Zarek took a breath and exhaled. "So they still haven't come out?"
"No. We've been watching the Godfall Tear, but there's nothing," Priya said.
"Mm. Alright, let's return. It's too late for us to do anything. Three days would still be manageable, but five days is far too much of a disadvantage. Sorry guys."
Priya took Zarek's arm as though she was trying to comfort him, and toward that Zarek could only chuckle.
For now, Zarek chose not to try and overexplain things. There was no need, not when he didn't really understand what was happening either. Before any of that, he was going to have to figure what this Anato Codex Talent was, and what this vague "Incode" Ability did.
If Zarek had to guess, just from his experiences in the Godsfall Tear itself, this secret was most definitely related to the pattern he had managed to find in his blood vessels.
But…
Zarek shook his head. He had only been able to find that pattern because of the brief instant of S Class Potential Intelligence he had. 99% of the time, he just had B Class Intelligence and couldn't feel out the subtleties in his blood vessel pathways that easily.
Gaining an S Class Talent, especially a pinnacle one like this, should have most definitely changed his the Growth Potentials of one or two of his Core Stats. But…
—
Role: [Hero Candidate]
—
Whatever benefits he had gained from this SSS+ Talent were suppressed under the randomized effects of Hero Candidate.
As much of a benefit as random spurts of S Class Growth Potential gave Zarek, now he was experiencing the other side of that coin.
Zarek's eyes narrowed, shifting to the blinking map that had been at the corner of his status for weeks now. Maybe the only way to mitigate the heavy weaknesses of Hero Candidate was by finally completing this Quest.
But something told him that he wasn't nearly strong enough for that yet.
And then there was this Profession…
'Maybe I can use this to find out more…'
All Professions had their own status window that he could look into. His previous Craftsman Profession had had one, there just wasn't much to look at so he had ignored it. But just maybe this might give him the clues he needed.
But first, they needed to get out of here.
Everyone looked at each other and nodded. They felt that this was the right decision as well, it was jsut unfortunate after all the work they had put in to get here.
"Will it be alright…?" Priya asked.
Zarek grinned. "Trust me. This outcome might be better than anything we were expecting."
Priya blinked in confusion, but in the end, she chose to trust Zarek.
**
The group didn't tip toe around like they had on the way to the core of the city. Instead, they moved much faster, and with much more confidence as well.
The improvement to Zarek's Charisma made his reactions to his constantly changing stats far swifter. Ironically, this allowed him to see another solution to his problems.
Technically, his Charisma was far beyond his other Core Stats, reacting to their changes would be easier. There was even a slight predictive ability to it.
But about a half day later, Zarek realized that his added responsiveness to his constantly changing stats actually had very little to do with his Charisma.
Of course, it was related, and a twice Limit Broken Charisma of the pinnacle D Class was certainly nothing to scoff at.
Instead, though… what played the largest role actually seemed to be a new sixth sense Zarek had for his own body. What shocked him was that it came so naturally that he didn't feel it until he got a notification.
—
[Talent {Anato Codex} has shown great progress]
-
>[Anato Codex: F-]
-
>[Anato Codex: F]
-
>[Anato Codex: F+]
—
All of a sudden, it shot up two rankings at once as though something had clicked into place.
It was an S Class Talent, so its speed of progression wasn't that much of a shock. What was were its effects.
When Zarek realized what it was doing, he tuned himself more from it. And ironically enough, the weakness of his fluctuating stats had actually become the perfect method of training Anato Codex.
He wasn't even quite sure what Incode did, and from his experience, he could tell that this attunement with his body, this sixth sense of sorts, was actually a secondary or tertiary effect of the Talent.
And yet, it was still improving so fast.
Zarek had never experienced what it felt liek to have an S Class Talent, at least not truly. For obvious reasons, there was "Mastery" over Rebirth, nor were there any Abilities either.
But this felt like he was practically flying.
He actually felt that Core Harmony, once so fleeting, was quickly becoming more than just a figment of his imagination, as though he could grasp it with just a little bit more.
Zarek seemed to become more distracted by it, his methods becoming more peculiar, and yet sharper at the same time.
But then he began to realize something else. His sense of sharpness for his body seemed to extend to Godsfall as well. Not how he comprehended Godsfall, but instead in how he could allow his body to interact with it.
It was a hard line to draw, but Zarek didn't grow better at cultivating Godsfall or absorbing it, but he did become faster in circulating it within him and deploying it toward tasks directly related to bolstering his body itself.
That was when he recalled the Elixir again. Technically speaking, that was an internal use of Godsfall as well.
Zarek could help but think… what would happen if he used [Limit Break] with this added sensory perception. What would happen if he matched a Circulation Method adept at unearthing the potential of the body, with a sixth sense capable of innately comprehending the body?
And just how much better was this Talent in regard to his original plans for Temp Duplicate, Harmonic Recall, and Atom Link?