Kal sighed as he felt the pangs of his hunger slowly fade. He was pretty he wasn’t actually being nourished but by cycling his vital and physical energy through only the most important locations definitely reduced the amount of energy required to keep him going.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Level:

71

Race:

Human?

Health:

200/200

Stamina:

220/220

Wrath:

0

Attributes

Strength:

22[-778] Anomalous

Agility:

15[-486] Anomalous

Endurance:

22[-765] Anomalous

Vitality:

20[-395] Anomalous

Intellect:

561 -> 785

Perception:

514 -> 719

Will:

1234 -> 1727

Wisdom:

491 -> 687

Available:

18

Titles

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Paragon, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man, Planar Binding I, Soul Seer, True Slayer of Demonkind, Thief of Ages, Fate Diviner, Exemplar of Defiance

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Uncommon], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Intent [Rare] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Apathy [Rare] [Soul Forged], Edge of Malice [Common] [Soul Forged], Flesh of Iron [Rare], Eyes of the Slayer [Mythic] [Spiritbound]

Race

Birthright: Confined

Obviously, it had its downsides. All of his physical attributes were back to what they were before he ascended. He would die before he even got the chance to fight back against half the demons he had fought in the abyss in this state. He couldn’t even lift the armor he was wearing anymore.

One thing Kal wasn’t expecting but probably should have was the effect on his mental attributes. They were all amplified like they were under the effects of Wrath Incarnate, receiving a forty percent increase across the board, and better yet there didn’t seem to be a maximum duration he could hold the technique in place.

Sure it was definitely a situational advantage but if he ever found himself in a place safe enough to allow himself to drop his physical attributes he could use it indefinitely while he Soul Forged. That definitely had potential but how often was he going to find himself in a place that safe? With his recent record, not often.

But ultimately the mental attribute buff was an unintended effect but Kal already had ideas of how to deal with it if he ended up needing to be even more efficient. He just needed to reduce the amount of vital energy flowing through his brain without completely cutting it off. What he didn’t know how to do was measure the amount necessary to only retain his normal attributes.

Though right now that wasn’t important he could feel that he at least had significantly more time to escape this place Kal only hoped it would be enough. Before he tried doing anything else Kal struggled to unbuckle his Abyss Scale Cuirass and wiggle his way out the bottom of it. Once he was free he still felt very strange, like he was moving far too slowly, and kind of feeble in general.

Odds are that any injury he received like this would heal as if he was unascended, completely unaided but his vital energy. That wasn’t ideal but he would just have to be careful with any further experimentation.

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Kal got back into a reasonably comfortable position but now that his physical attributes were gone the platform felt far harder and colder beneath him so he pulled off the Lesser Cloak of Shadows and used it as a pillow.

The mental pressure of keeping the demi-skill sphere in place was still present but the boost to his mental stats made it far less obvious so for now Kal was content with just leaving it as is. Opening his logs Kal sighed with relief as saw a waiting notification that he must have missed when the skill half knocked him out.

System Trial Updated!

Lonesome Will

To fall into the space between is a death sentence. Your anomalous nature has saved you from destruction but soon you will wish it hadn’t.

Part 1: Heal your shell 4160/4160

The strong wither to dust in the space between. Will you do the same?

Part 2: Survive 21 days.18/21 -Available Resources have been extended to beyond this objective’s time limit.

Even the souls of the dead are made less in the place between. Will your feeble shell withstand the winds of desolation?

Part 3: Withstand the Winds of Desolation 0/1

Warning: Do not leave the platform or allow it to be destroyed.

.

Escape the place between: 0/1

Time Limit: 82 days

Rewards: Title, Two mortal lives.

Kal frowned, “That doesn’t sound good…”

Kal wondered what it actually meant Winds of Desolation. There was nothing like that here. Then heard something, it was almost beyond what his hearing could detect but the sound made Kal grind his teeth.

It was the howling of distant wind, because, of course, it was. Kal wasn’t sure if the system was literally controlling all of the circumstances or had just dumped him here simply knowing how it would turn out but either way, Kal was starting to hate the system’s bloody trials.

Suddenly the sound vanished but in the same instant, Kal’s eyes widened as The Pillar of the Forgotten One began to fall apart before his eyes. Like dust on the wind, the pillar continued to break away only stopping once it had reached about half its original size.

The pillar wasn’t the only thing affected. His stolen copy of Endurance and Vitality had been eaten completely through to the point that Kal could put his entire fist through and the other side of the platform had also been broken down. Not as much as the pillar but the platform had lost a worryingly large chunk as well.

That sparked a disturbing image in Kal’s mind. What would happen if he fell into the void? Would he disintegrate like the pillar? Or would he fall forever or at least until whatever that thing was caught up to him?

It was probably worse. Especially if even the system warned him not to fall off or let it get destroyed.

“Yep, the system was right. I am starting to hate this fucking place.” Kal grumbled internally.

Kal had barely gotten the chance to even try to think of a solution when he heard the sound again. His hackles instantly rose and he scanned the void around him for any sign of what was coming.

There was nothing, nothing at all. A moment later the sound of howling wind stopped and more of the pillar was eaten away a large line was carved from the top of the platform before it ate one of the legs of his second bookshelf causing it to fall over and dump most of its contents onto the platform.

“Fuck!” Kal leaped to his feet and returned his stolen library to his dimensional storage amulet just in time for the winds of desolation to return. Seeing the destruction it had wrought even to the ridiculously strong metal of the platform Kal felt that at any moment he could lose an arm, leg, or his gods damned head.

Kal tried to stand perfectly still on the far end of the platform, opposite the dissolving side, and focused his gaze looking for absolutely anything at all that could tell him where the wind would strike next.

Again. Nothing.

His left shoulder suddenly burned as a hole appeared cutting cleanly through one side and out the other. Kal gritted his teeth as he clamped his hand down on the now bleeding wound.

“What the fuck is this stuff?!”

There was absolutely nothing to see. The only warning he got was the brief sound of wind before it arrived. He had no way to dodge it if he couldn’t see it. Was it some kind of mana like shadow mana? Something so dark that it was concealed by the void or was it something different altogether?

A disturbing feeling suddenly fell over Kal and he activated Eyes of the Slayer. In the distance at the very edge of his perception, a writhing mess of pulsating black threads that warped his vision reached outwards into the void in all directions as the wind roared in Kal’s ears. Countless black threads of nothing moved through the void in chaotic dancing patterns, some moved like waves in a mind-bogglingly large arc before returning and others lanced out like bolts of lighting before shattering.

It was what he had called darkness mana back when he had seen it on the Stone of Mana Acuity but what he had seen then was nothing compared to the power or concentration that he saw now. No darkness was not the right name for this mana. Void mana was far more accurate.

Kal swore as the sound vanished and a bolt of void threads shot across the intervening space. Kal threw himself to the ground and narrowly missed disintegrating his head before it curved to carve off a chunk of the platform. Now he had lost nearly a third of the platform and judging by the insane mess that was raging towards him soon the whole damned thing would be gone and him along with it.

But Kal wasn’t done yet. He rolled to his feet, feeling sluggish with his lack of attributes, and drew Exterminator’s Regards. Using every ounce of will he had Kal focused on the thread of will extending from his right hand. He had managed to manipulate to turn pages before but now he needed it for a different purpose.

His will urged the thread to extend across the length of his blade as he focused on imprinting it with his desire. Before he was done another thread lashed across the platform completely destroying the last fragments of the pillar but Kal ignored the destruction and focused on his forging.

The roaring wind grew louder and louder, as more threads began to move toward him. Kal’s hackles rose as the sound stopped but at the same moment his forging was complete and the pearlescent light of his will flashed before his eyes. By instinct, he brought his sword down in a wide arc as the black threads arrived both twisting mid-flight towards him.

Exterminator’s Regards glowed white as it made contact with the first thread. Kal grunted as the blade brightened and strange white sparks arced away from him. Then the thread convulsed as his blade sliced through it before moving on to the next. The severed thread arched backward before a searing white light moved back down its length towards the writhing mass.

Kal smiled at the sight and felt his soul rise up in anticipation. He could do this. More threads arced towards him and again he hacked them down in a display of crashing black and white lightning.

The wind began to grow louder and more frequent and soon Kal wasn’t so sure. He was too slow. Exterminator’s Regards was heavy, not as heavy as he expected it to be without his high strength but still heavy enough to quickly start draining his stamina. Along with that his shoulder also wouldn’t heal, Kal had been expecting that but worse yet was that with every swing of his sword, his shoulder twinged sending a lance of pain through his arm.

He could regain his attributes easily enough but Kal was starting to think the system had set him up for this and by the look of it surviving the storm was going to be a quick endeavor. No, he needed to do something else, but what?!

Kal scraped his mind for a solution thinking over everything he had learned as he desperately urged his body to sever every thread he could. Three were severed but a fourth carved through the platform by his feet taking one of his toes with it. Kal gasped and fell to his knees as his soul flared in anger at the injury.

Then he remembered a notification he had received before he woke up here.

Fallback command initiated…

Spirit prerequisites met…

System trials completed === 1…

“Damn it Kal! Sometimes your fucking dense!”