Chapter 618: Achilles Heel?
Coming over to Evan, the boy was not much different. He also had a higher energy quality than normal, and he had also received enough of a boost to bring himself up to 6x the universal energy quality constant for a Legendary Realm existence.
Seeing the benefit the first sphere had given him, Arthur wasted no time moving on to the next, this time picking the blue one. Meanwhile, Evan, who had started with the gold sphere, switched to the red.
As they continued, Jamie’s order arrived, and he dug into his burger, seemingly oblivious to Arthur’s widening eyes as the effects of the second sphere kicked in.
"I thought the blue one was going to affect my Time Powers, but it affected my body instead?"
Arthur wouldn’t lie that he currently felt uncomfortable. It was like something was squirming through his flesh, deconstructing it and reconstructing it in certain places.
But with each reconstruction, he felt a little bit stronger.
Jamie, mid-bite, glanced over and noticed Arthur’s reaction. He set down his burger and asked casually.
"Are you sure your Time Powers are not affected?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
When Arthur asked, Jamie explained.
"Arthur, you’re eventually going to become stronger. It’s only a matter of Time.
But what if this sphere is amplifying your Time Powers to speed up that process? It’s not just strengthening your body—it’s fast-tracking your growth.
Think about it. Let’s say there’s a sequence of steps you need to follow to reach your full strength. If you’re currently on step five, it’s using your Time Powers to push you to step six faster than you’re supposed to reach it."
He paused, watching Arthur’s expression shift as he absorbed the idea.
"Of course, this kind of acceleration doesn’t come free. By the time it’s done, even you, with your vast energy reserves would be unable to escape a vast depletion since this process is going to e—"
Midway through Jamie’s explanation, Arthur’s vision began to blur. His surroundings seemed to spin, and before his brain could even understand what was happening, his body collapsed forward onto the table.
"Arthur?!"
Evan exclaimed, quickly moving to catch him before he could fall to the ground. His hand clutched Arthur’s shoulder, barely keeping him upright.
"The heck is going on?!"
Jamie, far from concerned, chuckled as he leaned back.
"I wasn’t even finished explaining it, and it already happened."
Evan’s brow furrowed at Jamie’s light-hearted tone. He glanced back at Arthur and froze, eyes widening.
Arthur’s energy was depleting—rapidly, absurdly so. Magic, Divinity, Anti-Divinity—it was all draining from him at an alarming rate, vanishing faster than water leaking from a broken faucet.
Jamie, still calm, observed with a knowing glance.
"Even his Cosmic energy is getting eaten up fast."
Evan studied Arthur’s state closely, and he quickly figured out why Arthur had abruptly passed out.
"Energy deficiency...?"
He muttered this more to himself than anyone else.
Arthur, with his immense energy reserves and fast regeneration rate, was never one to worry about running out of energy.
He had four energy types and could manipulate ambient Cosmic Energy proportional to his maximum internal reserves.
Energy deficiency was something foreign to him.
But now, his vast reserves were being drained at such an insane pace that his body couldn’t keep up.
Due to having rarely experienced this level of deficiency, Arthur was unsurprisingly weak to it and found it hard to maintain his consciousness.
His body, unused to such depletion, had simply shut down.
Evan’s face was a picture of incredulity; who would have thought that, of all the vulnerabilities in the universe that Arthur could have had, being unused to energy deficiency would be the one?
"Just let him lean back on the chair. He’d be fine."
Evan did as Jamie instructed and leaned Arthur back, before turning to himself to inspect the boosts he gained.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Oh, you’re finally awake."
Arthur blinked, hearing the voice first as his body felt sluggish and his vision remained blurry. He took a few moments to gather himself before glancing up, only to see Evan and Jamie sitting comfortably across from him, enjoying what looked like a full meal.
In front of Arthur, however, was still his ’Starry Meal’ plate—though now only a single orb remained, glowing faintly as it sat silently as if waiting for him.
"What happened?"
Arthur asked, his voice hoarse.
"You passed out from energy deficiency. Never thought that would be your Achilles’ heel."
Evan responded while taking a bit of his meal and Arthur blinked rapidly, confused by his words.
He lifted his hand to press it against his temple but misjudged his strength and the force he applied made his head throb painfully.
"Ah, careful. Don’t use the same force as before. Your body’s stronger now."
Jamie warned him and Arthur glanced down at himself, a wave of realization washing over him as he flexed his fingers, sensing the new strength coursing through his body.
It had undeniably grown stronger.
But then, his eyes widened as the full extent of what had happened hit him.
"Where the fuck did all my energy go?!"
At his outburst, both Jamie and Evan burst into laughter, unable to contain themselves as they watched Arthur’s utterly shocked and gobsmacked expression.
Jamie and Evan laughed for a solid minute, completely ignoring Arthur’s obvious irritation. Finally, Jamie caught his breath and leaned back in his chair before speaking.
"Dude, just take a look at your status board."
That wasn’t much of an explanation, but Arthur went along with it. He opened his status board, and the moment he saw the numbers, his eyes widened in shock.
|Name- Arthur Vaughn
Race- Primordial godslayer
Gender- Male
Age- 17
Level- Undefined
Existence Level– Undefined
Titles- Progenitor godslayer, Child of Prophecy, Child of Destruction, Prince of Hell’s Devildom, Irregular, Silver Demon Summoner, Grudged by the Divine, S-Tier Mercenary, Visitor from the Beyond, Terror of Aramis, Divine Demon, Enemy of Aramis, Harbinger of Doom, ’Special’ Lieutenant General of Gozon’s Interstellar Army... [...]
Classes–Sub-Cosmic, Chrono Destructor.
Health– X3→½♾
Energy- X3
Strength– X3
Agility– X3
Durability–X3
Intelligence- X3-
Condition- Energy Deficient.
Magic Tiers-Time Tier 6, Fire Tier 4, Water Tier 3, Earth Tier 4, Gravity Tier 6, Space Tier 4, Wind Tier 4, Light Tier 3, Darkness Tier 5, Lightning Tier 5.
Skills- Dragon Breath Rune, Strength Enhancement, Extinction Slash, Cataclysmic Divide, Subspace, Appraisal, Energy Weapon Projection, Dive (T), Arcane Blessing, Delay Attack, Temporal Slash, Temporal Thrust, Chronoslash, Time Bomb, Time Shatter, Space-Time Skipping, Space Warp, Blink, Intimidation, Energy Blast, Accelerated Gravitational Singularity of Destruction, Gravity Shield, Gravitational Maelstrom, Gravitational Chaos, Prism Pulse.
Unique Skills- Core Absorption, Extreme Nothingness?, Hall of Fractured Time, Pseudo-Authority of Time, Pseudo-Authority of Destruction, Gravitemporal Harmony, Pseudo-Authority of Gravity. |
All his stats except his intelligence stat were now at ’X3’ or X3 Neutral.
From his knowledge of this Universe’s system, ’X3-’ stats were what beings at Inferior Transcendence, from levels 900 to 933, possessed. ’X3’ stats, however, were the stats of someone at levels 933 to 966.
His stats had been stuck at ’X3-’, with a stat level of 1/100, unable to grow any further because of his undefined Level and Existence Realm.
Until he became a Transcendent, his stats couldn’t increase through levelling up.
At least, that’s what he thought.
However, the Regal Void Expanse Realm and this strange Garden of Stars had shown him that existence loved contradicting itself.
The second sphere he ate had increased his stats to X3 Neutral, though the stat levels were still 1/100.
And though he couldn’t progress through levelling until Transcendence, it didn’t change the fact that his base stats had grown.
This also meant that the boosts he’d gain upon reaching Transcendence were going to be astronomical. Moving from Sovereign to Transcendent involved an exponential increase in power, no matter the starting point.
And with X3 Neutral stats, the leap would be far greater than his initial estimations.
"Bottom line is, you’re probably going to start as a Transcendent with Superior Stage stats, dude. You really are breaking records."
Jamie interrupted his thoughts with a grin and Evan laughed, nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, he’s really breaking records."
But Jamie turned to Evan with a raised brow.
"Why are you talking like you’re any different? You’re going to start as an Intermediate Sovereign, no doubt."
"Nah, my stats are still ’X2-’, so that’s only Inferior Stage Sovereign."
Jamie waved his hand dismissively at Evan’s response.
"Yeah, that’s Inferior Stage Sovereign, while you’re still Superior Legendary with at least 30 levels left before you hit Sovereign.
What do you think is going to happen by the time you finish those 30 levels and then make the jump?"
Silence hung in the air for a moment, and then Evan sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Yeah, okay, I get it. I’m ridiculous too."
"Glad to see you know."
Jamie replied with a chuckle.
Meanwhile, Arthur was still staring at his status board, his thoughts racing.
To think he now had the power of an Intermediate Stage Transcendent—and he wasn’t even a Transcendent yet.
What’s more, this was only the result of eating the second sphere from his Starry Meal.
There was still a third one waiting for him.
The first orb Arthur ate was silver, and it affected his energy, boosting its quality by 1.67x. It was a significant increase in power, even for someone like Arthur, who already had massive energy reserves.
The second orb, blue, consumed all of his energy and increased his stats by an entire sub-rank. This propelled his base stats from a beginner Inferior-Stage Transcendent’s to those of a recently advanced Intermediate-Stage Transcendent.
Now, Arthur faced the third orb—the crimson one.
This third one clearly reflected his Destruction abilities. He knew what was coming, or at least he thought he did, as he tossed it into his mouth, ignoring the silverware laid out in front of him.
For a moment, nothing happened and Arthur sat there, blinking in confusion.
"Does this thing have an expiry date or something?"
Jamie and Evan exchanged glances, and Jamie shrugged.
"Nope, it doesn’t."
Hearing their response, Arthur frowned.
"Then why don’t I feel—oh."
His words cut off abruptly as the effects hit him all at once. The third orb, as expected, was boosting his Destruction powers.
But it wasn’t just some surface-level enhancement; it went deeper. Arthur felt his energy circuits themselves being altered.
Every time Destruction law energy flowed out from his core, or even when ambient energy was drawn in, the efficiency of his circuits increased. The energy now travelled faster, consumed less, and caused more destruction.
But this was just a by-product of the real reward. The real reward was something far more significant—a deeper comprehension of the Law of Destruction.
Arthur had recently reached 76% comprehension of this law, quite the feat considering that years ago, he had lost all of his progress and had to start from scratch.
Now, the final push toward completing the Basic Rank Law was within reach. If he completed the Basic Rank, he would automatically step into the Low-Rank level of the law and begin his path to unlock the requirements for entering the Lower Tier Deity Realm.
For a few minutes, Arthur tuned out the world around him and delved deep into his soul.
He needed to properly arrange the new insights flooding his mind, absorb them, understand them, and figure out how to apply them.
Of course, the increasing comprehension naturally increased the strength of his Destruction Pseudo-Authority.
"4%."
