Chapter 96 - Phase One (Patreon)

As the shambler charged, Jiran carefully observed its movements. Hunting in the Outlands had given him significant experience when it came to judging the relative attributes of tier fives and he put all of that knowledge to use.

Low HP for their tier but fast and strong. Bones seem malleable with the way their jaws stretched when they ate and how this one's eye sockets expanded.

I'm really supposed to kill one hundred of these without any additional mana? I need to determine the optimal element to use ASAP. But for that, I'll need a controlled test, even if that means the first kill is less efficient. It will pay off over time.

Jiran patiently let the rabid beast close the distance, hoping it would reveal a special attack sooner rather than in the chaos of combat. When it was twenty meters away, its powerful shoulder muscles rippled as its front paws blasted into the ground. The beast hurtled through the air in a forward flip with its mouth wide open. Razor sharp teeth glistened in the dim lighting as its clasped fists came down in a powerful, overhead smash fueled by incredible momentum and tier five power.

Jiran didn't move until the beast was practically upon him. His aura snapped out for a single second and crushed the shambler into the ground. Tough soil parted like liquid to envelope the beast. Before the shambler was anywhere near him, he had formed a Coating around his foot and sent a sliver of mana into the hard ground. He then used Metal Manipulation and softened a three-meter section of dirt.

Jiran breathed a sigh of relief that he was able to manipulate the ground at all. It had only been a slight gamble as his next method to restrain the monster would have been far less mana-efficient.

Once it sank until only its shoulders, neck, and head were visible, Jiran hardened the ground. For good measure, he layered the entire area with True Origin of Ice. After making sure none of the other shamblers were charging, he approached the furiously struggling shambler.

Its muscles flexed and jerked but it couldn’t even crack his ice with the minimal force it could bring to bear. His first test was creating a blade of Coating and pushing it into the beast's skin. It was tough, far thicker than its HP would imply. He had to apply significant force but the sharp mana-blade did eventually slide through a few centimeters.

The devoid air tried to suck the mana from his blade of coating but since it was directly connected to Jiran’s manapool, and therefore his emotional bridge, there was no chance of success. His molding level was simply far too high to lose to a little density-devoid air.

With his coating now inside the beast, Jiran used the smallest trickle of mana he could control—about one-fifth of one percent—to shock the beast from the inside. He then used ice, followed by every other technique he knew, while carefully observing the damage of each.

Surprisingly, it was Big Bang that did the most damage. Every other element had been nearly equal with only a few points variance while big bang caused the beast to howl in agony, spreading rancid breath in Jiran’s direction that nearly caused him to retch. After coughing, the beast convulsed with a powerful seizure that finally managed to crack Jiran’s layer of Ice.

Thick skin but delicate innards. I can work with that.

Jiran formed his mana-blade into a spike instead of a blade and drove it deep into the struggling beast's chest. It sank in nearly twenty centimeters before he formed a Big Bang on the tip with just under one percent of his mana. The ball of condensed gravity sucked vital organs into itself, leaving a gaping hole behind.

The shambler’s mouth opened to scream but a fountain of gore erupted instead which Jiran hastily dodged. The putrid smell of meat left out to rot for months wafted up from crimson grime. After a few seconds, the shambler slumped over and released one last miserable gasp before its body deflated.

Suddenly, it exploded into a pink mist along with all the blood. The pink mist condensed into a floating ball that shot into Jiran’s chest so fast, he could barely follow its movements. The strange ball of energy nestled into his mana pool where it floated harmlessly. A system message flashed and he blinked to review it.

Convert 1 authority to 5% mana? Y/N

Interesting. I’ve only used four percent so far, I would be losing one percent if I did. I think I’ll pass this time.

A message appeared in Jiran’s interface below the empty party window just as he was about to select no.

[Sanctuary compatible energy source detected] [Absorb?] [Y/N]

Hmm, I better not. There are a lot more than one hundred of these beasts out here but I don’t want to waste any kills until I know more.

Jiran focused on ‘No’ for both questions and a new message flashed in his status.

Authority needed to progress 1/100

Okay, so I need to kill 99 more but some of the kills I can convert to restore my mana. This test is intense. If you can’t kill one with less than five percent of your mana, you would eventually die. If you could kill them with even four percent, eventually you would make it.

This shouldn’t be so bad for me if I can kill them with about one percent. I could take the risk of trying to gather a bunch of them together to take out all at once… No, I think I’ll avoid that unless something changes and I have no other choice. Better to not underestimate them. It would be about the worst thing ever to make a sloppy mistake and not make it back to May for that kiss.

Jiran smiled at the thought of her, then pumped his fists and refocused on his task. He jogged toward the next closest beast. It was facing away from him, yelling angrily at its neighbor. Jiran softened his footfalls as much as he could but it still spun around to face him before he got within fifteen meters.

He crouched, and then launched himself the last few meters with his combined strength and condensed aura. The beast’s movements were barely faster than his—proving just how quickly his state of oneness could move. Its arms raised high in the air, fists together, ready to smash him into a bloody pulp.

Jiran focused with every ounce of his concentration as he drew closer to the beast. The first sign of movement was its shoulder muscles twitching as they coiled with explosive power. Jiran wrapped an extended Coating around the shambler’s waist, pulling his momentum to the side just as thick fibers of muscles flexed, bringing dual fists into the ground with a deafening crash.

He swung around and behind the beast, using its own arms to block its line of sight. A spike of Coating penetrated its lower back, and a Big Bang with exactly one percent of his mana was released to wreak havoc on sensitive internal organs.

Within moments, the beast collapsed and exploded into pink mist. Jiran collected his next authority, choosing not to convert this one into mana either. Several howls nearby caused him to jerk his head in their direction, thinking he had alerted more than one of the smelly creatures. Instead, he saw two of the shamblers had finally moved past just screaming and posturing at each other and charged.

They tore into each other with claws and teeth until one emerged victorious. Rather than turning into a pink mist, the loser was rapidly consumed as the winner's jaws opened far wider than what should have been possible. Jiran gasped as the victor grew in size and power with each bite. Within only a few seconds, its hp increased to over six thousand and it ignored its neighbors as it moved with a blurring speed directly at him, now with glowing red eyes.

Shouldn’t be so bad, my ass! Why do I ever think crap like that? It always gets worse!

Jiran hopped backward to make more space but the shambler was far faster than the smaller versions. It now ran on all fours, its limbs moving so fast they were barely visible. Jiran had just enough time to spin four percent of his mana around his channel. He compacted the mana at the last second and then unleashed a blast of True Origin of Fire.

The creature tried to avoid and nearly succeeded. The red beam hit it in the shoulder and instantly incinerated its arm and half of its chest, -6360. The ground around the impact point turned to bubbling lava, melting hair, skin, and innards. A wave of heat washed out but a flicker of Coating protected Jiran from being cooked alive. Despite the massive damage, the shambler survived. It took a step forward, its body torn between rapidly regenerating and turning to boiling liquid.

After two more steps, the consistent heat won and the beast collapsed before exploding into mist. With a sigh of relief, Jiran watched as the ball of authority zipped into his chest.

That was close. Four percent of my current mana with my increased concentration and attributes is almost three times more powerful than any attack I had to use in the outlands. These upgraded shamblers are no joke. This ball has the same options as before, five percent mana, sanctuary, or authority.

So is them eating each other an incentive to not waste time? If I stop to rest, they’ll start fighting each other and then beefed-up versions will come directly after me. To make things worse, only getting one ball of mana from two deaths means I’m losing a chance to power my sanctuary, whatever that is.

All right! Operation, don’t let them kill each other: Start. Ugh, I seriously have the worst naming sense. Whatever, nobody’s perfect!

Jiran proceeded to charge the monsters one after another, no longer worried about being perfectly mana-efficient. He chose to play it safe and use channeling with two percent of his mana per shot which would be enough to kill even if he missed. Whenever he saw two of them fighting, he would blast through the air in their direction and try to kill them before they could do each other in.

It took him nearly three hours to kill enough of the beasts to collect one hundred authority. Several times, he failed to stop them from eating and had to use extra mana to kill the upgraded versions from a distance with a more powerful attack. It would have been ridiculous to let such a fast and powerful creature anywhere near him. He found it curious that the only ones who fought each other happened to be nearby. It was like he had a timer to kill the next closest beast or they would feed. Once done, he was ecstatic to see there were still tons of shamblers left.

After killing two more to top off his mana, he absorbed one of the authority balls into his sanctuary and was met by a new message in his interface.

[sanctuary charge 00.05%]

Are you kidding me?! I need to absorb two thousand of these? That doesn't even include the ones I would need to recharge my mana. Okay, hold on, let me think about this. One of these orbs is five percent of my mana but only .05% of sanctuaries charge. So whatever this ability is, it’s one hundred times more powerful than I am which puts its relative power around halfway to tier eight. From the name, it sounds like a defensive technique.

Whatever it is… I want it. Maybe it could save Mayalyn’s life in a pinch, or Niya’s, or mine. Who knows. Well, If it took me about three hours to absorb one hundred, at my current pace, I would need sixty hours to collect enough for the sanctuary to hit one hundred percent.

Dammit, there’s no way I’m doing that. Daughter said I had five days to get to Niya, that was two days ago so I’m already down to less than seventy hours. She also said it should take me about twelve hours to tier up and I still have to find Niya after that. So, I should aim to finish the trial within forty hours.

Sorry Sanctuary, I just don’t have the time. But I can spare ten hours, no reason to waste this chance completely, who knows when I’ll find another compatible energy source and there are still tons of shamblers left.

Ten hours flew by as Jiran turned more of the disgusting creatures into meat paste, either by crushing their innards or melting them when they grouped. He remained cautious, not allowing himself to grow complacent. There was no difference in the ambient light as time progressed, his only way to keep track of time was through his interface, which had an indicator for where the suns were as they moved across his map.

When his sanctuary progress hit 25% he stopped and approached the shimmering barrier. After laying his palm across it, a flashing message demanded his attention.

Challenger detected

Authority needed to progress 100/100

Phase one complete prepare to progress

Warning: All unused authority will be discarded

Well, good thing I don’t have any. Figured it wouldn’t let me bring a bunch of extra mana into the next test.

A hole in the wall appeared in front of him, and with a deep breath, Jiran stepped through. The other side felt exactly the same as far as the air and ground. Low hills swept out in front of him for only a few thousand meters before running into the next barrier. Within a few minutes, he stood before it.

Challenger detected

Authority needed to progress 0/25

Spawning combatants

More of the same? That seems unlikely. I should expect some surprises.

Jiran put his back to the wall, prepared for a fight. The same balls of energy grew in the sky but his brows furrowed as he realized how close together they were. Instead of being separated by two hundred meters, they grew in clumps of around twenty-five with each ball less than a meter apart.

If they’re that close, how quickly are they going to eat each other? What happens if one of them eats all the others…

Each beat of Jiran’s heart shot anxiety through his veins, tiny prickles of sensation all over his body were sucked down, falling into the pit of his stomach. The bolts impacted the ground, the eggs spawned, and shamblers tore free to devour their eggs and then instantly set upon their brethren in a terrifying feeding frenzy. Both to his left and right, the beasts were tearing into each other enmasse. The sounds of ripping meat and beast howls echoed through the air.

This is exactly like in the Outlands, whichever one emerges victorious is going to ascend. A tier six shambler with thirty-two concentration would have over twenty thousand hp and much tougher defenses. I would be lucky to do more than a few thousand damage. Assuming I could even hit it.

For the first time since entering the trial, foresight sent a powerful stinging sensation through his neck.