Chapter 429 (1/2)
I'm from a different world, Lucretia began, taking a second to savor her words as she spoke them. At her initial apology, Randidly's rage spiked upwards, but as she spoke in such a measured tone, it enabled him to suppress it and keep listening to her. You of all people don't need to be told this, but... it means things are different.
Specifically, in our world, the Level 50 is a very... important dividing line amongst warriors. I referenced it earlier, but it is rather well known that Skills can more easily be created immediately prior to Level 50. Not that there is any problem with people accidentally reaching Level 50; without the percent experience that you've received in the Raid Dungeon, crossing that hurdle would have taken quite a bit of time. As long as you don't purposefully seek out battles with monsters or quests, you can sit at Level 49 for quite a few years, sharpening your images.
To make things easier, Randidly sunk into himself and slipped into his Soul Skill. There, he could face her directly. She was still beautiful, but now more than ever, Randidly could see how she was the mother of Shal. The shape of their faces was extremely similar. The sharpness of their nose and the hard cast of their jaw spoke of their shared stubbornness. But of course, Lucretia's soft lavender hair was all hers. She had chosen the location, and he had just moved through his Soul Skill to find it, arriving at the top of a snow-covered mountain. The ice and snow swirled harmlessly around Randidly as he eyed her.
Sighing, she continued to speak. ”All of that is just a preface. Now... I'd like to talk about what I was always told happens at Level 50. For that is the time... that a warrior condenses their Fate.”
”Fate?” Randidly asked, quirking up an eyebrow. Lucretia shot him an annoyed glance for the interruption, but it only made Randidly more pleased he had done so. She likely had thought very carefully about how this would happen, and arranged every line; anytime Randidly spoke, it completely threw her off track.
Then, Lucretia gestured, and as Randidly watched, his eyes widened. Because out of nowhere, Lucretia created a glass staff. Created, because it wasn't as though she had produced it from an interspatial ring. No, Randidly had watched it grow.
From her hand, the crystal had rapidly spread up to a larger crystal top, and straight down to become a staff of glass. Bemused, Lucretia did a little curtsy.
”A Fate,” Lucretia said, brandishing her glass staff. ”...to understand my confusion, we need to take a couple steps back. Because based on what just happened... what is really occurring is very much different than what I had always been told.”
”We were always told that a Fate was a person's own personal style and Skills, condensed to physical form because they had reached a certain level of strength,” Lucretia said with a frown. ”This was why so many people train right before reaching Level 50, so their condensed Fate is larger, or denser, due to a higher quality Skill and image. In retrospect, this seems incredibly foolish; why would a Level suddenly mean their strength should... crystallize? It shouldn't, the strength should be dependent on the image if the image is the real impetus for it happening.
”Normally, a person who reaches Level 50 without any understanding of what was going on would acquiesce to the voice of God, or more accurately the System, and they will condense their Fate. But, because they had no warning or understanding, it would be sloppy.” Shaking her head, Lucretia slowly walked across the top of the mountain to a snow-covered boulder. She gestured to it.
”...often, the person would be the rock, and their Fate the snow. Without a shape to guide it, the Fate grows like a fungus on the head, arms, and hands. It is powerful as a weapon, but it is still a crystal. And although the amount of the exposed Fate can be shrunk with training... there is something about the touch of the Fate that permanently scars flesh. Before they control it, the first owners of a Fate are like golems, and afterward they are shunned for their disfigurement by wider society. It usually requires a show of the Fate's power to... establish oneself in society. That's why we are trained to establish a start point on our bodies, then control the rest of the Fate to grow away...”
To demonstrate, Lucretia stretched out her hand. Slowly, her ”Fate” shrunk back, until she was just left with a bare palm. And in the middle of that palm was a small patch of crystal, still affixed to her skin, about a penny in size.
”How powerful is a Fate? Does Alana have a Fate?” Randidly asked, some of his hostility ebbing away.
Again, Lucretia seemed annoyed, but she humored him. ”...well it is strong. It is condensed images, yes? Your personal images. So your own Skills that use those images receive a boost. As I stated earlier, the power of the images affect it, but usually, the boost is around 20%. In addition, there is a cumulative effect. As you grow with your Fate, oftentimes you earn slight increases in Health or Mana boosts per Level. Some people even obtain an additional Stat point. As to whether Alana has one...”
Lucretia shrugged and then frowned. ”Based on what we know to have actually happened... she should? Or at least, she should have something that is even superior to a Fate... Or on the other hand, perhaps what happens is you maintain a higher potential for growth. Perhaps the Fate is just a short-term power grab. It is hard to stay, we will have to study-”
Randidly rolled his eyes.
Lucretia eyed him as she continued to speak. ”-in order to gain any more information, you know that. Now, that was what I have always been told. As to what actually happened... The System was forcefully excluding the person's images, and they were compressed until they exploded. Without your interference...because she rejected the System, the images would have exploded, likely following her own imperative that the System's influence be destroyed. Of course, the closest thing to it was her own Class, which... as a target...”