34. Skill Evolutions

"Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power." — Lao Tzu

After being chased around for a full ten minutes, Paul finally stopped outside a massive church near the center of the city. 

This was the Luciel Church, the main religion in the Emerald Enclave, and a place with many uses for players.

After catching up to him, Claire instantly began speaking loudly, attracting the attention of nearby players and NPCs.

"How am I supposed to get good at PvP in the next week? What should I be doing?"

Looking over at her, Paul once again repeated what he had said earlier.

"It would be best to train in real life while studying what abilities do and watching footage of duels. Like I said before, doing basic exercises and meditating is useful for every part of this game, especially PvP."

Hearing him, Claire was exasperated; she was not big on exercise; she was nothing but skin and bones to begin with.

"Fine, I will do that if you guide me on the phone. Would that be okay?"

Hearing her incredibly forward request, Paul looked at her for a while.

"You really do not know gaming etiquette very well, do you? Making IRL contact is a huge deal; it turns you from an anonymous presence on the wide internet into a real person. Now I think you are a pretty good person from what I have seen; extending communication offline is a big step, are you sure?" 

At this point, the companion app Harbinger's, which allowed you to contact people through your in-game account, had not been launched yet, meaning people would have to contact each other in another way; it was not a small matter for people without a reason to do so.

Hearing his serious question, she was surprised by how dangerous contacting people offline seemed; it didn't seem like a big deal to her; as long as she didn't show where she lived or her full name, she had thought it would not be a big deal.

After thinking about it for a short time, she came to a decision.

"What kind of person would I be if I didn't have this much trust for my business partner? We are working together to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars; there is no point in being so timid if this can truly improve my game."

Nodding with her explanation, Paul began heading into the church.

"Once we get back to the slaughterhouse and are alone, tell me your phone number; it is best not to have a log of that anywhere. Come in for now; it is time for us to evolve our first skill since we have all those skill points." 

With the skill levels from playing so far, plus from the four dungeons they did, they would have enough to evolve one skill.

Once they entered the church, Claire was stunned by the beauty; it looked like an old stone building made with very elegant and grand architecture, but inside, it was entirely over the top, covered in silver and gold. Even the pews were made of an expensive wood that looked so white it might as well have been marble.

Following Paul, they soon arrived at a side chapel with a few places to sit and pray, facing the statue of a glowing woman.

Explaining to Claire, Paul walked forward and sat down.

"This is one of the Luciel, the gods who rule this world. Every faction worships them, differing in which ones they focus on; this is Lara, one of the most respected among the elves. At her alters worldwide, you can evolve your skills and reset the attributes you assign when you level up; of course, that is in exchange for thalor."

Hearing his explanation, Claire was annoyed.

"A donation for a blessing from the church, how typical."

Seeing her contempt, Paul was surprised.

"It is not that deep; it is a game mechanic that must have a limit, not some dig at real-life religion. Generally speaking, in this game, churches are not evil entities; their survival is bound to having loyal believers, and unlike many stories, they do not need to manufacture conflicts to keep people loyal. Gods also influence this world; if the church is truly corrupt, the outcome will be very swift."

Although he did not say it, Paul instantly thought of a few quests with evil church members, but they were never supported by the establishment or people with any actual rank. 

After they sat down, he began to explain to the mechanic.

"Since it is our first skill evolution, it will only cost around 100 thalor, but every time you evolve a new skill, the price will increase. Look through the possible paths for everything you can right now and see what you want."

Paul already knew what he wanted and instantly entered the menu and picked the Arcane Reaver evolution that was very notorious in the future. 

Divine Reckoning Blade: Wield your sword infused with divine energy to execute the Divine Reckoning Blade. This ability strikes your enemies with precise magical damage, harnessing the power of light. Each hit restores your health by converting 25% of the magical damage dealt into healing.

Cost: 590 mana

Looking at the ability he had just upgraded, Paul was pleased; having an ability that dealt damage in a cone in front of him and healed him back was extremely strong. With a group of enemies, he grouped up, so it would not be an exaggeration to say he could sit in the middle of them, spamming this ability and outlasting them. 

It did not take too many enemies to be able to heal his entire health per second.

This ability could once again level up since it had evolved; although no second evolutions were available yet, it would increase the damage the ability did while this time increasing the mana cost as well. That was a small price to pay for such a strong ability.

Finishing up instantly, he still sat there, not to rush his companion.

After ten minutes, she finally seemed to have looked through everything but had not decided.

"Lazarus, I know you have looked through all of these; which one do you think I should evolve?"

Somewhat expecting the question, he answered without hesitation.

"I would evolve Searing Expanse for PvE and Suppression Seal for PvP."

Hearing such a simple explanation, she was not expecting caused her to look at him with a blindsided look.

"Since we will be playing PvP, I will do Suppression Seal; which evolution should I pick? I can either make it disable ranged attacks within the seal or make the slow stronger and deal damage to enemies within the seal."

Looking at her like her question was funny, he answered it instantly.

"Of course, the one that deals damage. Do you want one healer to cleanse everyone, and then your ultimate ability be wasted?"