A Novel Concept

The host has owned the System for five days. Unlocking the Potential.

The Potential is a resource linking the host to the Concepts. By consuming it, you may borrow the power of the Divine. Creation and evolution of skills, increase of characteristics,... the uses of the Potential are numerous. Use it sparingly.

Priam woke up happy and well. Glad to be alive, safe, and knowing he could get better. He could finally use his Potential and create a skill that would allow him to defend himself against the ants of this world. Maybe one day he would even defend himself against dragons...

He was also in perfect shape. A good night's sleep helped him to get his mind right and to take a step back from his current life.

As soon as he got up, Priam's stomach churned. He was starving. Log-a-rhythm apparently also acted as a waiter and offered him some sap. This seemed pretty unoriginal for a fantastic tree.

It's nice but... It's strange to have something else in my head besides my conscience. I'll have to get used to it.

The sap was thirst-quenching and allowed him to absorb and ingest nutrients. Moreover, the tree could improve its sap. To do this, he would need to find other resources, such as Passifloras. I’ll have to go to the other side of the world to find magical fruits to improve my fantasy tree. It looks like a quest from an old MMORPG…

Curious, he accepted the sap. Suddenly a sapling sprang up from the floor of his room. As it reached his chest, the sapling's crown flared and merged to present Priam with a large wooden bowl. A clear, golden liquid appeared at the bowl's bottom before filling it.

Priam, intrigued, dipped his finger into the fresh sap. The liquid was far less viscous than any sap he remembered on Earth. In large quantities, it looked ambered, similar to pine resin. Fortunately, it was not resin. Where sap is the tree's nutrient fluid, like blood for humans, the resin is polymerized by the air when the tree is injured to cover the wound. Will Log-a-rhythm be able to provide me with resin to heal me if I bleed?

He brought his finger to his mouth. The taste was sweet and fresh. It tasted like a kind of lavender iced tea. It is delicious! In his list of priorities - which he had just updated - Priam made a note to himself to find samples of fruits and herbs to provide to his magical tree. He was excited to enjoy a varied breakfast.

A few minutes later, the bowl was empty. Priam had drunk his fill. Thoughtfully, he asked the tree to make a chair and then sat down. The sun had just risen, and he had to use his time wisely. Arnold must be training right now. The walls were transparent, and Priam could see outside. Far ahead, a cloud of smoke was rising. A few kilometers away, he suspected that Arnold or another rival must be very active.

It was time to get proactive! Priam had some idea of how to increase his power. He didn't want to be intimidated by all the creatures of Elysium. To that end, the Tutorial had given him a clue.

"It's time to create an offensive skill. The three sinews of war are attack, defense, and movement. Not to mention information and supply, according to Sun Tzu. Supply is currently covered by Log-a-rhythm, defense by my pseudo-immortality, and movement by [Art of Movement]. I still have to work on information and attack. Currently, I am not even able to kill an ant in this new world..."

Priam was faced with a dilemma. Each skill level gave him one or more Potential points. These points had several possible uses. According to the Tutorial, the Potential could create epiphanies and bridges between imagination and reality to produce new skills. Priam had no idea how to make a skill that would let him throw fireballs. But with a few points of Potential, he was supposed to be able to create that skill easily.

But these points were rare. The System granted the first ones according to the life previously led. An astronaut who was a champion swimmer started with ten times more Potential than a lazy drunk. The next few points were earned with little difficulty. During the Tutorial, Priam made some points by using his studies. For example, he unlocked the skills [Arithmetic], [Geometry] and [Relativistic Physics]. Only, without being able to practice, he couldn't earn many points with them. All his years of study had only given him a finite number of Potential. The rest would have to be gained with new skills.

"I need a build with skills that will synergize together. They must reinforce each other to multiply their effectiveness rather than adding them together!"

Throwing fireballs and teleporting was cool. But throwing fireballs and creating portals was a much better idea. In the second case, the portals could change the fireballs' trajectory and angle of attack. The second skill would enhance the first: it was a synergy. But better synergies existed. It was essential that the young man discover them.

Priam thought to himself that he was almost immortal. So he could take risks. The Concepts looked for courageous behavior and outstanding achievements. They rewarded those who took risks and fought enemies more powerful than themselves. Priam had the advantage of pseudo-immortality and intended to use it to the fullest to advance quickly.

He was thinking of sacrificing his defense to increase his attack. His movement skill should allow him to get close to the enemy or get out of the way quickly. He had always preferred an explosive offense to a slow approach. To kill his enemies, Priam would choose C4 over poison.

"I need to specialize in becoming some kind of assassin. Maybe I could work with kinetic energy because I like speed. A lightning approach before concentrating all my movement energy into one point. An explosive attack. Every action has a reaction according to Newton's third law; maybe I could use that reaction to get out of the way?"

While theory-crafting his future build, Priam was smiling. He thought back to the mangas of his childhood and analyzed their techniques to see which would work for him. Some skill combinations were better than others. To find them, he expressed all his ideas in a jumble. The smile turned into a laugh. How many humans will imitate Rasengan or Bankai?

After calming down, Priam continued his reflection.

"To round out my toolkit and eliminate some glaring weaknesses, I could draw inspiration from novels I've read. Create a spatial domain to inform me of vector changes and kinetic energy around me. A sphere of perception to monitor movement. I could recognize dangers in real-time with enough Alertness and Perception. Easily know my enemies' location and my position relative to them! But it’s a dream for the future."

A known but efficient skill. Priam was getting more and more excited about his plan. A set of specialized skills, built to erase each other's weaknesses, would be far more effective than a multitude of skills with no foundation. But would he have enough Potential? Indeed he would have to make choices.

"I'll also need to work on my Agility to react quickly and take advantage of the information I receive. The kind of battle I want to fight is skirmishes. I will need to be very quick in action and reaction. With this kind of strategy, I don't know if my attacks will take advantage of my Physical Strength or my Agility. Kinetic energy is calculated as half the mass of an object multiplied by its speed squared. The question is, how much do my Agility and Strength play into defining my speed?"

Priam had noticed as his characteristics increased that his body was changing. An extra point in strength did not change the laws of the universe to increase his impact on his environment. It was his body that was changing. He could feel his muscles densifying, changing, and the effects were real. Was there a limit? The System and the Tutorial had never mentioned one. This world had its own laws, and thinking about them with his ancient knowledge was futile and dangerous. He should not limit himself to his preconceptions.

At 20 in Strength, he could potentially lift twice the maximum load of an average man - of his build. Why potentially? Priam suspected that the physical characteristics were related. Without boosting his Constitution and thus his tendons and muscles, they would get damaged. For 100 Strength to 10 Constitution, the danger could be deadly. A man could lift a boulder, break his muscles under the effort, and then be crushed under that same boulder. A minimum of Constitution was necessary to withstand great Strength. However, skills could change the calculation.

There must be a ratio so as not to hurt oneself. But the characteristics must be able to be optimized to specialize its abilities. This would avoid training useless skills to increase one's Constitution and not kill oneself by accelerating too fast.

That was the problem. In theory, it was possible to discover or create a multitude of skills and work on them all to obtain an almost infinite number of characteristic points. Depending on its rarity, each skill gave one or more characteristic points per level.

But in practice, time was not infinite for almost anyone. According to the Tutorial, skills became complicated to increase after a certain level. Despite having all the time in the world, talent and affinity were natural barriers. Some people got a master's degree in mathematics at eighteen, while others never. Some people ran the 100-meter dash in under ten seconds, but 99% didn't have the talent or genetic aptitude to do that.

In concrete terms, if you wanted to run as fast as possible and had talent, time, passion, and desire, you would get skills that would increase your Agility. Perfect. But to speed up even more, you would need Strength in your legs and Constitution to keep your body going.

However, the skills that would give you these points would take longer to build because you would have talent and affinity for running and Agility, not bodybuilding and Strength. So you would be slowed down in learning them, and in the meantime, you would not be able to keep increasing your Agility. Not to mention the Alertness and Dexterity needed to control your speed...

Fortunately for Priam, there were ways around these problems.

"According to the tutorial, Elysium is the Royal Way because talent is secondary here. The incredible density of aether helps to offset talent. It's like the energy needed to raise the skill level is everywhere. Aether stimulates the body and mind. It is a catalyst, allowing you to increase your skills with less effort and time. Not to mention the scarce resources that are common here, which allow one to overcome all these obstacles."

Reassured that he had made the right choice, Priam decided to use his Potential points.

Potential - Skill Creation

Please think about the skill you want to create. The Concepts will help you in its design.

Current potential: 117

The first thing to do was to create a skill that would synergize with his Talent [He Who Eludes Death]

. Because of the way Priam had acquired the Talent, he knew it would be pointless to attempt to modify it. But perhaps he could work around the problem...

"I'd like my soul to live a day in... One hour." Accelerating his soul's perception/aging could perhaps give him twenty-four lives a day?

Potential required: 18,759,642,300.

Funny...

Priam sighed before trying to change some parameters. He discovered that it was possible to resurrect his body several meters from the place of his death or to observe his surroundings from his mental space - before his resurrection. It was also possible to gain more attributes with each death. Unfortunately, all these passive and active skills were prohibitively expensive. The cheapest cost nearly three thousand points.

Undaunted, Priam decided he'd come back to it the day he was rich in Potential. But if he couldn't become unkillable, he had to learn to defend himself... and to attack!

Priam wanted to start by creating an attack skill. At the moment, that was what he sorely needed. He could make the rest later. He closed his eyes and concentrated, thinking about his goals. About a skill that would help him manipulate the kinetic energy around him. Priam mixed his hopes and dreams. He wanted to go fast. While battling the ants, he realized that he liked speed. By going fast, he felt free... Willingness and intention were among the most important factors when choosing a skill.

Potential required: 97,404

Does the System think I am so rich? My wish is too general. Instead, manipulate the kinetic energy of the objects in contact with me.

Potential required: 8 452

Better. But completely impossible right now. Yet I want it to be related to kinetic energy... Something that gives me control over my movement.

Potential required: 8 241

"Hmm?! I haven't changed my wish yet... Maybe my understanding is affecting the Potential asked. I need to design my skill better and understand the forces that govern it, its causes and effects. If so... Priam, think! All those years on the university bench will finally pay off!"

Kinetic energy... It is the energy a body possesses because of its motion relative to a given reference frame. Reference frame, mass, speed. Work of a force. Conversion of energy...

Potential required: 1 684

Priam recalled his scientific background and university courses. Formulas of the relativistic and non-relativistic cases, energy conversion, kinetic energy at the microscopic scale equals thermal energy...

Potential required: 652

Potential points had dropped as Priam grasped the essence of the energy that would constitute his skill. He knew he would have to make a choice. He could not use all aspects of this energy. What he wanted was to increase the power of his blows. Changing his mass would be too complicated, but borrowing speed and energy and giving it back at the right time?

Potential required: 214

I am almost there. I have to visualize exactly what I want. No more, no less. There will always be time later to improve my technique and generalize it. Buying a seed is cheaper than buying a mature tree.

Priam reduced his wish to the essential. A perfect synthesis.

"Storing my kinetic energy or kinetic energy transmitted to me, and then returning it to my body or an object in contact."

Potential required: 184

Almost... If I add limitations?

"Limitations: no more than five accumulations stored at a time in level 1. No reference frame manipulation at level 1."

Potential required: 151

"One last limitation. Store a percentage of my kinetic energy or energy transmitted to me."

Potential required: 84

With a bit of practice, he could quickly increase that percentage to 100%.

 

"Perfect! Let's recap: Store a percentage of my kinetic energy or the energy transmitted to me and then give it back to my body or an object in contact. Limitation: no more than five stored accumulations at a time. No reference frame manipulation."

Potential required: 84

Create competence?

Yes!

The world exploded. That was how Priam felt when a bright white replaced his sight. All his senses seemed to see white, if that was possible.

He felt disconnected from his body, his senses alert and his thoughts clear. He knew all he had to do was think about something to understand. His thoughts had a clarity that would have seemed impossible just moments before. In that moment of epiphany, a part of his brain thought that his consciousness outside this space was weak. There was so much more...

Without giving Priam any more time to get lost in his temporary abilities, a bright shadow arrived. The words gave Priam no time to ponder the impossibilities, but he was sure of one thing: the Concepts

were there. Their presence seemed distantly overwhelming. In his mental clarity, Priam knew he was in the presence of the divine.

With an incomprehensible action, the young man's thoughts were directed to the creation of the skill. All his knowledge, his desires, his suggestions, and his expectations served to light a mental flame. The synthesis of what his skill would be appeared. It was just a concept, but in that mental space, it had taken shape.

The basic idea went into the flame to be refined. Priam's Potential was materialized by the Concepts to power the virtual flame. It was the bridge between Priam's knowledge, his dreams, and reality. The Concepts complemented Priam's knowledge to allow the technique to come into being.

Whether it was a split second or a year, Priam could not tell how much time had passed before the change. Suddenly the flame collapsed in on itself. It burned itself out and into imaginary space. Soon the flame disappeared, and a small star appeared. Almost a spark. The flame had been virtual, but the star was real. It whispered to Priam.

At first glance, its creator knew that it was his skill. A concept that had taken the shape of a star. That was how he imagined it. As the epiphany ended, as the light shadow receded, Priam smiled as he contemplated the essence of his skill.

 

You have created a skill, congratulations!
New skill: [Kinetic Control - Epic]

Status: (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)

PHYSICAL:
Strength 23
Constitution 35
Agility 34
Vitality 51
Perception 24

MENTAL:
Vivacity 62
Dexterity 20
Memory 29
Willpower 44
Charisma 36

META:
Meta-affinity 8
Meta-focus 4

Potential: 36