Chapter 134: 3 weeks in the tallest mountain in the world
Julian transmigrated, awakening in Gomorra during late January.
Though the date system of Gomorra was slightly different from Earth, Julian still remembered that it was January 20th, 2026 when he went to his work place in Texas on a cold night.
It was that night that he transmigrated.
And when he woke up, he woke up at night in Dreadmoor. Since then, Julian had been keeping a mental map of his time spent in this new fantasy world with Earth’s dating system.
He transmigrated during late January, and by the end of the events of Falaniondor, it was already early February.
After that, he spent a week recovering from the events of Falaniondor even as he waited for the reaction of the world to his official return.
When nothing significant happened, he set his next plan into motion- his training plan at the tallest peak in the entire world.
Julian and Theodore left to Dragon’s Tooth during early to mid-February, and since then, they already spent more than 3 weeks surviving the dreadful expanse of the tallest mountain in the world.
It was early March now.
During the past 3 weeks, Julian and Theodore locked in, conquering peak after peak of the endless mountain.
About 3 weeks ago, they spent 3 days conquering the 50th peak of Dragon’s Tooth. During that battle, Julian leveled up to Level 45 while Theodore leveled up to Level 50, becoming a B Rank Awakened within just weeks.
Her growth speed was record-breaking!
But with Theodore becoming a B Rank Witch under his guidance, she transcended from an ok support into an invaluable support in the conquest of the tallest mountain in the world.
As a B Rank Hex Queen of the Hex Witch pathway, Theodore unlocked 2 new skills: Catastrophe Hex and Unlucky Existence which is a passive ability.
Like the pathway name suggested and like the name of the abilities suggested, while Lilith’s pathway as a Blood Witch leaned towards blood offerings and sacrifices, while Seraphina’s pathway as a Fate Witch leaned towards destiny and probability, Theodore’s pathway leaned towards curses and misfortune.
Among Witches, the 3 Class pathways had unique nicknames.
They call the Blood Witch pathway the Blood Deity path, the Fate Witch pathway the Inevitability path, and the Hex Witch pathway the Catastrophe path.
From as low as Level 5, the tone of the Witch Class begins to take shape with curse-related skills like Hex Spark and Minor Hex.
As a Witch grows, they unlock more curse-related skills and unlike the Blood Witch and Fate Witch pathways that lean away from this core of the Witch Class, the Hex Witch pathway instead embraces the curse-core of the Witch pathway and amplifies it, becoming a true Curse Catastrophe.
After becoming a B Rank Hex Witch, that was what Theodore became.
With Catastrophe Hex, when activated, she can trigger cascading failures on enemies that can affect an entire realm as an AOE curse skill.
And with Unlucky Existence which is a passive skill, all enemies naturally fail near her.
The Hex Witch pathway was the embodiment of around me, anything that’s ever going to go wrong will go wrong.
Offensively, it didn’t scale much but in terms of support, a Hex Witch was the perfect combination to an offensive juggernaut like Julian.
With the ability to now curse entire races of Qi Beasts across entire realms, Theodore became an invaluable support.
Because of this, after their conquest of the 50th realm of Dragon’s Tooth, instead of their conquest speed to decrease, it increased instead.
They rested for half a day, then they tackled the 51st realm.
They conquered it in less than 2 days!
They conquered realm 52 in less than 3 days, realm 53 in less than 3 days, realm 54 in almost 4 days, and realm 55 within 5 solid days.
With each increase in realm, though the EXP rewards grew exponentially since the Qi Beasts were now generally stronger than them, so also did the difficulty of killing them increase.
And also, Julian confirmed that after Level 50, it would become countless times harder to level up because finally, Theodore’s level up speed slowed down.
In 3 weeks, they conquered 7 levels, rising to the 58th peak of the mountain, and that was where they became stuck.
The 58th peak was at least 5 times harder than realm 57.
The alpha of the realm was a Level 65 Adult Dragon.
Yes, a true Dragon, not the lesser variants. This was one of the ruling Qi Beasts of the mountain who for some reason was exiled from the peak, and he decided to take the 58th peak as his home.
His presence alone elevated the quality and lethality of Qi Beasts in his domain, making the 58th peak by far the hardest that Julian and Theodore had faced so far.
It’s been more than 5 days already since they were stuck here, and yet, they were not even halfway towards the goal of slaughtering 1000 Qi Beasts.
Despite the difficulty, the growth showed.
In the past 3 weeks after becoming B Rank, despite the difficulty, Theodore still managed to level up a whopping 3 times to Level 53.
As for Julian himself, he leveled up only 4 times and was now stuck at Level 49. Level 49 became a bottleneck for him.
Despite slaughtering over a thousand Level 50+ Qi Beasts already since he became Level 49, he was not even 1/3rd towards meeting the EXP target required to level up to Level 50 and become B Rank.
The more Julian paid attention to the ridiculous figure being displayed on the Debauchery System interface, the more he despaired.
But he couldn’t afford to be distracted too much.
Afterall, he was knee-deep inside enemy territory where the Alpha was a true Level 65 Adult Dragon.
Unlike the past 57 realms where after rest they went on a blitz without rest till they conquered the entire realm, Level 58 was clearly different as they were already forced to hide and rest 2 different times.
Unlike the past few peaks of the mountain that were filled with snow, perhaps it was due to the presence of the Adult Dragon but Level 58 had a big climate difference.
Level 58 is a volcano region, a scorched expanse where the land itself seemed alive with hunger.
At its center rose a colossal, ever-erupting volcano with its jagged peak splitting the sky and vomiting rivers of molten fire into the surrounding that carved glowing scars across the terrain.
That was where the Level 65 Adult Dragon lived.
And despite the 2 clear invaders going on a rampage in its territory for the past 5 days, unlike the Polar Bear alpha, the Adult Dragon was unbothered.
It seemed content with spending all it’s time slumbering within the volcano so long as the invaders didn’t disturb it’s sleep, but despite this, the oppressive pressure of its presence always charged the air with electricity.
The atmosphere was so hot here that the air trembled with heat, thick with ash that fell like black snow, choking lungs and dimming sight.
Above, lightning storms crackled constantly within towering plumes of smoke, illuminating the landscape in violent flashes.
The ground was unstable as cracked obsidian plains would give way without warning to bubbling magma pits, where geysers of flames burst from fissures like the breath of buried titans.
In this realm, Julian felt all his fire-related skills being amplified but still, his hunch told him that the Dragon enjoyed more terrain-attributed bonuses than him.
Twisted, charred forests clung to survival at the edges, their skeletal trees inhabited by Qi Beasts that were warped by fire and fury.
The Qi Beasts here were as merciless as the land, they were all extremely territorial even as none of them dared go too close to the Alpha’s territory.
Lava Serpents coiled beneath molten rivers, striking at anything that dared cross. Ash Drakes glided through the smoke-choked skies, their wings scattering embers that ignited everything below.
The majority of Qi Beasts filling this realm though were the Ember Hounds.
These monstrous Qi Beasts roamed the wastes, their bodies flickering like living coals, hunting by scent and heat.
These were mostly Julian and Theodore’s targets, but every single one of them was still a powerhouse that they needed to be wary of.
Their combination of bloodline traits made them menace in the flame realm.
And deeper still, beneath the realm, Julian could sense ancient horrors dwelling beneath- massive, molten-skinned gigantic QI Beasts whose sleep rolls caused tremors in the realm and whose roars echoed like collapsing mountains.
Julian’s guess was that these were the previous alphas of the 58th realm, but due to the Adult Dragon’s emergence, they were forced to go into hiding.
He also learned something that made him relieved.
The fact that the previous alphas were still alive meant that the Alpha Dragon was just too lazy to take care of them, and this was the only opportunity that Julian truly saw of conquering this realm.
Thud...
Theodore jumped to her feet, making Julian look at her as she stared at the mouth of the cave where they hid.
Her face was somber as she said.
"They’re coming..."
...
[Special Appreciation to Slammue and ShootingStar for the Golden Tickets, I really appreciate the support!]
