novelhk Chapter 299: The White Desert
Chapter 299: The White Desert
Deadly rain, tearing winds, and a hailstorm fierce enough to pulverize bone—this was the cocktail awaiting in the Deluge’s fourth zone. A brutal symphony that had nearly killed Priam less than an hour before. When he entered it a second time, he was ready and on guard. Among the flood of sensory data pouring in from his Mist Concept, the trajectory of an approaching object alerted him.
A chunk of ice, the size of his fist, was hurtling toward him. Just minutes ago, this very type of hailstone had slammed him back into the second zone, flinging him into roaring updrafts. But since then, Priam had changed.
Instead of dodging, Priam planted his feet and lowered his stance, then met the attack with a brutal headbutt. The collision between his forehead and the hailstone was explosive...for the projectile. It shattered into a cloud of glistening frost.
“You’re going to have a nasty bump,” Jasmine warned.
“I know.”
“That was stupid.”
“Not at all. I just showed the Deluge I’m ready to face it like a warrior.”
“It’s a storm. You’re trying to impress a storm? Ugh, boys...”
Priam shook his head. If Jasmine didn’t understand the thrill of smashing ice chunks with his skull for the price of a minor bump, that was her loss.
The rest of the fourth zone was relatively calm. After the boost that came with unsealing his constitution, neither the rain nor the wind were able to slow him, and only the occasional hailstones tossed by the storm posed a threat. Most simply bounced off his skin, discharging their kinetic energy in a futile attempt to shove him into the tumultuous waters below. The only real challenge was dodging the larger chunks of ice, but thanks to his Mist Concept, he saw them coming well in advance.
An hour later, Priam spotted a massive white shape through the rain and hail. Pressing forward, he soon stood before a colossal iceberg. It called for a Captain Obvious moment, which he dutifully delivered.
“The ocean’s frozen over.”
Despite his near immunity, the storm was far from a pleasant environment, and Priam eagerly continued his journey. Lighting a small flame beneath each of his fingers, he carved his own holds and scaled the ice sheet with the ease of an arctic primate. The opaque sky remained silent, not a rumble announcing punishment. Just like Mist, Pyro was permitted.
Fifty meters up, at the top of the icy cliff, Priam discovered a white curtain—a realm where the rain gave way to snow. The cold radiating from this new zone was so intense it disrupted his kinetic platforms. From here on out, he would have to rely on his own legs.@@@@
Fourth zone of the Deluge cleared. Valaryth’s Ocean’s reward: Myth Fragment.
Integrating with System...
Title won!
[The One Who Braved the Deluge - Silver] - The wrath of the heavens provoked the fury of the oceans, a force that trembled the earth. From the smallest lizard to the largest bird, all creatures knew fear, sensing the end had begun.
While all fled the torrential downpour, a hero walked against the flow. He wanted to see the heart of the cataclysm with his own eyes.
For his courage, his tale is told.
META (Perception) +10%
META (Authority) +10%
As frost clawed at his bare feet and the blizzard roared before him, Priam understood: the Deluge was taking the gloves off.
“If you want to bail, now’s the time,” he cautioned Jasmine as he glanced up at the piercing light breaking through the white clouds above them.
“Are you serious?”
“If I die in there, I doubt you’ll be able to escape.”
By slipping into the storm’s shadow, Jasmine could navigate the first three zones without trouble. In contrast, the ambient brightness of the fourth zone was her nemesis—as light scattering off the snow, each falling flake disrupting her shadows. To an assassin, it was a shifting maze with no beginning or end, whose alleys constantly shifted. ɽANοʙЁS
“Then don’t die,” was her only answer.
“It’s kind of my specialty.”
With those words, Priam ventured into the snowstorm. The first thing to hit him was the searing cold. The second was a spinning ice disk.
The ambush struck his left collarbone with the force of a guillotine. Without his impossible constitution and an ideal slashing resistance, Priam would have lost his arm—and his human heart. Instead, the icy blade shattered into a hundred fragments that were sucked back into the storm, leaving only a slight cut as evidence of its existence.
“I told you not to die,” Jasmine reminded him.
“I sensed it too late. My Mist sense isn’t working in this snowstorm.”
Without mist, his perception was severely compromised. The sub-freezing temperature ruled out any fog, and Domain became his sole reliable source of information—a three-meter sphere to spot every danger lurking in an ocean of ice.
While half his attention monitored the blizzard, the other half focused on his collarbone wound. Instead of healing, it was freezing, offering a breach for the cold to seep deeper into his body. Priam felt the essence of winter invading his body, slowing his pulse and even the flow of his aether. There’s a Concept at work here...
With the tip of his finger, he touched the frozen blood and called upon Pyro. A feeble flame flickered to life, struggling against the winter chill. Still, it managed to thaw his blood until it began to flow again. The vital liquid stimulated his regeneration, sealing the wound until the cut vanished.
Nodding to himself, Priam trudged on through the powdery snow. The fresh drifts reached up to his thighs, turning each step into a battle. He tried several times to fashion kinetic skis to speed up, but the enchanted cold eroded any fine creations. As he pondered a solution, a projectile darted into his Domain, and Priam ducked just in time to dodge another ice blade.
“I swear, the System’s screwing with me,” he muttered as he watched a lock of his hair get swept away by the wind.
“Hm?”
Priam kept slogging through the snow, advancing one painful step at a time.
“I have a Domain three times the radius of a typical Tier 0—and we’re talking about a genius who managed to gain this Supremacy before Tier 1. Yet, these icy guillotines carried by the wind are so damn fast that I can barely dodge them once detected... and you know I have high agility for Tier 0.”
“Your stats may be sky-high, but your dodging skills are trash,” the assassin pointed out.
The thought sent a surge of fury through him, and he roared his defiance. “FUCK!”
“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” replied the snowdrift.
The white mound rose, revealing the twisted cross between a yeti and a polar bear.
[Identification]
[Enraged Chenoo - Tier 2 - Viscount] - A rare creature, sharing ancestry with Wendigos. The Chenoo is a dormant bloodline in many humanoid creatures and occasionally awakens in cannibals.
Banished to the Deluge's ice plains, this monster prowls in search of prey. Its bloodline prevents it from starving to death, though the lack of nutrients drives it mad.
The souls of its victims are trapped within its flesh. The only way to free them is to digest them yourself. The dead will thank you for it.
Priam blinked, then grinned. “Looks like we just found dinner!”
Status:
PHYSICAL:
Strength 893 SEALED
Constitution 1 326
Agility 1 173
Vitality 1 143
Perception 858
MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599 SEALED
Dexterity 752
Memory 891 SEALED
Willpower 1 004
Charisma 648
META:
Meta-affinity 999
Meta-focus 554
Meta-endurance 896
Meta-perception 539 (+37)
Meta-chance 589
Meta-authority 343 (+28)
Potential: 17 913
Tier 0
Sun points: 143 444
[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED
Concepts:
Breath (T0): 100% / HarmonyFire (T0): 100% / UnityPyro (T1): 100% / Half-step UnityMist (T1): 100% / Symphony
Bloodlines:
Phoenix: 2%Dragon: 1%
Rewards standing:
Fusion Token - Skill (Epic) Evolution Token - Skill (Legendary)Affinity Token - Tier 1 (30%)Alien Concept fragment (7th Terror)Talent Token - Upgrade (Seraph)Revelation Token - Ideal Prerequisites (Epic)Colosseum VIP TokenReborn Token - Reset biological lifespan (Legendary)
[Tribulation]: Six Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 133 days 9 hours 51 minutes 4 seconds.
Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 200 / 1 attribute > 1 500
Next arc already complete on Patreon if you want to find out what happens next!
/ANovelConcept