Chapter 274: Unexpected Benefits

49 min late... Still pretty good. Start of the new arc "The Dawn of a Myth".

Enjoy!

*

Back in Time activated.
Rewind: 24 hours.

The user must select which gains to retain. Proceed?

No light graced the world. Priam shook his head—or at least, he tried. His earlier assumption had been wrong. The problem wasn't with the world; it was with his eyes: he didn’t have any. That made sense, more or less, since, according to Micro, he no longer had a body. Deprived of his physical senses, Priam relied on his meta-perception to orient himself. The attribute merged with his Domain, flooding him with a torrent of disorienting information.

Before his mind could spiral into madness, Priam instinctively turned his thoughts away—though he let his add-on record the incoming data. He was clearly in a place where time had no meaning, a disturbing yet invaluable experience. Maybe he could gain new mental resistance from it. Or, failing that, he could always hit an enemy with a mental copy of this insane experience and fry their brain through a mind link.

Proceed?

The System's request popped up again, proving it was not as patient an entity as Priam had been led to believe during his Tutorial. Perhaps not all the jibes at the end of certain descriptions were written by a bored moderator…

Proceed?

“Yes!” 

The space around him shifted, transforming into an infinite expanse of white. Two versions of Priam materialized. One had just triggered Back in Time, the other had just received it.

“You look exhausted,” said the younger Priam.

“I’ve had a hell of a day,” replied the older version—the one who had already lived through the now-erased timeline. His white hair framed a worn face, his expression a mix of fatigue and pain from the wounds covering his body. His half-blind eyes scanned the younger version, who stood tall with a relaxed stance, an easy smile, and a sharp gaze. He was charming. 

“With my charisma and this engineered physique, it’d be weird if I wasn’t,” the younger Priam joked.

Both Priams benefited from one of the thought trains of his draconic vivacity. The consciousness animating them simultaneously focused on the data transmitted by the System. The first notification was almost familiar.

Congratulations, you are dead! Your Talent [He Who Eludes Death] brings you back to life once a day.

Number of deaths: 24

Synergy detected with your talent [Homo Elysian Obsession] and your Titles [Three-Headed Hydra] and [Life is Hard; I’m Harder]. Your body and spirit are rebuilt and will be more resistant to what killed them:

CONST +4
VIT +4
WILL + 4

[Pyro - Concept] - Natural Affinity +5% (95%).

You have gained the skill: [Illusion Resistance - Rare].

[Illusion Resistance] - An illusion is a perception that differs from objective reality. This skill helps detect manipulations of the senses or psyche. The further they stray from objective truth, the less effective physical tricks and mental hallucinations will be—scaling with the sharpness of your instincts.
The simulation hypothesis states that the observable reality is an illusion. If true, this skill won’t allow you to escape it.
Fun fact: You are the first person in Elysium’s history to get [Space Resistance] and [Radiation Resistance] before [Illusion Resistance]. If you are proud of that, you are an idiot.
PERC +1
WILL +1
CHAR +1

“Dying during Tribulations wasn’t a complete waste,” the younger Priam grinned, noting that mental illusions were governed by charisma and willpower. “Guess there’s more than one way to break them.”

Relieved that his next encounter with his Tribulations would be easier, Priam scrolled through the notifications. Every attribute, skill, level-up, Title, Talent, and more earned during the last day was listed.

Some changes were positive—he had gained almost three hundred points in Constitution—others, not so much. According to the System's log, he had burned through one hundred and fifty years of his lifespan! His spiritual age was now pushing one hundred and eighty, and he looked like he already had one foot in the grave. 

It hadn’t impacted his fighting ability yet. The body of a Homo Elysian, a Tier-2 race, resisted senescence well and could live for over two centuries. But his soul? It was starting to show wear and tear.

“The true lifespan depends on both a sturdy body and a resilient soul,” understood the young Priam.

“The race and Soul Tier are the two links in the chain of life. When one breaks, it’s over,” the older one translated.

“Maybe there’s a way to bind your soul to a phylactery like a lich. Then only the soul would matter.”

“According to Jasmine, [Ageless] helps too. There must be other ways to extend lifespan.”

The thought intrigued him, but Priam had more pressing issues. The System was waiting for him to decide what to keep from the now-erased timeline. That was the true power of Back in Time: selecting which parts of his progress to retain. Only his Potential and a few rewards were locked.

Without hesitation, Priam canceled the “gain” of aging, then immersed himself in the sea of options.

“Forty grams heavier… I’ll keep that. Probably muscle,” the younger Priam mused.

“I lost a millimeter in height,” the older Priam grumbled. “Guess getting hit in the head isn’t great for the spine.”

Thirty relative minutes later, both Priams wore matching grimaces. The System’s menu was so detailed it was borderline sadistic. Learning that his affinity for apples had increased by half a percent—probably because he hadn’t eaten fruit in forever—was info he could have done without.

“My sexual abstinence just went up by 24 hours… No shit, Sherlock! Why can I even choose to keep that?!”

Priam hesitated for a second before letting his add-on auto-fill the remaining trivial choices. Only the most critical decisions remained.

“Attributes, Titles, Merits, skills, and Talents.”

Priam displayed his status and was almost surprised to see some of his stats exceed a thousand. He literally had the strength of a hundred men.

“In ancient times, I’d have been a demigod,” the younger Priam said, awed.

“Maybe, but today it’s more of a trap,” the older Priam growled. Every point had been earned through blood, sweat, and tears, yet the System considered he hadn’t yet paid the price. Like an end-of-year tax, the Tribulations awaited, with no chance of avoiding them.

“I can’t handle a sextuple Tribulation.” Thanks to Back in Time, Priam had watched his rivals face their own Trials, and only Dishnu had survived. “A quintuple will be tough enough… and I need to face it soon, or I’ll stall my growth.”

Tribulations were great for long-term gains since they forced him to patch up his weaknesses. In the short term, they prevented him from grinding skills, which was particularly annoying. For this reason, Priam wanted to get through them as fast as possible.

He needed to lower some of his attributes. The decision was as difficult as it was inevitable, but Priam refused to let it affect him.

“Hell, it’s just another day of farming. With [He Who Eludes Death], the challenge isn’t gaining attributes, it’s proving to the System that I deserve them,” the older Priam said.

The younger Priam nodded in agreement, already thinking ahead. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “In a way, this is good? Attributes are quantitative improvements; important, sure, but nothing compared to skills. It’s my resistances that let me jump tiers.”

Doubling his Constitution wouldn’t let Priam survive the epicenter of a nuclear blast. But upgrading [Fire Champion Physique] and [Radiation Resistance]? That would. Qualitative improvements were the real power.

“Skills are usually limited by their related attributes, but here they’re decoupled!” the older Priam exclaimed. “I can dump the attribute points but keep the levels.”

An idea sparked in Priam’s mind. Tribulations' soft cap prevented Tier 0s from endlessly evolving. Even his quintuple was a barrier to his growth. When he eventually had more Legendary skills… Priam grimaced. At that point, every level would grant him an overload of twenty-seven attribute points—an abundance that would force him to specialize.

So why not take advantage of Back in Time to refuse the attributes and keep the levels?

“If I do that, I could upgrade [Revelation Resilience] to Legendary before my quintuple Tribulation,” the younger Priam calculated.

“That’d be perfect to kickstart our temperance,” the older Priam agreed.

“Then it’s settled: ditch the attributes, keep the levels.”

Resolved, Priam canceled all of his gains in Constitution, Vitality, Memory, and Willpower while retaining everything else. On his temporary status, his sextuple Tribulation transformed into a quintuple. Gamer to the core, Priam grinned as he dipped back under the desired threshold. A trade of attributes for survival was more than fair.

He closed the skills tab without altering anything; Priam kept all his level-ups. Those skills were a part of him—a quantified expression of his experience and mastery. Each level enhanced his abilities qualitatively, and he refused to regress.

Next, he examined the Titles earned over his insane day of adventuring: [Runic Hacker], [Champion Killer], [Useless Sage], [To Play with Fire], [Fallout Boy], [Intrepid Explorer], and the upgrade of [Bloodless].

“Keep them all?” the older Priam suggested.

The younger Priam nodded. These Titles were proof that the last day had happened. However, he had to spend two hundred Potential points to temporarily seal [Bloodless - Silver] and [Fallout Boy - Silver]. It was the only way to keep his Constitution and Vitality under one thousand two hundred—the threshold for a sixth Tribulation.

Finally, Priam turned his attention to Merits. He had spent a lot over the past 24 hours.

Trees of Merit

[Ace - Legendary] - Tier 2: Talented Candidate: Choose one of your Talents from the list and evolve it.
List: Aether Citizen, Promesse, Chimera, Spectral Familiarity. ACQUIRED (Aether Citizen).

[Ace - Legendary] - Tier 3: Evolved Candidate: Choose one of your primitive attributes and evolve it. ACQUIRED (Meta Perception).

[Polyglot - Bronze] - Tier 0: Increases your affinity with foreign alphabets and characters. ACQUIRED

[Aetherist - Gold] - Tier 0: Allows you to simulate the effect of a rune or ritual in your mind - depends on Memory and Vivacity. ACQUIRED

[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 1: You can develop resistances normally inaccessible to your race. ACQUIRED

[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 2: The closer you are to death, the better your body adapts. ACQUIRED

[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 3: You can select a resistance and accelerate its rate of progression. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 0: You're beginning to feel your soul. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 1:  Your soul is proud; it resists external modifications. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 2: Your soul is pure; its flaws erased, its sins forgiven, it resists the apocryphal. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 3: Your soul is sacred; it learns to ignore the authority of other souls. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 4: Your soul is celestial; it actively resists divine influence. ACQUIRED

[Breathless - Silver] - Tier 1: Second Breath, Second Wind: restores your body to its most exceptional form possible. ACQUIRED

1 Unused Merit Point.

Priam’s first decision was to get a refund for Second Breath. The Merit was like an extra life—priceless for most people, but cheap for Priam. Besides, it only had one charge, and he had already burned it against Sumstreh and Arnold.

"Useless," both versions of Priam concluded at once.

2 Unused Merit Points.

The next refund was the last Merit from [Iconoclast]. The celestial soul had allowed him to face a Fallen, but Priam had heeded the Empress’s warnings. He was arrogant, not suicidal. At least not often.

3 Unused Merit Points.

Priam kept the other Merits of the Title. The changes they made were subtle but crucial. A soul more resistant to change, to the apocryphal, and to other authorities than its own? Priam would sign up for that every day.

[Life is hard; I’m Harder] was a Title built around his resistances, and one of Priam’s favorites. He held onto every improvement, even considering buying the next upgrade outright.

[Aetherist] was refunded. It was useful for a researcher in peacetime, but Priam knew his quest for the Zenith was steering him away from that path. Research interested him, but peace was a mirage.

4 Unused Merit Points.

[Polyglot] stayed. Affinity with runes was like a raw gemstone—easy to overlook, but with the right time and care, it could shine. The simple fact that it synergized with [Aether Perception] and [Aether Manipulation] made it a no-brainer.

Priam hesitated for the first time when it came to the Merits tied to [Ace]. Meta-perception allowed him to see Concepts, but it was limited by the user’s Soul Tier. Sumstreh’s lightless domain had blinded him completely, and their light spears had been perfectly invisible. In short, it was an attribute worth evolving, but not as much as vivacity.

On the other hand, [Knight of the Aether] was an incredible Talent. Priam was sure that without it, Sumstreh’s Domain would have drained every drop of aether from his body, nipping any resistance in the bud. It was the kind of Talent you take for granted but is of vital importance. Still, the phoenix had hinted there was a natural way to earn it. Unwilling to waste a Merit Point, Priam refunded the two Merits.

6 Unused Merit Points.

“We can’t keep hoarding these points,” the older Priam warned.

“I agree. [Ace] and [Life is Hard; I’m Harder] will eat them up soon enough,” the younger one replied.

“After that, we’ll dip into our rewards.”

“Then we’ll show our rivals a quintuple Tribulation is no big deal.”

The two of them smiled, trembling with excitement.

“But first, one more decision…”

Should he keep Concepts Archipelago or discard everything he had amassed in a private timeline?

*

A slight dizziness hit Priam as he found himself back in a physical body. In some ways, he had never left it.

“It’s well-guarded,” Kazuki said beside him.

Priam blinked, spotting the distant encampment of the tribes. As expected, he had returned just before his first contact with the three clans. I can’t wait to swindle three new ideal skills out of them…

“Too well guarded just to repel mindless corrupted,” Jasmine murmured, eyeing the camp. Hidden by the thick shadows of the forest, the assassin was almost invisible. “They’re noting entries and exits and searching every hunter-gatherer. Someone's expecting betrayal.”

A weight lifted from Priam’s chest as he saw his friends alive and well. Knowing they would come back had been a thin comfort when his eidetic memory kept replaying images of their corpses. He clearly remembered the warmth fading from the body of the young woman who had died in his arms, or the tears Hyshana had shed as she cradled her husband.

“Is something wrong?” Kazuki asked, noticing Priam’s demeanor.

“No, I just feel like giving you both a hug,” Priam smiled.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know if I’m down for a threesome. No offense, Kazuki.”

“None taken. Hyshana doesn’t share.”

“And here I was, just happy to see you both again,” Priam groaned.

Kazuki froze, while Jasmine’s eyes went wide. “You—!”

“I’m from the future,” Priam confirmed with a mock-modest tone.

The hoplite shook his head slightly, not impressed in the least.

“Was it good? I mean, will it be good?” the young woman grinned.

“It was hell, but we’re going to change that.”

*

Priam walked into the Oasis with a grin on his face. Hoplites patrolled the rampart, and the forest was no longer a wasteland of ash. At the center of it all, Log-a-Rhythm’s leaves hummed, and the savory scent of something roasting drifted from a campfire.

“You seem happy,” Blueberry said, turning a fawn on a spit. In the bear’s massive paw, it looked like a mere skewer.

“My land isn’t in ruins, and everyone’s alive. Why wouldn’t I be happy?”

The bear squinted before shrugging. “You’re weird. Weirder than usual.”

“Says the five-meter-tall talking bear. Anyway, could you go get Rose and start prepping for a feast?”

“Why?”

“Surprise.”

The bear squinted again before heading toward the river.

“If you steal my meat, I’ll put you on the spit next!” Blueberry shouted.

“You’ll need more than a campfire to cook me,” Priam called back, smiling as he passed through Log-a-Rhythm’s trunk. The sap that illuminated the common room flickered, and Priam smiled as he sat down at a table. “I’ve got gifts for you, too, but those will have to wait.”

Three bowls of fresh sap descended from the ceiling, and Priam grinned. The bare necessities of life.

Less than a minute later, Rose, Alain, and Hyshana joined him. The table expanded to accommodate everyone.

“Thanks for coming so quickly,” Priam began, looking around the table. He lingered on each of them, and for a moment, it felt like a dream. Seeing them so carefree, so alive... “For you, I recently blew up a volcano, and we’ve just put together a plan to kill Sum… Bastard. At the same time, we need to use Back in Time to find solutions for your Tribulations.”

“We talked about this an hour ago, didn’t we?” Rose asked.

“For me, it was twenty-five hours ago,” Priam corrected. He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in.

“Are you okay?” Alain asked after a beat.

“I’m... better. It was rough. People died.” 

Rose shuddered at the revelation. “Who?” the teen asked.

“I’ll explain everything,” Priam promised. “But know this: things will be different. Your old selves died so you could live.”

The raw emotion in his voice, bolstered by his high charisma, gave his promise an air of undeniable truth. The hoplites nodded solemnly, while the others smiled, reassured.

“I suppose now is a good time to talk about Kazuki’s Tribulations,” Hyshana said.

Her husband took her hand. “There’s something else to do first. Priam chose Back in Time for a reason.”

“To save Sphinx!” exclaimed Rose.

Hyshana frowned. “That will take time.”

Priam’s eyes sparkled. “I didn’t rewind time to repeat my mistakes. This time, it’ll only take a few minutes... and with a little luck, I’ll keep my Mythic Gift.”

*

Status:

PHYSICAL:
Strength 782
Constitution 1 179 (-291)
Agility 930
Vitality 1 130 (-250)
Perception 823

MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599
Dexterity 684
Memory 859 (-37)
Willpower 1 168 (-25)
Charisma 756

META:
Meta-affinity 923
Meta-focus 444
Meta-endurance 804
Meta-perception 443
Meta-chance 379
Meta-authority 258

Potential: 12 291 (-200)
Tier 0

Sun point: 278 (+237)

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

Concepts:

• Breath (T0): 100% / Dormant

• Fire (T0): 100% / Unity

• Pyro (T1): 95% / Symphony

• Mist (T1): 100% / Symphony

Bloodlines:

• Phoenix: 1%

• Dragon: <1%

Rewards standing: 

• Fusion Token - Epic skill

• Evolution Token - Legendary skill

• Affinity Token - Tier 1 (30%)

• Alien Concept fragment (7th Terror)

• Bloodline Purification (+1%)

• Talent Token - Seraph Rarity (Upgrade)

[Tribulation]: Five Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 152 days 3 hours 55 minutes 17 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 1 attribute > 1 200

*

I think you expected it, but of course, Priam is not going to follow the same path at all!