It had taken Icarus nearly an hour before his gene lock finally broke.
Towards the end of the ordeal, Priscus was very close to forcing the process to stop as he was afraid Icarus was doing irreparable damage to himself.
Yet he hung on, deciding to believe in the young man before him. And now that it was over he could safely say he made the right call.
Meanwhile as Priscus was busying himself fussing over Icarus' outward appearance. The man himself was altogether focused on the changes he could feel within his own body.
He watched in fascination as the crimson vital energy ran rampant through his flesh burning and refining as it went on its way.
The cells that had been touched by this energy looked remarkably different.
They now how a red sheen about them as well as being nearly twice their original density. The size of the cells didn't change but their structure did, allowing them to absorb enormous quantities of energy before becoming unstable.
'So this is what he meant when he said my attribute limits would increase.'
Icarus was ecstatic at the realization that everything his master had told him was the truth.
The energy levels in his body didn't change but the intensity of that energy did. And it took some time for that energy to calm itself down and return to the depths of his blood from whence it came.
Having waited patiently for Icarus to finish the process Priscus was dying to know the kinds of changes his young gladiator had gone through.
Fortunately, it only took a few minutes for Icarus to collect himself enough to start speaking.
"I can't thank you enough master." He began thoughtfully, the expression on his face one of complete seriousness and utter devotion. "I said it once and here I'll say it again." Moving himself to one knee and placing his fist in front of his heart Icarus cried. "I am with you to the end, come hell or high water my body and blade are yours!"
Priscus couldn't help but smile, it felt nice to have someone be this devoted. Not to mention he was now even more confident in Icarus' ability to perform well in the games that were going to be held the next day.
"Thank you, Icarus." Priscus raised Icarus from his knees and embraced him gently. "I accept your fealty and shall endeavor to always reward and reciprocate the same."
The hug was brief but filled with a gratitude that Priscus had no other way to express. Had this young man not stuck with him he would be forced to fight in the games himself.
Not that he couldn't do so but it would expose him to forces he was not yet ready to deal with. So the fact that Icarus could be the face of the Ludas for the foreseeable, and possibly permanent future was a great relief to Priscus.
"Now that everything is settled would you mind enlightening me and what its like to be rank 2?"
"Certainly master..." The hesitation in Icarus' voice didn't escape Priscus' notice.
"What is it?" He asked worriedly, 'Could something have gone wrong?' he thought, 'I thought everything was fine, wasn't everything fine!'
Before Priscus' mind to go too far Icarus thankfully responded.
"its nothing to worry about master, its just that..."
"Yes..."
"its just that..."
"YEEAAASS?!"
"I AM NOT RANK 2!!!!"
A stunned silence followed this declaration as Priscus was trying desperately to understand the five words just said to him. It was as though they had been spoken in an entirely different language than he was familiar with causing him to stare blankly into Icarus' eyes.
"I am sorry Icarus, I must not have heard you right. You did break the first gene lock did you not?"
"Yes master." Icarus had an uneasy feeling.
"And you did use up all the energy within the C-grade gene supplement did you not!?"
"Yes master..." The unease grew as Icarus' voice shrunk.
"And you are STRONGER, now are you not?!"
"Yes master..." brace for impact.
"THEN WHAT THE FRACK DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE NOT RANK 2!!!!"
There it was, the explosion of incredulity as Priscus failed to comprehend how after so much effort and sacrifice they had failed to meet the goal they had set.
"Don't worry master." Icarus hastily tried to explain. "While I didn't advance to rank 2 the gene lock did break so there must be some kind of explanation for it right?
Actually, as I am looking at my interface it says my experience has regressed from rank 1 level 10 100/100 to rank 1 level 10 41/100. I would bet you almost anything that this is the reason for the rank two breakthroughs not happening."
Puzzled Priscus inquired further. "And did your attributes decrease as well?"
"Only slightly sir, and only in Vitality. My control and spirit attributes are still 10.0, but the vitality has reduced to 9.41."
Priscus could hazard a guess as to where the other 0.59 went, it was most likely burnt off as Icarus struggled to force the gene lock to break.
The system had warned them beforehand that such things could happen even with the gene serums being used. Perhaps they should be grateful that it wasn't a larger portion of his vitality that got burned away.
Nodding his head and taking large breaths to calm down Priscus focused on what they needed to do next. And just as he did so something dawned on him.
"....FRACK!..."
Startled by his master's sudden outburst Icarus was instantly on alert. But upon discovering no danger anywhere nearby he turned a puzzled eye towards Priscus as if to say, "What the frack man, you scared me into clean underwear!"
"Sorry, Icarus..." Priscus shook himself as he too was nearly scared into a new set of clothes. "I just remembered something about tomorrow's games that would have ruined us if your breakthrough to rank 2 had been successful."
"And that would be?" Icarus was truly at a loss, 'How could my breakthrough be anything but an advantage for us?' He thought bemusedly.
"Our slot in the games is for the rank 1 death battle royal....RANK 1! if we showed up with you at rank 2 our spot would be forfeited! And we would be forced to send you to the rank 2 battles or be banned from the next 3 games altogether for attempting to enroll a gladiator in games unbefitting their rank. On rare occasions they allow a lower-ranked gladiator to fight in higher-ranked matches but never the reverse, the result would be a massacre not to mention a devastating loss for the arena itself. No one wants to watch a fight with a foregone conclusion, if they allowed that kind of thing to happen the empire would go bankrupt almost overnight!"
Icarus shuddered at the thought. It hadn't dawned on him until that very moment that they almost ruined their entire future plan by rushing into his breakthrough.
But knowing what they knew now they would be better prepared for such situations in the future.
For what seemed like the thousandth time today Priscus was doing deep breathing exercises in an attempt to calm down.
'This is too much stress for my heart!' He cried inwardly, bemoaning his fate at having to deal with these kinds of things at the ripe old age of just 17. Yet there was nothing for it but to press on, and so on he would press.
"Just so we know what we are heading into and working with could you please show me your updated status? I want to see what if anything has changed."
"Yes, master." The reply was instant and in a flash a blue panel was presented for Priscus to view.
*Icarus:
Race: low human(rank 1)
Rank: 1
Level: 10(41/100%)
Vitality: 9.41
Control: 10.0
Spirit: 10.0
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(Vitality and Spirit attributes improve by .5 per level, Control by .25. 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: First gene lock is broken, insufficient vitality and experience to push the body into the next rank. Once max attributes and experience have been obtained the breakthrough may be attempted.*
Reading through the new panel Priscus had a few questions.
First thing he noticed was the cannot increase note from Icarus' attributes had been removed.
Second was the change in how his potential would affect his attribute growth going forward.
Third was the note about the breakthrough to rank 2 being something that required an initiation or trigger of some sort. Quickly asking the system for confirmation he learned that the breakthrough to rank two wouldn't begin automatically once someone achieved maximum stats.
While it normally followed the breaking of gene locks there were some who preferred to put it off to follow a path called Perfect Paragon.
It was rumored that there were hidden benefits to breaking gene locks and maxing out the double attributes before ascending ranks. Yet in all the history of the universe that the system had access to, it could only find a single example of someone who was able to do so.
But now wasn't the time to talk about that person, so instead the system presented Priscus with a list of supposed benefits to pursuing the path of the perfect paragon and let him choose.
First maxing out the double attributes at rank one would make an individual impossibly more powerful than anyone else within his rank so long as their potential grades were the same.
An A grade potential would still outclass anyone of a lower grade but that is neither here nor there.
Secondly, if the attributes are maxed out before becoming rank 2, the breakthrough to rank 2 status would yield an additional benefit of increasing the potency of the attributes themselves by almost 25%.
Meaning in essence that each 1.0 in every attribute would actually be 1.25, this difference could not be seen in the status panel but it would definitely be felt.
Thirdly and most importantly, doing this would make it easier to break the second gene lock. It's not exactly explained why that is, but something about truly squeezing out the body's potential made subsequent gene locks softer, even if not by much.
Absorbing this information Priscus made a decision that would set the course for the rest of his life. And one day he would look back on this moment and think to himself.
"Thank goodness for Icarus and his breakthrough to rank 2."