MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 871  Four Pillars: Secrets of the System

After spending half a year on his own fighting against the beasts that roamed where Veldanyr used to thrive, Vaughn had been able to push his level beyond Rank 2, being around the halfway point to achieving Rank 3.

Though the classes and subclasses heʼd obtained along the way were Uncommon grade at the highest, the fact that he had gotten to a Rank 2 class now gave him the confidence to travel the streets of Veldanyr without worry.

On one fateful day, after returning from a quick fighting session against beasts that were around the middle of Rank 2 in strength, Vaughn returned to the laboratory with a satisfied yet tired expression.

Thanking the foresight of their civilization before it all went to ruin once more, the man grabbed some food and water to satiate both his hunger and thirst.

While doing so, he pondered over learning a skill that improved his cooking, reminding himself of the many skills heʼd gained thus far by repetitively doing various actions.

At the same time, this made him think about the various skills heʼd gained from his class, faintly smiling as he thought about the damage he could deal to the beasts because of it.

By the time he had finished eating and drinking his fill, Vaughn browsed through the various screens making up the Apparatus, taking a look at his status screen and skill screen at the same time.

Being reminded of the fact that he had amassed a decent chunk of XP from fighting the beasts earlier, he thought about allocating some of that XP towards his skills after noticing that a lot of them were nowhere near reaching the max level.

However, before he could even come to a conclusion to the matter, a certain part of his status screen had caught his attention.

”Wait… that wasnʼt there before.”

Dispelling his skill screen for the meantime, Vaughn furrowed his brows as he brought his status screen up in front of him.

Looking through it a couple of times, he eventually focused his attention on a line of text below his stats, querying the system for more information on the matter as he looked at it.

————

Hidden Stats: 10 Authority

———— ”Authority…”

Muttering the name of the stat to himself, Vaughn soon obtained a response from the system on what hidden stats were, swiftly finding out that they were something that were usually only obtained after one had gotten to Rank 5.

Curious as to why he had gotten something like that so early after learning the systemʼs logic, the man soon asked the system what the Authority stat specifically did.

In response, a screen appeared before his vision, filled to the brim with information and jargon that did not make sense to him at first.

Though, if there was one thing about it that differed from the other screens Vaughn had brought up thus far…

It was the fact that the screen before him now felt like it had an artificial aspect to it.

Ding!

Hearing the ever-familiar sound go off in his mind, Vaughn read through the information he was given in detail, his eyes widening with every additional sentence he went through.

By the time he was finished reading through all of it, the man stood frozen in place, staring off beyond the artificial screen in a daze.

It was only until a few minutes later did Vaughn return to his senses, closing the screen he had just brought up.

Bringing up his status screen after that, he focused his attention on the 10 Authority he had.

Then, all of a sudden, the screen he brought up gave off an artificial feeling, causing the Authority stat to disappear as if it wasnʼt there in the first place.

Seeing that his idea had worked, Vaughn felt a faint sense of jubilation, only to proceed with more experimentation now that his initial thoughts were confirmed.

As the young Vaughn continued to delve deeper into what seemed to be another part of the system, Valyr looked at the entire scene with both confusion and surprise on his face before glancing at Vaughn.

”Youʼre wondering what the Authority stat actually does, right?” Noticing the gaze the young man was giving him, the man already knew what the former wanted to ask.

Getting a nod from Valyr in response to the question, Vaughn faintly smiled back. ”And this is the reason why I brought you to this place. To think it took this long to get to this point.”

Hearing those words, the young man tilted his confusion, asking him what he meant by that.

In response, Vaughn merely smiled, only to snap his fingers soon after.

Snap!

”Huh…?” All of a sudden, Valyr felt like all of his strength was leaving his body, causing a panicked expression to appear on his face.

Feeling his connection to both mana and Shadow Energy gradually disappear as well, the young man looked at Vaughn as a myriad number of emotions flashed through his face once more.

Fortunately, such a moment was short-lived as the man snapped his fingers once more, returning Valyrʼs state to what it was before.

Nevertheless, that did not remove the feeling of anger Valyr felt towards Vaughn, especially after doing something like that all of a sudden.

Then again, Valyr instinctively understood that Vaughnʼs actions had something to do with the question in his mind, faintly shuddering after getting firsthand experience.

”The Authority stat is pretty self-explanatory,” said Vaughn after apologizing to Valyr. ”As the name implies, it gives you absolute authority.”

”Absolute authority over the system, that is.”

With his thoughts confirmed, Valyr looked back at the memory that was unfolding before the two, seeing that the young Vaughn had continued exploring the depths of the system.

From making certain stats disappear, the man moved onto changing the efficacy of his certain stats to changing the level and rarity of the skills in his status screen.

After that, he moved onto the various parts of the system he had never accessed before, such as titles and Intents.

Watching the young Vaughn tinker with the system as if he were a scientist manipulating the various variables of an experiment, Valyr soon returned his attention to the man beside him as he asked him a question.

”How did you obtain the Authority stat in the first place?”

At those words, Vaughn wryly smiled. ”To be honest, while I was finding out the limits of what the Authority stat had allowed me to do with the system, I had the same question in mind.”

”Of course, with so many years having passed since then, I now know the answer to that question.”

In response, Valyr raised his eyebrow, prompting the man to let out a bit of laughter.

”It was the two Arbiters that gave it to me. Baghʼrava and Qroʼdovitch.”

Hearing those words come from the manʼs mouth, Valyr looked at Vaughn in surprise, only for it to soon turn into confusion.

”Wait… but why, though?”

”Beats me.” Vaughn shrugged his shoulders. ”I guess they found it amusing to give someone who didnʼt know about the system beforehand greater access to the system. To see what someone would do with such access, probably.”

”Either way, those two giving it to me is incredibly likely, seeing as how they were able to give me access to the system in the first place, as well as directly give me a powerful skill on top of that.”

”If you think about it, doesnʼt it remind you of…”

”Authority…” muttered Valyr as he finished the manʼs sentence.

As Valyr pondered over the words Vaughn told him, the young man returned his attention to the memory before them, watching the young Vaughn explore more and more of what the system had to offer.

By the time a couple of days had passed since the initial discovery, Vaughn had discovered a couple of features that changed his way of thinking.

The first one was the feature to reset his system to how he had gotten it from the very beginning.

Though it meant that all of his hard work so far would go down the drain, it also meant that he had the opportunity to aim for better classes and skills, allowing him to unleash greater strength while still being at the same rank.

Aside from that, he had confirmed that he wouldnʼt lose [Mythical Immortality] if he were to reset it, finding it amusing that the skill stuck to him like a curse.

As for the second feature he discovered, it was the ability to enable or disable the existence of the system in other beings, whether individually or en masse.

After finding out that he had this ability, a great number of thoughts surfaced in his mind as he stood in the middle of his laboratory.

Then, after finally finding his train of thought, the man let out a long sigh, staring at the various machinery in front of him with a look of determination.

”I guess… it wouldnʼt be so bad to start all over again.”

With that in mind, Vaughn reseted his system to what it was before, bitterly smiling as he felt all of the strength heʼd accumulated disappear in mere moments.

Taking a deep breath to acclimate to his regressed prowess, the man then left the laboratory, this time with the confidence he had accrued throughout the past half year.

”Itʼll probably take a while to get back to where I was… but who cares?”

”I have all the time in the world.”