In the wide open space of the crystal based dungeon, the light gently reflected off the walls and along the essence vein as the viscous liquified essence gently flowed on, by the bank stood Denwen with a very wide grin suddenly realizing the broken nature of his innate ability.
A memory of a lecture began to replay in his mind:
"Innate abilities are unique to each individual as each innate ability can be a battle decider" Kael mentions as a list of various renowned people popped up in a hologram and their known innate abilities by their side.
"No matter how strong a warrior might be, or how high leveled in ranks such a person might be, if his opponents has a very strong innate ability, he might most likely lose that battle or at the very least, won't be able to harm the opponents, even if he is a rank stronger" he said walking around.
"Take for instance Avaris Dune, the great mage of the space kingdom, whose innate ability is called: Golden Ratio. Golden Ratio provides the best ways his body can negate any sort of attack or defense instantly finding the weak points to everything thrown at him and causing his body to instantly adapt his strengths to those weaknesses"
"With this ability he managed to hold off a team of five rank 5s when he was only a rank 3, causing his opponents to rethink before engaging him. And just like with every strong skill, innate abilities have very strong drawbacks especially when overused" Kael came to a pause in the lecture as the memory faded.
---
Denwen after thinking about this turned to look at Riven: "So what is the drawback of boundless, sure it can't just mean that I don't mean to pass through the sub-ranks anymore" he said.
"Do you think I would unlock something as faulty as that for you. I am the construct of evolution; I don't just give things that others can relate to" Riven bragged his wings flapping.
Denwen was stunned and couldn't believe it, he looked at the screen again as he saw the locked active skill- 'Prime Algorithm'. He was about to ask when Riven like he could read his mind answered:
"Nope, that skill is locked for a reason, it can only be unlocked when you are in a life and death situation at this point because your complexity is still too low to handle it. Each time you use it, I am not sure how much of yourself would return so it's best not to be curious" he responded.
"Ok, how about my stats, how are those even calculated" he asked changing topic.
"Stats are measured digits each individual is able to have when they make use of their full power. The finest unawakened beings have at most 8 points with the finest unawakened humans having just 5 points. Because of the synchronization and not because you were some special child of destiny, you had 13 points in each category, luckily you lived with a happy family else you might have become a lab rat."
"Well thinking about it now, you did become a lab rat at one point" Riven said with a slight chuckle causing Denwen to give him a glare:
"What, you aren't even aware that Agrona tried to tamper with your core that night, even though it would boost your essence circulation properly it would turn you to her slave or worse, I was able to stop that by refining the serum heading for your core and converting it with a bit of my strength that I had recovered to boost your talent Grade to C" Riven revealed causing Denwen to open his eyes.
"Wait, you mean my talent upgrade was because of you" he said remembering that day and Agrona's very surprised reaction.
"Yes, that was me, and you should be more grateful" Riven said bopping up and down with pride.
Denwen was stunned, he thought that maybe Agrona had just suddenly turned and betrayed them for some reason and she wouldn't have tried anything else to him, but he was so wrong.
"Don't be let down boy, at least because of that you were able to break through and keep your position in class, besides if you think your current digits are large, just wait till you meet stronger people, heheheh" Riven laughed as he changed the topic.
"Thank you" Denwen spoke in a softly almost inaudible voice.
"Huh, did you say something" Riven acted like he didn't hear.
"I said thank you" Denwen said a bit louder
"Still not loud enough…"
WHAMM
He was still talking when Denwen smacked him to the ground, causing him to bounce around.
"I am not repeating myself again do you understand" he said shouting.
"Yes, sir" Riven answered in a very weak tone"
---
Standing by the bank Denwen could hear the battle echoes reaching them as the fight should have reached the climax:
"Doesn't boundless basically makes me needing resources like essence cores to advance or refill useless" he asked as Riven stayed calmly on his shoulder.
"Yup, you weren't even going to get anywhere with those. Normally, without me the best you would have gotten would be a Grade B, but now, you are even in a better position than all Grade A's on the planet, and even those in higher ranks can't hold a candle to you. Don't worry once Boundless levels up you would be surprised at the capabilities at your disposal" Riven said with pride.
"Interesting, so how do I level it up?" he asked with a smile.
"When you rank up it levels up alongside you" Riven replied.
"And how do I rank up if essence cores are useless to me" Denwen asked with a sarcastic glare.
"Well read the requirements dumbass" it replied as Denwen called for the Menu screen once more his eyes going straight to the requirements:
…
{Requirements for Advancement}
➤ Assimilate your first Law to unlock further system features.
➤ Assimilate five laws to level 3 to breakthrough.
"What the hell is Law Assimilation" Denwen asked in a shocked tone.
"Hehehe, then your in for a treat" it said as it spread out its wings and began flying.
"Rather than tell, I can just show you, follow me" Riven said flying excitedly down the path they had just come from towards the room with the several carcasses.
In a world ruled by talent and ranks, Denwen was about to take his first true step — not as a follower, but as a challenger.