Chapter Four

Elysia snapped back into awareness, only to groan as pinprick pains assaulted her entire body. Despite the pain, she tried to stand, but her body refused to respond as if every electrical signal in her body shorted.

Through her muddy hearing, she heard a familiar groan mirroring her own to her right, but being unable to move her head or say a word, there was nothing she could do but remain where she was.

She delved inward, looking for what was wrong, only to gasp. Potent lightning beyond what she was capable of prior clogged every vein near their bursting point. Her core wasn’t any better. Despite being unable to hear it, she got a sense her core was groaning under the pressure. If she were to attempt to use any of her lightning, it would explode.

A glance at her current essence capacity showed she had over 50% more than her max and that wasn’t even counting her lightning packed veins. At least she thought it wasn’t. It would probably be better if it did, because having her core overcharged by over 5000 was terrifying.

Wasn’t the pill supposed to be a reward? She didn’t feel rewarded. If she wanted to paralyze herself, there were easier ways to go about it.

As she returned her attention to the outside world, a bunch of notifications caught her attention. Even though she had little capacity to deal with the system’s insults, her curiosity won out. It wasn’t like she could do anything but sit where she was. Though she thought she heard Umbra in the distance, or maybe right next to her. Her hearing wasn’t very reliable at the moment.

Evolution to Divine Sparked Lightning Elemental successful.

Divine? She didn’t feel very divine. Unless it was a wrung out divine dishrag.

Warning! Current class is incompatible with race.

Race bonuses are disabled until a compatible class is chosen.

Really? She went through all of that only for a conflict to happen? What if her class options weren’t compatible? Though somehow she doubted the system would give her incompatible classes. The conflict proved she should have evolved her class first, but what if she evolved an incompatible class then evolved her race? Would she need to level to the next class evolution while paralyzed? No good options, at least this way she had a chance.

Before she pulled the trigger on a class evolution worried her wrung out body couldn’t handle even more stress, she mentally scrolled through the notifications. The first notification made her wish she hadn’t.

Achievement! Ungrateful.

“A divine being deigned to gift you their precious divine essence, yet you didn’t even do the bare minimum to prepare your body for such a gift.”

Reward: As much as I would love to strip you of everything, the storm goddess forbid me from punishing you, but I will not reward you for such behavior.

If Elysia could, she would scream in frustration, but as she was paralyzed, all she could do was silently fume. One day, she would take her revenge on the insolent system. How dare it insult her about not preparing when it refused to do the bare minimum of informing her of the dangers? She didn’t even know it was a divine spark until after she ingested it. Time and time again the system insulted her after the fact, but it never took steps to teach her to avoid future mistakes.

Against her better judgment, she scrolled to the next notification, figuring she couldn’t get any angrier at the system.

Achievement! Dangerously Ungrateful.

“Not only did you not prepare your own body for a divine spark, you foolishly ingested it near the unblessed. Proper procedure dictates one must pray to the gifting divine being while isolating oneself from all unblessed, preferably in the divine being’s temple. Without a blessing, it is a death sentence to absorb divine essence.”

Reward: Yet again, the ever merciful but terrifyingly powerful storm goddess granted you mercy. Do not make such a mistake again or I will have to petition the Prime System to overrule her judgment.

At least this time, the asshole system wove in some advice between insults. Not that any of the advice had any use. If she found another divine spark, she would probably be more careful, but it wasn’t like she could find a temple dedicated to the storm goddess. If such a temple even existed.

Several new connections established themselves, pointing in random directions, causing her to stiffen at least mentally as her body remained rigid. All of which were thousands of kilometers away.

Apparently, temples for this storm goddess existed. At least that was what she assumed the new connections meant. Not that it did her any good. Not only were they too far away, but she didn’t have a reason to travel to them. Well, actually she might. This storm goddess seemed to have an interest in her, so maybe she could fill in some blanks where the system refused.

Strangely, none of the connections pointed to the west. It must be closer to reach the temples by going east, not that it was any easier. At least she hoped that was the case. The other explanation would be the world turned flat. She didn’t even want to think about how that would work even with magic involved, so she waved away that thought.

How was she supposed to travel around the Americas? Or did she have to? One of the temples appeared to be almost directly south. If she remembered right, there were several Native American storm gods and goddesses, especially in Central America. Central America was a long way away, though. After the merge, she wasn’t even sure they could find enough fueling stations to make it.

Though if they made it, maybe they could use the temple as a sanctuary from the elementals, not that hiding would do her any good in the long term.

For now, she had other issues to worry about, like fixing her body.

Out of curiosity, she tried to grab control of some lightning tightly packed into her veins, but it slipped right through her fingers. It was so annoying when she couldn’t control her own lightning. Though was the lightning in her veins really her own? Sure, it was in her body, but it didn’t feel like her lightning. Still, she missed when she could control her meager lightning reserves before turning into an elemental. She didn’t miss running near empty, though.

If her evolutions worked out, she needed to spend time to regain control. It was so unfair that Sereia had control over water when she struggled to control lightning. Lightning was obviously superior in power, but water was so versatile. Now if only she had the control over her element like her sister, but the power after she became an elemental then she would be golden.

On that thought, Elysia sent a mental command to begin her class evolution.

A blink later, she found herself in a familiar room with statues like when she started on the path. Before she could investigate, further messages appeared in her vision, fortunately lacking the snark of the usual system.

Congratulations! You have reached a crossroads in your path!

Ahead of you is a choice. Do you head straight on your path or take a new path?

After she waved away the messages, she eyed the three statues. The center one appeared identical to the one she chose at her last evolution, though the lightning felt much stronger.

The statue to the left was of her standing still with her hand raised, similar to how she used smite. Above the statue’s outstretched hand was a lightning bolt radiating intense power, almost to the point she couldn’t even look at it directly.

On the right side, lightning swirled around the statue, floating similar to the middle statue. However, unlike that statue, the lightning felt slightly weaker, but much more refined. Not that the lightning felt weak. Just one look told her it was much stronger than what she was previously capable of. Even the potent lightning clogging her veins felt inferior.

All three statues’ lightning had a similar feeling to that of the pill which she now knew had a sort of divine essence. She had a feeling if she hadn’t eaten the pill, her evolution options wouldn’t have had the same divine aspect to them.

Curious to see if she learned anything from touching the statues, she approached the center statue and poked it with her finger. As soon as she made contact, a message popped up, far more detailed than her last evolution, to her relief. Maybe this time she wouldn’t have to take a random, uneducated guess. Or it may make the decision harder.

Path of Divine Lightning Balance.

Should you follow this path, you will embark on a path of balance. You will retain access to skills while still capable of free control of your lightning. However, as it is a balanced path, true mastery of skills or free control will not come to you, no matter how hard you strive for it. While true mastery will elude you, do not underestimate the power of having access to skills and free control.

As the system said, this seemed very similar to her current path, but upgraded. If she worked at it, she was sure she could free cast her lightning like before she became an elemental. Would continuing on this path give her the ability right away? Or would she have to work for it?

She poked the statue again, only to receive the same message and nothing more. It would’ve been nice for the statue to show her the stats, but she couldn’t be greedy. Well, she could be greedy, but it wouldn’t do her any good in this instance. Really, even if it only gave her the name of the path, she could guess what it did. Though having it outright say the path’s limitations helped.

As much as she liked the versatility, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to limit her potential just to keep access to both skills and free casting.

Despite already guessing what the statue on the left entailed, she trotted toward it and poked it.

Path of Divine Lightning Power.

Should you follow this path, you will embark on a path of power. True power will be at your beck and call channeled through potent skills of your choosing. To tame the power available to you as you travel this path, the system enforces the use of skills. This path will bar the use of free control of your lightning, but grant power beyond your current understanding.

A shiver ran up Elysia’s spine as her core pulsed in anticipation of striking down her enemies with overwhelming lightning. She pictured lightning descending from the sky, easily overpowering the green lightning elemental’s own lightning before turning him into ash.

However, a moment later, she took her head to clear the delusions. Was it really her lightning if she needed the system to use it? Wasn’t she annoyed by her struggles of controlling her lightning just before she started the evolution? Though that power was so intoxicating. If she could use lightning as potent as the statue, there would be little that could stand in her way.

Was it worth the cost, though? Not only would she block free control, but she was sure choosing this path wouldn’t be efficient on her charge. The cost might not matter if the path granted her a huge boost in her charge.

Plus, even before she ate the pill, she had plenty of charge to cast smite without worry. Actually, was she ever in danger of running out of charge since she evolved into an elemental? Still, power like that couldn’t come cheap.

What about when she ensured her freedom and the safety of her family? Sure the power could help achieve her goals sooner, but in the future?

At some point, she might want to delve into more refined aspects of lightning, like messing with electronics. Even what the green lightning elemental did could be interesting. Not that she wanted to create a drone army.

If lightning could control other’s what could it do to her own body? Maybe she could improve her strength or reaction time with precise use of lightning. None of those ideas seemed possible with the path of power, but did she have the luxury of planning for the future when she needed power to protect herself now?

With that thought in mind, she approached the statue on the right, already knowing what it did.

Path of Divine Lightning Control.

Should you follow this path, you will embark on a path of control. Feats of unimaginable scale and precision could be summoned at a moment’s notice if you strive for it. While the overwhelming power the system may grant through optimized skills cannot be ignored, one shouldn’t disregard the magic precise control could be capable of. Freedom spawns creativity, but with freedom, you must strive to achieve feats the system may grant others through rigid skills.