Tamaron's hand shook in the air. He didn't even know what was floating there, but he knew that he had to get it. Maybe in his life, this would be the only chance he had to change his fate.
He had never been particularly strong or good at anything. But he had always dreamed that maybe, if one day, everyone was reset, if everyone was brought back to the same starting position… that he would be able to make something more of himself.
This was his chance to do that. This was his chance to…
His life faded from his eyes. It all happened so quickly that he didn't even understand what happened. The cracking of his neck and the flight of his body couldn't be registered by him at all.
Zarek watched indifferently as the kid slumped to the ground near Victor's corpse.
It was true, he respected the kid a great deal. Having a backbone wasn't easy.
The shame of it all was… Tamaron had no idea that this reward was next to worthless.
Zarek reached forward and grabbed it out of the air.
The droplet of blood sank into his palm.
—
[Accept Talent {Temp Duplicate}?]
[Yes] [No]
—
Inwardly, Zarek sighed out a breath of relief. This was step one.
A part of him was worried if things might change like they always might. But luckily, this was exactly the talent he needed.
Normally, accepting a Talent required giving up one you had or giving up on one you might Awaken in the future. In addition, you couldn't just accept any Talent. Some had requirements and thresholds you needed to meet, and some couldn't be taken in unless you had reached a certain stat level.
Right now, with his stat balance, Zarek was considered an F Master. If the balance of his stats had been at F- instead, he would be an F Warrior, and if it was at F+, he would be an F Elite. There were actually rankings above this for individual Grades, but it was so rare for humans to have them that it was disregarded for the most part.
If you ran into a Turned with what was known as a Mutated Grade, though… they were often even more dangerous than facing off against a Turned of a higher tier.
{Temp Duplicate}? required no such thing, though.
—
[Yes]
—
[Intelligence: F- —> F]
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: F+] <A->
>[Dexterity: F] <B>
>[Intelligence: F] <C->
>[Endurance: F+] <B+>
>[Charisma: F-] <C>
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: F-] <B->
[Abilities: Mirror]
[The subtleties of a moment are clear to you]
>[Empty]
>[Empty]
—
Vague as always.
There was actually a very good reason the descriptions of Talents were so barebones. This was because Zarek didn't have a scouting skill to support it.
Such a skill was actually of the utmost importance to get his hands on as swiftly as possible, and that was actually his next goal upon leaving this place.
However, he didn't need it to understand Temp Duplicate.
The skill was actually best used as a petty theft skill. With it, he could reproduce inorganic materials. The copies would be temporary and their durability would be far weaker than the original, but for that period, they could feel and act quite real so long as it didn't land in the hands of someone with a decent sensory ability.
At this current level, it was only able to reproduce things at a relatively small size. Probably nothing much bigger than the palm of his hand.
But in the future, it would scale decently until he could represent something maybe as large as a medium-sized tree for a short while.
All-in-all… a textbook worthless ability. The only decent benefit of it was that it had helped push his Intelligence to F. This would help increase his tolerance to Godsfall as well, so he could push a little harder when it came to improving his stats.
"Are you okay?" Zarek asked softly.
"I'm okay. But you…"
Zarek smiled. "Don't worry. With my Endurance, these are the equivalent of papercuts to me."
"… Are we leaving now?" Priya asked after a while, looking toward the swirling portal that had manifested at the core of the world.
"Not quite. This world is quite interesting because of the river that runs through it…"
"Water isn't normal?"
"Not at all. You almost always have to carry around your own source of purified water in this world."
"What's wrong with normal water?"
"The Godsfall has contaminated it. Even if we have better tolerance than the Turned, if we have too much of it, we can Turn as well."
Priya shuddered. She hadn't gotten a clear picture of those monsters because Zarek had shielded her the entire time, but she had seen enough to know that she wanted nothing to do with becoming one of them.
"But it's also good."
"Good?"
"The water here seems very controlled, unlike water in the outside world that can accumulate Godsfall over long periods of time and experience volatility in concentration depending on the tides, how much sediment it's kicking up, etcetera."
"But this water, you have a very defined quantity every time?"
"From what I've seen—yes."
"So you want to drink it?"
Zarek grinned. "We already have been. We're going to stay here for another three days while we finish off eating this blood wolf. When we're done, we should already be about prepared to make a final push to E Warrior."
Priya blinked then asked about what that meant. When she got her answer, she nodded.
"Okay."
"It will be hard. Meat from Turned beasts is particularly tough. The concentration of Godsfall is also dangerous within them, so it will require a special method I will teach you. They're known as Godsfall Circulation Methods."
"But isn't it dangerous in high concentrations?"
"It is. But it's also a matter of how available the Godsfall is too. Water is easily absorbed by the body, so any density is doubly as effective, if not more. Meat, though, especially tough meat, takes a while for the body to break down. This gives us a chance to acclimate.
"We won't have another opportunity to eat so leisurely for a while. Let's take advantage."
Once again, Priya agreed.
Zarek might not be willing to rely on his Rebirth for many things… but if it came to the techniques and Godsfall Methods he had learned in the past…
He would take full advantage.
This digestive method was one of his three most important Methods.
[Tearing Gut].