Although he could not see its effects yet, Iver had long since memorized the effects of these two rare entries.
After helping friends run Advancement Instances a few times, he had memorized all the randomly generated entry effects...
Good deeds really did bring good rewards.
"Tainted Light" was an advanced entry that could theoretically be upgraded three times.
Its effect was that whenever any spell using only Light Attribute Mana as its cost dealt damage, it additionally dealt poison damage equal to one-third of that damage. The second time this entry was selected, it granted an additional one-third of cold damage. The third time, it granted another one-third of shadow damage.
If all three Advancement selections were invested in this entry, it granted a simple and brutal 100% bonus damage. Moreover, the bonus damage consisted of three damage types, making it difficult for attribute resistances to negate.
However, this Path Trait of the Dedication Path was quite limited in practice.
It only worked with spells that used pure Light Attribute Mana as their cost, and those spells had to deal damage.
The "Priest" class of the Dedication Path had no direct damage skills.
Throughout the entire Dedication Path, only the "Temple Warrior Monk" and "Fire Worshiper" had attack spells. The latter's spells were almost all Fire Attribute spells, with only two or three attack spells made up of pure Light Attribute Mana.
Although selecting "Light Affinity" gave priests an energy-type basic attack... this Path Trait was generally selected by "Temple Warrior Monks."
After advancing beyond level fifty into "Shakya Lion," this class gained a crucial class trait. It could cast all of its own non-Dark Attribute spells below the Third Level using only Light Attribute Mana, convert all their final damage into Light Attribute damage, and grant the spells Light Attribute resistance penetration.
Combined with the class's low-level instant-cast spell, "Lion's Roar," and the fully upgraded "Tainted Light" trait, it was the strongest build in version 4.2: the famous "Tainted Lion's Roar" build—converting the additional 100% damage entirely into Light Attribute damage. Combined with its own Light Attribute resistance penetration, it was an extremely brutal pure damage class, with tremendous sustained damage, maximum control, some burst damage, and nothing but area-of-effect damage.
This build's class was extremely popular in various defense and speed-running event quests.
Moreover, the developers had not nerfed this build. They had not changed a single number. Their balancing method was very simple—
They had drastically reduced the frequency of defense and speed-running events while temporarily increasing the frequency of assault events.
That was because this class was not particularly ideal for assaulting strongholds.
Shakya Lion's damage conversion and resistance penetration were limited to minor skills. Its major skills for assaulting strongholds still dealt mixed damage and could not benefit from resistance penetration. On top of that, most bosses had maxed-out poison resistance, so the final increase was definitely less than 33%.
Compared to that, what truly made Iver's eyes light up was the second Path Trait.
Unlike Tainted Light from the Dedication Path,
this entry was not exclusive to the Dedication Path. It was a general purple rare entry.
It was also a container-type entry, but it only appeared for classes that could obtain two types of Attribute Mana simultaneously when leveling up.
It could be neither more nor less. There had to be exactly two types of Mana.
For example, when a mage leveled up, they could simultaneously obtain Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire Attribute Mana, while an ordinary Demon Scholar could only obtain Dark Attribute Mana. They would never randomly receive this entry—unless they contracted a demon such as a Flame Demon, which would let them obtain Fire and Dark Mana in balanced amounts.
Its effect was simple and practical: it increased the levels of both Attribute Container entries by one.
This meant it could be used to obtain a container entry for free, or to forcibly break a container entry whose maximum level was only LV3 through to LV4.
Transcendent beings had very few advancement opportunities. Any entry that saved an advancement was valuable.
The strongest Transcendent beings in the current version were only in their forties. They were at the Fifth Level—the so-called Fifth Level meant possessing five Path Traits, in other words, entries corresponding to a Path.
Aside from the Path of Wisdom, whose followers obtained double Mana when leveling up, Transcendent beings of other spellcasting classes basically had to select one or two container-type entries, so they would at least not lose out.
That was because spellcasting classes simply did not have enough Mana from leveling up.
The Mana rules were that each level gained during the first ten levels granted one point; from levels eleven to twenty, each level granted two points; from levels twenty-one to thirty, each level granted three points, and so on. Multicolored classes added points in sequence, without decimals.
For non-spellcasting classes, their Mana gradually became more than sufficient... but for spellcasters who lacked basic attack capabilities, they could never have enough Mana.
"Elemental Affinity" referred to a mage's Mana-free basic attack. Although it could also be upgraded to a maximum of level three, not many classes would select it.
Healers were even more universally short on Mana.
The intensity of dungeon battles was bound to increase over time.
Maintaining "Illumination" and "Fire Worship" required burning large amounts of Light Attribute Mana, while activating Illumination each time also required one point of Fire Attribute Mana as an ignition source.
The first time a container-type entry was selected, it granted fourteen points of Mana; the second time granted another twenty-eight points; and the third time granted another forty-two points.
Maxing it out three times granted eighty-four additional Mana—only that much Mana could let someone maintain healing throughout a high-intensity battle alone. It was enough to save twelve or thirteen people with severed limbs or damaged internal organs who were just one breath away from death.
Even so, if one's teammates never dodged any mechanics and took every attack head-on, it still definitely would not be enough to heal them.
After all, maxing out container-type entries three times only amounted to filling fourteen health bars.
Moreover, this meant that before level thirty, he could not select any "affinity-type" entry to gain offensive capabilities. He also could not select any rare entries.
The choice of Path Traits could improve a character even more than the class itself.
Purple rare entries and golden mythic entries obtainable only after level fifty could permanently alter skill forms.
For example, Salvation of All Living Beings from the Dedication Path was practically mandatory for Priest classes.
This was a purple trait whose effect was to convert all single-target buff spells into area-of-effect spells while halving their duration.
Because it reduced only the duration and not the effect, it was extremely effective in team combat.
In addition, priests could use the general Path Trait Status Extension to double the duration of all status-type skills, making up for the lost duration. They could also obtain Source of Life from the Path of Adaptation through multiclassing, increasing the healing of all their non-instant healing abilities by one-third and shortening their healing cycles by one-third, thereby gaining greater Illumination healing per unit of time and indirectly saving Mana. Alternatively, they could use Body of Light from the Dedication Path, increasing their Mana cost by an additional 1.5 times and releasing "Illumination" through their entire bodies, transforming Illumination into a mobile, ranged, area-of-effect healing ability that did not require close-range continuous channeling and further enhancing their group-combat capabilities.
However, even a level-fifty priest could only choose five from this entire selection, plus one free container or affinity entry.
Precisely because everyone had different inclinations and obtained different Path Traits, the characters they ultimately built were also completely different.
The real danger was not knowing what a Path Trait did and choosing incorrectly. Or regretting one's path halfway through, or not knowing how to proceed.
But compared with other Transcendent beings who did not even know what path they would take in the future, Iver always had a clear goal and knew how to reach it.
That allowed every one of his advancements to be valuable!
I'll choose the second one.
Iver thought to himself.
After Iver selected "Vessel of Burning and Radiance," the other two options shattered.
He felt the tiny wound that had just been cut open on his face rapidly heal. A wave of heat flowed into his body along with the invisible seed of light.
The Candle Holder nodded slightly to him, then turned and left.
A more and more surging heat came from within Iver's body. He lowered his head and saw that his skin had also become translucent, gradually beginning to shine.
Like a firefly, a fire ignited within his body and light spilled out—
When the light in his chest reached its peak, Iver suddenly awoke from his dream, drenched in sweat.
He was still sitting in his wheelchair, while the sun had only just risen outside. He had slept for less than six hours.
The instant Iver opened his eyes, the altered portions of his attribute panel appeared before him, reminding him that his advancement had succeeded: Priest LV10: Basic Prayer—Level 2 (3%), Fire Worship—Level 2 (5%), Illumination—Level 2 (15%), Blessing—Level 2 (0%), Shepherding (Flesh)—Level 2 (10%).
Mana Pool: 22/22 (Light), 5/5 (Dark), 44/44 (Fire)
Path Traits—
Dedication—Vessel of Burning and Radiance: Light is born from fire, and fire floats upon light. Your soul is nourished by both. The levels of your "Flame Container" and "Light Container" increase by one.
Dedication—Light Container LV1: You consumed the Candle Holder's Blood, expanding your soul's capacity. Your maximum Light Mana Pool increases by 14.
Dedication—Flame Container LV2: You consumed the Candle Holder's Flesh, further expanding your soul's capacity. Your maximum Fire Mana Pool increases by 42.
Iver slowly exhaled.
He felt utterly at ease.
With "Vessel of Burning and Radiance," his baseline was secure! No matter whether he selected a container entry during his next advancement, Iver would definitely have enough Mana before level twenty to complete the first blank card!
No, or rather—he no longer needed the blue Path Trait Flame Container at all.
Next time, he could choose a rare trait to strengthen himself! "...In that case, I'll still have to find a way to compete for first place in the next Full Moon Ritual."
Iver murmured, "But there was actually a highlight replay during the settlement phase..."
That was indeed an important reminder.
And a very timely one.
Fortunately, each "highlight" had only shown a single instant. The others probably could not understand what he had done.
So next time, he would have to act more cautiously and avoid revealing too much—while also getting a high score?
Although he was unsure exactly how much bonus the ranking would grant to rare entries, Iver could basically confirm that it definitely provided some probability bonus. Otherwise, getting two purple entries during the first Advancement Ritual would be far too frightening.
Basically, a Transcendent being's first two entries could only be blue container or affinity entries. Players were generally too lazy to farm them—after all, one or two affinity or container entries had to be taken sooner or later, so they might as well take them early.
And the material used to reroll traits, Heart of Reshaping, had to be obtained through spending money.
Because farming Path Trait entries was both grindy and expensive, and although this Rogue-like entry system had tremendous playability and potential, the developers' mothers still frequently traveled beyond the atmosphere at the speed of the First Cosmic Velocity.
Iver had originally thought he would have to rely on random luck. At the time, he had been rather pessimistic—after all, he did not know how to obtain the cash-shop item that removed Path Traits in reality.
Its name alone made it sound extremely rare.
But only after he had completed an entire ritual did he suddenly realize something—
Damn it, was the ritual in the game a castrated version? Not only did the Advancement Ritual lack all story content and immediately throw players into a random BOSS fight... even the rewards were random.
At most, there was a developer-provided "weekly UP" effect that could slightly increase the probability of certain Path Traits appearing.
And the three traits Iver had obtained... did not seem very random.
His chance to choose the "Light Affinity" trait was probably related to his obvious lack of combat ability at a critical moment. If Iver had been a native without prophetic abilities, he might have realized during the ritual that he was too fragile and powerless, and therefore chosen Light Affinity to gain combat strength.
The "Vessel of Burning and Radiance" trait was clearly because Iver had burned out his entire Mana Pool upon dying.
Likewise, he might have felt that he lacked Mana and therefore chosen this trait... although his Mana had not actually been exhausted through casting spells, but had instead been burned away all at once through the Shepherding Method. However, this judgment mechanism had clearly failed to recognize the difference.
As for "Tainted Light," it was most likely related to several of Iver's somewhat sinister actions. His soul had briefly fused with a demon, and he had even actively killed someone.
But the existence of the Shepherding Method had indeed made the act conform to the Dedication Path, making it reasonable and logical.
Thus, the Advancement Ritual might have decided that Iver belonged to the "rather sinister kind of Dedication Path follower," and kindly given him an equally sinister Path Trait, asking whether he wanted to switch to damage dealing.
Setting aside rarity, these three traits were essentially Path Traits "customized according to Iver's personal style" by the Advancement Ritual.
It was quite intelligent.
So, could my behavior and evaluation during the ritual also affect the category of Path Traits I randomly obtain? Iver fell into deep thought.
Should I conduct an experiment during next month's New Moon Ritual to verify it? Meanwhile,
the other participants gradually opened their eyes as well.
Six thousand words! It's a new week, so please give me some follow-up reads~