Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 158
🕑 Added 2023-04-07 19:24:51 +0000 UTCHey everyone, we're still one chapter behind. I am aware of that, so don't worry. Once my cluster headaches are gone, I would catch up. :)
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Hunter stood in front of a dominion. It was barely perceptive to the naked eye but to his spiritual sense, the dominion screamed in the spiritual silence of its Level 0 surrounding. Clearly, the dominion was of a higher Level but Hunter couldn’t pinpoint it. The dominion’s spiritual fluctuations were too chaotic and unpredictable, although spiritual energy remained within constraints of Level 5. It made sense, no Level 6 dominion monster had been encountered so apparently the strength of dominions was limited to Level 5. Fairly straightforward.
The fluctuations on the other hand were not.
Hunter had run across a thousand different types of monsters and various the System’s entities. None of them possessed fluctuating spiritual energy. Somehow dominions stood apart from the rest, and yet they were, like everything else, a product of the System. Why were dominions divergent from the rest? He could not say. He hadn’t been inside a dominion yet.
He made a step closer to it. Barely several centimetres separated him from the dominion’s invisible surface. Another interesting aspect of this particular dominion was what lay beyond within its borders. His people had confirmed that the layout of the terrain didn’t match the records. Either they were fed an illusion or the dominion had changed its terrain.
Either way, the idea of having a dominion for himself was growing on him. Too bad that the Solar Council looked down on these System’s entities and wanted them all gone from Earth. An ambitious goal but they had added a small provision that didn’t ban dominions on other planets or moons. He was glad he’d asked for a private moon as compensation for his job.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on the future. He had work to do. He still was irked by Freeman’s escape but Freeman’s pet had turned out to be quite a discovery. A hybrid ascender of Level 5 with strength and durability of a rift essence Level 8? He knew that similar power spikes could be achieved with a Perfect State but that thing wasn’t even a full rift essence ascender. It was a shame that they had had to put her down as they lacked in the mental spells department. That was one of the things his team must patch up very quickly. One of Freeman’s subordinates had used a mental Talent on them and some of Hunter’s people had been incapacitated. He noted that his ascenders at Level 6 or the First Degree Level 5 had been able to resist the mental attack. But they needed to look into some skills with passive mental resistance going forward.
Unfortunately, it got in the way of his other plans like acquiring [Flight], [Blink] and some sort of teleporting abilities for his team to rapidly travel between locations. Lord Sovereign had assured him that all his skill requirements would be met but the drop rate of movement skills was extremely low and the lucky ones would rather take these skills for themselves instead of selling. Anyway, these things weren't a priority at the moment. What mattered was completing the team with full synergy. Hunter wanted all basic elemental power at his disposal. It made countering people like Freeman, who was a pure fire user, a triviality. Then he’d start looking into more complex and esoteric powers like the dominion in front of him.
He’d received all the necessary information about it and yet he didn’t feel completely at ease entering this place without better preparation. Lord Sovereign believed time was of utmost importance when it came to dominions. Mostlikely, he was worried that the second sub-boss and its dominion would soon appear and make things harder to control. After the first sub-boss had fallen, the frequency of dominion events and a number of dominion monsters spawning all over the planet increased. Therefore it was reasonable to assume that defeating the second one would increase these parameters further.
That was why he was here. He needed to put down Sandman as the man currently stood on the top of the all-time dominion ranking with over 30 thousand points. Top 2 and 3 were still below 20 thousand points. This kind of chasm between the top 1 and the rest made it clear that Sandman was dangerously obsessed with dominion stuff. With all the rewards for weekly and monthly placements, Lord Sovereign didn’t want Sandman to get out of control.
Hunter made a step forward.
You are inside the Sphere of Darkness
*
Debuff acquired!
- True Darkness (temporary, strong) debuff.
All light and its sources are banished.
*
Debuff acquired!
- Blind Eyes (temporary, strong) debuff.
Spells enhancing perception and vision are disabled.
*
Debuff acquired!
- Suppressed Perception (temporary, medium) debuff.
Perception attribute is lowered by 20%.
*
Debuff acquired!
- Suppressed Spirit (temporary, medium) debuff.
Spiritual energy is suppressed.
Inside Sandman’s dominion, Hunter found only darkness. Immediately, he activated [Night Vision].
- [Night Vision] is disabled inside the Sphere of Darkness.
Looks like these debuffs aren’t only for show. He tried [Enhanced Eyes] but received the same system message.
“Try [Create Light] and [Light Orb],” he said to his team that joined him inside the dominion.
“Holy fuck,” Jack swore, his voice muted and distant. “Both are disabled.”
“[Solar Flare]?”
“Disabled.”
These three were the only skills they had at their disposal. Hunter weighed his options. The dominion was not only pitch black but also lowered his other senses. Using his spiritual aura to navigate would be a nightmare. He was getting better at using it but nowhere near the level he needed to replace his eyes. The rest of his team had gained at least the Medium spiritual stage like him but their lower Levels made their spiritual senses far weaker than his.
Fighting an opponent in such an environment would be a suicide. They were not ready but the question was: would they ever be? Hunter and his team weren’t the only ones getting stronger. Sandman and his minions were reportedly gaining Levels and spells as well. Perhaps to comfortably counter such a hostile environment, he needed a Level 10 with light-oriented Talent. But that was pure speculation on his part. He wasn’t an expert on dominions and their capabilities.
“[Create Fire] and [Fireball] work but I can’t see them,” Marie informed him.
“That’s it then,” Hunter said. “Retreat.”
“ALREADY?” a voice coming from all sides boomed. “WE DIDN’T GET A CHANCE TO TALK, MR HUNTER.”
His team was well-trained and disciplined and they left the dominion even though he stayed behind.
“You’re well-informed, whoever you are.”
“BUT YOU KNOW WHO I AM. I AM A GOD HERE.”
Hunter felt a tap on his shoulder and it took all his willpower to not react. It was a spell but without the aim to hurt him. Sandman wanted to get under his skin. Hunter wasn’t going to play along.
“WELL, I HAVE TO ADMIT YOU’RE IN LUCK. ONE MORE DEBUFF AND NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO LEAVE MY DOMINION WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.”
“Is that so?” Hunter asked, showing confidence despite a growing sensation of wrongness. Another spell? Some kind of mental affliction? He couldn’t tell. For some reason, not everything showed up as the system message or debuff.
“YES,” Sandman said. “I WANT YOU TO DELIVER THE MESSAGE TO THE SOLAR COUNCIL. I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM TO LEAVE ME ALONE. I WILL HUNT YOU ALL DOWN IF YOU DO NOT.”
Hunter felt an oncoming attack and jumped backward, his inhuman strength carrying him for over thirty metres, far beyond the confines of the dominion. Light of the day blinded him for a second, but upon landing he jumped again, this time to the left. In the spot where he had landed was a pool of boiling darkness. It seemed to devour light. It hurt to stare at it.
“We leave now,” he commanded his team. “And remain on high alert.”
***
“So no essence needed for Talents?”
Lem Solaris rolled her eyes.
“That is correct. Talents cannot be upgraded the same way spells are.”
Keynes mused her words on Talents and spells. He was slowly getting a grasp on these mechanisms that controlled Talents and spells. The thing that he still had difficulties with was the case in which a Talent could be improved without minor or major upgrade. He understood the underlying idea: some Talents had a hidden capacity for improvement. In most cases, this improvement was temporary and acted like a rubber band. In other cases, the improvement was small but permanent.
However, there were also Talents that didn’t have this hidden capacity. Lem Solaris had pointed out Columbus’s Talent to be as such. The rule of thumb was that Talents with hard numbers were usually set in stone. Nonetheless according to Lem Solaris, such Talents on average were stronger than non-numeric types.
It had raised so many questions that Keynes had gotten a headache from information overload and was now trying to sort it out.
“This leads us to another matter,” Lem Solaris said. “It’s important, so focus. You must learn how to spot the difference between Talents and spells. There will come a time when you will encounter people with specific Talents, Talents you must avoid at all cost unless you can overpower them from the start and even then nothing is guaranteed.”
“You mean Talents like Columbus’s Talent?”
“Not exactly. His Talent is easily countered with certain affinities, though in the pre-outbreak time I can see how he didn’t have equals. But this isn’t what I meant. There will be some Talents, very combat-oriented Talents, that will scale up spells and abilities to a ridiculously high degree. When you will grow stronger and level up past Level 10, you will find teams and individuals with such Talents. They will have very high synergy. Believe me, people with random skills won’t get this far. You can think of Level 11 like the first hallmark of strength. At this point, expect others to know what they are doing and expect to be surprised by them. So, you have to start thinking about your archetype right now.”
“Alice said the same thing.”
“And what archetype did she have in mind?”
“Stealth mage.”
“Good but you have to be more precise than that.”
“I like [Telekinesis] though that skill is difficult to work with. I also have [Chaos Aura]. If I can make the aura—”
She raised her hand, cutting him off.
“You’re going to get rid of [Chaos Aura].”
“What?!”
She sighed, looking a bit annoyed.
“Each skill has spiritual weight or cost and this means there is a limit of how many spells you can absorb. Then there is compatibility and resonance with the spiritual core you must take into account. Finally, you have to consider your archetype. Stealth mage doesn’t need such a destructive spell as [Chaos Aura]. There won’t be any such spell for thousands of years, if not millions. You don’t want to leave a trail behind.”
“But—”
“No buts,” she interjected. “From now on, we will focus on skills, items and training that are synergistic with your archetype. First of all, you must continue your daily training with your friend until I come up with a better regime but hand combat will never be your goal. An individual with a true hand combat oriented Talent will be too much to handle, so there is no point over-focusing on this aspect but you have to be passable. The next thing will be understanding of what the stealth mage archetype encompasses. You need to stay out of perception of other ascenders and monsters and that means not only vision or spirit but all other senses and some entities will have additional senses not available to everyone. Before we move on, I want you to think of all the spells and abilities you may need. Once you are done. We will speak again.”
“What about…” She was gone. “The outbreak.”
He was once again alone in the cave. He tried to concentrate on his conversation with Lem Solaris but his mind was in a state of revolt and so he gladly accepted distraction when Columbus returned to the cave and told them that the Resistance demanded all rifts to be opened and their contract fulfilled but neither Columbus nor Wagner trusted the Resistance anymore after Freeman’s revelations. It meant one thing: another outbreak.
“I don’t know what the Resistance will do in the face of an outbreak.” Columbus explained. “We must be prepared for total hostility or another betrayal.”
“It would be best to pick a larger cluster in that case,” Kora joined the conversation.
They glanced at her and she almost made a step back.
“How so?”
“Five rifts opened simultaneously would keep them occupied.”
“There is another possibility. I will enter the cluster alone and do it without anyone seeing me,” Keynes said.
Eventually, they agreed that Keynes’s idea had the most merit, especially considering that any Level 4 rift cluster was many days worth of walking. So returning to the unopened rift made most sense. Even if it would be heavily guarded, [Spiritual Wrath] would have no issues slipping through most security measures. On top of that, Keynes would go there during night time, which would further decrease the chances of being detected.
Wagner immediately put everyone in the company on high alert. The fourth outbreak was upon them and they had to make the most out of it before the Solar Council caught up.
