CHAPTER 101: Aquatic Trial Zone. ({Part-1} out of 3)

Since my Strength and Agility attributes were not in equilibrium with the other three attributes, the effect of state of harmony took off, and my control over my body worsened.

Because of that, every step I took created a small crater from the strength I used to sprint and cross 160 m/s.

Even that was not enough to cross the remaining distance as fast as I'd like.

By racking up my brain, I came up with using & Stage-3 to further improve my travelling speed, and thanks to that, there was little to no wind resistance obstructing me, increasing my overall speed to a whopping 180 meters per second.

It was a bit lacking compared to using , but it would do just the trick.

While I was sprinting, I perceived the presence of two life forms on my way with my that were fighting a Low-Phase Tier-3 monster. I guessed that it must be some Alpha Chosen of the second trial zone.

However, I didn't slow down to take a look as my priority was to make barrier entrances into as many trial zones as possible within the limited duration that I could access Origin Energy.

I soon had only 2 km (1.2 miles) left before the barrier, but my mode only had 15 seconds remaining, and though my speed would normally allow me to pass this distance fast enough with ease, the terrain had begun sloping upwards like a mountain, which slowed down my movement speed quite drastically.

With my higher thought processes power, I went through many possible scenarios in my mind in a split second, and only the skill seemed to be viable with the little amount of spirit energy that had regenerated over the past few minutes.

I could use the but that made it hard to maneuver properly in this terrain. So, I instead activated right away.

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Lv.5 (Rare): Lets the user to condense air to form steps for a limited duration in an empty space.

Cost: 50 Spirit Energy.

Duration: 5 minutes.

Cooldown: 50 minutes.

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50 Spirit Energy were expended and square tiles made of condensed wind were materialised within the range of 100 meters in the direction I wished for, creating a shortest path to reach the end of the elevated terrain.

Using them as the footholds, I sprinted with my full capacity, and even though I reached as close as 100 meters, I didn't slow down since I just have a second left before the mode ends, and directly collided into the barrier while covering myself with Origin Energy.

Because of that, the broken part of the barrier between the second trial zone, and the third trial zone extended as long as 5 kilometers and the sound produced from that was even more deafening than when I broke the first trial zone barrier.

Even the roars coming from the direction of the second trial zone were a lot louder than those of the monsters half an hour ago.

But that wasn't all, I could sense the presence of the nearby monsters in the third trial zone approaching towards the broken part of the system barrier.

The third trial zone was completely different from the previous two trial zones that I passed through. Instead of grasslands with huge trees, there was water everywhere even to the end of the horizon, like an endless sea.

As for the elevated terrain I saw at the end of the second trial zone, it was actually a 500-meter cliff that separated the second and third trial zones together with the system barrier.

Due to the , I didn't fall into the water even after crossing the cliff and was able to stand in the air, a few hundred meters away from the cliff and analyse the situation.

The part of the barrier that's broken was too big and for that to recover, it would take at least half an hour, but in less than a minute, hundreds of monsters would gather at the barrier from both trial zones and the numbers would only increase every passing second.

I didn't know if the monsters from both barriers would fight amongst each other or cooperate with each other.

But in either case, I didn't intend to stay there in the air to find out what happend, since I was in no condition to face so many monsters at once.

Because, just after I broke a part of the system barrier, the duration of mode ended, so I entered a weakened state, which reduced overall stats in to half, bringing them to 420.

In that weakened state, my overall stats were similar to a monster that just entered Tier-3 Low-Phase. On top of that, my Spirit Energy was almost exhausted along with my Stamina.

For Storm Eagle MJ and Dante to reach here, it would take at least five more minutes and if I wait for them out in the open, I would become a live target for the hundreds if not thousands of monsters even if I was several hundreds of meters in the air.

So, I jumped into the sea before any monsters could sense my presence and dived deeper.

Due to the common grade skill Lv.10, I was able to breathe underwater through my skin and the pressure on me from the water around me was reduced by tenfold, making it easier for me to dive deeper.

At 50 meters deep, through , I sensed a few Tier-2 sharks that were the size of a school bus sneakily making their way towards me.

If it was some time ago, I wouldn't have given them another look, but now that I am in a weakened state with 2% of my Spirit Energy and Stamina, I didn't look down on them and used .

[Lv.25 Speartooth Shark]

[Lv.24 Sand Tiger Shark]

[Lv.22 Blacktip Reef Shark]

Due to the overwhelming defence provided by the 's full body armour, even if I place my hand between their jaws, they could forget about harming me.

I wasn't worried about fighting the incoming sharks but at the same time, I don't want my fight with them to attract more monsters.

With the intention to finish them off as fast as possible, I stayed still near them as if I didn't notice them and once they were just 20 meters away, I brought out three sharp daggers that looked like needles from the storage space.

Just like how Olivia uses to telekinetically move objects, I shot each of those dagger needles at those three sharks.

Since I couldn't use Aura over them, they only managed to pierce their scale hide half way through but for my plan to work, that was more than enough.

I had MJ design those dagger needles beforehand, and each of them have a hollow space, which was filled with my 'Blood Venom', and once they hit their targets, the venom will be injected.

Just as those four sharks were ten meters away from me, their movement slowed down and when they reached as close as a meter, they halted before drawing their last breath.

I still had seven more of those dagger needles in my storage space. I just had MJ create them for emergency purposes but I didn't expect to use it too soon.

I didn't try to dig out the Spirit crystals in their hearts since that would cause a blood spill, which would attract more monsters.

After looting them, I dived deeper to hide in the deep water until the 25-minute weakened period ended and while I was at it, I merged with the four skills I looted from them.

[Lv.10 Electroreception (Uncommon) Looted]

[Lv.10 Electroreception: ability to passively sense any electric signal that was created through any life form's muscle movement within 1000 meters]

[Lv.4 Water Pressure Resistance (Uncommon) Looted]

[Lv.4 Water Pressure Resistance: ability to resist Water Pressure increases by 40 fold]

[Lv.8 Aqua Bullets (Uncommon) Looted]

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Lv.8 Aqua Bullets: ability to condense water into droplets before shooting them.

Cost: 5 Spirit Energy per aqua bullet.

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'Electroreception' was a special ability of shark species. Unlike which would let me perceive everything that's happening within 500 meter range, could only sense the movement of a lifeform.

The reason why I merged with it even when I had was because the range of was nearly double that of and that would be alot helpful to me in that situation.

would be quite useful under water since their movement wouldn't be affected. However, those sharks weren't able to use projectile skills such as on me because I caught them by surprise.

As for the , it passively reduces the water pressure on me. Combined with the effect of 'Aqua Skin', my ability to resist water pressure had an 80-fold increase.

Which means that I would be able to resist 320 standard atmospheric pressure with just the ability of alone. If I take my Endurance attribute into consideration, I could handle as high as 500 atm pressure with my bare body.

That was a lot since an average human could only handle 4 atm water pressure. I could safely dive as deep as 5 kms and any further would harm me, the longer I stay there.

After diving as deep as 2 kms, I found rock beds attached to the cliff with coral reefs all over them. By using , I made a small cave within before covering it with a makeshift rock door.

At such a depth, it was completely dark since the sunlight couldn't reach such depths. Still, I was able to see due to the skill which had the functions of in it.

After entering the small cave, I covered it's entrance, and waited there for my spirit energy and stamina to recover as much as possible.

Through , I could sense the movement of monsters within my 1000-meter range.

A minute later, I sensed the two lifeforms moving in my direction. At first, I assumed it was two random monsters but when they entered my 500 meter range, I was sure that they were heading towards me as I could picture their appearance in my mind using .

Both of them were eight feet tall skinny humanoids with a pale blue skin and their faces were similar to humans except for their slightly flat nose, broad ears, no hair, webbed feet and palms.

Moreover, they were communicating with each other while heading towards where I was hidden. Just from that I could tell that they must be the Alpha Chosen of the third trial program.

Usually monsters would become aggressive in the presence of Alpha Chosen. However, even when the third trial zone's Alpha Chosen passed by other monsters none of them were attacked.

I don't know which skill they used to find me and what their intentions were to come after me, but, I am curious to find the reason for this strange occurrence.