Maria obviously didn't believe Varian's words. While she remained very skeptic about why he didn't escape when staying with her was such a big danger, she was glad he did.
Just as she was about to sit down and absorb the star-pearl, Varian stretched his hand forward.
The two puppets behind her stepped forward and shielded her before he could do anything funny.
"Huh?" Maria only reacted then and looked up at him in confusion.
"I'll also need some resources to unlock my seal." Varian said in a cheeky tone. "And the seal is more complicated. So, I'll need resources from all avenues to get the job done. Thanks for accepting that as a part of the deal."
"W-When did I—?" Maria opened her mouth in confusion but one of the star-pearl in her palm disappeared before she could do anything.
"It's the price for me taking this risk." Varian grinned and walked into the edge of the cave.
Even though they called it a cave, it's only relative to their prowess. In fact, the interior of the so-called cave would easily stretch a mile or two. Consequently, the mountain with many such caves would be vast. And the mountain range they're hiding in was stretching for at least a thousand miles.
"This looks good," Varian probed the star-pearl floating in front of him and closed his eyes.
Oysters and Mermaids had a synergic relationship. Mermaids were the subject and Oysters were recorders. After establishing a connection, they could explore the mysteries of life force inside their body and the broader world.
Varian never delved deep into the mysteries of the powers he was using. The general view in the federation remained that life was purely material. But the existence of soul blew away the firmly held belief.
Then what's death? How did creatures that once die reanimate into 'Undead?' An Undead that could think, feel and act—could it even be called an Undead?
And the elephant in the room.
Soul.
Where did it come from? How did it form? Where would it go once a creature dies?
Question after question filled Varian's mind. The few answers he gained only led to more and deeper questions.
The tsunami of questions that threatened to drown his consciousness froze without warning and Varian found himself in a comforting silence.
Life.
It was deeply related to two powers he currently wielded.
Mystic: The path of controlling Qi, a force that permeated the entire universe.
Famine: The path where one sucks away energy, especially life energy, and grows oneself.
Ironically, Qi and lifeforce were interlinked, interchangeable, and sometimes even
indistinguishable. For a divine ranker, they might even be the same thing.
"Ugh," Varian opened his eyes for a moment and calmed his chaotic mind. He didn't need to go so far. He's just a rank 2 now.
Simply speaking, Mystic had two choices of evolution.
Mystic —> Adept: Pursuing a path of extreme to forge a perfect body.
Once you reach the apex of Adepth, you could go either condense a body with perfect life essence or perfect death essence, becoming a perfect biological existence either way.
Mystic —> Adept —> Paragon Body/ Reaper
Or there's another path instead of pursuing physical qualities to build a perfect body.
Mystic —> Forcender: Use Qi to manipulate the world.
In gaming terms, this was roughly a long-range role. Fighting, but without fists. Not a mage but somewhat similar.
Once you reach the apex of Forcender, you'd have to pick between using that Qi to build yourself up as a formidable warrior or connecting to others to create a network that'd become your strength.
Mystic —> Forcender —> Life Spirit/Enslaver.
On the other hand, Famine—the path connected with life was somewhat straightforward.
He could either become an Assimilator—a devourer that'd devour others to grow itself.
Or he could become a symbiote—a path walker who could do win-win deals by strengthening others and strengthening Self.
Famine —> Assimilator/Symbiote.
The future path of an Assimilator would be to either become a more comprehensive version of itself—Devouring Beast or to temper the devouring part and build a strong body to become a Death Giant.
Assimilator —> Devouring Beast/Death Giant.
A Symbiote, on the other hand, could pick to control life force or death force and become powerful by virtue of force control.
Since a symbiote would be connected to other creatures, it could gain a lot of insight into the working of life force and death force in different types of creatures.
Symbiote —> Life Force Controller/ Death Force Controller.
The choices today would have far-reaching impact. Even though Varian wasn't hitting rank 4 yet, his future path would be at least 60-70% certain by the time he hit rank 3.
'Adept or Forcender?'
Varian didn't struggle with the choice as much as others. Sure, these were important. But he wouldn't be staying in these ranks for very long. What's more, the paths actually converge once he entered the divine ranks.
'I love closer quarter fights, so I'll pick Adept.'
With his decision, a subtle change occurred. The Qi flowing in Varian's body vibrated slightly and turned more inward.
Even though he could use the Qi to form forcefields and external attacks, it'd be more attuned to internal usage.
At the same time, the bottleneck holding him back for the past few days broke without resistance.
[Mystic Rank 2 —> Mystic Rank 3: 0/500]
'Symbiote or Assimilator?'
Varian chuckled.
'No, I don't even need to think about this. My style is combat all the way.'
The life force flowing in Varian's body grew tyrannical and hungry. His famine power grew turned famished and greedy.
With it, another bottleneck broke.
[Famine Rank 2 —> Famine Rank 3: 0/500]
Shuaa!
Varian felt a disturbance in the air and opened his eyes to see Maria glowing with a soft green light.
The aura around her was fluctuating as it oscillated between rank 2 and rank 3.
'She wasn't lying?' Varian raised a brow.
It didn't matter though. Thanks to the star pearl, he wouldn't have any issue reaching rank 4. No bottlenecks or the like.
'But still…'
[Spirit Rank 2: 249/250
Matter Rank 2: 249/ 250
(Water)
Energy Rank 2: 249/250
(Lightning)
Space Rank 2: 249/250
Time Rank 2: 249/250]
Varian sighed inwardly. He still had a long way to go before he could push all the paths to rank 3.
But once he did, he wouldn't have to worry about the great bottleneck everyone struggled with during path transition.
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