Chapter 35: Senses of the Sovereign
In a place far away, a spatial distortion suddenly appeared on the ground.
Then, three humanoid figures emerged, all breathing heavily and utterly exhausted. Even so, the joy and satisfaction in their eyes were immense.
They had also answered the old man’s question, but all three had wished for the same destination, so they had been sent together.
Before them stretched a desolate desert, where countless ruined structures lay scattered in decay. As he gazed upon those crumbling buildings, a boy with scars covering his face raised his head and burst into laughter. The way his scars twisted with each laugh was, in a way, unsettling.
"Let’s go!"
A moment later, he roared, and the three charged forward excitedly.
But...
After barely two minutes...
A vortex suddenly appeared in the sky, and its suction force engulfed the three of them without warning.
"What is this?!"
Space twisted and spun around them, leaving them completely disoriented. Then, at last, everything stopped.
At that moment, the three nearly screamed when they realized they were once again inside that cave at the top of the mountain.
But now...
Three figures were staring at them with cold eyes.
"Frejan, Toean, and Rotlo..." Lumiere muttered the three names, full of hatred.
"You three came here peacefully as the sons of the clan’s Elders, right? Great... great..." Shione spat, overflowing with killing intent.
As they spoke those words, both Shione’s and Lumiere’s figures began to grow blurry.
The siblings turned their gazes toward Priam. Their faces carried emotions that were difficult to describe.
He had really...
Sacrificed his wish to bring those people back and allow them to be identified.
Neither of them knew what to say or feel. That young man, the very same one they had tried to suppress and with whom they had created a hostile conflict... why had he helped them so much?
They didn’t have time to say anything else before they disappeared.
Priam remained.
And standing before him were those three figures, their eyes wide open.
"Hehe..."
Priam smiled.
But that smile looked like the smile of a demon excited to have found a new toy.
They were three boys. All of them were sons of Elders from the clan’s main estate.
Everything made even more sense to Priam now.
Gangrel had recruited them and orchestrated the perfect murder of his two younger siblings.
Furthermore, this made Priam suspect that even some Elders and important figures within the clan might be on Gangrel’s side.
Priam’s eyes gleamed.
Then, a branch appeared in his hand.
Those three were at the eighth level. Normally, they would never fear someone at the fourth level.
But...
They had already seen that strange branch in action before.
Moreover, the three of them were utterly exhausted after climbing the mountain and fighting through countless battles.
There was almost no Ether left in their bodies.
It was a terrible time to fight.
"!"
Priam suddenly vanished, causing all three to jump in fright.
The next instant, he appeared behind the boy with the scarred face.
The branch moved.
*POW!*
A violent sound echoed through the cave, causing the other two boys to hurriedly retreat.
Their leader was struck brutally and sent flying, crashing into the cave wall.
"Defend yourselves!" one of them shouted.
"Hi."
Darian’s voice sounded beside him.
The boy spun around in alarm.
*POW!*
"Ahhhhh!"
*POW!*
"Not the face!"
*POW!*
"..."
At the back of the cave, that Will watched everything in silence, completely stunned.
What a terrible branch that was.
Why did it make him feel such deep unease just by looking at it?
He was only a Will, incapable of properly sensing things, but he was absolutely certain that the young man named Priam was not normal.
Nothing about him seemed ordinary.
The "duel" lasted only a few minutes.
Priam moved at the very beginning, attacking the group’s leader from behind, but he also wanted to block the cave’s exit to prevent anyone from escaping.
Thus, after the initial move, the three separated, and Priam began attacking them swiftly with the branch.
It wasn’t an unfair fight.
Besides being three people of a much higher level against one person, Priam also didn’t have much energy left after using the wind movement technique.
But his branch and his senses alone were enough against those weakened opponents.
It was a fast and brutal beating.
They obviously tried to flee, but it was useless.
Priam was too fast and didn’t even allow them to stand up.
Once they were missing teeth and their bodies were covered in dark bruises, they finally gave up and threw away their tablets.
Priam didn’t care when he saw them being taken away by the inscription.
The three only possessed their initial tablets. They hadn’t had time to hunt anyone during the Trial because they had needed to prepare the trap.
Fortunately, however, two of them completed the colors that Priam still lacked.
Thus, he now possessed the four tablets he needed to pass.
Everything fell silent.
Priam took a deep breath and turned around.
"Senior, I can stay here for a few days, right?"
"Feel free." The indifferent voice echoed from the back.
The next instant, the Will disappeared. He couldn’t remain for long because his physical form consumed too much energy from the inscription. Thus, Priam was practically alone on the mountain.
Priam nodded and relaxed. There might be other good treasures out there, but he would have to rely purely on luck to find them. This mountain, on the other hand, was guaranteed and excellent for him. Staying here until the end would be far more worthwhile.
Of course, he regretted wasting the opportunity to be taken to a great treasure. But he couldn’t be too greedy. It was better to deal with the three young men who were Gangrel’s allies and eliminate a greater danger in the near future.
---
After all that, Priam simply took the dead piranhas out of the Ring of Life and made a campfire to roast them. He ate, then slept through the rest of the day and night.
He needed to recover his Ether before doing anything else, and sleeping was the fastest way.
Furthermore, during these seven days inside the Trial, he couldn’t afford to try completing his daily missions. The physical exercises were easy enough, but stopping to study and finding someone to talk to wasn’t. Therefore, he simply accepted that he would lose those points.
---
The days passed.
On the fourth day inside the Trial...
Priam opened his eyes, and a muffled sound echoed from within his body.
"Fifth level, excellent."
He felt all of his meridians becoming wider. Furthermore, his body naturally began absorbing more Ether from the environment through his meridians. With each new level, the difference became increasingly noticeable.
This was his limit for now, since he had no more Ether crystals to use on himself.
He took a deep breath, and the area around him became covered in a light-green aura. The wind element rotated gently around him in a magical and beautiful manner.
Priam activated only the Bloodline of the Eyes of the Wind, manipulating the natural wind element in the environment.
Thus, he began studying and practicing the fourth stage of that technique.
There were eight stages in total, but the last one didn’t exist either. Since the first two had been partially solved, he could now study up to the seventh stage, and he hoped it wouldn’t take long before he could use all of them.
Priam devoted this free time to it because the fourth stage was called ’Sky-Rending Wind’.
Basically, it granted him the ability to manipulate wind to perform a terrifyingly powerful and fast medium- to long-range attack.
This was a trump card he needed to have.
Being able to move extremely fast just once might not save him when he needed it most.
---
On the final day of the Trial, Priam stopped practicing the technique.
He felt he was close, but it still wasn’t perfect. Even so, he needed to do something else that was important.
Without delay, he left the cave and began searching the upper portion of the mountain for more crystals containing beastly essence. Although they could be found all over the mountain, the concentration was highest near the summit, making them easier to find there.
Priam spent six hours searching, having to fight several beasts that had recently arrived on the mountain and focused on attacking him. In the end, he managed to find a dozen crystals.
During those final remaining hours, Priam returned to the cave and began evaluating the treasures.
He lined up all the crystals and then thought about the System.
[Total: 2,860 Germination Points]
It seemed like a good amount, but just to use the Training Amplifier one more time, he would need 2,250 GP.
Taking a deep breath, new green screens appeared.
[02 Transcendental Knowledges Available:]
[400 GP] [Natural Elements] [Level: Basic]
[800 GP] [Syntheses] [Level: Basic]
Now that he had to develop that wind technique, this elemental knowledge would be very useful. The other one also seemed like something good to have.
[01 Unlockable Skill:]
[900 GP] [Premonitory Senses of the Sovereign Synthesis]
Priam snorted because he didn’t have many options. When would this System finally give him something new? Could it be only when the System Assimilation Level increased?
That worried him somewhat, but he had no idea how to raise it. That level was displayed in his status, and so far, it remained at 1.
[400 GP] [Natural Elements] [Level: Basic]
[800 GP] [Syntheses] [Level: Basic]
[900 GP] [Premonitory Senses of the Sovereign Synthesis]
[Total: -2,100 GP]
...
Priam spent two hours studying some of the things he had acquired.
When he opened his eyes, a broad smile appeared on his face.
The basic knowledge of Syntheses was a list containing a hundred power runes with useful effects. There were countless energy combinations that could create each of these runes. However, many of those energies didn’t seem difficult to find.
As a result, Priam now had many options for creating useful things depending on the situation.
As for the Premonitory Senses of the Sovereign Synthesis...
Just as the name suggested, it wasn’t something tangible.
He focused on the beast crystals in front of him and activated the senses.
"!"
At that moment, he was able to see a subtle golden aura, with varying degrees of intensity, surrounding all of the crystals.
He picked up the two that appeared brightest.
When he brought them closer together, their light auras merged and changed, becoming even brighter.
"And this..."
These senses basically helped him choose energies for synthesis. They indicated which materials, when combined, could create things that would be more useful to him at that moment.
It was like a magical instinct.
Since he could only create one power rune at a time, if he created something useless, he would have to destroy it and sometimes lose all the materials.
But now, whenever he had many materials and didn’t know what he could create with them, he could use these senses to choose and see the result.
The chances of getting it right on the first try were enormous.
And even if something strange came out, it would probably still be the best thing he had available for that moment.
...
Hours later, Priam felt a tremor.
He turned around and picked up his tablet.
It was vibrating more and more intensely, as if it were a countdown.
*Buzz*
Exactly sixty seconds later, a spatial power enveloped Priam, and he vanished from inside the cave.
The seven days had ended.
The first phase of the Trial had finally come to an end.
