Chương 64: Chapter 63: The System Unveiled

Sphinx took advantage of the respite offered by the Earl to rest. Her body was durable, but the lion's claws were extremely sharp. His strength was also formidable, and six minutes into the fight, Sphinx could feel her body suffering from multiple internal injuries. But worst of all, the lion immediately understood that Sphinx's power required the enemy to be aware of the riddle. Without this, her power had no hold on the Earl. Sphinx had tried to find a way around this by writing her riddles on the tree trunk.

Unfortunately, the Earl was either illiterate or too clever to read a text written by his enemy in the middle of a fight. Sphinx would have bet on the first solution: the lion's mane was too ugly for him to be intelligent. As she hesitated to attack, Sphinx became aware of Priam's presence. A few meters away, he was looking toward the Earl. Without seeing him, Sphinx knew that her friend had a determined expression on his face. She was proud to be fighting alongside him.

Unfortunately, despite the progress she sensed in him, Priam was wounded. The Earl would easily sweep him away if he interfered.

"If I feel your skill activate, I'll block my hearing again," warned the Earl. Sphinx nodded as she saw the gusts of wind surrounding the lion.

"I don't understand you, sphinx. You're weaker than me, and you know it. Accept your defeat and join me. I'll cherish you, and together we'll dominate this Moon. At the next Reunion, we'll descend to Earth to regain control of the lands where I was born." As Sphinx prepared to retort with a scathing reply, a voice cut her off.

"Noble Earl, the fake humans are coming. They intend to pollute the Jubokko and your Spring. I beg you to reconsider your priorities."

"What?!" The Earl roared as he heard Priam. Sphinx was ready to defend her friend. The lion glanced at her before momentarily calming down.

"If what you say is true, this is indeed a priority. Bala, go and check this out," he ordered. A bird of prey took flight after waving to its master. The Earl turned to Sphinx.

"We'll talk about my proposal again," said the lion, looking at Sphinx. Sphinx nodded, grinning inwardly. Well done Priam! The Earl then addressed a Baron-rank monkey, previously hidden behind a branch.

"Gather the nobility. I've decided to exterminate the polluters."

"Of course, Your Majesty. When must we gather?"

"NOW!" The sycophant gasped before scurrying off. The various Barons and Viscounts approached, and the Earl climbed onto his promontory before turning to Priam.

"What do you know about these false humans?" Priam fulminated. He'd had to spend two questions to find the right wording to defuse the situation. The lion had no interest in fighting now, but neither did Priam. He had no extra life and preferred to let the Earl and Anatole fight it out before coming to reap the benefits. Perhaps their fight would even reveal a few hidden players. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, right?

As the court gathered in front of him, the lion asked a question and Priam pointed to his ears. With an annoyed movement, the Earl created a draft, and two drops of liquid rose from the Spring. They shot towards his ears. For a moment, Priam felt like a thousand ants were throwing a party into his head. A few seconds later, he heard the wind blowing again. His mind was clear and Priam clenched and unclenched his hand. He hadn't slept in days, and despite his resurrections, he missed the habit. Yet he felt great.

His mental fatigue, the result of the Path of Blood, had disappeared. Better still, most of his wounds had healed. All that remained was a pain in his right lung, but Priam felt ready to fight. The Earl could have totally cured him with a third drop but had chosen to be stingy. Priam hid his frustration behind a smile and was careful not to look at the Spring. He didn't want to arouse the Earl's suspicions. Stretching quickly, Priam turned slightly towards Sphinx and winked. I'll take care of this.

Then, he quickly bowed to the Earl. Despite his less than cordial feelings towards the Earl, Priam had no qualms about bowing to him. In his mind, the Earl was already dead.

"Thank you very much, Earl. I am now ready to answer your questions."

"What do you know about these false humans?" asked the lion.

"These are former humans, resurrected by the System after betraying humanity. These traitors are numerous and are converting humans to their cause. So it's an evil that gets worse until it's purged. Their hierarchy includes five generals, a Champion and a Grand Master. I've already killed one of their Generals. They're relatively weak individually, but their power comes from their chimeras. They can use Noble cores to create their Abominations." Priam pointed to the gigantic tree that hosted the court.

His doubles had revealed that Anatole was poisoning the Jubokko with a ritual.

"Their master is polluting the Jubokko, seeking to turn it into an Abomination. If he succeeds, the Spring will be unusable, and the thousands of animals in the Grove will join his army. Surrounded, your court will fall..." Priam didn't finish his analysis. If the Jubokko fell, the Revenants would become impossible to dislodge, and the Earl would flee. It was the worst-case scenario for Priam and humanity. Why the hell do I have to deal with this?! Hundreds of alien factions were present on the Moon.

Among them were dozens of super-factions with trained fighters. Priam knew these factions had only their own interests at heart, but he was nonetheless annoyed. Of course, he could be wrong. Maya might be marching towards Anatole and the Revenants at the head of an army. But Priam didn't believe in Santa Claus, nor did he believe in miracles. To change his destiny, he had to fight. Priam looked up at the Earl and the Jubokko. There must be a way to kill three birds with one stone... The Earl took a moment to think.

"If you're telling the truth, then he attacked me first. The System won't stop me from retaliating. I'll slaughter them within the next hour." Priam gritted his teeth. If the Earl left alone, the Spring would be guarded by the nobles. Maybe even stolen if Anatole succeeded in defeating their leader. Unacceptable.

"Your Majesty, if I may…" A Baron's rank monkey shouted.

"Your Majesty! This pathetic human wants to manipulate you for his own ends! You can't trust him, he..."

"Silence!" The Earl turned to the Baron.

"If not for him, I'd have waited for the Revenants' ambush, listening to your sycophancy. Not another word unless you want to help me through my Tribulation," the Earl threatened, pointing at the Spring. The monkey tucked his head into his shoulders, and Priam smiled.

"I'm listening, human." Lvl Up: [Comparison] lvl 1,..., 7 MEM +7 Lvl Up: [Identification] lvl 8 MEM +1 Lvl Up: [Balance] lvl 6, 7 AGI +2 DEXT +4 Lvl Up: [Sense of smell] lvl 2,..., 7 DEXT +6 POT -284 Perched on a titanic branch, Priam played with Sphinx, ignoring Blueberry's cackling. The Earl hadn't wanted to keep them unattended in the grove and had healed Blueberry to keep an eye on them. The bear was proving a pleasant companion when he wasn't irritated by pain.

Priam had even discovered that the bear loved to play. More than just playing, the bear liked to giggle loudly at Priam's defeats. The young man was amazed that a multi-ton beast could giggle like a schoolgirl. Apparently, the ursid's Dexterity enabled him to manipulate his vocal cords effectively. Priam pointed to one of the pebbles in front of him.

"This one."

"Lost!" exclaimed Sphinx cheerfully, much to Blueberry's delight. She pointed to another pebble, and Priam took it in his hand and weighed it. It was the one he should have found. Without Perception approaching three hundred, he would have been almost unable to feel the difference in mass between this pebble and the one he had chosen.

"This game is stupid!" He knew he was a bad player at the moment, but Priam hated to lose. Yet he kept playing for his honor, but also because it was worth it. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The aim of the game was relatively simple. The player chose a white pebble from among a hundred or so. Each had a slightly different smell and mass. All their other characteristics were virtually identical.

For example, their external volume remained unchanged, the pebbles having been emptied at the center. They were visually similar. The stones were then shuffled, and the player had to find the stone he had initially chosen in less than a minute. To do this, he could weigh and smell them. That's what made the game so interesting. Indeed, despite his [Eidetic Memory], Priam had great difficulty finding the right pebble.

His hypothesis was that - his main sense being vision - his memory was more photographic than eidetic. This game enabled him to work on his olfactory and tactile memories. For the System, this translated into Memory, Dexterity and Perception. That was why Priam was sorting pebbles rather than resting or sparring. For him, this game was training, and he had a lot to learn. Two hours earlier, he had asked Blueberry how animals increased their Memory.

According to the Viscount, they had to reach a certain threshold of Memory, Vivacity and Willpower to trigger a transformation and become sapient.

"We play games," the bear had replied.

"Before the System, our days were occupied by rest, hunting, reproduction and play. We've kept those habits, and our games have given us some essential attributes." So Priam jumped at the chance to play to increase his Memory. He didn't want to trigger a fifth Tribulation but aimed to optimize his status. Many of his attributes could still gain around fifty points. Each point could be decisive in the coming Tribulations.

Priam, Sphinx and Blueberry had been playing for two hours, waiting for the Earl's marching orders.

"Again," muttered Priam. Sphinx overturned the pebbles in the hollow of her gigantic paw, and Priam chose one. He lifted it, closing his eyes to concentrate on its exact mass, trying to imprint the sensation in his mind. Lvl Up: [Balance] lvl 8 AGI +1 DEXT +2 As well as increasing his skills, Priam had learned to understand them better. Balance wasn't just a skill that enabled Priam to move and stabilize himself - often after suffering damage to his inner ear.

It also gave him an excellent understanding of the forces exerted on his body. Having harnessed the strength of his various muscles to lift the pebble, Priam brought it to his nose. It had undoubtedly been rubbed against a wildflower... Elderflower. Lvl Up: [Sense of smell] lvl 8 DEXT +1 [Fine sense of smell] was originally a skill based on Perception. But Priam was so close to a new Tribulation threshold - 300 points - that he had initially refused to use it.

It was then that [Eidetic Memory] truly revealed its power. After his last battle in the Colosseum, Priam had realized that it was possible to use his Potential to influence the System. He used this information to modify his Trees of Merit and make them his own. Thus, little by little, his build became unique, preventing future enemies from seeking out his exact capabilities. But if Potential allowed the System user to fine-tune his build, what were the limits?

It was the question [Eidetic Memory] had raised, and Priam wanted to answer it. He had started some tests, and the results were incredible. The skills were indeed modifiable. These modifications followed some rules, and Priam had freely spent his Potential to discover them. Firstly, a skill always had a general purpose, and that purpose could not radically change. [Athletics] couldn't allow Priam to fly - he'd tried.

Potential sent him back an error, and Priam understood that skills had to stay on a particular course. On the other hand, [Athletics] could specialize in running, jumping or rolling. Priam had not validated these changes. Secondly, skills had inertia. The higher the skill, the more complicated - and expensive - it was to change it. According to the System, transforming [Athletics] lvl 19 into [Jumping] lvl 1, cost 190 points of Potential. That was ten points per level.

Since a common skill gave one point of Potential per level, a modification cost ten times as many points as the skill yielded. Transforming a skill had to be done as soon as possible. Thirdly, modifying a skill was an exercise that required finding a link between the basic skill and the new one. It was close to the first point, but Priam had not been able to determine whether this link fundamentally existed or depended on the user. Priam could see the relationship between [Athletics] and [Jumping].

But perhaps a bird would see a link between [Athleticism] and [Flight]. If so, could Priam learn [Flight] by hypnotizing himself to think like a bird? Or were there necessary prerequisites, like having wings? Depending on the answer to these questions, Priam had many ideas. Finally, a skill could not be reset easily. It was possible, but painful. It had been excruciating, and Priam had almost smashed his skull against the floor. Sphinx had to stop him from hurting himself.

He remembered the acquisition of his skill two hours earlier. You have gained the skill: [Sense of smell - Common]. [Sense of smell - Common] - Some theories give man five basic senses. Others give them nine or more. The important thing is that your sense of smell can recognize molecules floating in the air and inform you about your environment. Your sight is fallible, but when all your senses are alert, the world appears without illusion.

You may look stupid lifting your nose to smell your surroundings, but it will save your life. However, you're not a dog, so avoid sniffing the asses of your fellow creatures. Or, at the very least, ask their permission. PERC +1 It had taken Priam several minutes to try and modify this skill. Using his knowledge, he had bet that switching the gain from Perception to Dexterity was possible. To do this, he connected to his Potential and formulated his modifications.

His tests had been long, and Priam had used his Potential almost continuously. The loss of Potential was unfortunate but necessary. [Sense of smell] gave Perception. This attribute enabled his body and soul to receive information from the outside world. The basic skill would have helped Priam to smell a wider range of odors in lower concentrations. At a high level, he could have sensed the presence of lavender several hundred meters away, just by detecting a few molecules in the air.

[Sense of smell] was a good skill. But by connecting to Potential, Priam's objective was to gain Dexterity. In his experience, this attribute enabled him to better perceive his own body. For example, to feel the heat of an object, it was his Perception that came into play, and to feel his own heat, it was his Dexterity. So Priam, connected to his Potential, had tried to communicate a change of direction to his skill.

Rather than smelling a wide range of odors, he wanted to be able to easily distinguish between them. He wanted to be able to differentiate between the scents of several humans, to stalk his prey like a hunting dog. The sense of smell was not the most highly developed of human senses. Yet the nose was a very powerful organ, theoretically capable of detecting over a billion different odors. Perfumers and oenologists had a highly developed sense of smell.

Unfortunately, most humans didn't train this sense - and Priam was no exception. Rather than focusing [Sense of smell] on the outside world, Priam chose to distinguish between the smells he smelled. His nose wouldn't be sensitive enough to detect tiny quantities of molecules, but it would be better able to determine the different odors he smelled. In practical terms, Priam would smell humans from a shorter distance, but he would be able to distinguish and recognize them instantly.

With this thought in mind, he used his Potential and reforged [Sense of smell]. You have lost the skill: [Sense of smell] lvl 1. You have gained the skill: [Sense of smell - Common]. [Sense of smell - Common] - Your sense of smell can now distinguish finely between several similar odors. It's up to you to compare them. You'd make an excellent perfumer. By the way, it's been a long time since you took a bat h, hasn't it? You don't mind your own smell, but others do…

DEXT +1 POT -10 Status: (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0) PHYSICAL: Strength 148 Constitution 258 Agility 161 (+3) Vitality 284 Perception 296 (+1) MENTAL: Vivacity 175 Dexterity 192 (+14) Memory 48 (+8) Willpower 274 Charisma 146 META: Meta-affinity 141 Meta-focus 98 Meta-endurance 90 Meta-perception 32 Meta-chance 114 Potential: 1072 (-271) Tier 0 [He Who Eludes Death] charge OFF. Reloaded in 11 hours 4 min 3s [Tribulation]: Tribulations are coming.

Time: 15 hours 23 minutes 57 seconds.