Chapter 119: Paths

He read every single Path there was, even going deep into the night. He knew there were only four days left in the Tutorial, supposedly because of him, but this matter was too important to leave for another time. Who knew what might happen after the Tutorial ended?",

Then, he finally got to the Legendary Paths.

[Conduit of the All (Legendary)]

[Are you a Beast Tamer? Or a Master of All? By collecting beasts of certain skill and skill types, using them as a conduit to master Professions outside your realm of expertise. Want to be a weapon smith? Tame an Earth Giant. Want to be an alchemist? Tame a Phoenix of legend. Want to be a poison master? Time the Thousand Colored Serpent]

[Gaze of the Master (Legendary)]

[There is no need for a Master of your stature to lower yourself to combat. Directly subdue beasts with Will within 100% of your own]

[Tamer of Elements (Legendary)]

[It is said that Elemental Aether is extraordinarily rare, but not to the likes of you. Master any Elemental Aether your beast controls, swap between them freely and gain an amplification to your prowess that others can only envy]

[Were-for-the-Invincible (Legendary)]

[Werebeasts are the stuff of horror and the bane of man, but that only refers to the weak. Fuse with any of your beasts and gain 50% of their stats as well as all of their Skills and Gene Talents]

[Tamer of Dimensions (Legendary)]

[The Beasts of Legend exist across all known and unknown Existence, impossible to find to all but you. Form a Dimension of your own to store your beasts, and open gateways to explore new worlds to find more]

[Divine Protection (Legendary)]

[The Beasts of Legend are Gods to the common folk, and to you they provide their Blessings. Offset your damage to your beasts and avoid harm. In addition, claim their Blessings for a short time]

[Beast Sage (Legendary)]

[Taming Beasts of Legend is at the bottom of your priority list. You don't tame them, you create them. Unlock a string of abilities related to guiding and evolving beasts to reach past their full potential and become the stuff of Legend]

[One Kind For Me (Legendary)]

[You have realized that trying to be a Master of All will only make you a Master of None. Rather than trying to tame an assortment of beasts, you focus on a single Kind. Your intimacy allows you to share their Blessings, understand their story, and unlock their greatest potential. Gain access to Beast Totem]

[Taboo Bond (Legendary)]

[Your blasphemy knows no bounds, and your pursuit of knowledge is relentless. In your hands, the enigma of Genes is malleable and your beasts are your clay. Fuse beasts to create a new species, splice them apart to shed weakness or add the strengths of one to another, even change your own body to something no longer recognizable. However, be mindful. The Taboo is not to be taken lightly]

Sylas fell deep into his thoughts. Reading through the nine options, he actually felt that he had made a smart decision by reading through the thousands of others, even when they were clearly far inferior. And that was because of one important concept...

Synergy.

When the system gave him an option of three Paths, then opened up all these Paths to him, it was almost like dangling a treasure in front of a dragon with a hoarding problem. Most would probably just look for whichever seemed the shiniest and take a dive head first.

However, Sylas' brain was beginning to build up a different network of understanding. When he got to see the full picture, he noticed many things.

For one, the Legendary Paths seemed to be a fusion of many of the lesser abilities, converging into a final set of nine.

Second, even the Legendary Paths seemed to have quite some overlap in their meanings and what they could do. They weren't obvious at first glance, but with the context of everything else, Sylas began to see many things...

For example, there was Gaze of the Master and One Kind For Me. These two were seemingly entirely unrelated... at least on the surface.

However, the Beast Totem of One Kind For Me had many functions, one of which was almost identical to Gaze of the Master. Of course, it only worked on a single kind of creature, but the point still stood.

Then there was Beast Sage and One Kind For Me. Clearly, the abilities of guiding and helping beasts to evolve was baked into One Kind For Me as well, it was just that, once again, it could only be used on a single kind of beast.

And what about Were-for-the-Invincible and Tamer of Elements? When you fused with your beast, if you gained theirs Skills and Gene Talents, couldn't that also spill over into this so-

called Elemental Aether?

The way these Paths overlapped wasn't obvious at first glance, but the more you looked at it, the more glaring it became. And if you took a step back and took note of the lesser talents they were fused from, then one could see how they came about.

It was precisely that line of thought that made Sylas realize something...

These Legendary Paths were forged with many lesser Paths as their foundation. If all of those lesser Paths could come to create such powerful abilities, and there was also so much overlap between the Legendary Paths as well... then instead of trying to maximize his variety, should he actually be doing the exact opposite?

If he picked Legendary Paths that had great synergy between them, then when they worked together to improve his strength, would he actually be able to create something beyond even a Legendary Path?

The more Sylas thought about it, the more he felt that this had to be correct. In fact, it felt like a hidden clue flashing right in his face.

'Then, before I chose, I should make a list of cons. The pros are clearly listed here already. There's no need to go over them...'