Enjoy!
PS: I added about 500 words at the end of the 465 btw (the Assassin's Guild tried to scry Priam for his picture, and stuff happened)...
PSS: Priam Character Sheet by the Discord guys! or https://anovelstatus.github.io/ by @fmorel / Fred on discord. Patreon key: FC9LXDxYC2uDsmQaL7w1dXCOCTTYY4Plus: the Discord. Come say hello!
*
Congratulations, you are dead! Your Talent [He Who Eludes Death] brings you back to life once a day.
Number of deaths: 94
Synergy detected with your talent [Homo Elysian Obsession], your Titles [Four-Headed Hydra] and [Life is Hard; I’m Harder], and the fourth Merit of [Blasphemer]. Your body and spirit are rebuilt and will be more resistant to what killed them:
… Attribute potential redirected to skills per user request.
Lvl up: [Pyro Champion Physique] lvl 39CONST +9VIT +3META (Endurance) +6META (Authority) +9
… Pyro affinity enhanced—
[“Survivor” Protocol engaged.
Log :
Death by Pyro.
The host’s soul, suspended between life and death, undergoes Conceptual influence.
Consequence:
Affinity increases…
Error: maximum affinity already achieved. Redirecting…
Attainment level increased. Progression of Pyro Unity…
Spontaneous Concept evolution detected: Pyro upgraded to Ignis.
Warning: Soul Tier 0 too fragile to sustain a Tier 2 Concept.
Possible solutions:
Premature Tier up.
Apocryphal transition.
Abandon attainment boost.
Host decision required…
Concept enlightenment rejected at user request.]
Achievement - Genesis: As a Tier 0, you have forged your legacy in the crimson sands of the Colosseum.
Message for Humanity and Sector Hope:
Priam Azura has triumphed over the 95th wave of the Colosseum (Tier 0).
The Seven Concepts congratulate you.
Title [Gladiator] obtained. Gift (Genesis)
[Gladiator - Genesis] - Thus are named those who bleed within the Colosseum. Some fight for freedom, others for gold, and a rare few for glory.Whatever your reason, you have endured wave after wave of adversaries to reach the summit of your Tier. Be proud… but not arrogant. The final steps are the hardest.Aut Vincere Aut Mori—Victory or death.Martial talent elevated…
[Hoplite Warpath] evolves into [Gladiator Insight]
[Gladiator Insight - Legendary] - Provides a major enhancement to your talent for physical violence. Provides a faint enhancement to your talent for a weapon Mastery.
Trees of Merit
[Gladiator] - Tier 0: To survive the arena, a novice must hone their skills; once per year, grants insight into a missing ideal prerequisite. NEW
11 Unused Merit Points.
*
Priam opened his eyes to a black sky. Nothing unusual on the Moon, given its tenuous atmosphere. Reaching toward the firmament, he smiled, replaying the battle in his mind. A duel he had prepared for over months.
“Today, it’s over. I won,” he whispered, closing his fist as if to seize his victory.
Lvl up: [Ciphered Record] lvl 22MEM +6META (Affinity) +6META (Authority) +15
“And everyone knows it,” he added with a grin as a swarm of what looked like luminous fireflies swirled through the arena.
Through the synergy of his aether sense and his Domain, Priam perceived billions of magical constructs orbiting him. Each sought to penetrate his body and soul to steal his secrets. Few succeeded. Most wandered like hounds chasing a vanished scent, circling aimlessly until they dissipated for lack of energy.
Flexing [Divination Interception], the mage hijacked several probes, extracting fragments of information about their owners. A final-year student from a prestigious academy on Gaia. A data broker operating out of a pirate spaceport. Cassandre Daccantz, the granddaughter of a Tier 5 exiled to Elysium due to a conspiracy centered on Priam. FK-13, a diviner searching for a portrait to attach to the Juggernaut’s wanted notice.
“You guys have far too much time on your hands,” Priam snorted while glaring at the last one. “Yeah, I see you.”
Lvl Up: [Intimidation] lvl 20CHAR +3
Curiosity satisfied, he swept his hand through the air, unleashing an aether pulse that annihilated millions of the weaker probes. A drop in an ocean of paparazzi. Protecting his privacy was an endless war, one he scarcely needed to fight when the Colosseum veiled his duels and Elysium isolated him from Hope.
And yet, even as each scry fed experience to [Ciphered Record], irritation coiled within the Juggernaut’s draconic heart. He was no circus animal whose privacy could be violated without consequence.
“One day, they’ll pay,” he vowed, before sighing. “Well, not if I lie around doing nothing.”
Summoning his discipline, Priam rose, brushed the sand from his ass, and called the System. A quick glance at his notifications drew a faint sigh at the lack of level-ups. Beyond the Legendary rank, improving skills became arduous. According to Braato, it only worsened at higher rarities with Tier 1 waiting years between levels for Mythic skills.
“Maybe one day I’ll have to die a few times to build resistance. It would take months to max it out. So long…”
He paused, but when no lunatic rushed in to strangle him for his bragging, he accepted he was alone. This time, Thaal had better things to do than assemble the Sector Hope powerhouses for a peanut gallery.
“Or maybe they’re too stunned to throw seeds at me,” he mused, before continuing. “A shame about the attainment level, but it’s no big loss next to the Achievement!”
The Genesis Gift was a remarkable prize, capable of manifesting into any artifact of its Tier. A kind of materialized wish. It had proven its worth months ago, when Priam had used a Mythic version to obtain a shield that ultimately saved Sphinx from Sumstreh’s claws. A versatile reward that was already giving Priam ideas.
Then there was the Title. The Juggernaut clenched his fist. His talent for violence had increased, and though it was the kind of thing difficult to quantify, his hand instinctively adopted the most efficient movement to crush his knuckles against a potential enemy. The effect of [Gladiator Insight] was real.
Priam allowed himself a wry smile. Training alongside Kazuki had taught him he was no prodigy with the spear. And yet, he was loath to abandon one of the three Supremacies. Being an Ace seemed important.
“Being a [Gladiator] is one answer… but not the only one the Colosseum can offer.”
Priam was enough of a gambler to believe a Title awaited the conqueror of wave 100, and lucid enough to know his chances of claiming it were slim. At least at Tier 0.
However, he remembered that on the eve of the Second Reunion, humanity’s most advanced individual would receive a Colosseum Title. Certainly not a Genesis one, but he hoped for Mythic.
“Or maybe my perspective’s skewed. After everything I’ve done, bullying a few humans feels trivial. Could be Legendary.”
The System didn't give him time to dwell on the matter, flashing an important notification. He had forgotten his main reward!
Reward: The Winner Takes It All
Select a Steal Token.
1 Steal Token (skill)
1 Steal Token (remaining lifespan)
1 Steal Token (Talent)
1 Steal Token (bloodline)
1 Steal Token (Concept)
Terms of use:
The Steal Token cannot be sold or traded. It is soul-bound to the user.
The Steal Token may only be used on one of your victims. Your responsibility in the execution must be clear and predominant.
The Steal Token may only act upon a complete, original soul, separated from the body for less than 5 minutes, and whose Soul Tier is lower than or equal to yours.
The Steal Token adds a characteristic to your own without replacing any.
It is strongly advised not to steal a characteristic without an available slot. Side effects include soul layer fracturing, aetheric & genetic codes breakdown, apocryphal transition, and death.
If someone had asked Priam yesterday whether he was eager to see the rewards for wave 95, he could not have said yes without lying. In his view, his foundations were already solid, and the System had little left to offer him. Clearly, he had been mistaken.
“I have to kill someone to use these Tokens. Rather aggressive for a reward,” he noted calmly. If the System encouraged violence, the Champion fortunately had no shortage of enemies. “Works for me.”
Priam read the notes a second time, lingering on the dangers of misuse. A clear warning against greed. Exceeding the limits of seven general Talents, or five Legendary skills seemed an excellent way to shatter one’s soul. In the same vein, acquiring a bloodline or Concept without the capacity to house it would lead to catastrophic failure.
Beyond that, the reward was exceptional, worthy of wave 95.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of extending lifespan without a Tier up… though there must be a limit not to exceed, lest...” Priam skimmed the side effects again, hesitating between apocryphal transition and aetheric code breakdown. A grimace marred his face. “Yeah. Hard pass.” His eyes drifted back to the different Tokens. “Well. Time to choose.”
The System was fair: there was no reward inherently superior, only those more suited to the user. Priam feared only one thing: missing out on the best synergy.
He dismissed Concept and remaining lifespan outright. The former because he already had too many avenues to achieve the same result; the latter because he had a bad habit of burning his lifespan on the altar of regeneration. Giving a drink to an alcoholic wasn’t helping them. Unless I can find a Tier 0 with infinite lifespan… but I doubt that exists. Even Jasmine’s [Ageless] doesn’t work like that.
Three options remained, and Priam first examined the possibility of stealing a Talent. With Potential—a resource he had in abundance—he could create some himself, and he had already done so with [Eidetic Memory]. Over the past few months, his addon had run millions of prompts to catalogue every Talent within his reach. This precision mattered, because not all Talents and skills could be constructed through Potential, with [Chimera] being a prime example. Which apparently has close ties to the Depths, Priam mused, recalling his conversation with Keltan’h. Still, why would the System gift me something tied to the enemy? And why is it impossible to build with Potential?
Postponing his questions for a less critical moment, Priam crossed Talent off the list. Not because it lacked utility—even though he had already reached the cap of seven generals, one of them, [Blessing of Viracocha], held little interest for him—but because he knew that with the Second Reunion, the Sun Shop, the Tier 1 Colosseum, and the looming multiversal war, opportunities to acquire more would abound. The only factor that might have swayed him was the chance to steal a sponsor’s Talent by killing a rival, but the odds were slim. As if a Tier 0 Token could steal something like [He Who Eludes Death]… and that’s without factoring in the prerequisite to kill a Champion. Easier said than done.
That left skill and bloodline. For a fleeting moment, Priam imagined stealing [Ideal Aether Manipulation] from some poor Ace… then his intellect snapped him back to reality. If that were possible, Keltan’h would not have failed to secure both primordial skills.
“Besides, I’m close to achieving it myself,” Priam mused. “What would really interest me is a thorn skill.”
Keltan’h’s suggestion had not fallen on deaf ears, but implementing it was another matter as a lack of Potential stood in the way. Nearly fifty thousand points might sound absurdly high, but the limitation was real. As a scientist, Priam had an edge when creating [Kinetic Control], but a karma-based skill lay so far outside his affinities and knowledge that the cost would skyrocket a hundredfold, if not a thousandfold. Indeed, Potential functioned as a bridge between realities; the shorter the conceptual distance, the lower the cost. Thus, even for a tycoon like Priam, a thorn skill was out of budget.
“Unless I spend a few years filling in my gaps? Well, pushing [Rule Breaker] to Legendary to farm karmic affinity is doable, but I lack expertise and I’ve got no material to study Buddhism or Hinduism—” A spark ignited in his eyes. “Wait. Wait! The Second Reunion will take place on Earth. I should be able to find books easily… and why stop at theology? Knowledge is power, and humanity has accumulated quite a bit. Enough to serve as a springboard in this new world. To craft a thorn skill. To feed my addon.”
Starved of experience, [Priam’s System] hadn’t leveled up in a long time. The pseudo artificial intelligence held immense potential, but its projections and simulations lacked a sufficiently robust data foundation to be truly accurate. Four examples among many: Priam had long since exhausted its guidance for training [Kinetic Sovereignty], optimizing his genome, refining a holistic combat method, or drawing parallels between electrical circuits and runic formations. The system, limited to its creator’s knowledge and not yet capable of generating new results from its current base, had stagnated. As a result, Priam now used it only for background tasks and monitoring routines. Not the best way to progress.
“A proper library would change everything. A few kilos of uranium, too. Lenses. A particle accelerator. Vaccines.” The list grew longer as Priam narrowed his eyes. “Maybe I misunderstood the purpose of the Second Reunion…”
Looking up at the black canvas spotted with stars, Priam observed the Earth. From the Moon, the tiny blue marble drifting in an infinite cosmos looked fragile. And yet, Priam felt that his homeworld held immense opportunities.
The Seven did nothing without reason.
Placing an option on the skill Steal Token, Priam studied the final proposal: bloodline. To balance phoenix and dragon, a third was needed—like a stool stood more firmly on three legs than two—but which one? For his final bloodline, the Juggernaut wanted something that synergized with both his current ones. Hydra had been a strong candidate, until Its creator, a true Zenith being, openly declared Its hatred for his patron.
Of course, the Sun Shop offered quadrillions of low bloodlines, millions of mid-tier ones, six of the eleven high bloodlines, and a single supreme—dragon—but none matched Priam’s criteria perfectly. And the Juggernaut was, at heart, a perfectionist.
“I haven’t found the perfect bloodline yet, but it exists.” His mentor had told him of all the high bloodlines, and some stirred a deep desire within him. Not to mention the two final, mysterious supreme bloodlines. “Once I find it, I’ll probably need this Token to acquire it… and [Chimera] at a higher rank,” Priam murmured. He could almost feel the Seraphic upgrade Token waiting in his inner world. A reward for having slain Sumstreh in another timeline, usable only on a Genesis Talent. Right now, [Chimera] was stuck at Mythic and already straining to contain two bloodlines.
Paralyzed by the choice for a few minutes, the Juggernaut finally chose the bloodline Steal Token. A few years of study might earn him a thorn skill, but not an extra bloodline.
“Now I just need to find an enemy worthy of being robbed,” he said, opening his hand. There, a Token was glowing a crimson reminiscent of fresh blood. Priam stroked its smooth surface with his thumb before opening a passage to the Concepts Archipelago to store it.
A firebird took the opportunity to push its head through the portal. The holographic phoenix glanced around before fixing the human with a stare.
“When I see that smug grin, I regret not having hands to slap you,” the phoenix sighed.
Priam burst out laughing, pride swelling in his chest. “Disappointed your phantom’s reign is over?”
“I lasted five thousand years before you dethroned me. I doubt you’ll do better,” the mentor retorted before turning away. “…but you may be proud of yourself.”
I am, were the words he did not say. Yet Priam heard them all the same.
His grin softened. “Well… thanks.”
They stood in silence for a few seconds, both unable to express their feelings, until Priam cleared his throat.
“By the way… I’m not the first to beat you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Keltan’h the Idealist, phantom of Wave 95 for 5,012 years, has fallen by your hand. Undefeated duration prior to termination: zero years,” the Champion quoted. “Someone got there before me, and given the timing, I’d bet my right nut it’s one of my rivals. I have a pretty good idea who.”
“Someone with the sense not to spit in the face of every phoenix before the entire Sector? There will be consequences.”
Priam shrugged. “Got a Legendary skill level for that.”
Lvl up: [Ciphered Record] lvl 23MEM +6META (Affinity) +6META (Authority) +15
“Two,” he corrected. “Would do it again.”
*