With but a thought and a small force of will, a cloak appeared on Degritone. However, it did not stiffly keep its shape. He flicked at his arm and there was no cloak blocking the "attack." He sighed. "Course it won't be that easy," he said as he dismissed the cloak. "Whatever. Guess we're starting basic. Just a normal troll, before the Immortal Troll learned of his differences from normal trolls." As he was about to pull a basic troll to the front of his mind, an announcement happened.

Attention!

The Architect Tournament will be starting soon.

You have 2 hours 27 minutes 29 seconds to sign up, if you wish to.

Architect Tournament

A series of 1v1 fights, split up into brackets. The winner of each bracket gets a special reward.

Levels 0-15: Minor custom Skill

Levels 16-25: Major custom Skill

Levels 26-40: Minor wish

Levels 41-60: Major wish

Levels 61-90: Feature added or changed in future update

Levels 91+: Allowed to undergo the Patron test

Patron: Allowed to undergo test to have a confluence Path based on your domain

Additionally, each win grants you SP equal to 1.5% of the total Skill Level of opponent you beat.

Each round will be single elimination and will occur 12 minutes, 17 seconds after the previous round fully completes.

Combatants will be fully healed between fights and unable to die.

Winner is determined when the opponent reaches 0 health.

"Well, I guess I know what I'm doing for the immediate future. Even if I don't plan on - , the SP will be useful in the future. I should ask Melena what's up, though," he said as he sent his Patron a message.

Degritone: Anything I should know about the tournament before I sign up?

Melena: You should probably sit this one out, unless you think you can fight in your condition.

Degritone: Meh, I'll deal with it. I think I already know what I want my wish to be, assuming I win and "minor wish" means what I think it does: I will find out if a more base energy exists.

There was a short pause before a reply came.

Melena: Why has no one else thought of that?

Degritone: Probably because the proteges of battle junkies seem like they'll be the winners most of the time, from my zero experience opinion.

Melena: Good point. That has been the case every single time. Granted, it only happens once every 50 system years, or about 122 of your years.

Melena: Oh! Your multiplier is 2.458, it would seem. That's by far the most clean system-to-local multiplier I've seen. Most are over 12 or more digits past the decimal. The now-second place was 7 digits, and were only 1 digit away from third.

Degritone smiled.

Degritone: I can't pat your head from here. Do it for me, you little system nerd.

Degritone: Anyway, the tournament. Anything I should know?

Melena: You plan to compete, even with your head the way it is?

Degritone: I'd be an idiot not to. Even if I don't win, I get a bunch of SP to use in the future, either when I need a quick boost to get out of a sticky situation or when I get so over the skill level cap that I stop getting meaningful skill experience, while at what is effectively max level.

Melena: You'll have 10 system hours after sign ups end to level up and get Skill levels. In the lower brackets, including the one you'll be in, the winner is almost always the person with the highest level allowed in the bracket, and from those the top 4-8 usually have a Skill level lead of over 100 on their competition.

Given your bracket, the winner will almost definitely have either a tier 8 confluence Path or a tier 9 Path. I recommend you go and get as close as you can to yours as you can and use and SP you earn early to get your confluence Path. If you're entering, you are going to win, understand? You can't get my hopes of learning about one of the oldest mysteries of the system up only to lose.

Degritone: Understood. I will win. I have a skill that levels while I'm working toward a loli order, and I'm not sure if it'll level from such an order that's only slightly aligned with what I'm actually doing, at least before the tournament starts.

Before Melena could respond, Degritone got up and started walking toward the nearest village.

Melena: I order you to level your Skills as much as you can until the start of the tournament.

Degritone: Good. Thank you.

He asked the first person he saw, "Excuse me, do any of the villages around here have a level 25 Dungeon yet?"

The man responded, "Not that I know of. Last I heard, the old army village has a level 22 dungeon, though. That was 2 days ago, though."

Nodding Degritone said, "Dang. Thank you," and began walking off, waving at the man.

"Don't mention it," the man responded, waving back before going back to doing his own thing.

Sighing, Degritone said to himself, "Well, guess I gotta break another monster node." With Haste active and Lolicon's Fervent Support giving him an additional speed boost, Degritone very quickly reached a clump of the level 25 monsters: Creatures similar to spiders with long, spindly legs, like someone had scaled a daddy long legs up so its body was the size of a car, but with abnormally large fangs, even after accounting for the scaling factor.

He saw a group fighting a couple of the beasts and he realized he hadn't accepted the tournament invite yet. He quickly did so and waited for the group to kill their monsters before asking them to point him in the direction of the nearest monster node. They did so and he thanked them before moving quickly in that direction. With a single Empowered blow, he shattered the node.

Monster Node broken!

Degritone has broken a Monster Node!

The Monster Node has been turned into a dungeon.

The location of this dungeon will be marked on everyone's maps.

Monster spawns near the location of this dungeon have been disabled.

Monster spawns far away from this dungeon have been increased in difficulty by an amount proportional to the distance.

Difficulty increase for your area: none.

Congratulations! You have broken a Monster Node!

Relatively few are able to say they were part of a team that destroyed a Monster Node.

For being the one to deal the most damage to the Node, you gain a temporary Skill.

Imbue Experience lvX

This monumental undertaking has earned you 250 flat Health, Mana, and Stamina per level!

Additionally, you gain 10000 class experience.

He immediately pumped himself with the full 100000 experience and stepped into the Dungeon. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell Melena about this," he turned to look at a random position as if looking at the camera the Patrons were using to look at him, "so this will be a fun surprise for all of you, Melena included. Wait, no it won't. It's only a 5 times increase now. I'll only have 5ish days in here." He turned back forward. "Never mind."

Donning his mana armor and sword, he walked away from the Dungeon's entrance and into a cave of unnaturally smooth rock with glowing red veins. Past the first bend of the Dungeon, the walls of the cave were lines with doors every few feet. Some molten rock was launched at his face and with the assistance of Swordsman's Territory warning him of the incoming projectile, he activated Guard before it hit him.

"Oh, yeah. I need to ask about if I'll need a perception Skill and if ST counts as one. Might as well ask about the required Paths for Vital Being before I forget."

Before he could send the message, he got one from Melena.

Melena: You probably will. Send me whatever ST's description is and I'll tell you. And don't you dare try to take on the boss of that place. A level 75 will eat you alive. As for the required Paths for Vital Being, they are Regenerative Physique, Vital Body, Vital Spirit, Vital Blood, and Permanently Thriving. The only one I don't think you'd find on your own, given your propensity for regeneration, is the last one. Flourishing gives Essential Adaptability, which will give Permanently Thriving.

Degritone: Thank you. Swordsman's Territory's description is "After spending a small amount of time concentrating, gain absolute knowledge of the position of all objects, including creatures, within a short distance from you. Additionally gain a slight predictive power over their future positions.

Must be holding a sword for any effects to apply.

Unable to quantify exact effects, Skill too erratic.

[math]"

Degritone reactivated Guard when it ran out, getting hit by molten rock occasionally.

Melena: Oooo. That was hastily made, wasn't it? No, it's not a perception Skill. Perception Skills directly enhance your reflexes through various means. Combined with that, though, you could be nearly impossible to hit. You shouldn't need a perception Skill in the first few rounds, and we should be able to get you one between rounds. For now, just level up and we'll talk specifics after the first round of the tournament.

Degritone: Sounds good. See you then~~

Finally, Degritone looked at the source of the globs of molten rock: A large red slime that rolled around a bend while he was looking at the doors. It was very slowly rolling toward him. On the slime's surface were nearly black dots. When one of those aligned with a trajectory that would launch a glob into Degritone, the dot opened up, revealing a slingshot-like device, primed for fire, before it was shot, sending molten rock straight at Degritone. The dot would then close back up.

Running up into melee range of the slime, he slashed up left with all his modifiers active. The attack simply bounced off the slime, doing no visible damage and taking no Stamina. Confused, Degritone tried a stab. It, too, was ineffective. The slime continued rolling forward, so Degritone took a step back. He cast Empowered Omen of Pestilence and Empowered Omen of Famine on the slime, but they seemed to have no effect, beyond Omen of Pestilence's slowing effect, and took no extra Mana.

He cast Empowered Omen of Famines and Empowered Omen of Pestilences as fast as he could to see if it would do anything, but no. His Mana ran dry after a few minutes and the behemoth slime kept its slow pace, with no visible damage. He tried an empowered slash once more, only to bounce off again, once again taking no Stamina. As the slime's slow pace brought him near the entrance, he circled around it and it reversed direction.

Degritone sighed. "Well, I can't damage you, and you are too slow to engulf me and your lava balls can't hurt me. Sad I won't level up, but at least I can grind my combat Skills effectively on you. Well, I guess I haven't tried Bloody Aura + Acidic Blood yet." So he did. After long enough to have killed him 30 times over if he had zero damage reduction, his Empowered attacks still had no effect.

And so began Degritone's 5 days and some hours of hitting a slime.

Vital Blood 840/840

Congratulations! You have completed the Vital Blood Path!

Blood of Vitality lvX

12 Vitality

2 Bonus Stamina Regeneration

4 Vitality per level

1 Bonus Health Regeneration per level

1 Bonus Stamina Regeneration per level

Flourishment 560/560

Congratulations! You have completed the Flourishment Path!

Inevitable Prosperity lv1

10 Vitality

2 Vitality per level

1 Bonus Health Regeneration per level

1 Bonus Stamina Regeneration per level

Essential Adaptability 840/840

Congratulations! You have completed the Essential Adaptability Path!

Adaptive Palisade lv1

6 Free Stats per level

1 Bonus Health Regeneration per level

1 Bonus Stamina Regeneration per level

Permanently Thriving 0/1200

Warning!

Putting PP into a tier 8 Path makes you incapable of putting PP into tier 7 and below paths.

Additionally, you can only put PP into 3 tier 4 Paths. Do you wish to continue?

Degritone: Any other paths you think I'd want before I drop them all for tier 8 stuff?

Melena: Maybe Abundant Blood and Mystical Life. Abundant Blood would increase the effects of Acidic Blood and Blood of Vitality by 20% while Mystical Life would just give a boost to your Mana Regeneration and Health Regeneration based on your Magic stat.

Degritone: Then meh. Delaying Vital Being for an extra 840 PP to get Mystical Life doesn't sound like a good idea when the tournament starts in a few hours.

Melena: The tournament is going to be seeded in a way as to knock out the weakest competitors first. You'd get maybe 800 SP by the time you reach anyone who could really threaten you, even assuming we don't get you a perception Skill.

Degritone: Will I even be able to get Vital Being before the tournament's over? I'd need at least 2258 PP, if not more if it's higher PP than tier 8.

Melena: Yeah. Your bracket is the most populated, as a relatively small portion of the population is willing to take the risk of fighting high level bosses to go beyond level 41, and few are willing to fight 82000 level 25s to reach 41. Based on other years, it'll have at least 50 rounds. You should get enough SP to get Vital Being after beating round 32 or so.

Degritone: Wow, this is going to be a lot longer than I thought. Even excluding the time taken for actual combat and rounding a bit, that's a minimum of what... 10 hours?

Melena: Yeah, that seems roughly right. The first 12 or so rounds will fly by, though, filled with high levels and Skill levels quickly knocking out those who just qualified for this bracket.

Degritone: Would you recommend I take Mystical Life?

Melena: Eh. It's so useful for normal builds that it's occasionally theorized that it might be worth taking such typically useless Paths to get to it for basically every other build. For a pure regen build like yours, though, it's not nearly as useful. People mostly theorize its usefulness for its Mana Regeneration and there's even a mage build that goes for it, but the trade offs of going for it aren't worth it in my eyes.

I mean that both for you and others. The amount of Mana Regeneration it grants is staggering, but only for people who don't already have thousands of Vitality. It'd barely be a drop in the bucket for you and the Health Regeneration also isn't very useful. It would only increase your Health Regeneration by less than 1% and Mana Regeneration by around 6%. If you had zero pressure, then maybe. It would still be 840 PP you could have spent on a more useful Path, though.

So, not useless, just not useful enough to warrant the cost in my opinion.

Degritone: Cool. Onward, to tier 8 Paths, then.

Permanently Thriving 142/1200

About a minute after putting the 142nd PP into Permanently Thriving, Degritone found himself on the edge of a large clearing in a forest. On the other side was a little girl, standing up from having apparently just fallen on her face, wearing some over sized football equipment and holding a spear. Degritone's heart sank as an announcement appeared.

Round 1 begin!