Lucius had sat mostly silent during his trial.
The full weight of not only the accusations but the imminent repercussions had rendered him nearly catatonic.
It wasn't the massive amount of denarii he would have to pay out to the brat of his hated rival.
Nor was it the jail time he would spend fighting for the empire in some of its most dangerous arena types.
No, all of that paled in comparison to what they were going to do to him. He wouldn't be surprised if he never made it to the jail for booking at all.
'It's over,' Lucius thought, finally and fully accepting what was happening to him. 'They gave me one job and I fracked it up....now me and my family are done....what a waste.'
None but him knew whom he was referring too. The fact that he couldn't bring himself to even mention them by name in his thoughts points to how frightened of them he truly was.
But alas it was time for him to go, and he couldn't be bothered to warn anyone about what was coming.
Not that he didn't care, but that it wouldn't matter even if he did. NOTHING could stop them...so he wouldn't even try.
Following the trial Priscus was on cloud 9.
His financial situation had been all but solved with the massive payout he just received.
Not to mention it would be much easier for him to bid for local gladiator recruits without the Claudius family interfering.
He made a mental note to go view the new prospects after the games concluded.
It was only a couple more days away and Icarus was rapidly approaching a new milestone.
With the intense training and abundant resources provided to him, Icarus had transformed himself into an entirely different being.
His original style of combat, the Veles gladiator, was replaced with the Spear Sovereign. It was a viciously effective combat style that focused on the use of the spear for both attack and defense.
One might think that the defenses of such a style would be weaker than those spear variants who use shields, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The combat forms of the Spear Sovereign flowed like water. Impossibly smooth and unbroken no matter what the opponent did, it absorbed the attack and returned it to the sender threefold.
The spearhead flashed so quickly it could strike 3-4 times in the blink of an eye and still retract fast enough to block whatever kind of counter was thrown its way.
And this was only the beginning.
Icarus had trained diligently yet had only mastered the combat technique to basic mastery level 5. There was still an ocean of distance between Icarus and true proficiency with this technique. And should he ever reach the heights of mastery he would be able to dance his way across the cosmos, bathing the stars in the blood of his enemies as he did so.
Yet that wasn't the most exciting news, just the day before Icarus had reached a full 10.0 in all three attributes and the system said he could attempt the gene lock at any time.
Priscus had asked him to put it off until he returned from the trial. He wanted to be able to completely focus on Icarus to ensure nothing went wrong.
Priscus had never personally witnessed anyone breaking their gene locks, and truthfully he didn't know if it was widespread knowledge that such a thing was even possible.
His family records mentioned some enormously powerful gladiators back in ancient days, but who could say if it was truth or propaganda at this point?
Rushing back to his compound he gathered Icarus into the central platform of the training ground.
The sparring bot was turned off and put away to provide extra space.
But before instructing Icarus to begin attempting the break he took a quick look at his updated status.
*Icarus:
Race: low human(rank 1)
Rank: 1
Level: 10(100/100%)
Vitality: 10.0(cannot increase)
Control: 10.0(cannot increase)
Spirit: 10.0(cannot increase)
Talent: C Class-Battle master(Improves reflexes and perception while in battle by 25%, Able to discern the weaknesses of opponents below own level. Skill progress is doubled in battle with a 15% chance of breaking through any skill bottlenecks.)
Potential- B Class(Attributes improve by .5 per level, training efficiency increased by 40%)
Skills: Intermediate Spear Mastery- lvl 1(Increases Spear damage/attack speed by 35%)
Spear Sovereign- Basic mastery lvl 5(A unique set of combat techniques used by those who have devoted themselves to the spear, +25% attack speed and damage with spears, +25% defense, while wielding a spear you can never be disarmed. Note: The spear will bend to your every whim granting you victory, and your enemies...death.)
Equipment: F Class Veles Set(All stats + .025)
Note: Requirements for the breaking of the first gene lock have been met, please ensure the appropriate fuel is available for the process.*
Fortunately for both Icarus and Priscus, the money he was awarded had already been processed.
He was now sitting on a whopping 2.5 million denarii, which was more than enough to ensure Icarus' fire didn't go out prematurely.
'System please purchase a C-grade gene supplement for Icarus' breakthrough, additionally please tell me how to teach Icarus to begin the process.'
*Acknowledged, purchase complete. In order to break one's gene locks one must control their vitality into a raging river, circulating it through 24 successive channels within the body.
Once the vital river reaches the end of the 24th circle it will crash against the gene lock and attempt to break it down.
Each failed attempt eats away at the body's vitality, hence the gene supplements are used to revitalize the body's flame, enabling the individual to continue to attempt the breakthrough.
If the vitality is strong and controlled enough the lock will break, allowing the individual to continue on their path towards power.
In the case of Icarus with his B-grade potential. The gene lock will immediately double his attribute capacity to 20.0 in each attribute.
Additionally, it will allow him to level up to rank 2, doubling his capacity again to 40.0.
His level will be reset to rank 2 level 1, and he will need to reach level 20 to attempt to rank up again. The level requirements double with each rank up with some notable exceptions. More details will be provided at the appropriate time.*
It seemed like a fairly straightforward process. Made all the more familiar because of Priscus' recent experience in breaking through from civilian to ignited gladiator.
'I almost forgot system, what are the 24 pathways in which we need to circulate our vitality?'
*They are the same pathways you have been using for training purposes. The control attribute is not just about how much of your strength you can use at one time, it's about how much of your vitality you can smoothly control within your own body.
I fear that the host may not be paying as close attention as he needs to, the recommendation is an additional 2 hours of focus and intelligence study to rectify this issue.*
Priscus' face immediately went sour. 'And just when do you plan to have those two hours eh?! I barely sleep as it is!'
The system of course ignored him at this point. It didn't really want him to take on additional courses, just wanted to get him thinking correctly. But it wouldn't hesitate to make the adjustment if Priscus didn't get his act together in time.
Shaking his head Priscus turned towards Icarus to explain the process as well as give some encouragement.
Taking deep breaths to steady himself Icarus got ready to initiate the process.
Sitting in a lotus position Icarus focused inwards. Locking onto his heartbeat he allowed the steady rhythm to slowly dominate his mind space clearing all other thoughts.
His breathing and body synchronized as his focus continued to dive ever deeper into his body, eventually zeroing in on his bloodstream.
Once his focus arrived at this depth he exerted his mental faculties to begin to accelerate the flow of his own blood. And as it began to flow faster and faster a deep crimson energy began to be emitted from it.
This was his vital energy in its raw form, and it was at this point that Icarus had to split his mental capacities two ways. One to continue to accelerate his blood flow and the other to control and compress the vital energy being released.
Up to this point, Icarus had been almost on autopilot, this kind of exercise was a daily part of his routine. Even circulating the vitality through the appropriate channels wasn't entirely new to him, the difference was during practice he only ever circulated his vital energy through 1 pathway at a time.
He slowly mapped out the pathways until he could control the energy through each one of them individually and concurrently. It had taken until just 2 days before for him to master the technique
But now he would have to circulate through them consecutively which he had never done before but was nevertheless confident in his ability to do so.
The first thing he noticed as he began to circulate the energy through the first path into the second was a slight pressure began to build, as well as the energy itself felt slightly hotter and more dense.
This continued to increase as he directed the energy to flow from one pathway into the next one after the other.
By the time he had reached just the 13th pathway his body had begun to sweat and a headache was building as the denser energy was harder to move.
Despite this Icarus pressed on, not once wavering in his concentration or efforts to push the energy further and faster.
14th...17th...19th...20th...By now the pressure was intense. So hot was the energy that it had begun to burn Icarus on the inside causing tremendous pain.
The energy radiated brilliantly like someone had turned on a bright crimson light, and as it continued to move forward the light it emitted only grew brighter. And along with it the pain intensified, yet still with his blood on fire and his ears beginning to bleed Icarus pressed on.
The pain he was feeling now was intense beyond words, and yet his determination only solidified in the face of it.
He had dedicated himself, body and soul, to becomeing the greatest gladiator the empire had ever known. This coupled with his vow to never again be the subject of virulent ridicule for his lack of family or talent worked together to sweep every thought from his mind other than completing the task set before him.
'I'll show them....' He thought furiously as he pressed even harder to push the energy through the last few pathways, causing the energy to begin to emit a low rumble sound as though a great river was running nearby. 'I'll show them ALL!!'
With a last great push, Icarus had finally succeeded in forcing the energy to the end of the 24th pathway where it was met by a steel wall.
Refusing to back down Icarus continued to push with all his might, drops of blood dripping from his nose as several of his blood vessels popped due to the shear pressure.
[creeeeek....creeeeeeeek!...SNAP!]
The wall burst open with a violent sound of shattering glass echoing throughout Icarus' body.
It was at this point that Icarus could no longer hold on and released his grip of the vital energy allowing it to rampage through his body.
But despite the fact that normal energy would cause damage if it were allowed to run freely like this, Icarus would describe the experience as....euphoric.
'Finally...' Icarus thought as exhaustion threatened to pull him into oblivion. 'I broke it...I broke...the gene lock.'