He knew he needed to focus on his Vitality and generally help with the healing, but he couldn't help but take a peek at his rewards.
>>Geas of the Weak triggered: Maximal F-Grade trial result obtained while in the G-Grade.
>>Reward: Lineage ascendance to F-Grade.
>>Accept? Yes/No
>>Achievement Obtained:
>>Solitary Conqueror of the Greenhouse Crossroads (Stable):
>>Reach the fifth battle of the Greenhouse Crossroads trial as a single fighter with none or minimal support. Win the fifth battle with the highest enhanced difficulty. Peak performance in an F-Grade trial.
>>Reward: +33 and +6% to any three Attributes
>>Oocile rebalancing activated.
>>Reward: +11 to all Attributes, +4% to all Attributes
>>New Title obtained (Shrouded Crescent Valley): Irialith Nobility
>>You are a full Pebblar of Irialith, in line of succession to the Vale Throne.
>>+2 to all Attributes (Oocile rebalanced). Lay claim to area 100km in diameter as your fief. Recruit willing denizens to your rule.
>>Obtain skill: Mental Map of Irialith (Common, upgradable)
>>Personalized reward from Shrouded Crescent Valley guidance:
>>Upgrade of [Oocile Cultivation Manual] (G-Grade) into [Elided Tome of Equanimity] (F-Grade)
>>Accept? Yes/No
These rewards were at least as impressive as what he got from the body-tempering trial, even if he didn't get an item as great as [Filial Deathshroud]. Also, the nobility title felt a bit underwhelming, even if the common Skill could be somewhat useful. However, upgrading his cultivation manual was very welcome, not to mention getting his lineage to the F-Grade, his first anything increasing in grade, which was probably a big deal. Even that paled at what he got from his own efforts at the end there, and he opened that Skill notification with particular satisfaction.
>>Skill obtained (Total centennial grounding Achievement consumed, Dao-aligned upgrade):
>>Bolting Motion (Rare)
>>Infuses the body with the speeding essence of lightning. Scales with Insight.
Finally, a movement skill! Axl opened up his status screen fully, for the first time in quite a while, to more fully savor his gains and enjoy the rush of seeing his numbers go up.
Name: Xel-389b (Roken)
Level: 17
Class: Usurpation of Balance (Rare)
Core: (none)
Spiritual Organs: Gastric Cauldron (root G)
Lineage: Purified Poison-seeped Water Elf, poison-consuming (leaf G—upgrade pending)
Attributes
Strength: 145
Endurance: 145
Agility: 145
Vitality: 145
Bilesong: 145
Mentality: 145
Perception: 145
Intelligence: 145
Wisdom: 145
Charisma: 145
Limerence: 145
Luck: 145
Free Points: 0
Free Boons: 0
Dao: Glimpse of Lightning
Skills: Mana Shroud (Rare, Proficiency G.6), Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare, Proficiency G.4), Attuned Drill Strike (Rare, Proficiency G.2), Bolting Motion (Rare), Mental Map of Irialith (Common)
Technical Arts: Glyphistry: Glyphic Alchemy (G.4), Glyphic Spellcasting
Titles: Last Human of Luna (Terrania), Oocile's Chosen (Oocile), Geas of the Weak (Shrouded Crescent Valley), Perennial Prey (Predatorial Conclave, Shrouded Crescent Valley), Irialith Nobility (Shrouded Crescent Valley)
Quests: Establish the Terrania Nexus (Terrania), Void Tribute (Nox of the Void), Core Formation (Oocile)
Achievements (Consumed = 6): Karmic Enmity (Vikam Elves), Class Rebirth, Earliest Rebirth, Grand Slayer, Upward-Gazing Warrior (Consumable), Solitary Conqueror of the Greenhouse Crossroads
Soulspace Manuals: Selsin Clan Glyphic Compendium (F-Grade), Oocile Cultivation Manual (G-Grade—upgrade pending)
Looks like things were shaping up quite nicely, if he could say so himself. Still, Axl held off on accepting both the upgrade to his cultivation manual and lineage until he was in better shape. After all, this particular trial was also a transit rift, not purely a challenge one, so it came with another bonus.
>>Transit Rift: Greenhouse Crossroads
>>Update: Full transit options provided (5 uses), Access to arena environs granted (1 week)
>>Update: Irialith Nobility detected, rift uses extended to 5/month, including party (max 10).
>>Title Upgraded (Shrouded Crescent Valley): Irialith Nobility
>>You are a full Pebblar of Irialith, in line of succession to the Vale Throne.
>>+2 to all Attributes (Oocile rebalanced).
>>Lay claim to a holding 100km in area as your fief. Recruit willing denizens to your rule.
>>Obtain skill: Mental Map of Irialith (Common, upgradable).
>>Transit Rift access (Greenhouse Crossroads): rift uses extended to 5/month, including party (max 10).
He and his party could now stay here for up to a week, and get access to far more nodes than those that completed the trial, facing fewer battles. Apparently, it also synergized with his title on being Irialith nobility, letting him use the transit nodes far more freely as well, which was a welcome surprise. It was also a relief to confirm his nobility title could be upgraded, which hopefully meant he could improve its rather lackluster additions to his Attributes. More importantly than that, this mostly solved the problem of spending months having to cross the massive distances of the Vale for one reason or another.
A quick round of healing complete, his armor off so the salve could set properly and his Vitality hard at work, Axl refocused on [Mana Shroud] to speed up the process. Feeling a bit stiff, his body and mind still somewhat high-strung from the intense battle, he started stretching, then got up to pace around as he healed.
The entrance to the arena building was wide open, and while Axl still wanted to wait until he was at least wearing more than the short trunks of his underclothes to leave, he wondered why it was so quiet outside.
An arrow dense with green Mana stabbed him in the chest, narrowly avoiding his heart as it tore out his back. The exit wound exploded in a burst that took out two ribs and a good chunk of lung.
Axl threw himself to the side, then rolled across the arena until he fell off the northern side of the raised platform's lip, now fully blocking his body from the entrance. He was light-headed from the blood loss, compounded by the massive pain that was worryingly turning into a distant numbness.
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Shaking hands, he lifted a potion to his lips and drank, vaguely feeling Moxlin attach talismans to his back as he lay on his side. Dizzy, he tried to focus on healing the wounds, but the healing potion was only sluggishly reaching in. Eventually, the bleeding stopped, at least.
Something soft was placed on his mouth and Axl swallowed, a chunk of spongy material that dissolved in his throat and spread across his body, waking him up with a concrete warmth. He realized it was a [Bloodset Concentrate], a half-processed natural treasure that when eaten, would quickly convert into blood, helping to heal from acute blood loss. They only had one of those, having bought it at the longhouse for a rather high price, and Axl had Moxlin hold on to it for just such an emergency.
Axl slowly sat up, expanding his Perception and [Mana Shroud] as fully into detection as he looked over the lip of the arena, confirming the elf bastard wasn't inside. As much as Brillhit was good at camouflage, Axl was certain he could pick out his Mana signature in such a tight space and at short range.
Axl turned to Moxlin and made a quick hand motion for her to hide in the corner, setting up a quick hideout for herself. Axl waited until she put out the talisman arrays and suddenly looked very similar to the edge of the wall. It wouldn't hold up to intense scrutiny, but it was the best she could do with only a few hurried seconds.
Axl started towards the door, hugging the wall, senses strained on detection, spending only the minimum of his will and [Mana Shroud] on keeping his injury stable. Regardless, he'd have to get this done quickly, because the moment he started fighting, his ruined back would reopen and he'd be in serious trouble.
At the very edge of the doorframe, Axl paused to focus, preparing himself, and took out a small mirror on a stick from his dimensional pouch and used it to look out, seeing what he was expecting.
The orcs from his party were dead, all in a pile just in front of the arena building. Alifren was at the top, splayed out in a clear attempt to rile Axl up. This was not his first time wading through mountains of the dead, so he took a deep breath to recenter himself as he folded the mirror and placed it back into the dimensional pouch, then carefully took out Moxlin's illusion talismans.
Brillhit was telegraphing what he wanted to do with this, baiting a reckless, indignant charge out to get a clean shot to finish him off. Axl would give him just that.
Turning his head around the door entrance, Axl used [Mana Shroud] at its peak detection, taking in the many traps the elf scout placed between the building opening and the corpses, the decoy wind Mana at the tree line right across from the entrance, and the real signature of the deeply camouflaged elf at an edge of the trees further to the side. It was so obvious, Axl wondered if it was a double-decoy, but he figured it was due to his recent Attribute gains and that he was piping in all of [Mana Shroud]'s enhancement into Perception.
Forcing a scowl on his face, Axl turned back and used [Mana Shroud] to activate the traps just beyond the door threshold, the glyphs on them quite obvious and easy to trigger with a directional Mana pull, especially since they were clearly made to activate quickly with very little prompting.
As a burst of wind and cutting-leaf Mana erupted, Axl activated his illusory construct and had it start charging towards the elf decoy.
It leapt over the orc bodies with a furious yell and ran across the clearing. A bolt of green Mana pierced it in the head, then another on its chest. Before the illusion even had a chance to dissolve, the real Axl had activated [Bolting Motion] on his legs, his body propelled with absurd speed to Brillhit's real location. It was so fast, Axl's Agility struggled to react when he suddenly appeared right in front of the scout.
Not wanting to give the traitorous scum a chance to react, Axl activated [Bolting Motion] again, a surge of lightning now charging across his arm's muscles and bone, snapping forward. He grabbed Brillhit's arms and twisted, [Mana Shroud] finally catching up to empower his Agility and Strength enough to break both arms, bones sticking out of the flesh, his bow dropping to the ground.
The scout didn’t even have time to yell before Axl let go and proceeded to grab one of his ankles, with another twist breaking that as well. Finally, he felt he couldn’t activate [Bolting Motion] again, his arms numb and shaking, so with what looked like glacial slowness, he grabbed the other leg, further up this time, and snapped it clean as well. Before he had finished, the screaming finally started.
Brillhit was flailing in pain, eyes wide as he lifted his arms up in shock, but Axl wouldn't give him a chance to respond, well aware that scouts like him could have special means to escape. He unsheathed [Webcutter] and stabbed Brillhit in the gut, piercing his Cultivator's Core. That wouldn't destroy the spiritual organ, but should keep the elf from being able to access it until the wound was healed.
Sheathing his sword, Axl then stabbed the elf in the eyes with centipede-poisoned [Venombite Kunai], waiting each time for the full dose to be delivered before fully gouging the eyes out, ensuring he was blinded.
Tightly gripping the elf's neck, Axl proceeded to pick up his bow and throw it aside, then remove any possible weapon or item he had, a pair of dimensional storage rings, an amulet with subtle mana to it, various knives, and a shortsword. Axl threw all of it into his dimensional pouch, except for the dimensional rings, which he tossed far into the clearing. He even managed to pry off the robe the scout wore, it coming off rather seamlessly with a few tugs that further dislocated his shattered limbs.
Now reasonably sure the elf had no tricks up his sleeves, nor any items to rely on, Axl held the elf by his long, silky hair, his blubbering, sobbing, bloody mess of a face almost unrecognizable from the cool, composed scout Axl had known. Thought he had known.
How did you do this? Are you working with other traitors? Was this your plan all along? Axl had planned to ask this, to gather intel on what happened. But it wasn’t really what he wanted to know. Why?
As he held the elf up, Axl realized he simply didn't care, that no answer would satisfy him. Nothing would explain away seeing the orcs he fought alongside dead.
"Please," Brillhit started, "I can show you—"
Axl crushed his skull, overwhelmed by the disgust at hearing the traitor's voice.
The disgust deepened as Axl threw the body down, the heavy thud spreading blood out of the limp corpse. Then the disgust mounted. This was too little, too quick, too terminal, Axl's disgust building into rage. Axl stomped on the elf's head, smashing it.
How long did it take you to put all the bodies together? He stomped on the torso now, each heavy strike turning a section of flesh into pulp. How long to carefully arrange Alifren’s body on top? Did you like it?
His rage expanded with each heavy stomp, the elf's blood mixing with Axl's as his wounds reopened and new ones formed on his legs, then his arms as he switched to punching. The scout became a Vikam elf, idly walking past mountains of human dead, chit-chatting in loose formations.
Would you have liked looking at Cas Kaltan's dead body, too? Axl looked down at the smear of blood and flesh that was all that remained of his target, his fury mounting. Would you have torn Sprout apart and thrown her into the Pit for a single meal credit?
The glyphs appeared before him, no need for his finger to guide them, no craft or attention, they were a sheer expression of will, as if the universe was bowing to his fury, the jagged edges of their script a reality more pressing, more immediate than the trees and soil, the dense Mana, even Axl's own lie of an elven body.
A circle of four glyphs upon four were drawn out in the air from his finger, each burning in unyielding frenzy, and Axl willed them into the bloody remains of Brillhit, to the lingering sense of his foul enemy to kill, to exterminate utterly. A jagged circle of flame encompassed the blood and flesh, towering high into the air in a licking dance of red and orange from a white core where it consumed the flesh and started to melt the ground below.
Nearby trees grew desiccated and smoldered, the grass and leaves flashing into ash, the solid ground growing cracked and dry, lifeless beyond rock or naked soil, utter ashen desolation. The very Mana in the air was consumed, turning to a remnant of flame and wrath to burn away to nothing.
Axl stared at the circle of destruction, somehow knowing that the elf was destroyed more fully than mere death, an annihilation that bore unyielding weight onto reality. Knowing this, he felt a strange, even feeling, nothing approaching relief or even contentment, but a cold, distant satisfaction.