1/3 for this week
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Chapter 480: Fashion Disaster
The System descended. What other word could describe the sensation of the sky falling onto one’s shoulders? Of course, there was no up or down in the vacuum of space: the System reigned from above the soul. Thus, even upside down, It descended.
Like Atlas bearing the firmament upon his shoulders, Priam grimaced as a spiritual pressure as heavy as the cosmos began to weigh down on him. All of his progress granted him no defense against this; just like the first time he had perceived the System at the end of his Tutorial, he still felt just as small in the face of a pseudo-infinite entity’s attention.
The gaze turned away before fear could take root in his mind.
For a second, hurtling through the vacuum of space at the speed of a meteor, Priam thought he had left the Tribulation behind. Too fast for the trial to catch up to him. Then, his Domain detected a tiny spider crawling on his thigh. A newborn barely out of its cocoon, the kind you crush without paying attention. So small that it struggled to navigate the forest of hair covering Priam’s legs.
Despite its size, it radiated under his aether sight and [Tribulation Hunter]. The beast packed a phenomenal amount of energy, worthy of a Tribulation.
A rune lit up on its back as it secreted a strand of solid aether. It wrapped around Priam’s leg before tightening. The Juggernaut cracked a smile as he watched the filament attempt to pierce his skin, to no avail. It would take more than that to hurt him.
Disheartened, the spider finally stopped and went on its way.
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Priam blinked. On high alert, he focused on his surroundings to spot his Tribulations. Nothing behind him, and he was moving away from the place where he had summoned them at a breakneck speed. While he was already imagining an immaterial trial like a curse, he discovered a stowaway.
On his thigh, a spider the size of a grain of rice was heading toward his expensive boxers. Priam caught it before it reached its goal and brought it to the back of his hand to observe it.
[Heroic Identification][Aranea crystallina aetheria - Tier 0 - Newborn - Tribulation] - The Fortune Weaver. Feeds on aether, luck, and draconic blood. Reaches Tier 6 at maturity. On the second Vestige of Elysium, this takes forty-three minutes on average.Attributes: Physical (100), Mental (10), META (1 000)Weaknesses:
?
Eight legs and as many bulging eyes—which were nearly popping out of their sockets due to the lack of pressure—it didn’t seem to suffer from the lack of air. No need to be Thaal to bet on a strange biology given its crystalline, almost fragile appearance. Between its fangs, a small vortex of aether rushed into its mouth. It was siphoning the ambient energy to weave its thread, and perhaps also to feed itself, because it was growing. After a fashion.
In a place rich in aether, like the Moon or in Elysium, the eight-legged monster could have gorged itself. A terrifying prospect, since, upon reading its energy level, his addon had plotted an exponential progression curve. The equivalent of a Tier 1 in a few seconds, a Tier 3 in a few minutes, and potentially a Tier 5 in a few hours.
Priam patted himself on the back for triggering his Tribulations in such an arid place. Indeed, the vacuum of space contained barely more aether than matter. Here, the spider was having a hard time spreading its wings. In a figurative way. Thanks the Seven, this wasn’t a flying spider.
Rather than summoning a strong enemy directly, the System preferred to create an enemy with the potential to become unstoppable if it gained momentum. A sort of juggernaut. Ah, if that’s not proof that my path is the best one—
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Lvl Up: [Trap Detection] lvl 12
PERC +1
A blade slashed at the level of his cheekbone. Without his skill’s warning, Priam could have been blinded in one eye.
Grunting, he searched for the source of the danger and corrected himself. Not a blade, but a solid strand of aether had penetrated his skin by a millimeter. A feat harder than slicing through a centimeter of steel.
With a single thought, Domain II and [Ideal Aether Manipulation] dispelled the weapon, provoking the anger of its creator. Priam watched the thumbnail-sized spider agitate itself and pursed his lips. Bad girl, he thought, raising his hand to crush the beast.
This was certainly the most pathetic Tribulation he had ever known—
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Priam blinked. On high alert, he focused on his senses to spot his Tribulations. Nothing behind him, and—
Something bit his hand. Priam found the culprit, fangs planted in his flesh. The poor beast wasn’t very big, and he must have crushed it by accident because it had several broken legs. Its jaws too. Tribulation or not, there was a price to pay for piercing the Juggernaut’s skin. The state of its mouthparts didn’t stop it from gorging on his ichor and his aether.
Ten minutes at this rate, and I won’t have the energy left to cast a skill, nor the blood to regenerate.
The Juggernaut raised a curious eyebrow as he watched the spider grow visibly. Or rather, get larger. It was already the size of a phalanx.
If it were a bit bigger, it could drain me in a matter of seconds. A good counter against a regeneration specialist like me—
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Hum?
A spider was zigzagging along Priam’s arm. He watched it stagger as if it had drunk too much. And indeed, the presence of a red liquid on its fangs betrayed that it had just sucked his ichor. A bad idea, because his blood was highly toxic. Lethal to any human, it apparently felt like alcohol to the baby spider. This could have been funny if the sight of a large, hairy body—it was now the size of his eye and still growing—on his body hadn’t disgusted him.
The arachnophobe summoned Pyro to purify the abomination by fire.
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Priam raised an eyebrow as he noticed a burned, broken, and poisoned spider on his elbow. Since when did the System summon half-dead Tribulations?
The Juggernaut was preparing to put an end to its suffering by stealing its Tribulation spark before realizing that it was fighting for its survival. Better yet, it was employing aether like scalpels, needles, and bandages to perform surgery on itself.
His curiosity piqued, Priam held back his blow. Mobilizing his aether sight, he observed the enemy’s mastery to learn. Scrutinizing the slightest movement of the fluid, analyzing the reactions between energy and matter, dissecting the decisions and judging the creature’s passable control, the Juggernaut studied.
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Priam looked down at a spider in pitiful shape on his arm. The size of an adult tarantula, it was healing itself with the help of aether. The ever-curious man observed it for a few moments before his peripheral vision noticed a problem in the background. The Earth was big. Too big. What the—
Knowing the actual diameter of the planet, its size in his field of vision, and comparing it with its size and distance at the moment he had launched his Tribulations, Priam calculated the distance between himself and the Earth using Thales’ theorem. Something he had learned in middle school.
The result was undeniable: he was nearly two hundred and forty thousand kilometers away from Earth.
Priam felt an icy hand close around his hearts. He had made a leap of just over eighty thousand kilometers between the start of his Tribulations and now. Mobilizing his formidable vivacity and his milestone, Priam overclocked his brain to increase his thinking speed.
Three possibilities. First, the System just teleported me with a sick spider on my arm. Second, I had a blackout. Third, someone tampered with my memory.
In outer space, it was hard to find a reference point to measure one’s speed, but [Kinetic Sovereignty] provided an estimate. Priam was moving fifty percent faster than before his Tribulations. Which ruined the teleportation hypothesis.
Now, a blackout was improbable as someone had burned the spider.
Without wasting a second, Priam used his aether proficiency like a stylus, injecting tiny droplets of aether beneath his skin to tattoo his conclusion. Evidently, his addon’s memory was just as corrupted as his own.
Then he opened the floodgates of his Potential. The Juggernaut had a new resistance to acquire.
POT -297
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Priam blinked. His pupils contracted as he saw the Earth occupying a quarter of his field of vision.
Scanning his status, he spotted a deficit of nearly three hundred points in his Potential. A tattoo on his hand provided the beginnings of an explanation.
[Tribulation 21 - Arachnoid gluttony: a tiny spider capable of devouring aether to grow.Tribulation 22 - Memento: memory reset every half-second. Tribulation 23 - ?]
The synergy was obvious: in Elysium, the creature could have fled to gorge itself on energy and return a few hours later at mid Tier. An amnesiac Priam wouldn’t even have known he was racing against the clock.
That would not happen.
Prerequisites met:
[Physical & Oneiric Memory]
Have your memory altered by Ève, The Last Fae
[Homo Elysian Obsession]
Retain the memory of an erased timeline
Manipulate your memory in a Tribulation dream
You have gained an ideal skill.
[Memory Manipulation Resistance - Rare] - A function that allows the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information—general knowledge, lived experiences, or even motion reflexes.In primates, a large part of memory is distributed across different parts of the brain. More precisely, the hippocampus manages the formation of new memories and directs them toward the cerebral cortex, the amygdala colors them by associating emotions, the cerebellum handles muscle memory, etc. Whether during registration, storage, or retrieval, it is possible to attack the system to hack your memories. This skill modifies your synapses to encrypt your memory. Fun fact: Almost no one has clear memories of their early childhood because the hippocampus isn’t mature enough to anchor long-term memory. So let me remind you that back in kindergarten, you were simultaneously dating Mélanie and Amandine. Proving that the shackles of monogamy can be broken, if you know what I mean… VIVA +1DEXT +1MEM +1
Ignoring Thaal’s opinion on his love life, Priam directly activated [Life is Hard; I’m Harder] to double the skill’s progression. Between that and his Potential to feed it, he hoped it would grow fast enough to give him some breathing room against the final Tribulation.
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial—
[New skill detected in status. Magical tattoo detected on skin. Transcription in progress…]
Priam accepted the situation before observing the spider. As big as his fist, it was absolutely hideous. Just like anything with more than six legs. Stifling a gag, he forced himself to look past the physical and focus on the magical. The creature had elevated healing to an art form and he could learn a thing or ten from it while waiting for his resistance to level-up.
Lvl Up: [Cold Resistance] lvl 12CONST +1VIT +2
Mmh? I’m not cold? Ah, I’m losing a bit of heat through radiation…
Exoticism and novelty were just as much progression factors as difficulty. In the Juggernaut’s opinion, finding innovative ways to injure oneself was a welcome substitute for torture.
Nonetheless, he was waiting for the advancement of another resistance.
Lvl Up: [Gravity Resistance] lvl 32CONST +3
Not this one.
I guess my body doesn’t really appreciate zero gravity. I read somewhere that it leads to muscle atrophy and bone density issues.
Lvl Up: [Memory Manipulation Resistance] lvl 2 VIVA +1DEXT +1MEM +1
That one.
*
The System turned its gaze away, heralding the beginning of the trial.
Tattoo, transcription, addon, understanding; all of it in the span of a quarter of a second. Priam observed the growing Earth and bit his lips.
According to the tattoo on his hand, he could count up to nine-tenths of a second before losing his memory. Originally, it was five. Each additional level wins me a tenth.
Lvl Up: [Memory Manipulation Resistance] lvl [3, 4,] 5VIVA +1DEXT +1MEM +1
Ten tenths. One second.
That was the limit he had set for himself to make a decision. A short amount of time, but with his high vivacity, Priam could do a lot with it. Like killing an exotic spider.
According to his tattoo, it possessed an exceptional proficiency in magical healing, and the mere thought of not studying it tore at both the hearts of the most curious Champion. [Ideal Aether Manipulation] ensured Priam great dexterity, but no knowledge. It was like possessing the ultimate body but having no martial training. The memory reset wasn’t even an issue. Knowing the System, he was willing to bet that one of the rewards would allow him to recover his memories.
Kill the spider… or push my limits?
Each passed Tribulation raised the ceiling of his attributes, and this advantage would carry over to Tier 1. Triggering his current triple Tribulation in outer space had made them almost trivial. Greed urged him to go even further. One more can’t hurt, right?
Lvl up: [Curse Anathema] lvl 10DEXT +9WILL +9META (Endurance) +9
The notification caught Priam by surprise. Before he could contemplate the nature of his third Tribulation, he received a second surprise. A meteoroid the size of a tennis ball crossed the trajectory of his head. Talk about bad luck.
The top half of the Champion exploded.
*
Congratulations, you are dead! Your Talent [He Who Eludes Death] brings you back to life once a day.
Number of deaths: 95
Synergy detected with your talent [Homo Elysian Obsession], your Titles [Four-Headed Hydra] and [Life is Hard; I’m Harder], and the fourth Merit of [Blasphemer]. Your body and spirit are rebuilt and will be more resistant to what killed them:
… Attribute potential redirected to skills per user request.
Lvl up: [Nova Titanium Body] lvl 7CONST +24META(Endurance) +3Lvl Up: [Memory Manipulation Resistance] lvl 6, 7, 8, 9VIVA +4DEXT +4MEM +4
*
It wasn’t often that Priam died without seeing it coming, but a rock hurtling at several dozen kilometers per second did the trick. The Juggernaut was durable, but not to the point of surviving the equivalent of a thousand 19th-century cannon shots.
His new body materialized in the vacuum of space with the exact same momentum as the instant of his death. The moment he regained consciousness, Priam looked around to locate his former corpse. He wanted to make sure the spider was dead. If he lost a creature that small in the universe, he wouldn’t stand a ghost of a chance of finding it before dying of old age.
A blaze caught his attention. No real light graced his eyes, but his aether sight was nearly blinded by the spider growing nearby.
Priam then noticed two things. First, he was no longer wearing his Tier 6 boxers. Second, the creature was over a hundred kilometers away from him. The fact that he could see it so large in his field of view was alarming.
The fact that it was turning toward him was even worse.