The myriad skills tome floated into the air, the pages began to flutter as they turned, rapidly gaining speed. After a few seconds, the book burst in a flash of light, and a message appeared in Ronan's vision.

[Myriad Skills Tome (Common)] has been consumed!

You have received the skill [Freeloader (Common)]!

Freeloader (Common): Gain 1% extra experience from all sources for every 5 free stat points you have not spent.

Ronan's eyes lit up. The skill didn't seem incredible at first glance. He would literally be handicapping himself by not investing his stat points, after all. However, he had two separate experience multipliers from his heritage. If they worked after this bonus was applied?

He let out a low whistle as he did the maths.

He'd already defeated the boss at normal difficulty with his free stat points only going into luck… he was fairly certain he could do it without investing them at all. The growth from his class would pick up the slack.

Ronan wasn't sure that alone would be enough to let him defeat Veloxis, but it would certainly get him a lot closer to a goal that had seemed almost impossible not so long ago.

However, the freeloader skill wasn't quite overpowered enough to convince him that investing all his points in luck had made a substantial difference. Then again, these are only common skills. Maybe I'll see the difference more when it comes to the treasury tokens, especially the rare one, he thought to himself.

Without waiting, he used the second tome, wondering if the skill would be equally as strong as freeloader, or possibly even better. The brief animation amused him, and when the message appeared he read it expectantly.

[Myriad Skills Tome (Common)] has been consumed!

You have received the skill [Limitless Luck (Common)]!

Limitless Luck (Common): Gain +1 to luck for every 15 points of luck you possess. Does not include stat bonuses.

Ronan felt a little disappointed at that. The skills hadn't been as absurd as he'd expected. Then again, he had practically infinite opportunities to do this. In fairness to the tomes, the two skills were a lot more suitable for his build compared to a few of the skills he'd gathered until now.

Plus, gaining extra luck would hopefully improve the item rolls he was about to do even further. He'd instantly gained an extra 5 points of luck with the new limitless luck skill.

He used all four of the common rarity tokens at once. No need for theatrics. The symphony of coins jingling was quite pleasant, but he was too eager for his rewards to arrive to enjoy it.

[Endless Treasury Token (Common)] x4 has been consumed!

You have received [Lucky Banana (Common) x4]!

Lucky Banana (Common)

A banana of fortuitous origins, with golden skin and delightful flesh.

+1 Luck

You have received [Skill Upgrade Shard (Common) x3]!

Skill Upgrade Shard (Common)

Allows skills to be upgraded from common rarity to uncommon rarity, with the quantity of shards required to upgrade each skill varying depending on the quality and potential of the skill, starting at 5 shards for the weakest common skills. 10 Skill Upgrade Shards of any rarity can be combined to produce 1 Skill Upgrade Shard of the next rarity.

You have received [Legacy Grimoire 778XE3 (Common)]!

Legacy Grimoire 778XE3 (Common)

Formed upon the death of a mage, legacy grimoires allow the one who consumes them to gain knowledge, talent, stats, mastery, or potentially even skills from the deceased.

You have received [Elixir of Insight (Common)]!

Elixir of Insight (Common)

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This elixir allows the user to select any mastery they possess or are aware of, and will increase their comprehension of it for 4 hours. During those 4 hours, the chance of receiving an insight is vastly increased, and any actions that would gain them mastery points are more likely to do so.

Seeing the lucky bananas almost made Ronan regret using all four tokens at once. However, the other three items he'd received were still incredible—far better than what he'd grown used to from the common tokens.

He ate the four bananas first, savouring the delightfully fluffy flesh within, and the sweet taste that filled his mouth. The extra 4 points in luck might improve the item he received from the rare treasury token, so it wasn't as though he'd shot himself in the foot by using all the common tokens at once.

First of all, the skill upgrade shards. Those were undoubtedly the best pull, for the simple fact that any skill Ronan upgraded would—hopefully—remain that way even after his death.

It's a shame I can only upgrade one skill, or possibly—HOLY SHIT! Ronan almost fell onto his arse in shock as he had a sudden realisation. He needed to test something else. First, the rare treasury token.

Ronan was positively tense this time. Every single chime and jingle that rang in his ears as the token decided what to give him from the endless treasury made his heart pound a little harder. When the dancing coins stopped, and the notification appeared, his breath hitched in his throat.

The last rare item he'd received had allowed him to learn how to cultivate, and increased his gains during that first session of cultivation. What would this one be, given his large investment into luck?

[Endless Treasury Token (Rare)] has been consumed!

You have received [Thesaurus of the Trillion Traits (Rare)]!

Thesaurus of the Trillion Traits (Rare)

Peer into the thesaurus of a trillion traits and accept your evolution

JACKPOT! Ronan inwardly exclaimed as he read the notification. Traits were one of the many things he kept with him through his deaths, so an item that rewarded him with another trait was an unbelievably fortunate find.

He was now convinced that the luck stat played a part in what one received from the various loot items. The previous rare items he'd earned were mostly equipment and then the warrior's fortitude elixir—useful, but far from as impactful as a new trait.

He was almost nervous to use the thesaurus. But… before he consumed it. It was time to run the test he'd thought of earlier. If it worked, he was about to become an unstoppable killing machine. Forget defeating Veloxis, Ronan might be able to sweep his way to the highest difficulty of the tutorial in just a few iterations.

The test would likely be better done before using the treasury tokens and skill tomes, but frankly, the thesaurus of the trillion traits was an even better test subject. His epic trait had literally broken him out of Vulparis illusion and let him land blows even when his own body failed him. A rare trait might not be quite as absurd, but what about ten rare traits? Or a hundred!?

Before he got ahead of himself, Ronan needed to find out if his idea actually worked. If it didn't, he would feel like a fool for getting so overexcited.

So, for the first time since he'd received the blessing of chronos from his ancestor, Azathere the Timeless, Ronan prepared to use his Reverberating Path skill. He was confused at first, but the moment he thought about using it, the familiar chronos-system framed messages appeared to guide him.

You are attempting to set a time anchor, and initiate a new path. Would you like to start an anchor path, or a branch path?

As this was a test, Ronan selected branch path. He was only going to restart from this moment in time to confirm if his theory had merit. If it didn't, he would remove the anchor point. Even if it did, he didn't need to create more paths, he just needed to repeat the same actions a few… dozen… no, maybe a hundred times.

Estimating chrono cost based on implications of branch path…

Estimation complete!

Chrono cost of this branch path has been determined on a cascading iteration basis, accounting for the descendant's soul weight:

1+ Iterations: No chrono cost

3+ Iterations: Medium chrono cost

7+ Iterations: High chrono cost

16+ Iterations: Chrono cost not payable

Ronan didn't fully understand all the terms used. Soul weight he had only been introduced to when he met Serenaeth—speaking of, he'd checked at the start of this iteration, and the soul-link had persisted.

Lots of scary implications there. He would need to visit the Tellen in a future iteration to see whether the tree was also time-looping or there was something else going on.

Back to the current issue, Ronan didn't quite get the meaning of the analysis or the chrono costs, but he could simplify things. Essentially, he couldn't perform more than 15 iterations on this branch path before the cost became too great for him to pay. The only problem was, Ronan had no idea how he was supposed to pay this cost. With my chronos merits, perhaps?

He was definitely doing this, whatever the case. He had a chronos merit saved, so he could afford to at least do up to 9 iterations… hopefully.

Confirmation received, preparing to generate branch path…

Freezing local spacetime…

Replicating universal probability matrix…

Anchoring descendant's soul…

Branch path created!

May the endless rivers of time guide your path, chosen son of chronos!

How powerful is my damned clan!? Replicating things on a universal scale? Freezing spacetime? Ronan's mind blanked out for a few seconds as he read the messages. The blessing of his ancestors brought him back to focus. Well, I already knew they were overpowered after Azathere… did old monster things. Now, time to see if this works!

Without wasting another moment, Ronan lifted the thesaurus of the trillion traits in his hands. It was similar to the myriad skills tome, but about three times the size—in length, width, and thickness. Then, he activated it, eager to see what rare trait he would receive.

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