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

This decision wasn’t a decision at all. The optimal choice was painfully obvious: Angler. After all, if I failed at supplying the fort with kote on the regular, Ash’s attitude towards me would sour, and I wanted desperately to avoid that.

After unlocking the talent, I further enhanced it with two of the four greater talent marks received yesterday. Each boosted it by fifty points, so one hundred in all, the maximum possible. The initial single point became redundant, but the Order compensated its disappearance with a single lesser symbol of chi.

That had unlocked specialization branches from which to select second-tier talents. Choosing any one of them would block the development of others, but not for good. I could always unlock the same talent again, pump it past the initial ten points, and then select another branch. The Order would then consider them separate talents, though each would still require one attribute level as foundation.

Though the selection was plentiful, the attribute requirements for these advanced talents were also more stringent, and my single point of Stamina made only a few of them accessible. After studying the general description of each branch, I settled on Fishing Instinct, which, upon proper development, promised to help identify places of concentration of fish, and even the location of specific types of fish, provided it met certain size requirements.

Just what the fisherman ordered. I boosted the unlocked second-tier talent with the remaining greater standard marks, raising my Fishing Instinct to ten, the tier’s maximum. To go further, I would need to choose from the third tier, but the attribute requirements were out of my reach. For example, I would have loved to double my chances of catching fish with a cast net, but that required having both Stamina and Strength at two at a minimum.

Raising a first-tier talent to the next tier required ten points of chi. And twenty at the second tier. All in all, the price for the progress made amounted to three hundred chi, but I now had sufficient confidence in my abilities to make these sacrifices without any emotional anguish or fear of depleting my reservoir. A daily loss of a few points was nothing compared to the world of possibilities opening up before me.

Now that the talents were done, only the “strategic dessert” was left. States.

I had acquired two greater embodiments: Equilibrium and Enhanced Enlightenment. Equilibrium was simple enough in that it modified the limit in number of attributes by one degree. What benefit did I stand to gain by expanding my reservoir capacity? That wasn’t so clear. Still, it didn’t cost anything to activate, so activate it I would.

I unlocked Enhanced Enlightenment, which opened at the expected fifty points and now displayed a 0.50 value—half of the minimum it required to function. And I was quite all right with that.

The rest went into Equilibrium. Three greater standard universal states, yielding one hundred fifty points total, one greater standard universal state for another twenty-five, plus eleven lesser essences of Equilibrium inherited from mother. Why she had kept these treasures, I would never know. As far as I knew, she hadn’t possessed Equilibrium herself. Could she have hoped to develop it in me? With her gone, I would never know...

With the starting fifty, the state’s value was now at 2.36, though only the integer mattered. There was no rounding or fractional benefits. The next upgrade would only manifest once the value reached 3.

But this was already enough to pump as much as eight attribute levels per degree instead of the standard six.

And in this respect, I surpassed the capabilities of even most nobles, and especially children and teenagers. For all of their normalcy, they couldn’t hold a candle to me, a zero-degree cripple.

Two greater symbols of chi, equating to one hundred points, went into a single attribute point. Twenty-five were spent on the leaking reservoir. And the last seven were kept as means of payment.

What remained of my treasures looked far less impressive than before.

Lesser Symbol of Chi x7

Lesser Essence of Melee Combat x10

Lesser Essence of Iron Skin x10

Greater Standard Talent Mark x1 (+25 to any talent)

Talent Mark, Scent of Blood x2

Talent Mark, Detect Poison x1

Talent Mark, Detect Traps x1

Personal Talent Mark, Novice Jeweler x1

Personal Talent Mark, Novice Healer x1

Personal Talent Mark, Novice Stonecutter x2

Personal Talent Mark, Novice Carpenter x1

Standard Talent Mark x11

Compared to this morning, I was a pauper. If only Beko had any clue as to the fortunes that were evaporating right in front of his nose as he chowed down, he would throw himself off the cliff thrice over.

But I wasn’t Beko. I was quite content with everything.

I had become stronger. In terms of immediate gains, the changes weren’t very drastic.

From a strategic standpoint, however, I had leaped a dozen steps on the staircase leading up to the local Olympus.

On that thought, the hunk of cheese fell out of my slackened hand as I grabbed on to Beko to keep from plummeting from the wall.

My vision had grown dark, and my ears had stopped detecting sounds.

Chapter 20 Fishless Fishing

Degrees of Enlightenment: 0 (101/888)

Shadow: 101

Attributes:

Stamina: level 1, 75 points

Strength: level 0, 4 points

Agility: level 0, 57 points

Perception: NA, 50 points

Spirit: NA, 50 points

Talents:

Fishing Instinct (tier 2): 10/10

States:

Equilibrium (2.36): level 2

Enhanced Enlightenment (0.5): level 0

“Ged! What is wrong with you, Ged?!” Beko chirped in my ear.

My hearing was recovering faster than my sight. Craning my neck in a struggle to raise my head off my chest, I mumbled a response.

“I’m all right... I think... It got dark all of a sudden. And my hearing disappeared. Maybe the food was rotten...”

“No, the food isn’t to blame,” Beko protested. “You’re