The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 310

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Ronan reached the penultimate mastery notification and a smile appeared on his face. It was almost what he had been hoping for. While it wasn’t the exact mastery he had expected to merge, it made sense. He hadn’t used stealth at all in the last battle.

[Perception II], [Breath I], [Meditation II], and [Focus II] Mastery have been assimilated into [Control II] Mastery!

You have perfect control over your own micro-movements. Gain a minor boost to sensory awareness that is increased when you are standing still and another minor boost if you are concealed from the awareness of others. Within a fifteen metre radius of your body you are completely aware of the movements of other objects, entities, and environmental effects. Boosts the efficacy of all senses possessed by the challenger by a minor amount. You are able to sense foes through concealment abilities if your [Acuity / Level] is greater than their [(4 * Acuity) / Level].

The last notification was just a direct upgrade to the new mastery he had merged. Ronan smiled upon seeing that, realising that he had achieved his goal in the middle of the battle but had been too focused on it to notice.

You have reached the mastery cap for [Control] x2!

Control II has evolved to Control IV!

You have perfect control over your own micro-movements. Gain a minor boost to sensory awareness that is increased when you are standing still and another minor boost if you are concealed from the awareness of others. Within a fifteen metre radius of your body you are completely aware of the movements of other objects, entities, and environmental effects. Boosts the efficacy of all senses possessed by the challenger by a minor amount. You are able to sense foes through concealment abilities if your [Acuity / Level] is greater than their [(2.5 * Acuity) / Level].

The increases weren’t measurable apart from the concealment breaking aspect. Ronan suspected that the ‘minor’ boosts had improved, but the system didn’t deem it necessary to tell him exactly how much they had.

The new control mastery made it a total of five merged masteries, which Ronan believed might unlock a new class evolution for Perfectionist other than the basic path which simply improved the mastery gain bonuses without much else to offer. If it offered an easier time merging masteries or something equally powerful he was sure to see a big upgrade to his combat prowess.

Congratulations for reaching Lv.50!

You have reached the first threshold for your class! Class will evolve…

You have unlocked 1 special evolution due to your achievements

You have not unlocked any special evolutions due to your heritage

You have not unlocked any special evolutions due to your race

You have not unlocked any special evolutions due to alternative methods

Please select a class evolution from the following:

Perfectionist (Epic)

There are many who chase higher rarity skills, higher realms of cultivation, or ever greater levels in their pursuit of power. You shun those imperfect, hasty paths in favour of true refinement; the mastery of oneself, the world, and all that falls within those bounds.

The threshold for unlocking new masteries is minutely lower.

Gain progress in all masteries infinitesimally faster.

+41 Free Stat Points on level up

Unlock requirements:

Challenger possesses the class [Perfectionist (Rare)]

Challenger has at least 2 masteries at tier IV or higher at level 50

Challenger has at least 1 mastery at tier V or higher at level 50

Hyper Perfectionist (Legendary)

Too many chase an endlessly widening list of masteries, getting pretty good at almost anything they can attempt. Only a limited few understand that the true path to mastery is to find ways that everything is in sync. Mastery of one weapon can become expertise in another. Learning how to observe the movements of the natural world can teach you many things about a sentient being in battle. Only through merging and discovering more advanced masteries can you truly become a perfect master of all.

All masteries are unlocked and displayed in the challenger’s status, but a minimum level of expertise is required to gain points in any given mastery.

Gain progress in all masteries moderately faster.

The threshold for merging masteries to the first-step is infinitesimally reduced.

System-locks on unusual mastery merges are infinitesimally less punitive.

+99 Free Stat Points on level up

Unlock requirements:

Challenger possesses the class [Perfectionist (Rare)]

Challenger has at least 5 merged masteries at tier I or higher

Challenger has at least 1 merged mastery at tier III or higher

That was a useful class evolution. The stat points weren’t that high, but his two sub-classes had that covered more than enough. To be honest Ronan would have taken the evolution even without the mastery gain bonuses purely for the first buff it offered. Having a list of every single mastery that existed was an absurd boon. That he also got an increase to his mastery gain, and also gained new ways to merge masteries, if he was reading the last bonus correctly, was just the icing on the cake.

Ronan went through the relatively painless class evolution and immediately pulled up the list to have a look at what he had missed out on and what else he could incorporate into his style. There were likely to be a near-infinite number of masteries he would never have a use for, but there were sure to be many obvious ones he’d missed out on during his fairly limited number of iterations. Maybe calling over a hundred lives a limiting amount of time is a bit unfair on people who only get one? He shrugged. It wasn’t his problem to cater to the feelings of mortals. He just wanted to get stronger so he could overcome the system.

[Detailed Partial Status - Ronan Steele]

[Mastery]

[Unlocked]

Mana IX 11/100, Shield I 3/100, Stamina VIII 24/100, Pain III 39/100, Anti-Magic 2/100, Leadership 1/100, Stealth 1/100, Critical III 19/100, Momentum II 1/100, Health VI 12/100, Crafting 18/100, Enchant 5/100, Blunt Weapons VII 21/100, Spellcasting IV 46/100, Creativity 11/100, Thrown Weapons I 19/100, Physical Body IV 29/100, Slashing Weapons V 16/100, Piercing Weapons III 49/100, Control IV 8/100

[Available]

Cultivation, Swimming, Cooking, Survival, Construction, Drawing, Flying, Forging, Excavation, Divinity, Corruption, Divination, Time…

The list went on and on and on. Ronan read through a decent chunk of it before he realised it might genuinely take him a few years to get all the way through. Even with potentially infinite lives he had no desire to waste so much time doing that. In the past the system had helped him out with organisational issues and he hoped that it would be no different on that occasion.

Right, let’s see. With the lowered entry thresholds I could just keep fighting as I am and probably unlock a few more, but it might give me better ideas about how to move forward if I know what I can potentially gain. Anything that improves my spellcasting, movement, fighting, weapon-handling, or basically whatever helps in a battle or otherwise can be useful. Many masteries don’t just boost whatever is required to earn them. Maybe I should just ask if there are any magic or combat masteries left? Yeah, let’s do that please, system.

Ronan watched as the list in front of his face shrunk from near-infinite to ridiculously over-inflated. He would still need to spend a lot of time trawling through it, but it would be worth the time it took. Unfortunately he only had a few minutes until the next stage of the tutorial began. I don’t think I’ll beat the nightmare tutorial this time but might as well give it a go.

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