Chapter 439: Merit, Originator, and Progenitor
There was no one who should know the name of the Quest. He hadn't shared it with anyone. The names the system gave to things were variable. It was based on a combination of what people used and sometimes hidden mechanisms that were far more complex.
For example, Sylas' first name was decided by the system purely based on what his legal name was. However, his true legal name was Sylas Brown, so why did it appear as Sylas Grimblade to the system?
He was certainly not the only one who was experiencing such a thing. And most importantly for this case, it wasn't just something people dealt with either.
There were certainly various names that people called this place. Some named it after the large number of Dire Wolves in the region, some extended the name of the Arctic Circle further north to this region, and there were some that even called it Evergreen.
But the last was not only the most rare of the names; to combine it with the word "Territory" was too on the nose for Sylas to have said it by accident.
Lucius had only learned of the official name of this region after receiving this Quest. It was simply impossible for Sylas to know it unless he was privy to the Quest as well... unless there was another wild coincidence that he wasn't aware of.
Not sure what to do, Lucius subconsciously checked his Quest notifications to ensure that he hadn't mistaken something. But that was when he saw something that shook him to his core.
When had Sylas become a part of the Quest's contingent? He was the Quest Originator; he hadn't approved of such a thing. How was this possible?
There was no denying it. Lucius was shaken.
And he realized now that the calmness of Sylas' reaction wasn't just because he was rich, and it wasn't because he felt like he could get away with what he wanted no matter what Lucius said either...
It was because he already had Lucius by the balls and he knew it.
Lucius knew more about the Merit Leaderboard than most, and it was in large part because of it that he didn't dare to take things too far with Sylas.
Still, he had begun to doubt it somewhat. The number of Merits Sylas had already accumulated simply didn't make any sense. It made one feel as though the Merit Leaderboard was broken or that Sylas had found some sort of loophole to exploit.
However, right now, he was forced to believe it.
The Merit Leaderboard was one that measured the contributions one made to their home world. The strongest worlds across the universe were all under the control of one power. Those that were split between several factions tended to be the weakest of them.
The Merit Leaderboard, in its simplest form, was an easy method of dividing resources and the focus of a world across factions and their leaders. Essentially, it was a method of avoiding all-out conflict and focusing on helping a world to evolve: the true main purpose of the system.
However, it was also said that when there was a by-far-and-away king or queen, the purpose of the Merit Leaderboard had a chance to change and could provide an opportunity.
A Merit War that would decide the Emperor of a World.
Of course... Lucius knew too little about such things. In fact, even the ancestors of the Grimblades knew next to nothing, and these were just tidbits he had picked up on.
What he didn't know was that it would take far more than some Stars of Merit to trigger such a thing. For one, one had to actually be the owner or highly related to the owner of a city large enough and strong enough to lay claim to an entire world in the first place, and that was just part of the issue.
All Lucius did know was that having a large amount of Merit allowed you to gain the favor of the system and skirt some of its rules... at least in regard to events of high importance to the future of a world...
And what was more important than the future ruler of a Territory of the Aether Plane? Not only that, but the merging of this Territory with Earth was going to make or break the foundation of two highly important areas.
There were few things that would be more important to the system than this.
But what Lucius didn't know was that it was even worse than this.
The Title of "Originator," which Lucius was temporarily granted for this Quest, was fluid. It could change, only lasted for a short time, and was only applied to highly specific events like
this one.
However, the Title of "Progenitor" represented something wholly different. It ranked even higher than what it would mean to become the Emperor of a World.
A Progenitor could only appear before a World completed its Summoning. They were an existence akin to the Ancestor of a world.
Should a Progenitor be successfully born, their Path of Progress would become inextricably linked to the World.
On the one hand, this meant that a World's fate, whether good or bad, would directly be tied to this Progenitor.
However, by the same token... it would open up a secondary system, one designed not just to advance the Gene State of a person...
But of an entire World!
Unlike people, the talent of a World was practically set. It could be downgraded depending on external action, and it could be upgraded slightly with a great deal of effort, but such things took an obscene amount of resources and time that could only be counted in generations.
However, Progenitors unlocked the system's favor, allowing them to Level Up their worlds like they would themselves.
The Path of the Progenitor had been opened up to Sylas. Meaning... the day he managed to gain Earth's complete Favor would be the day he was nigh invincible while standing in its
midst.
And now, with a simple sentence, he had barely shown Lucius a part of his cards and forced him into a corner in a single move.