‘…thus bringing about the Industrial Age of the Rhodomian Empire.’
Percy closed the to, checking the back cover for any additional text that he might need to read. The Decree’s description had vaguely said “cover to cover”, though it hadn’t made clear whether that included the covers themselves. Either way, reading a handful of extra lines would only take a mont or two.
Before Percy was even done going through the book’s summary, a warm feeling blossod within his wisp. In re fractions of a second, it perated the rest of his severed soul, accompanied by the much-awaited notification.
[Congratulations! You have acquired a new Decree: Kerfyl’s Decree!]
Percy wasn’t sure whether his host had obtained it as well, though the lack of complaints suggested that he had. Ignoring the Thess’kalan for now, Percy pulled up his Status, focusing on the new entry.
___
[Kerfyl’s Decree] – Establish a spectral contract between two willing parties. Infringing upon its terms will result in the destruction of one’s soul. This Decree can be discarded at will.
___
Much like tatron’s Decree, Percy felt sothing tugging at the edge of his consciousness, waiting to be activated. In fact, there were two sothings this ti, like a pair of strings twisted together into a braid.
Percy instinctively knew which end was responsible for contract creation and which was only there for getting rid of the Decree, so he wouldn’t have to worry about mixing them up and discarding his prize by accident.
‘We’ll probably never need to use that feature,’ Micky said.
‘Yeah,’ Percy agreed.
They had chosen this Decree precisely because they expected it to remain relevant well into the later stages of the Concept realm. Furthermore, they still had another empty slot to fill up, and even a peak faction like the Void Hand didn’t seem to have too many enticing options. Finding two more active-type Decrees that they would rather keep was going to be a challenge.
Even if they did find a couple of decent alternatives, Percy felt that he was more likely to search for a way to get tatron’s Decree removed before Kerfyl’s.
‘I wonder how open he will be to giving an alternative way of accessing the Vault. Maybe I’ll ask the next ti we et.’
The odds of the pentapus agreeing were slim, as giving Percy the ans to bypass his Decree was tantamount to introducing another vulnerability to the artificial world.
The good news was that Percy wasn’t in a rush to get the Decree replaced, since it currently doubled as one of his most reliable tools for escaping from dangerous situations. However, it would hopefully be centuries before he spoke to the titan again, and a lot could change in that ti.
Filing this away as a problem for future Percy, he read the description of the new Decree once more, noticing a detail that he hadn’t considered earlier.
‘Micky, do you think we can use it to form a soul contract between other people?’
‘Possibly. It says “two willing parties”, but it doesn’t say that we have to be one of them,’ the Huehuan replied.
Percy ntally nodded. It was sothing to test after returning ho, though he had no plans of going around Maradion and creating deadly contracts between pairs of strangers.
‘Kassorith? Are you done with this place too?’ he asked his host.
Percy didn’t regret picking Kerfyl’s Decree against the Thess’kalan’s wishes, but he wasn’t cruel enough to deny his host the chance to earn it, in case he needed more ti. Of course, it would be best if that didn’t happen, since they only had a few days left to select and acquire another reward.
Fortunately, the scaled man grunted in affirmation.
Exiting the small room, they found Nawko waiting for them outside. She escorted them back to their inn before temporarily bidding them farewell. It was already late at night, but Percy and his companions luckily didn’t need to sleep. They decided to spend the next few hours browsing carefully through their options and let the attendant know their decision first thing in the morning.
With a plan in place, they returned to the terminal and resud their search.
‘Okay. The list of ntal-type Decrees is much shorter, though there are more things to consider,’ Percy said.
In addition to the rits of the Decree itself – what it did, and how it would be acquired – they also had to think about how likely choosing it would be to expose their secrets, and how it might interact with the other elents of Percy’s Status.
Beginning from the top, the trio carefully studied their options one by one.
‘Hakkae’s Decree – Acquired by bathing in Hakkae’s pool for a full Tauren day. This Decree offers detailed analysis of one’s combat capabilities, using the Void Hand’s standard classification system to evaluate the user’s offense, durability, agility, mana, and domain proficiencies. This Decree is bundled with Hakkae’s Supremacy, which allows its user to leverage their greatest strength to shore up their greatest weakness. Note 1: Hakkae’s pool has been transported to Maradion, so no long-range teleportation is required. Note 2: This Decree can detect and list a user’s bloodline, blessings, mutations, mindsets, spells and Decrees, but not their spectral traits. Note 3: Hakkae’s Supremacy works best if there is a larger discrepancy between the user’s abilities, and is least effective at strengthening the user’s domain. Note 4: A Tauren day is approximately equal to one Maradorian day.’
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on . Report any occurrences elsewhere.
‘Tauren? Aren’t they Lanthaniel’s people?’ Percy asked, getting a ntal nod back from Kassorith.
From what he could tell, Hakkae’s Decree was basically a passive and automatic version of the first round of the void tournant. It would categorize a person’s abilities under the alliance’s paradigm which, in Kassorith’s case, ant sowhere between the Fifth and Seventh Circles.
Other than a detailed assessnt of one’s combat capabilities, it would list pretty much everything that the current version of Percy’s Status already did – except for his spectral traits, alchemic principles, and the type of his domain. The description hadn’t even ntioned the last two sections, which probably suggested that none of the alliance’s ntal-type Decrees tracked them.
Percy wasn’t too interested in the presentation side of the Decree, since Phoebe’s Decree already took care of everything, though he couldn’t help but wonder what the additional classification options would an for him.
Having an “official” evaluation of his abilities would be as handy as it would be fun, though he wasn’t going to pick Hakkae’s Decree just for that. Then again, the effects might not be entirely superficial.
‘Do you think it’s going to synergize well with the Sage’s Pond?’ Micky asked.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised,’ Percy replied. ‘If it lets us learn more information about our opponents, it might improve the accuracy of our predictions.’
Leaving aside the information-related side of the Decree, Percy was most interested in Hakkae’s Supremacy – a boon on par with Ea’s Gift that had granted him his mutated eyes, and Obatala’s Approval which locked his domain in its strongest state.
According to the terminal, Hakkae’s Supremacy would balance out the user’s capabilities – to an extent. Percy wasn’t sure how it worked, though he could speculate based on the Decree’s other features.
‘I suppose that if sobody’s “greatest strength” is a Seventh Circle domain, and their “greatest weakness” is a Fifth Circle durability, it’ll sohow help them use their willpower to better protect their body.’
The way it would accomplish so conversions was more obvious than others. The mana category, for example, jointly assessed one’s mana capacity, regeneration, and control. The details were a bit complicated, but it would be fair to say that a higher mana evaluation roughly translated to having access to “more mana”.
Hakkae’s Supremacy would presumably help the user pour the excess mana into their spells in greater volus and with higher efficiency, so as to improve their offensive capabilities or whatever else they were lacking.
As for doing the opposite?
Well, perhaps it would simply help a user reduce their mana consumption without significantly affecting the potency of their attacks, thus expanding their effective mana pool.
‘It’s an interesting Decree, but it wouldn’t be my first choice,’ Percy said after thinking about it for a while.
He wasn’t going to look down on anything that could directly boost his combat power, but he understood that Hakkae’s Supremacy would work better for a mage with relatively unbalanced capabilities.
Percy felt that his main body was about equally skilled in most areas. His arsenal was versatile enough that he had many ways of leveraging his strengths to cover his weaknesses even without external assistance, and he didn’t see that changing anyti soon. In other words, this Decree wouldn’t help him as much as sobody like Kassorith.
Hearing no protests from his companions – for now, at least – he moved on to the next choice.
‘Amah-Lanett’s Decree – Acquired by witnessing the hatching of an enari bird in Karaf-Thanat, the capital city of Ren-Alib. This Decree accurately tracks its user’s remaining lifespan. This Decree is bundled with Amah-Lanett’s Hand, which grants its user an instinctive understanding of what habits and lifestyle choices will maximize their remaining lifespan. Note 1: The roundtrip to Karaf-Thanat is estimated to take half a Maradorian day, so participants are advised to ensure that they have enough ti before their next match. Failure to return in ti will result in a loss. Note 2: Enari eggs are extrely common in Karaf-Thanat. If finding an egg about to hatch proves difficult, contact the local authorities. They are responsible for maintaining the conditions for Decree acquisition. Note 3: This Decree can detect and list a user’s bloodline, blessings and spells, but not their mutations, mindsets, spectral traits or Decrees. Note 4: Amah-Lanett’s Hand is limited to mundane things such as eating healthier food, exercising and getting enough sleep. Following its guidance is a lifelong process that will not extend a mage’s lifespan by more than ten percent.’
Percy’s borrowed eyes widened, mostly because he hadn’t expected to find such a Decree, though he understood that its effects were sowhat modest. It only tracked a small subset of the things his Status did, and even its additional features weren’t exactly groundbreaking.
As convenient as it would be to accurately estimate one’s remaining lifespan, Percy could already approximate his fairly well if he took the timing of his promotions, the acquisition of his pure core, and the consumption of the second-generation leaf into account.
He wouldn’t mind having a way to estimate Micky and Nephthys’ lifespans, though both of his friends should have more ti left than him, so it didn’t really matter. Extending his lifespan, on the other hand, was sothing that he would have desperately wanted a few years ago.
A ten percent increase was admittedly quite small, probably because a mage’s body was already highly resistant to disease or other external factors. Even this minuscule increase clearly required a lot of work to achieve, so Percy wasn’t going to waste his reward on it – especially because he couldn’t see any potential synergies between this and the other features of his Status.
‘If there’s one thing that makes want to pick it, it’s the location,’ he told the others.
Amah-Lanett’s Decree could apparently be obtained in not only the sa faction, but even the sa city as Emah-Nuub’s – the free-type Decree that would allow him to give himself whatever mindsets he wanted.
If he played his cards right, Percy could potentially claim two valuable prizes with a single move, though it wouldn’t be easy. He would be escorted to the city by Nawko again, and she was unlikely to let him wander off to give money to a bunch of holess children. Based on everything he had seen so far, the Void Hand didn’t take kindly to the contestants obtaining Decrees that they hadn’t earned.
‘Well, we can always just mark the place and send another clone later,’ Micky suggested.
Percy was genuinely tempted to go for it. However, Amah-Lanett’s Decree would only beco relevant if his artificial advancent failed or he still ran out of lifespan in the Clear grade, despite all of the extensions he had already obtained. Neither of those things were urgent, as he still had several millennia left.
anwhile, Emah-Nuub’s Decree was sothing he would have loved to have before his next battle, since he and his host could both benefit from a mindset or two. Sadly, the Thess’kalan was unlikely to acquire it in the next couple days, and Percy wouldn’t need the Decree as much after that. He was already planning to eventually find a trustworthy mind affinity user to set up whatever mindset he needed.
Sighing, he moved on to the next option.
User Comments
0 comments from readers