Degritone is awoken a few times throughout the night by gunshots and his general mild insomnia. Every time, he glances at the new notifications, but doesn't read them, just acknowledges they're there without dismissing them, making a mental note to read them when he does fully wake up. Around 6 AM, after sleeping nearly 12 hours, he finally wakes up and reads his notifications.

Congratulations! You have created an original skill.

Omen of Pestilence

Congratulations! You have created an original skill set!

Omen of Famine and Omen of Pestilence have been integrated into this skill set.

Creating an original skill set has granted you a path.

Requiem of the Gravedigger lv125

Origin of Requiem of the Gravedigger 0/250

He stares at them for a long while, still sleepy, Omen of Pestilence not having a level confusing his sleepy brain. He opens Requiem of the Dravedigger's popup.

A skill set created by Degritone, with the images of his lost friend, Yorick Mori.

Contains five skills:

???

???

Omen of Pestilence

Omen of Famine

???

Due to 4 of these skills being levelable, experience required to level up this skill set and the PP it grants have been multiplied by 4.

Due to 3 of the levelable skills counting toward Magic, 75% of this skill set's level will count toward Magic.

Due to 1 of the levelable skills counting toward Physical, 25% of this skill set's level with count toward Physical.

He slowly wakes up as he reads it, getting a jolt when he reaches the part about multiplying PP. He sits up, staring at the popup. He's completely speechless, unable to even form thoughts. After a long stare, he finally forms a thought, "It kept Omen of Famine's level... 125, 3... 250, 375 free PP that I didn't even have to work for?" He breathes in deeply, expanding his chest, smiling. "NAISU~!" he says loudly.

Now awake, he also checks the popup for Origin of Requiem of the Gravedigger.

Unlocked for creating the original skill set, Requiem of the Gravedigger.

Rewards:

10: 10 maximum mana

20: 10 maximum mana

25: 1 Strength

30: 10 maximum mana

40: 10 maximum mana

50: 2 Strength, 20 maximum mana

60: 10 maximum health

70: 10 maximum health

75: 1 Endurance

80: 10 maximum health

90: 10 maximum health

100: 2 Endurance, 40 maximum health

125: 10 health regeneration

150: 10 health regeneration

175: 1 Vitality

200: 10 health regeneration

250: 10 health regeneration

250: 2 Vitality, 20 health regeneration

Completion: 5 maximum mana per level, 2 Strength per level, 2 Endurance per level, 2 Vitality per level

He puts on the not bad face. "Naisu, it tells me what I get. And I get quite a bit. 3 Strength, 3 Endurance, 3 Vitality," he pauses slightly to do mental math, "60 maximum mana and health regen, 80 maximum health, as well as per level rewards. Naisu. With that PP boost, I have so much PP to spend..." he opens his path screen.

PP: 822

Initiate 10/10

Hoarder 50/50

Survivor 15/15

Greatsword Mastery I 100/100

Novice 20/150

Imagineer 0/100

Introduction Conquerer 0/500

Adapter 100/100

Rising Star 0/1000

Pupil 0/200

Greatsword Mastery II 0/250

Origin of Requiem of the Gravedigger 0/250

He whistles. "Wow. Almost double the PP I had when I want to bed. I'm tempted to see what Rising Star has for me, but that's a great unknown. Same with Intro Conq. Novice, and probably Pupil, as well, grant me 1 free stat every 5 PP. And wasn't Pupil the path where you pick a patron that grants you stuff? Maybe Pupil will be more patron-specific than the generic free stat. Greatsword Mastery will probably give me Strength and another skill. I already know what ORG gives."

He decides to wait until after he does his morning routine to determine anything. He goes to his closet containing over 50 of the same shirt and shorts, puts on his shirt, goes back to his bed, grabs his gloves from the bed conjoined to his, puts on his right then left, puts on his ring on his right ring finger, and goes to the bathroom. After he's finished, he goes out to the kitchen and gets a cup of chocolate milk.

He walks to the couch and sits down. From the outside, he appears to be staring at the blank TV while he stares at his path screen. "Novice and Org are almost definite takes. That's... 380 PP. Add GM2 for 630, Pupil takes it over what I have. So... Novice and Org, Pupil, and decide between Imagineer and starting down GM2 or nearly completing GM2... Intro Conq and RS are definite nos until I know what they do or I'm out of more appealing options."

He takes a sip of his chocolate milk as he lets his mind run on autopilot. After swallowing, he crossed his arms, placing his cup on his crossed arms, stabilizing it by holding the straw with his mouth until he's completely crossed them. He takes another sip. "Let's go..."

He finishes off Novice then Origin of Requiem of the Gravedigger, granting him all the rewards for the latter, and 1 free stat every 5 PP in Novice, except for the last 25 PP, which grant 1 free stat per level. He then maxes out Imagineer, granting him 2 SP every 5 PP, before spending 142 PP in Greatsword Mastery II so that he has 200 remaining, granting him 1 Strength every 25 PP.

Congratulations! You have completed the Novice Path!

The road to get to this path was trying, but you made it before stepping onto it. After some deliberation, you blazed down this path.

Mana Manipulation already obtained. Granting Mana Detection instead.

Mana Detection lv1

Tough Skin lvX

Congratulations! You have completed the Origin of Requiem of the Gravedigger path!

This was a path forged by you. Upon realizing this, you immediately sprinted down it.

+5 maximum mana per level

+2 Strength per level

+2 Endurance per level

+2 Vitality per level

Congratulations! You have completed the Imagineer Path!

The path you opened was smooth and not very appealing, but after much deliberation you quickly ran down it.

Minor custom skill.

A screen appears in front of Degritone as he feels his resource pools get larger, as well as a text box with a keyboard, with the default text being, "Describe a simple skill," with a 0/30 at the bottom right. Degritone nods his head to the right. "This is probably where Stomp came from, then. Maybe not this specifically, but the system granting a minor custom skill to someone without much imagination..." He looks at his right hand and rotates its palm toward him.

"A minor skill, huh?" He closes his fist, staring at it for a few seconds. I want regeneration... How many characters is "Multiplies regeneration by 60?" He spells it out in his head, raising fingers on his left hand as he counts, lowering them every time he gets to a multiple of 5 while opening one on his right hand. He looks at his fingers when he's done, 5 on his right, and 4 on his left. "29. I have an entire other character to work with."

He types, "Multiplies regeneration by 999" into the textbox and and sits, trying to figure out what to imagine for it. In the end, he decided on a close-up of a cell dividing. He finalizes his decision.

Processing...

He only has to wait 2 seconds before he gets his response.

Skill near acceptable. Skill modified and granted:

Rapid Cell Division lvX

With that out of the way, he sighs and looks at the 21 free stats he has yet to spend. "In case there's a trial, I should spend you, shouldn't I...?" He looks at his new endurance, then back at his max health endurance multiplier. After some mental math, he spends three to equalize them once more. After that, he finds a piece of paper and a pen, bringing them to the nearest table. He writes his current vitality, health regeneration vitality multiplier, and stamina regeneration vitality multiplier on it.

23

4+9=13*1.5=19.5

1+9=10*2=20

He then writes 18 above his vitality then messes with the numbers before finalizing what he should put where. He puts 6 in vitality, 7 in health regeneration vitality multiplier, and 5 in stamina regeneration vitality multiplier, bringing them up to 29, 20, and 15, respectively. After he's done, he stares at the Pupil path, his stomach sinking.

With a slightly pained face, he moans slightly. "I don't want to, but I really need to..." He rubs his eyes with his left hand, bringing his fingers inward to squeeze the bridge of his nose, before immediately slamming his hand into the plus on Pupil. He gets nothing until the 5th PP, where he gains 1 free stat. He immediately puts it into vitality. As he does so, he looks at his tiny agility of 4.

"I don't really need agility for my build," he nods his head to the right, "but it would be nice to not be excessively slower than other people." He sighs and returns to the Pupil path, putting more in. Every 5 PP, he gains another free stat, and he puts three of them into agility before he reaches the 25th PP, which grants him the following announcement as he finds himself in a white void like the one after the Introduction Dungeon.

Branching Path!

Before you lies many branching paths, almost seeming to open into an open plain.

However, you innately understand that some of the paths in front of you are unsuited to yourself, while others outright reject you.

Processing suitable Patrons...

Select one of the following Patrons. Your choice will affect the rest of the path, as well as determining various future paths.

Before his eyes, the world shifts into an open plain, a path through pitch black behind him. Far off in the distance stand multiple silhouettes of figures with paths leading toward them through the plain.

Far to his left, he sees a large, wispy ball, the path leading toward it is the same yellow he imagined when creating Soul Grasp.

Somewhat right of that, he sees a giant tree, the path leading to it full of lush, green grass.

Almost directly forward, he sees a large humanoid, holding a shovel to its side, the dirt path leading to it lined with tombstones.

To the right of that, he sees another large humanoid, much smaller than the other, with no other features about it, the path leading to it a simple dirt path that seems to have been walked thousands of times by the same person.

Finally, to his far right, he sees a hulking humanoid with two arms wielding a large sword on its right, its left side covered by what is presumably a shield as tall as it is, the path leading to it metallic.

He looks back to the announcement.

Select one of the following Patrons. Your choice will affect the rest of the path, as well as determining various future paths.

Patron of Souls

Patron of Growth

Patron of Graves

Patron of Loyalty

Patron of Knights