Tormacc stayed up all night trying to figure out which skills to unlock and which branch of his Fate Wheel to go down. There was a part of him the wanted to say fuck it and just go with his gut, after all, how much did it really matter which skills he unlocked, right? If he wanted other skills he could just earn more Essence and unlock them later.

That was weakness speaking. He might not be able to do any complicated calculations, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that if he was able to increase his Essence gain by even ten a day that would add up, each day that passed adding to a number noticeably bigger than without that extra Essence. And that number would only grow over time, as he could then invest that Essence into even more abilities, increasing his Essence gain even more, the number eventually snowballing out of control. Maybe it wouldn’t be a big difference in a year, but five years? Ten years? He was still a young man, and many of the people he saw in the First City were middle aged, or even older. He couldn’t be sure, but Kaz Ehen was likely an old man by normal Humen standards based on how he talked and acted. By investing his Essence haphazardly how much power would he be missing out on?

No, he wouldn’t take the weakling’s way out. He couldn’t, or he wasn’t Tormacc. But that meant focusing on the scratches on the page, watching as they danced back and forth, the numbers running circles around his brain, refusing to add up the way they should. He wanted to scream. He did scream, his primal roar echoing across the empty plateaus around him, his frustrations spilling out, lacking a clear focus he could direct it to. His job should be to fight, to crush his enemies beneath his feet while drinking wine from their skulls. Instead, he was a paper-pusher, moving lines around on increasingly crumpled pieces of paper to try and find his best path forward.

When morning came, he knew it was time to commit, the time wasted by agonizing over his choices better spent earning Essence. It was frustrating, knowing he could be doing things better. He knew he was better than this, knew he had the training to achieve his goals. But he was realizing that no matter how talented he was with physical might and planning, there were things he just didn’t know. That was why he had gone to find Curtain and Stella, but even after that he was still lacking in knowledge, the gaps abundantly clear as he continued to get himself in life-threatening situations.

More than knowledge, he was lacking in wisdom. It hurt to admit it, but maybe his teachers had been right to reprimand him for his age. He had only vague memories and recollections left in his mind, but he knew there was at least one time he had grown too big for his britches, gotten too puffed up with self-importance. And he had been smacked down, taught his place by those with more experience and wisdom than him when he had sought to question his elders.

It was now when he wished he had that elder figure, someone to tell him he was doing the right thing. It was strange, he couldn’t remember much of anything from the time before The Tower, but as he had to rely on himself more, he realized it was a new experience, in the past a figure of authority always looming over him to direct him in the truly important moments. It was holding him back, invisible chains around his neck, making him question every decision he made. Perhaps the training he had received had focused a bit too much on combat and tactics instead of real-world skills. But he could, and would, grow from that and improve.

His night of calculations had been long and painful, each hour dragging into the next, self-doubt threatening to spill over. But he was Tormacc; he couldn’t give in. Part of the problem was there were some tier six abilities he really wanted. In particular, two of the ones he unlocked with Lighten and Speed Burst, one from each, that he thought he should have. But he couldn’t unlock those and have enough to go down another path if he wanted to still be able to unlock another tier eight ability.

There were so many useful abilities, his Fate Wheel threatening to pull him in ten different directions. But he settled on his previous plan, the goal either to choose something down his Fate Wheel in the sections after either Cleave or Enhanced Vitality.

Both of those abilities had two valid tier four options for him to choose from, and he had quickly decided on first choosing one and seeing where it went, and if he didn’t like the options, going back to the other. His first choice, from Enhanced Vitality, was between Rapid Healing and Regeneration, and it was a tough one, his brain having difficulty determining the differences between healing and regeneration. He beat himself up for hours to try and figure it out, and his effort was not in vain, as after hours of contemplative thought he finally had an answer.

Healing was health, that much was obvious. But regeneration could be more, after all, you didn’t heal your stamina, you regenerated it. That was what sold him; he wanted more stamina, and Regeneration sounded like the better bet for that. So when the morning came, that was where he started, by investing the 100 Essence out of his reduced pool of 1,280 to unlock Regeneration.

The two abilities revealed by Regeneration were Undying and Sustain Life. They were similar sounding names, but the effects were completely different. Sustain Life would allow him to stay alive for a short period, even when he shouldn’t, for example, when some of his vital organs were failing. Undying on the other hand was exactly what he wanted, as it directly increased his stamina and vitality. He was tempted to unlock it immediately, but held off until he resolved the Cleave skill tree. Since he still wasn’t sure which tree would be better he had resolved himself to take a look at both to try and get more information.

The two options revealed by Cleave were Explosive Blow and Sweep. Explosive Blow created a small explosion on impact, while Sweep allowed him to move his weapons in an arc, presumably having some additional effect or power. Both seemed like valid options, but in the end he settled on unlocking Sweep first. Since he had guessed right between Regeneration and Rapid Healing he had some breathing room with his Essence, so this choice didn’t matter as much if he messed up.

Sweep lived up to his hopes, as the attack it created was guaranteed to finish, meaning as long as he didn’t try to swing his weapon through stone or some similarly immovable substance his strike would land, sweeping through the enemies in front of him. More exciting though were the two abilities it revealed. The first was Essence Blade, an ability that allowed him to extend the reach of his weapon. It was likely to be more useful for a bladed weapon, but increasing the range of his hammer would still be useful if he decided to go down that path. The other one, Whirlwind, was what he was really excited about. It was similar to Sweep, but instead of just attacking the area in front on him, he swept his weapon in a broad circle, clearing his surroundings of enemies.

After unlocking two tier four abilities he still had 1,080 Essence left, plenty to experiment with before he unlocked his tier six through eight abilities. If he only unlocked two tier five abilities he would still even have enough to test out two tier six abilities before he committed to which path he wanted to take. If he wanted to do that he had to commit to only one ability on each of his two paths, but that was an easy choice, as he had a clear favorite between the two sets of abilities he had just revealed. From the Regeneration tree he unlocked Undying, and from Sweep, he unlocked Whirlwind.

The two abilities after Undying were Relentless and Lifesteal, while the two after Whirlwind were Blow Away and Rising Cyclone. He was a little disappointed by Blow Away and Rising Cyclone, not because they weren’t powerful abilities, they were, but they weren’t quite what he was looking for. Blow Away knocked all the enemies around him backwards while Rising Cyclone swept them into a focused point, gathering them to allow him to finish them off with another skill. Out of the two, Rising Cyclone seemed more promising, but even that still didn’t involve directly killing his foes, which was what he was looking for.

For the other two skills, Relentless allowed him to set a goal, and as long as he was pursuing that goal, he wouldn’t tire, able to continue pushing himself until he accomplished that goal. The obvious downside of this was what happened to him afterwards. The skill didn’t state it directly, although maybe it would once he unlocked it, but it wasn’t too hard to imagine he would collapse, the previous effort finally catching up to him.

On the other hand, Lifesteal was what he had been looking for, the skill practically tailor-made for his present situation. For every enemy he killed, the skill would allow him to siphon off some of their life force and stamina, which, if he was massacring countless enemies, would allow him to continue the slaughter almost indefinitely, the life force of his foes draining back into him in and endless cycle. There was some doubt over what he would spend the remaining Essence on, but Lifesteal was too good to pass up, so he unlocked it, the skill lighting up on his Fate Wheel.

At this point he only had 180 Essence left in his fate wheel other than the 3,500 set aside for lighting up tiers six through eight. If he continued down after Lifesteal he would have an extra 500 Essence to invest elsewhere, which was appealing to him as he was still eyeing those tier six abilities he really wanted outside of the Sweep and Regeneration trees. And considering the utility Lifesteal offered, he couldn’t pass up one of the options after it.

The first option was Encapsulated Vitality, an ability that allowed him to store vitality to use later, either when he was injured or worn down from battle. A strong ability to be sure, but his other choice was Greater Lifesteal. He knew what he wanted. Perhaps if he went down the Cleave tree more AOE skills would improve his speed in killing the rats, but Greater Lifesteal would allow him to farm them for longer, the reduced speed more than made up for with increased endurance. Slow but steady wins the race after all.

Having committed, he unlocked Greater Lifesteal, continuing down that section of his Fate Wheel. The tier eight abilities he could choose from were Stamina Drain and Blood Osmosis. Stamina Drain made his attacks drain a small amount of stamina from the target. One of the key differences here was it worked on living targets, while Lifesteal and Greater Lifesteal only worked on enemies he killed, so Stamina Drain would work during battle if he was only fighting one enemy, where Greater Lifesteal only worked when he killed something. Blood Osmosis allowed him to passively absorb blood spilled in battle to restore his vitality and life force. Blood Osmosis seemed like the ability with a higher ceiling, but fighting in a Shard with mostly bloodless enemies, Stamina Drain was the clear choice, so he spent 2,000 Essence to unlock it.

He still had enough Essence left to unlock one tier six ability and there was one that he had been eyeing, hoping he would have enough Essence to unlock it. It was revealed after he had unlocked Lighten, and was called Air Step, and it allowed him to create a foothold in thin air as if it was solid ground. The ability had a long cooldown, but he had already experienced how powerful movement skills were, as he would certainly be dead without them. There were a few more he wanted to unlock too, but this one seemed like the most unique while also being the most useful to him.

Spending his Essence in an optimal manner had caused him incredible amounts of frustration, but finally he was done, the painful ordeal over, at least for the moment. The satisfaction he gained from properly considering which branch of his Fate Wheel to go down didn’t quite offset his grueling night of calculations, but he knew it would be worth it in the end. And now that he had put his Essence to good use it was time to kill some stone rats; the vermin had survived long enough, but with his new skills, it was time to make them pay the iron price.