66 (4)Messiah's path
Everyone cheered as the boss died!
It was clear that this wasn't the final boss. They'd taken almost ten hours to get to this point, but almost half of that had been spent grinding the boss's minions. Even still, it felt good to have completed the first phase of the Dungeon. After all this time of constant fighting against organized and vicious nagas, everyone was exhausted.
When Apophis created a new staircase and descended to collect the Naga Queen's loot, the whole team received the same item:
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ CONSUMABLE ITEM
║ ╰╼[Name] : Roulette of Fate
║ ╰╼[Quality] : Legendary
║ ╰╼[Summary] : The Roulette of Fate turns. What was, what will be, and what now is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
║ ╰╼[Effect (1)] : Randomly gain one Legendary Passive Skill, chosen from all available in the game.
╚══════════════╛
This was incredible loot! It was much better than the equipment that dropped, which might eventually become obsolete as better alternatives were found. But Passive Skills would remain useful forever, so it was always good to have another!
Apophis didn't waste any time and activated his [Roulette of Fate] immediately.
A sub-menu appeared before him, displaying a huge roulette wheel broken into thousands of tiny subdivisions, each containing a Legendary Passive Skill.
He spun the cursor, and it sped from one Skill to another. Apophis held his breath as it gradually slowed and, after thirty seconds, settled on its choice.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ PASSIVE SKILL
║ ╰╼[Name] : Ghost
║ ╰╼[Quality] : Legendary
║ ╰╼[Summary] : Banish your body for a time, leaving only your spirit behind!
║ ╰╼[Effect (1)] : Enter a ghostly state, during which you can pass through physical objects and ignore most attacks. You can still use most Skills during this effect.
╚══════════════╛
Apophis almost fainted with astonishment at this absolutely incredible Skill! It had no maximum duration and didn't even consume Energy?! If this was only the loot from the first boss, what more lay in store for them at the end of the Dungeon? IronMan difficulty rewards truly were incredible!
It seemed that the other party members were also satisfied with their Passive Skills. Though it had been a grueling experience, this was proof of how their hard work and intense stress had paid off.
Nevertheless, they still had the rest of the Dungeon in front of them, and things were surely going to be even harder from that point onward. Considering how long they'd been fighting through the Dungeon, the party agreed to take a break and get some sleep.
It was the perfect opportunity to take a break, actually. Having reached LvL 20 earlier, each party member had unlocked their next character evolution. This would provide a huge power boost and make the rest of the Dungeon easier, but would take many hours of time to complete.
Everyone climbed the wooden stairs and returned to the wall, just in case more nagas attacked while they were resting.
Before deciding on his own evolution, Apophis spent 50 Skill Points to evolve his ~Demon God Flame (lvl 2)~.
╔═══════════════╕
╟─╼ SKILL
║ ╰╼[Name] : ~Eternal Flame (lvl 3)~
║ ╰╼[Esper]
║ ╰╼[Rare]
╟─╼[Summary] : The Demon God's flames incarnated into their eternal form. Divinely beautiful, but apocalyptically deadly.
╟─╼[Effect (1)] : Your flame-based Skills cost no Energy.
╟─╼[Effect (2)] : Your flames cannot be extinguished or manipulated by anyone except for you.
╟─╼[Effect (3)] : More fire damage equal to -10 times your Alignment.
╟─╼[Upgrade Cost] : 100 Skill Points
╚═══════════════╛
This was incredible, but also terrifying! Apophis stared for several seconds at the new damage bonus. Since it gave a negative multiplier, that meant that he would receive a damage penalty for having a positive Alignment, but a damage bonus for having a negative one!
In his current state, at -100 Alignment, ~Eternal Flame~ gave him a 1,000% damage bonus to his fire Skills, rather than the flat 300% damage bonus the Skill's previous stage had granted.
But if he returned to Neutral and then gained 10 positive Alignment, putting him only slightly in Good, that would still be enough to give him a 100% penalty to all his fire damage… reducing it to nothing.
This would force Apophis to stay evil-aligned if he wanted to keep his power. He suspected that the influence of his [God Tzeentch's Rings of Power] was behind the fact that he'd ended up with this Skill.
Well, time for something more pleasant to think about. Now to evolve his character race!
System: Calculating your evolutionary potential…
System: Please select from the available evolutionary paths.
-Demonic Human (Legendary) [Evolution Level 3]: "The God Tzeentch granted hearts of eternal fire to his most loyal disciples, giving them unimaginable power in exchange for their humanity."
-Pureblood Zetark (Epic) [Evolution Level 3]: "It is whispered throughout the galaxy that the greatest empire ever to exist may one day rise again. Could this be their time?"
Both were excellent choices, depending on what one considered valuable.
Demonic Humans had much higher base stats than even Pureblood Zetark, but forced the player who chose that path to have a negative alignment and constantly to make chaotic and evil choices. It completely corrupted the player's free will, filling the player with raw emotion and egotism.
Since he didn't want to lose his sanity and free will, Apophis easily chose Pureblood Zetark as his next evolution. Even if he needed to keep his alignment Evil to keep his damage bonus, there was no need to go completely insane.
System: Evolution will complete in 5 hours.
With nothing else to do, Apophis told everyone to meet back up in five hours, then disconnected.
