Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG) -
Chapter 392: Endless Hunger of the Ocean
The first System message I was was the basic Achievement reward. It was massive. Best of all, it didn’t even seem like this was the ‘final’ result of our efforts - it was a smaller reward, with the potential to be much larger if things continued to work out.
Influence: Create hope in a Dying World (Note: Since the outcome of this ‘hope’ is undetermined, the current Achievement reward is much lower than it will be if your new ‘path’ is confirmed to work. In other words, this is the Achievement reward you get for creating a possibility. If that possibility bears fruit, expect a much bigger reward.) |
Achievement + 30,000 |
Despite the fact that this was the reward for creating a possibility, and not confirming whether it had worked, I had still gotten 30,000 Achievement.
That was a ridiculous amount of Achievement. In my first life, I had tried my hardest and barely scraped together 15,000 Achievement. In this life, I had earned 30,000 Achievement from the artificial sun project alone. Even more absurd was the notion that this wasn’t even the end. Based on my understanding of how Achievement worked, if our artificial sun truly changed the fate of this dimension, we would rake in massive amounts of Achievement. Even better, our ‘contribution’ to the Artificial sun project would take a very long time to dilute. After all, at the end of the day, Felix, Sallia, Anise and I had still been the ones to create the entire basic framework for the artificial sun. Even if other people’s contributions would eventually make our hard work only a small part of the future, we should still be able to comfortably rake in Achievement for centuries after this, if things went well.
I smiled, and then sent a message via communication bracelet.
<I got 30,000 Achievement. How much did you get?> I asked my friends.
<I also got 30,000,> said Felix. <I guess our contributions were about equal?>
<Only 15,000 for me,> said Anise. <Well, I’m pretty happy with that number. I had less ways to directly contribute to the creation of the star core, so it makes sense. My big contribution was mostly the item I grabbed from my trial. 15,000 is still pretty good for passing my hero trial, and if we get any more rewards, I’ll have nothing to complain about.>
<25,000 for me,> said Sallia. <Pretty good.>
I felt happy. The Artificial sun had been something we had spent decades thinking about and preparing for. We had spent years mastering odd magic systems, specifically to make sure that this project had the best chance at succeeding. I had been nervous about it until now - after all, decades of time was a huge investment. Fortunately, it had worked out. The 30,000 Achievement reward had brought me from 62,071 Achievement to 92,071 Achievement. It had increased my total Achievement amount by nearly 50%. That was well worth the decades of struggle and preparation.
Best of all, that wasn’t even the most important reward. Not even close. Not one, both BOTH of my main keyword abilities could evolve.
<I’m going to check over my ability evolutions,> I said, before I temporarily turned off my communication bracelet. Then, I looked at my first ability - {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}.
You have accomplished something exceptional with {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. Endless Hunger of the Ocean is able to be evolved. |
You have (2) options for upgrades. If you would like to unlock other options, it is recommended that you use this ability in new and interesting ways and acquire large quantities of Achievement using the Ability before you die. Note: Ability evolutions must be purchased within 72 hours of returning to the Market after death. If you fail to purchase any available ability evolution within this time period, you will forfeit this chance for evolution, and will need to earn an Ability evolution in another life. The current text of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} is written below. |
Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Intermediate Grade) Keywords: Ocean (1 Keyword) Glut Penalty: 32 While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting. Absorption essence may be spent to create runes, which have the following effects: The first three runes will grant you +20 to your mental stats AND an ability. This ability MUST be related to space, and use the ocean or water as a medium. You will have significantly enhanced control over what ability is formed here. The fourth through sixth runes will now fundamentally alter one sensory organ, providing +10 Perception per level, and also giving you improved vision when trying to see space. Additionally, each rune will provide you with a significantly increased ability to resist external spatial manipulation targeting you or the area directly around you. The seventh through ninth runes will now grant +10 to each physical Stat and begin attuning your body to the power of space, allowing your body to innately interact with the idea of space, regardless of which dimension you are in. This will replace the standard fusion and condensing boosts that runes 10 through 12 would give you, and give benefits such as decreased wind resistance, the ability to teleport without reliance upon rune abilities at all, and increased ability to sense space using your skin. Killing an enemy with Extinguish for the first time in each body will allow you to form an enhanced skill related to that creature. You have a moderate level of control over what ability is formed, as long as it’s based off of a biological characteristic of the creature you just killed. (Some ‘abilities’ may be unavailable if they require fundamentally distorting your biological functions or shape). You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself. Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only five abilities from this effect may be ‘held’ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one. Held Abilities: 1. Unwoven Hands 2. Twisted Wings that Reach Toward the Sky 3. Death Rage 4. Fractal Rush 5. |
Available evolution paths: 2 (Note: All currently available evolution paths will change your ability from [Intermediate] Grade to [Advanced] Grade unless they state otherwise. |
Direction 1: Craftsman’s Heart and Soul Cost: 25,000 Achievement Glut penalty: 32 -> 41 You have often used the runes formed by {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} to create new items or alter existing items. Since these item modifications have resulted in a huge change for this world’s likely future, you can enhance your ability to produce items, if you so choose.. Effects: This Evolution direction will slightly change your rune abilities. In addition to their previous effects, Rune abilities four through six will now ALSO provide pseudo-item slots. These pseudo-item slots will allow you to establish a link with any existing material or item. (To establish a link, you still need to spread your essence into the item and ‘control’ it for a moment. Items with higher quantities of essence may resist this process. Please keep this in mind before trying to fuse with an item that is far stronger than you are.) A link with an item does two things. First, it allows you to feed essence INTO the item, which can permanently upgrade or alter the properties of the item. To make substantial changes, you may also need other materials as extra costs for improving an item. Second, you may temporarily ‘pull’ the abilities of an item into yourself, allowing you to temporarily take on unique and altered abilities based on what items you have established links with. These abilities may be stats, new abilities, or anything related to the abilities of the item itself. Be aware that these links are permanent (until the end of your current life). If the item is destroyed, then you will not free up a slot for a new item link - you will simply lose access to an item until your next death. Any modifications you make an item you have established a link with are permanent - even after your death, they will remain so long as the item is not destroyed. You may establish new item links each life. |
My first ability evolution direction was odd, but interesting. As far as I could tell, in practice, the evolution would basically give me three more ability slots. Of course, these ability slots would be far more conditional than my first three ability slots - but I could also use these slots to help power up an item and leave it behind as a ‘legacy.’ That was a potential goldmine if I wanted to do things like we had done in this world, where we had created an artificial sun out of nothing. Of course, this ability was quite a bit more limited. Since this ability had nothing to do with alteration essence, I suspected that any item I created would need to follow the dimensional laws of the world we reincarnated into. However, leaving behind three super-items for a civilization would probably mean that I could hang out in the void for a few years after each death and rake in some achievement. If I found a way to leave behind soul fragments in future worlds, I could probably even produce a steady stream of income from dimensions we had left behind. It was an ability evolution full of potential.
Direction 2: Hope for the Hopeless Cost: 10,000 Achievement Glut penalty: 32 -> 35 Previously, this world was in a hopeless state. No matter what you did, it was unlikely that you could have realistically reversed its course - a gradual decline, ending in the extinction of sentient life in this world. However, you used your rune abilities to bring hope to a world that had none left. This will add the ‘Hope’ keyword to your Ability (you may avoid adding this keyword and leave it as a fragmented keyword, if you so desire. However, the glut cost will increase by 25 points). Effects: Runes will no longer cost any essence at all to maintain, but only so long as your actions are ‘heroic.’ The standards for acting ‘heroic’ are based on how much hope you inspire in the hearts of other people. In other words, if people believe that you will make the world better, or you have helped people in their darkest times, you will be considered ‘heroic’ for the judgement of this Ability. Furthermore, the more hope you have inspired, the faster and easier it will be for you to develop more runes. |
My second ability evolution was also fascinating, although it went in a very different direction. My first ability evolution was full of ways to change the world, and leave behind hope for the future. This ability was clearly geared more towards personal development. However, its effects were simple and potent.
Rune maintenance costs were a major limiting factor on how much I could grow in each life, and part of the reason I needed to be so cautious about what rune abilities I formed each time. Sallia and I had never even seen what runes did beyond a certain point - we had simply never developed beyond the 12th rune of the rune magic system. We knew that future runes existed, but we had no clue what they did.
If runes no longer had a maintenance cost, that meant I could theoretically keep adding more and more runes forever. Of course, in practice, runes still cost more and more time to create as I developed more of them, so eventually, I would die of old age. Still, the ability was simple and useful. As long as I had more lifespan, I would always have something to work on, and a way to keep growing stronger. I also found the idea of linking inspiring hope to my development to be appealing. A small part of me was always afraid of turning into one of the monsters of the old Market - people who would annihilate a world just for the sake of more Achievement. Explicitly incentivizing myself to help people would make me happier - and this Ability took it a step further, by making me grow faster the more people I helped. I loved that idea.
On top of that, the second ability had huge synergy with my usual behavior and the rest of my magic toolkit. One of my strongest spells was ‘renewal,’ which let me heal most diseases and physical injuries with ease. According to this ability, that should be ‘inspiring hope.’ If I increased the growth speed of my rune magic every single time I healed someone, I might be able to go absolutely wild in future worlds. I might not be able to leave behind powerful legacies for civilizations, the way I would with my first ability evolution direction - but I would be much stronger in each life. Furthermore, developing three ‘powerful objects’ in each world would require a huge amount of time, focus, and resources, meaning that it was unlikely I would succeed in every world. The first world had higher potential for earning Achievement, but was also reliant upon good conditions to actually do anything useful. The second ability direction was very reliable - it would probably work in every world with little issue.
Both were tempting. I was currently a bit more tempted by my second evolution direction, simply because the synergy with Renewal seemed incredibly potent to me. However, I would make up my mind once we returned to the Market.
After looking at my first Ability evolution and its potential future directions, I turned to my second evolution.
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