1/3 for this week. Be sure to read the 482 before this one.
I’m going to stop giving deadlines that I always end up missing, but the next two chapters are coming ASAP.
*
Chapter 483: The Dreaming Juggernaut
Path of the Dreaming Dragon…
Had he not been in space, Priam would have rolled those words over his tongue. He felt this Path like a piece of off-the-rack clothing. Comfortable, but not custom-tailored. That privilege belonged to Pioneers.
Even after everything I’ve done, I still have a long way to go, huh?
Then, the clock that had paused during his selection started up again. The river of time resumed its course, and the High Tribulation began.
Priam’s eyes went blind to both light and aether, and he stopped hearing the blood pumping in his ears. It didn’t surprise him. Every line of the poem was an instruction, a handicap, or a mission.
Thus, the second line, Needs no noise, no light, tested his Domain. The Supremacy became his primary tool of perception, to the detriment of his two main mundane senses. Lost in the middle of outer space, anyone else would have panicked, but the Juggernaut pushed back the fear. Before his memory reset, he noted his coordinates on his tattoo, as well as those of the spider he had seen drifting in the distance a second earlier. After a brief hesitation, he also noted the System’s poem. It was better not to forget the instructions of his High Tribulation.
The fourth line was more troublesome. Priam frowned as he felt an interference with Micro. After a quick assessment, he dissipated the portal to his inner world that was located in his lungs. No matter how hard he opened them, he couldn’t breathe. A single Breath… The aether didn’t lie. Until the end of his High Tribulation, Priam would only be able to take one single breath.
Which was problematic, because the fifth line spoke of a dragon that tolerated no slight. Priam couldn’t imagine any other reference than the spider that had eaten his boxers… and perhaps more. According to his tattoo, [He Who Eludes Death] had been triggered by a collision with a meteoroid. While space was not lacking in drifting rocks, the void was so vast that the accident was suspicious. That, plus the level-up of [Curse Anathema] and the unfortunate encounter with a thread that had severed his arm, painted a clear picture: the fortune weaver had devoured his luck.
The dragon demanded retribution. Priam translated that as vengeance. An action that had to be swift, because despite his advantages, the Juggernaut still needed air to survive. No time for a solar execution.
Flexing his [Phoenix Wings] and [Kinetic Sovereignty], the blind man lunged forward, trusting his add-on to plot the spider’s trajectory and intercept it.
*
The System looked away.
What was worse than traveling across a vast ocean? Doing so without any way to find your bearings. One risked running aground anywhere.
Outer space was worse. Matter was so rare in the universe that Priam could spend billions of years flying without ever encountering anything. Fortunately for him, he would die long before then.
That thought failed to reassure him.
Blind, deaf, and amnesiac, he spent every single moment stressing, terrified of being lost, of having missed his mark. For the first time, he was glad of his enemy’s sheer size—less chance of missing it. That, plus an iron will tempered by his recent trials, allowed him to master his fear.
Then his memory would reset, and the fear would return. Accompanied, at times, by a touch of anger.
I am so stupid for not killing this fucking spider when I had the chance!
Lvl Up: [Memory Manipulation Resistance] lvl 16VIVA +1DEXT +1MEM +1
With the level-ups serving as a lifeline, Priam followed his add-on’s compass. If the calculations were correct, impact would occur in a few seconds. Just enough time to solve one of his problems by leveling up a skill that had been gathering dust for lack of utility.
Today, it seemed vital.
[Asphyxia Resistance - Rare] has reached level 40, its maximum level as a rare skill.Prerequisites met:
Breath Sage
Survived with no air in your lungs.
Held your respiration for 30 minutes.
Draconic Lung
[Homo Elysian Obsession]
[Life is Hard; I’m harder].
[Breathless - Silver]
[Poison Physique - Epic]
Survived with nothing in your lungs.
Nine ideal prerequisites. Not a record, but not bad.
All that was left was to choose which ones he would keep. Priam proceeded by elimination.
̶S̶u̶r̶v̶i̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶a̶i̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶l̶u̶n̶g̶s̶.̶
‘Survived with nothing in your lungs’ was superior.
̶H̶e̶l̶d̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶p̶i̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶3̶0̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶t̶e̶s̶.̶
Achievable by an over-trained human who had previously inhaled pure oxygen and possessed good genetics. Before the Tutorial, Priam had read about a record exceeding twenty-nine minutes. Impressive, especially without the System, but the Juggernaut wanted superhuman prerequisites.
̶[̶L̶i̶f̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶H̶a̶r̶d̶;̶ ̶I̶’̶m̶ ̶h̶a̶r̶d̶e̶r̶]̶
A solid option, but if a choice had to be made, Priam preferred an adaptive Talent like [Homo Elysian Obsession] over an unchangeable Title.
Finally, he hesitated between Breath Sage, Draconic Lung, and [Poison Physique]. It was difficult to say which directions these choices would lead him, but Priam could make a few educated guesses. Breath Sage would prevent his breathing from being disrupted by a Domain, a skill, or a Concept. He wouldn’t suffocate as long as no one mechanically obstructed his nostrils and mouth. Draconic Lung would synergize with [Breathless] to let him breathe aether instead of oxygen. [Poison Physique] would combat carbon dioxide poisoning—the molecule created by his body after exertion—effectively lengthening his breath-holding capacity. In his current situation, the last two options were superior.
̶B̶r̶e̶a̶t̶h̶ ̶S̶a̶g̶e̶
Ideal Upgrade unlocked:
[Apnea Cheater - Epic] - If life is a game, play by your rules. Ideal upgrade potential. Potential Cost: 320
You have selected the skill [Apnea Cheater - Epic].POT -320
[Apnea Cheater - Epic] - Hypoxia refers to a situation where the amount of available oxygen is insufficient to cover the needs of the body’s cells and tissues. Organs are deprived, and cells struggle to produce energy.A common phenomenon when air becomes scarce in high mountains or when surfacing too quickly after a dive.Your lungs learn to extract oxygen from molecules that contain it. A portion of the energy required by your cells can be replaced by your aether.Synergy with [Poison Physique]: Even when your ichor no longer carries oxygen to your organs, they manage to recycle a portion of the carbon dioxide poisoning them by sacrificing a little aether.If Jack in Titanic had possessed this skill, he still would have frozen to death. Not you. You would have pushed Rose into the water.VIT +5DEXT +2META (Endurance) +2
Hardly had he finished reading the description when Priam felt Promesse calling out to him nearby. He slightly altered his trajectory and raised his arms to protect his head. One memory reset later, his Domain touched something other than a void.
He slammed into the spider’s crystalline carapace at high speed.
Stifling a groan to avoid losing air, Priam dusted himself off as he stood back up. He was at the center of a small crater he had dug with his own body.
Without wasting time, [Kinetic Sovereignty] began to absorb the spider’s kinetic energy. In parallel, he opened Hecate’s New Moon… which remained silent. The curse in his eye was plunged into an artificial coma that resisted any attempt of [Chimera].
A silk thread whipped his back, tearing away his skin, and Priam turned pale. Not because of the wound, but because of his failure. Without this trump card, how could he defeat the enemy?
According to his add-on, asphyxia would become critical within two hours. Eight if he was willing to sacrifice his aether without counting the cost. Even if he had ideas to prolong his lifeline, they couldn’t buy him a week.
A thread struck from the left. Helplessness gave way to rage, and Priam grabbed the whip with his bare hands. The attack sliced through his flesh, but he didn’t care. Injecting his own aether into the thread, he forced the energy back up the line to contaminate the spider.
A drop fell into an ocean.
Holy Seven.
Priam widened his blind eyes as he contemplated his opponent’s reserves. Stockpiles he could barely comprehend, the energy purity rendering it invisible to his soul. But what he did see terrified him.
When Thaal had spoken of a Tier 6 boxer, Priam hadn’t truly understood. After facing Leo and speaking with a Demiurge, the Champion had possessed the audacity to think he understood the difference between Tiers.
He knew nothing.
Having devoured the boxer, the spider possessed enough energy to ruin a planet. Not just on the surface, nuclear-war style, but deep down into its core. Should the monster self-destruct, it would shatter the Earth like an egg.
Just as despair threatened to overwhelm him, Priam perceived something else. Floating at the heart of the enemy was a spark.
The essence of a Tribulation, augmented by Tier 6 aether and elevated by the universe to the rank of a High Tribulation.
An ideal elixir to baptize his soul.
*
The System looked away.
The good thing about a memory reset was that mourning was brief. Relying on the notes of previous Priams, the Juggernaut wasted no time self-pitying and searched for a solution.
Soon, a shadow marred his face. Neither his Genesis Gift nor his Heroic Merits would be enough to kill the monster. With little hope, Priam wove a mental bridge, connecting to the spider while blocking the whips of magical silk.
Hunger. Hunt. Web.
Without being entirely empty, the monster’s mind was simple. Too simple. Priam tried sending peaceful thoughts, then suicidal ones, but nothing took. The enemy was simply too simple to be manipulated that way. A more specialized skill could surely affect it… but Priam decided to acquire one only as a last resort. His experience with Anne during the first Reunion was still fresh in his eidetic memory—an irony in his current situation—and his hatred of mind mages ran deep. The thought of becoming one of them made his skin crawl. Still preferable to death, but—
Priam’s eyes widened. Opening his notifications, he reread the end of the description for [Apnea Cheater]. Thaal often slipped jokes into them, but one would have to be stupid to believe the Tier 8 was merely a prankster.
If Jack in Titanic had possessed this skill, he still would have frozen to death. Not you. You would have pushed Rose into the water.
The provocation was naked. The Administrator was stating flat out that Priam placed his life above all others. To survive, he was even willing to cause harm.
A thread lashed the Champion’s skull without him reacting. The blind young man turned toward where he knew Earth to be.
Just how selfish am I?
Deep down, he already knew the answer. Fuck you, Thaal.
*
[Kinetic Sovereignty] took two hours to absorb the majority of the spider’s kinetic energy. Two hours during which the Juggernaut fought for his life against an enemy that was ever-growing and tireless. Zigzagging between the monster’s legs while maintaining contact with his Domain was no small feat under a rain of attacks. Fortunately, his only memories were scars.
Lvl Up: [Memory Manipulation Resistance] lvl 17, 18, 19, 20VIVA +4DEXT +4MEM +4
Finally, the spider was stabilized at roughly fifty thousand kilometers from Earth. Without a backward glance at his opponent, the blind man kicked off. Like a swimmer pushing off the wall of a pool, he accelerated. Destination: the Moon.
In darkness and silence, the journey felt surreal. If he had to describe it, Priam would compare it to being shipped as a parcel aboard a boat drifting across a calm sea. Maddening.
Lvl Up: [Memory Manipulation Resistance] lvl 21, 22VIVA +2DEXT +2MEM +2
The add-on estimated his speed to be around one hundred kilometers per second. Accelerating in a vacuum was easy. Monotonous. Thus, Priam was relatively surprised when a plasma shot caught him dead in the jaw.
Certainly powerful enough to blast a hole through a thick concrete wall, the attack merely stung the Juggernaut.
Thinking I’m weakened? You aren’t the oriole you think you are.
Suppressing a snort of derision, Priam closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles, playing dead. To sell the act, he even let a bit of ichor spill out into space. Two more shots struck him before calm returned.
Lvl Up: [Acting] lvl 9CHAR +3Lvl Up: [Deception] lvl 7VIVA +1MEM +1CHAR +1
Hardly had the notifications stopped ringing when Pyro detected a flame at the outer edge of the Concept’s radar—roughly a bit over a kilometer away thanks to his meta-perception.
Two other signals appeared in rapid succession before stopping in a triangle formation around the Juggernaut. For a split second, he thought they were allies, before one of the ships fired upon another.
Pirates? Bounty hunters? Assassins?
Annoyed, Priam rode Pyro, emerging inside a pressurized room. What he had mistaken for a thruster was actually a hearth. I guess galactic travel doesn’t rely on chemical propulsion.
“Priam Azura!” a voice roared. Someone had been taking advantage of the fire’s warmth. “Ez rhe tù!”
Or at least, that was how [Echolocation] translated it. Priam still hadn’t recovered his hearing.
“I don’t know if you understand me, or who is going to hear this,” the Juggernaut announced, frowning. It was strange to speak without hearing oneself. “But I don’t want you on Earth. If I see anything other than a human, I will kill it.”
The terms were harsh, but Priam was pissed. Nothing had gone his way since the start of his Tribulations, and—
*
The System looked away.
Priam frowned. His memory was a blank slate, but his emotions were not. Rage boiling in his gut, he acted.
With a single thought, Breath deprived the entire crew of air, mirroring his High Tribulation. Priam rode Pyro three more times, repeating his trick on the other two ships before appearing in front of a Tier 4 who was resisting his Concept.
“Why attack me?”
“There’s a bounty on your head,” the enemy replied simply. Judging by her silhouette and the heat radiating from her skin, he wagered she was a dark elf. A drow.
“Ah. And you actually think you can collect it?” Wrath simmered inside Priam. Struggling to defeat a spider the size of a small country was one thing, but these weaklings believing they could kill him? Priam felt insulted.
“You—”
*
The System looked away.
“—and I shall have a good fight,” the drow finished.
“Not worthy,” Priam replied. Flexing his aether proficiency, he deactivated all of the ship’s defenses before his kinetic mastery tore a hole right through the hull.
“YOU LUNATIC—”
The air was sucked clean out of the cabin, and Priam didn’t even try to fight the vacuum. A second later, floating in the void, he flashed a mocking smile at the Tier 4, who was desperately clinging to the edge of the breach. “See ya.”
“You’re dodging the fight?!”
“More like I’m competing with you in speed and radiation resistance.”
With a single thought, Priam channeled Pyro through every flame within his reach. The three ships exploded in a firework display. Ignoring the raging drow, the Juggernaut continued on his way.
He had a moon to bring down.
*
*