Chapter 421: Preparations

First chap of the week. Second one in 2 min!

PS: Priam Character Sheet (you can thanks the Discord guys!)

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After their parents’ divorce, Priam’s little sister loved wrestling with him. A clumsy attempt to draw her brother’s attention, as he would only realize years later.

She was six years younger, forty centimeters shorter, and barely half his weight. For his part, Priam had all the maturity of an unripe fruit and about as much mercy as a starving lion facing a gazelle. Suffice to say, after suplexing the poor kid onto a mattress—or into the sand—once a day for an entire summer, Priam thought he understood the meaning of the word massacre.

Log-a-rhythm versus the necro horde was redefining it.

A forty-meter titan, the equivalent of two blue whales stacked end to end, the walking tree advanced toward the tribes’ encampment, leaving a trail of corpses in its wake. Its six colossal legs trampled the corrupted like a living tank over a carpet of bodies, crushing countless enemies and absorbing the most nutritious among them. The Tier 0s and 1s were mere insects under its roots, swept aside without resistance. The madness that was driving them to hurl themselves beneath the Tal Quercus’ roots, bewitched by Moonie’s holy aura, sent a chill down Priam’s spine.

The Tier 2s and 3s fared no better, easily dispatched by the colossus’s four branch-like arms. Flowing like rivers of leaves and wood, they drained the unlife from their foes, leaving behind nothing but empty husks.

“Looks like an Aelbe!”

Sphinx’s exclamation drew Priam’s attention. On the right flank of the battlefield, a Tier 3 feline with shredded fur was springing toward Log-a-rhythm with the confidence of a child going to fetch a ball in the middle of a highway.

“That’s a panther,” noted Osiris. “Not a cat, not a tiger. Technically, it doesn’t look like an Aelbe.”

“If we ever run out of food,” Sphinx purred, “I’ll eat you first.”

Arguing with a sphinx was never wise. Priam ignored Osiris’s pleading look as he relayed the panther’s coordinates to Log-a-rhythm. An uprooted tree didn’t have the best perception.

When the beast came within fifty meters, it leapt from a stump toward the tree’s canopy, muscles and aether launching it skyward in a magnificent arc. Then, at the apex of its arc, reality caught up with it as it caught up with a foolish child. With a slow twist of its thousand-ton trunk, Log-a-rhythm coiled like a spring, storing power before releasing it in a violent whip. The arm sliced through the air, breaking the sound barrier before intercepting the panther with all the gentleness of a runaway freight train.

To give credit where it was due, the feline didn’t entirely explode—a testament to its sturdy physique. Most of its flesh, however, separated from its bones and rained down across the battlefield in a fine red drizzle, while the shattered skeleton fragments blasted off like Team Rocket.

“Home run,” Priam smirked.

“Home run?” echoed Osiris. “You mean Log sent it home?”

“The panther must live far away then,” Sphinx said, squinting. “I can’t even see it anymore.”

“Aye. Too bad we can’t see the end of this damned horde either,” Osiris grumbled.

Indeed, despite Log-a-rhythm’s systematic slaughter—and the hundreds of hoplites following in its wake—the corrupted were still legion. Worse, the battle log revealed a steady rise in their average level.

Event: Necromoon.

Banishment of a corrupted (Tier 0 - common) - Sun point +1 x2 354
Banishment of a corrupted (Tier 1 - common) - Sun point +10 x4 754
Banishment of a corrupted (Tier 2 - common) - Sun point +100 x879
Banishment of a corrupted (Tier 2 - Baron) - Sun point +1 000 x86
…
Banishment of a corrupted (Tier 3 - Baron) - Sun point +10 000

In just a few months, Tier 0s had become a minority. Somehow, the Necromoon was Tiering up its troops without turning them apocryphal. The methods of a Tier 9 were beyond Priam, but he didn’t despair. The System rewarded kills based on power. As long as he stayed ahead of the curve, he was golden.

Otherwise, he was dead.

Well, even death drives me forward!

Today, Priam was in good spirits. Thanks to their soul link, he and his tree shared their Sun points. Watching his resources skyrocket filled him with giddy satisfaction, as he was the kind of person who would get obsessed by a cookie-clicker. He couldn’t stop smiling at the growing list of upgrades becoming available.

Indeed, as a Prince, he now had access to quite a few enticing options. Still, for now, Priam had mostly reinvested his gains into his champion.

Territory

Natural Growth Ritual V (100 000 points) - A ritual accelerating the growth of living beings, particularly effective on plants. Covers 10 000 square meters. Possibility to add organic remains to enhance the ritual’s efficiency. ACQUIRED
Natural Growth Ritual VI (250 000 points) - … Covers 25 000 square meters. Possibility to add organic remains to greatly enhance the ritual’s efficiency. ACQUIRED
Natural Growth Ritual VII (500 000 points) - … Covers 50 000 square meters… ACQUIRED
Natural Growth Ritual VIII (1 000 000 points) - … Covers 100 000 square meters… ACQUIRED

Sun points: 979 703 (-1 850 000)

Since Log-a-rhythm had no trouble crushing intruders, Priam had focused on accelerating its growth. The green titan treated enemy corpses as fertilizer, and the upper tiers of the Natural Growth Ritual had turned that process into industrial-scale recycling. Every second, dozens of corrupted vanished beneath the Tal Quercus’ roots, feeding its ever-expanding mass. The tree already stood forty-five meters tall and weighed over two hundred tons. Seeing its Potential inch toward ten thousand made the Lord of Oasis salivate.

“You look like you’re having fun,” said Louis as he climbed onto the platform atop the treant. Hyshana, Osiris, and Sphinx stepped back to a respectable distance. Besides being naked, the old man was drenched in blood and other foul-smelling fluids. “Yeah, I know. Just gutted a boar with my bare hands. Wouldn’t recommend it.”

Priam decided to breathe through his mouth and forced a shaky smile.

“For the love of the System, stay away. Your stench is giving me a headache.”

“How about a fire shower?”

Using mundane flames rather than Pyro, Priam cleaned the old man, who endured it thanks to his Body Mastery. Ten seconds later, clean and dressed, Louis dropped down beside the Champion.

“That’s actually not bad… if you like the smell of smoke. Thanks.” The old man looked out over the carnage, enjoying the soundproof bubble Priam had raised to block out the undead’s death howls. “You sure it’s my perfume giving you that headache?”

His gaze slid toward Priam’s left hand, which was half-buried in a mini-portal leading to Concepts Archipelago. With their sharp senses, the faint metallic scent was unmistakable.

“If the nukes aren’t enough, I need some surprises ready for the Tier 4s,” Priam said with a faint smile.

“A bathtub of your own blood?”

“More like a pool. With my vitality and enough nutrients, my bone marrow works fast,” the Juggernaut replied, biting into one of Log-a-rhythm’s fruits. Grown from undead fertilizer, they were rich, juicy, and disturbingly delicious.

“Missing some protein,” Louis remarked. “Don’t give yourself anemia.”

“After watching corpses get mulched all day,” Priam muttered, “I’m really not in the mood for meat.”

“Understandable. And what’s that?” Louis asked, pointing to what looked like a gemstone in Priam’s hand. “Did you steal one of the Cullinans from the British royal family?”

“One of the what?”

“The Cullinan. Biggest uncut diamond ever found, over three thousand carats—about six hundred grams. They cut it into nine stones, with the largest adorning the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross. In short, a rather famous rock which looks like the one you’re holding. Why are you staring at me like that?”

Priam grinned. “Didn’t think you were such a cultured man.”

“If I weren’t afraid of breaking my hand, I’d punch you,” Louis growled. “So, what’s with the diamond?”

“It’s not a mineral, but a core. More precisely, the fulcrum of a Tier 1 being Ymir just acquired for me through the Sun Auctions.” Priam twirled the solid aether crystal between his fingers, light rippling within it. “Most beasts grow one naturally, but for sapients, we have to temper our body. The better your method—the more gates you can open, up to seven—the stronger the result. This one’s a beauty.”

“Ah.” Louis snapped his fingers with the practiced ease of someone who had done it a thousand times. “That’s the core that holds [Bending Resistance], [Torsion Resistance], and [Tension Resistance], right? I remember you wanted those to round out your physical resistances.”

Priam shook his head. “Could’ve been, but nope. Haven’t worked on that one yet. This is a new one.”

He tossed the core to Louis, who caught it and turned it over in his hands. “It really does look like a diamond… but with impurities.”

“The tempering must’ve been rough,” Priam said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. See those golden threads drifting inside?”

“Mmh.” Louis squinted. “Runes? Or rather… sequences of runes.”

“Runic formations,” Priam confirmed. “The previous owner inscribed about ten inside. Inject your aether, and boom: a non-soulbound skill activates.”

“Which means they can’t level up. Useless,” Louis said, handing the core back.

“Not entirely. Judging by the complexity, they’re about on par with legendary skills. You know, the ones limited in number even at Tier 1. The kind you can only unlock through a Concept, a Supremacy, or an ideal lineage. Since not everyone can be as gifted as I am, engraving some on your fulcrum is a clever workaround.” Priam’s grin widened.

“You say ‘gifted,’ I say ‘cheater,’” the old man replied with a thin smile. “So what are you planning to do with this rock? Practice those skills until the System gives you a discount on their Potential cost?”

Priam narrowed his eyes, weighing the feasibility of the idea. If it worked — and nothing he knew ruled it out — then he wouldn’t need to engrave the runes for [Bending Resistance] and the others onto the surface of his soul using the soul magic of [There is no Heaven]. One less chance of turning Apocryphal.

“Not a bad idea… but no. Not this time. I’m erasing all the runes, except one.”

“An exceptional one, I assume?”

“One to make Rohan pale,” Priam said, smiling as he gazed at the three-dimensional rune floating at the heart of the fulcrum.

Louis frowned. “You don’t mean—”

“Yep, a mythic one. I’m going to use the son’s trick from the tournament to kick the father’s ass. Or at least, bridge the gap a bit.”

After a few grumbled words of encouragement, Louis left to cook. With Blueberry gone and the non-combatants sheltered in Valaryth, there was no one else to handle the task.

Leaving a parallel thought to monitor the battlefield, Priam focused once more on the fulcrum in his hands. Despite what he had told Louis, his plan was still a sketch. Rohan had indeed summoned the image of a Myth, but their levels of preparation were worlds apart. The Aelbe heir had spent his life studying the White Tiger Myth, backed by a clan that had been researching the trick for millennia. Priam, by contrast, only had his sublime affinity for aether and a scientific approach to make up for the difference.

If anyone could just emulate a mythic skill, we’d know by now…

He injected a thread of aether into the core and frowned as it slipped through the mythical rune without eliciting the slightest reaction.

“A mythic skill requires Tier 1 aether,” came the voice of a phoenix hologram from within his inner world. Its senses reached through the portal opened by Priam’s bleeding hand.

“Rohan could use one at Tier 0.”

“His family must’ve pre-charged his core.”

“What an ugly little cheater,” spat Priam, before thinking about Kazuki’s recent Tier up. “I know someone who can charge it for me.”

“Or you can do it yourself with a formation to elevate the aether’s Tier. A transformer,” resumed his mentor. “Normally I’d advise against it, as the efficiency is atrocious, but you don’t have many other options. Besides, with your Mind Ennoblement, you’re one of the few capable of pulling it off.”

That last remark stirred a recent memory. When Priam had received his crown, Thaal had told him: ‘Baptizing the soul lets you wield the corresponding aether. Ennobling the mind grants you the clearance to create it. They complement each other.’

“So a Prince can create aether one Tier above his own Soul Tier?”

“Congratulations for figuring that out all by yourself,” the bird mocked. “That’s why you had to wait for Mind Ennoblement before acquiring the Merit to obtain resistances beyond your Soul Tier.” All excited, Priam was already half-standing when the phoenix growled. “Still as hyperactive as a child… Before you go hunting for [Curse Resistance], you’ve got another problem to solve! A mythic skill is tied to a Myth. To control the image it invokes, the caster needs a connection with it. Do you have one?”

“I think so,” Priam sighed, sitting back down. He continued erasing the useless runes inside the core with meticulous aether control. “The System hinted at the nature of Titles by calling them ‘Myth fragments.’ I’ve got a million theories and zero certainty about what that really means, but just in case, I picked a core whose mythic skill’s name is linked to one of my Titles.”

“Calling your plan clever would be generous, but at least it has a shot… if you survive the Myth’s judgment. Which Title did you pick?”

“[Four-Headed Hydra].”

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Priam - aether genius