn alchemy on the side.
Once he reached Tier 2, he would be able to start delving a much more valuable rift that had the main ingredient of a body strengthening potion, which did sell for quite a bit. The potion was considered fairly advanced for Tier 2, but the light potion was deemed a good starting step.
The real question would be if his Talent considered alchemy as one entire skill or individual skills. From seeing the Tier 0 skills as separate entries, he believed it would be the latter, but if it was the former, a lot of his plans would be ruined, as there was no way he would be able to ever afford the costs of unlocking such a thing.
He had tried to just read about the potions, hoping to unlock the entries that way, but his Talent refused to make them appear.
After getting some leather armor from Garrett's family— he received a small but much appreciated discount— and arming himself with a mace, a shield, and a dagger, Tim bought his first rift slot.
It cost a thousand credits for a once every nine days slot, but it was a first and important step.
He was terrified; but as he predicted and hoped, his footwork proficiency made fighting off the giant spiders, if not easy, safe enough.
The rift’s layout being a path through a forest ensured that, so long as the delver didn’t overextend, they would only ever fight two or three spiders at most at a time. Thankfully, they weren’t venomous, nor did they have the ability to shoot webs or anything which might trip him up.
They just had way too many appendages and teeth that could bite through an unarmored arm or leg, if given a few seconds to clamp down properly.
The boss, though, was just plain old terrifying.
The video guide he watched showed it was big, but the thing was nearly the size of a pony, and with its many limbs, was faster than any monster he had encountered before.
Tim was equally as fast, given his novice footwork, and after a harrowing few opening blows, he managed to disable its legs one-by-one and then finish it off while it was injured.
He had been hoping to get an unlock for essence absorption or the like, but he wasn’t so lucky or hadn’t done it enough to unlock the proficiency quite yet.
However, he did unlock both a dodge and shield proficiency during his delve, though they cost over ten thousand credits each, and were out of his price range.
With bated breath, Tim fumbled around with his spiritual perception until he figured out how to dispel the rift reward to see four mana stones fall out of the rift.
It wasn’t the best reward he could have gotten, but it was still four hundred credits. More than enough to pay for a much better room for two weeks. He wouldn’t be doing anything so frivolous until he had a more reliable source of income, but it was a start and was a weight off his chest.
Sadly, he was fairly sure he was about to be spending them. Walking over to the massive spider, he pulled out pliers and a short work-knife from his bag. With great effort, he carved the pincers out of the boss’s mouth.
It was bloody, messy work, but the set sold for fifty credits. The smaller spiders’ pincers only sold for two credits apiece, but there were about thirty spiders to harvest, and so it was more than worth his time.
He also got the skill he was hoping for.
Beginner Monster Harvesting(Arachnid): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 4,000 Credits.
It was a bit more expensive than he’d prefer, but it was about what he had come to expect.
Instead, his hopes were on the final remaining thing to harvest in the rift.
The herbs.
Checking the rift guide a few times as a reference, he found the blue and purple-speckled mushrooms growing on the roots of some of the trees and carefully cut the caps off without hitting the stems, which would have ruined their alchemical properties.
After three harvests, he felt a familiar ping and quickly checked the entry.
Beginner Herb Harvesting(Common): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 300 Credits.
He didn’t know what was considered ‘Common’ but hoped it was as self explanatory as it sounded so he wouldn't have to buy another entry too soon.
Still holding the mana stones, Tim tried to click on the entry but found nothing happened.
Pushing with his will and trying to connect his Talent to the mana stones, he just gave himself a headache from straining.
Grumbling about his Talent’s pickiness and wasted proficiency, and kicking himself for not taking a little bit of cash with him into the rift, he harvested the second ingredient for the light potion, a particular four bladed leaf off a particular bush, before leaving with his bag stuffed.
The guards outside the rift directed him to the area where he was able to sell all of his plunder, and while he was tempted to sell it himself knowing they paid the minimum for everything but the mana stones, Tim didn’t feel like dealing with the hassle for a few credits. That time would be better spent delivering a few food orders, both earning money and proficiency.
A quick trip to a shop saw him the owner of a secondhand portable alchemy setup and the final ingredient for the light potion.
It was only then, when he read the instructions and was able to concoct his first potion, that the entry appeared, but he let out a breath of relief he didn’t realize he was holding.
Beginner Alchemy(Light Potion | Variant Calafor): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 3,000 Credits.
Tim had been hoping it would be cheaper, but three thousand credits was within his ability to save up for.
Instead of trying to make the potion, he immediately went and sold all the ingredients for thirty credits. He made a loss of the third ingredient, but they would only remain fresh for a few days without proper storage. He wouldn’t be able to delve again for eight more days, and definitely wouldn’t have saved up three thousand credits in that time.
He knew could have tried to learn without his Talent, but he’d much rather have the credits now rather than practice for a non-useful potion.
Instead, he went to the bank once more and took out another three hundred credits which he absorbed and immediately spent on unlocking the herb harvesting ability.
Beginner Herb Harvesting(Common): 0/100 Proficiency — Pick weeds to gain proficiency.
Tim was bemused but dutifully found a public flowerbed that had some weeds in it and started pulling them.
After ten weeds, he felt a familiar pulse as he gained 0.1 proficiency. Unfortunately, clearing out the entire flower bed only gained him 0.7 proficiency.
While it was undoubtedly easier than harvesting herbs, he didn’t know where he would find so many weeds. But then he stopped.
What was a weed?
A weed was typically just an unwanted plant growth; so by that logic, wasn’t anything unwanted a weed?
Finding the closest public park, he pulled out ten blades of grass while concentrating on the idea of them being unwanted.
To his delight, he felt a familiar pulse and smiled manically.
Wiping his hands off on his pants, he stood up and accepted another delivery.
Eight days later, once he was in the rift and had killed all of the spiders, he started to pluck everything.
It was in that process that he also learned that harvesting actual herbs also gave proficiency to his entry, and while it was more efficient per item harvested, giving 3 proficiency, his method was faster.
Everything that was smaller than a bush, he pulled out of the ground. The size didn’t matter, only the amount seemed to factor into the proficiency. Sweating, dirty, and exhausted, he exited the rift after five hours with a smile.
Novice Herb Harvesting(Common): 0/10,000 Proficiency — Pick weeds to gain proficiency.
When he crossed the threshold, he immediately felt as if he understood how to harvest the mushrooms and leaves much better. It was as if he had been doing it every day for a decade. What he found interesting was how his knowledge differed from the book he had learned from. It wasn’t that the book was wrong, but he now knew that if he cut the leaves slightly higher on the stem, they would last for longer without storage. And if he wanted to, he could harvest the entire mushroom so long as he covered them with a dark cloth first.
Interestingly, he didn’t get such information about other herbs. But when he went to a store that sold them, he only needed to see and interact with the herbs to pick up on their harvesting particularities to a similar level as the first two.
Best of all, even ignoring the advice of his new knowledge and its altered method, his general skill at harvesting became better. His cuts were cleaner, which led to higher yields, which resulted in premium payments for his herbs.
The following two months passed in a blur, as in his free time he either delivered food or laid in bed with a fresh piece of sod he slowly but methodically plucked every strand of grass from.
During that time, he was tempted to buy other skill proficiencies, but he always refrained, knowing his best money-maker would be the alchemy, and if it worked at all like his herb harvesting skill, the separate skills would have considerable bleed over when he did Tier up.
What truly saved him from months more of grinding was a lucky drop. It wasn’t a growth item or anything so useful, but a Tier 1 sharpness-enchanted dagger that was considered one of the more common rare drops of the rift.
They typically sold for a whopping seven thousand credits, and after a little back and forth, Tim got slightly more than five thousand.
Part of him wanted to buy several skills. But, seeing the money in his bank account, he struggled to do so, instead choosing to only unlock the alchemy skill.
They were starting to recognize him at the bank and give him odd looks, but he hardly cared, the thousand credit coins vanishing into nothing as his Talent did whatever it was that it did with the money.
Beginner Alchemy(Light Potion | Variant Calafor): 0/100 Proficiency — Stir miso soup.
Realizing he couldn’t keep buying equipment with his current accommodations, he changed his apartment to a slightly larger unit in a better part of town. It cost a hundred and twenty credits a week, double his last accommodations, but it was worth every penny, as it had a kitchen.
Tim needed to find a recipe for a miso soup, as he had never cooked it before, but each five rotations of the ladle in the pot resulted in a staggering 0.2 proficiency.
His good mood vanished when, wanting to get more proficiency, he kept stirring and therefore cooking the soup. But once it started to break down into mush, he stopped getting proficiency.
Having learned from his weed experiment, Tim tested just how small of a pot he could make and still get proficiency.
In the end, he used a coffee cup with one tiny piece of tofu, two chunks of green onion, a dab of miso paste, and a small splash of miso soup stock into boiling water, which was just enough to count when he stirred it with a spoon.
Tim got some weird looks stirring a travel mug on his deliveries or sitting on a bench at a park, but he hardly cared. This would make his life easier, and if other people couldn’t recognize that, it wasn’t his fault. His breaks to pick some grass wasn’t laziness, it was saving money on sod in between delves.
After two days of cooking and most importantly, stirring, miso soup, Tim felt the pulse as his Talent sent information into him as he crossed into novice alchemy. He quickly ran to the store to buy the third ingredient and used his harvested herbs to make a potion.
It wasn’t effortless, and while he knew what to do, he lacked familiarity with the equipment, which hurt the final product. But even his first batch was technically a success. It glowed after all.
The potions would only sell for two or three credits, but he didn’t care and made a full twenty batches, each one becoming better and better as his experience was more fully utilized each round. By the end, his potions looked like someone who had been making potions for a decade had made them, instead of someone whose first potion was made two hours before.
Now it was just about getting to Tier 2, where he could not only make more money per delve, but make potions that actually sold well.
Following that train of thought, he bought a single set of the ingredients for a body strengthening potion, just to see how much it would cost.
Beginner Alchemy(Body Strengthening | Variant Calafor): 0/100 Proficiency — Unlock Cost: 20,000 Credits.
It was surprisingly cheap for a potion that sold well on the open Calafor market, and he knew that once he raised his proficiency and practiced a little, he could sell above the standard market rate.
Following that same vein of thought, he checked out some of the other lower-level potions, buying a single set of ingredients each time to test it. While the prices varied, all of his math indicated that it would just be better and more profitable to buy a second delve slot and delve for advancement twice as fast, rather than trying to mess around with the lower-Tier alchemy potions that were mostly net zero or losses.
It took almost another two year of work to get to Tier 2. And during that time, he leveled up his novice footwork to journeyman, which flooded him with a century worth of experience. It was so profound, he almost felt like he could walk through a thunderstorm and never let a drop of water touch him.
That gave him unparalleled safety in the rifts, though he didn’t let that get to his head and always took the fights exactly as the guide and experience told him was the safest method.
He did, however, stop doing his deliveries, as the one million proficiency to finish apprentice footwork would take him over a century to earn at his current pace, and things were good enough at the journeyman level that he wasn’t willing to push himself even harder when the proficiency would come naturally.
He also cut down on his miso soup stirring when he hit the same hurdle. It just was just too much work for how little he got out of it, and he was going to pull his hair out if he needed to smell the soup for another day.
Scrimping and saving, he managed to buy the body strengthening entry, but he ran into an unexpected roadblock. His bank simply didn’t carry more than five thousand credits in cash on hand, and so his money needed to be ordered several days in advance. But after absorbing the money, he was finally able to see his reward for the last year of hard work.
Beginner Alchemy(Body Strengthening | Variant Calafor): 0/100 Proficiency — Stir vegetable soup.
Seeing that it wasn’t an onerous requirement, he repeated his actions with the miso soup, stirring small pots of soup as he did other things until he reached novice proficiency. He didn’t even walk or pluck grass during that time, simply trying to grind out the proficiency as much as possible.
Once he reached novice, he immediately made ten batches of the body strengthening potion.
Not having his Tier 2 rift slot where he could harvest the main ingredient yet, he had to buy the ingredients. If he had to buy everything he needed every time, it would cut into his profit, but four hundred credits for ten batches of attempts wasn’t an onerous expense for him anymore, and he decided it was worth it.
As it turned out, it was the right choice to get the extra sets as he nearly ruined the first batch, even with his proficiency, thanks to his unfamiliarity with the more complicated alchemical process. The efficacy of that first batch of potions was ruined, leading to a product that, while technically a potion, would be impossible to give away, let alone sell.
The only reason it wasn't a true failure was that it technically had the strengthening effect, which meant he got a decent burst of proficiency.
He still poured it into the neutralization jar for failed experiments, knowing no reputable shop would buy such a product, and he wasn’t going to use something so trashy himself.
The second batch was much better, and while the potions weren’t excellent, they reached what he considered a sellable standard. They were at least comparable to the cheapest ones sold near the rifts or in the local shops.
Unlike the light potion, the strengthening potions vials were actually quite small, only as long and thick as his pinky, which meant he got four potions per batch, which was standard for the recipe, and with an estimated duration of roughly an hour apiece. People much smaller or larger would have a correspondingly longer or shorter effect, but an hour was typically more than enough for most delvers at their Tier to plan around.
At forty credits per batch of ingredients, that meant each potion cost ten credits to make. Potions of that quality typically sold for twenty credits apiece, and the sellers bought them at roughly fifteen credits, leaving a profit of five credits per potion or twenty credits per batch if he didn’t want to sell them to delvers himself.
It didn’t seem like a lot, but the strengthening potion was common enough, it was sold everywhere, and the batch had only taken him forty minutes to create.
Checking himself, Tim realized that his main limiter would be his mana reserves, as he had spent close to thirty of his two hundred mana on the attempt, meaning he could only make seven batches a day, every other day, given his regeneration rate.
He hadn’t realized that would be such a limiting factor, and so had done an even fifty-fifty split between his physical and magical cultivation instead of a more typical mage or melee seventy-thirty split. The light potion was more of a chemical effect rather than a magical one, and so didn’t need mana added when it was being made.
Cursing his past self, he accepted the misstep and decided to rectify it going forward. He didn’t exactly have spells to cast, but if he could gather a hundred-twenty thousand credits, he could make one, which was exactly his next goal.
There was always the option to buy mana to refill his pool, but after the conversion losses and expensive equipment to convert the mana to something that was safe to absorb into himself, Tim decided to just rely on his own natural mana generation.
Finishing the next eight batches, his skills improved with each one until the final three batches were closer to something a large alchemy company would produce with trained and possibly Talented crafters.
Those potions, because of their quality and therefore effectiveness, sold to the shop for an astronomical thirty credits, netting him four times the expected profit per batch.
Back at his apartment, Tim did the math and stared at the results.
At his current proficiency level, he made twenty credits per potion after the cost of buying all of the ingredients, for a net profit of eighty credits per batch. At three batches a day, he made two hundred and forty credits of profit. More than enough to live comfortably.
For three hours of work.
The rest of the days he wasn’t delving, he could just relax, having pushed himself so much in the previous months. If he could find a more profitable potion— he had been eyeing the healing potions for their higher costs but higher profits— he could increase that even further.
He would also start to earn more as he Tiered up and got both more mana and mana regeneration, which would let him unlock some of the cheaper proficiencies that would be nice to have, but out of his range currently.
Tim felt himself grinning as the path ahead of him started to look not just bright, but incredibly promising.
Comments
Alex
They use credits. Id guess empire? T5 worlds are most common there too. He didnt pay for his awakening, so not corporation or republic. Not federation or sects either. He hasn't mentioned dwarves or stuff, so no clans? Could be the guilds, they awaken everyone. And he got a very detailed talent readout, just like empire people get. My guess is that he lives in Matt/Lizzes duchy and his continued withdrawal of cash money is gonna trigger an altert in their counterfeiting investigation. And then they learn of his talent and maybe somehow sponsor him? Pay him to unlock expensive stuff, as long as he shares some of his insights
Alex
Spend money :) pay to win character. It seems the skill upgrade without the need for another money infusion. Thats good.
Istyatur Elestel
Uh, did I miss a Manny chapter? Or is this the start of a new side story?
Warley Echeverry
I wonder how his talent will work once Matt gets what he wants and gets rid of physical credits for good. He might get screwed by accident if it only takes physical currency.
Ellariayn
I like the chapter although the portion with Garrett felt disconnected after he (and the school) wasn’t mentioned once for the rest of the chapter (except the the insignificant mention of getting armor from his family). I’m not sure I see him as a member of Titan’s guild. He doesn’t truly have the drive like Matt and Liz (and many researchers). He seems to be very ok with “good enough” which is basically anathema to scholars/researchers who are always searching for more information and better ways to do things (and usuallly workaholics lol). And he definitely doesn’t seem interested in personally giving things away.
Chimera80
Not breathing or walking - “footwork” and “breath control”. Both active skills (walking was just the action required to level the skill, same as “stirring miso soup”). Haggling and smooth talking are probably options, if he deliberately tries to do the thing with intent?
Jesse
Agree. Just that short chapter made me want to read more about the character.
Julie Smith
"Two Necromancers, an Elf, and an Accountant" has Timmy as a main character.
Julie Smith
Wonderful! Tim, another beginner at the start of their magical journey. I wonder where in the Realm he is? Corporations? Everything costs money, so probably so.
Bailey Tucker
Oh, so THAT'S who will figure out how to simplify the Tier 0 Skills. He was literally born to do it. I hope he ends up working for Matt and Liz 🤞🏼
Galaxyace1
To be honest, his power is unique enough to do as a side book
Shmigit
Yeah, I'm really hoping we see Tim join the guild as a researcher
al
great chapter. Requesting a Tim book, good character.
C_Mantis
This chapter will just be part of the normal book
Ron Jarrell
I’m sure the ignored first couple of parts of his talent will come into play, I bet he’ll be key in the roll your own talent concept, able to disassemble complicated talents into building blocks,
Bryce Daniel
I love these types of chapters the low tier perspective from different characters and their talents is a joy for me to read and feel the POA universe flesh out more and more. My one question is with how these chapters are going to be put into book format, are they going to be handled like the aster's adventures chapters or just put into the book like any other chapter. Love the series keep it up y'all!!
Ron Jarrell
Love this new character - looking forward to more of him. Can’t wait for him to meet manny.
Corvid
Calling it, Tim's the counterfeiter
Xarow
I have thought about Tim three times today! Need more Tim!
A Flashy BR
Tyftc v cool
Leon Denton
I would of loved it if Tim occasionally noticed a black cat watching him
João Pedro Siqueira Gallas
Hi, unfortunately I didn't like the chapter very much. I usually really like chapters with different POVs, but I don't know, I think this one seemed very disconnected from the story. At first I thought it was going to focus on the changes to the tier 0 skills, but it went the other way and because it focused on the team's talent, it seemed even more separated from the story and I didn't feel anything connecting it to the universe. I had felt similar to the POV of the guy with the Eldrith mana type, but in that story you could better see the connection with what was happening in the story at the time and it was much smaller. This POV being so big and the only one in the chapter didn't help. I still love the work, currently my favorite story to read during the week. And another thing is if a sentence was strange or didn't make sense. English isn't my first language and man, I find it hard to write in English.
ByLAWphoto
I do love random POV chapters. <3 I hope Tim ends up at Titan's Torch and they give him some kind of contract where they pay for the initial cost and he lets them study him for 5 years or something. with how his still works, he might even be able to write a guide on how to walk without going through endurance!
Dominick Ruiz
Give me more Tim por favor
Armando Pastrana
Honestly i think he is perfect for Matt's guild. Specially since matt can afford to sink stupid wealth into him.
Kris Piskorski
Amazing chapter, I really hope Tim is truly the next ascender and we get to see more of him
Danny
I call aunt Hellen meet him!
Tom C
Either He will tier up and his talent will morph at tier 5 or whatever… Or He finds a way to make counterfeit credits and gets caught by M&L??
Drew Tunison
Sooo whats he gonna do when credits stop being a thing. If I remember correctly at a certain tier no one uses credits anymore.
Daniel
Daniel is better. :P (My first name is Tim, so I'm biased in a rare way :D)
Daniel
Seconded!
Daniel
First things first. I LOVED this chappy. HIt all my drug buttons for sure. Two things. I'm surprised he didn't unlock more things. If he did breathing and walking. Why not haggling? Smooth Talking? Seemed like so much more would unlock before this. Which would then let me think about stock trading or some other form of making money. The other thing is Garrett's disappearance form his life effectively. Not even mentioning his Talent or making Tim pure solo and workaholic seems if anything. Rude. (My first name is Tim so :P) . One more would be finding a way to borrow money to faster reach different money making plateaus rather than waiting for delving.
Roro
I was wondering about the friend’s talent too!
crusty pickle
His tier 3 is creating counterfeit money, but he can't use it on his talent so he trades it to get the money he needs
AL
I see the synergy between Tim's Talent for learning and Matt's Mana generation. Hopefully Tim gets enrolled at Titan's Torch for research;)
Spencer Needler
Need a soerilia style Tim side story
Arctus
This guy would be an incredible teacher after a few years, he could probably become an ascender or pinnacle elite if he wanted, even if he doesn’t want to join the path. I get the feeling his combat style could end up as a Light style mage or mageblade. like imagine him learning domain skills too, he could be a domain expert to rival duke waters after a few hundred/thousand years.
SunStar
Being ascender grade requires more than talent. There's a level of drive that Tim's not showing as yet. That said, the Empire's newish habit of rolling the dice more often (awakening all) is rather why they're pulling ahead.
Nathan Broadfoot
I loved that chapter, tim is a great character and I hope he's story is extended in the next chapter or soon. That chapter felt really short, not sure if it was just because I enjoyed it so much. Can't wait to see his tier 3 talent. On a side note, what did his friend end up getting when retaking his test? I feel cheated lol.
1FantasyFanatic
So this sort of ridiculously broken talent will eventually make Tim basically omnipotent. I’m conflicted because this is a “super special chosen one” talent. But Matt’s talent is arguably also at that level. If just a few hundred years after Matt there is another realm breaking level Talent why are there not a hell of a lot more ascenders? Heck it seems in a few centuries Tim will make even ascenders look weak. IDK, this just feels like too much.
SeanLSJ
I could legit read an entire POA story just about Tim and his journey! This was incredible.
eloi Boco
Using that talent in research would be broken
Thomas Brusilovsky
Lmao this guy’s t3 is going to let him create credits, isn’t it? Hilarious
Alex
You’re forgetting option G: Tim’s Tier 3 Talent allows him to produce credits in some way (probably by trading items of equal value for credits) and he is the counterfeiter.
Psykohamster
Tim is the best name you have ever given a character. 😀
Tristan R Mitchell
Credits are not a fiat currency. They are backed by mana stones. If mana stones were dollars, credits would be cents. The prices for each tier of mana stone can be converted into credits, and those prices are fixed. What I am really curious about, is what happens to the credits after he spends them?
Kain
Bets are open Tim’s fate :A noticed by the local nobility because of the recent counter fitting issues -good ending ie he gets picked up and helped Shepherded through the early ranks. :B noticed by the local nobility because of the recent counterfeiting issues bad ending: ie he gets picked up and condemned to be an indentured servant at best and his talent is used to reliably, quickly, and easily differentiate between counterfeit credits and real credits :C noticed by Matt or the gang, again because of the counterfeiting, and brought on to possibly help with that issues as well as further R&D at Matt’s guild :D he’s not actually in Matt and Liz’s duchy but will come to their attention some other way. E: Noticed by the counterfeiter’s and abducted/recruited by them. F: nothing just a nice little side story that won’t come up again.
Brian Small
I love these side stories that explore more of the universe
Aaron Hardin
Funny how here is a literal pay to win talent after a lot of Pathers at the T10 tournament accused Quill of being pay to win.
Raymond Lenihan
But the credits disappear when he uses them, if he was the counterfeiter no one would ever know he's doing it because they'd never go into circulation
Keifru
Allright, I assume this is coming in because its going to be related to the counterfeit credit investigation in some way that was mentioned in the last chapter. And at first brush, its a neat talent interaction. But the more I've simmered on it, the more I'm left with questions. Why credits instead of mana stones? Credits being an arbitrary fiat currency, rather than something with an in-universe quantification of energy (mana) which fuels things. Or even an 'xp' that is just in reference to the whole 'Allocation' thing. If the credit economy tanks, does it remain the same? If inflation goes to Zimbabwe hyper inflation monopoly money amounts does that mean he can buy everything simply? Everything is a very fixed and readable number which is fine for us but doesn't seem like its adjusting for local economies. If he ends up in another Great Power, can he spind their credit-equivilent? Whats the exchange rate? If not, what makes an Empire credit valid? Its not like they're imbued by the Emperor himself, unless its like- the Dukes are delegated the ability to mint credits and manage the credit economy. If he becomes a duke and can 'mint' his own credits, does that make it an infinite money glitch? The more I scratch at things costing 'credits' the more and more it becomes a bit absurd tbh.
Raymond Lenihan
He won't be on the path, he wouldn't even want to I don't think, he wants to spend his time unlocking new abilities, and he wouldn't be able to do that focusing on delving as much as the Path requires
Zy
When will he join the guild? That talent and aperology...
C_Mantis
I mean I wouldn't call 60 credits a week when he earned that much in two days of walking deliveries tips expensive
Addie
Please make him a permanent and regular part of the story! He's great!
Addie
A quantification talent 🥰
Derze
Tim is an interesting character, hopefully the bank flag him and we get a POV of Either Aster or Liz showing up to sponsor him to the path, after he if off we can have Matt offer him a job at the guild!
Christian Basso
Damn, I was curious abou this tier 3 talent
Red Armadillo
I don't think he's the counterfeiter, more likely Matt and co will run into/discover him while cracking down on the counterfeiting because of his use of physical credits
Jsar
My lord, what a talent. For a while I thought we were looking at the next ascender.
Nathaniel Ownbey
Keep her claws away from him squak
Nathaniel Ownbey
Yes and I don't know if ot is or isn't in their duchy.
Joseph Jenkins
I thought housing was super cheap in the Empire. Why is he struggling with rent?
Oblivion
So uhhhh…. Surely this has aperology applications also. Getting a casual millennia of knowledge on aperology for just the level after journeyman seems crazy good and if he is helping make rifts as he goes it will just skyrocket in proficiency. My dude is just a glorified knowledge vending machine with mini games attached. 10/10 would read this series.
Skyra
What i hope would happen is MLA finding Tim and sponsori g him on path and us getting somethig like Echoes or Beast Academy chapters as he becoms fourth ascender and make every othr great power panick.
Tim Johnson
I'm glad my namesake character has such an OP talent. This guy is future ascender material if he can buckle down.
Owen Kaz
He's Titan's Torches best bet in producing higher ranked skill versions. His talent tells him how to create the skill, at master level he can likely produce well over tier 25 versions
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
Tabais
Always enjoy random side characters. Like this guys talent
Tom C
Ahhh I love it! Hadn’t even thought of this, the machinations of the imperial leader mwa ha ha ha 😂
Tom
I feel like we found our counterfeiter, he may just be trying to cover his own tracks as he is pulling so much hard currency from the market and not investing it anywhere, or he is trying to overcome a limit of how much currency he can take out at once. It would be cool if Matt would sponsor him as he could shine as anything with his talent but he could be a valuable researcher if fueled with enough credits.
Tom C
One of these days an MC will be called Tim. Always a supporting character, never a bride Or something like that? Mixed metaphors eh? His talent has amazing potential. If he focused on skill building his talent would flood him with the info needed to create the physical enhancement skill the dwarves are so desperate for! TFTC!
Ian
Is Calafor the planet he is on? If so, do we know if that is a planet in M&L's duchie?
Til Weisheit
Love the versatility of the talent. I wonder if that talent can boost domains (the price may be high, but especially after t15 immortality it definitely would be worth it
glalizas
Damn I am hooked and invested in this dude now. He needs a spin off series of his own
Tai Allen
I wanna read this book now
Discordian23
I'd read this book
Jason Hatter
There was no mention of him having to have a skill in order to cook food, he was just able to improve his other skills by doing things like cooking. So it doesn't seem to be a pay to live kind of talent
Charles Axelrad
I smell a spinoff series...
Smit
Removing credits from the total amount of credits permanently would cause the rise of counterfeits. Tim isn't the creator of them, he's the cause.
Alex
Not at all; Ellen's Tier 1 Talent is dogshit. Her Tier 1 Talent is Universal Innate Understanding - the tradeoff for it applying to everything is that it's so weak that it might as well not even exist: the reason Ellen is so proficient at everything is because her Tier 3 Talent allows her to learn faster, and she's dedicated MILLENIA of effort to mastering countless disciplines. Tim's Talent is a pay-to-win version of Ellen's Talent; he can skip centuries of training and dedication by paying for it. He's reached the level of a century-old master in a few weeks for a few thousand credits and a little bit of effort. Ellen could NOT have done that when she was in Tim's position, especially since Tim hasn't gotten his Tier 3 Talent yet.
Sean McClain
I suspect Tim will be visited soon by a young married couple at about level 10 to entice him to join a playpen and get on the Path. They will sponsor him, their names will be Mich and Erika, he uses a Talismans and she uses a Spear and Fire magic. (Or something like that)
Xarow
What will his tier 3 talent be? A discount card
Khrysaes
I read this and thought "Wow.. this is just an expensive version of Jack of All's talent" The Dwarven Ascender.
Mars One
Does his talent accept counterfeit physical currency or does it not? Instant counterfeit identifier. And does it scale exponentially ie 10->100->1000->10000->100000 hours
TwoMoreYears
TFTC. Can’t wait to see where Tim is next time we see him.
Smit
This guy can augment skills with years of experience. Could make alterations on the skills Matt released and sell it to Matt.
Xarow
I was kind of expecting him to make the choice of The Path. I can only imagine what Luna would make of him! She may go a little mad with how there is always a greater level of perfection to reach for!
Trey
i really like this tim character. i’m curious to see how he develops! my hope is he ends up on the path and that zach or matt mentors him. this guy has strong problem-solving skills shown with how he reacted to garrett’s issues, and i can see him benefiting strongly from those two as mentors. to say nothing of what benefits he would bring to the research of any of them (even liz’s bloodline research or aster’s ice-cream empire), this is a world-shaking talent. the main issue i could see for him is time, but if he were properly equipped he could simply go into a high tier rift to do his chores so he can upgrade his skills. if he were to receive backing right now his skills would catapult him to a very high position in a guild if he so chose, but once again i do want to see this kid on the path. i saw some comments about not loving the number crunchiness of his class but i love it. i think this is what can make a crafter ascender and the number- crunchiness of it all makes my brain happy.
Alex
It didn't get a detrimental rating, so it shouldn't have any drawbacks.
Kbzzy
Honestly sounds like a realm changing talent. Can’t wait to see him in high society with the big wigs in a few centuries !
Scott
He should be able to learn things the normal way yes? Or does the talent actually block it?
Mike
Thanks for the chapter ! Loved it and i love tim and his talent, i hope we'll get to know more about him, his future talents, achievements and domain
Katrex
That’s an ascender level talent if I ever saw one. Not even teir 3. Want to see him start creating skills and refine them like someone with thousands of years of experience
Alex
No, I don't think so: I think Tim's Talent is right in the sweet spot of "wow that's fucking amazing" without being in the range of "yeah that'd definitely get you kidnapped or killed" Tim's Tier 1 Talent makes him good at things; being good at things isn't the sort of power that'll get someone kidnapped or killed - that response is reserved for people whose Talents allow them to do things that break the normal limits of reality (like shitting out impossible amounts of mana, or healing people without a cooldown). Tim's Tier 3 Talent might change that: my guess is that his Tier 3 will allow him to convert things into an equivalent amount of credits - making Tim our mysterious counterfeiter. That'll get you in deep trouble with the imperial government, but I don't think it'd get you kidnapped or killed - provided you have to sacrifice something that's worth the amount of credits you receive, the Talent doesn't generate any value, so it isn't the type of power that people would want to enslave you for.
Quinton Stanley
Love his talent wish he would use it for combat that could be epic.
Syf0
So this is how manny alters the future with his talent. He sees a boy with the potential to become an ascender, given he gets sponsored for the path early enough by the right people. So he informs his entire empire, that he won't be as lenient with low tier credit fakes any longer. He knows this offhand comment will motivate M&L to get more involved with their duchies credits by their "own" initiative. This puts the boy with really suspicious credit transvers right onto their radar. After an investigation/ confrontation or other M&L like the drive of the kid and sponsor him on the path, paving the road for the next ascender that manny already teased us. It will look to outsiders like an organic interaction, complete happenstance. All while the time wizard emperor schemes someone else's future. *well, enough tinfoil wasted for the day, tftc*
JJB4345_80_815
Thank you for the chappy! Friendly possible edits: Quote: He knew could have tried to learn without his Talent, but he’d much rather have the credits now rather than practice for a non-useful potion. /Quote He knew could have ==> He knew he could have Quote: It took almost another two year of work to get to Tier 2. /Quote two year ==> two years
StabAlloy
What happened with Garrett? It seemed like there was more to him than what we were shown
Kazith
Is this our counterfeiter?
Frardowin
So... when he figures out domains are a thing, how does that proficiency work?
SqrlyGrly
I think he's going to come to mlas attention because they will investigate him for counterfeiting. Whether he ends up on the path or not will likely depend on when they find him.
Accio123
Interesting, very interesting
WhiteRabbit
Feel like this is the kind of situation that sees someone locked in a small room for eternity and used...
Domy
odd that he did not jump to the idea that mana stones can be seen as currency and therefore anything could be used as currency. Unless this was a intention limitation on his ability
Alex
Given Matt and Liz were having counterfeiting issues right before this chapter dropped, I've got a feeling that Tim is involved.
Javidom
would be cool, but he obviously does not have the drive an ascender would need; and he is not on the path ^^
Robling49
Love that side story, I hope we hear about him again
James Faulkner
*mana issues get mentioned* Matt:”you rang?”
austin kutz
For real. If he can condense a base [create/design skill] ability, he's a one man skill research team. Rift design and creation would be similarly groundbreaking. I kinda really want Matt to take him on as a student or something Maybe Matt can pick him up while looking for the coin counterfeiters
Pizza Scribe
Well, we know the source of the counterfeit credits now lol
SunStar
So...is Tim a mistaken target or witness in the counterfeiting case, I wonder. Or is this the innocent beginning of his villain arc?
Alex
Are we seeing the rise of the first Crafting Ascender?
MinE
P.S. Does the Empire even have enough physical currency for for higher tier ability costs.
MinE
Ouch, hope that the hard currency issue doesn’t become worse.
Jakob
Holy, what a busted talent! Hopefully he gets picked up by Titan's Torch, this seems like the exact thing Matt was looking for with expanding on the T0 skills and aperology
austin kutz
That talent is an outright goldfinger, probability equally valuable as Matt's or any other ascender for that matter
Frardowin
Tim pov is best pov
James Faulkner
Looks like Sung Jin-Woo just transmigrated to PoA lmao
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! Unexpected PoV chapter. :) Science is more commonly the thing with exceptions to the rule. To my recollection math is more cute and dry. -Though I am amused at Mantis choosing to gripe about math... the dreaded math. Test taking is a skill in and of itself. I like the PoV showing both natural intelligence and earning knowledge. A system style Talent? Still not a fan of the meta-Talents. The dice gal wasn't my favorite. -And this even seems a pay to win. Or maybe pay to live? Can he do skills without paying, not even Skills but can he do mental math without paying? -Is it allowing the person to do stuff on their own but just giving proficiency in it? Though it is funky to see a person who has been coasting be forced, by their Talent, to practice. But it is hard to go from just getting how things work to needing to study. I'm glad we immediately get some answers on Skills. -Is the Talent essentially weak skills? Huh, anti-scam technology. Nice. I wonder if his Talent is more profitable in the Empire than the guilds. I think I'd prefer if the skill was paid for via mana stones, feels more natural. Regardless it feels like a talent where numbers go brrr. Picking every piece of grass from sod is just funny. Imagine him at a higher tier asking for a billion billion credits in coins. -Already starting to reach the issue at T2... oof. It is a low tier world though. A weird chapter. Different tone with all the focus on numbers. It's just not my cup of miso soup.
