[Learn Skill {S Class Fallen Cradle}?]
[Yes][No]
—
Fallen Cradle. Other than the S Class moniker attached to it, it was hard to think of what this Skill could be. But Zarek knew it immediately; that was because this was a Skill that Priya had gotten her hands on in a past life.
In this case, Fallen was almost a red herring. It referred to Godsfall, not the action of falling itself, though this could easily be mistaken. The Cradle portion of the name was more accurate to the usual use of the noun.
Fallen Cradle allowed the creation of a bundle of Godsfall within the body that carried more density, sharpness, or potency than Godsfall that was usually accessible to a person. Essentially, it meant that Priya could store her Godsfall, slowly increasing its density over time, and then deploy that denser or more potent Godsfall when she needed it.
Depending on how long she had to store it, and how much her body could take, she could easily display a Godsfall energy strength that was a tier beyond herself for a short burst of time.
This was the Fallen Cradle.
And when it synergized with Priya's Melaloon Talent, it was absolutely broken. It could hardly be described any other way, especially now that Priya could absorb Godsfall passively.
In fact, this Skill would fix Priya's two greatest issues right now: her lack of attack potency and how much faster her Intelligence improved versus her other stats.
If the Intelligence she passively absorbed fed into her Cradle instead of dissipating into her body, her Intelligence Growth Potential would slow considerably, and she would be able to continuously improve the Godsfall in her Cradle.
While others would have to set time apart in the day to improve their Cradle, often spending hours upon hours for minor results—especially if their Mastery Class was limited—Priya could quite literally do it in her sleep.
Even at F Class Mastery, within three days, Priya could probably store enough energy in her Cradle at a high enough concentration that she could one-shot a D Warrior.
Of course, this would require her strike actually landing, and it would only be enough for one shot, but it was a shocking matter nonetheless. Especially considering Priya's talent in Intelligence…
There was no way Fallen Cradle would stay at a mere F Class Mastery for very long.
"Perfect," Zarek said with a smile. "This is the best Skill you could have gotten, and getting it so early on will definitely be huge for you."
It was the sort of Skill that would grow with Priya.
To put this into perspective, even if Priya had only picked up the Skill when she herself was at S Class, and only had it mastered to F Class Mastery, it would be hugely advantageous.
But this time around, with so much time before she would reach S Class, just what level would Fallen Cradle be by then…?
Zarek knew that he made the right decision.
He took Priya's hand and began to walk away, leading her back to the condominium high-rise.
At the back of his mind, he knew that things might have just taken a turn he couldn't retreat from. There was a very real possibility that Zade and Marx never gained the Talent from a Godsfall Tear at all, and instead picked it up from this very Challenge Hub.
If that was the case, then Zarek's perfect path forward had been cut off, and he had stumbled right at the starting line. In this case, the third Talent he needed to kick off his plans was likely gone now.
There was still a small possibility that the Godsfall Tear he was looking for just hadn't appeared yet, and he would stick around for longer to see if that was the case. But his mind had already accepted the likelihood of loss.
His eyes flashed with a sharp determination. If he couldn't earn the perfect start, he would just have to find another way.
As disappointing as it was, he wouldn't allow one failure to dictate everything.
He squeezed Priya's hand lightly. There was nothing he could do if she was here. If he was going to be stuck with two relatively useless Talents capped at B Class potential, then he would just have to find a way to become the strongest B Class to ever step foot on Earth.
In fact, he would become the strongest B Class in the universe if that was what it took.
**
Dawn came and faded to noon. Unfortunately, Zarek didn't accomplish his goal of reaching D Class in a single bound. The time he had spent going back and forth to get Priya and give her the chance at the Challenge Hub had taken up too much of the night.
But when he awoke from his slumber, he didn't feel disappointed. His improvement was still great as he had Limit Broken almost all of his stats. He just needed a chance to break Intelligence.
If it took too long, though, he would simply complete his D Class breakthrough like this. Perfection wasn't possible in this world, and his Intelligence stat had mere C Class Growth Potential. The fact he had improved it to E+ so fast was already ridiculous.
D Class was already one tier below the highest his current Intelligence stat could reach, so there really wasn't much of a chance for it to do much better.
'Three days. Once I break into D Class, I'll go and see if that C Class Godsfall Tear is still there.'
Trying for a C Class Godsfall Tear as a freshly minted D Class was definitely a suicide mission. But if he was correct about losing out on the third Talent he was aiming for, there really wasn't any other choice. He would have to take some more risks.
Zarek stood to his feet and washed up. When he stepped out, he found that Priya was already up and practicing. He could feel her actively trying to fill out her Fallen Cradle right now.
'The synergy between [Limit Break], [Godsfall Eclipse Resonance], and [Fallen Cradle] is probably quite good. But I'll let her see if she can figure it out herself.'
He didn't want to lead her by the hand everywhere. Her talent in controlling Godsfall was beyond his own; if he started giving her every answer, it would cripple her ability to surpass him in the future. That would be a detriment to them both.
Zarek gave her a light peck on the forehead before leaving the condominium.
…
Not long later, Zarek had stepped into GFI's main building. All things considered, the destruction wasn't too bad, but this was to be expected with what the real goal of Sakks and Dalton had been.
They were only here to cause disruptions, and by now, if they were still alive, Zade and Marx were probably fielding a great number of unhappy customers and quite a few defectors.
Ironically enough, the Green Corporation had ended up the real winners of tonight.
Pensare lost an elite force because of Zarek, and the Sakks and Dalton Firm lost Van Hollen… also because of Zarek. Then there was GFI, who had also lost a decent team, as well as suffering the most structural damage.
That last portion was probably why Marx stood so eagerly the moment Zarek walked into his office.
The entire city was a mess.