“Hello Radgar, my name is Tsar Bomba.” Tsar finally managed to get out.

“My goodness. Did you just figure out the Mimic Speech skill? That’s amazing! What a wonderful little hopper you are. It is most certainly a pleasure to meet you Tsar Bomba. Did you just recently evolve? What were you before? How did you get here?” Radgar sped up as he asked his questions seemingly bubbling with excitement before he suddenly paused, “I apologize yet again little one. You see, I am a hermit, so I rarely meet people that don’t just annoy me. My only company out here is Iggy. Which I am not complaining about, but sometimes it is nice to talk to someone who is not so connected to you… You know what I mean?”

Tsar nodded he could understand the sentiment.

“Well… To answer your questions, I did evolve just recently. I was a Life-Mote Frog. And I suppose I was born here? Or somewhere around here at least.” Tsar said, “And I can understand wanting someone to talk to. Who is this Iggy?”

“Iggy is my tree! You know a Druid is no good without his or her tree. And Iggy is the best tree. Meaning that my shortcomings are mitigated somewhat by her. I feel like I’m dragging her down sometimes…” Radgar said his shoulders slumping slightly. Then he was back, “But I shouldn’t dwell on things, at least that’s what she always tells me. Anyways, would you like to accompany me around the swamp? I have business to attend to, gotta make sure this place doesn’t get too rowdy if you know what I mean. Although this spot does look like a nice place to hunker down for the night. Even if you don’t want to accompany me it would be quite nice to have some company for the night.”

Tsar though about it for a few moments. On the one hand this old man was kind of weird. On the other hand, was being alone again, and having another person around to watch his back would be nice out here in this dangerous swamp. So, accepting Radgar’s invitation to follow him around seemed pretty good.

“Well, I don’t really have anything to do besides trying to survive out here. So, getting to hang out with you and talk to someone seems pretty nice. I will gladly accompany you.” Tsar spoke

“Quite the vocabulary there for someone who was unable to speak only a minutes ago.” Radgar said with a chuckle, “You are more than meets the eye. Well, most eyes. My eyes see quite a bit more than most.”

With that Radgar settled down into a cross legged position in the middle of the little dry patch of ground they were on. Soon Tsar started asking the old man questions. Careful to avoid asking directly about things like hidden or locked stats. Honestly, he just tried to get Radgar to teach him about the world. And Radgar was happy to just talk his ear off, so Tsar spent the night learning a whole bunch of new things. He did end up falling asleep at some point, but it had to have been very late.

When Tsar awoke, he felt well rested and ready for the day. Across from him was Radgar still sitting in exactly the same position he’d been where Tsar had fallen asleep. His eyes still open as he seemed to stare into something. Just as Tsar started to move Radgar smiled and turned his gaze towards him.

“I hope you slept well. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us. Yes busy, busy. Oh! Before I forget.” Radgar’s eyes took on a far away look for a few moments before suddenly a little blue box appeared in Tsar’s vision.

Radgar Penderghast has invited you to join his party.

Accept Y/N

Tsar accepted it then nearly gasped when a little box populated in his vision showing Radgar’s Level, class, and resource pools. The man was race level 237! His classes, he had two of them, were Hermit Druid of the World Tree lvl 190, and Berserker Guardian of the World Tree lvl 98. And beside Radgar’s name was a little S+. Radgar’s Resource pools were all in the hundreds of thousands. It was absolutely stunning to realize that this old man who was actually very nice was an absolute beast of a man. He could probably take on armies single handedly.

“Damn I am glad that I didn’t try to fight you.” Tsar muttered, mostly to himself.

“It would have been fairly amusing if you had. I wouldn’t have hurt you, but it certainly would have told me a lot about you. In fact, we should probably spar a bit when we get back to Iggy. It would do wonders for your skills and give me something to do besides lounge about all day. Though we may need to get you leveled up a bit more and possibly evolved into something with hands.” Radgar replied, “Our business over the next few days will probably see to that though. It’s been years since the last time I cleaned out the swamp. There’s a lot to do.”

And so, Tsar followed Radgar through the swap throughout the day. Only fifteen minutes after they had started their moving throughout the swamp though Tsar learned what Radgar had meant about ‘cleaning out the swamp’. What the man really meant was that he tracked down anything that was B Tier or higher and slaughtered it.

Because Tsar was in a party with Radgar he was gaining Exp from the kills, and souls. His level shot through the roof after only a few hours he was already at level 20 with the little box telling him that he could evolve again. He told Radgar and asked if he should wait until they stopped for the night or do it right then and there.

“I actually had a thought as we started off today” Radgar said, “If you will trust me on this. Are you familiar with the concept of Lateral Evolution?”

Tsar nodded

“Well, there are, an admittedly trash talked, type of people in civilized society called Grinders. Mainly because they have or are trying to get the [Grinder] title. It is acquired by laterally evolving five times. It is a particularly desirable title due to the fact that it is one of the few ways known to reduce the amount of EXP classes add to your race requirements for leveling. Since it has been so long since I last cleaned out the swamp, it would probably be in your best interest to get the title before you progress up the Tiers. I only really suggest this because the most fearsome enemy I have ever fought was a B+ race Tier individual who was a Grinder. At the time I was S Tier, and he still gave me a run for my money.” Radgar elaborated.

“That sounds fine by me. That would be like 300 extra stat points and a bunch of new skills.” Tsar responded, “But why would you help me do that?”

“Its not as if it will be a bother. You will be getting a whole lot more out of my cleaning the swamp than I will at all. Creatures below S tier don’t even provide me with more than 1 EXP anymore. It won’t really take us any longer and I’m going to be clearing out the swamp anyway. So why not eek out some decent benefits for a friend?” Radgar spoke as if everything he were saying was just common sense.

“Why do clear out the swamp?” Tsar asked, “If lower Tier creatures don’t give you any EXP wouldn’t it be better to let them be until they hit S Tier?”

Radgar chuckled at that.

“It has been a long time since I was truly interested in advancing myself. I actually do this because the edges of the swamp are a place where young low leveled adventurers tend to cut their teeth on some real-life monster hunting. By keeping the average Tier down here in the middle of the swamp it ensures that those younglings don’t run into anything too powerful for them to handle. It’s sort of… my way of giving back without them ever realizing I do it.” Radgar spoke that last bit with a slight droop in his shoulders. A distant look coming over his eyes.

After that the day went by and Tsar had gained just enough EXP to Laterally Evolve. Which was insane. Not to mention that he had gained a whole new level of respect for Radgar. The man didn’t even use skills to kill the monsters they encountered, he literally just stuck a finger through their skulls before they could so much as blink, and it was done. Tsar collected the monsters’ corpses and their souls.

When they stopped for the night Tsar plopped down across from the man and opened his Evolution options. The highest tier one he could get to was a C+ Tier creature called a Frogglin. But he still had the options he had decided to skip when he’d chosen Mystic Hopper. So, he asked Radgar if he knew what they were.

“Well, that is an interesting lineup… The Poison Darter is smaller than you currently are by a small amount. Their bodies produce a toxic poison that can be incredibly potent when it gets to higher levels. War-Toad is very interesting because it is a creature not native to this plane, it is native to the infernal plane, and I am sad to say that I don’t anything other than that about them. Angel Frogs are native to the celestial planes. Known as delicacies in some circles. Mystic Hoppers are native to the Feedoheem planes. Which is what caught my eye when I first spotted you. I find it rather odd that you have options outside of the Material Planes normal strata.” Radgar explained.

And because Tsar didn’t want to be a toad for any longer than he had to be, he chose War-Toad first. He passed out like always when he evolved and woke up a few moments later with a far more robust feeling body.

Congratulations

You have evolved laterally into a War-Toad(E+).

Evolution Bonus: +10 to all unlocked stats.

Racial Bonuses: Gain Skill [Rush lvl1], [Bottomless Stomach lvl.N/A]

Rush lvl.1

Use this skill to instantly accelerate yourself in direction you are facing.

Cost = 20 Sp

Bottomless Stomach lvl.N/A

This skill allows you to consume an unlimited quantity of food to serve as a stockpile for Sp regeneration.

Tsar didn’t even bother with looking at his stat page. All of his stats would have gone up by 40 points since the last time he’d seen it, with the exception of Willpower which would have gone up by 140. His willpower stat was insane, but he didn’t know what it did yet. And he wasn’t about to ask Radgar for fear of alerting him that he was even more different than the man already knew he was.

Now that that was done, Tsar went about moving his Wisp around, then he remembered his skill Commune With Spirit. But before he used it, he looked over to Radgar who was sitting there silently observing Tsar’s antics with his Wisp.

“What can you tell me about spirits?” Tsar asked

“Well, I can’t tell you much actually. Spirits are… for lack of better words. A play script. They are not really alive. Though some are incredibly powerful, they exist and are born all the time, but if you observe them, they just go about a singular pattern movements and actions taken over and over unless interrupted. Different spirits react differently when interrupted, but every spirit of the same type will react the same. Wisps for example will attempt to flee by becoming invisible for a short while before reappearing. Others react violently. When killed or destroyed their bodies will coalesce into a Spirit Core of their Type. The study of Spirits is its own entire field and that’s about all I really know.” Radgar spoke

“Well, I am about to use one of my Shaman skills on this Wisp. I don’t know what will happen, so I wanted to warn you first.”

“I appreciate the warning.”

Tsar brought the wisp down onto his head and activated Commune With Spirit. He was presented with two options when he activated the skill. [See Memories] and [Learn Skills]. He mentally tapped Learn skills. After clicking the option Tsar suddenly found himself in what he could only describe as a fever dream state. He knew he could stop it at any time, but he also knew that if he did he wouldn’t gain anything from it if he did.

Hours later Tsar finally finished with his Commune With Spirit and he was mighty pleased, but also displeased with the results.

Congratulations

You have successfully communed with your bound spirit and learned the following skills.

[Mana Siphon], [Mana Bullet], and [Mana Transfer]

Mana Siphon lvl.1

This is a passive skill that increases mana regen rate

Effect: 50% of mana pool is dedicated to the Siphon, +10% Mp Regen rate

Mana Bullet lvl.1

Fires a condensed projectile of pure mana up to 20 yards dealing damage equal to cost minus resistances.

Cost = 20-100 Mp

Mana Transfer lvl.1

Can transfer mana between bound spirits and Shaman at a rate of 50 to 1 transfer efficiency.

The Mana Siphon skill had cost him half of his mana pool for a measly 10% increase in regeneration! He couldn’t turn it off because it was passive. Hopefully the skill would get better as it leveled up. Unlike a lot of other skills, it didn’t tell him how it would progress. Luckily, he only had a couple of skills that actually used mana, and they weren’t very expensive. Hopefully it would level up fast.

Mana transfer was practically useless as it was, but hopefully that would change as it leveled up. Then he could use his Spirits as basically backup mana pools. Mana bullet was practically a spell! Though he wasn’t sure what the difference between a spell and a skill was, he now had a ranged damage dealing skill.

After testing out his new skills Tsar settled in to sleep for the night.

Five days and four Lateral evolutions later, Tsar was incredibly pleased with himself. He was a freaking beast now! Stat wise at least. His lowest stats now sat at 452 while willpower was up to a staggering 1,766. Plus, he was up to 245 souls in his Soul Well. Meaning an additional 2.45 regen per hour in all of his resources. His skill levels had not made any progress and aside from gaining two new skills from the lateral evolutions he hadn’t gained any others.

Generate Poison lvl.1

Secrete a mild poison from a selected area of your body.

Cost = 1SP per ounce

Rapid Healing lvl.1

Heal yourself using your bodies energy stores.

Cost = 50Sp per 1Hp restored

But the real kicker was the title.

Congratulations

You have evolved laterally five times. For showing your dedication to maximizing your existence you have been awarded the Title: [Grinder]

Effects: Reduce the Exp increase to Race level caused by classes by 10%

In total Tsar had evolved 6 times in the past five days 7 if you count his initial evolution into a mystic hopper. His five lateral evolutions, and then he’d evolved again into a race called Mystic Frogglin(C+).

His Mystic Frogglin body was bipedal and stood about four and a half feet tall. His eyes were quite large for his head, his hands, complete with opposable thumbs were slightly more elongated and wider than a human of the same size would be. His skin was a dark green with swirling patterns of blue throughout it. His mouth was absurdly wide for the size of his head. His back was slightly hunched giving him a goblinesk look. He had just completed his evolution and was admiring what it felt like to walk again when Radgar interrupted his exploration of self.

“Well with that all done we had best get back to Iggy. We’ve taken care of all the B through A Tiers in my range, and it’ll be good to get back home. I’m sure Iggy will love you.” Radgar spoke before turning in a seemingly random direction and starting to walk.

Tsar followed along, amazed at how easily he could move and far he could leap with seemingly no effort now. Tsar’s main issue with becoming so strong so fast was that he wasn’t accustomed to his own strength at all now. He would jump, intending to land on a root or dry patch of ground a few feet away and end up overshooting his target by dozens of feet. Or he would trip and overcorrect with so much force that he sent himself flying. Radgar would laugh at his antics more often than not but in such a way that Tsar always felt it was good natured.

Radgar was slightly confusing to him. Over the past week of getting to know the man Tsar had found him to be a genuinely caring person. He talked fondly of friends long past and his days as an adventurer. He seemed to always be genuinely happy to teach Tsar anything he asked about. Radgar seemed like the kind of guy who would be at every social gathering telling ridiculous stories about his myriad of bone head friends. Radgar being a hermit didn’t make sense to Tsar at all.

They moved through the swamp for several hours before they suddenly came upon a dry clearing. Tsar was actually pretty sure that they were exiting the swamp entirely as they approached the edge of the first area of real dry land he’d seen since he’d been in this world.

That was when he saw Iggy. Tsar had been imagining a giant tree like a redwood or something along those lines. What saw when he entered the clearing was a tree that seemed to reach all the way into the heavens and beyond. It was a tree that had decided it wanted to be a mountain. The base of its trunk had to be several miles in diameter. The first branches on the massive thing didn’t start until probably ten thousand feet up. He could see clouds under the canopy! Tsar was struck by a complete sense of awe as he gazed upon the massive tree in the distance. The only thing he could think to call it was the World Tree.

“Iggy I’m home!” Radgar shouted beside him.

“I can see that! And I see you have brought a friend. Introduce us!” a voice that sounded rather feminine but resonated with other worldly power responded.

“Oh right. Tsar, this is my beautiful and beloved companion, Iggy.” Radgar gestured to the ginormous tree, “Iggy, this is Tsar, Tsar Bomba the Mystic Frogglin currently.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Tsar. Has Radgar been treating you well?” Iggy’s voice resounded.

“It is a pleasure to meet you too. And I probably owe Radgar a debt that can never be repaid at this point. So, I’d say he has treated me extremely well.”

“Nonsense! You owe me nothing. If you feel like you, do you can help me out by cleaning up all the clutter inside the house. Been meaning to get rid of a bunch of old junk. You have that seemingly infinite storage skill, so you can clear it all out for me.”

“Ah it would be good to free up all that space. My fallen twigs and pruning’s are taking up too much room at this point as well. If you wouldn’t mind of course! As my dearest said he does not consider you to be indebted to us, so the choice is up to you.” Iggy said.

“I’ll help out wherever I can.” Tsar replied.

With the greetings out of the way, Radgar led Tsar on a run across the grassy meadow surrounding Iggy’s trunk. It was astonishing how much ground one could cover when they had superhuman strength and a flat plane to run on. They arrived at the base of Iggy’s trunk within minutes. Once there Radgar led Tsar to a doorway that looked like it had grown from the tree itself. Which it probably had.

“I am going to go wash up real quick. Iggy, if you would be so kind as to guide Tsar to the storage area that would be wonderful.” Radgar said as he led the way through a hallway that was lit by some unknown means.

“Not a problem, please take the first right turn you see Tsar. The ‘junk room’ will be down that hall to your left.” Iggy spoke.

Tsar followed Iggy’s instructions as Radgar moved down a different path. When he reached the so called ‘junk room’ he instantly wanted to turn around and leave it all where it was. It wasn’t junk at all. It looked like a treasure hoard. Granted a treasure hoard with a lot of rusted and mostly broken equipment, but there were also piles of coins of various denominations, stacks of books and piles of what looked like staffs, axes, daggers, swords, bows, and every other sort of weapon that one could imagine.

“Iggy… are you sure I can take this stuff?” he asked quietly.

“You may see treasures here young one… But what Radgar sees when he walks into this room is many lifetimes worth of failure, regrets, and despair. It would be a blessing to both of us if you could reduce this pile of junk even by a half.” Iggy spoke softly but her voice carried more than just words, “You know that he has the Hermit Druid class, right?”

Tsar nodded.

“The ‘hermit’ modifier on a class comes with two things… A Boon and a Curse. The Boon is one of strength and power, the Curse… The Curse is that whenever a Hermit is near or around naturally Sapient creatures, humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins… you get the picture. Whenever a hermit is around those beings, they become agitated, annoyed, and quick to anger. When you combine that with his second class… It means that being around people will often instantly send him into a blood rage. All of this ‘junk’ is a result of adventurers wandering too close, or purposefully seeking us out, and Radgar going into an uncontrollable rage. At first, he kept it all as a reminder of why he had to stay here and never wander. But after so many years… it has become a constant burden on his mind.”

“I thought it was strange that someone like him was a hermit. He’s too caring. Too social. He loves to teach and talk and listen to stories… Why in the world would he have selected those classes?” Tsar asked

“Not all classes are selected young one. When he planted my seed, he was a ‘Wandering Druid’. The act of planting my seed forceful evolved his class into a Hermit type. As for his second class… I will allow him to tell you about that if he feels the need. Just know that cleaning this room out will be a boon to us.” Iggy went quiet after that.

Tsar stood there for a long while. Feeling like a dragon had invited him to try and steal from its hoard. But Iggy’s explanations made him aware that it more like a cleaning the skeletons out of one’s closet. After settling himself Tsar began with collecting everything in the room. It honestly did not take very long his Soul Vault made it as simple as just touching everything in the room. He would examine everything with analyze later, for right now he just wanted to get it all quickly. Maybe an hour later Tsar stood in an empty room. He honestly felt like he should sweep the room out, but he didn’t have a broom.

“Thank you young one, you have no idea what it means to have all of this cleaned up. Now if you would like I have a lot of my own mess that I would like for you to clear out. The little twigs that break off in the wind, and my pruning’s. They don’t rot, so at one point they were just cluttering up my beautiful little meadow. I couldn’t have that, so I created a space to put them. But it’s getting quite full at this point, and it would be nice have it cleared out. This is just for my sense of tidiness you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Iggy said.

“Lead the way. If I can take care of a problem for you, I feel like I should. It’s not really a bother to help out my friends. Not like I have anything else to do.” Tsar spoke

Iggy laughed before giving him directions that led to a set of stairs leading downward. At the bottom he entered into a room that was… quite frankly enormous. It was like an industrial warehouse scaled up by a few times. And in it were stacks on stacks of sticks, leaves, branches, and logs as big around as he was tall.

“That’s a whole lot of wood.” Tsar said as he looked out over the massive piles.

He heard Iggy giggle for a moment before hearing her mumble to herself “that’s what she said”. Tsar couldn’t believe he’d just heard a ‘that’s what she said joke’ from a tree the size of a mountain. But he didn’t comment on it. He just went to the first pile and started storing it all.

The weird thing about the sticks and logs and all of the piles of wood was that they were all straight. No bends, or knots, the ends were perfectly flat, as if sanded smooth.

“Why are these ‘twigs’ so perfectly straight?” he asked.

“Oh, I make them straight so that they are easier to store. I have skills that let me manipulate the shape of wood. It doesn’t take much effort and makes everything a little more efficient. Without that I’d need an area many times larger to store everything.” Iggy explained.

“Oh, do you make sculptures other things like that then?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“Yes, I do! Would you like to see them? I don’t make them out of this stuff, I grow them on my branches.” Iggy’s voice took on an excited tone as she spoke.

“I would love to see them.” Tsar said.

“Excellent, I’ll show them to you in a few hours… Or maybe tomorrow. Radgar says he wants to train you a little bit, so you are not helpless when you leave. He’s almost done getting cleaned up and I doubt he’ll want to wait while I show off.” Iggy spoke

“Ok, I’ll just keep cleaning up around here until we figure it all out then.” With that, Tsar got back to storing everything he could lay his hands on.

About twenty minutes later a familiar voice resounded behind him.

“Well, it’s looking better in here already!” Radgar proclaimed, “And I would like to thank you for cleaning up my clutter. I took a peek in there and was happy to see you got all of it. That’s a load off.”

Tsar straightened and turned around to find Radgar dressed in comfortable looking brown pants and a white shirt. His long hair neatly brushed back and held in a ponytail that nearly reached his butt. The man had practically transformed. Tsar was stunned by the regal looking man standing before him.

“Wow you really clean up well.” Tsar commented.

Radgar looked around for a moment before glancing down at his clothing.

“Ah yes, I don’t see the point in ruining good clothes traipsing about in the swamp. Here is a different matter. I like to be comfortable. Anyway, like I said earlier I would like to train you up a bit. Make sure you know how to handle yourself. If you are interested that is?” Radgar spoke

“Of course! Lead the way.” Tsar said. Excited to get this opportunity. People probably dreamed of getting an old master to teach them skills and the like. This was awesome.

“Right this way then.” Radgar said as he retreated up the stairs.

Tsar was led through a variety of hallways until they finally came to another vast room. Though this one looked like a place where you would train armies. There were obstacle courses rope swings and climbers. The place even had free weights set up like a gym. It was astonishing.

“I used to train adventurers here when I first became a hermit. It has fallen into disuse since then. But now we get to put it to use once more!” Radgar said, a tinge of excitement in his voice as he withdrew a notebook from his pants pocket. “Now, before we begin. I would like you tell me what you highest stat and your lowest stat is so that I can tailor this experience appropriately.”

Tsar took a quick glance at his stats before responding.

“476 perception and 452 for the lowest ones.” He partially lied

“Now my boy. What have I done to deserve such distrust? Don’t lie to me, it will only get in the way and make me feel bad. I thought we were friends.” Radgar spoke, sounding genuinely hurt.

Tsar didn’t know how Radgar knew that he’d lied but somehow, he did.

“I’m sorry Radgar…. Its just that. My highest stat is weird and useless-” he was cut off by Radgar

“My boy, there are no useless stats. Every single one of them is important and useful. Even the ones we can’t see and can’t apply regularly are useful. Some even more than the naturally unlocked stats.” Radgar said

After a moment of internal debate Tsar sighed.

“My highest stat is Willpower at 1,766. 452 really is the lowest ones.” Tsar said deciding to trust the old man.

Radgar’s eyes went wide, and he lowered his hands to his sides.

“My dear boy. What happened to you that made you unlock the Willpower stat? And to get it so high?” Radgar seemed genuinely shocked and perturbed by this revelation.

Tsar remained silent for several moments before coming to a decision. He would tell Radgar his complete background. But first he was going to ask a question.

“I will tell you everything… but first I would like to ask why you look so shocked and even disturbed that I have the willpower stat. And what does it do?”

“The Willpower stat is known as one of the hardest stats to unlock. Not only physically but psychologically. Most individuals break in both body and spirit before they can unlock it. The most reliable method known to unlock that particular stat is to endure 10,000 hours of continual torture. That is why I am upset. Who did such a thing to you? And to the point that it has reached nearly 1800 points no less.” Radgar seemed to calm himself for a moment, “As to what the Willpower stat does… It allows one to resist mental influences mostly. Mind magics, Illusions that effect the mind. Things of that nature. But it also helps with pain tolerance, and in doing things. What I mean by ‘Doing Things’ is fairly abstract. With a high enough Willpower, it is said that someone could alter the very fabric of reality simply by willing it to be so.”

Tsar took everything Radgar was saying in. It made sense now why the system had decided to charge him so much for naming himself. without the title he’d gained his willpower stat would be pretty much the same as all his other stats.

“Ok then. Its story time, as promised.” Tsar said as he began explaining how he had come to be in this world. He didn’t leave out any details. Even using Zen Meditation to remember things that were slightly blurry to him. To his surprise Radgar did not interrupt or even ask questions as he told his story to him. After what felt like hours of telling his story, which probably only took about fifteen minutes. Let’s be real here, not a whole lot had actually happened before he met Radgar. But it felt good to confide in someone.

“So, you are a transient soul. That explains much. That you had so many souls to trade to the gods was a massive boon. Otherwise, you would probably have either died permanently already or would still be a tadpole swimming around in the swamp… You said that you have pages on pages of unlocked stats that you are unable to understand. But you have found Soul and Aura among them. There are others, there should be at least 21 more that you haven’t found yet. Not that it does much good actually seeing them, the fact that they are unlocked is enough… But you have sixteen attunement slots? I don’t understand that one. Nor the Equipment Slots. Their numbers should be Four and Eight respectively…” Radgar fell into thought for a few moments seeming to ponder everything then his eyes lit up as if he had solved a riddle, “Ah ha! Your evolutions are the clue. You realize, creatures of the material planes cannot evolve into creature’s native to other realms. That was one thing I found incredibly curious about you. I think that by unlocking all of the stats. You even unlocked the stats of the Three. Celestial, Infernal, and Feedoheem. Essentially splitting your very soul into four complete souls in one. Attunement and Equipment slots are a thing of the soul, not a thing of the body. Even though they seem that way. They just connect to the soul at different levels. Attunement Slots are truly deep soul bound things. Whereas Equipment Slots interact at a surface level.”

After that they spoke a bit more about the various different stats and what they all did. After nearly an hour of discussions a notification flashed begging Tsar for his attention. Curious as to what it was Tsar brought up the notification.

Congratulations

Your Class: Occultist has level up!

+5 Int, +5 Wis, +5 Per

100 skill points awarded

Skill points were spendable in his skill trees to unlock more class skills but the minimum cost for them was 1,000 skill points so he’d have to wait for level ten to be able to use them. but he now had a 2% reduction in EXP to level his. Along with the [Grinder] Title that was a total of 12% meaning that his total for race leveling right now 1,230 Exp required per level. He took a peak at his stat page since it had been a while.

Name: Tsar Bomba

Race: Mystic Frogglin(C+)

Race Level: 0 EXP 153/1,230

Titles: [Self Named] [Savage] [Skipper] [Shaman King] [Grinder] [Lesser Tactician]

Classes: Occultist(lvl.2) Shaman(lvl.1)

0 banked EXP

Death Counter

32

Options Menu…

[Sp 2,285/2,285] 2.45sph

Resource Pools

[Hp 2,260/2,260] 45.75hph

[Mp4,645/4,645]1.58mpm

(mp2,322/2,322)1.74mpm

Primary Attributes

Intelligence: 477

Wisdom: 477

Perception: 481

Charisma: 473

Strength: 457

Dexterity: 452

Constitution: 457

Toughness: 452

Vitality: 452

Secondary Attributes

Willpower: 1,766

MP Regen: 452(924)

MP Capacity: 452(924)

Soul: 452

Fortitude: 452

Lifespan: 456

HP Regen: 452

Aura: 452

See next page… 1 of ???

Skills

Mind of the Occultist lvl.N/A

Auto Translate lvl.N/A

Bottomless Stomach lvl.N/A

Perpetual Rebirth lvl.10

Analyze lvl.10

Zen Meditation lvl.10

Mimicry lvl.10

Soul Vault lvl.10

Swimming lvl.5

Stealth lvl.5

Enhanced Five Senses lvl.5

Utility Tongue lvl.5

Jumping lvl.5

Singing lvl.5

Decoy lvl.1

Find Hidden Things lvl.1

Bind Spirit lvl.1

Create Totem lvl.1

Commune With Spirit lvl.1

Create Talisman lvl.1

Sense Mana lvl.1

Thaumic Digestion lvl.1

Rush lvl.1

Mana Siphon lvl.1

Mana Bullet lvl.1

Mana Transfer lvl.1

Rapid Healing lvl.1

Generate Poison lvl.1

Mimic Speech lvl1

Spells

N/A

Attunement Slots

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Equipment Slots

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BloodLine:

Soul Well

245 [Blank] [Mundane Souls] +2.45 per hour to all resource pools

His mana regeneration had graduated from mana per hour to mana per minute. Still at the rate he regenerated it, it would still take over twenty hours to go from empty to full. If he could kill a couple tens of thousands of creatures to up his soul count, he could get that to regenerate in the per second range. But honestly, he would need a thousand souls per 10 generation per hour. That would be ten thousand just to gain 100 per hour. Which meant that 100,000 souls would equate to around 16 and a half regeneration per minute. Which meant that he’d need to kill or be part of killing 375,000 creatures to get to 1 regen per second. Tsar knew that he would probably get there eventually. But that was actually a rather morbid thought.

After their discussion was done Radgar pulled out his little notebook and started flipping through it a bit before he put some marks down on it.

“Ok, well at least I have a baseline for your skills and stats now. But I am sad to say we won’t be able to start today, I’m going to need to prepare some things. Since you have such an astonishingly high Willpower stat, I believe that we can jump into getting you some resistance skills, which requires materials. Also, since your classes don’t put any restrictions on weapons use it would be a good idea to get the skills for as many of them as possible. Iggy can help us with that… Yes, I need to prepare. Iggy mentioned something about showing off her creations to you. You might as well go and do that we’ll be starting bright an early tomorrow.”