When Ronan's consciousness returned, he found himself standing in the concrete construction site that he and Keith made their base in every single iteration that made it out of the tutorial. He felt a weight in his hands, and looked down, finding the thesaurus of the thousand traits held in them.

He'd discovered the first downside of being in a branch path created by the reverberating path skill. He didn't return to the clan's ancestral grounds upon his death, but instead came straight back to the moment the anchor point was fixed in time.

Ultimately, that downside was a little frustrating, but it wasn't important at all. Not right now. Ronan stared at the ancient-looking book in his hands and a giddying feeling spread through him.

It worked! he inwardly exclaimed, still not quite ready to believe it. However, a few seconds later, he calmed himself with a few steady breaths.

He wasn't sure why he'd doubted his heritage. It seemed to always come through for him, bringing him ever greater strength and power.

Now, the analysis had said that a single iteration would have no chrono cost. Three or more would have a low cost, but Ronan still didn't know what the cost would be.

He was going to find out.

First, he had one more thing to check out. He opened his status, and his gaze raced down, ignoring most of the information until he reached the skills section.

His scan slowed, his heartbeat speeding up, as he neared the end of the list. Then he saw it.

Learn through suffering.

The class skill was still there, even after he'd died. Ronan was about to let out a whoop of celebration, when he realised something.

The branch path restarted him at a point where he was still over level 50 and possessed the adaptive martial artist class. Of course he still had the skill.

Cursing his little oversight, Ronan realised he wouldn't be able to truly test if his idea had worked until he ended the branch path and returned to the very beginning of the tutorial. However, that was fine by him. Right now, he had something far more important to do.

He needed to farm as many traits as his heritage would let him before kicking him off this path. So, without wasting any more time, he activated the thesaurus of the thousand traits.

The thesaurus has read the fibres of your being, and bestowed a suitable trait upon you! You have been awarded the mutative trait [Berserk Cultivation Body]

Berserk Cultivation Body (Rare): You have a body that is able to process body and mind aspected shard-energy at a much greater rate than most, but at the cost of stability and safety. The risk of experiencing backlash during crystalline mind or tempered body cultivation is greater, and occurs more frequently.

This one was interesting. For most people, it might be quite dangerous to cultivate with this trait. Ronan had experienced a backlash once or twice while he was cultivating, and not only was it painful, but it had hindered his progress for a while afterwards.

However, when he died, everything was 'purged' and reset, bringing him back to a stable baseline. At the same time, he maintained the highest cultivation realm he'd achieved. That meant this trait was almost perfect for him.

Satisfied, he prepared to take out Arcane Needle and end this iteration. Then he had a sudden thought. I'm going to be doing this quite a few times, so I should probably test my limits in different ways… It's useful information to have.

So, instead of stabbing himself, Ronan decided to try and throw himself from the sixteen-story tower. He wasn't sure he would die, but it would be good to learn quite how durable he was with his current stats.

Once he reached the roof, and the edge, he took a single breath, and leapt. He was weightless for an endless moment, then gravity caught up.

You have been hit by [Environment]!

Critical hit! You are stunned for 7.3 seconds

-622 Health [Smashing]

-38 Health [Piercing]

You are [Bleeding] x7!

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

-74 Health / second

Not dead, then, Ronan inwardly moaned. Throwing oneself off a building was meant to be a death that was painless and instantaneous. Unfortunately for him, he would have to suffer a couple seconds of agonising pain as he bled out from various orifices.

The thesaurus has read the fibres of your being, and bestowed a suitable trait upon you! You have been awarded the evolutionary trait [Animal Prescience]

Animal Prescience (Rare): Psychics are feared and renowned for their abilities to see into the future. You are not a psychic. However, your senses and awareness as an animal are highly keen, and by properly using these signals, you can roughly predict what will happen around you within a two-millisecond time frame.

Ronan read the trait in silence, then nodded once. Yup, traits are overpowered as hell, he decided.

Then, he found an indent in the ground large enough to fit his head, filled it with water from a few plastic water bottles, and thrust his head inside.

Nine minutes and thirty-one seconds. That's really good. Humans pre-integration could hold their breath for what? Two or three minutes? Ronan thought to himself as he returned to life and took a gasping breath on instinct.

He knew there were crazy free divers who could do much longer than that, but he was comparing himself to an average human. For now.

This was his fourth iteration in the branch path. That meant he was now paying a low chrono cost. He'd checked, and he still had his 1 chronos merit, which meant that wasn't how he was supposed to pay, which left him more confused.

Even so, it wasn't going to stop him from keeping up this trait farming. He would be a fool to pass up such an incredible opportunity.

The thesaurus has read the fibres of your being, and bestowed a suitable trait upon you! You have been awarded the evolutionary trait [Perfect Proprioception]

Perfect Proprioception (Rare): Many fleshy creatures possess this sense, which lets them know where their bodies are, even if they aren't looking. It is a useful evolutionary trait, but some are better at it than others. You are perfect, and know where each part of your body is at all times with utmost precision.

This one was also really damned good. Honestly it didn't matter what Ronan did in each iteration, this trait would give him an absurd advantage over all of his opponents.

For this death, he wanted to get a little macabre. His idea was creative, but he wasn't looking forward to it.

He took out Arcane Needle, charged it with mana, then cut his head off. He remained conscious for about thirteen seconds after.

He really was changing, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could consider himself truly 'human.' Ronan didn't really mind. He would sacrifice his humanity if it let him save the world from the invaders, the beasts, and the system.

The thesaurus has read the fibres of your being, and bestowed a suitable trait upon you! You have been awarded the evolutionary trait [Manasynthetic]

Manasynthetic (Rare): On your world, plant cells took a different path to other forms of life. They possess a cell wall, and can directly absorb energy from the sun through photosynthesis. Your cells took inspiration from these natural generators, twisting this ability into one that allows them to generate energy from mana. Unfortunately, your body was not built to handle it efficiently. Absorb too much, too fast, and you will poison yourself.

Ronan read through it, accepted it as an average trait that might let him replace meals with… magic. Then he froze. Does this mean I can absorb magic attacks directed at me and convert them into energy!? he inwardly exclaimed as his eyes went as wide as saucers.

It was an interesting line of thought. He wanted to test it right away, so he woke up Keith. "Oi! Keith, take this rapier and stab me while charging it with your mana," he said to the groggy man as he wiped his eyes and sat up.

"What? Ronan, have you gone mad?" he mumbled.

"Just shut up and do it," Ronan said, passing Keith the Arcane Needle.

"Alright, it's your funeral, mate," Keith said, stumbling as he found his footing and then stepped forward and stabbed Ronan in the gut.

For a moment he only felt the pain of the blade. Then, a subtle trickle of energy started to flow from the rapier to his flesh. Ronan experienced a trippy duality as his stomach suddenly felt fuller, while simultaneously emptying itself through the hole the rapier had pierced. And, then, a moment later, he watched his stamina points trickle upwards.

That's incredible. Very useful trait, he thought to himself. "Cheers Keith, give me that," he said, taking the rapier back. "You can go back to sleep now."

Keith waved him off before yawning and lying back down on the hard concrete floor. Ronan made his way up to the roof. It wasn't nighttime yet, but he still enjoyed the view.

In the end, the legacy grimoire hadn't offered Ronan anything beyond the possibility of a great future, but little in the way of practical advice or methodology. The man had cast a mana bolt without using the skill, but Ronan hadn't been able to see or better, feel, how he did so. Which meant he had no way of accomplishing it on his own.

Although, he had the knowledge that it was possible, which was almost as valuable for a man like him. After all, he had infinite lives to attempt to master it.

He couldn't think of another method of death he wanted to test yet, so he decided to just stab himself again. Nice and simple.

He expected to wake up at the beginning of the branch path again after he bled out, but found himself frozen in the dark void of death. Before he could get too confused about what was happening, a message appeared in his mind.

Warning!

Further iterations on this branch path will cause reverberating costs into the base path. Multiplier progress and chrono enhancements may regress to pay the cost. Begin new branch path iteration?

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