It had been a week since system sama told Arnold the truth about the universe as well as about Shiva's past. Still, Arnold was having a hard time grasping it all. It wasn't like he didn't believe what the system informed him about. System sama had never lied to him, so he never suspected it. 

But knowing about the secrets of the universe wasn't something Arnold was quite ready to accept yet. It was obvious that he was feeling this way because what system sama told him was indirectly the theory of the multiverse. 

Although it wasn't quite like the multiverse theory Arnold knew of because according to what system sama told him, no two universes existed at the same time. One was only created after another one had been destroyed. At least, that's what Arnold derived from their little chat. But even he couldn't deny the possibility that what System sama told him was true.

At the very least the theory explained why there were multiple gods of the same entity and how the world had been destroyed so many times, that is, during Ragnarok and countless similar events and yet humans were still living on the planet as if nothing happened. 

The theory also confirmed why did the Immortal One want Arnold to lose everything he loved, in the first place. Shiva just wanted to turn Arnold into something just like himself. Think of it as Shiva trying to make Arnold just like a carbon copy of himself if you will. Someone who could fulfil his task of creating the perfect universe in case Shiva failed to do so.

Thankfully, it wasn't the case anymore because the system sama informed Arnold that he had broken off from the cycle of fate. And now whatever he did or whatever happened to him would happen due to his own actions and would not be the doing of The Immortal One.

Frankly, Arnold didn't know whether he should have been excited or worried about it. He was definitely happy that he wouldn't be forced to lose everything just because some god wanted him to. But he did not like the idea of being responsible for his own fate.

If he was in the Immortal one's place, he would have never trusted himself with an important thing. After all, he did not even want to take responsibility for the world, so why would someone give him the responsibility of his fate.

But he was especially sad about the fact that he won't be able to blame Shiva for the mishaps in his life anymore. After all system sama had made it clear. Whatever would happen to him, would have been a direct result of his own actions and not a verdict of the god anymore.

Either way, rather than moping away, he still had things to do, like levelling up his new subclass: Duality.

Duality was kind of a peculiar subclass. Well, Arnold wasn't sure if it even was a subclass. In his eyes, it was just a chore if anything. According to the description of his new subclass, he could combine any two polar opposite abilities, affinities and gears as long as he met some specified conditions.

Most of the conditions were doable, but they were quite absurd. Arnold had no doubts whatsoever that the system sama had made the conditions like that so that Arnold won't be able to gain more power in a short time. or that he would be so embarrassed to do in the first place.

After learning the new subclass, a new tab opened up in front of him. A tab with multiple slots but only two of them were currently open for him to use. The rules regarding using these slots were even more complex.

But in a gist, Arnold could use the slots to select any two of his abilities or affinities or gears that he wanted to combine. Also, he could only combine abilities with abilities and affinities with affinities and so on. But on top of that, there were additional restrictions placed on the combination.

He could not combine offensive abilities with defensive ones, like he could not combine [Devil's rage] with [Sacred Protection]. But he could combine [Devil's Rage] with [Berserker's Rage] and [Sacred Protection] with [Poseidon's Blessings]. Similarly, he could not combine offensive weapons with defensive gears.

After the selection was made he would be prompted whether he was sure to lock his choice. After the abilities/affinities/gears had been locked, he won't be able to use the abilities or gears or the abilities related to the affinity that had been locked until the fusion was successful.

But in case the fusion failed, he won't be able to fuse those abilities or affinities or gears again. Even if he tried to reuse the abilities to combine with some other ability, the system would not accept it. But in case if affinity fusion failed, he would still be able to combine the abilities of the two affinities individually.

Also, there was a way to improve the fusion's success rate. As soon as the abilities have been locked, he would be given a task or a series of tasks. With each task that he completed, the rate of success would go up by a certain margin, depending on the difficulty of the task undertaken.

But Arnold was hesitant to combine abilities right away. So he decided to test the skill by combining gears first. So he took out a Cryo grenade and tried combining it with an incendiary grenade. Since both of them were offensive weapons, they were accepted. Arnold then locked his choice and another prompt appeared in front of him.

___

Fusion is taking place.

• Cryo Grenade

• Incendiary Grenade

End result --> [Unknown]

Rate of success = 04.34%

You can improve the success rate by completing the following tasks:

• Kill Ice based monsters.

• Kill fire based monsters.

(Note: Each kill would increase the success rate by 0.25%. Only monsters slain by your hands will contribute towards this.)

___

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