NovelOnline Chapter 297: Best Birthday Gift Ever!
Chapter 297: Best Birthday Gift Ever!
Chapter 297: Best Birthday Gift Ever!
Priam closed his eyes, summoning every sense to scan the typhoon looming ahead. His Mist Concept painted a picture of a torrential rain descending like a storm of bullets, each drop laced with danger, a brutal reminder of his first Tribulation. He pushed deeper, before grimacing as [Ideal Aether Perception] failed to pierce the wall of clouds before him. The ambient aether density was too high.
Should I go straight in? Priam wasn’t a coward, but he wasn’t foolish enough to take unnecessary risks.
Taking a step back, he assessed the towering steam monolith before him, craning his neck skyward until it almost strained—if that were even possible with his agility. The cloud seemed to rise endlessly. Time to gain some altitude. Unfurling his wings, he propelled himself upward with kinetic mastery, soaring for nearly a full minute before reaching the apex of the colossal, mutated cumulonimbus. The vaporous mass stretched nearly thirty kilometers high, twice the height of any Earthly counterpart.
“Woah...” Priam was impressed by what he saw... and a little terrified.
The dark gray, almost black cloud top was saturated with aether in maddening quantities. Massive currents surged toward its core with an apocalyptic fury. Lightning as wide as skyscrapers crackled through the monstrous cyclone multiple times per second. The chaos above was way worse than at sea level.
As Priam felt curiosity tugging him closer, his instincts screamed a warning.
Storms had always both awed and terrified him. To him, they were nature’s raw power and majesty made manifest, a natural purge born of special conditions, resetting the balance. He saw them as nature’s righteous anger—not against any one person, but against something deeply out of sync. But this deluge was different; it wasn’t here to restore climate balance. It was here to destroy. The sight alone set every hair on his body on end. Something’s wrong...
Priam looked higher, frowning. At this altitude, the sky should have faded from blue to black, the air thinning as he reached the edge of space. But no. He wasn’t on a planet, yet the laws of physics here were warped, too different to be untouched by magic.
“There’s something off about this fragment of the world,” he murmured, flapping his wings harder. Propelled into the air, he kept rising, determined to test the limits of this fragment’s physics.
Moments later, the deluge was a rumbling, dark mass beneath him. Aether continued pouring into it, a tangible flow Priam could see with his meta-perception. The energy arched in the air, like a siphon drawing in the world’s essence, feeding the tempest.
Another kilometer up, Priam noticed himself slowing. He was still flying at supersonic speed, yet the cloud below seemed no further away. Eventually, he stalled mid-air. Confused, he poured more aether into his ascent, hoping brute force would overcome the spatial block.
To his surprise, it worked. Rising another meter, he understood he was leveraging [Space Resistance]. His body possessed a unique dimensional identity that allowed him to partially ignore the quicksand-like pull of space. Collecting resistances had its advantages.
If his constitution had been unsealed, his skill would have progressed quickly, letting him push further. But reality didn’t deal in “ifs,” and neither did Priam. Just centimeters from his face, he could see the aether rushing toward the typhoon below. Then—nothing. As if energy simply ceased to exist beyond it; as if reality itself had abandoned that space. This was at odds with the bright blue sky he could still see above. The truth dawned on him: he was facing an illusion, a realistic painting on a dimensional ceiling.
Priam extended his hand, touching the edge of Valaryth’s realm.
Title won!
[“To the Ends of the World!” - Silver] - A fragment of the world, depending on its rules, can take many forms. While the depths of Valaryth 84 seem nearly limitless, and its ocean’s surface appears endless due to its non-Euclidean geometry, its sky is capped. At the level of a void vortex, it is exactly thirty kilometers high.
You have reached the edge of a world. Now, all that remains is to gain the means to pierce a dimensional bubble... and perhaps obliterate Valaryth 84 in the process; a small price for the satisfaction of your boundless curiosity.
META (Chance) +10%
META (Authority) +10%
Valaryth's Ocean’s reward: Level up [Ideal Aether Perception] x5;
Lvl Up: [Ideal Aether Perception] Lvl 20,..., 24
META (AFFI) +15
META (PERC) +30
“Ah!” Priam grinned as he read his new Title and rewards. Like corrective lenses or a hearing aid, the five level-ups sharpened his aether perception. His sight, hearing, and even smell sharpened, allowing him to differentiate energy currents with a precision he had only dreamed of. It was like gazing into a river and seeing not just the broad flow but every micro-current, every whirlpool, with hints at the chaotic phenomena yet to come. Further mastery would eventually let him anticipate the effects of his own skills.
With his hand pressed against the dimensional boundary of Valaryth, he could tell it was solid. That reassured him; Priam didn’t need the Title description to realize that breaching it would unleash catastrophic consequences. A single flaw would pop the protection like a soap bubble, plunging this world fragment into a devastating spatial storm.
There was only one thing left to do. Priam descended toward the ocean, diving beneath the surface to confirm the presence of a colossal siphon. The vortex swallowed seawater, which vanished into the depths with a fury that could pulverize any submarine.
A lazy school of fish swam around him, skirting the deadly currents yet never crossing them. Occasionally, blood, shredded flesh, and broken bones spewed from the whirlpool, quickly devoured by the local fauna. The rule was clear to all: venturing into the vortex meant death, but beyond that boundary lay safety.
Air or sea, this storm was lethal. Best to face it on the surface.
Decision made, Priam hovered just above the water, advancing until he reached the invisible border. The calm around him stood in stark contrast to the chaos awaiting within. He moved forward.
The typhoon was a literal hell of water. As his hand breached the storm, rain assaulted him, pelting his skin like needles. With his constitution, even bullets couldn’t harm him, and the rain fared no better.
A grin spread across Priam’s face as he took a step forward, letting the deadly deluge wash over him. His misty garments disintegrated under the vengeful tempest, and he opened his eyes. All around, millions of raindrops cascaded from the sky, each capable of tearing through a rhino's hide—yet they couldn’t even scratch his eyes.
With [Shear Resistance] and [Sun Steel Body] as his defense, it was as expected. Truth be told, Priam found the storm’s intensity almost relaxing. Deadly to a human, this onslaught felt like a vigorous massage to him. Even the thunderous sound of raindrops slamming against the ocean was comforting. A nostalgic memory of nights spent listening to the rain’s lullaby against his skylight rose within him.
He glanced at the tranquility outside, then at the water’s surface, churning and distorted by the storm, masking the destructive vortex beneath. Letting go of his kinetic energy platforms would have pulled him under in seconds.
His instincts and aether perception whispered that the Tribulation’s secret lay in the deluge’s heart, and Priam moved forward without hurry. Five kilometers later, he came upon another wall of rain, as dark as a stormy sea, and passed through it without pause.
First zone of the Deluge cleared. Valaryth's Ocean’s reward: Level up [Shear Resistance] x5...
Seal detected. Progression delayed.
The rain intensified, each drop hitting like a bullet. Forget harming an animal; this storm could wear down tank armor in minutes. If only his constitution weren’t sealed, his resistances would be skyrocketing by now.
Priam glanced skyward, as if daring the deluge itself. Show me your worst.
The storm responded with an avalanche of water, forcing him to summon every ounce of strength just to stay upright. Yet his grin didn’t waver. Despite the storm’s fury, his skin remained untouched, unchanging. His physical attributes and resistances were sufficient that he didn’t even need to defend himself actively. Truly a Juggernaut.
Round two hadn’t come close to breaking him, and with that, Priam moved forward.
The third zone was a deadly mix of wind and rain. The clouds churned overhead, whipping up gales that raged at speeds of over five hundred kilometers an hour—three times faster than what was needed to tear an unanchored man from the ground. His eidetic memory whispered that this storm was as violent as those on Jupiter or Saturn.
The trial was so grueling Priam figured he could temper his Matter gate in it. All he had to do now was decide which resistance to focus on. Smiling, he strode into the third zone and braced himself, as if stepping into a cosmic blender.
He skimmed his interface for a second to find the update.
Valaryth Quest: Invasion I - Pseudo Alien Tribulation.
Retrieve the heart of the Tier 2 High Tribulation ‘Deluge’ for the System.
Reward: Reward of a Triple Tribulation, validation of the following thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 1 attribute > 1,200
Difficulty: Mythic
Priam read the reward twice before accepting that it wasn’t a mistake. The System was offering him a dangerous but wildly lucrative opportunity.
A grin spread across his face. He had never backed down from adversity.
“Best birthday gift ever!”
Status:
PHYSICAL:
Strength 893 SEALED
Constitution 1 199 SEALED
Agility 1 169
Vitality 1 136
Perception 858
MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599 SEALED
Dexterity 752
Memory 891 SEALED
Willpower 1 004
Charisma 648
META:
Meta-affinity 999 (+19)
Meta-focus 551
Meta-endurance 887
Meta-perception 502 (+41)
Meta-chance 556 (+33)
Meta-authority 315 (+29)
Potential: 17 840 (+15)
Tier 0
Sun points: 143 444
[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED
Concepts:
Breath (T0): 100% / HarmonyFire (T0): 100% / UnityPyro (T1): 100% / Half-step UnityMist (T1): 100% / Symphony
Bloodlines:
Phoenix: 2%Dragon: 1%
Rewards standing:
Fusion Token - Skill (Epic) Evolution Token - Skill (Legendary)Affinity Token - Tier 1 (30%)Alien Concept fragment (7th Terror)Talent Token - Upgrade (Seraph)Revelation Token - Ideal Prerequisites (Epic)Colosseum VIP TokenReborn Token - Reset biological lifespan (Legendary)
[Tribulation]: Five Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 133 days 15 hours 22 minutes 22 seconds.
Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 1 attribute > 1 200
Next arc already complete on Patreon if you want to find out what happens next!
https://www.patreon.com/ANovelConcept