The affinities that Gabe was going to add to his cores were obviously up to him, but the man still opted to discuss his options openly with Percy – partly to get a second opinion, and partly because they were planning to trade treasures afterwards.

  All things considered, it was a rather straightforward choice. Gabe already possessed fire and air, and Percy was hopefully going to give him lightning, leaving only water and earth as viable elements for his other core.

  Strictly speaking, there was no such thing as a bad composite affinity. Even if there was, Gabe’s final mana type would grant him three new fusions – not just one – covering all bases, so it wasn’t like there was any downright incorrect option. However, Percy and Gabe still seemed to agree that water was suboptimal given their circumstances.

  Gabe already possessed a blessing of heat, so certain combinations just wouldn’t mesh well with his current arsenal. For instance, an ice affinity was diametrically opposed to his innate gift and might waste his potential.

  That was not to say that it couldn’t work, of course. He could use ice mana to protect himself from his hottest spells, allowing him to unleash even more devastating attacks. Even so, earth just sounded more suitable. Besides, they needed an affinity that Elaine could also use for the exchange to make sense.

  ‘Okay. I think I’ll add lightning to my fire core and earth to my air core,’ Gabe said after taking everything into consideration.

  That would make superheated plasma and dust his default affinities, while light, lava, sound and metal would still be accessible after going through some additional hoops. The alternative would have been to prioritize lava and sound, but plasma was a faster and more destructive element that would hopefully synergize even better with the blessing.

  As a bonus, introducing an earth affinity to his second core would allow him to borrow one of Metatron’s rings in the future to obtain another blessing – something that wouldn’t be possible if he swapped the elements around.

  ‘Sounds good.’ Percy shrugged. ‘Let’s see what’s actually available in the reward pool first. I don’t know about the Vault, but finding what I wanted wasn’t easy on Thess’kala,’ he cautioned.

  Affinity-changing treasures came in all shapes and sizes, whether his friend was aware or not. One that lasted longer typically couldn’t be used on too many people, and vice versa. It would all depend on what resources Metatron and his subordinates had access to, as well as what they were willing to offer to their Blues.

  Thankfully, browsing through their options only took a few seconds, since they already had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted. Even better, they managed to find an earth-granting treasure with as many as four uses left – more than the prizes in the early rounds of the Thess’kalan tournament.

  ‘No, wait. That’s not quite right,’ Percy reminded himself.

  He’d actually seen treasures that could be used on more people there. The issue was that he’d specifically looked for one that would last for years. Anything short of that would have expired before he passed it to all its recipients.

  Sure enough, the object that Gabe had picked only had around three hundred thousand rits left – or a few days on Remior. Moreover, this was a limit that not even time dilation could extend, if Hermes was to be believed.

  Percy had no idea how long its original duration had been – right after being harvested from the dead god’s internal world – nor did he know how often the Vault’s deities managed to bring new treasures like this to the artificial world. It couldn’t be too infrequent, considering that they’d found one just when they needed it.

  The good news was that a few days were plenty this time, as he and Gabe already had everything ready to promptly deliver the exotic resource to the right people.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure you’re happy with it?’ Percy asked. ‘There’s no going back once you change your affinities.’

  “I’ll claim the Crumbling Stone,” Gabe said out loud, answering his guest’s question indirectly.

  “Choice confirmed. Delivering in 18 rits.”

  ‘Alright. I’ll make the necessary arrangements,’ Percy replied, before turning to his other connections. ‘Send another clone to the Vault,’ he told his main body who had been holding onto a free cord for precisely this reason. ‘Ask the others if they want an earth affinity and prepare somebody for it,’ he sent to the Blue clone.

  Two days later, Gabe had two composite cores, Tlaloc had earth in one of them, Leo had upgraded his lightning affinity to metal, and Elaine was presumably also about to receive a mud affinity.

  Percy still had several people he wanted to help – both in the Vault and on Remior – but they would probably have to wait until his next visit to the artificial world. Tlaloc’s new mana type would hopefully strengthen him enough to qualify for some bonus rewards of his own by then. Considering that he would need three more to fully upgrade his cores, Percy should end up with plenty of spare charges for everyone else.

  He honestly felt that it was a bit of a waste for his friend to not hold out for a rare affinity though. Gabe and many of the others couldn’t help it, as they already had common elements in their cores, but the Huehuan’s organs had been blank slates by default, waiting to be filled up.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  As inconvenient as his pure affinities had been so far, they also represented a rather unique opportunity. Unfortunately, the Vault didn’t seem to have any rare affinity-granting treasures either – not even in the White or Clear pools, and Tlaloc had insisted that he didn’t mind.

  Changing both affinities would also mean having to re-learn the Dance of the Savage Gods, but it wasn’t like he could use the spell under Metatron’s watchful gaze anyway.

  With Gabe’s reward out of the way, it was Percy’s turn.

  Having no interest in changing his own affinity, he took his sweet time going through his options. Unlike his lukewarm results with the Green list, it didn’t take him very long to find something genuinely exciting. He still searched through the rest just to be thorough, but his mind was practically made up already, so he eventually circled back to the strange objects that had captured his attention.

  “Cube, I want the Zelesian beads. All three.”

  “Choice confirmed. Deducting credits. New balance: 185743. Delivery in 18 rits.”

  Spending a hundred and twenty thousand credits on top of his Blue reward wasn’t pleasant, though he didn’t regret his purchase. The items he had selected were special in that his bonus reward could only buy him the first of the three beads, with the option to add the rest in for sixty thousand each.

  Having not seen any other items like that, he’d thought that this was another one of Metatron’s schemes to get him to spend his hard-earned credits. However, the more information he’d requested about the beads, the surer he’d grown that this was actually a bargain.

  ‘These things could easily sell for a single Blue reward each. The fact that I was even given the option to buy the rest with credits is crazy…’

  The hole opened by his foot with a familiar burst of steam, revealing three transparent marbles. Percy would have thought that they were made of glass if he didn’t know any better. Picking them up and squeezing them, he noticed how soft they actually were, feeling closer to rubber.

  Their function was simple enough, though that didn’t make it any less shocking: they could directly store a person’s willpower!

  Normally, it was possible to do that indirectly, since a mage’s core automatically attached willpower to their mana. Separating the two was one of the best ways for a Green to develop a Nascent domain, after all, though the amount of willpower extracted that way was pitiful.

  To Percy’s knowledge – and according to the system, to the entire Vault’s knowledge – these beads were the only method in the universe to directly store large amounts of pure willpower. In other words, the tiny spheres resting in Gabe’s palm were the closest things to willpower cores in existence!

  Even more impressive was the fact that it was impossible to obtain more beads. Apparently, they had been produced by an unprecedented bloodline on a now-destroyed lesser spring – Zelesis. Sadly, the people responsible for this unique treasure had gone extinct.

  Percy had no idea if there were any more out there, but these three were all that the Vault currently had – meaning that he could have very well just become the only person in the cosmos capable of storing away his willpower.

  That said, it was no accident that Metatron had been willing to part with the miraculous objects. They simply weren’t very useful to gods, as they had already converted their domains into internal worlds, which the transparent marbles were incompatible with.

  Even for mortals at Blue or higher, the beads wouldn’t help much, as they had several drawbacks. Their capacity was apparently greatly limited and filling them up was quite inefficient. The stored domain would last about three thousand rits – or an hour – but it would take a hundred times as long to recharge each of them.

  Using thicker willpower – such as a demigod’s domain instead of a Blue’s – wouldn’t charge them faster or make them last longer, but it would strengthen the resulting domain accordingly.

  Had it been just that, it wouldn’t be as big of an issue. Spending four days was ultimately a small price to pay to prepare such a powerful secret weapon.

  The problem was that the process of storing and unleashing the domain altered many of its properties, essentially turning the embedded willpower stiff, foreign and borderline unresponsive. It could no longer be wielded with the same finesse as a regular domain, even by its owner.

  If a person’s willpower could be likened to an extra limb, the domain released from the beads was more like a wooden prosthetic.

  All things considered, these fake domains weren’t as useful in the hands of the mages who had produced them. Their best application was for a powerful mage to fill them up and pass them to a younger member of their family. Even then, the willpower would hinder friend and foe indiscriminately, turning it into more of an environmental hazard than a true weapon.

  At least, it could suppress or dispel a weaker domain, somewhat evening out the playing field between a Green and a Blue, or disrupting an otherwise powerful opponent at an inopportune moment.

  ‘Well, these limitations don’t entirely apply to me,’ Percy thought with a grin.

  His plan was naturally to fuel and use the beads by himself. Rather than an elder passing the objects to their weaker relatives, it would be Percy’s main body bestowing them to his clones.

  The resulting domains would still be significantly harder to manipulate than if the clones had personally produced them, but he guessed that he would be able to exert at least some control over his own willpower.

  In someone else’s hands, the beads could only realistically be used as a last-ditch effort to escape from an insurmountable opponent and protect their lives. In Percy’s, they would potentially open many more doors.

  If there was one downside, it was that the beads were ultimately just external objects. Percy generally prioritized getting his hands on knowledge or other means of permanently increasing his strength over fancy equipment. However, he was more than happy to make an exception this time, for several reasons.

  Firstly, unlike the enchanted weapons he had seen on Thess’kala, these beads didn’t have an expiration date, nor did he see himself outgrowing them anytime soon. In theory, their strength should continue to scale with his own all the way to the Clear grade, the objects only losing their effectiveness after he became a god.

  Secondly, they appeared to synergize extremely well with his domain and bloodline. He even had three of the magical marbles in total, allowing him to pass one to each of his current clones. Overall, he was certain that his investment would pay for itself many times over in due time.

  Finally, he wasn’t one to pass on such unique treasures. Much like the extra set of ritual ingredients that he had recently purchased, he was looking forward to studying the beads in the future.

  Satisfied with his new toys, he stored them in his seal for now.

  This had been a long and fruitful trip, but it was almost at its end. The only things left were the last batch of books that he wanted to buy, and his final meeting with the titan.

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