Patreon Only Side Chapter 2: Third Challenge Rewards (Patreon)

Diana

Diana took a deep breath and checked the System notifications.

Challenge over. Calculating rewards.

Base Trial Points: 144

12,873 G Rank Monsters Killed

Base Trial Points + 12,873

694 F Rank Monster Killed

Base Trial Points + 2,776

1 E Rank Monster Killed

Base Trial Points + 10,363

Monster Valley cleared without using any starting points

Total Trial Points X 6

Monster Valley cleared with no damage

Total Trial Points X 2

Monster Valley cleared with total Luck 144 or higher

Total Trial Points X 4

Trial Points for Diana Alvaro: + 1,255,728

All stats +6

You may choose one skill, one artifact, and one System boon from the following lists

Diana was quite happy with her results. It had taken her several days of practice, but she’d managed to create a nearly inextinguishable fire and killed a good deal of the slower monsters in the valley, resulting in the most points she’d received from a challenge yet. The lists of skills and artifacts for the first time listed epic rewards as default.

She was glad she’d chosen Nightmare difficulty for her final challenge, even though it had been scary as hell.

“Good job,” she heard through the telepathic bond she’d formed with her master. “Now choose the Legendary skill I’ve placed in your list and the Legendary artifact. But, most importantly, for the boon, clear your current skills.”

“What?” Diana looked at the choices for boons and saw there was one which would clear all her skills. But she’d worked so hard for the two she already had.

It had been so much work to merge her Spirit of Living Fire skill and it was even Legendary. She’d been planning on taking the boon for skill enhancement to turn her Spirit of Cold Frost into Spirit of Living Ice, enhancing it from Epic to Legendary, but now she was supposed to get rid of both of them.

She couldn’t have gotten so many points without her Spirit of Living Fire skill.

“Why?”

The Yin Yang Sage started to laugh and Diana’s experiences with the dead woman during the tutorial caused her to immediately feel fear, but then she realized the laughter was slightly different, malicious glee seemingly absent. “I just managed to get you two skills to replace the ones you have, both of which are half-step Heroic grade. It’s a huge win for you.”

Diana felt her heart start to beat faster. The Yin Yang Sage sounded excited, really excited, the tone the same as when she’d first shared her full status with the woman.

Without any more hesitation, Diana chose the Balance of Dualism (Legendary) skill orb from the skill list, the Contained Primal Spark (Legendary) as her artifact, and allowed the System to wash away both her skills as her boon. Then the void faded and she was standing in the training room with the Yin Yang Sage.

The wise, ancient, and utterly terrifying woman was sitting on a chair she’d summoned from nothing, her right hand on her cane and her left hand holding out two skill orbs, one a brilliant glowing white emanating heat and an aura of life and the other deep black, feeling like an endless abyss of cold and death.

“I’ve changed my mind,” her master said, smiling broadly. “I no longer recommend going for an Uncommon class to make advancing easier. You should aim for maximum power instead and these three skills will be the first step, allowing you access to the Legendary class you are most suited for.”

Diana looked down at her own hands. In one was another skill orb, half glowing black, emanating an aura of death and cold, and the other half glowing white, emanating an aura of life and heat. The two halves moved around each other in the orb in perfect balance.

In her other hand was an orb about the same size, but looking at it just felt weird. There was a spark of energy contained inside which looked like a miniature sun, but, when looking at it, she felt like she was instead viewing the entire universe. There was power contained inside that orb, and her understanding of Laws wasn’t enough to understand just how much.

She identified both.

Balance of Dualism (G-Legendary) Magic, Passive, Enhancement

Your magic channels are enhanced to allow two opposing types of magic to flow through them at the same time without interacting

Effects: Learn the skill Balance of Dualism (G-Legendary)

Requirements: Free skill slot, Soul +144, Attunement +72, Luck +72, even number of unaligned Mana Wells, able to learn magic passive enhancement skills

The requirements for the skill were insane. Diana had learned quite a bit from the Yin Yang Sage over their time together and Attunement and Luck were the two stats hardest to raise, so most G ranks would never be able to meet the requirements of having 72 in both, yet alone having Soul at 144 or higher.

But she was pretty sure the artifact was far more powerful than the skill.

Contained Primal Spark (G-Legendary)

A spark of primal chaos contained by the power of a god. If used by a G rank cultivator, and the cultivator somehow does not explode, it will allow for a very powerful racial evolution.

Effects: Opens up new paths of racial evolution when next upgrading race rank

Requirements: A G rank Legendary race, Endurance +72, Vitality +144, Toughness +144

Diana wasn’t absolutely positive, but she was pretty sure the Contained Primal Spark represented a much, much larger portion of the Yin Yang Sage’s wealth than anything else she’d seen. She looked up at the woman and could see the expectation in her eyes. Then she thought to herself, Oh, my life is going to suck.

She tried not to show the fear on her face as she moved the skill orb to her other hand with the Contained Primal Spark and took the two skills her master said she’d just gotten.

Yang Spirit (G-Legendary) Magic, Summoning, Yang

Spirits of life, light, and fire heed your command

Effects: Learn the skill Yang Spirit (G-Legendary)

Requirements: Free skill slot, Magic +144, Perception +36, Spirit +72, able to learn yang magic summoning skills, at least 1 middle grade Law Egg for each of the fire, light, and life elements

Yin Spirit (G-Legendary) Magic, Summoning, Yin

Spirits of death, darkness, and water heed your command

Effects: Learn the skill Yin Spirit (G-Legendary)

Requirements: Free skill slot, Magic +144, Perception +36, Spirit +72, able to learn yin magic summoning skills, at least 1 middle grade Law Egg for each of the water, darkness, and death elements

She’d read a lot about skills in the tutorial library and she knew Legendary summoning skills usually required a Law Egg of the spirit’s element to learn, but she’d never heard of one requiring a middle grade Law Egg, let alone three of them. “You said you just got these?”

Diana looked up to see the Yin Yang Sage’s grin grow wider, a look of pride on the woman’s face. “Your sister apprentice and her partner both had the chance to choose from the entire list of the System’s available skills, but there was nothing better than what they already had, so they decided to give the skills to you instead.”

Diana had been hearing about the Yin Yang Sage’s other apprentice for about a month now. Unlike with her, the old woman had been more careful with her second and final pick, and, as far as Diana was aware, her junior sister didn’t have anywhere close to the same natural advantages she’d been born with. But that hadn’t stopped the Yin Yang Sage from comparing the two of them, usually unfavorably to her.

Until now Diana had thought it mainly part of the Yin Yang Sage’s trickster mentor tendencies, but apparently it wasn’t. “How many points does that require?”

“Oh, not that many.” The Yin Yang Sage waved her hand dismissively. “Just 429,981,696. That’s nothing compared to the amount they gained.”

Diana gulped. More than 400 million in one challenge. She hadn’t even made 2 million throughout the entire tutorial. “How many did she actually get?”

“Together with her boyfriend?” The Yin Yang Sage looked thoughtful. Then her jovial demeanor faded and she looked at Diana with a serious expression. “Don’t ever tell anyone this, but a little over 95 quadrillion.”

Diana’s mouth hung open.

The Yin Yang Sage rose and walked over to her, placing one of her bony hands on Diana’s shoulder. “You have far more natural advantages than they do, and you’ve worked hard, but there are a lot of geniuses in the world, so you can’t slack off. Your natural advantages will make you a target of powerful people when they are revealed and you need to be strong enough to protect yourself.”

Diana felt a chill go up her spine. “I won’t be able to directly interfere once you leave the tutorial, so you’d be able to slack off if you want to, but don’t.”

Diana activated the three skill orbs and the Contained Primal Spark, clenching her hands into fists as the skills entered into her soul and the primal spark started to fill her body with energy. Her little brother had sacrificed his life to stop the world from ending. It had taken a lot of time for her to come to peace with that, and her coping mechanism for his loss was going to be saving Earth in his place.

* * *

Several hours later, as the energy from the primal spark subsided, she looked at her status for the last time in the tutorial.

Name: Diana Alvaro

Level: 0

Race: Ideal Human (G-Legendary)

Bloodline: Primordial Titan (Empyrean)

Abilities

Omniglot Reader (Legendary)

Silver Soul (Legendary)

Nascent Energy Converter (Legendary)

Miracle Summoner (Legendary)

Class: Citizen (G-Common)

Skills

Balance of Dualism (G-Legendary) 0% mastered

Yang Spirit (G-Legendary) 0% mastered

Yin Spirit (G-Legendary) 0% mastered

Laws

Law Eggs:

Spark - High

Frost - High

Day - Middle

Night - Middle

Flesh - Middle

Necrosis - Middle

Stats

Strength: 132

Agility: 132

Endurance: 148

Toughness: 148

Vitality: 148

Perception: 132

Magic: 220

Spirit: 132

Soul: 188

Aura: 132

Attunement: 132

Luck: 159

Free Stats: 0

Soulstructures:

Lower Dantian: 1 Large Core Container

Middle Dantian: 6 Huge + 2 Colossal Mana Wells

Upper Dantian: 1 Large Mental Forge

Uniqueness:

Magic Princess

Yin Yang Queen