Tisie Verdad.
A character who possessed an extremely shocking character sheet and delivered performance worthy of its impact.
In reality, he was the MVP who hard-carried Part 3 of Reca Chronicles.
I spoke to such a person.
“I came here to make a proposal to you, Sir Tisie.”
“A proposal?”
“Yes. I wish to prepare a stage where you can save the Prima Continent from crisis.”
“Hmm…”
Tisie crossed his arms and fell silent.
Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
“I see. I don’t know if it’s true, but it seems you already knew about my power in advance through prophetic dreams or something. The Schnifelt family, huh…”
Then, without even hearing the full story, he nodded to himself as if he understood everything.
The four people listening beside me looked utterly bewildered by the conversation that seemed to lack context.
However, I simply smiled.
He must have used one of the functions of Multi-Phantasm Executor (U). It was convenient that I didn’t need to explain everything in detail.
“Well, fine. I’ll help when the fight comes, so call me when the time arrives.”
“You’re accepting so easily?”
“Since Bruno seems to trust you, I’ll trust you too. You already know the situation, so don’t bother asking on purpose, kid.”
Tisie accepted so readily that he soon yawned and spoke.
“If you’re done with your business, can you step aside? This elder is quite busy right now. Once I finish my daily cleaning duty, I plan to head down Mount Kapali for patrol.”
“May I follow along? I might be able to offer some help.”
“Do as you wish.”
Rustle rustle. Tisie swept the courtyard clean with almost possessed broomwork, then entered the church with a nonchalant expression.
Chesa furrowed her brows.
“Aiden, is that kid really the hidden card who can stand against Iris Schnifelt?”
“Of course.”
“…They said he’s an old man over a hundred years old? No matter how you look at him, he doesn’t seem like it. I heard the blessing bestowed by the Ascetic Church only slows aging to some extent.”
“That person is an exception in many ways.”
The ‘Anti-Aging’ blessing granted by the Ascetic God was a power that returned the body to a state more suitable for training and growth.
It operated on a completely different mechanism from the Circulation Church’s ‘Moment Blessing,’ which fixed the very flow of physical aging.
The effectiveness of this blessing was proportional to one’s Divinity stat.
While Bruno, with Divinity 7, had only regained about forty years of youth, Tisie—who had reached Divinity 9—had regressed nearly a century, turning into a child entirely.
Suddenly, Plebelziam spoke.
[…I’m so dumbfounded I can’t even speak. The wave I feel from that guy isn’t something a living human should emit. I’d believe it if you told me the soul of a thousand-year-old ancient tree had possessed that body.]
This ego sword had made a similar comment in the original work. As expected of a legendary demonic sword, his impression was fairly close to the truth.
Chesa’s pupils shook.
“What’s even stranger is… I can’t sense any mana from him at all. I’ve never seen anyone like that before.”
Even people who had lived their entire lives without any contact with heart methods or mana cultivation techniques still possessed trace amounts of mana in their bodies.
But Tisie’s [MP] stat was 0.
Not exaggerated—literally, he had ‘no mana.’
This was entirely due to his negative trait.
Mana Insulation Body (-)
It was a special constitution that made it impossible for him to accumulate mana within his body from birth.
Unlike Chesa’s former sensitivity disorder, it was far more fatal because even elixirs and treatments could not fix it. This man had overcome such a handicap through a process that could only be described as insane.
“Anyway, let’s follow the ascetics down Mount Kapali. I’m sure we’ll see something interesting.”
Chesa nodded reluctantly.
In the original work, Tisie had put up an impressive fight even against the overwhelmingly powerful Five Heroes.
Considering how the entire Prima Continent had been helplessly ravaged by the Five Heroes throughout Part 3, his performance was truly unparalleled.
The reason he could put on such a one-man show despite his relatively low Level 62 was simple.
It was thanks to his four Soul Imprints:
Multi-Phantasm Executor (U)
Oil Painting Resonance (U)
Reverser (U)
Soul Rise (U)
In the original work, those who possessed two Soul Imprints numbered fewer than twenty, and not a single person with three had ever appeared. Tisie, who had leaped over that empty step, could only be described as an anomaly.
Normally, level differences in this world were absolute. The story would be different if an extremely high-level individual had completely empty trait and skill sections, but such cases were almost nonexistent.
However, exceptions began to appear little by little starting in Part 3.
This was because the uniqueness of Soul Imprints had risen to the surface in earnest.
While there were many intuitive and highly versatile abilities like Regenshauer’s Impenetrable Fortress (U) or Edval’s Flowing Dimension Slash (U), when the imagery became extremely twisted, Soul Imprints of very bizarre forms would sometimes manifest.
For example, there was Judge of Presumed Guilt (U), which activated upon the user’s death. It was a divine-type Soul Imprint that created a monster that indiscriminately spread plagues and mental corruption until it eliminated everyone the user held a grudge against in life. Because it carried such massive conditions, it was incredibly powerful, but if one’s [HP] was low, their life would be in danger regardless of level.
To explain simply: if normal battles between characters in Reca Chronicles were like Dragon Ball-style power battles, then battles involving Soul Imprint users were like ability battles where the [Mental] stat was poured on top in proportion to its value. Depending on the type of ability, they could even threaten enemies far higher in level.
Of course, it wasn’t all advantage.
Fundamentally, the [Mental] stat—which influenced the manifestation of Soul Imprints—had the lowest efficiency among the six stats. The other five stats held irreplaceable value, but mental ability was ultimately only an auxiliary to mana ability on its own. It mainly affected ‘magic resistance,’ ‘mental magic resistance,’ and ‘mana recovery speed,’ so it naturally felt somewhat mediocre.
Still, it was better than nothing.
It felt roughly worth about 0.5 to 0.8 levels.
The closer one was to a warrior type, the lower the efficiency (0.5).
The closer to a mage type, the higher (0.8).
However, the true significance of this stat lay in the fact that it had the highest probability of increasing when one’s potential level expanded through effort.
The [Mental] stat rose through deep awareness of one’s own desires and essence. This was why, among promising talents who still had plenty of potential left, very few possessed high Mental stats. Since limitless development remained ahead of them, there was no reason to turn their gaze inward.
Even if they hit a wall, as long as growth had not stagnated and a way forward was still visible, frustration would be resolved through training with clear purpose and consistency.
The problem arose when one truly hit the wall of talent.
In situations where any effort became meaningless, even the mentally strongest individuals would have their will broken. However, if someone in such a situation never stopped their bone-cutting efforts, craved greater power obsessively, or accumulated overwhelming experience in both quality and quantity, this intangible effort would eventually lead to an increase in the [Mental] stat, forcibly expanding the user’s vessel.
And the power of will that caused this change would manifest beyond the vessel, leading to the emergence of U-grade traits and skills that maximized the individual’s aptitude and personality. This was why Soul Imprints reflected the user’s longing and fundamental imagery.
Naturally, because they had forged a sharp dagger through the low-efficiency [Mental] stat, their raw combat power was weaker. This also meant an increased risk of losing to weaker opponents, so there were both pros and cons.
This was also why, from the perspective of relatively weaker individuals, each of the Five Heroes was easier to deal with than Iris. Since they were all Soul Imprint possessors, the sum of their stats excluding [Mental] was not overwhelmingly superior to their level, and if one avoided their special abilities and dug in carefully, there were one or two openings to exploit.
But Tisie was an unparalleled irregular even among Soul Imprint users. At the very least, when it came to defense, he was a person who could buy time against even the strongest opponents.
Because of this uniqueness, many readers expressed regret over his heroic death in the latter half of Part 3.
The fact that an impressive-looking power-up flag was shattered in the process was an added bonus.
For this reason, keeping him alive until Part 4 and bringing him into the Ciencia expedition was one of my personal goals.
We descended Mount Kapali, sliding down after Tisie and the other ascetics.
Because there were shortcuts that only appeared when using the Ascetic Church’s yang magic, we reached our destination in just half a day—unlike the climb up.
Although the ascetics had originally come down for patrol, they encountered exactly the kind of problem I had expected.
“Heretics have infiltrated the village.”
“Heretics… you say?”
One of the ascetics asked in surprise at the lord’s words.
Heretics referred to religions other than those served by the churches of the Holy Nation and the Dragon God Cathedral.
They often committed barbaric acts under the pretext of proselytizing and were hated by the people, but it was undeniable that their influence had secretly spread throughout every corner of the Prima Continent.
There were countless types of ‘heretical cults,’ but in recent times the term usually referred to two main groups.
“…Is it the Dragon Horse Cult, or demon worshippers?”
“Demon worshippers. A monster hunter discovered traces of their gathering in a cave near the city… For now, we’ve silenced the mouths of those involved.”
In the world of Reca Chronicles, gods existed.
While it was ambiguous to call them the direct opposite, demons also existed. Little was known about their origins; they were mostly used as background devices to create incidents.
They had once been the protagonists of a major episode in the latter half of Part 1.
After that, they were rarely mentioned or appeared.
Around the time they were almost forgotten, one demon contractor from the Ten Pivots of Ciencia had appeared, but with power inflation having reached its peak, he wasn’t particularly standout in strength.
A young ascetic asked Tisie,
“Sir Tisie. If we leave the heretics alone, it will be dangerous. Shouldn’t we search every house in the city to root out the spies?”
“You already concealed the fact of the gathering, yet you want to spread word everywhere that the Ascetic Church has come down for patrol?”
Tisie replied while picking his ear. The sight of a boy who looked no older than ten scolding a young man was truly bizarre.
I had deliberately chosen this exact timing when the incident occurred in Kapali territory to come here.
It was time to achieve what I had been aiming for.
“Excuse me, Sir Tisie. I believe I can help resolve that problem.”
“Help?”
“Yes. There is a way to root out the demon worshippers without any risk. In return, however, I have one request.”