Sponsorship and Gift offers which would not directly benefit you during an invasion of a foreign planet have been declined!

You have received 246 Sponsorship offers!

You have received 902 Gift offers!

It was still too many, but Ronan was getting closer to a manageable number. He wasn't sure how the system judged his previous requirement, but it surely knew better than him.

Sponsorship and Gift offers with a value equivalent to less than 250 Bronze Credits have been declined!

You have received 83 Sponsorship offers!

You have received 168 Gift offers!

It was an arbitrary value, but given that it was roughly the number of credits he'd acquired by the time he defeated the sector boss, Ronan felt it was a decent benchmark to use. If these people were offering him less than that, he doubted it would help him on the Path of the Gladiator.

He honestly couldn't think of any more criteria. Mostly because he didn't know much about the path or what kind of rewards would benefit him during an invasion. Anything that made him stronger was an obvious choice. Oh, that gives me a great idea! Ronan had a sudden realisation and added another restriction.

Sponsorship and Gift offers which do not offer cultivation-, skill-, or trait-related benefits have been declined!

You have received 14 Sponsorship offers!

You have received 32 Gift offers!

He didn't think he would be able to reduce them any further without knowing more about the path. In his next gladiator iteration he would have the ability to make a more informed decision, but this time he would simply go for what gave him the most value. The announcer said he could take as many gifts as he wanted, so he was leaning towards taking all 32, unless any of them had particularly negative conditions attached.

Sponsorship offers available to you are presented below, ordered from most to least valuable:

Senator K'thax [Value: 1.268 Iron Credits] [Resource Extraction Partnership Offer Clause] [Cultivation Art, Consumable Weapons, Shards]

Princess Petalania [Value: 1.172 Iron Credits] [Mutual Growth Benefit Clause] [Skills, Traits, Shards, Consumable Items, Equipment]

Ronan froze the moment he saw the name of the second potential sponsor. It looked too familiar to be a coincidence. A few letters had been added to the end, but it was clear as day. Princess Petal.

The same princess who had created the flower crown he currently wore and the one he'd received all the way back near the beginning of his iterations. Had she noticed the crown, or was she simply interested in him for another aspect of his strength and achievements?

He was too curious. Instead of reading further down the list, he immediately requested to talk with her.

Princess Petalania has been notified of your request, please wait for a response…

Princess Petalania has accepted your request! Stand by…

She accepted almost immediately, making Ronan wonder if she'd simply been patiently waiting for his response to her offer since she made it. A second later, the chair on the right of the fireplace shimmered and a woman appeared, reclining on the plush velvet.

Her hair was a shimmering wave of green in all shades, from emerald to verdant forest green. It reminded Ronan of a field of lush grass. Her eyes were bright yellow, her irises shining in the light of the fireplace. His gaze reached her bright red lips when she began to clap.

"You accepted! I was so worried you wouldn't with how little I was able to offer," she exclaimed, a smile beaming from ear to ear.

Ronan was taken aback by her enthusiasm. He was also surprised to hear her call his second most valuable sponsorship a small sum. Clearly she was a wealthy individual.

"Well, I recognised your name from the crowns. I was curious to meet the person who wove them," he replied, choosing his words carefully. He didn't actually have the original crown in this iteration and would be in a pickle if she asked to see it.

"Crowns? You received more than one!? What a delightful coincidence." The princess gasped, her eyes sparkling in the firelight.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Ronan observed her a little longer. He had expected her to say something more, but she didn't seem to have anything on her mind other than the fact he received her crowns. "What does this mutual growth benefit clause mean? I doubt I can help you in any meaningful way." He decided to push past the awkward silence and learn about the sponsorship.

"Oh! That's not a problem. I don't actually need anything, really. Maybe if you find some cool stuff on the path and you don't need it, I'll take it off your hands. I had to include a clause to make the sponsorship offer, and this was the easiest one. I was mostly just curious to meet the person who received one of my old crowns." Her cheeks grew slightly blue, contrasting with her pale pink skin.

Blushing, if Ronan could read her biology correctly. Princess Petalania was certainly not human, but there were enough similarities for him to make an educated guess. She had to be a lot older than him, surely? Was she just embarrassed?

"I see. Well, I'm grateful for the offer without strings attached. Out of curiosity, what sort of skills or traits would I get? Or is it just tomes and thesauruses?" He was interested to see if there were other methods of granting someone skills than the rewards the system offered.

"Oh! Did you want something specific? I didn't realise you could learn about skills in that much detail during the tutorial. I never did it. I always envied those who were newly integrated. It seemed like so much fun. Sorry, I'm rambling." She paused to take a breath while holding up a hand.

"I just picked out a bunch of tomes and thesauruses, but I'm sure we have copies of most skills if you had something in mind. Not sure the rules would allow me to give you anything extremely valuable or powerful, though."

The casual flaunting of her wealth made Ronan baulk. Copies of most skills? What the hell, Petalania, just how rich are you?

"Uhhh, I'm not sure. Would you be able to give me the stat-boosting skills? There's a few I was after after receiving one during the tutorial." He started simple. Perhaps he could round out his collection in this iteration.

"Oh, definitely. Those are easy. You could probably take a lot more than that, though it depends what rarities you want. I could maybe push for epic, but the system might get annoyed at me if I go higher. Not to mention father…" She began humming, tapping her chin with a pale pink finger.

"Epic would be amazing. I only have one epic skill and even that was because of the upgrade shards I got at the end of the tutorial. I would prefer regeneration, dexterity, acuity, or tenacity." Ronan was giddy with excitement. The prospect of alloying the ultimate stat-boosting skill was running through his mind.

"Oh, you even have a shopping list. I like you more already. Give me a second." The princess' eyes glazed over, indicating that she was interacting with the system. A moment later, they returned to focus, glowing slightly brighter as she looked back at Ronan with a frown. "Annoying system."

"Was there a problem? I don't mind just taking one of them if it won't let you give more," he offered.

"No, it's not that. I could give you all of them, but not at epic rarity. Or you could just take one at epic, but then that would take most of the other rewards off the table. It's up to you."

He almost wanted to burst out laughing. Of all the things to complain about… Rare was better than most of his existing stat-boosting skills and he would be able to get all four of the remaining skills at rare in one fell swoop. He almost wanted to kiss the princess on the spot.

"That would be more than fine. What else can you fit into the sponsorship if I take those four skills at rare?" He hoped for a few traits on top, and would be happy even if it was random ones from a thesaurus.

"I'm not sure. Maybe a couple of the thesauruses or a bunch of shards. I did want to give you this, too." The princess reached behind her, and when her hand came back out there was a bracelet woven from flowers held in her delicate fingers.

Ronan noticed that she didn't have fingernails. It was a disconcerting reminder that she truly wasn't human. The bracelet was pretty, though, and he had no doubt it would be just as potent as the crown he was currently wearing. Free stats were free stats and only an idiot would turn them down.

"Just throw as many traits in as you can on top of the four skills and the bracelet. That works for me," Ronan said, taking the bracelet from her hands.

Her skin was warm to the touch and softer than silk. The bracelet slipped onto his arm and adjusted itself to the size of his wrist, the same way the crown did.

"You don't want to talk to any of the other sponsors? I'm sure some of them can offer more than I did. My limit is pretty small." The princess looked at her knees, shoulders slightly slumped.

"Not really. I'm sure their conditions are probably worse than yours. Also, you can give me the skills I want for sure and there's no guarantee they can." Not to mention there's no way in hell I can refuse you when you look like a cute pink puppy! Even a man like Ronan wasn't immune to cuteness overload. He left it unsaid that she was actually the second most valuable sponsor.

"Really!? That's great. I can't wait to tell Father. He told me I needed to stop messing around and focus on the empire, but that's boring. I prefer watching the path and exploring the multiverse."

Truly a spoilt brat, but she isn't rude at least, Ronan inwardly chuckled. "Glad to hear it. I'll accept now, but then I need to look through my gift offers. Thanks for being so generous, Princess."

"No, thank you for wearing my crown. It makes me happy to know it's still helping people even after I outgrew it. I've run out of time, but you'll receive everything you asked for once you accept." With that, her clone burst into sparks of light and left Ronan alone again.

He'd secured four new skills and some traits on top of that. Now it was time to see what gifts he could get his hands on.

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