"Choose skill..."
[Available skills for learning:]
[Skeleton Revival: Use psionic energy to revive skeleton warriors from corpses to fight for you. Requires Spirituality 1.]
[Bone Spike: Condense a bone spike to attack enemies. Requires Spirituality 1.]
[Will Weakening: Weaken an enemy's fighting spirit. Requires Spirituality 1.]
These three initial skills represented the three major branches of the Death Herald pathway.
Summoning, Bone Magic, and Curse Magic.
Each time spirituality increased by one point, there was one opportunity to upgrade or learn a new skill.
But the higher you went, the harder it became to increase spirituality. Psionics had to use their limited skill points to build their core skill system.
So most people would specialize in one branch, only dabbling in or completely ignoring skills from other branches.
"Learn Skeleton Revival!"
[Skeleton Revival Level 1: Uses 2 psionic energy points to revive skeleton warriors from corpses to fight for you. Can summon 1 (increases by 1 per level).]
Carlos decided to go with the summoning branch.
Bone Magic and Curse Magic required team coordination, especially in the early stages. It was nearly impossible for these two branches to solo kill dark mist monsters outside the city to gain experience.
Of course, the summoning branch wasn't exactly easy for solo monster hunting either.
Before learning skeleton enhancement skills, skeleton warriors were pretty weak—it took about three of them to match one of the weakest dark mist monsters.
Even after learning skeleton enhancement skills, skeleton warriors were still much weaker than normal dark mist monsters and Psionics. In combat, they were always cannon fodder.
But Carlos was different. In the later stages of the virtual world from his past life, countless Death Herald players had brainstormed and experimented together.
They eventually figured out a way to continuously upgrade skeleton warriors until they could match dark mist monsters of the same level, or even Psionics.
This was the deciding factor in Carlos choosing the summoning branch.
After learning Skeleton Revival, Carlos quickly checked it over. The skill data was identical to his past life, so he turned his thoughts elsewhere.
"Use the demigod mark!"
[Demigod Mark (Jungle): This is the final radiance left in the world by a Jungle demigod. You may select one skill to inherit. Please choose inheritance direction...]
[Heart of Nature: Increases elemental affinity. Requires Spirituality 1 (Special status, requirement waived)]
[Shapeshifting: Temporarily transform into jungle companions. Requires Spirituality 1 (Special status, requirement waived)]
...
[Bearman Transformation: Transform into a towering bearman. Requires Spirituality 5, Shapeshifting Level 1. (Special status, requirement waived)]
...
[Power of Earth: Shake the earth, destroying everything on the ground. Requires Spirituality 90, Earth Bear Transformation maxed, Heart of Nature maxed, Earth Elemental Affinity maxed. (Special status, requirement waived)]
Jungle pathway skills from low to high spirituality flooded through Carlos's mind.
Under the power of the demigod mark, all learning restrictions on these skills were now lifted, opening them up to Carlos.
"The best use for this skill is to cover the Death Herald pathway's weaknesses."
What was the biggest shortcoming of the Death Herald pathway, especially the skeleton summoning branch that Carlos planned to pursue?
Even in this life, it was something widely known among Psionics.
Death Heralds had fragile bodies, especially those who went the skeleton summoning route.
There were plenty of examples of powerful Death Heralds who got careless and were assassinated by Concealers following the stealth path.
"Since I'll definitely need to act alone for those opportunities and secrets, I'd better inherit a skill that strengthens my body."
Carlos had his direction. He skipped over the low and mid-level spirituality skills and started seriously selecting from the high-level ones...
"It's decided—one of the three demigod skills of the Jungle pathway: Child of Nature!"
[Child of Nature (Maxed): Passive skill, increases final power of all Jungle skills by 200%, passively increases Constitution attribute by 1 point per 1 point of Spirituality, massively improves healing ability.
Requires Spirituality 99, Heart of Nature maxed, Heart of Elements maxed, Earth Element... Water Element maxed. (Special status, requirement waived)]
"Inherit 'Child of Nature'!"
[Beginning inheritance!]
As Carlos's mind confirmed the choice, the emerald demigod mark on his forehead blazed with light, quickly enveloping his entire body. Massive natural power continuously washed over him. The pallor on his face disappeared, emerald markings began spreading across his body... until they faded away again.
[Congratulations on successful inheritance!]
As the system voice reminded him, Carlos came back to his senses. On his status panel, his Constitution attribute had already increased to 4 points. He added one point to Strength as well, bringing it up to 4 points too.
Usually Death Heralds of any branch focused on Mental stats, since Mental affected total psionic energy and recovery speed.
Most Death Herald pathway skills, especially in the late game, required huge amounts of psionic energy to activate. Without focusing on Mental, you might exhaust your energy after just one or two skills in a battle.
But Carlos decided to focus on Strength instead. Combined with Child of Nature's passive effect, in the early to mid-game, both his attack power (influenced by Strength) and defensive health (influenced by Constitution) would reach the peak for his level, minimizing his weaknesses as much as possible.
As for psionic energy, Carlos planned to follow the skeleton warrior enhancement route. In the early stages, the energy gained from simple spirituality advancement would be enough to summon skeleton warriors.
After allocating his points, Carlos's awakening was finally complete. The surging pure white flames on the altar returned to normal.
Carlos opened his eyes. The emerald markings on his body faded away, and his already excellent features underwent an amazing transformation, as if carved by the gods themselves. The natural affinity aura that came with Child of Nature drew everyone's attention.
"Car...los?"
Heidi, the noble girl who'd had that little conflict with Kathy earlier, was also drawn in. When she came back to her senses, a blush had quietly spread across her face.
"Feels pretty strong!"
Grace, the first girl to successfully awaken, was eager to test herself, her sharp canine teeth glinting white.
"Another success!
Jungle pathway? No wait, the essence is Death Herald pathway?"
Half-elf Elsa was happy to have another genius, but felt confused. This was the first time she'd seen such a strange situation.
Carlos walked down from the altar, and Kathy immediately rushed to greet him, her delicate face beaming with crescent-moon eyes.
"Carlos, I knew you'd succeed!
We both awakened successfully—Sister Iris is going to be so happy!"
"Yeah."
Carlos chatted casually with Kathy while the awakening ceremony continued...
Two people in a row had successfully awakened, getting the remaining candidates all fired up. Even Elsa's team of seven felt hopeful that more people would succeed.
But hope was just hope. By the time only one person remained, still no one else had successfully awakened.