Ronan's decision came down to the class choices available to him right now. Dao child was the single greatest class he could pick in any given iteration. Having it as a subclass would lock in the absurd stat growth at the level that the mythical evolution provided, plus it would maintain his ability to pursue daos through every iteration.

While he had yet to actually understand or grasp a single dao despite having the class through multiple long iterations, Ronan felt that even obtaining or understanding a single one would give him a substantial boost in power.

Did he need to make dao child a sub-class to do that, though?

As it was, he could simply pick it as his regular class in every iteration. The other classes on the table were interesting, sure, but none of them would give him the raw power boost dao child did. When he reached a point that spending the 13 merits to unlock a second sub-class slot wasn't as wallet-breaking, then he would happily lock dao child as a sub-class and explore other avenues for his main class.

That didn't mean saving up right now wouldn't make him much stronger, but it did mean that considering his other options was worthwhile. As to what those options were, that was an even trickier question.

There were five other enhancements he could upgrade. With the number of merits available to him, Ronan could possibly even increase all five of them by a single tier. That certainly wasn't the best path he could take here.

He ruled out brand of the temporal artificer. As it stood, most items he encountered didn't provide enough value to him that he wanted to spend his hard-earned chronos merits to keep one through his iterations. That would definitely change in future if he encountered an overpowered loot drop, or worked on his own skills to the point he could forge equipment that was worth keeping. At that moment, however, it was off the table.

There was one obvious choice. Hard work bears fruit was already beyond the cap in a few of his stats, and giving it another tier would immediately increase his starting stats by a decent amount. He could even get two tiers in the enhancement for the low price of just 3 chronos merits. That would leave him with 6 still to spend and a much bigger ceiling on fruit consumption.

He was currently leaning towards picking up two more tiers in jack of all trades, two more tiers in hard work bears fruit, and then having 1 merit left over to spend on something else in future. The reasoning behind that was twofold.

First, masteries provided him with a unique array of abilities and as things currently stood, they were not too difficult to tier up. If he increased the progress he kept between tiers to around fifty percent or more, that would speed up his mastery gains even further. The accumulated boosts from the twenty-plus masteries he currently had and any more he obtained in future would rapidly stack up.

Compared to the benefits of increasing deep cultivation, which bolstered his stats and resources, as well as the other unique benefits of cultivation, but didn't actually improve the speed at which he cultivated, it felt like the smarter choice. Not to mention hard work bears fruit directly increased his base stats. Being stronger at level 0 was more valuable than strength gains down the line.

While he was thinking about being stronger from the get-go in each iteration, Ronan realised he'd neglected to absorb more minerals with his trait. He would work on it in the next one, which would be number fifty.

His fiftieth life.

There were people who died at fifty years old in their first life, but he was about to enter his fiftieth lifetime. Absurd to think about, but it was his reality.

After considering the benefits of each enhancement a little longer, Ronan made the decision. He wouldn't regret it. Progress was always forwards. Sometimes you took a step or two backwards, but those steps set you up to take ten or twenty great leaps ahead.

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You have purchased the permanent enhancement [Jack of all trades, master of none] for 2 chronos merits! Jack of all trades, master of none has increased from Tier II to Tier III

You have purchased the permanent enhancement [Jack of all trades, master of none] for 3 chronos merits! Jack of all trades, master of none has increased from Tier III to Tier IV

The permanent enhancement [Jack of all trades, master of none] has reached its maximum tier! For reaching the tier limit in this enhancement, you have earned the following bonuses:

Gain all masteries 10% faster

Cap for earning new masteries is 10% lower

Ronan paused for a moment. The fourth tier being the cap was a little disgruntling, but the bonuses he'd just earned for reaching it were fantastic.

Every single mastery increasing faster was huge, not to mention the cap being lowered even further would only add to the variety of benefits he received. Things were looking up.

You have purchased the permanent enhancement [Hard work bears fruit] for 1 chronos merit! Hard work bears fruit has increased from Tier I to Tier II

You have purchased the permanent enhancement [Hard work bears fruit] for 2 chronos merits! Hard work bears fruit has increased from Tier II to Tier III

He pulled himself out of the obelisk menu once he was done. He still had a merit left, but it wouldn't let him purchase anything so there was no point window shopping. He did pull up his status to check the new cap. He was curious to see if it had only gone up to 30, or if there was an exponential increase at play.

[Hard work bears fruit]

Bloodstained Berry (5/50 Vitality)

Marathon Melon (11/50 Endurance)

Apple of Wisdom (0/50 Wisdom)

???

Staunch Lemon (5/50 Resistance)

???

Kiwi of Quickness (5/50 Agility)

Orange of Intelligence (5/50 Intelligence)

Dexterous Date (6/50 Dexterity)

Apricot of Acuity (10/50 Acuity)

Tenacious Tomato (21/50 Tenacity)

Lucky Banana (2/50 Luck)

Majestic Mango (5/50 Charisma)

He was grateful that it was an exponential increase. While he wouldn't have felt scammed if it was only a standard plus ten each tier, it would have been disappointing. However, fifty in each stat was a substantial limit that he felt he wouldn't hit for a while. Tenacity was the closest, but there were still two fruits he hadn't even discovered yet, let alone maxed out.

His progress on that front was improving, though. Since the last time he'd opened this menu he'd eaten a marathon melon and some apricots of acuity, adding two more to the collection.

He remembered those first few lucky bananas. They'd been a novelty. A fun part of the system that had cursed his life.

They still were an extremely fun part of the system, but his heritage had taken that fun and turned it into a way of life. Every bite of fruit made him permanently stronger, and created a delightful memory for his tastebuds.

His gaze fell onto the Chronos Forge on his left. The twisting spires beckoned him, his body remembering the thrilling sensation of alloying a new skill and bringing his power to greater heights. He looked through his skill list, but nothing particularly called to him right now.

He hadn't yet collected all of the stat-boosting skills, a long-term project that would surely boost him by a lot when he did complete it. There were threads of ideas in terms of other skills he could make, but they were missing pieces.

Ethereal slash combined with arcane piercing strike felt strong, but it needed a third skill to tie it together without losing what made each skill individually great. Lightning strike and magic strike seemed like it might have potential, but going in blindly might just ruin his most reliable skill.

There was always the possibility of creating a brand new skill from the ground up, but Ronan wasn't sure he had the expertise or knowledge to do so yet. He knew areas of combat and general existence that he lacked in, but he didn't want to create something half-arsed.

No, for now he would leave the chronos forge alone. Hopefully soon he would be able to step inside and create something great.

Before beginning the next iteration, his half-century, Ronan stopped for a moment to think about his short-term goals. What did he want to achieve in this iteration and perhaps the next few?

The answer was simple, but not easy.

Defeat the Vatronid fusion creature if he ended up fighting it again.

Experiment with factions, discover if his was permanent, and see how far he could go in the gates.

Reach the point in time where the sector borders fell and he would discover his entire region, as well as what awaited him in phase 2 of the integration.

All of those were big goals, but after his recent upgrades Ronan was ready to tackle them with gusto and dedication. Aside from all the death, violence, chaos, and general misfortune, this integration stuff isn't so bad…

Beginning a new iteration, please stand by…

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