Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

"What? Am I the strongest? Ehhh kinda? Paul can beat me but he's not fun to fight and Lihua doesn't–oh hey Lihua! up for a fight?"

• The Passive Tyrant

—

Skills were more than just their levels and their initial descriptions. A simple Common [Double Stab] in the hands of a dragonslayer [Blademaster] could outperform a Rare skill from a mere third realm [Warrior].

Epics and Legends… didn’t quite follow this line of thought.

A third Realm using an Epic was more akin to a realm 0 adventurer using an artifact crafted by the Archmage Tyrant. They didn’t have control, didn’t know how the enchantments worked and didn’t have the capability to maximize the usage of such artifacts.

Gamielle had been thinking that Ryan had just scratched the surface of his Epic. That he was still in his ‘pull the trigger and activate the skill phase’, that he was still learning how the skill went.

She was both right and wrong. Right in the sense that Ryan still largely used his Epic like a blunt instrument. Wrong in the sense that he hadn’t been leveling his Epic. How was one supposed to tell the difference between someone getting better control of their Epic versus the Epic developing on its own?

She couldn’t, it wasn’t a distinction she could make until now.

Ryan’s aura was condensing and expanding wildly, both stretching out and putting pressure on his surroundings. Gamielle could see it now, a feedback aura in his Epic. It was doing something beyond the scope of what she’d expected.

“What level is your Epic?”

“Level 4.”

“Level 4! You didn’t think that was appropriate to tell me?!”

“How was I supposed to know that was going to be important? Aren’t skill levelups supposed to be a good thing?”

Gamielle would strangle him later. Ryan’s lack of knowledge here wasn’t actually his fault. He pulled the flaring aura back, struggling to wrestle it back in. His control was good, a genius for a realm three adventurer. Unfortunately, the Epic had been growing.

Gorging on his tale.

There weren’t enough low realm adventurers walking around with leveling Epics for Ryan to understand how ridiculous that was. Gamielle turned to him.

“Artigan, listen to me, I need you to tell me your skill name and description now.”

To Ryan’s credit he didn’t hesitate.

“[Unrelenting Aura of intimidation] (Epic, passive, active)

Those in your way have found themselves exploded, beaten, outfoxed, mocked, crushed and shot. You have managed to strike fear in everyone that stood in your way. You have even attempted to attack someone near the pinnacle of trialists. You do not relent, you do not stop. Let your nature strike fear to those in your wa-”

There was bravery, then there were skills that actively pushed you to do crazier and crazier things. Ryan paused as he saw her look of horror.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“How are you even remotely alive? No, scratch that, how have you even maintained your sanity?”

Ryan just shrugged. The casual demeanor now sent a shiver down Gamielle’s spine. How much had the skill warped him? Unrelenting, Gamielle should have demanded he tell her his skill immediately.

No, her mother would have stopped her from doing anything.

Ryan saw her worry. For some reason he was the one trying to reassure her. The rıghtful source is novｅlfire.net

“At first I was told to follow plans I made from Earth. It made sense at the time, the Epic doesn’t impact me on Earth.”

A shallow analysis by someone that probably got their Epic skill late in their realms. She knew who Barry was. It was likely the orc had received his Epic after realm five. That realm grade was fine at handling an Epic.

Ryan had started with it at realm two.

A skill that constantly rewarded recklessness would eventually condition the mind to act a certain way. You would be stuck on a never ending path of pushing forward and never taking a step back. A death sentence if it weren’t fixed. Gamielle just had to figure out a way to slow the progression of his Epic down.

The descriptions of dimension wide bonuses… This was partly her fault, those damned videos.

Ryan continued, he grabbed at a wild tendril of red aura and pulled it back, then he focused on it and it dispersed. Gamielle blinked at the increased level of control.

He was calm, a little disturbed by her maybe, but he was actively pulling his red aura back with strands of light blue. It wasn’t just a brave front, the red aura started dissipating through his control.

“Then I faced down Pinkie and realized this is who I am. If both worlds are destined to be doomed then I’d rather go down doing what I believe is right. Gamielle–”

He met her eyes. Her mother had tried to shatter Ryan’s resolve so she could build him up from zero. Instead, Ryan had doubled down on it.

“My mind has never been clearer. I might make mistakes but I don’t regret what I’ve done.”

“Ah.”

She saw it now, Ryan had found his own way to balance out his Epic. It wasn’t control. Nobody at his realm could force an Epic like that. Instead Ryan guided it, using his own beliefs as the pointer. As long as the Epic didn’t force him to deviate from his own beliefs he would embrace it wholly.

Stolen novel; please report.

A tenuous balance, but that sort of madness could explain why it had grown so much.

Gamielle nodded at Ryan’s resolve and turned to Larix.

“Larix, your diagnosis?”

The prodigy of cultivation had stayed silent during the conversation. Simply observing the two. Larix had kept a healthy distance from Ryan but now he seemed to want to learn more about the crazy adventurer in front of him.

“His aura has already burned through most of his channels in his right arm. There’s no realignment possible without drastic use of regeneration potions and a [Healer] that truly understands Trialist bodies. The rest of his body is fine, though it is rapidly progressing to specialize in aura use. The Trial System is likely to adapt his body into a hybrid aura and qi user. Throwing away mana channels entirely.”

Ryan looked a little disappointed. Gamielle rolled her eyes.

“It doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use magic, just that your body won’t have the same talent in magic as other adventurers. Don’t be greedy, magic isn’t something you should leave your options for. Not when you have too much to work with already.”

A few different scenarios went through Gamielle’s mind in a second. There was a lot they could do. They could isolate the arm and let Ryan develop naturally. She could slow his progress down and observe his Epic… no he’d never agree to that.

They could bring in a [Healer] and reset his entire advancement into the fourth realm. That was the safer bet.

In the end the choice would have to be his. Gamielle sighed.

“What do you want? Do you want the traditional path and leave your options open? Or do you want to risk it and see if we can go for a partial class mutation? There’s no guarantee it would work, and there’s a possibility you might end up with a complete class mutation. If it works you might end up with the best of both worlds, if it doesn’t… well, there’s the possibility of you becoming like Atellion. But then you won’t be able to solo the Trials anymore.”

Ryan grinned at her.

“Is that even a question?”