Beyond the implant enhancer he'd chosen, Angar had been blessed with a rare System award drop, a sealed box marked with his name, the kind dispatched when the intended recipient was away or incapacitated.

  Inside lay a trove of tokens, the box containing an AP/SP Reset, a Class Reset, two Ability Resets, three Ability Upgrade Resets, a Stat Enhancement Reset, and an Archetype Reset.

  Truth be told, he coveted only a few of the items.

  He could trade all the contents and make out like a bandit, but wouldn't. It felt like a sign from on high, a mandate to correct errors and refine himself to the utmost.

  His Capstones, Glory Thunders and Trumpets Blast, alleviated Energy Expenditure woes, and he suspected his third would amplify that freedom even further.

  He checked some items, ran the calculations, and his idea aligned like Divine Providence, forging the cleanest possible ascent to 99.

  He could strip out every inefficiency, but that’d mean using very valuable items to return items of much lesser value.

  It was wasteful either way.

  But the need to set all things in order now pressed upon him like the weight of unabsolved sin.

  Each of the three Realms bore its own austere purpose. The first forged the foundation, granting and giving. The second enhanced what had been taken, honing it to lethal purity. The Third sealed the path in certainty, rendering a Knight's purpose clear.

  Though the System’s descriptions never reflected such in descriptions, many benefits were bound to its Realm.

  In example, the stat-mirroring granted by Glory Thunders, in all likelihood, would perish the instant he crossed the threshold of ascension into the second Realm, severed like a head.

  This was his opportunity to get everything right, ensuring the strongest foundation to build from.

  The unused tokens could be traded into his chapter, but the Archetype Reset was destined for Garioch.

  Light armor ill-fitted melee combat for those without blazing speed, and definitely those fighting with the Saint's style, especially should he master his berserker fury.

  Angar presented the token to him, but with conditions, stating Garioch must select a heavy armor set as his Thorned Chalice reward, as well as switch to the Fortress Archetype, which granted 1 Adroitness and 10% damage mitigation while clad in heavy power armor.

  Garioch balked at the Archetype's demand that all Stat Points be applied to Resilience, which he deemed wasteful. His current selection allowed for a spread he favored far more.

  Speedster: Gain 1 extra Adroitness and 15% damage mitigation while wearing light power armor. All AP must be allocated to Spirit, and all SP to Toughness. Grants 1 additional Ability Enhancer per Tier.

  Fortress: Gain 1 Adroitness and 10% damage mitigation while wearing heavy power armor. All AP must be allocated to Body, and all SP to Resilience. Grants 1 additional Feat Enhancer per Tier.

  But Garioch was of the sixth Tier now, and the Reset wouldn't refund prior allocations of Attribute or Stat Points, so that mattered very little.

  And Angar believed, along with training, the bolstered Resilience might aid in taming the Saint's berserker state, channeling that raw wrath without losing himself to it fully.

  Since awakening, Simo had avoided Angar.

  Angar hadn't sought him out either, his remorse growing like a canker.

  He still puzzled over the chapter token now infused with Simo’s ‘death.’ What malediction had he wrought upon his friend?

  Both Simo and Garioch had reaped immense XP from surviving the Swarm’s crucible.

  Angar, burdened by his 99% penalty, hadn't.

  But unlike his companions, he'd landed blows on the Swarm before it pulverized his face, securing a portion of the experience from its annihilation.

  He had witnessed lancer and lightning bolts glance harmlessly from its hide, plasma cascades merely smolder and peter out upon its undead flesh.

  Yet his claws had gouged furrows with relative ease?

  That affirmed, beyond doubt, their uncanny potency against Hell's foul spawn, even one so powerful as the Swarm.

  And though diminished, the combined granted XP from the whole ordeal was still tremendous, hurling him from level 79 across the threshold of 83, and into the Rank of Exemplar.

  He prayed Abyssalhome's aggression remained ramped in its terminal throes, or he'd never reach 99 before the Crusade's end.

  His core was solid, ready for ascension. He just needed the XP to reach Tier cap, then the Realm managerial requisites, shadowing an inquisitor and a governor.

  And beyond the experience, a windfall of Glory Points swelled his tally.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  After he'd gone to assist Harbinger Company, Holy Theosis' messages contained praise, but along with a few barbs.

  These new messages, for the first span in memory, bore no censure at all, only pure accolade, like a benediction.

  That, despite committing an act that had stained Angar's soul, meriting the harshest sting of condemnation.

  Such unblemished commendation could only signify that Theosis, in its scrutiny, couldn't view inside the Swarm, or hadn’t beheld the Heresy committed within that undead monster.

  When he finally deserved words condemning him, they were absent.

  Beyond Theosis, everyone believed that all three companions had emerged victorious from their ordeals, unbowed and sanctified in the crucible's fire.

  Of course, Angar wouldn't dispute that.

  He opened his System screens, delving into the logs, and read through one of the glorious messages again, savoring its praise.

  Four Glorious Achievements!

  Glorious Crusader, anointed blade of the Holy Trinity’s unyielding wrath, in an act of indomitable valor, you have transcended the profane crucible of the Swarm, emerging scarred yet unbroken from the clutches of a nightmare forged in Hell’s pits.

  With faith as your unassailable shield and sacred fury as your unrelenting blade, you braved the Swarm, a Gatekeeper that has claimed legions of the faithful, a scourge equivalent to the lower echelons of the Demon Lords themselves.

  Though your blows were but a spark in the conflagration that felled this ancient horror, your endurance illuminated the path to its annihilation, a radiant testament to the unbreakable spirit of the righteous.

  By the grace of Holy Theosis, in its Divine calculus that guides our eternal war, you have not merely survived the storm of corruption, but have woven your deeds into the undying tapestry of Holy victory, striking a blow that echoes through the stars and scathes the infernal hordes.

  Four deeds of sacred honor blaze as beacons amid this triumph:

  The Survival of the Swarm’s Crucible – with hallowed resolve, you endured the Swarm's lurid trial, overcoming one of its dread challenges, a feat that few warriors can boast, your unyielding faith a bulwark against the tempest of undeath, you and your companions the first to do so on this world: 8 Glory Points ((25/3) rounded down).

  The Survival of the Swarm’s Crucible in the First Realm – not only did you defy the Swarm’s unholy ordeal, but you did so while still in the third Tier of power, a monumental act of valor unmatched by any other soul in the galaxy, your mortal frame a vessel of Divine defiance against the blasphemous: 25 Glory Points.

  Assisting in the Slaying of the Swarm – with little but faith as a shield, you minimally contributed your righteous fury to the destruction of the Swarm, one of Hell’s ancient powers, a vile entity rivaling the lower Demon Lords in its profane might, who has rent asunder far too many of our warriors: 28 Glory Points ((25 base) + (500/147) rounded down).

  The Harvest of Abyssal Revelation – wielding the forbidden knowledge gleaned from your gaze into Hell’s maw, the sacred intelligence wrested from the gateway’s depths has borne fruit in our glorious Holy War, enabling the unleashing of righteous ordnance upon the infernal ether. Though the toll of destruction wrought is unknown, this prevented undead reinforcements from exiting the portal, aiding in the Swarm’s temporary dissolution and damnation: 50 Glory Points.

  Let the Enlightened Scribes raise their voices in thunderous liturgies of reverence, and let your name be inscribed in luminous gold upon the Litany of Heroes, for you have embodied the Three’s immutable judgment, a mortal hammer forged to shatter the unholy.

  In the name of the Holy Trinity, as these triumphs mark world-first and galaxy-first feats of valor, you shall receive doubled laurels for the first and tripled for the second, their glory amplified to resound through the blessed worlds of the Holy Empire.

  March forth, Crusader, for the blood-drenched Glorious Path calls you ever onward to greater acts of Divine retribution.

  Glory Points bestowed: (8 x 2) + (25 x 3) + 28 + 50 = 169

  For God and Empire!

  He'd first read the message in the grim vault of the Beachhead's massive sick bay, where the air stunk with unguents, filled with a ceaseless hymn of auto-surgeries and screams of the chapter’s wounded.

  But even in the haze of analgesics that coursed through his veins, his mind clung to the message that had burned across his vision.

  Besides the lack of the usual censure, one phrase had stood out.

  ‘Temporary dissolution and damnation.’

  That meant, like Demon Lords, the Swarm couldn’t truly be killed. It’d slowly reform in Hell. One day, it’d return to plague this realm, though it’d take long centuries.

  Thankfully, unlike other powerful entities of the Underworld, it didn't control Hellfire, which would've made the injuries it inflicted impossible to heal from.

  On a sweeter note, Angar’s Glory Point tally swelled from 249 to 418, enough to purchase another Adroitness point.

  And when he’d left the sickbay, another boon awaited from the Thorned Chalice's coffers, a reward extended to all who had shared in the Swarm's downfall, including Garioch and Simo.

  The gift of a sacred rite of his choosing, drawn from the vast repositories of the capital-class vessel's crew.

  But choice had been denied him.

  On his behalf, either Thryna or Salvador had decreed which he'd take.

  Chances were, though, Hidetada truly commanded which sacred rite his Knight would receive.

  And though the motives couldn’t be known, they could be surmised, and few interpretations were flattering.

  Discernment of Solomon: A profound rite that awakens the king's hearing heart and insight, sharpening the Mind attribute by 2 to cleave through the subtleties of lies and moral ambiguity, granting clear signs and unerring judgment to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong.

  As it was one of the most rare, highest ranking, and expensive on offer, it would’ve been among Angar’s top choices anyway, regardless of interference.

  The rite primarily targeted the brain's executive and integrative functions to enhance cognitive discernment, amplifying activity in the prefrontal cortex by increasing synaptic plasticity and dendritic arborization, allowing neurons to form slightly denser connections for swifter cognition.

  Additionally, it enhanced interconnectivity between the prefrontal and the anterior cingulate cortex, which monitored conflicts and errors.

  This sharpened his capacity to detect the rot of lies and parse moral subtleties, providing a keener alarm against inconsistencies, supposedly also making him better able to discern right from wrong.

  But Angar prized it for the raw augmentation it lent his mind, giving an edge in processing the storm of battle, a hastened reflex in the fray.

  More than that, the rite bestowed a subtle mastery over the psychic currents within him.

  When Angar turned inward to the practice of his psionic arts, Electrokinesis answered with slight but noticeable new obedience, no longer such a wild beast resisting the reins, a torrent that bent marginally more easily to his will.

  Enough of these incremental enhancements to his mind and speed, such as the Enlightened Grasp of Sariputta Feat he'd taken at level 79, all added together, could cumulatively raise Adroitness.

  And his regimen of honing any source of quickness, mental processing, and reaction time had finally yielded a gratis surge.

  In the slow grind of ascension, for the most part, the incremental gain of Stats passed unfelt, mainly unnoticeable.

  But Adroitness was different. Each increase arrived like a lightning bolt, evident and unmistakable.

  He loved feeling it, like some magic coursed through every nerve and muscle.

  And better still, the token-box offered yet another path to securing an increase, a far thriftier and more beneficial route than 300 Glory Points expended.

  One he intended to wring every conceivable advantage from.

  A new Class and Ability.