In the nightmare conjured by the Soul Flayer, anytime I reached for my Status Screen, I was denied, and for a long while in that nightmare, I did not even know that I had a screen.
I tentatively reached for it, not knowing if any new complication might arise, but my fears, thankfully, did not have any teeth, and the familiar blue screen bloomed in front of my eyes... and I forgot how to breathe.
∞
[ World Quest — Stop the Pale Matron from rising: COMPLETE ] [ Status: SUCCESS ]
I did not trust my eyes, and so I read it again, and the status screen did not lie; I had completed the World Quest... in my sleep?
"From the moment you met the shadow of the Sovereign, you did not perish, and the Matron does not rise this turn," the Hollow Avatar said, clearing up my surprise. "You bought the world its year, since the Sovereign did not proceed with his plans, I believe he wants to get rid of you as a threat before he ends the world."
"Oh, lemme see... Cool, Elric, we stopped the end of the world," the Moon Fox said. The anger in its voice was gone, becoming almost soft, but it quickly turned into irritation, "and then you let a mosquito drink you for three months. I don’t know whether to be proud or to bite you."
"Both," I said with joy, as my heart was grinning. "Definitely both."
Then I thought, ’Wait, should there not be rewards at the end of a successful quest?’
∞
[ QUEST REWARDS — Stop the Pale Matron from rising ]
[ Reward 1: Temporal Anchor — You may set one additional Checkpoint. Total Checkpoints: 2 ]
I stopped breathing because my eyes did not skip quest rewards... rewards, plural, and already the first reward was about to break my mind.
For all the mornings I could not count, the loop had returned me to one place, the tent, my sister’s voice calling me a lazy cur, the grey dawn, and then the red sky waiting as the demons emerged from the earth.
One fixed beginning, which I had repeated over and over again, became the bedrock under every plan I had made. And now there were two. If I wished, I no longer had to fall all the way back to that first grey morning.
I could anchor here , after the Caelith, and if I die, I would no longer return to the tent and the endless grind of battle. For the first time, I could choose where to begin.
"The loop was a cage with one door," the Avatar said, and even its flat voice seemed to have a note of excitement. "Now it has two. The Sovereign learned your single anchor in that hall, and he built his understanding of you around a beginning it could predict." A pause. "It does not know you can move it now."
The smile in my heart reached my face, and I eagerly looked towards my next reward.
[ Reward 2: Expanded Mantle — Title Slots: 1 → 2. You may equip two Titles simultaneously ]
[You may now equip a second Title simultaneously. Title synergy is active. Warning: Conflicting Titles may cause soul instability.]
This reward seemed simple at a glance, but its potential was ridiculous. I had just acquired a second Title slot, breaking all known rules of the Status Screen. No wonder people who received quests from the System turned out to be so broken when they succeeded in the quest.
I could hold two Titles, wield Storm Bearer and Demon Slayer, or any different variation I wanted; the sky was the limit. My Titles were one of the most essential backbones of my power system, and gaining access to two of them at once did not double my powers; it multiplied them.
Sure, there was a chance for soul instability when I equipped titles that may clash against each other, but as I had learned before, the system still judged me as if I were an average mage, and the things that could destroy the soul of a mage would not cause me much harm.
These two rewards had just changed the way my entire power system worked, and I was quiet for a few seconds while I allowed all this to sink in before I moved on to the next part of my status screen, because there was so much more for me to go through.
[ NEW TITLE ACQUIRED — Grade: MYTHIC ]
The pale light deepened, and the letters came slowly, weighted, as though the screen understood it was showing me something rare.
[ Title: Heaven Beast Tamer (Mythic) — Bond forged across death. While equipped, you and your bonded Heavenly Beast may Link: shared senses, shared strength, shared soul. Two who are one. One who is two.]
Heavenly Posture:
Passive Posture - Communion (current — Heavenly Bond 2%):
Unbroken Bond. Your bond to a Heavenly Beast does not sever at death. What is shared between you is shared permanently.
Communion. While bonded, you may passively share sense and instinct with your beast. Neither of you is ever fully alone.
Borrowed Nature. A fraction of your beast’s heavenly nature is yours to carry, and a fraction of yours is its.
Active posture - Link:
You may deepen Communion into Link — a temporary fusion of senses, strength, and soul. While Linked, you and your beast act as a single will across two bodies .
The depth and duration of a Link are bounded by the Heavenly Bond percentage.
Evolution: This title grows with the Heavenly Bond .
After gaining the rewards for the completion of the World Quest, I thought that I could no longer be surprised at what would come next, and once again, I am proved wrong.
I had gained a Mythic Title from bonding with the Moon Fox, and while its effects on the surface were not too pronounced, I knew how much this could change the way I fight.
The fox, although it was small, seemed to be totally invincible as far as I could tell, since I had not seen anything that could hurt it, and it could even eat Tribulation Lightning.
With this title, if I could borrow a part of its nature, from its senses to its physique, then I did not know how many benefits I could gain, as I wondered what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of the Moon Fox.
Through our bond, I could feel a constant warmth from the fox, and if not for anything else, if this Title could deepen this bond, then I did not care about the power. This little fox was one of the reasons I was not yet insane and had a grasp on my humanity.