Zenith felt his hands tingle; it was such an odd feeling. He slowly moved his right hand and saw the motion caused space to warp. He still had information of what it could do, grinning to himself. He was excited; he, a nobody who had been abandoned, working at a refinery just to get by with no resonance frequency, had experienced miracle after miracle and now was a fully-fledged ability user.
He shut his eyes for a moment, then took up a basic stance given to him from the information. This ability, the white hand of black space, was straightforward but also confusing. Though he couldn't use the ability long, it drained a lot of resonance, so he deactivated it.
Then, running around like an energetic headless chicken, he encountered a duo of the resonance creatures with large bulky arms. Before they could form, though, Zenith activated his ability. Bringing his right hand down, a white hand that was transparent appeared above the first creature, then a warped light shone down on it. The creature was then pressed instantly to the ground, becoming a meat paste; even the bricks were crushed.
Zenith then saw the second creature rush at him. He pushed his left palm towards it. A bright light shone from his palm, flashing like a camera. The creature that charged towards him completely turned white before turning pitch black. It then disintegrated into ash.
Zenith lowered his hands, a little fearful of what he just saw. The ability he had was simple: it would change the contrast of space of a certain radius, changing the properties. It didn't tell him how it did so, or what the changes would be.
"It has uses in combat; that's good. It could be worse," he remembered Mirabell's ability and quivered, feeling sorry for her. Zenith then sat down, eating some rations and calming his mind in front of the portcullis. It took 10 minutes before he stood up and turned before rushing in.
[Entering boss encounter, do you want to continue? Yes, No] With no hesitation, Zenith accepted, and soon was let inside, the portcullis closing behind him. The torches suddenly burned brighter, the entire room lighting up. Zenith looked around, trying to see where the boss was. "Hmm..?" His heart skipped a beat as he suddenly dashed with all his might backwards.
From the dark ceiling, a large figure smashed down into the ground. It was a resonance creature that looked like a centipede. Zenith gave a disgusted look; he hated spiders and insects like these, feeling a shiver run down his spine.
Firstly, he activated earth grip, attempting to bind the creature, but when it activated, the creature's long body curled around the earthen pillars and crushed them with ease. Zenith, though, already had a second-cast flame sphere. The centipede, though, was agile; it easily dodged the attack then pounced towards Zenith. He rolled out of the way quickly.
The centipede creature didn't seem to be in a rush to kill him, as if it had been bored for a long time. Its head opened its maw, swaying a little from side to side as if mocking Zenith, who had run several meters away. "Stupid freaking bug…" He turned around; he wanted to end this fight as soon as possible. Right as he prepared to activate his resonance ability, the centipede suddenly spewed out what looked like a sticky substance. Zenith was dumbfounded; he wanted to dodge, but it caught his leg. Then the centipede used it like a rope and swung Zenith around, smashing him against a wall. Zenith coughed in pain, his internal organs quivering. If he was a normal human, his bones would no doubt be broken.
The centipede then threw him into the air before it jumped and headbutted him downwards like a slam dunk. Zenith bounced on the ground, this time spewing blood, nearly going unconscious, his mind shaking. "H..health," he called out for the prompt! [HP 30%] He sucked in a cold breath, watching as the centipede began to curl around him. Zenith, finally angered, used another flame sphere from the position he was in. The centipede quickly wanted to dodge, but rather than its head, he aimed at the ground where its body was. The creature screeched and backed away in anger.
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When it finally got out of the fire, its body burnt a bit, it looked back at Zenith, but what it saw was his hands were now glowing white. It also noticed a cruel smirk on his face. When it was about to spit another of the substance at him, it had a very bad feeling. Its head gazed up, only to see a large white hand over it. Then it felt like a rock had been dropped on it.
Its body was pressed down incredibly hard, the brick tiles cracking, its body cracking as resonance fluid oozed out from under its carapace. It gave a high-pitched screech in pain until the attack faded.
When it focused again, Zenith had already extended his hand towards it. This time it saw a bright flash; it felt its body feel a sensation that was different from burning or coldness. It was like its very being had been slapped. It quickly turned to move and dodge out of the way, a second flash appearing. Fortunately, or more so unfortunately, half its body had seemingly turned into black ash that dissipated. Resonance fluid began leaking out again.
The centipede was screaming in pain, spewing its sticky substance everywhere, hoping to hit Zenith. Of course, he was already madly trying to dodge; his mind was already dizzy, the attack used up a lot. "God damnit.." he cursed under his breath, taking out the potion he had and drinking it. The flavor was fruity and refreshing.
[Restoring Health and Resonance!] Listening to the prompt, he begrudgingly looked at the centipede that wriggled in pain. "What a waste…" Gritting his teeth as he felt his wounds visibly heal, his fatigue leaving, he then clenched his right fist, a soft light pulsing before he punched towards the centipede.
Space distorted as a mass of energy shot in the form of a fist. Before the centipede could focus, the fist collided with it, and then there was a large bang, crack, and crash sound. When the fist energy dissipated, there was a large indentation and cracks on the brick wall; the centipede was no longer there, only its destroyed, squashed body. "Fuck you…" Zenith spat some blood on the ground, swearing in annoyance. [5X Reward, 5000 Experience Gained. Resonance Insect Lord Variant Defeated. Drops Gained: Coordinate Map.]
"Coordinate map?" Zenith ignored the level-up sound he got as he healed up completely. He rushed over to where the corpse of the centipede began to dissipate, then picked up a flat round disc like a vinyl record. He looked at it from top to bottom; it didn't have anything special around it other than it was perfectly round with no marks.
"I'll worry about it later." He rushed over to the exit of the portcullis and intended to walk out of it. [Do you want to continue or exit? Once you hit Continue, you cannot return until you have defeated the next boss. Continue/Exit]
Zenith looked at it for a moment, then gazed at his device's time. "Urgh… I don't know what I'll face next. Fable told me to be careful too. I think I did pretty good," he more or less verbally patted himself on the back, but he had obligations and didn't want to worry anyone. According to his device, he had been gone for nearly an entire day; the others must be worried for him.
He quickly hit the prompt to exit reluctantly. And soon he felt himself engulfed in light, the dungeon flashing past him until he was pushed through the teleporter. When he exited, he stumbled a bit. Then watched as the teleporter closed up and the device turned to ash. He sighed again, looking at it then gazing at the device in his hand.
But then something caught his curiosity. "Huh? No one's around? Did they not notice I was gone?" His brows furrowed. He soon left, not bothering to use his comms as he thought something might be wrong. He went back to the freighter; he saw that there was still a line of people applying. He approached and waved at Jenabell, who was yelling at those lining up.
"Huh? Kid? Why are you back so soon?" Jenabell asked, confused. Zenith blinked. "Miss Jenabell, what do you mean? I've been gone for nearly a day?" Jenabell gave him an odd look as if he were crazy. Zenith knew something was up, so he explained what had happened.
When he was done, Jenabell's face was white as a ghost as she sucked in a deep breath. Even those who lined up looked at Zenith like he was a freak. "Kid! I don't know whether to yell at you or pat you on the back. I've only heard of those sorts of places. Usually, someone lucky will stumble upon a weird place dedicated to improving. Next time, if you ever find a place like that, don't worry about us! We will know you got lucky. Actually, wait for us! That way we can leech some of your luck!" Jenabell complimented, a little down as Zenith had hit a goldmine of a device those higher powers would drool over.
"What's that in your hand?" Jenabell suddenly asked.