Status | Quests | Inventory
A Paragon's Path:
Over the eons, many gods have arisen, but few have trod the Path of Paragons, and fewer have succeeded.
Requirements: Raise all attributes to 1,000 at the same time for a perfect ascent to the Warrior tier. Unlock your Bloodline before ascending to the Warrior tier.
*If accepted, all attribute gains over 999 will be redirected as Stat Points until all conditions are met.
Accept
Yes/No
Luke mulled over the text. It explained what was happening. The world, it seemed, had more layers than he thought it did. More than that, it offered him a path to becoming stronger—stronger than he would otherwise be, but in return, he had to ascend perfectly or not at all.
He read it again. The prompt inadvertently revealed a lot about Theos, and cultivation in general. Confirming some of what he knew and spawning even more questions in its wake.
So even if I raise just one attribute past one thousand, I'll enter the Warrior tier. Arya said as much on the way over here. In vague terms.
The quest is weird, though. It's not coming from the Seed. At least not entirely. It's more like the Seed is contextualizing it for me. Which means the very act of cultivating is baked into this reality. Nice.
He tried to stand up but found he couldn't.
It's like my limbs lost connection. Freaky, but I'm not freaked out. I just have to accept or deny, and the world will go back to normal. This pause … It's giving me time to decide. Interesting.
Let's think this over. The Seed is giving me the option to refuse, implying that I don't have to do this. It's not like the normal quests it gives me. Those just seem to be things that I need to do, either to survive or become a god. Likely both. I can't reject them. Don't know what happens if I fail at them, though.
An image of Arke ripping his soul from his body and removing the Seed that was implanted in his soul flashed through his mind.
Death. That seems likely if I fail.
Do I want to accept this one in particular? Locking myself in the Mortal tier until I unlock my Bloodline is going to take a lot of time. The fact that I can refuse it is interesting, though. It means, or should mean, that I don't strictly need to do this. I can still become a god without it. Except … not all gods are equal. This … It's promising me the strength needed to be unparalleled. A paragon. But not really. It's promising to let me stand at the precipice. I still need to get there, though. Accepting this won't make me any stronger right now. I may not even be that much stronger when I ascend to the Warrior tier. Except I'll always be the strongest I could possibly be at the peak of every tier. Even when I become a god.
Curious, he directed his thoughts toward the Seed, and his thoughts reeled in surprise when it actually answered. He had gotten used to it ignoring his inquiries.
Sweet.
Let's see what it says.
—The Path of the Paragon emerged from the primordial order, manifesting alongside the creation of Theos. The path demands that all who tread it do so without hesitation. Once embarked upon, it cannot be abandoned. If rejected, it is lost forever.
—Quests given by the God Seed guide the host through danger and opportunity, directing the host through the eddies of fate toward the ultimate pursuit of divinity.
He read it, then read it again. Just to make sure he wasn't missing anything.
If I didn't have the Seed, or the sword, I'd be locking myself at the Mortal tier, perhaps forever. I might not even have known if I had a Bloodline. With it, though … I know exactly how far away I am from my goal, and exactly what I need to do to get there. Just killing monsters will be enough.
More than that, if Aeolus had chosen the Path of the Paragon, would he have been killed by Arke, even after he reached godhood? It's clear that the Seed will guide me, but it won't make me the best version of what I could be. That—that is what this quest is about. Perfection. A paragon is perfect.
So, really, the question is, can I afford to be lazy? No. Not now, and not ever.
Yes. Luke directed his thoughts to the Seed, accepting the quests. A feeling of heaviness overcame him as color and sound returned to the world.
Immediately, he felt something in his status change.
Status | Quests | Inventory
Name: Lukas King
Mana: 528
Rate: 15% per hour
So there was an immediate benefit. My mana recovers a little faster now. Five percent doesn't seem like a lot, but … let's see. He closed his eyes, struggling to do the math in his head. Instead of taking ten hours for me to get all my mana back, it'll take me just under seven hours now. Not bad.
Not exactly immediate, considering I don't have any way to actually use my mana yet, but I can see that being very useful.
Picking up the shattered pieces of his comb off the floor, he threw them away as he ran through the numbers for his quest.
I need ten thousand points just for my Bloodline, and then basically four thousand for all the attributes. A little under, with the stats I already have. Still fourteen thousand points. I can earn three a day just from exercising, so not counting anything else, that's … more than a decade.
Fuck. He paced back and forth. This may have been a mistake. No. It's not. All that means is that I can't go hermit mode.
His mouth set into a frown as he realized all the things he'd need to kill to get to his goal. I can do it, he told himself before glancing at the clock. It was time to meet the rest of the competition.
The scene he walked into wasn't quite what he was expecting. He thought there would be a tense crowd listening to one of the warriors talk. Instead, music played in the background, and people were dancing in the middle of a large auditorium. A bar was in one corner, and there were tables loaded with steaming food beside it.
Elder Irila, now dressed in glittering red robes, was sitting next to two other warriors, one from the Brotherhood and the other from the Crimson Night. Each of them wore fancy red robes. To the left of her was a severe-looking old man, his head bald and his face completely covered in liver spots and wrinkles. To her right was the complete opposite. He didn't look older than twenty and was built powerfully. He looked handsome, with high cheekbones, long hair, and a beard just messy enough to look natural and just neat enough to avoid looking bad.
Luke observed the pair in amusement as the younger of the two regaled Irila with some story, wearing an expression that Luke would recognize anywhere—one of a man desperately trying to impress a woman.
"Jealous? I know I am. If I could talk to Helen like that, that would be so awesome."
"Spiros! I thought I saw you earlier," Luke greeted him with surprise. Absently, he noted the empty bottle in his hand and the characteristic sway of a good buzz in his step.
"And I definitely saw you." He wiggled his eyebrows. "An Inner Disciple."
"It's not like that," Luke said, keeping his voice carefully even. "Besides, she's a little older than I am. I don't think she'll see me that way." More like I'm older than her. Not by a lot, but if I was in my twenties, I wouldn't look at a fifteen-year-old kid like that. Stupid body. Why couldn't the Seed keep me at twenty-six?
"Never say never. Besides, I've heard warriors live for centuries. If you can both make it that far, five, six years will seem like nothing. Even decades won't be that far off." He stepped closer to Luke and whispered in his ear, "The woman I love is forty." Spiros stepped back and nodded to him as if he had told him a secret of great importance.
Luke blinked at him. "… I thought she turned you down?"
"She did"—he nodded—"but she's a Warrior. I may be too young now, but what about in twenty years? Or thirty? We'll both be older, but with centuries of life still ahead of us. If I can make it."
"You have a point. After a while, age is nothing but a number."
"That's right. You know, Myko and June make fun of me for it, but I'll get there. I'll become a warrior and ask her to marry me. They don't understand. You know"—he wrapped his arm around Luke's shoulder—"I was the last person to stop running. They let the last five hundred people still running join, but they didn't stop those of us who could keep going, either. Those bastards. I ran for three hours longer than the second-to-last guy. I didn't even stop to shit! Did you know that, Luke? I love her enough to shit my pants! She wasn't even there!"
Luke patted him on the back. "Love makes us do stupid things sometimes. Why don't we get something to eat? The food looks delicious."
"I knew you'd understand," Spiros said, wrapping his other arm around Luke in a drunken hug.
Luke awkwardly smiled at the people staring at them as they walked by. Peeling Spiros off him, Luke led him toward a table and, after dropping Spiros on the chair, sat down himself, observing the crowd as they mingled, seemingly unaware that in a few hours, they would all be competing with each other. Perhaps even fighting to the death in order to sate their greed.
"They're doing this so we'll be nicer to each other tomorrow. You missed the speech they gave earlier," Spiros said, his mouth full of cake.
"Did they say anything else? Anything important?"
"Mmm. No. Just some stuff about trying to stay friendly. Maybe some people will listen, but some won't. You know how it is …" He trailed off, shoving another slice of cake down his throat.
"I can guess."
After eating his fill, Luke left the party, having unsuccessfully and half-heartedly tried and failed to find any other familiar faces in the crowd. A futile task considering how many people were gathered.
The next morning saw all the cultivators assemble on the roof of the building before their respective Elders flew them out of the city and toward a large lake.
The assembled cultivators stood around patiently as the three warriors walked up to a seemingly random spot. Three rings flashed, and in each of their hands three identical keys appeared. They walked toward the edge of the water, close enough to risk their feet getting wet in the lake's shallow waves. In unison, they stabbed the keys forward and turned them.
Gasps of awe proliferated through the assembled crowd as a wide stone bridge appeared. It led to the center of the lake, where it cut off randomly.
The oldest of the three warriors flew a dozen feet into the air.
"Walk along this path and complete the trials within. I wish you all the best of luck." He flew back down, and the three warriors stood to the side of the bridge.
The crowd shuffled uncertainly before a blue-robed figure broke away and sprinted along the path. The crowd watched him with bated breath as he ran all the way down to the center before disappearing in a flash of white light, breaking the floodgates. The rest of the cultivators ran forward and started pushing and shoving as they approached the entrance to the bridge.
"Ready?" Arya asked, stepping beside him.
"Yeah," said Luke, watching Spiros break free from the cluster and run down the length of the bridge. "I'm ready. Let's just give it a minute, though. Let that mess sort itself out."
"Agreed."
They waited for a few minutes, letting the crowd thin, before stepping onto the bridge. They watched curiously as the people disappeared once they reached the end of the bridge.
"What do you think the trials are going to be like?" Luke asked nervously as they walked along the cobbled stone of the bridge, quickly approaching the point where people were disappearing.
"I don't know."
"Only one way to find out, then, huh?" They took the final step forward.
Luke covered his eyes with his hand as the world became white. When his vision cleared, he was standing alone in a poorly lit room. Moss grew between the cobblestones, and an array of lanterns led into a dark hallway.
So much for sticking together.
He stepped forward cautiously, only to stumble back a moment later as his foot sank into the ground, and, with a mechanized whir, a wall opened up.
Well, this is going to suck, Luke thought, peering into the cavity.