Unsurprisingly, Hiral only got a single notification window. Part of him had hoped doing something like beating an S-Rank opponent would be separate from defeating the guardian, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Stingy PIMP.

  Then again, maybe the one achievement they got would be worth it? Only one way to find out, and Hiral turned his attention to the window.

  Achievement: On Guard, No More

  Reward: Class Modification—PIM Upgrade: PIM Supremacy

  PIM Supremacy—Choose 1 attribute (Str, Dex, End, Int, Wis, or Atn) and have ALL abilities modified by that choice.

  Str—All offensive abilities gain a physical damage component. All defensive and supportive abilities grant the target resistance to physical damage.

  Dex—All offensive abilities benefit from significant bonus damage on critical hits. All defensive and supportive abilities grant the target resistance to critical hits and critical hit damage.

  Note: The offensive benefit of this choice is separate from normal critical hit damage bonuses, and is untyped, meaning it ignores resistance to critical hits or resistance to the type of attack that generates the critical hit.

  Note (2): This ability can score critical hits on creatures or objects normally immune to critical hits.

  End—All offensive abilities reduce the maximum health of the target by a proportion of the damage done, by preventing healing beyond that new, lower threshold. All defensive and supportive abilities grant the target increased maximum health.

  Int—All offensive abilities gain a non-physical damage component. All defensive and supportive abilities grant the target resistance to non-physical damage.

  Wis—All offensive abilities add a stacking damage-over-time component per each ability used. All defensive and supportive abilities grant the target a stacking heal-over-time component for each ability used.

  Note: Stacking increases both the intensity and duration of the components.

  Atn—All offensive abilities gain an increased chance to take effect. All defensive and supportive abilities grant the target resistance to hostile abilities taking effect.

  Note: For all choices, the higher the numerical value of the attribute chosen, the more potent the resulting effect.

  Note (2): The more potent the ability usage, the more potent the effect of PIM Supremacy

  Hiral blinked at the notification window. There wasn’t much else he could do—aside from reading it a second and third time—before he opened his mouth to speak. Nothing came out. If this ability really did what it said it did, that was incredible. And completely worth only getting one achievement for killing the S-Rank guardian.

  Every single one of the options offered a powerful boon to all abilities connected to PIMs? For the others, that would basically be all of their abilities—except for maybe Laseen, as a vampire—and for Hiral…?

  The ability description didn’t say all PIM abilities, but instead all abilities. And, because of two of the abilities he’d gotten from his advanced class—Seeker of the Runic Cycle—there was a very good chance PIM Supremacy would work with his runes and Edicts too.

  Class Ability (Passive): Runic Infusion—Through connecting your soul to your PIM via your runes—How did you even come up with that idea?—all abilities granted through the PIM can more easily be improved by rune or Edict-based enhancements. Amount of empowerment is… unknown.

  Class Ability (Passive): Custom Made—Due to the development of Runic Infusion, your PIM has been conditioned to more easily interact and benefit from abilities stemming entirely from runes (eg. Claws of Separation, Pseudo-Aspect, and Gravity Bombs). While these abilities will not appear within your Status Window, they will see increased compatibility with you PIM, resulting in greater effectiveness.

  It clearly stated the things he was doing with his runes and Edicts were classified as abilities.

  “Did you all get something call PIM Supremacy?” Yanily said, for once not already pulsing with the energy signifying he’d made his choice.

  “Oh yeah,” Seeyela said. “Oh yeah.”

  “I didn’t even know something like this was possible,” Laseen said.

  “Is it really that big of a deal?” Romin asked. “How is it different than having an ability with a dependency on something like endurance or strength?”

  “When you put it in simple terms like that,” Laseen said, already cackling. “Nothing!”

  “And if you were to put in more complex terms?” Seena probed the vampire.

  “Abilities like the kiddo is talking about, those are common, and easy to program into the PIMP,” Laseen said. She pointed at Right. “He’s the best example of that. No offense, but you started as an ability. Foundational Split.”

  “I’m still an ability,” Right said.

  “Not since you got a soul, no,” Laseen said with a shake of her head. “Not in the slightest. But, let’s not get into that, since it’ll just complicate my explanation more. What’s your main stat?”

  “Strength,” Right said without question.

  “And what’s it help you do?”

  “Punch things.”

  “Would intelligence help you?”

  “Debatable question,” Left answered before Right could.

  “Would it help you punch things better?” Laseen clarified with only a slight chuckle.

  “Not really? Dexterity helps me with critical hits, which helps my punching, though,” Right said.

  “Dexterity also helps you hit,” Laseen pointed out, to which Right nodded. “But it doesn’t help the punch itself. Punching is a strength-based ability. Make sense so far?”

  Everybody nodded.

  “Good,” Laseen said. “Boy, can you share your Hundred Handed ability with the class?”

  “Uh… sure,” Hiral said, doing just that.

  Hundred Handed+: Gain control of eight spectral arms to make attacks or conduct actions for 3 minutes per Rank (current duration is 18 minutes)

  Note: Damage of attacks based off Str or Dex (whichever is higher).

  Note (2): Speed of limbs based off based off Str or Dex (whichever is higher).

  Note (3): Precision and deftness of hands based off Wis or Atn (whichever is higher).

  Note (4): Skills and Abilities can now be channeled through limbs produced by Hundred Handed+ as if they were the user’s own natural limbs.

  Note (5): Don’t worry, these don’t explode—unless you want them to.

  “This is where things start changing,” Laseen said. “And probably what you’re getting at, kiddo.”

  “His punching can be based off dexterity,” Right said.

  “Not his punching, but the ability’s,” Laseen corrected. “How this works is it permanently changes the ability within your PIM. Boy, you can look at PIM abilities in a way the rest of us can’t, when you do, do you see channels—or coding—in there for it to be able to use either strength or dexterity?”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Without an immediate answer, Hiral dove into his PIM universe—as he called it—to look more closely at the layout of the ability. Now the same shape as his Rune of Eclipse—his soul as the central point, glowing like a sun—he didn’t bother stopping the small smile that appeared every time he looked at it. When he got to Hundred Handed+, another of his abilities activated to help him explore it.

  Enduring Mind+: Exposure to the building blocks of PIM magic has sharpened your mind. Gain increased resistance to mental overload and insight into future modifications.

  You’re just going to do this again anyway.

  It didn’t take him long to find what Laseen was asking him about.

  “Huh,” he said. “The ability only accepts dexterity to power it, I think. No, that’s not quite right. It’s still powered by solar energy, like any ability. But, the solar energy that goes into it is refined by my dexterity? It’s like the attribute acts as a filter to multiply the quality of the energy, making it more potent, to make the ability stronger. None of the other attributes have the same kind of channel directly connecting to Hundred Handed, though it almost looks like scar tissue where strength used to connect.

  “Same for wisdom and attunement in the control-section of the ability,”

  “Scar tissue,” Laseen said, snapping her fingers. “That’s a great way to describe it. For abilities like this one, even though it says stat-A or stat-B, it really only accepts one. Whichever is the highest. And, I’ll be straight with you here, we didn’t program the PIMP well enough to be able to switch back and forth. Each time it changes which attribute it uses as a primary source for an ability is going to cause minor damage to that ability.

  “If you were to flip-flop back and forth on your highest stat, boy, between strength and dexterity, you’d eventually see the potency of Hundred Handing dropping. It can only take so many alterations before it falls apart.”

  “That… doesn’t sound healthy,” Yanily said.

  “It’s really not,” Laseen cackled. “But, it’s not like it happens a lot. We figured most people would have a primary attribute they would lean into. Your PIMs just work better that way, and the PIMP would guide you—gently—by granting you abilities based on your stats and styles.”

  “Which is why we always got items or abilities that fit us?” Seeyela said.

  “Just so,” Laseen said. “You might—on occasion—get something that doesn’t feel like it’s a match, but that’s just because you haven’t figured out the same thing the PIMP has.

  “It saw girlie leaning into burning stuff, so she started getting more fire-abilities. You, Seeyela, you’ve got a mix of venoms and portals. Interesting—and deadly—combination, and the PIMP helped you expand your bag of tricks.”

  “What about me?” Yanily said.

  “You’ve got a spear and a sponsor that you seem very happy with, knucklehead,” Laseen said. “Along with an uncanny proficiency for both. The PIMP knows you don’t need to diversify.”

  “That’s all actually pretty interesting,” Seena said. “But, back to this ability we just got?”

  “It’s going to add new channels—new filters—to all of our abilities,” Hiral said before Laseen could. “And that’s kind of amazing in more than one way. First off, it’s going to do that to all of our abilities. Second, it’s going to double-dip.

  “Take Hundred Handed, for example,” Hiral said, making sure the window was still open for the others. “It uses my dexterity to determine power, right? Normally—I think—it couldn’t accept another direct-dexterity modifier, because that channel is already there. It’s like, every ability has six possible channels going to it—one for each attribute—but this is going to add a seventh channel.”

  “Exactly,” Laseen said. “I’m not sure how the PIMP figured out how to do this, but I don’t expect the benefit of it to be small.”

  “It also allows each of us to customize our builds in a unique way,” Left said. “Right, for example, could lean into his strength-focused build to add even more physical damage to each blow. Or, he could diversify by adding a damage-over-time component, or non-physical damage.”

  “Hold on,” Hiral interrupted. “We? And you’re using Right as the example. You two got the achievement reward as well? Separate from me?”

  “We did,” Left said simply.

  “Whaaaat? When were you going to tell me?”

  “I just did.”

  Now it was Hiral’s turn to rub the bridge of his nose.

  “It makes sense,” Laseen said. “They have souls now, and you did the Edict-stitching thing for them too. They have PIMs of their own, and this is the first achievement we’ve all gotten since then.”

  Nodding, Hiral got over his initial shock of the situation, and, really, there was only one thing to say about it. “That’s amazing.”

  Both his doubles nodded, each looking a little prouder at getting abilities—and a choice—that was entirely their own.

  “What should we take?” Romin asked.

  “Left has a point about diversity,” Yanily said. “On the other hand, that second-to-last note of the ability is important.” He pulled it up for all to see, just in case there was any question.

  Note: For all choices, the higher the numerical value of the attribute chosen, the more potent the resulting effect.

  “Hate to say it,” he continued. “My endurance is kind of trash compared to my dexterity and strength. Even my wisdom is higher. From the way the note reads, I’d see way less of a benefit from taking it over one of those other three stats.”

  “While mine is the opposite,” Romin said. “At least compared to my dexterity. How would this work with Wallop and I combining into our Onslaught form? We get a nice bump to both strength and endurance then.”

  “Or Eloquently Enraged?” Seeyela prompted, and all eyes went to Laseen.

  “No way to know,” the vampire said. “But… this is an S-Rank ability we’re talking about. Given for defeating an S-Rank opponent. It’s got to be good. Even with everything I said before, if the ability didn’t account for stat-jumps from buffs, I’d put it as a High-A-Rank ability at most. Quality wise.

  “My money is on it getting more potent with the more buffs we stack that raise our attributes.”

  “Aspects,” Yanily said. “Eloquently Enraged, Banner of Courage… to name a few.”

  “I like the idea of shoring up some weaknesses,” Seena said. “Especially after that Possessed General we fought back in the Cradle. It had a way to ignore types of damage entirely. If Right had the non-elemental damage from PIM Supremacy, maybe he could’ve kept hurting him.”

  “As Yanily would say, and no comments from you two,” Right pointed at Hiral and Left both. “My intelligence is trash. I can’t see it amounting to much. Even with all the benefits we got from Greater Inspired Evolutional Inspiration+. None of my other stats even hold a candle to my strength.”

  “I’m going to take the wisdom-related ability,” Seeyela said. “I know, I’m already working with a lot of damage-over-time effects from my venoms and poisons, and maybe I’d benefit more from some straight damage, but…”

  “But?” Seena prompted.

  “My fighting style has already evolved around doing things this way,” Seeyela said. “And, the way the ability reads, the more I hit—with any ability—the stronger I can make this effect. I hit pretty fast, and my wisdom is my best stat. It just makes sense.”

  The rest of the party nodded along with her assessment, and Yanily spoke up next.

  “I can’t decide between strength and dexterity,” the spearman said.

  “Your dexterity is higher?” Hiral said, though he already knew the answer.

  “By a bit, yeah. Not a huge amount,” Yanily said. “The strength one sounds like it’s every ability, while the dexterity one needs a critical hit to work. So, less often?”

  “I bet it balances out by doing more damage when it does trigger,” Hiral said, looking to Laseen for confirmation of his theory.

  “Good chance he’s right,” Laseen said

  “How often to you get critical hits?” Seena asked the spearman.

  “A lot,” Yanily said. “Especially when we’ve got the domains out.”

  “With how short the cooldown is now,” Hiral said. “That’s pretty much all the time. The dexterity one might be your best bet.”

  Yanily nodded like he agreed with the statement.

  “I’m going with endurance,” Laseen said, a little surprisingly. “Yeah, wisdom and the heal-over-time would’ve been great, but between me and Left, we’ve already got those. Now, raising maximum health, that sounds interesting. My endurance isn’t my best stat. Also not my worst. Perks of being a vampire.

  “Assuming kiddo is going to take the same thing?”

  “We’re trying to decide between strength and endurance,” Romin admitted, Wallop—in his miniaturized form—sat on the ground beside him. Somewhere along the way, a small notebook had been placed on the ground in front of him, and the little Rune-o seemed absorbed by the notes on the page.

  Can he even read?

  “I think I agree with you,” Romin continued to Laseen. “The bonus damage from the strength option would be very helpful, but…” He looked around at the others. “As shown in our battle against the Prince of the Swamp, damage is not something we lack in this party.

  “Being able to increase our own health, and reduce that of our enemies, that seems more useful. Especially in our role as tanks.”

  “What about you, Seena?” Seeyela asked her sister. “What are you thinking?”

  “Why me?” Seena said. “Why not ask Hiral?”

  “He’s taking attunement,” Seeyela said without missing a beat, with Yanily and Laseen both nodding along beside her.

  “How can you be sure he isn’t taking dexterity?” Seena said. “It’s his highest stat. And he crits basically non-stop.”

  “Attunement,” Seeyela said again with the kind of confidence only an older sister could bring to bear.

  The party leader turned to look at Hiral, and he just nodded.

  “She’s right,” Hiral said. “The description is the most vague, but considering what I’m doing with my runes and Edicts lately, it makes the most sense. More damage from the dexterity one would be great, but like Romin said, we’re not lacking in damage as a party. Besides, if Yanily has it, we can probably all get the buff effect when he uses his domain.

  “My attunement is also more than good enough to make it strong, too.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” Seena said, nodding at the logic of it. “Right is strength then?”

  “Makes the most sense,” the double said.

  “What about you, Left?”

  “Depends on you,” Left said. “If you don’t take the intelligence one, I will. The buff part of it—resistance to non-physical damage—seems too good for the party to pass up.”

  “And if I do take it?”

  “While it may not be my highest attribute,” Left said. “Wisdom. I had considered attunement, but I believe the buff Hiral gives us with his scarves will be enough to trigger the resistance to harmful effect boon. Your aura, domain, or defensive ability should all grant the resistance to non-physical damage.

  “And, though I agree with Laseen that we already have heal-over-time options, I see no reason not to have more. Especially if we’re getting increases to our maximum health through the endurance effect.”

  “Good logic,” Seena said. “I’ll take intelligence then.”

  “Sounds like we’ve got everything covered,” Hiral said.

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Yanily said, clearly making his selection in the notification window. The others followed suit not a heartbeat later.

  At which point they all realized the one downside to the PIM upgrades.

  The agonizing pain that dropped them all to the ground.

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