As Melena started recording, she stood among many crazy looking flowers. "I decided to record from my garden. I am not certain how I like it yet, so leave a comment below the video so I know your thoughts on this decision's impact on the video. Anyway, on to today's topic: Paths. It had very slightly more support as the next video.

"I already mentioned them in the video on Skills, but Path Points are used to walk down Paths. They are gained by Leveling Skills, and rarely other sources such as Achievements, rewards, and quests. In 8 known cases, Paths can also grant some PP, as they are often shortened. They are exclusively used to walk down Paths, so there is nothing more to say about them.

"Occasionally, you will find a branching Path. They are not exactly rare, but many of the uncommonly walked Paths have few, if any, branches. When a Path branches, you are taken to a small test area with a small challenge of some sort, related to the Path that branched. How you complete the challenge determines your rewards.

"It is almost guaranteed that even the most documented branching Path has undocumented rewards. If you find one, please report it to one of my research team. We do not have a website yet, but Learning is working on setting one up. We originally hoped to get together with those who run the OSD and combine our efforts, but one of our members apparently looks like a demon from one of your world's mythologies, and they are very wary of them.

"But I digress. It would probably be in your best interest to look up if a Path you plan to take is a branching Path and find out its known rewards before you walk down it. There may already be a known one that is perfect for your build. If there is not, try to complete the challenge in a new way and send the results to us so we may document it.

"I talked at length in the Patron video about Patron Paths, but I will mention them here. Patron Paths are ways to increase your protege tier and get rewards from your Patron. I recommend you wait as long as you can between completing Patron Paths so you may obtain better rewards.

"Next is Path tiers. Path tiers are a numeric value given to each Path based on the tier of Paths required to obtain them. The very first Paths available to those just entering the System are tier 1 Paths. Any Paths that can be taken immediately after taking a tier 1 Path is a tier 2 Path. Any Path that can immediately be taken after a tier 2 Path is a tier 3 Path. This pattern continues.

"Once you begin down a path that has a tier that is a multiple of 4, you are unable to walk down any Path with a lower tier than that path. You can also only walk down a maximum of 3 Paths with a tier that is a multiple of 4.

"The PP requirement to finish a Path is entirely dependent on its tier. The PP requirement of a Path is equal to 10 times the sum of the sums of the first N of natural numbers, where N is the Path's tier.

"Then, there are confluence Paths. Confluence Paths are Paths which require multiple Paths. The tier of Paths leading into a confluence Path determine what tier the confluence Path is, though not in the same way as normal Paths. If over half of the highest tier Paths leading into a confluence Path are the same tier, then the confluence Path will have a tier equal to one higher than the highest tier of its required Paths; otherwise, its tier is equal to the highest tier among its required Paths.

"Finally, we have the origin of Paths. Not the Path subsystem, as that is mentioned in my video on Skills, but the origin of individual Paths, which also happens to be the reason that Paths turn into branching Paths. When someone wins the Level 91 and up bracket of the Architect Tournament and then fails the Patron test afterward, their path to power is recorded as a Path. The tier of this Path depends on the degree to which they fail the Patron test.

"If they nearly succeed, they have a high chance of creating a new Path at a high tier based on their image. If they have no unique image, a high tier Path instead becomes a branching Path. If they fail to a large degree, it almost always results in a new branching Path at a lower tier, usually around a Skill which they based their power around. Very rarely nowadays, their failure may still result in a new Path if their image was unique enough.

"And ultimately, confluence Paths originate when a Patron successfully wins the Patron bracket of the Architect Tournament. Each Patron can only have one Path created for their image. They choose the tier of this Path, along with the Paths required for it, and the System determines the rewards. Depending on the power of the Patron's image, the System may even create other Paths exclusively to lead into the confluence Path. Any Paths created due to this are automatically completed for the Patron.

"So'Ejan, the Patron of Duels, has monopolized the top spot of the Patron bracket for a little over 1500 System years now, so there hasn't been a new confluence Path in that time. Only 83 confluence Paths exist.

"And that is all I have to say on Paths. I could go into specifics of how to choose Paths, but I will save that for the builds video, though that will be many videos down the line."

Degritone: Naisu~~ Given the origin of confluence Paths, I'm surprised that what I assume was the Patron of Regrowth had such a high tier one, along with multiple Paths to go along with it. Yes, they're the Patron of Regrowth, but it surprises me that Regrowth won against anything else.

Melena: Is your whole fighting style not based around Regeneration? You winning the Architect Tournament should be proof to you that it is not impossible for Regeneration to extend a fight into an inevitable loss for their opponent.

Degritone: Oh yeah.

Degritone: I kinda forget that I'm actually slightly above average a lot of the time. Man, I kinda want to see Regrowth's regenerations, now. It's probably like, what, 100 million per second? I'm only at, what, 70k, 80k per second, with less than a third the Stats a Patron would have? Maybe a fourth, given how paths work.

Degritone: Actually, now that I think about it, I might have 100 mil per second in the 90s with my current stats per level, assuming I get my Immortal Troll Skill Set leveled up and never upgrade it. It's only "Beginnings of" right now. I wouldn't be surprised if I hit 30 mil per second at 90+ with all my PP spent and my Immortal Troll image upgraded and Skill Set at like 2k or something. Not including any new Skills or using my actives.

Melena: I think Regrowth only has around 700 million Health Regeneration per second, with all their active Skills and Skills that can be toggled active. I would be highly surprised if someone who was able to create a Skill that is in the same conversation for best Health Regeneration Skill as Vital Being while only being Level 35 and having the System for an amount of time reasonably measurable in months does not surpass Regrowth.

Many hours later, while Melena was distracted researching Earth plants, Degritone responded.

Degritone: Nice. Sorry for the super late reply, had to follow up on a time-sensitive lead. Turned out to be nothing useful. Got another level out of it, though.