7.3 - Sniff Test
Theo wasn’t sure how many more all-nighters he could pull. But the elves needed saving, didn’t they? At least he and Tresk had the foresight to take the night in shifts. Since he had increased his Vigor to 124, he felt as though he could go at least a week without proper sleep. How that would make him feel was another matte. But as he took his shift watching the stills, it gave him time to reflect on how those attributes worked.
The goal of the ascendants was to leverage their position to get certain changes made to the system. One of those changes was the way attributes worked and their effects on people. Theo’s Intelligence was only at 30 for a very good reason. Increasing Wisdom or Intelligence beyond a certain point had effects on the mind. Pumping Intelligence made a person cold and logical, while doing the same for Wisdom replaced a person’s personality with their intuition. Both roads sucked, and the alchemist had only overcome his massive Wisdom with the Wisdom of the Soul potion. Unfortunately, someone could only drink one of those.
While there was likely some effect from higher physical attributes, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Intelligence or Wisdom. But then there was the system of advancement itself. A person could gain a new core slot every 10 levels, and each of those cores had to be leveled to gain personal levels. The only way around that was to do a core dedication, which gave a person a main- and sub-slot for their cores. They could still equip other cores, but only experience from those main cores counted toward a personal level. Without the dedication feature, it would’ve been difficult to reach Level 100… So why encourage that system in the first place?
There were likely many other facets of the system that just didn’t work. But that was for the council to decide. Once they had enough leverage to claim their spot in the system. The system itself still seemed reluctant to recognize them. Or perhaps it had some other plans in mind. Whatever the case, Theo was certain they would work things out. As for the plan with Kuzan… he was less confident with that by the day. The Venom poison might have worked before, but there was no guarantee it would work again. It just seemed like a horrible gamble.
Theo had an idea on how to get what they wanted without using the poison, but still needed to find the perfect person to fill the role. Unfortunately, it would be hard to convince a mortal to ascend to godhood. As strange as that sounded, not everyone wanted the responsibilities of a god. Perhaps they had all learned their lessons from the ascendancy nonsense.
The alchemist nudged Tresk, watching as she stirred on the ground. “Your watch,” he said.
Tresk blinked a few times, jumping to her feet. “Why, thank you good sir,” she said with a bow. “If not for my incredible Vigor, I’d put a boot up your bottom.”
“Thanks to my incredible Vigor,” Theo corrected, crawling into the sheets they had dragged into the lab. “You know what to do, right?”
“No. I can just open my brain to your instincts, though. Don’t worry about it!”