Second Genesis

[Third Helm Selected: Helm of Grace]

—

For once the name didn’t change. Grey thought that this probably meant that the helm itself didn’t gain any new Abilities, but when he pulled up the screen again he realized that he was wrong. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Very wrong.

—

Name: Helm of Grace

Rarity: Mythical

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: Resonant

Rejected Type: Linear; Branching; Recursive

Description: The Grace of a mother knows no bounds, the Grace of the world isn’t nearly so forgiving. Carry this love with you wherever you should go.

Abilities: Benefit from the Grace of a mother. Revert your body to a previous state within three seconds of time or accelerate a state of being forward by three seconds.

Cool down: 30 seconds.

—

Grey blinked when he saw the addition. Was this thing trying to let him wind time forward? What sort of broken ability was this?

The first was ridiculous enough, but the second...

On the surface, it felt useless. The most obvious use was triggering a spell or something of the sort with a long casting time in three seconds less than it would usually take.

However, this had limited applications. For one, Grey didn’t even use any such spells. The closest thing he had was [Branching Blood], and that technically did have a decent cast time.

The first time Amunet used it, she needed him to stall for her. As for Grey, when he used it, it took very specific battle situations and he usually either needed a catalyst—like when he used Ovaal’s blood—or he had to wait for an opening to use it as a finishing move like he had against Joaquin.

There were probably more such "spells" in the Blood Witch Lineage Tome that this new ability would be quite useful for.

The main problem with this was the 30 second cool down. Though Grey could pay Cyber Cores to reset it much like he could with his own combined helms, the price was too high.

In fact, from what Grey could tell, forcing the cool down to end cost 20,000 Energy Units, more than his Helm Frame even had available to it. Meaning, it was impossible.

This realization should have doused Grey with quite a bit of cold water, but instead of reacting like that, his mind was churning with ideas.

Reverting his body back to a state of three seconds ago was great for rhythm, but being able to force an advancement of three seconds was even more useful.

If he reverted, an enemy could just interrupt him again. But what could they do if they expected his rhythm to hit its peak one moment, only for it to suddenly accelerate outside of their expectations?

This was way more impactful than just reversing.

Grey grinned. If he used this properly...

He exhaled a breath and calmed. For this to work effectively, he was going to have to get some good reins on his rhythm, and that meant he needed to get all his Abilities to not just Active Sync, but Core Sync.

Though, at that point, it would be very difficult for anyone not already obscenely powerful to interrupt his rhythm. But that was exactly when it was best to rely on a treasure in the first place.

’Good reward.’

Grey nodded to himself, then pressed his palm to the last of them.

A pulsing wave of light radiated as the animation played out.

—

Name: Mon Amie

—

Grey wanted to shed real tears when he saw this.

First the British, now the French. He couldn’t get away with anything these days, now could he?

Why was he getting an item named in French in the first place? And why was it called "my friend"?

He thought it might have been a companion of some sort, but the item was entirely unlike that. In fact, it was just a flat disk, one with five little divots within it. These divots were in the shape of disks as well, and would have almost been good shot glass holders as they seemed to be just the right size. They just weren’t quite deep enough.

Grey read the rest of the description.

—

Name: Mon Amie

Rarity: Mythical

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: N/A

Restricted Type: N/A

Description: You have a severe lack of friends, and that’s kind of lame. Your anti-social tendencies have really fucked you, so how about you try to send out a few olive branches instead? One friend won’t do, so how about five?

Abilities: Borrowed Genius. Form a Party with five individuals, sharing life and death. Using a Frame you have comprehended, distill your understanding and share it with another, aiding their path forward. In return, comprehensions and insights they glean are shared with you as well.

—

Grey stared at the description for a long while. Then he suddenly moved.

He spiked the useless fucking thing into the ground with all the strength he could muster. It clattered and raced across the ground, bouncing almost to the ceiling and then smashing back down again.

Grey heaved out heavy breaths. Even he didn’t expect to be so enraged by something like that. It was just one item, but it felt like he had risked his life for complete bullshit.

If he was sharing his "genius" with other people, what insights could they possibly give him? And he didn’t even have one person in this fucking shit hole he trusted enough to share anything with. Anyone he might have had was already fucking dead.

By the time he did find anyone—and he’d have to attach a big ass "IF" to that one—worth his time, he’d probably be well past the Vector Class and the useless thing wouldn’t even be helpful anymore.

Even if there was some rubberbanding that occurred when an item was of a high rarity, it could only go so far.

It was practically a fucking joke. Grey had half a mind to leave it here, but then he huffed an irritated breath and picked it up. He wasn’t even going to bother wasting the Cyber Cores it would take to slot something like this in his inventory. He was just going to take it to the frog man and sell it for a pretty penny, then wipe his hands clean of the bullshit.

Grey stormed out of the space, his irritation practically forming a cloud above him.

’Hm?’ He frowned, sensing a pulsing radiance.

That was an aura he recognized all too well because he had just sensed three of them back to back to back. Maybe if he hadn’t been familiar with it, he would have ignored it.

But that was definitely a Mythical Grade Treasure, and it was radiating quite a bit of might.

’... No way.’

Grey’s expression darkened. He had seen three Loot Boxes when he entered, and he was so used to receiving three at every achievement that he didn’t think much about it.

But could Chogh have opened one before he arrived?

He tried to be nice, but it seemed that this was what he got for it. If his senses weren’t so sensitive, especially after his breakthrough, would he have even noticed?

Grey began a slow walk over, his mind smoldering with fury.