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The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 200
🕑 Added 2025-09-03 10:40:34 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 199 | Index | Chapter 201 >>
For the first layer of the Seven Silent Clarities Crystalline Mind Cultivation Art, Ronan had to reach a basic understanding of the seven clarities and how they related to him. It sounded complicated, but it was actually rather simple.
The seven clarities were as follows: Solitude, Self-Improvement, Movement, Circularity, Stillness, Reflection, and Collectivism. Some of them were easier to relate to himself than others.
Solitude? There was no one else in the entire multiverse who he could share his journey with anymore. His last ancestor had died before awakening Ronan’s heritage.
Self-Improvement was something he did without actively trying. Even dying at level 1 would slightly push his multipliers upwards. He was constantly acquiring new skills, traits, methods of combat, and knowledge.
Movement… I mean, everyone moves? I’m sure there’s more to it if it took a bunch of monks millions of years to reach some profound understanding of it as a concept, but I move all the damn time. I run, jump, punch, kick, and struggle, Ronan’s thoughts ran wild with that one. Hell, I even had a bunch of iterations where my entire class was focused on momentum.
The rest were trickier.
Stillness was tough to identify with, but Ronan quickly realised there were a lot of times he was still. Cultivation being the most obvious and poetically ironic given that he was currently doing it.
Circularity and Reflection were also tough concepts for Ronan to understand in relation to the art. However, he eventually concluded that his very existence was a form of circularity. Each iteration was different, but he was living through the same events over and over again in pursuit of the same goal.
Reflection felt similar to Circularity, but if those old monks had understood them to such a profound level and still kept them separate as concepts there had to be a reason for it. Ronan wouldn’t find that reason any time soon, but he concluded that his heritage was a form of reflection.
He was using the same ancestral grounds that they had no doubt used, taking actions that mirrored their past actions. Alloying skills, upgrading his chronos enhancements, and admiring the magnificent scenery.
Collectivism felt antithetical to his current existence. He couldn’t form or join a collective when the moment he died he would be ripped away from it and returned to the beginning of the tutorial. Or so he thought, until he realised he was still a part of humanity. He always would be.
While it wasn’t his main goal, ensuring that humanity survived against the odds arrayed against them in this new, integrated world was one of Ronan’s objectives. He was a part of the collective species and its struggle, if not in the same way that the rest of them were.
Something shifted once he connected all seven clarities to his own understanding and experiences. The shard in his hand burst into glittering dust and his crystalline mind cultivation pushed a little forward.
Knowledge of the second layer became available to him, but before he could peruse it he felt something yanking his body from the outside. The world around him shifted, but instead of being flung back to New Earth, Ronan was pulled through the shifting void.
He was being taken to the Gladiator Staging Platform, where he would begin his next challenge. It was a little scary, but for the most part he was excited to see what it involved and how it might push him.
For with great risk, there almost always came great reward.
When he fell from the void, he suddenly found himself weightless. Rather than falling to some sort of ground, Ronan was floating in the air.
He looked around, trying to understand where he’d been taken by the system. The first thing he noticed were the vast stands that surrounded him on every side. There were even seats above and below, with people staring directly at him from gravity-defying angles.
Ronan could barely comprehend the number of people present. It had to be in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands. Many of the floating pods were obscured so that he couldn’t see the occupants, and those were often closer to where he was. Some sort of exclusivity benefit, but how these observers were ranked was a mystery to him.
He could see all kinds of people out there. Humans, humanoids with various features that distinguished them from his own species, aliens that resembled mammals but were too far from his own species’ to even consider them humanoid, and then there were the truly strange aliens.
Calling them strange was likely rude, but how else could he describe species he’d never seen before. From miniscule creatures that resembled insects to absolutely gargantuan creatures that would make a city look small, the staging platform had a myriad of alien life.
Beyond the stands, a seemingly endless darkness stretched, filled with endless sparks of light. He soon realised they were stars, marvelling at the vastness of space and the completely foreign sky. He didn’t recognise a single constellation.
Ronan’s admiration and curiosity was interrupted by a booming voice that seemed to come from every direction and inside his mind all at once. He realised immediately that it was a language he’d never encountered, but his universal skill did the heavy lifting so that he understood it with perfect clarity from the first syllable uttered.
“Distinguished guests, please welcome the next brave challenger—nay, gladiator—to the staging platform!” As the echoes of the booming voice began to fade, a deafening round of applause and loud cheers began. Ronan heard plenty of jeers and boos as well, making him wonder what stake these spectators had in his path.
“Many of you have already made bets, offered sponsorships and gifts, as well as butted heads with one another over the most promising gladiators. This latest challenger will be no different!
“His name is Ronan Steele, and he hails from the world now know as Planet 2.48e11E! His original planet was too puny to meet integration standards and was fused with three others to form a planet sufficient to be integrated. His species now battles for its future with five others hailing from the other worlds, as well as all of the mutated beasts and invaders occupying the world.
“While you all know that his path will be more important for the future of his world and his species than any minor skirmishes that take place back home, our gladiator does not. While that settles in, let me give you the juice on Ronan!”
The announcer was right. Ronan reeled at the knowledge that somehow him being away from his homeworld would somehow be more impactful than fighting on it and protecting his people.
He also still had no idea what the path of the gladiator entailed, but he had understood that the spectators could somehow help him along the way or improve his chances. Or for those greedier, simply profit from how he did. It sort of sounded like the hunger games, but on a multiversal scale.
Not so promising.
“Ronan completed the harder difficulty tutorial. You all know how much of an achievement that is, especially for a challenger from a newly integrated world. While he only achieved an overall rating of B, that still puts him firmly ahead of most tutorial completionists. He is level 61, an extremely impressive number considering we just grabbed him from the end of his tutorial, and possesses a mythical class that many of you will know—Dao Child.” Ronan heard the gasps of the crowd even floating miles away from the nearest spectator stand.
The silence that followed was heavier than an ocean. Yet even that was nothing compared to the near-physical wall of noise that erupted in its wake. Every single person he could see, and no doubt those that he couldn’t, were roaring and screaming, drowning the world in noise.
It was worrying that this announcer could see his level and class, but if they were connected to the system there wasn’t anything he could hide. He only hoped that more personal information such as his skills, traits, and the more sensitive parts of his status remained shrouded in mystery.
That would really cause an uproar.
“I hear you, people. This one here is a special case indeed. To not only earn dao child during the tutorial but evolve it to the mythical version… Well, if you know you know. I’m sure you’re all raring to challenge for the opportunity to be involved in Ronan’s path. However, don’t forget that the final decisions are left to the discretion of the gladiator. Make your offers via the system and await judgment. More information will be sent to you now.” Ronan wondered if he would ever get some information about what he had agreed to.
As the crowd began doing whatever it was they did inside the stands, a system screen appeared in front of Ronan. Thankfully it seemed that the system didn’t intend to leave him completely in the dark regarding what it meant to become a gladiator.
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SanMarco Geddes
Absolutely love the chapters!
Conner Kraeplin
Tyftc
