Entering the game, Shesmu was greeted by the same cinematic he experienced in the beta. The four winged angel Gabriel was also there to greet him once again.

“Hello Adventurer, welcome to Ashes of Gods. I am the messenger angel, Gabriel.” The angel paused and smiled for a bit before continuing. “But I guess, you already know that, Mark.”

Mark smiled and greeted her back.

“Long time no see.”

“Long time no see, indeed. Mark, do you want to keep the same character as the one you had in the beta?”

Hearing her question, Mark answered.

“Yes.”

In front of him, an avatar pinpoint similar to the one he had in the beta appeared. The only difference was that the avatar in the beta was wearing a green wyvern set, while the one before him was naked.

“The discovery bonuses you accumulated in the beta’s character creation scene will be transferred to your main account. Due to the fact that you have a VIP capsule, you’ll receive 3 free stat points at the start of the game, and each time you level up, you’ll receive 8 free points rather than the usual 5. Due to your stellar performance in the beta, you’ll receive rewards for being first in the level and arena leaderboard. The rewards will be sent to your inventory.”

After explaining all these details, Gabriel paused, took a breath, and then continued.

“That is all, do you have any question left?”

Mark paused for a second and thought deeply. He then asked.

“Do VIP capsule holders have any advantage while creating their character?”

To which she replied.

“None at all.”

“Okay, then as with last time, I want my character ID to be Shesmu, and my birthplace, Stal Capital City of the Pliyx Stal Kingdom.”

“Understood, dear Adventurer Shesmu, I wish for an exciting journey awaiting you in Ashes of Gods.”

Shesmu was then teleported to the same plaza that he was transferred to in the beta. The only difference between this time and the other was that he saw no other player materializing next to him.

Shesmu then went next to the fountain at the center of the plaza, where he sat down and started meditating. What Shesmu was trying to do was to unlock an original skill that lets him gather Ki passively.

Due to there not being many purification cycles in a normal meridian and Ki path system, the skill Shesmu created in his past life couldn’t show its true potential. It just made do with whatever cycles were in a person’s body without reaching its full capacity. But now, with the modified Ki paths and meridians, not only was the amount of Ki that was gathered at a time bigger, the Ki was also purer.

The world essence around Shesmu quickly gathered around him as his external meridians were sucking it in.

“Woah”

Shesmu’s face betrayed his surprise as his hands shook with excitement. In the beta, he couldn’t gather ki because worldly essence was not implemented yet, so he couldn’t test the power of his meridian and Ki path structure. But now that he did, he couldn’t help but feel surprised.

Meridians and ki paths, like other body parts, were able to be strengthened the further he went in the path of cultivation. Thus, compared to a tier 6 swordsman, the ki gathering power of a player who just started was not even worth putting in the same sentence. It was as if you were comparing an ant to a planet, they were just of two different planes of existence.

However, the feeling Shesmu got as he absorbed worldly essence was like nothing he ever experienced. The intensity wasn’t that big, it was only comparable to a high-end tier 1 swordsman, however, through the external meridians alone, the purity of Ki he gathered surpassed the intensity with a full tier. This is just through the cleansing of the rotational force originating from the new meridians. The Ki still didn’t go through all the other meridians and purification cycles. Thinking about this, Shesmu couldn’t help but become excited.

After the worldly essence went through Shesmu’s external meridians, they entered the outermost purification cycle. Shesmu kept guiding his Ki through the cycle, going over it many times until he felt that he couldn’t purify the Ki using this cycle anymore. Shesmu would then guide his Ki to the next cycle and repeat the same procedure, this process would repeat itself until the Ki finally reached the Dantian. There were 9 outer layer cycles, 5 inner layer ones and 3 in the core layer. The rotations in each cycle would take around 30 seconds, except the cycles residing in the core layer which would take a whole minute. The whole process took 10 minutes, which was a little bit slow compared to normal Ki gathering methods, which took around 5 minutes per full circulation, however, was much more potent in terms of intensity, and purity. In fact, after the full circulation, the purity of the resultant Ki would be near that of a tier 4 swordsman using a normal Ki gathering method.

After Shesmu finished his first full circulation, he heard a Ding accompanied by a message.

Ding!

“Congratulation for creating an original skill. Due to its nature, it can be both an active and passive skill. It will be set as a passive skill, but with an active, that would boost its effect.”

The messages continued on.

“Please choose a name for this skill.”

“Rotational Three Tiered Passive Cultivation Method.”

Shesmu already thought long and hard about what to name this skill, but he couldn’t find any suitable name so he just made it so that the name is basically a description of the skill.

“Congratulation for creating the original passive skill: Rotational Three Tiered Passive Cultivation Method!”

“Due to being the first in the world to create an original skill, you are rewarded with 5 free stat points and an additional 10 slot bag.”

“Due to creating a legendary rank original skill, you are rewarded with 20 free stat points and a bone refining pill.”

Rotational Three Tiered Passive Cultivation Method Rank Legendary Type Cultivation Method Stage 1 Level 2(250/1000 Ki) Description

Passive: Every 10 minutes, your character amass 500 Ki that has a tier 3 purity. The amount and purity will increase after you reach the next stage. Of these 500 Ki half is stored while the other half is used to increase your foundation and cultivation level.

Active: Every 10 minutes, your character amass 1500 Ki that has a tier 4 purity. The amount and purity will increase after you reach the next stage. You need to be in a meditation state to invoke the active skill, distraction and sudden movement deactivate it. Of these 1500 Ki half is stored while the other half is used to increase your foundation and cultivation level.

Effect Stage 1 Level 2 +10 all stats

Looking at the series of messages he received, Shesmu was overwhelmed. He knew that creating an original skill resulted in receiving rewards, but he didn’t know that being the first to create an original rewarded you too, so he was a bit surprised on that aspect.

Eager to spend his newly acquired free stat points, Shesmu opened his status page.

Name Shesmu Race Human Class Swordsman Level 1 (0/50 exp) Health Points 430/430 Ki points 750/750 Stats Strength 35 Agility 34 Intelligence 30 Wisdom 29 Vitality 33 Stat Points 33 Skills Sword Mastery Tier 0 level 1 (Proficiency: 0%).

From his experience, Shesmu knew that putting your stats into agility was the best strategy for the early game, as monsters that had ridiculous defense stats only appeared later on in the game. He also knows that agility was an essential stat because without sufficient agility some skill animation cancels would be clunky or sometimes impossible. Moreover, to the extent of his knowledge, no weapon below level 10 had stat requirements above 30 strength and 25 vitality. Thus, Shesmu could safely dump every free stat points on agility.

His stats after the upgrade looked like this.

Name Shesmu Race Human Class Swordsman Level 1 (0/50 exp) Health Points 430/430 Ki Points 750/750 Stats Strength 35 Agility 67 Intelligence 30 Wisdom 29 Vitality 33 Stat Points 0 Skills Sword Mastery Tier 0 level 1 (Proficiency: 0%). Talents Quick Slash Increase attack speed by 20%.

After his agility stat reached 50, Shesmu unlocked the talent, Quick Slash. Talents were very helpful as they not only stacked on top of each other, they were also percentages. Any decent gamer would understand that percentages were in most cases better than flat stats, as the latter might have its luster reduced through time, but the former would always shine ever so brightly, scaling with the strength of its user.

After drolling at his stats for a while, Shesmu then opened his inventory to check his rewards. The first thing he noticed was the 1 gold and 20 coppers he had stored up. While other players would be racking their brain on how to get money to buy pieces of equipment, since 20 coppers were worth only few health and mana potions, he wouldn’t have to worry at all.

Shesmu then took a glance at the level 10 gold box with an interrogation mark in it but didn’t touch it for the moment. He then used the 10 inventory slot bag to add 10 slots to his inventory. Finally, his eyes landed on the bone refining pill.

Bone Refining Pill Type Alchemical Pill Rank Epic Description +50 to Strength, Vitality, and Agility.

Can only be used 3 times per character.

Shesmu was surprised for a moment. In his past life, he was only able to procure a bone refining pill when he was already a tier 3 player. At that time, the bonus was +100 to the aforementioned three stats, but could only be used twice. Shesmu concluded that the effect of the pill was relative to the level or tier of a player, so he didn’t mind the difference. He didn’t expect to be able to get 100 stat lead over everyone just from taking this pill, as he would definitely become an existence akin to a god towards players if he did so.

After contemplating for a minute, Shesmu finally swallowed the pill.

“Aghhhh!”

Shesmu forgot about the side effect of taking the bone refining pill. The pill wasn’t named bone refining for no reason, its effect was to grind bones and through that process inject nutrient directly into them, then repair the bones. This process happened through his whole body grinding all 256 bones to dust and repairing them for 10 minutes straight. Shesmu kept screaming and biting his lips as cold sweat covered his back, forehead, and limbs. From the moment he reincarnated, Shesmu never felt this much pain. He had the urge to curse his lungs out but kept it from taking over his reason.

After the 10 minutes was over, Shesmu got up with ragged breath and checked his status to see if this agonizing pain was worth it.

Name Shesmu Race Human Class Swordsman Level 1 (0/50 exp) Health Points 1120/1120 Ki Points 750/750 Stats Strength 85 Agility 117 Intelligence 30 Wisdom 29 Vitality 83 Stat Points 0 Skills Sword Mastery Tier 0 level 1 (Proficiency: 0%). Talents Quick Slash Increase attack speed by 20%. Afterimage When in combat, sudden turns leave afterimages, rendering the enemy not being able to know real from illusion. Movement speed outside of combat +50%, Movement speed in combat +20%, attack speed +30%. Strong Grip Increase attack power by 20% Tough Skin Increase hp by 20%