MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

“Well… no need to beat yourself up to that extent.”

Hearing the man in front of him outright admit that the disparity in their titles was his fault, Valyr’s expression slightly softened as he gave him a faint reassuring smile.

“After all, you did tell us earlier that you didn’t know anything about the matter beforehand,” the young man continued. “Of course, that still begs the question.”

“What’s the reason behind the disparity in our titles?”

“It’s quite obvious if you give a bit of thought,” replied Marcus after a bit of silence, taking in a deep breath as he gave the young man a knowing smile.

“It’s the only major thing that’s happened in the Mystic Plane after your student.”

“…Wait.” As those words left the man’s mouth, the gears in Valyr’s mind began to turn as the various possibilities he came up with gradually began to converge.

At some point, he gave his other self a brief glance, who looked back at him as if the conclusion they arrived at was something they should’ve thought about from the start.

“Seriously?”

“Is there anything else in this place that could possibly change its effects?” Seeing that the young man understood what he was trying to say, Marcus gave him a slight shrug as he confirmed the former’s suspicions.

“Well… aside from my actions, that is.”

“…Damn.” With Marcus outright confirming it, both Valyr and Ataraxia decided not to think about the matter any further, even though they did notice that some of the other possibilities they had in mind were quite absurd.

“Wait a minute.” As for Mystia, she looked at the trio with a hint of confusion, considering that she didn’t even know why the conversation had come up in the first place. “What’s the reason behind the disparity, really?”

“The Mystic Plane itself.” Giving Marcus a brief glance, Valyr soon told her what she wanted to know after receiving an affirmative nod from the former.

“The reason why Ataraxia’s titles have better effects than ours is because of the transformations that have been happening to the Mystic Plane.”

“Yeah.” Marcus nodded at those words once more. “I didn’t really notice it at the time since the most number of people the Mystic Plane was able to recruit in the past at one time was two.”

“On the other hand, there are currently five people that are affiliated with the Mystic Plane,” he continued, giving the three a brief glance. “For reference, the remaining two in question are none other than Mystia’s disciples.”

Valyr nodded in understanding. “What position did you give them?”

“High-level,” answered the man, only to then flash a slight grin back at him.

“They’re powerful for their class rank, but compared to you three, the difference is incomparable.”

“In any case, we’ve gone off on a slight tangent,” said Marcus after that, not wanting the conversation to stray any further away from the previous topic.

“Let’s make things right, shall we?”

Whoosh!

Before any of the trio could say anything, the man went ahead and willed a large orb of Mystic Energy to appear in front of him, giving off the feeling that it was intrinsically connected to the core that powered the Mystic Plane.

Letting Valyr and the others stare at the orb for a bit, he then proceeded to split the orb into two, giving Ataraxia a knowing look after that as he sent the two halves of the orb towards Valyr and Mystia, respectively.

Swoosh!

Though they already had ideas on what the orb of Mystic Energy contained, the two were still caught somewhat off guard the moment their bodies made contact with one of the halves.

Feeling a mix of pressure and relief as his half of the orb merged with his body, Valyr soon felt a deluge of Mystic Energy cover his body both in and out, transforming certain aspects of it as he felt himself gradually become more attuned with the Mystic Plane.

Unsurprisingly, the same transformation was happening to Mystia as well, her calm expression showing slight pain every once in a while as the Mystic Energy coursing through her slowly reached a roaring crescendo.

Fortunately, it only took a few minutes for the duo’s transformations to conclude, the Mystic Energy surrounding him slowly falling to a lull as the two of them looked at each other after that.

“So…” With a look of anticipation and curiosity on her face, Mystia went ahead and asked Valyr what she felt was the most obvious question to ask.

“What changed?”

“Let me check…” Bringing up a screen in front of him the moment he heard the question, the young man swiftly proceeded to go through the short list of notifications he had received, as well as the newly updated descriptions of his titles.

Spending a bit of time going over his improved titles one by one, a satisfied smile eventually appeared on the young man’s face as he gave her an affirmative nod. “All of my titles now give an additional 5% compared to before.”

“How about you?”

“We’re comparing it to Ataraxia’s titles, right?” Though she also did not hesitate to go through her notifications the moment the question was asked, Mystia spent a bit of time clarifying the topic. “Or am I comparing the effects of my titles to yours?”

“Ataraxia’s.”

“Alright.” Receiving confirmation that her first thought was correct, Mystia went ahead and read through all of the updated descriptions of her titles, her eyes slightly widening as she noticed how much her titles had improved compared to before.

Briefly looking at Valyr and Ataraxia with a hint of envy after she was done reading, she softly took in a deep breath as she looked back at the former with a slightly bitter smile.

“Did it go up by the same amount?” Noticing the bitter smile on her face, Valyr immediately felt something was off. “If it did, that doesn’t make sense.”

“As the first to become a part of the Mystic Plane, surely it wouldn’t go up by just that much, no?”

“Don’t worry.” Mystia shook her head, giving the young man a reassuring smile. “It went up a lot more than that.”

“It’s just… a bit jarring to see how much it went up.”

“Jarring?” Curious, Valyr did not hesitate to ask more questions. “How so?”

“Guess how much of a boost I was getting from my titles on average?” she said in response, giving the duo a brief glance.

“Five percent?” asked Ataraxia, feeling like the number was correct after he thought about the disparity in his and Valyr’s titles.

“More like half of that, actually,” she replied, leaving no room for the two to reply as she soon lifted up two fingers for them to see.

“Two percent.”

“That’s the average boost I got from my titles.”