( 20 days after Max’s training began )

Max’s mind was a little relieved and a little worried at the same time.

Just as Angakok had expected, exactly on day 20 Max had managed to maximise all of his stats except agility.

The poison baths had helped maximise endurance.

Angakok had completed the dexterity stat maximisation personally and the memory packets he left in Max’s mind helped Max rapidly absorb years worth of knowledge in mere days helping him reach maximisation for intelligence stat right on day 20.

Max could not believe his own eyes when he glanced at his stat panel that looked nothing like what it used to a mere few days ago and had undergone a 180° transformation when it came to stats.

Before meeting Angakok he had believed that it would take him 3-5 years to reach maximisation of all stats at minimum, but in just 2 months of training with the Shaman God he had managed to maximise 5 out of 6 leaving only the agility stat to master.

The last 2 months were by no means a pleasant experience but Max had grown and learnt a lot in the time period.

The adversities that Angakok had subjected him to had helped him grow significantly, however, he had now hit the roadblock.

Angakok’s help was ending here and somehow he needed to figure out a method to maximise his agility stat in the next ten days.

Max had an inkling that Angakok had left hints on how to achieve this in the memory packets he had been showing Max over the past 20 days but it was up to him to piece it all together and apply it to reality.

As Max pondered on the subject seriously, he understood that the method of training physically for it was out of the question, if he was lucky, 10 days of intense training would help increase his agility stat by +2 to +3 points which was nowhere near the speed at which he needed to improve.

This meant that he needed to find extraordinary means to improve himself that were unconventional.

If there was one thing about the shaman class that stood apart from the rest, it was the fact that it had a lot of unconventional methods to make it’s practitioners self-reliant.

It had a method to replace potions, it had a method to replace the need for tools and weapons and it had a method to make a bootleg of pretty much every spell in nature.

In Angakok’s memory fragments there seemed to be a method which was quite like the draconification process that Max had undergone, but yet much different.

It was a method to alter one’s physical abilities and Max had watched as to how Angakok used it to strengthen his bones in one of the memory packets as he wondered if he could use the same strategy to strengthen his muscles and by extension improve his agility stat?

Once he arrived at this line of thought, he shifted through some other memories and formulated a theory.

The more Max thought about it the more excited he got as he soon realised that this was exactly the line of thought that Angakok had left for him, because it seemed like he had purposefully shown Max his battle with the mythical creature Gryphalos that happened on this very planet for this very reason.

Gryphalos was a mythical creature who was a fast mount capable of travelling through space, a one of a kind beast that went extinct after excessive hunting during the chaos era war.

The beast possessed the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the nimble reflexes of both predators, a legendary mythical creature revered for its astonishing speed, agility, and nimbleness.

In Angakok’s memory fragment he seemed to have hunted a Gryphalos on this very planet near a small creek, and when Max tried to locate the spot he found the exact location that looked precisely the same from his memory although thousands of years had passed.

As long as he could locate the exact location of the beasts death, he could summon it’s spirit for the ritual that Angakok had shown him, and since he was able to locate the precise position, this problem seemed to have been solved.

Now Max was even more sure that Angakok wanted him to proceed with this method and had purposefully left clues for him to figure out.

Assured, Max began looking for the herbs and other essentials he would need to perform the ritual to invoke it’s spirit and then consume its essence to improve his own muscles for enhanced agility.

The ritual was complex and would need Max to draw a lot of intricate arrays using special ingredients, taking maybe 6-7 days to complete. But once done, Max was sure it would help him achieve the much desired stat maximisation.

Angakok offered Max no guidance on whether or not his approach was correct, but watched patiently as Max danced to his arrangements just as he wanted him to.

***********

( Meanwhile Sebastian )

Sebastian’s ship hovered just outside the eerie atmosphere of the ugly Gravethorn planet.

For a fleeting moment, Sebastian had questioned the authenticity of the map he had discovered, wondering if he was being led on a wild goose chase in search of a hidden treasure trove.

From afar, the planet was virtually imperceptible, reflecting no light despite being situated in a binary sun solar system and it wasn’t until Sebastian’s ship approached within 100 kilometres of the planet’s atmosphere that an arcane veil, a concealment spell, was lifted, unveiling the presence of Gravethorn planet.

Under ordinary circumstances, Sebastian would have plunged headfirst into the unknown without hesitation. However, there was something deeply unsettling about the appearance of this peculiar planet.

The entire world was shrouded in an ominous, monochromatic palette. The ocean waters appeared as a lifeless, murky grey, while the land and terrain bore shades of oppressive blackness.

Even the vegetation seemed like grotesque, withered husks of once-vibrant trees, evoking an aura of unease that haunted any who dared to gaze upon them.

It was a paradise for necromancers but a place that instinctively repulsed cowards like Sebastian.

” Oh master Kremeth, what all must I do just to become powerful? Why can’t I just steal a few treasures from you and live a good life while eating your hand cooked meals?

I’m sorry, I miss you! Please take me back” Sebastian cried out loud as he knew nobody was currently hearing his childish tantrum, before steeling his resolve and slowly descending into the planet’s atmosphere.