Sam had a lot to go over. First things first though, he wanted to go look at that skill. After taking a cursory glance around him and not seeing any immediate dangers, he relaxed enough to go over at least some notifications. He did however climb up the closest tree before that, one could never be too sure about these kinds of things after all.
[Inexorable Stride (Epic)]
[You are not the first to gain this skill within the multiverse. Traversal is quite important to growth. You are however among a select few who have gained and come to understand the skill purely by your own efforts and without guidance or even foreknowledge of its existence. Even rarer is the fact that you were able to do this at your tier. For this you have been rewarded. This includes an immediate upgrade to the rarity of this skill]
[Inexorable Stride (Legendary)]
- This is a skill that touches upon the form of space. It is powered by mana and enhanced by spiritual power. This is a passive skill with an active component. Those who hold this skill cannot be hindered. No obstacle shall stand between them and their path, their chosen destination–not even the space between. When not actively used, the skill provides a certain amount of resistance to effects or obstacles that would impede or stop the user as they walk, this includes advantages over normally tricky terrain. When activated this skill consumes a minimum amount of mana with a variable maximum that can be further modified by spiritual power. As an effect, each step the user takes covers greater distances based on the amount of energy consumed. These effects can only be applied when walking and not running. Those who have this skill arrive precisely when they mean to, nothing is an obstacle to them, not even space, not even time. There is no such thing as rushing for those who have learned this skill. Because of the manner in which you have learned this skill, it has been upgraded to its Legendary variant. Being Legendary rarity, this version of the skill is more efficient and can muster greater effects for less consumption as compared to its base Epic variant. This however is not the limit of the skill, as it has other forms within its conception that it touches upon which you do not yet comprehend.
Ah, well it seems that would explain how he finally made it to the mountains. He was fairly certain now that there was something magical going on with the space between him and his goal. That must be the distortion that he had been pushing against for the past two days. He finally felt like he could breathe again. It wasn’t until now that he made it here that he realized how frustrated he’d been getting regarding the situation. Sam did wish the skill was more specific about the distances he could travel based on consumption but he reckoned that it was something he could learn for himself just by testing it out a bit. He did wonder how exactly his skill worked, was it like some kind of teleportation when he activated it? He was curious to see what it looked like to other people when he used it. He could remember the feeling quite well when things reached a climax and he activated it for the first time. Now he felt as though he wouldn’t have to try quite so hard with the skill being part of his status. It was like he suddenly had the muscle memory to repeat the process of what he had been doing instead of trying to figure it out again.
Excited with his shiny new skill, one of very few active skills he currently had, he started testing it out. And he promptly fell on his face. Sam chuckled and chided himself at the same time. How could he have been so distracted as to forget that he was in a tree. Activating the skill as he took a step from the branch, he had suddenly found himself in empty air before promptly falling. Well at least now he had some idea how effective his stats were, as he barely felt anything from that fall. It wasn’t a massive fall by any stretch of the imagination but it was definitely enough to maybe break a bone if still had a normal body and yet now he barely felt a thing. More intriguing though was what using the active portion of his new skill felt like, or rather the seeming lack of a difference. When he took that step, he didn’t feel like he was taking a bigger step than normal or anything, it felt just like a casual stroll except for the mental pressure of using his energies to activate the skill and push against the world. He was giddy with excitement. Wasn’t this basically a movement technique that he had always dreamed of learning from those cultivation novels, the kind where monks covered entire mountain ranges in a single step? He couldn’t stop smiling with the situation he found himself in.
Looking over his status, he realized he barely moved his mana which was lucky considering how low it had gotten from the initial activation from before he officially learned the skill. That last step he took to reach the base of the mountains must’ve been quite far, and like he thought it probably wasn’t just distance that he was pushing against when that happened. There really was some weird space magic thing that was stopping people from reaching this place. As invigorated as he was about the situation, he decided to climb back up the tree to meditate. He couldn’t justify trying to explore the mountains right now when his resources were so low. Meditation was a quick way to remedy that without having to waste one of his mana potions.
Considering there was a cultivation tab in the status, he wondered if meridians and cultivation cores were a real thing. He’d eventually have to try pushing his senses inward to see how exactly the energy moved around his body. With the language the system used, there was clearly a difference between mana and spiritual power, but they had to be similar enough that they were used in tandem to power certain things like his thermos and his legendary walking skill.
“Hehe, Legendary walking skill. I can’t believe my first and only legendary skill is specifically for walking.” Sam said to himself as he settled down to meditate.
He made the decision to wait until tomorrow to climb the mountain even after he finished regenerating his mana back. There were a lot of notifications to go over anyway. Seeing as he had gotten another title and Sagacious Being received an upgrade, Sam decided it was time to finally look at the specifics of his titles. There might be more he could figure out from the system that way and even if it didn’t he was sure that it would help explain some things to him; he needed to make sure he was prepared for the mountains, because if the difficulty of even reaching them was any indication then he wasn’t going to have any misconceptions about how dangerous the actual place might. This, however, didn’t change the fact that he yearned for the caves.
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Titles:
Sagacious Being (+, Exceptional)
- This title is initially bestowed upon those who in their efforts to touch upon concepts and energies beyond their station reach success. It has been further upgraded by your continued efforts to break the mold of learning order the rest of the multiverse tends to employ. While not a unique title, most others who hold this are part of well established factions that have mountains of support behind them. You will find that the point of your journey at which you were able to gain this title still keeps you apart from your peers. Very rarely are there individuals who are able to touch upon esoteric powers before they gain a class. And even rarer are those who are able to comprehend Forms before they rise tiers.
- This title lowers the burden on your soul when interacting with higher tier energies and the deeper concepts of creation.
- This title increases the regeneration rate of all your resources pools relative to the level of this title; currently this is boosting your regeneration by 20%
First Class Expedient (1, Epic)
- This title indicates that you were the first to receive a class within the entirety of the first phase of the tutorial during the initiation of your universe. This is no small feat and indicates explosive growth. This puts you ahead of the pack and you have been rewarded accordingly for the achievement.
- This title provides you with a 10% bonus to the efficacy of your stats.
Skill Prodigy (+, Legendary)
- This title is bestowed upon those who are able to learn a skill by reaching the point of activation through their own innovation. Sometimes these become wholly original skills that become added to the system or at times they are similar enough to other preexisting skills that they hold the same name. Do not misunderstand though, all who gain this title are the very progenitors of the skill they wield and almost never will you see two individuals who gained this title through the same skill wield them in the same manner. The rarity of this title is determined by the rarity of the skill you were able to create within yourself at the time you first received this title. The only way this can be upgraded in rarity is by creating another new skill exceeding the rarity of the original associated with the title.
- This title reinforces your soul.
- This title reduces any costs associated with the skill that gained the title and increases the output of any of its effects. The costs are reduced by 10% and the output is increased by 20%
Looking over the titles explained a lot, although now Sam had even more questions. The wording on the skill prodigy title was interesting to him. It implied that all those who were given the title were because they created their own skill and they were rewarded for it even if the method and function was exactly the same as something that already existed. That must mean that the most common way of gaining skills was through some other process. Considering where most of his skills right now came from, Sam was going to assume until proven otherwise that it was through their classes that people gained skill and maybe perhaps things like skill books if they existed. Still, it was nice to know that his own skill would technically be better than if he met a stranger who had that same skill but got it through a preexisting method. He did wonder whether you could teach someone the steps and method to activate a certain skill in order to guarantee that the person you are teaching gains the title. He couldn’t help but imagine how the educational institutions in the multiverse must be so different from normal.
Another interesting bit from looking at his titles was the mention of his soul. Two of his titles helped his soul in some way and this kind of scared Sam a little bit. It meant that whatever he had been doing had been putting stress on his soul somehow. Was that what he was feeling when he had woken up and felt like he could flex a part of his mind like a muscle? If that was the case though then maybe he didn’t need to be so scared. Perhaps training the soul was just like training the body and he would just have to make sure to not overdo things. The main issue was his inability to tell what things he did counted toward him putting his soul to work but he supposed he would slowly figure it out over time.
Ever since gaining his class he hadn’t been able to level up any of his skills. Admittedly he hadn’t really used them much but in all fairness he also hadn’t done much except walk and think for the most part. He did feel like his meditation skill might be getting close. It was probably his most regularly used skill if you weren’t counting regeneration passively boosting his recovery speed. And he didn’t think it really counted since the skill boosted his health and stamina recovery but he hadn’t needed to recover any health since gaining the skill; on the stamina side of things, it was probably that he wasn’t actually exerting himself to a great degree until that very last part that brought him to the mountains so there was no room for improvement there either.
There were so many things he wanted and needed to learn about his new reality but there just wasn’t any real way to know what the standard of knowledge was for the multiverse. Hopefully more events in the tutorial change that and if not then maybe after the tutorial ends he could finally get some answers.
The last thing he wanted to look over before he started getting ready for bed was the comprehension area of his status. There was only one thing there and it was related to his new skill.
[Form of Space (Awareness)]
- You have begun the process of becoming aware of the nature of Space. With understanding comes growth.
“Ugh, why does this system have so many different rarities, tiers, and levels?” Sam said to himself. That “awareness” thing next to the form itself on his status probably meant yet another way of measuring something that he would eventually have to figure out. The description was awfully vague. So far the system seemed quite fond of telling him a lot and telling him nothing at all; maybe that was related to the push toward growth that the system kept giving. Who knows, maybe he could find some answers in those mountains. It would probably be monsters though. Actually on the topic of monsters, a lot of his experience must’ve come from other things than killing goblins because he had killed very few from his perspective. Times like these, Sam really wished the system quantified experience and notified him of it. Alas that was just one of the ways fiction differed from reality. He was grateful to even have levels and classes and things in the first place. This was much better than having to work everyday for forty years then retiring.