Silence filled the dazzling cavern as Percy finally understood the true essence of the Moirais’ superiority. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that Phoebe spoke again.
“I would advise you not to absorb any common or composite affinities into your second core. A rare affinity would be best if you can ever get your hands on one, but the pure and beast affinities also work like the rare ones – in the sense that no god has ever managed to acquire them.”
Percy felt the urge to swear. Why hadn’t she mentioned this earlier?! There had been so many times when he’d been tempted to stuff a common element into his second core!
Then again, he could have only done that with his main body that had always been on Remior – under Phoebe’s watchful gaze – so she would have presumably stepped in at that time.
“So are the factions that can produce gods with two rare affinities practically unbeatable?”
“Sort of.” Phoebe shrugged. “What you need to remember is that mortals with two rare affinities are difficult to come by. Fewer than one in tens of thousands are born like that, and most are Red-borns. Even if they’re Orange-borns or above, they still have to make it all the way to godhood. Rare affinity-granting treasures help, but those are tough to get even for the peak factions, so giving a couple to someone with two pure cores would still be a waste. The most effective approach is to give them to mortals with one rare and one pure core, so the pool of candidates is still small.”
“But it’s bound to happen if you have a large population and wait long enough,” Percy protested.
“Indeed. The good news is that these gods still have to go through the Self-Discovery stage for both affinities, and then the entire Elemental Acquisition stage with practically no shortcuts. There are also a few other factors that I haven’t mentioned which greatly limit the number of gods who can make it to the very end, though I’m sure that some will eventually succeed,” Phoebe explained.
“Eventually? It hasn’t happened yet?” Percy asked.
“The Moirais’ Decree is fairly recent by universal standards. The first wave of gods with two rare affinities aren’t that much older than me, so they’re still working through the Elemental Acquisition stage. I don’t think that many of them have become titans either, so the impact is relatively small for the time being.”
Percy swallowed hard. Apparently, the most powerful faction in the universe was still in a period of rapid growth – they had yet to reap the brunt of the benefits of their most prized Decree!
“How will anyone compete with them once that happens?”
The titaness sighed. “With great difficulty. That is actually the same question that the other peak factions are currently asking each other. This is part of the reason why the Void Hand and Sixiang are working so hard to slow the Moirai down. That said, there are a few ways to keep up with them. Metatron is a perfect example of that. He has a space affinity and an external concept, so his strength won’t be much lower once he is done exploring all the common elements. The divine beasts are rivalling them with sheer numbers – they can produce gods faster than any other factions, and all of them begin their divine journey with the equivalent of a rare affinity. Other factions have their own means, and everyone is constantly researching new ways to grow stronger.”
Percy let out a whistle. He’d been racking his brain to understand why Phoebe was so willing to teach him about the universe, and he finally had his answer.
‘She’s trying to motivate me!’
Now that he was aware of her subtle support and had fewer challenges on Remior, she could no longer push him to train through fear or desperation, leaving only curiosity and ambition as viable options. Obviously, she had to be aware that Percy’s personality would have never allowed him to laze around, but dangling a few carrots in front of him couldn’t hurt.
Moreover, he had to admit that it had worked like a charm!
All this time, Percy had inadvertently thought of the universe as a static place that had already settled into its current state millions of years ago. Evidently, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The cosmos had never stopped changing – evolving! The peak factions were always working to outgrow and defeat one another, the Moirai were rushing to create the first group of titans with two rare affinities and all the common ones, and their rivals were doing everything in their power to stop them.
However, that was just one of many similar races happening at once.
The most skilled alchemists were working tirelessly to perfect their brewing yield and master one of the most powerful and elusive concepts in existence, while loners and smaller factions like Metatron’s were biding their time and searching for opportunities to climb to the centre stage.
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Greater springs were forming alliances and fighting over Elemental Sources and Rings of Sacrilege, while lesser springs like Remior were trying to remain hidden for long enough to improve their means of advancement and grow into greater springs – with the number of such factions constantly increasing as a result.
Finally, demonic infestations and Cardinal Devils ran rampant across the cosmos, bringing worlds of all shapes and sizes to ruin, threatening sapients everywhere.
‘What a crafty woman…’ Percy thought, catching a satisfied glint in Phoebe’s eyes. The titaness looked young, but he couldn’t let himself forget how old she was.
For as long as Percy could remember, his goal had been to attain divinity. Now that the faintest outline of his success was starting to appear on the horizon, it was time for him to start thinking past that – to prepare for a greater stage. After all, another regular god wouldn’t help Remior that much, nor would Percy ever be satisfied with the bare minimum.
Thinking of all the possibilities, his heart thrummed with eagerness, yearning to soar across the stars and compete with the best of the best. That said, there were still several obstacles to overcome before he even reached the Clear grade – let alone forged his internal world.
‘It’ll be harder for me than anyone else,’ he realized, his expression turning grim.
He would have to master more concepts than the average god, and he had no intention of giving up on any of them to go for an easier promotion. Percy hadn’t gone through all this trouble to create these opportunities for himself just to toss them in the garbage.
The good news was that he might be able to have each of his aspects focus on their own affinities, while still integrating all of them into the same internal world. Phoebe had also given him a few precious clues on how to improve his odds.
Meditating at an Elemental Source was apparently beneficial to gods trying to comprehend new concepts – not just mortals developing their spells – and Percy had exclusive access to the Mirror Lake!
‘I’ll need to look for more Rings and Sources,’ he decided. Those would be the keys to managing so many concepts at once. He’d just need to station clones and familiars at each of them at the time of his ascension.
Granted, some were inherently problematic. It was commonly believed that Sixiang had the Source of the beast affinity. Even worse, nobody but them had ever attained divinity with that concept, so Percy would eventually need to sneak on their main planet.
He didn’t even know whether he would keep the pure affinity or swap it for a proper rare element, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least look for the ice, water or air Sources. The first would be the most useful one, but the others would still help.
Thinking about all of that, Percy found himself eager to start sending clones out again. That had always been his plan, of course, but it certainly helped to have a clearer purpose.
‘Let’s not get ahead of myself. Leaving aside all the issues on Remior, I still need to complete my artificial advancement for any of this to be relevant, otherwise I’ll have to look for other ways to extend my lifespan.’
Even if everything went well, it would still be tens of thousands of years before he reached the Clear grade, so there was no rush.
“Thanks for the lesson. I promise I’ll cherish this information,” he told the titaness.
“Good.” Phoebe nodded. “See that you don’t get carried away daydreaming. I’ll be the first to admit that your potential is boundless, but that’s all the more reason to remain cautious and diligent enough to ensure that you don’t waste it. I expect great things from you, Percy, and I look forward to the day when you are ready to join our ranks.”
“Wait!” Percy yelled, hurriedly getting up upon realizing that she was about to leave.
“Hm?”
“I almost forgot,” he said, slapping his forehead. “Could you help me segregate my memories? Nephthys no longer has the mind affinity, and I don’t have anybody else to ask.”
“Ah, that. Right when I thought you had given up on separating.” Phoebe chuckled, her melodious laughter bouncing off the crystalline walls. “Under different circumstances, I would have probably set this as a goal to get you to work harder, but I suppose that giving you a hand is the least I can do – considering that your current predicament is partially my fault.”
“You’ll help?” Percy asked, his heart skipping a beat.
He hadn’t expected the solution to one of the biggest problems plaguing his life to literally appear out of thin air – or rather, to have secretly been by his side for over a year now.
Micky had yet to set out for Twilight City, so they might even get themselves separated before they reunited with Nesha. Then again, that only made Percy regret not sending his human body instead of the elemental one outside the Fungal Spire.
Sadly, he hadn’t had a choice. His mutated eyes helped with alchemy, so this arrangement had made more sense.
“Sure,” the goddess replied with a shrug. “Do you want to get started right away?”
Percy was about to say ‘yes’, when he realized that rearranging his memories would probably affect his ability to maintain his empowered connections to the Vault. This was the same reason why he had delayed the acquisition of his fourth trait.
“How about a few months from now?” he asked.
Phoebe nodded. “Wise choice. I’ll check up on you later then.”
Not even saying goodbye, the titaness practically faded away on the spot. Technically, Percy had no way of making sure that she had truly left, but he didn’t think that she would have lied to him just to stay hidden in a corner.
Plopping back down, he allowed himself to relax after realizing that the meeting with the titaness had left him somewhat tense. Not that she’d given him any reason to be scared or worried, but this was his first time facing such a powerful being with his main body.
‘Well, that was intense,’ he thought, exhaling deeply.
Phoebe had given him a lot to consider, though it didn’t look like he had much time to do that right now. Nephthys suddenly relayed an image of Freddy walking down the labyrinth of tunnels that her subjects had presumably just sent her.
Percy promptly asked his familiar to ensure than no Starry Wasp attacked his friend by accident. Nephthys obviously knew what she was supposed to do after accommodating the plump vendor’s visits for over a year now, but Percy didn’t want to leave anything up to chance, since Freddy wouldn’t be able to protect himself from a Starry Soldier.
Afterwards, he packed up his stuff – just a couple of empty vials from his most recent cleansing session, really – in preparation to relocate. He planned to spend the next few weeks teaching the alchemists new tricks, along with a couple of other projects that would also improve their output.
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