Crucible Aeternum: Ascending through Skill Trees

[Retroactive Physique has adapted to Photokinesis.]

[The Vernal Bloom has managed to extrapolate complexities exceeding the current Stratum.]

[Additional complexities are now available for selection.]

This was a great surprise to Galeon. He had chosen to evolve Heightened Regeneration into Adaptive Body and then into Retroactive Physique all because he was fully invested in the one thing they promised— potential.

Adaptive Body and Retroactive Physique both gave him the potential to grow endlessly. Of course, that was just an exaggeration... or so he thought. Never did he expect that Retroactive Physique was powerful enough to even influence the Vernal Bloom itself, allowing it to extrapolate more complexities than it should have been able to. And then came the fruit.

[Branch C | Lux, Bringer of Light: Your are the Bringer of Light. You embody the Light, both its gentleness and cruelty. Your Will is an interminable radiance that pushes back the Darkness. When you beckon, Light moves. When Light beckons, the world prays.]

He honestly did not know what to think of this.

Lux the Bringer of Light, that was the name of the god of Lux Holy Land. That was the name of the god whose faith was deeply rooted in the history of Corrin. Even to this day, a millennium since the first Meteor Rain, hundreds and thousands of pilgrims travel from all over the continent to pray in the Lux Holy Land.

It was a sanctuary for those who never lost faith, for those who continued to strive for a brighter future even in this bleak and turbulent era. They believed that the light will come, that the world and humanity will be saved from the cancerous omen that corrupted everything.

It all started as an ancient prophecy. And now, an entire church was built upon it.

Galeon's brows furrowed into a frown. What was he supposed to think of this? Was he the Bringer of Light meant to save the world? Was he supposed to just accept this burden that he wanted no part in to begin with? He was not even a religious person, and now he was suddenly being thrust into the position of godhood?

Or was he just supposed to laugh it off, taking it as the Vernal Bloom's way of lightening his mood. That this was just the way it preferred to name this particular evolution. After all, even he admitted that it was a pretty cool name.

He truly did not know what to think of it so he did the only thing he could. He ignored whatever implications it might have and focused on choosing the evolution path of his ability.

He currently had three choices, something that has never happened before. he did not know if all the skill trees only had two branches normally, but that was what he was expecting after four skill evolutions. In fact, if Retroactive Physique did not trigger the Vernal Bloom's extrapolation, then even this skill tree would have only branched into two.

Now, normally it would be the best decision to just choose the most special one. After all, it came about through special circumstances. It would obviously not be any lesser than the other two. This was especially the case for Bringer of Light which was explicitly mentioned to be a complexity exceeding the current Stratum of Photokinesis.

And herein lay the problem.

By choosing Bringer of Light, Galeon would essentially be skipping over three entire Tiers of the First Stratum, that is assuming that Bringer of Light was only at the Second Stratum. And while that would definitely mean it was powerful, he did not know what kind of consequences it would have on the future growth of his ability.

For all he knew, by skipping the last three Tiers, he was effectively leaving a huge portion of the ability undefined which might also limit its future potential. He could not allow such a thing. The whole point of him choosing Retroactive Physique was to give him limitless potential so why would he cut himself off now just because of the allure of skipping levels.

Galeon breathed in and out to clear his mind and readjust his thoughts. The more he thought about it, the more he realised he was just overwhelmed by the sudden boon he had received. He was admittedly a little bit paranoid and suspicious of most things so he overthought this as well.

The issue of leaving the ability's complexity undefined and thus limiting its potential was entirely unfounded. After all, when choosing a branch to evolve his ability into, does he not also leave behind another branch of complexities completely undefined? How different was that from this?

In fact, it could be argued that skipping an entire Stratum granted the ability more potential because its complexities have managed to spill over the other branches. His ability was only leveling up once, but it would be taken to an entirely new playing field. It would have more room to grow, not to mention more power than the other two.

Galeon nodded to himself as he acknowledged his thoughts. He should not overthink it. Caution is good, but too much of anything is dangerous. If he feared losing potential too much, then he might just actually cripple himself unknowingly.

[Photokinesis has evolved into Lux, Bringer of Light.]

[Name: Galeon]

[Titles: Master of the Vernal Bloom | Dancing Blade]

[Aspects: Cor Ena – Vernal Bloom | Prisma Core | Bringer of Light]

[Skills: Lux, Bringer of Light (T3-S2) | Retroactive Physique (T3-S1) | Symbiotic Devour (T2-S1) | Pyrokinesis (T2-S1) | Vibration (T2-S1)]

Galeon was surprised by how much he had skipped simply by choosing Bringer of Light. Photokinesis was only at Tier 2 of the First Stratum. Its evolution should have only brought it to Tier 3 of the First Stratum. But Bringer of Light seemed especially complex as it instantly reached Tier 3 of the Second Stratum. That was five whole levels.

He did not understand how Retroactive Physique managed to push the Vernal Bloom into extrapolating that much complexities. He still remembered the notification regarding it. It said that Retroactive Physique had adapted to Photokinesis. What did that even mean?

He honestly thought that it could only adapt to external stimuli like what happened when he obtained Heat Resistance and True Damage Resistance. And then he realised, he was still underestimating this ability.

Retroactive Physique did not only push the Vernal Bloom to extrapolate more complexities from Photokinesis. It had done the same twice before already, except it was not on proper abilities but just qualities that it had gained. It adapted to Heat Resistance and True Damage Resistance and then the Vernal Bloom created new abilities from them— Pyrokinesis and Vibration, both of which were starting out at Tier 2 of the First Stratum.

Galeon sighed as he realised once again how much he did not understand his body and everything going on within it. These complexities that he thought he understood have seemingly become even more ethereal and elusive than before. Now, he did not really know what they were referring to.

He gazed out into the battlefield that had continued to move even without him. It was such a horrendous scene of blood and gore as both beasts and humans either fought or dropped dead. In contrast, a large area around him had seemingly become devoid of life as a pool of liquid white light had gathered beneath him.

The pool of light pulsed with such dense power of light that Galeon trembled in ecstasy, his body seemingly delighted at feeling all this power. It was not Prismana. It was pure light. Galeon thought back to the description of his new ability, knowing that whatever changes he was seeing now was hinted at from the very beginning.

[Lux, Bringer of Light: Your are the Bringer of Light. You embody the Light, both its gentleness and cruelty. Your Will is an interminable radiance that pushes back the Darkness. When you beckon, Light moves. When Light beckons, the world prays.]

There was a distinct difference between this description and the other two descriptions of Starbright Beacon and Aurora Corona. It was the word 'Light'. For the first two branches, light was written normally. It was treated as an object just like any other. But Bringer of Light was different.

Bringer of Light's description seemed to portray Light as a personified being, a living existence. The Bringer of Light seems to be its physical vessel, the medium with which it acts. The Bringer of Light is an extension of the Light. But without the Bringer of Light, the Light is unable to wield its authority. Both are equally important in this equation. There was no greater or lesser. There is no one without the other.

There is only Lux, the Bringer of Light.

[I am the vessel through which judgement descends. I am the Light that heralds the End.]

The words escaped Galeon's mouth in a brief moment of daze when he felt the presence of Light within him. They were filled with a potent power that he had never felt before. It was something new, something beyond just mere ability. It was... authority. And with those words, the pool of pure liquid light rose into the sky, swirling around him in a beautiful stream.

He raised his left hand, his sword melting back into liquid crystal that returned to the Prisma Core. Over his palm, the liquid light condensed into a ball the size of his head. And once more, he raised his hand. Overhead, the ball of light pulsed with a potent power and radiance unlike anything that graced the world before. And for a moment, everyone in the Eastern Region stopped and stared at it.

It was not just the humans. Even the beasts were dazzled by the intensely bright yet surprisingly comforting light. It did not burn the eyes unlike all the light that Galeon had released before. This one was a lot more mystical and gentle. It was beyond what normal beings should even encounter. And yet, there it sat in the palm of his hand. And finally...

[Let there be light.]