YM778.TV volume 2 - 108
The Golden Apple was a unique God-tier item in the game. Using that item would open the Destiny’s Gift of ‘The Golden Dawn’. The unique talent from this gift was ‘The Leaves of the Golden Tree’, derived from the true Golden Tree, and not the corrupted and useless Golden Demonic Tree.
The in-game lore of the Golden Tree described its true name as ‘Prana, The World Tree’, which was found at the edge of the world next to the Deep Lake. Indeed, it was one of the sources that provided the Golden Bloodline, and the talent rewarded a full 10% growth for all stats, and increased the Spiritual Points (SP) by ten times.
In the game, only a few of the best Elementalists managed to activate this talent through a quest. The Golden Apple was a dream for countless gamers.
This chance was presented in front of Brendel and in reach of his hands. As soon as he nodded, all his stats would increase and effectively add his MP pool by two times. He would even gain the passive ability ‘Quaduraple Casting’, which it possible to effectively cast four different spells at the same time. It was the best ability any profession that used spells could have, and affectionately called as ‘The Fairy’s Language’ by the gamers.
All the analysis websites rated the Golden Dawn with a S+ Grade, and was even seen as an option for the warrior class simply because of the stats growth. It was even more compatible with Brendel, because he ultimately had to take on a side profession as an Elementalist to become a Planeswalker.
However, he did not hesitate for one moment and refused it entirely.
Even though the talent was good, he only had one chance to choose and wanted only the best talents, or at least the best available talents for his plan in this world. The game had countless gamers vying for the limited professions, but this world was different because there was no one at all—
He understood there were many opportunities in this world, and the Golden Dawn was merely something that looked decent.
He had two Talents he wanted:
Primeval Bloodline – All Stats increased by 10%, a reduction of 50% in penalty for taking side professions.
Genealogy Unification – All professions gain a unique modified skillset.
The first ability gave incredible value as Brendel had no idea how many professions he had to take on in the future, and the more professions he had, the more penalties he was going to have.
The second ability boosted all professions in some form, and he remembered that it added Fabled Hero to the Warrior Class: All abilities within the Warrior Skill Tree were increased by one level.
In the game, techniques were classified as such.
1-5: Elementary
6-10: Advanced
11-15: Veteran
16-20: Master
21 and above: Grandmaster
Classifications above Grandmaster had various names, but the highest of them all was Legendary, and could only be achieved by Genealogy Unification, or at least this was the only method Brendel knew of.
The grades of each ability would go up by one when they reached the Legendary tier. Many gamers wondered how overpowered a character would be if they managed to raise their all their professions’ abilities’ levels to the max, but that was practically impossible to achieve even for pay-to-win players. (TL: Basically Grade B skill will become Grade A, etc.)
That was why some of the gamer analysts called Genealogy Unification the ‘fake SS’ Talent. Other rumored SS talents in the game were Marsha’s Progeny or The Azure Catastrophe described by NPCs which had never appeared in the game.
Brendel did not hope to acquire any of the SS rated talents, but he had a rough idea on how the quests for these two Talents he wanted to have. As long as there was a general walkthrough or described process he had read, he was confident that he could do the same like what the previous title holders had accomplished.
[I’m not going to make a shitty choice again. Choosing a garbage talent like Unyielding...... If I had the choice of choosing the talent Dragon’s Scion or Ironwill, my combat stats would be twenty percent better. I need to choose the best talents available now so that I can recoup my losses. No, no, no, I refuse to activate!]
Brendel answered in his mind and rotated his body to evade a Mana Arrow from the Dark Bishop. It was a low level spell which did not need a long casting spell, designed to prevent Brendel from getting too close, and not for the purpose of hitting him.
All the disciples had died and there were only ten plus Lizardmen who were shivering from fear as they guarded the Dark Bishop. He knew they were useless and could only rely on his own strength, even if the situation looked hopeless. He threw another Mana Arrow while hurling curses on Hewjil for failing to provide information on the twenty Silver Elves. Even up to till this point, he did not understand that he had being lured into a trap by Brendel, who continued to dodge his arrows.
[If you reach level 30 and got the passive ability ‘Spirit Vein’ from your profession, I might worry about your ability to do dual casting. Why are you wasting your mana to cast low level spells? Is your MP higher than my stami—]
The option to activate the Talent had faded away when Brendel rejected it, but a new message appeared:
– Your character has reached Level 25. Your ability has been unlocked for the second time.
– Unyielding (Level 2): Your character has obtained gained Elemental Resistance +5, and a 5% physical damage reduction.
[........]
Brendel immediately canceled the Window to stop it from interrupting his mood to fight. Even though it was quite a good talent for a tank there were no warriors in the game who took on the role of tanks, especially when Brendel took on a variant profession as a Mercenary. This message looked like it was mocking him.
[Just exactly who would allow a monster to hit them on purpose in this world?!]
The Silver Elves forced the Lizardmen to the sides of the hill, and the Dark Bishop finally realized his mistake when the path between Brendel and him cleared up slowly. Brendel also noticed the Mana Arrows had stopped and peered at the Dark Bishop who was gathering Dark Element around him, which caused black smoke to circle around him. It was apparent to Brendel that the Dark Bishop was casting a high level magic spell.
The latter forcefully swung his sword to knock any remaining Lizardmen in his path and activated his Charge ability, and instantly turned into a straight line rushing towards the Dark Bishop. Before any of the Lizardmen around the Dark Bishop could react, Brendel had bypassed them to reach the Dark Bishop’s side.
He planted his right foot forward, raised his sword upwards to the sky, activated Power Break and cleaved the Dark Bishop into two — that should have happened, but a black shield that reflected no light appeared, and caused a loud clang when the sword crashed onto it.
[What.....?]
Brendel was slightly stunned as he saw the Dark Bishop’s bony arm holding on to a shield that suddenly appeared out from nowhere. The Dark Bishop leered at Brendel as he shrugged off his sword and pointed with his other hand, firing off black flames from his fingers, and formed into a familiar shape.
“Mana Arrow!”
TL: Well the cliff is kind of real... I’ll have to see how long are the other series’ TLed length before I can tell you whether I can spend time on the next TAS chapter and squeeze one in for the weekend. If the TSTBGAM chapter is another 3-4k words again, well, the next regular update for TAS will be next Wednesday.