Zarek spit out a mouthful of blood with a turn of his head. Taking a breath, he exhaled.
He had a decision to make.
At first, he thought that just rushing to quickly gain his second and third Talents was the best path. But now this opportunity presented itself. The trouble was that he didn't know what it was.
From his deductions, he was also fairly certain that whatever happened in this region would happen quite soon. There was a reason he was so interested in Malik.
As far as he knew, Malik started making his name pretty early. If not now, then within the next week or two, the Skill that allowed Malik to make his name would appear.
Now, however… something was telling Zarek that this was far more complicated.
'No. I can't risk messing up the plan for something unknown.'
This was the decision Zarek made.
In his first life, and even in his second, he would have certainly chosen to stay and investigate this matter. But he was also a far more reckless man back then.
Although he valued taking risks in this life too, he also knew that not every risk was worth taking.
If he missed out on one of the three Talents he was aiming for just because he was chasing after something unknown, who would he go and complain to?
Plus… Charisma, even during his first life where his stats were the most juicy, had always been his weakness. It would have been convenient enough to take [Ironbound Compulsion], but to invest so much into a path he wasn't particularly good at in the first place?
That would be foolish.
He might consider it more if Priya was more of a Charisma Type, but Priya had always been more of an Intelligence Type as well, though her Charisma was good.
Well… more than good, it had S Class Growth Potential.
There was one last reason Zarek made this decision. Actually, two of them.
Malik had been too cautious in all the lives Zarek knew him.
While it made sense to be a little cautious with what you had, Malik was often cautious to the point of weakening his position and limiting his own growth.
That wasn't the level of caution someone supremely confident in their abilities should have. Instead, it was the caution of someone who had something to rely on, but couldn't bank on it enough to hold up a piece of the sky for themselves.
In other words, maybe this thing—whatever it was—was great enough to propel the Violet Enchantress to Named Turned status, but not nearly enough to make either one of them undefeatable.
After all… there were more than two dozen Named Turned that Zarek could think of that blew her out of the water. And those were just those that were obviously stronger.
'We'll go and get my remaining two Talents first. And if this opportunity is still here when I get back… then maybe we can look into it.'
Zarek looked at the Charisma Type for a moment before he took a step forward.
He swung it at the Strength Type, who hurried to dodge, only to run right into a fist Zarek landed on its temple.
The rest of the battle was more of the same. Zarek shamelessly used the Charisma Type as a shield and a weapon.
While the infant Violet Enchantress was smart, it had no idea how to get itself out of this situation. If it told the Strength Type to kill Zarek at all costs, then it would be the first to die. But if it did nothing, it could only watch as Zarek whittled down its last remaining bodyguard.
Although it could call forth more Turned, if Zarek was handling a Mutant Turned so easily, what chance did the others have?
It was more common to find Mutants walking around at this stage, but that didn't mean they weren't still rare.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Zarek eventually got the Strength Type on the ground and started stomping his heel down from above, applying relentless pressure.
Blood splattered, the grass turning into a mess of flesh and oozing brain matter. The kickback was so strong that quite a bit of it spurted back up to Zarek's face.
But he hardly reacted to it at all.
And then the Strength Type fell dead.
The infant Violet Enchantress trembled from head to toe, its neck still firmly in Zarek's grasp. It thought that its death was inevitable at this point.
Fear of death wasn't exactly something the Turned felt, at least not in the normal sense. What they truly didn't want to miss out on was a chance to evolve, an opportunity to grow stronger.
However, it also understood that the world was eat or be eaten more accurately than any human ever could.
And that was why it was so surprised when Zarek just… let it go.
"Scram," Zarek said coldly.
The Charisma Type trembled as it tumbled to the ground. Snapping up, it rotated onto its four limbs, the great length of its arms pulling at the ground as its claws sank in.
It looked at Zarek for a moment before it dashed off, rushing away as fast as its legs would carry it.
There were few people who understood time better than Rebirthers. In fact, even those born with rare time-based Talents were wholly inferior.
While Rebirthers couldn't control time, their sensitivity to it was strong. Because of this, Zarek knew that if he killed the Violet Enchantress right now, there would be too many ripples set off in this region for him to rely on any foreknowledge.
The butterfly effect was real, but it was far more overblown than people thought. After living four lives, Zarek knew that it was less important to focus on the little details, and more important to understand who the biggest movers and shakers were.
When you found those pillars standing strong in the ravages of time, the winds that kicked up from the butterfly effect would be meaningless.
In the end, no matter what you did to the strong, they would still become strong nine out of ten times.
Keeping the Violet Enchantress here would play a pivotal role without a doubt. Maybe it was precisely what kept Malik in check for so long.
Plus… a Charisma Type Godsfall Crystal was far less appealing to him than the pair of Strength Types he had right here.
In the end, he had gotten his wish.
'It seems the game of chess starts now…'
Zarek bent down and plucked out two shimmering crystals from a pair of mangled corpses.
He had thought that he would need to do this perfect breakthrough in two steps. It turned out he was in luck.
Just one would be enough this time.