FVN Book 4: Chapter 56: Knowledge
Book 4: Chapter 56: Knowledge
Book 4: Chapter 56: Knowledge
Elijah lay on the bed, and for a long while, stared at the ceiling. A fan twirled lazily above him, but otherwise, it was blank. It was such a stark difference from the places he usually slept. There were no stars twinkling above him. No subtle sounds of nature. No glowing flowers. Just blank drywall.
He sighed, already wishing he was back home. Or out in the forest. Even a tower would have felt more normal, if only because he wouldn’t have time to sit around and think about the unnaturalness of human habitation. People did everything they could to separate themselves from nature, to surround themselves with concrete and steel, all in the pursuit of comfort and safety. They achieved those goals, and yet, they lost something as well. Some ineffable connection with the natural world whose absence few even noticed, let alone lamented.
But Elijah felt it, and right down to his bones, and he could only feel that humanity was worse off for how firmly they’d embraced civilization.
To distract himself from that depressive feeling, he focused on the first of his guides:
Official Notice:
The Trial of Primacy
The Trial of Primacy is a benefit and challenge offered on newly touched worlds. The number of participants depends on the population of the world in question, but it has rarely exceeded ten thousand participants. Normally, it is much lower.
The Trial itself can be compared to a tower or Primal Realm. However, it differs in a number of ways. The most obvious is that the space where the Trial takes place is only temporarily connected to these newly touched worlds. In addition, the Trial of Primacy can be held in an Ancestral Realm, Trial Planet, Battle World, or even an excised world. These are much larger than towers or Primal Realms, and they often have unique histories.
However, the primary goal of a Trial of Primacy is to help establish a hierarchy on newly touched planets. Secondarily, it will allow for some unique benefits, including prime cultivation environments, leveling opportunities, equipment, and Feats of Strength to be added to your Legacy.
Thirdly, at the completion of the Trial of Primacy, many of the system’s latent features, including the World Tree’s communication system, local market, and long-distance (but still global) teleportation network will be unlocked.
And finally, when the Trial of Primacy is completed and everyone has returned to their world, ambient levels of ethera will receive a boost, reaching the density necessary for core cultivation.
Please note that if, at any time, participants wish to leave, they will be provided the means to do so. All tower surges and Primal Realm advancement will be halted during this time, though they will remain open for anyone who wishes to challenge them.
Good luck, and may you take advantage of this opportunity.
Even though it was not terribly complicated, Elijah took the time to read the guide – or notice – thrice. Yet, he saw nothing that he didn’t notice on the first read-through. The idea was simple, he supposed. Anyone who qualified for the Trial of Primacy would be transferred to a special space – not dissimilar from a tower – where they would face challenges. The completion of those challenges would result in advancement.
Yet, there were a few new pieces of information that stood out to Elijah. The first was the mention of Feats of Strength, which would be added to his Legacy. When he’d evolved Ancestral Circle into Roots of the World Tree, Feats of Strength had been mentioned, though at the time, Elijah hadn’t considered them to be anything official. However, the notice he’d just read seemed to imply that it was an official – if hidden – aspect of the system. And the Trial of Primacy offered an opportunity to add to that.
The second bit of information that seemed important was that, at the conclusion of the Trial, more Branch features would be unlocked, including communication and worldwide teleportation. While searching for his family, Elijah had checked on the latter, but he’d been disappointed to find that, while the teleportation network was technically available, most settlements were out of range from one another. Yet, Elijah wasn’t that excited about that feature, largely because he’d already been told that it was far too pricey to use except in emergencies.
But for Elijah, it might be worth it. He could use that system once, then create a dolmen on the other side of the world. That way, he could expand his own network much further than would normally be possible. From what he’d been told, Earth was now the size of Saturn, which meant that, even though its diameter was only ten times its old size, that meant that the surface area was almost a hundred times larger than before the planet had been touched by the World Tree. Covering that much ground, even in his flight form, was not feasible, at least in the short term.
It was something to think about, for sure.
The most important part of that section concerned the world’s ambient ethera. Elijah had felt its rise over the past four-and-a-half years, and he’d always expected it to eventually reach the point where it could support core cultivation. His grove and especially his cave had long since gotten to that level, but the rest of the world lagged far behind. It was one of the reasons he’d had so much trouble pushing himself to the next stage. Yet, the fact that the system would enhance Earth’s ethera density meant that it wouldn’t be long before others caught up to him.
In turn, that meant that if he wanted to maintain his advantages, he had something of a time limit. As he thought about it, Elijah decided to set himself a goal. He would do everything he could to advance his core to the second stage before the Trial of Primacy.
Finally, Elijah took note of the last paragraph. If people wanted to leave the Trial of Primacy, they could. However, even as he re-read that statement, he felt that doing so would result in some sort of detriment that exceeded the loss of benefits. The system didn’t like failure, and he expected that wouldn’t cease to be the case in the Trial of Primacy. If there were Feats of Strength attached to his official Legacy, then were there Feats of Weakness, as well?
Maybe.
In any case, the notice about the Trial of Primacy held quite a lot of useful information. Some of it was explicit, but there was plenty between the lines as well. Hopefully, the other two guides Elijah had gotten would prove just as helpful. He moved on to the first, which was called A Primer on Specializations:
Stolen story; please report.
Guide: A Primer on Specializations
Specializations are available at levels 100, 225, 450, and 900. There are rumors about further Specializations that may be developed in the Transcendent Realm, but they are unconfirmed.
Generally, each Specialization opportunity results in three choices, each intended to enhance an aspect of a class’s abilities.
For example, a Warmaster may be given the following three choices:
· Defense – Enhances the Warmaster’s defensive capabilities by a percentage based on Legacy.
· Damage – Enhances the Warmaster’s damage abilities by a percentage based on Legacy.
· Balance – Gives a smaller enhancement to all of the Warmaster’s abilities. Also based on Legacy.
It should be noted that not all Warmasters will receive the same Specialization choices. Much is determined by Legacy, yet most will see similar options.
After that, the guide gave a few more examples, but they all followed the same pattern. Then, there were hundreds of pages containing other known specializations for various classes. And while Animist was not represented, there were a few for other Druid classes. The first one Elijah saw was called Preserver:
Archetype: Druid
Specialization
N/A
Alignment
N/A
Strength
99
Dexterity
88
Constitution
97
Ethera
93
Regeneration
88
Attunement
Nature
Cultivation Stage: Cultivator
Body
Core
Mind
Soul
Stone
Hatchling
Quartz
Novice
He’d only gained one level from the fighting in Seattle, largely because he hadn’t really killed that many people. Most of the Adventurers had been sacrificed by Bruce, and the leader himself wasn’t actually that high of a level. Instead, his incredible power had been temporarily boosted by that sacrifice ability. So, he hadn’t awarded much in the way of experience. The same could be said for killing Barry.
He hung his head.
He hated thinking of killing people in those terms. They were more than just bags of experience. They were living, breathing human beings, complete with hopes and dreams and people who cared about them. Even Barry, as detestable as he was, had a family. Elijah needed to remember that, or he’d end up going to an extremely dark place.
In any case, he focused on his gains, which exceeded the one point per attribute he was awarded for each level. He’d gained extra points in everything but Ethera. Some had come from his efforts constructing the temple. Toting enormous stone blocks was great for building Strength and Constitution, apparently. But he’d also gained a couple of points from other activities, like fighting and cycling his Core.
Although, Elijah was less interested in the individual points than he was in the fact that he had a couple of attributes that were on the verge of crossing the one-hundred point threshold. It was an important mark, and not just because he suspected it would be more impactful than normal. Rather, it was a mark of how far Elijah had come. After all, he hadn’t forgotten that, only a little more than four years before, his physical attributes had been pathetic. Back then, his body had been ravaged by chemotherapy and cancer, which had left his strength at a mere three points. His Constitution had been even lower. And now, he was close to reaching triple digits.
It was a good reminder of just how far he’d come.
And how far he had yet to go.
With that in mind, he settled back into the bed and, for once, fell asleep quickly and slept soundly.