Chapter 288 Testing
'Let's check the titles and what has changed about them,' Alex thought as he moved to check the details of the title he acquired for reaching the pineal of a mortal Rank.
Alex's stats had reached the limit of twenty thousand without any stat boost from his titles or equipment, which was an astonishing feat because before, three of five stats were a little over 5K.
'Nice'
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Title: Zenith Mortal
Quality: Mythical
Effect: Increase sensitivity to the Elemental Law by 100%, allowing the bearer to unravel their mysteries with less difficulty.
Description: The title is an emblem of unparalleled achievement, attainable only by those who have scaled the peaks of mortal ranks, granting them the recognition of the Cosmic Law.
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The effect of the title was unique and good as it helped with the biggest obstacle an individual faces while climbing through the ranks, and even for talented individuals, it was no easy task to learn the mysteries of the governing Laws as everyone had a different understanding of their element.
Now, only a few things remained to check, with the first being the chaos manipulation that had a monumental increase in its mystery stage as it went from minor to Superior, only one rank below the perfect stage.
Alex ignored that for the time being, even though he had many questions regarding it and his new darkness manipulation, but setting that aside, he moved to check the changes in his skills.
Every skill Alex possessed had undergone transformations, with some reaching unrecognizable levels of advancement. His once-deadly Soul Infusion skill had evolved into Minor Soul Energy Manipulation, a skill that was superior on paper but also presented its own set of challenges.
Alex's skill of Soul Infusion had vanished, getting replaced with the evolved version, and although he could execute it through soul energy manipulation, doing so would prove exceedingly problematic because he needed to learn to control his soul energy before he could even start working on the getting back his trump card.
Slightly disheartened, Alex proceeded to check the rest of his skills, commencing with those unique to his class.
Alex had anticipated great positive changes, but his delight was evident as he observed that all of his skills had indeed undergone significant improvements.
Their increased strength and reduced cooldown times had elevated them to a level resembling that of stronger fourth Rank skills, despite officially retaining their classification as third Rank.
Besides his class skills, Alex's other skills, like spells he learned, were evolved, now sitting at the pinnacle of third Rank, while his pain resistance and passive regeneration skills were also evolved.
However, the sword skills he created himself and his unique skills, like the Ruler pride, Continental Teleportation, Astral World Projection, and even his soul art, had experienced zero changes, or at least none he could see.
Each of Alex's elemental resistances had undergone substantial improvements, reaching their final stage, which meant that, when compared to other individuals of the same or even higher rank, he was now multiple times more resilient to the five elements he had resistance against.
The last remaining thing was the titles, and they too had undergone remarkable improvements as even his lowest-grade title, "Monkey Killer," which he had earned at the beginning of his journey, had now evolved into a legendary-grade title, and the same was true for various other titles.
Now, having checked all the tangible changes, it was time to check the intangible improvements and get some answers to his questions, so without any delay, Alex approached Lady Elmara, who stood silently to the side.
The first test Lady Elmara did was to check for Alex's elemental aptitude using an Aptitude Gauge crystal, and it was a bit surprising as Alex held elemental aptitude for over ten elements, with the majority of them being of dark nature.
The next test was to check for his elemental talent, and to Alex's surprise, the shimmering white crystal, mere moments after he held it, turned pitch dark like an oozing ball of darkness, and it kept getting darker and darker as the foreign energy from the crystal kept circulating though Alex body.
In mere seconds, the crystal ball reached a point where the darkness covering it was eating away the surrounding light, dimming the area around it, and before even ten seconds had passed, the crystal turned dull greyish.
Alex looked toward Lady Elmara to get answers, and after staying lost in her thoughts for mere moments, she told him that his natural darkness talent was immeasurable.
However, she did tell him that from the start to the crystal reaching its limits was a time of precisely seven seconds, which was the best she knew about, slightly better than even Sir Erebus the First Ruler, as his time was micro units above seven seconds.
But she also told him how, with the talent crystal reaching its limit, the results were Intuitive at best and couldn't be compared with someone with similar results.
Alex didn't concern himself with whether his talent surpassed Erebus's talent or not, as he had yet to even properly start putting his darkness talent to good use.
Lady Elmara made changes to the appraisal crystal to stop it from checking for darkness talent and handed the spere back to Alex.
Alex held the spear for a few seconds before it started to get covered in a plethora of colors, with three colors dominating the other colors.
At the forefront, occupying nearly 40% of the entire crystal sphere, lay Pitch Dark, an unwavering, calm sea of inky blackness.
Following that was the Iridescent, a mesmerizing display of ever-shifting colors, claiming around 30% of the sphere's surface.
Lastly, there was Pearlescent Blue, shimmering with an uncountable number of stars, forming a resplendent backdrop to the other two elements occupying nearly 20%.
The remaining place was being held by various other colors, with an icy white color occupying more space than the rest.
Lady Elmara introduced the elements each color represented with the pitch dark belonging to the Element of Time, the Iridescent belonging to chaos, and the Pearlescent Blue to the element of space.
Alex held great natural talent in all three Time, Space, and Chaos elements, which could be considered the pinnacle of what one could have before it surpasses the limits of what could be measured.
Alex was surprised that his second-best talent was in the element of time, but he also felt like laughing, seeing that his shitiest talent was in the element of fire, which became his bane in his previous life.
Now, with the natural talent tested, Lady Elmara decided to next test Alex's newfound mental resilience, and she began with a mental assault at the peak of the fourth rank, but to Alex's surprise, he didn't even feel it. His Psychic Bastion skill provided a strong mental defense, preventing any pain or discomfort.
The mental attacks continued through the ranks, and Alex remained unaffected till the high Fifth Rank stage.
However, Alex felt a mild headache when Lady Elmara unleashed a peak fifth-rank mental shock. It was as if a rock had struck him in the head, but he remained unaffected, and by this point, he was feeling shocked as he had thought peak fifth Rank to be his limit till the next rank promotion.
Alex braced himself, prepared for the early sixth-rank mental shock, knowing it wouldn't be as pleasant as the last one, and he was correct as the shock felt like he had been slammed into the hard floor, causing slight disorientation and blurriness in his vision.
Despite the discomfort, he remained in control and could still retaliate if necessary with no problem.
Alex held his breath and got fully prepared for the next mental shock, knowing it could very well be his limit, and when it came, he experienced a continuous pounding in his head as if he were being hammered repeatedly.
The pain was tolerable, as Alex maintained his ability to think clearly and to take advantage of the situation, he decided to use his mana sense to see if he could survive such an attack in a real battle.
To his relief, Alex discovered that he could sense his surroundings clearly and was capable of retaliating, thanks to his bloodline trait of emotion control.
After six seconds, his vision returned, and the headache began to subside, giving him a moment of respite.
Lady Elmara gave Alex a few minutes to get back to his peak condition, and then she used a peak sixth-rank mental shock, which he was fully prepared to take, but this time, he felt intense head-splitting pain, his mana sense shattered, and his vision went dark in a mere moment.
In the next instant, his consciousness blanked out, and when he regained awareness, he found himself lying on the lab floor, staring at the white ceiling.
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