Ronan barely had a second left to live. The yellow eyes emerged from the shadows. A bestial grin hung beneath them, thin lips peeled back over blood-red gums to reveal it.

A snout covered in orange fur, two triangular ears tipped in black, and a bushy tail. The tail was the last part of the monster to enter the light of the moonbeams that faintly illuminated the half-built tower.

Ronan blacked out for a half-second. He forced himself to cling to life a moment longer. He read the text floating above the monster.

[Vulparis the Trickster - MINI BOSS]

[Five-Tailed Fox Lv.51]

He heard Rockmore yell something at it. Then the world went dark. Ronan Steele died for the sixteenth time.

Unprecedented modifications detected…

Analysing…

Unable to determine harm-benefit of modifications. Deferring to inheritor

Physical body has mutated, resulting in the following:

Magical damage reduction +4%

Mind has mutated, resulting in the following:

Mental resistance +16%

Keep mutations?

Yes, he confirmed.

Iteration 16 analysis:

Highest level achieved: 72

Highest class achieved: Adaptive Martial Artist (Rare)

Highest fortune achieved: 48 Bronze Credits, 722 Copper Credits

Stats gained: 826

Cultivation stages achieved: Mind (Quartz ★★), Body (Stone ★), Energy (Sparkling ★) [+1]

Inventory value accumulated: 18 Bronze Credits, 247 Copper Credits

Chrono Enhancement Updates:

Experience gain multiplier has increased from 700% to 720%

Credit gain multiplier has increased from 46.3% to 48.7%

Experience gain multiplier has increased from 6.408 to 7.234

Cultivation talent multiplier has increased from 1.6 to 1.7

Cultivation progress has been reset, maximum stages reached have been locked

Mastery progress has been reset, maximum tiers reached have been locked

Class has been reset, class skills purged from status

Chronos merits have been acquired! Access to Chronos Clan Ancestral grounds has been granted at minimum threshold

He'd earned another chronos merit. That put him at a total of 2. He'd earned another one in the previous iteration due to reaching a total accumulated inventory value of 100 bronze credits.

It also meant he could now afford to upgrade another chronos enhancement. However, that was a decision he was going to put off for a short while.

First, he needed to analyse his most recent battle against Lord Rockmore. The shocking revelation that the mini-boss fox was there all along changed everything.

Ronan sat in the empty white void and began to run through the battle in his mind. There was a lot to break down.

First of all there was his trait and its seemingly incorrect activations. Until the most recent battle he'd believed it was malfunctioning—due to Lord Rockmore's illusion magic. Ronan now knew just how wrong that was.

Not only was his trait working exactly as intended, but it wasn't even Rockmore who was creating the illusion. It was Vulparis the Trickster—the five-tailed fox mini-boss.

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He began to question everything. He remembered the first time he encountered the fox. It had appeared to be sleeping, yet it was actually cultivating in the middle of the street. Even then, they had managed to sneak past it.

Or had they? Maybe the fox noticed them and decided to let them go in order to play a longer game. Was Rockmore allied with the fox? No, that wouldn't make sense. He was yelling when it appeared right before my death, he reminded himself.

Whatever the case, it meant that defeating Rockmore wasn't the grand accomplishment he'd believed it to be. Every time he'd fought the man, their duel had been manipulated by the illusion master in the shadows.

Was Vulparis controlling their every move, or simply manipulating their actions to reach the best outcome for itself? The more Ronan thought about it, the closer he came to a complete understanding of his situation.

It all came back to the message the system delivered each time he returned to his home planet at the end of the tutorial:

The world has been split into sectors. Each sector contains an equal number of challengers and either a native boss-tier monster or a settler incursion force.

Within each sector there is a settlement pillar to be claimed. There are many ways to claim the pillar as your own and they are for you to discover.

Vulparis was only a mini-boss, but given that the vast majority of monsters he and Keith had encountered were also foxes, it stood to reason that that was the theme. Which meant avoiding Vulparis wasn't an option.

He had to overcome its illusions and defeat the mini-boss.

That was fine by Ronan. He'd overcome most of the challenges in his path until now and he wasn't about to stop because an overgrown fox got in his way.

There was only one small imperfection in his conclusions; Ronan had only encountered Vulparis in one iteration, yet it was able to find him every time he fought Rockmore. It doesn't matter how, I guess. All that matters is I kill it.

With his plan decided and his mind once more settled, Ronan stood up and walked towards the Temporal Obelisk. He placed his hand against its cool, smooth surface and began to deliberate which chronos enhancement he wanted to upgrade.

[Temporal Obelisk]

Jack of all trades, master of some III: The influence of the Chronos Clan is not truly boundless, especially so for a sapling. However, with time and investment, your mastery over everything becomes more persistent through iterations. Maintain 25% more of your progress towards the next mastery tier through each iteration for every tier of this enhancement. [Cost to reach next tier: 2 Chronos merit]

Deep cultivation III: As a clan which transcends the limits of time and space, the act of cultivation holds a far more significant meaning to those of the Chronos heritage. Maintain 10% more of your progress towards the next cultivation realm for every tier of this enhancement. Cultivation benefits are 25% more effective for every tier of this enhancement. [Cost to reach next tier: 2 Chronos merits]

Brand of the temporal artificer II: Even items forged from the base materials of reality can be iterated. Through the powers of the temporal artificer, items can be branded and will persist through iterations. Number of concurrent brands increased by 1 for every tier of this enhancement. Enhancement will mutate once for every 3 tiers in this enhancement. Branded items will receive a 10% improvement for every tier in this enhancement. [Cost to reach next tier: 1 Chronos merit]

Accumulate greater accomplishments to unlock further enhancement options…

He was disappointed that despite all he'd achieved, the obelisk still hadn't deemed him worthy to unlock more variety in enhancements. I wonder what exactly I need to do. I wish it gave me more information, he lamented.

Ronan could upgrade any of the three enhancements to the next tier with his 2 chronos merits. However, he didn't feel as though he needed to purchase another tier in brand of the temporal artificer.

One overpowered item to carry through iterations would be plenty for now. He still had yet to find a worthy item to brand.

That left jack of all trades or deep cultivation. Both had proven their merit throughout the last few iterations, but which was the better investment?

The former had allowed him to push a couple of his masteries to tier 2—namely pugilist and stamina—while the latter had helped him reach the second stage of mind cultivation and almost reach the second stage of body cultivation.

In the end, Ronan decided to go with another tier of deep cultivation. His reasoning was that while both enhancements helped maintain progression, deep cultivation also boosted the effects of his cultivation while jack of all trades didn't boost his masteries.

You have purchased the permanent enhancement [Deep cultivation] for 2 chronos merits! Deep cultivation has increased from Tier II to Tier III

You have no chronos merits remaining! The Temporal Obelisk has returned to slumber, awaiting your return

With that done, there was no reason for Ronan to remain in the ancestral grounds of the Chronos Clan. Not that there was much to see…

Apart from the obelisk, nothing of the clan's home had been revealed to him. He wondered just what else was hidden in that endless white void.

More than that, he wondered how exactly he was considered a descendant of such a powerful and illustrious clan? Did mum fool around on dad with some overpowered alien visitor? he inwardly joked.

Shaking his head, Ronan prepared himself to begin his next life. The seventeenth attempt at the integration. He had two clear goals: defeat Lord Rockmore and defeat Vulparis the Trickster.

And with the improvements to his mental and magical damage resistance, he felt confident he could accomplish both this time around. Every iteration brought him closer to conquering his sector. Towards his ultimate goal of figuring out the system itself.

And punching it.

Beginning a new iteration, please stand by…

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