A Novel Concept - A death a day, MC will live anyway!

A gust of wind tossed a strand of Priam's hair across his eyes. Part of him noted that he hadn't had a haircut in ages, and its current length was starting to get annoying. According to his ex-girlfriends, a buzz cut didn't suit his face, but he wasn't a fan of hair that practically veiled his vision either.

"Know how to cut hair?" he asked.

"Once killed a man posing as his barber… But all the customers who left that shop alive left a great review."

After a quick threat with your dagger? Priam preferred not to ask.

"I'll need you to trim my hair."

Jasmine glanced over at him. "Short hair wouldn't suit you."

"I know, but it's falling into my eyes."

"I'll give you a trim… as soon as my arms grow back," said the assassin, closing her eyes to stimulate her vitality... or perhaps just relaxing in her warm, regenerating sap bath. Without arms or legs, she didn't have many other options.

"Thanks," Priam replied, turning to look outside.

Lounging on the windowsill of Jasmine's cabin, he might have seemed idle. However, appearances could be deceiving. His gaze surveyed Oasis, watching the games of Sphinx and Moonie, Trap the goblin setting traps, and the hoplites training. Closer by, Alain and Gallad were building furnaces and molds to reforge Promesse, while right below him, Lamnas was gathering Log-a-rhythm's fruits with Blueberry. Priam smirked, noticing his furry friend was eating one out of every two.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Priam turned his attention to his parallel thought. Since Elysium's laws had brought him back from the Colosseum, he had allocated part of his focus to studying Clock's runes. Etched on the metallic body of the clockwork mage, they could be toggled on or off by hidden switches beneath the surface, allowing the automaton to summon a shield or unleash curses at will. It was a design that used the body rather than the soul as the medium for the runes. In a Systemless universe, it was certainly a viable combat method.

Briefly, Priam wondered if his opponent had ever had a soul, then returned his focus to a side project: unlocking [Curse Resistance]. Until Promesse could be reforged, this filled his free time.

Unlocking resistances had become second nature to Priam. Usually, all it took was enduring a hostile environment or fighting a powerful foe. For the past fifteen days, he had been doing just that by asking Jasmine to pull him into her shadow.

After a few lewd jokes about coming inside her, she had invited him to discover the dark side of the light. Instead of battling against solid shadows, Priam chose to meditate in the hidden dimension within his friend's shadow. The lack of immediate damage had slowed his progress, but after hours in the darkness, his adaptability had conquered a new element.

You have gained the skill: [Shadow Resistance - Rare].
[Shadow Resistance] - When a body intercepts light, it casts a relative darkness. The color and shape of the object become less important than its contours. Far from being just a consequence, Shadow is a complex Concept, refined by the shades language adds.
Your mind and body have acclimated to light's alter ego. It is now your ally.
The brighter your feats, the larger your shadow. Facing the Zenith, you hardly notice those you eclipse.
META (Endurance) +2
META (Authority) +1

An intriguing resistance, not only because it granted meta attributes but also because it allowed him to easily reinforce related skills. In fact, all Priam had to do was crouch briefly in a shadow to gain three levels in [Phantom], the evolution of [Stealth]. Trying to spot Jasmine in the shadows also earned him five levels in [Dark Vision].

Lvl Up: [Dark Vision] lvl 7, 8, 9 ,10 ,11
PERC +15
Lvl Up: [Phantom] lvl 2, 3, 4
AGI +18
DEXT +9

From this, Priam learned that resistances induced changes in their users that went beyond targeted resilience. Familiarity with a Concept and genetic, mental, or aetheric modifications promoted the development of related skills. Obvious, perhaps, but this was the first time Priam had put words to what his subconscious had already guessed. After this realization, he quickly reviewed his other skills for easy level-ups. Among those unsealed, several responded: [Trap Detection] paired with [Illusion Resistance] and [Dark Vision], [Valaryth Swimming] with [Smooth Scales], and [Divination Interception] with [Ciphered Record].

Lvl Up: [Trap Detection] lvl 9, 10, 11
PERC +3
Lvl Up: [Valaryth Swimming] lvl 3, 4, 5
STR +6
AGI +3
Lvl Up: [Divination Interception] lvl 16,..., 29
META (Affinity) +28
META (Perception) +14

The dividends from his resistances strengthened Priam's conviction to continue focusing on his defenses. Besides a mental predisposition to ignore pain, he had several talents that synergized to promote resistance growth. If they then catalyzed other skill evolutions, it would create a virtuous cycle that would one day transform him into an unstoppable Juggernaut.

For this reason, to progress in the Colosseum and mitigate the damage from Hecate New Moon, Priam was trying to unlock [Curse Resistance]. With no opponent or hostile environment to assist him, he decided to use the runes stolen from Clock. [Runic Language] had decoded most of the boss's sigils, and after some tests and tweaking, Priam isolated three curses and inflicted them on himself. Vitality drain, mental fatigue, and terror—the triple torture dragged on for six hours to no avail.

"It hasn't been long that you've been enduring them," Jasmine reassured him, seeing his frustration. "It's normal if nothing's shown up yet."

"I compared notes with Kazuki—I develop resistances roughly a hundred times faster than him at equal vitality. Something else is going on," Priam replied, distracted.

"You've sealed your Constitution. If that's preventing some of your skills from progressing, maybe it's blocking the resistance formation?"

The attributes sealed by his Potential were the reason he hadn't unlocked [Wind Resistance] yet, despite Kazuki's help.

"Nope. The spiritual seal prevents resistance sync with my soul, but that's blocked before it even gets to that stage."

Jasmine frowned. "Not many possibilities left… Esmée mentioned that Clock disrupted resistance creation in his enemies. Maybe its influence is still hiding in there."

Priam shook his head again. "That's just a delay, not a deadlock. No, something's off… It's as if my aether can't adopt a structure capable of resisting this curse. I'm no further now than I was six hours ago."

[Curse Resistance Creation via Potential: null. Creation impossible.]

"Oh." Priam sighed, reading the notification from his add-on. "Turns out you can think quickly, but if you're not thinking about the right thing, it's a waste."

"What'd you figure out?"

"I don't have the potential to unlock [Curse Resistance]."

"Are you talking about potential or Potential?" Jasmine emphasized the capital P.

"Same difference: Potential is a bridge between a possible reality and ours. If the System doesn't even deign to give me a number, it means there's no world where I can unlock this resistance. It must be incompatible with a Soul at Tier 0."

Maybe his soul needed a qualitative change to handle [Curse Resistance].

"Fuck."

"It's no big deal; I've got a workaround," Priam smiled, accessing his interface.

Trees of Merit

[Life is Hard; I'm Harder - Gold] - Tier 4: You can develop resistances normally inaccessible to your Soul Tier.

5 Unused Merit Points.

Give it to me!

… Error. Aether clearance is too low. Please, ennoble your mind.

"Oh, fuck you!" Priam growled as he stood up.

"Problem?" Jasmine asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Apparently, my soul isn't 'noble' enough." He punctuated the word with a grimace. "The System doesn't know how dangerous it is to say that to a Frenchman."

Her eyebrow arched higher, and that was all the encouragement Priam needed to launch into a quick history lesson.

"We chopped the heads off nobles who thought they were better than the people… and a lot of innocent folks too, but that's beside the point. What matters is, revolution is practically our national sport—right after striking."

"...But you're a Duke yourself, aren't you?"

"You either die a Hero or live long enough to see yourself become the Villain," Priam quoted, stretching. "I'm off; get some rest."

"You got more important things to do than keep me company?"

"Got to help reforge Promesse. Judging by my father's grin, they've finished preparing everything."

Jasmine groaned, her face twisting in discomfort. "Priam?"

"Yeah?"

"Before you go, could you scratch my nose? It's been itching, and I can't exactly reach it."

"You've still got your shadows," he teased.

She shot him a dangerous look, and Priam realized she wasn't looking for a logical solution to her problem. With a sigh, he scratched his friend's nose.

Priam looked at the two pieces of Promesse lying in the center of the crucible and stifled his irritation. Alain and Gallad were clearly underestimating the temperature it would take to melt his bound spear. As a Bronze weapon, it didn't benefit from his wielder's resistances, but it had been tempered by his phoenix bloodline and his resurrections. Despite its low rank, their bond made it superior to many Silver spears.

"That should be enough," Alain muttered, sweat trickling down his brow. Fuelled by charcoal, a mundane fire blazed hot in the furnace. It resembled a makeshift chimney of vitrified sand, with a hoplite crystal pot—the crucible—positioned at its core to collect the metal in liquid form. Wood fire couldn't exceed a thousand degrees Celsius, so Promesse wouldn't melt without some magical help. "Priam, your turn."

The Fire Champion summoned a ribbon of Pyro, threading it through the furnace to envelop the spear remnants. The metal began to glow before a sudden crack filled the air—the Concept's heat shattered the crucible, along with any hope in the onlookers' eyes.

The furnace walls started to splinter, and Alain cursed. Before his spear could get buried in the collapsing structure, Priam moved in.

"Priam!"

"It takes more than this to burn me."

Ignoring the scorching atmosphere, the Fire Champion wrapped his weapon in his Domain. His kinetic mastery lifted the fragments while absorbing the ambient heat. The low furnace finally stopped protesting.

"All good in there?" his father called from outside.

"Yeah, I'll finish the fusion myself. Prepare the mold."

Floating in the air, the two halves of Promesse were soon struck by a deluge of flames. Pyro roared as fiercely as a star's core, bathing the mysterious metal in blistering plasma. With a foot in Unity, Priam's Concept could melt tungsten, yet Promesse, blessed by his phoenix bloodline, held strong. After a brief but intense struggle, the Juggernaut prevailed. Soon, nothing was left of Promesse but a pool of molten metal.

Despite this victory, Priam's work was far from over. Multitasking, he directed half his focus to maintaining Pyro's heat to prevent the metal from solidifying while a parallel thought manipulated it kinetically to keep it from spilling onto the ground. Finally, his add-on absorbed the heat given off by the molten metal. Of all Oasis's inhabitants, he was the only one fireproof.

Emerging from the furnace, Priam found Gallad with his mecha, holding seven bones in his hands.

"These are all the fusion materials for the spear?"

"Yeah. Two of my femurs, for their durability and their bond with them. And two of Kazuki's metallic femurs, infused with his Titan bloodline."

"Why femurs?" Alain asked.

"They're the sturdiest bones in both our species."

His father looked at the other bones. "Why not only use femurs?"

"Of the last three bones, two don't come from humanoid creatures," Gallad explained.

Priam nodded. "The humerus comes from an arm I tore from Ophis in the erased timeline. I selected it for its draconic bloodline."

In his final clash with Sumstreh, he had ripped the arm from the possessed Tier 4. The bone was strong, and Priam had no qualms about recycling his enemies' remains.

"Where's the rest of the arm?" Alain asked.

"In a metal box. The toxic blood will be great for advancing [Poison Body], and the genetic data will help me improve my race to Tier 3."

Priam took recycling seriously. Despite the materials' quality, the final two bones were in a league of their own. One was a fragment of the second Terror's skull. The other was half of Sumstreh's horn, after being split by Ayank Iluva, Empress of Knaya, whose clone was summoned by the sevenfold Tribulation of Sphinx. Jasmine had retrieved it while Priam battled Arnold.

Keeping Promesse in liquid form, Priam inspected the bones one last time, then nodded. "Let's begin."

Focusing entirely on Promesse, he instructed his add-on to create an oxygen-free sphere a meter off the ground. The presence of this gas would cause the bones to burn, where the blacksmiths wanted to melt them. Once his add-on gave the all-clear, he placed the bones into the levitating sphere, and unleashed Pyro. A fantastically bright fireball forced Alain and Gallad to avert their eyes.

Seconds later, the once-solid bones had become another pool of liquid. Priam combined the two pools, blending Promesse's unknown metal with the molten bones. After achieving a homogeneous alloy, he transferred it to the obsidian mold. Enhanced by Bertomne's skills and enchanted by Rose's runes, the matrix was meant to withstand Pyro's heat.

The molten alloy flowed, shaping itself into the new spear. Its proportions matched the old Promesse, its dimensions slightly larger.

As the metal cooled into a solid state, a crude spear form took shape. Gallad drew out his mecha's hydraulic hammers and went to work.

Priam was swept along for the ride, following Gallad's instructions—lifting, heating, cooling the spear—without fully grasping the engineer's intricate techniques. The hoplite envisioned a two-layer weapon: a hard outer edge for slicing through defenses with a softer core to absorb great impact without shattering. The forging process was further complicated by the metal's uniqueness, its properties unknown to the amateur blacksmiths.

After hours of stretching, tapering, and beveling the alien steel, Priam reheated the spear, using his kinetic control for uniform temperature adjustments before quenching it. When the work was almost finished, Gallad broke his tools trying to grind it. Priam took over, polished it, sharpened it, and engraved a few runes on it.

"... I think that's it." The hoplite's voice shook. He had wielded hammers and tools for over a day, shaping his magnum opus.

"Agreed," Priam whispered. "It's… sublime."

The fruit of their labor was a true masterpiece—a spear three meters long, forged from silvery metal streaked with copper hues. It took a blink to lose sight of it, making the runes nearly impossible to decipher.

"A true work of art. Go ahead, son," Alain said.

With trembling hands, Priam touched his bound weapon. It felt heavier than its former self. The physical contact made the spear vibrate: the link was restored, and the System updated its description.

[Promesse - Bronze] becomes [Promesse - Silver]!

[Promesse - Bound to Priam Azura - Silver] - A spear from another universe. Bound to its wielder through Concepts, baptized in battle, blessed by resurrections, and reforged with mysterious bones, its potential is linked to its wielder. Forged from a unique alloy of extreme resilience, it is tempered by flame and light. Stealthy, it holds a minor adaptive capacity and will learn to resist anything that doesn't break it. An embryonic spirit is detectable within.
As a [Bound Weapon], it benefits from a portion of its wielder's Titles and Talents and a small portion of its resistances. Improves the effectiveness of spear-based skills and aether-infused strikes.
Despite its Silver rank—tied to the development of its spirit—its constitution surpasses many Gold-ranked weapons. When benefiting from its wielder's status, even a Legendary weapon would struggle to scratch it.
Meaning Promise in French, Promesse turns its wielder's threats into reality.
A weapon worthy of the Juggernaut.

"I can't identify it," Gallad observed.

"Silver in name, Gold in practice," Priam grinned. "It absorbed the qualities of the bones and… I feel our bond is stronger. That's what matters most."

Caressing his spear, Priam felt the many engraved runes under his fingers. He had collaborated with Rose to craft a ritual that would guide aether along its blade. This allowed [Tribulation Piercing Spear] to once again become a viable finisher once more.

Absorbing Promesse into the mist of his clothes, Priam gave Gallad a nod.

"You have breathed new life into it. Thank you," he said with a bow.

Gallad bowed in return. "Thank you for letting me work on this marvel. The System awarded me a Title for it. I hope I'll soon have the chance to measure its potential in a duel?"

Priam burst into laughter. A hoplite was always a hoplite.

"Now, if you want."

The Juggernaut rarely refused a duel.

A few minutes later, Gallad's saber shattered. The two warriors spent the rest of the day reforging it.

"I heard you have got yourself a spear worthy of you," Kazuki smiled. The Champion hovered a meter off the ground, buoyed by his mastery over wind. Priam's superhuman eyes caught the faint traces of earth beneath Kazuki's chin, hinting that the hoplite hadn't always been so poised.

The stubs of Kazuki's regrowing arms and legs were a further blow to his charisma.

"Your old spear," Priam confirmed, summoning Promesse. He looked at his weapon the way a newlywed gazes at their spouse. Jasmine found it creepy. "You never mentioned it again. Doesn't it bother you that I took it?"

"You earned it by defeating me. It's yours."

The good thing about Kazuki was that his words were final. There was no hidden resentment, and Priam smiled as he sheathed his bound weapon.

"I'm heading to Valaryth," he announced. "My attribute thresholds are capping my progress. Time for the big leap."
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"I thought you wanted Jasmine and me to make sure no one would take advantage of a moment of weakness to target you during your Tribulations?" Kazuki's gaze unfocused, consulting his customized AGI. "I still need at least two more days to recover."

"I still want to… for the real ones. Two days is just enough time for a little visit to Valaryth's alien Tribulation."

"Aren't five enough for you?"

Priam laughed. "I see it as a warm-up. If I endure them back to back, I'm hoping deep down it'll count as a sextuple. If not, there's always the quest reward."

Valaryth Quest: Invasion I

Endure an alien Tribulation.

Reward: Variable.
Difficulty: Mythic

Priam wouldn't let himself go rusty while his friends recovered.

"Be careful," Kazuki said, knowing Priam wouldn't listen. "See you in two days?"

"For my real Tribulations. Tell Hyshana to prep her Hearthstone."

To avoid drawing any Terrors or worse, Priam had decided to start his quintuple Tribulation outside of Valaryth or Elysium. Hyshana had suggested the Hoplite base.

It was located on a planet called Proxima.

Status:

PHYSICAL:
Strength 893 (+86) SEALED
Constitution 1 199 (+12) SEALED
Agility 1 169 (+221)
Vitality 1 136 (+6)
Perception 858 (+30)

MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599 SEALED
Dexterity 752 (+62)
Memory 891 SEALED
Willpower 1 004 (+17)
Charisma 648

META:
Meta-affinity 980 (+35)
Meta-focus 549 (+61)
Meta-endurance 885 (+52)
Meta-perception 461 (+18)
Meta-chance 523 (+144)
Meta-authority 286 (+1)

Potential: 17 823 (-89)
Tier 0

Sun points: 143 444

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

Concepts:

Breath (T0): 100% / Harmony

Fire (T0): 100% / Unity

Pyro (T1): 100% / Half-step Unity

Mist (T1): 100% / Symphony

Bloodlines:

Phoenix: 2%

Dragon: 1%

Rewards standing:

Fusion Token - Skill (Epic)

Evolution Token - Skill (Legendary)

Affinity Token - Tier 1 (30%)

Alien Concept fragment (7th Terror)

Talent Token - Upgrade (Seraph)

Revelation Token - Ideal Prerequisites (Epic)

Colosseum VIP Token

Reborn Token - Reset biological lifespan (Legendary)

[Tribulation]: Five Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 133 days 17 hours 10 minutes 7 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 1 attribute > 1 200

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