Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) by Arthur Stone (top 5 books to read TXT) 📕

most gifted of the population gravitated toward one another, experimenting with talents and other things. They were born to powerful parents so that, when their own time came, they would give birth to just-as-powerful offspring. They did that by engaging in combat with demons and monsters so that, by defeating them, they would further modify their genetic material. Great feats were the surest way to cement great dynasties.

Such selection went on for millennia. In the end, the inner structures of noble clans differed significantly from those lacking any traces of “blue blood.” For instance, children born with four—sometimes even five—unlocked attributes were far from a rare occurrence. Moreover, right off the bat the attributes could be filled not to the minimum capacity, but closer to medium or even max values. Thus, a year-old noble tot could easily overpower a two-year-old peasant toddler, while an unarmed teenager could demolish a couple of armed grownups.

Naturally, such gifted children weren’t a given—exceptions weren’t exceptionally rare. In most cases, such blunders of nature were remedied in one way or another. For the rest, the child grew up a noble in name only—whereas true bluebloods regarded him with either pity or scorn.

I was the prime example of the above. The son of a mother from an ancient clan and a father who, though his identity was unknown, clearly hadn’t been a commoner. Going by Treya’s hints, he might have been even more powerful than her. Speaking of mother, she was actually on the inferior end in terms of talents. A typical case of being born second-rate and the weakening clan being unable to remedy her shortcomings early enough in life.

Just as my shortcomings hadn’t been remedied. Only I wasn’t second-rate, but completely dysfunctional. And that was a rare deviation from the norm, among commoners as well as among nobles. Typically, an infant without attributes and the first degree of enlightenment died within days of birth. Some could even hold out a month or longer, but the end was always the same.

I had lasted until thirteen years of age. According to Rock’s measurement scale, at least—I didn’t quite know how long it would be in Earth time. In many ways I was still an alien, still thinking in terms of pounds and seconds in a world that operated by entirely different standards.

Why me? Why had I survived where all the others had died? That was a whole other story, of which I only knew certain details for certain. And I might not ever find out all of it.

The only thing that mattered now was that today I was given a chance to become normal. Or at least come closer to it. After deliberating for what felt like a lifetime, I finally risked it and activated two personal embodiments of the Strength attribute. One of the six stars in my structure lit up dimly and counted up to the number two—the number of points earned. Now I just had to accumulate anywhere from ten to fifty to end up with one complete attribute.

Were the accumulated points going to leak like my chi? I didn’t know. This was an experiment.

Chi was leaking at a pace of five-seven units per day. If, upon waking tomorrow, I would discover both points were still there, I would allocate the rest of the points.

Carrying such treasures on my person made me uneasy. I was starting to understand Beko.

This was mine.

And I wasn’t going to give it up. To anyone.

Chapter 19 A Very Crucial Choice

No Stat Changes

At night, my dreams were nightmares. Something dark, faceless and impossibly terrifying was trying to break into the cellar assigned to us by Ash. His greedy hands were reaching for Beko, trying to take from him his most precious and mysterious treasure, then for me with the same criminal goal. I kept tossing and turning on the hard corduroy mat, raised slightly over the dirt floor. We had brought in some straw from our former home, but it wasn’t enough to sleep comfortably. And there wasn’t anywhere to get more—this wasn’t the season for it.

Somewhere up and down and south of Blackriver, there were a sort of subsidiaries of the fort. Nearly typical villages where farmers grew fine harvests, taking advantage of the fertile soil in these untamed lands. There would be plenty of straw left over from the winter crops, but we would need to wait for it first.

In the end, I woke up groggy and tired, but my sourness instantly evaporated at the realization that, despite the insinuation of my night terror, my two Strength points hadn’t gone anywhere.

I checked the chi level. Seventy-six points. Same pace of leakage—no changes there.

Well, time to take the next step. Not right away, of course, but over breakfast. While killing the leftovers of yesterday’s feast, I would stage a veritable inner revolution. For some reason I had found that my brain worked better over food, as if my stomach stimulated the thinking process. Oh, and the lovely vistas that opened from my beloved wall had a pleasant soothing effect, helping to thwart the temptation of rushing, which was fraught with mistakes.

Let’s start with the attributes.

Thanks to my modest reserves in the invisible pouch combined with the trophies earned from yesterday’s victory over the kote, I had plenty of material to work with. Typically, the Order granted a person minor essences of attributes, provided said attributes were already unlocked. If unlocked, you could get personal embodiments of attributes instead. Either way, the drops were limited to one unit at a time, and the embodiments could then be used for unlocking an attribute for the first time. Without that first action, the minor essences couldn’t be used. Also of note was that personal embodiments could only be used by the person who had gotten them—to everyone else, they were complete and utter garbage. For this reason,