Chapter 65 | Talent Selection

[Talents have been drawn! Pick one out of three:]

[Dextrous Controls (Uncommon)]

[Base Effect: 25% increase in dexterity effectiveness for motor skills.]

[Main Stat: Dexterity]

[Undying Vitality (Rare)]

[Base Effect: 1-50% increased vitality effectiveness depending on how hurt this main character is.]

[Main Stat: Vitality]

[Supplementary Stat: Endurance]

[Magi-steel Endurance (Rare)]

[Base Effect: 20% increased endurance effectiveness. Endurance effectiveness can be further increased by infusing mana into the body.]

[Main Stat: Endurance]

[Supplementary Stat: Mana]

Theo considered all three of the options. First of all, Dexterous Controls was pretty easy to eliminate, simply from the fact that it was a rarity rank below the other two. Not to mention, its effects weren’t that interesting either. Sure, it could have come in handy for his alchemy skill slightly, but that would be it.

Undying Vitality was really interesting. It didn’t give much, but it would be immensely useful in life-or-death situations. If he were to push his vitality up to 10, he would practically be gaining 5 more vitality while near death.

On the other hand, however, surviving a little bit more while exhausted wouldn’t actually help him win. It would just allow him to luck out of encounters from time to time. If there were no other options, he would have picked it, but the third talent sounded too juicy to pass on.

Not only did it have a pretty solid base effect of increasing his endurance effectiveness, but he could also actively bolster it by utilizing mana. Although it wasn’t certain how much he could do so, and how effective it would be, it certainly wouldn’t disappoint. After all, it would scale better and better as his mana increased.

The only question he couldn’t quite get off his mind was what its effects would be on threshold stat bonuses. He already had bonuses from Mind Factory, which was a legendary trait. Would the magi-steel endurance talent’s bonuses simply be voided?

There is only one way to figure it out, Theo decided. After all, the higher his level got, the longer it would take for him to test these things. The earlier he did the tests, the better it was.

Without further ado, Theo pressed the talent and confirmed his selection.

Immediately, he felt a surge of cold, stinging energies running through him. It was quite strange, nothing he could put a finger on. It was different from mana, different from flux, different from anything he had felt before.

That energy changed and turned into flux, then into a mix of mana and aura. It started being fused into his morphology, shaping his bones, changing his skin, enhancing his organs. Although there were no changes visibly, Theo was sure he was now fundamentally different from before.

It didn’t take that long for the transformation to complete. One second, he was shaken by tremors; the next, he was completely fine.

[New talent acquired!]

A simple line was shown on his system. Then, another popped up.

[Detected a new possible threshold infusion.]

[Talent, Magi-steel Endurance detected. Formulating threshold skill…]

[Sub-Talent, Enhanced Arcane Endurance (Rare) acquired.]

[Enhanced Arcane Endurance (Rare)]

[This main character has 10% increased endurance effectiveness. The endurance stat also bolsters non-physical resistances.]

Oh, that’s pretty good, Theo realized. It seemed talents were more about the scaling they brought rather than the base stats they provided. Now, when he brought up his stat panel, he could see a new addition next to his endurance stat.

[Endurance: 10.000 (+30%)]

It seemed that some skills didn’t give actual percentage boosts to his effectiveness, as the ogre vitality skill he had gained from Tanaka supposedly gave him some too. It didn’t show in his stat sheet, however, confusing him.

Maybe it’s situational, or works in a way that can’t be quite shown numerically. Either way, these effectiveness stats should become really important later on.

With that done, Theo could go on and increase his mana stat. This was his chance to see how threshold bonuses worked when there were two different talents affecting that stat, assuming that the next stat threshold was really 25 points.

[Mana: 12.781 —> 25.000]

[Free Points: 23.008 –> 10.789]

[Mana threshold reached – 25.000.]

[Talent, Mind Factory (Legendary) detected. Formulating threshold skill…]

[Sub-Talent, Low-Thaumage Mana Circuit Mastery (Legendary) acquired.]

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[This character has forsaken the intuitive usage of mana for the sake of parallelization and scaling. Mana Circuitry can be utilized both in the mindscape and the real world, making it a versatile way of adding complexity and modularity to your spellcraft. Beware, however, as Low-thaumage circuitry can only carry a certain amount of mana before burning out.]

[Talent, Mana-Steel Endurance (Rare) detected. Formulating keyword.]

[Keyword: Enduring]

Oh, okay. So it takes the highest rarity talent bonus and adds in a keyword from the other talent. Seems nice. Though, isn’t that the skill the class ascension would have given me?

[Enduring: Mana circuits created by this main character are more enduring.]

Simple enough.

He split the remaining 10-some points between perception and mana, leaving behind the decimals.

[Mana: 25.000 –> 30.000]

[Perception: 10.003 –> 15.003]

[Free Points: 10.789 –> 0.789]

Knowing the overload of sensations he would experience, Theo lay back down in the bed and closed his eyes. While his body adjusted to the sudden influx of energy, Theo checked if the skill provided for his ascension infusion with Mind Factory had been changed.

And indeed, it had been.

[New skill: Low-Grade Mana Architecture (Rare)]

[This character is adept at the fundamentals of mana architecture.]

Hmm… These skills seem to be knowledge-based. Can I not gain them by studying? I really should head to that mage tower.

He could vaguely sense the influx of information filling his head, but he didn’t really focus on it too much. It would come later.

The last thing Theo wanted to check was the ascension benefits for infusion with Mana-Steel Endurance.

[Ascension Benefits]

[Free Points per level: 2 —> 6]

[New sub-talent: Reinforced Mind Palace (Rare)]