Congratulations! [Initializer] has leveled up to Divergence - 5. Max Essence increased from 330 to 370. Essence Utilization: 327/370. Would you like to reclaim Initialized equipment?

  The level-up notification I’d so long wished for came the very next morning at the end of our first hour-long meditation session of the day, after a slew of stat gain notifications.

  I knew I’d been close, and yesterday's slew of initializations must have pushed me to the brink. During that session, I’d gained 3 points to Order and 1 to Wisdom.

  It turned out the topic of the meditation impacted which of the two grew more. For whatever reason, meditating on the world, my place in it, and philosophy and concepts such as compassion and idealism seemed to impact Order, while clearing my thoughts impacted Wisdom.

  I suppose I could see some sort of connection there if I really squinted, given that Order affected the soul.

  And then, at long last, came the cherry on top.

  [Initializer] has reached Divergence - 5. Blessing Ability Upgraded: [Armor Sets].

  [Armor Sets] capacity has increased from [1] to [2].

  Welcome news, though I couldn’t exactly use it yet. Even with the extra Essence overhead, I didn’t quite have enough to Initialize two more pieces of gear to complete the set of five, which my ability required. That was unfortunate, but I didn’t give up just yet.

  Yes, I mentally replied to the prompt, bringing up the Uninitialization window.

  I currently had 43 free Essence available, and when I’d checked on the scarf earlier, it only cost 38 points to Initialize. Considering that the last piece had to be [Rare] and made of silk to be turned into a Set, I’d need another 35 or so for the socks I planned to buy.

  My [Common] steel-plated tower shield and steel mace were practically useless to me at this point. True, their [Mirrored] and [Bleed] abilities were at F-MAX, but that was the highest they’d ever go, and I’d honestly outgrown Foundation rank weapons at this point. Uninitializing those would earn me an easy 11 points.

  Then I had a couple of uncommon gold rings and four steel darts. The two rings cost 8 Essence each, and gave me an insignificant amount of stats that wouldn’t be missed. I’d bought them to have something when I took off my armor, but I knew I could do a lot better. I’d replace those with [Rare] rings the moment I had more headroom.

  That clawed back 27 points.

  At this point, I could just wait a couple of days for Rocky’s Essence cost to disappear. It had already dropped to a paltry 27 points, and was decreasing by around 4-5 points a day.

  I could wait, but that was two days of training that wasn’t maximized.

  The darts’ abilities had come in handy, but most of them were still at F-0, which meant I wouldn’t actually lose anything by Uninitializing them now and reinitializing them later.

  So that was what I did.

  Uninitializing two darts with the [Ouch!] ability gave me another 8 for a total free Essence of 78 points.

  “Sorry, Syrril, but we’ll have to push our duel to the afternoon,” I said with a grin. “I’ve got some shopping to do.”

  “Oh?” Syrril asked. “Does this have anything to do with your Blessing?”

  I’d told Syrril about my powers but had couched it as a combination of a couple of Blessings. I trusted the elf, but I couldn’t be sure he’d keep that tidbit to himself, and I wasn’t quite ready for word to spread about my status.

  “You bet,” I replied. “Just wait, this next duel might surprise you.”

  Syrril laughed jovially. “I shall look forward to it!”

  I spent the next hour with Aerion, perusing the Elven markets perched atop the enormous boughs of the great Elven tree. Vendors proudly displayed their wares, all neatly arranged to entice passersby, though I was glad the hawking was kept to a minimum. Only one or two elves even called out to us and quickly got the message when we shook our heads.

  The area was more three-dimensional than any market or mall I’d experienced, with every inch of flat area utilized. Ropes of vine dangled from the high branches that crisscrossed in a web above the main bough, while the lower areas had regular ladders.

  I wasn’t a picky shopper—I mainly just needed something that fit me, was made of silk and that [Initializer] considered [Rare].

  Thankfully, elves loved their silk, and while I never would have dared to wear the material back on Earth, desperate times called for desperate measures.

  No shopping session would be complete without a bit of brutal Aerion negotiation, and so by noon I'd assembled all five pieces of my kit, with the scarf and socks awaiting Initialization as the final step.

  “I genuinely don’t understand why you need to haggle so much when we have so much money. I’d understand if we were poor, but these people are just trying to make a living,” I said as we walked back to the arena.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Aerion looked away in guilt. “It’s an old habit. Hard to kill. By the time I realize what I’m doing, I’m already in the middle of negotiations. At that point, it’d be rude not to go all the way.”

  That made absolutely no sense to me, but I kept my mouth shut. At least she was trying, in her own way.

  We found a secluded spot in the arena away from prying eyes this time. Regular old Initializations were one thing, but I’d rather not have a gallery when my undergarments melded into a suit.

  As I sat down and prepared to Initialize the final pieces, I reflected on how much of a break [Armor Sets] had been. Declining stat growth was the inevitable reality in most games featuring stats, after all. Past the initial burst, the levels tended to slow way down after a while, turning into a long, slow grind.

  Regardless, this was an advantage only I could exploit, thanks to my ability to swap stats on a moment’s notice. I’d guessed—hoped—that [Initializer] would develop this way, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty damn satisfied with how things were playing out. Was it a gamble? Absolutely, but you never made the best builds by playing it safe.

  I Initialized the scarf first, but rather than going with the flow as I always did, I tried something new this time.

  So far, my silken clothing had netted me stats, no abilities. Which made sense; armor usually gave out both stats and abilities, while weapons generally only gave me the latter. Clothing was always pure stats.

  If this tree’s boost let me influence the direction of my Initializations, though…

  I didn’t try for anything specific. Even with Sylphara’s help, I doubted I could pick a specific ability. So instead, I kept it vague, thinking about something that would help me, regardless of what armor I had on at the time.

  I reached out to the void, pouring every shred of intent I could muster into the act, and Initialized the scarf.

  It cost 38 points and netted me an incredible 215 stats… and no abilities.

  I sighed. Well, that was bound to be too good to be true.

  The points were distributed across a smattering of stats I didn’t care to maximize right now, but that hardly mattered. It was that 215 number that was important—so much higher than the usual.

  I couldn’t wait to see how much that number would grow once my Order stat was a couple hundred points higher. It might even be worthwhile to Uninitialize all my gear, only to Reinitialize it. They’d likely just gain the original stats—all of my Reinitialization tests thus far had netted the same stats and abilities as before—but if I could gain more stats for the same Essence cost, it’d be a no-brainer.

  Slightly dejected over the scarf’s lack of ability, I nonetheless reached down to my feet and tried again with the socks, thinking vaguely of something that’d help me out. I didn’t put a ton of effort into it this time.

  Silken Socks [Rare]

  So soft. So smoooth. So sexy!

  Essence Cost: 28

  Condition: 300/300

  Stats:

  — Vigor: 14

  — Wisdom: 32

  — Grace: 4

  Well, that was weird. Why were the stats so—!?

  My eyes traveled down to the bottom. To the abilities section.

  Abilities:

  — Booya! [Foundation - 0]: Ever wanted to be stronger but didn’t want to work for it? Today’s your lucky day! Gain an immediate [1%] boost to your highest earned stat while equipped.

  I blinked, rereading the description, then did it again.

  This time, Aerion didn’t even bother asking me what was up, bringing up her copy of my stats sheet on her own.

  Her eyes actually bulged. “This is…”

  “Amazing, yeah,” I said. “1%’s nothing, but see how it’s in brackets? That means the boost percentage will go up as the ability levels up. And since this is a [Rare] garment, it’ll level all the way up to Divergence. This… This might be the single best ability I’ve ever received.”

  And I was about to have it apply to an entire suit, not just one garment. That meant it’d level even faster.

  With giddy anticipation, I activated [Armor Sets] and concentrated on my silk clothing.

  Would you like to combine the following into a Set?

  Silken Trousers [Rare]

  Silken Underwear [Rare]

  Silken Undershirt [Rare]

  Silken Scarf [Rare]

  Silken Socks [Rare]

  I mentally confirmed.

  Armor Sets

  Combine five unique armor pieces into a Set. Sets consume as much Essence as the item with the highest Essence cost.

  Choose any one ability of any piece in the set. This ability retains its current level and will now apply to the entire set. All other abilities will be lost. Stats of the constituent pieces will be reclaimed in one of two ways:

  Option 1) All stats remain as-is, with no change.

  Option 2) Redistribute [70%] of the stats as desired (648). The other 30% (277) will be lost.

  Pieces must be of similar quality and construction to be turned into a Set.

  Sets available: 1

  Losing 277 stats was rough, but stat ceilings did me little good if earning them took twice as long or more. I selected Option 2, choosing the only ability of the bunch, the idiotically named [Booya] as the ability to apply to them all.

  Armor Set creation confirmed.

  The five pieces moved around me, merging into… a jumpsuit? Tiny metal pieces formed on the front in succession all the way down.

  “A zipper!” I cried. “It has a zipper!”

  Aerion stared at the design feature with suspicion. “I’ve never seen anything like this. What does it—oh!”

  With great flourish, I reached down and unzipped it, relishing in the sound and sweet, sweet sensation.

  “That’s incredible!” Aerion cried. “That’s… how!?”

  She spent the next five minutes analyzing the mechanism in detail, while I brought up the item detail page to peruse my newest suit.

  Silken Jumpsuit [Rare]

  Despite begging for a bevy of juvenile jokes, this thing is actually pretty cool. Elegant in a weird, otherworldly way, and comfy too! It’s got the best stat.

  Essence Cost: 51

  Condition: 3000/3000

  Stats:

  — Order: 648

  Abilities:

  — Booyaya! [Foundation - 0]: Ever wanted to be stronger, but didn’t want to work for it? Today’s your lucky day! Gain an immediate [5%] boost to your highest earned stat while equipped.

  I scanned from the top down. About as expected, though that condition boost was a joy to see. More than the sum of its parts, indeed. The stat boost was insane, and—!?

  “Fuck!” I yelled. “Five percent?”

  “What is it?” Aerion asked, pausing her analysis of the miracle that was zippers to bring up my stats. “O-oh! How?”

  “Something similar happened with [Snap] when I Initialized my Grace set. I’d been hoping for this, but damn. That’s incredible!”

  Aerion frowned. “The name changed, too. It’s even dumber than before. I did not think such a thing possible.”

  I smirked, smashing my fist into my palm. “We have to test this out.”

  “Then I suppose I must oblige,” came an ancient elven voice from behind.