BXBX NOVEL Chapter 106 Quests And Rewards
The Arraccat was peak Level 50 Bronze-Tier one, and because of that, it was pretty powerful. The Arraccat was very fast, and if not for his superior senses, and probably without the addition of the Level 4 Transcendental Ability Architect, Samiel would be in trouble with keeping with it.
The speed of the magical beasts was indeed out of this world, because Samiel knew that it was faster than even the average Silver-Tier Professional, far, far, far faster and he needed everything in his arsenal to keep up with its movements. Of course, the Arraccats depended on their superior speed and agility to subjugate their foes, which made them very hard to fight against because they always chose the enemies who would be vulnerable against their speed.
At the same time, he was using the Analysis on the Arraccat and recording its capabilities and skills. The most significant advantages of the Arraccat were basically two aspects of its combat style. One was the poison, and the second was its speed.
While regarding its poison, right now, Samiel was sure that it would be largely ineffective on him, mainly due to the fact that he was once again closer to his Eldritch origin, meaning that he was slowly becoming immune to things like this. Still, maximally he would be a little disoriented from it.
Thought the speed of the Arraccat was the real pain in the ass. Arraccats were very agile and fast, and with their speed, they typically utilized it in a series of unpredictable attacks on their target. Either needed to have a ton of combat experiences that would allow someone to predict its movements or have similar Ability to Samiel, who was relatively succeeding in calculating the next movements of the Arraccat.
Fortunately, Samiel could keep up with the Arraccat's movements, and soon enough, he knew that he had adequately analyzed of its combat style after dodging another attack before using another aspect of the Architect, and that was Equation Prediction.
Instantly, the entire worldview changed around him because, together with the Memory Partition and Thoughts Acceelleration, several tens of scenarios appeared in his head and before his eyes on how the Arraccat could attack.
Immediately when the Arraccat outstretched its stinger to attack him, Samiel saw it through the Equation Prediction, even before the Arraccat did the action itself, as he dodged to the side, conjured an ice trident, and with a single swift slash, he severed the stinger from its body.
Of course, using such a powerful ability didn't come without any price, as Samiel felt that his Mana Reserves were being depleted at a tremendous speed. Nevertheless, fortunately, his regeneration was able to cover it to a certain degree.
Arraccat shrieked in pain as its stinger was severed by its opponent; not only that but from the part where it was severed, it started being frozen by the residual essence of ice and front, which was left by any wound inflicted by the weapon created through the Winter Ruler.
From the severed parts of its stinger, the entire part of Arraccat's body started freezing through the residual energy of the Winter Ruler as Samiel appeared in front of the Arraccat, stabbing his trident to its eyes several times with lightning speed, completely blinding the creature, as it roared in pain.
Afterward, he conjured an ice sword midway and pierced the skull of the Arraccat, effectively killing it on the spot. Right now, Samiel practically achieved what he wished, which was seeing the basic extent of his abilities in combat.
Of course, right now, he knew that there were restrictions, especially on the Equation Prediction, and he could sense that it wouldn't work on someone who was overwhelmingly powerful compared to him; basically it won't work on the Legendaries as he was right now, or even on the Mortal Levels if they had some sort of protection.
In the end, after fighting with the Arraccat, Samiel wasn't too interested in fighting with more enemies because he had already experienced the Architect in the fight and could somehow innately sense the limitations and restrictions on the basic level.
Right now, what he wanted the most was to make use of his remaining time on the 5th Floor, to learn as much as possible from the Hall Master with his frightening learning capabilities, which were enhanced tremendously.
Thank god that many of the Architect's abilities were also on the passive scale.
[Proficiency with the Level 4 Transcendental Ability Architect has been increased by 1%.]
Subsequently, after he finished the fight, he also got a notification from Akashic Records that his proficiency with the Architect has been increased by 1%. While it may seem like abysmal progress in truth, it was huge, considering the fact that it was a Transcendental Ability.
"I take it that you already want to return back... though I had to admit that your Ability to predict the future is impressive, don't be overdependent on it. I have seen several Abilities like this throughout my lifetime, and many of their users got themselves killed due to their predictions being wrong. If someone has something that can affect the reality itself, then your Ability's prediction is for nothing."
The first thing that the elderly Hall Master said to Samiel was a small rebuke because while indeed the Abilities that could predict the future were absolutely frightening, there were always ways and paths how to avoid them or even fool them. It was a reminder to him that nothing in this world was absolute, and countermeasures existed against anything, and if it didn't exist, then it wouldn't be long before it would be invented.
It was dangerous to be so heavily dependent on it in the fight, especially against enemies that may have some means how to combat those. It is in the best interest to be careful when using these abilities, and sometimes the future is not set in stone.
From what Samiel innately understood, the limitations of the Equation Prediction lay in several things: firstly, it was basically ineffective on someone whose power was vastly superior to him, secondly, if someone was covered by the power of Transcendental, then it would also be ineffective, and thirdly it was useless against those who bore artifacts that had the ability to affect reality.
So basically, many of these restrictions were tied to his personal strength, and because it was a Level 4 Transcendental Ability, Samiel couldn't unfold its full power when he was still mortal, and only by achieving the Transcendence could he show the full power of the Equation Prediction.
Still, even right now as he was, the power of the Level 4 Transcendental Ability Architect was extremely powerful, and Samiel needed to be careful when using it. When he was fighting against the Arraccat, he noticed one thing and that, when he was using Architect continuously, it was taking a great toll on his very own being, especially on his mind.
From there, he realized that he needed to be careful with the Architect's calculation not to overload his brain, or that he could even outright kill himself on the spot. One of the ways how to avoid it was to use the Ability itself on some small insignificant matters and calculation to basically train and adjust your brain to the more complex things.
So the key to success was not doing anything big and complicated from the start but rather working there from the smaller things. Through that method, Samiel knew that his mind and his brain would get used to the usage of the Architect over some time, and he would be able to perform some easy and small calculations and things effortlessly without any side effects.
Not talking about the more complex ones, whom he could then handle better. This was something that even the Hall Master Menuhyutt Faulahber agreed on, as it was indeed the truth.
***
Two weeks later, on the original floating island.
For the past two weeks, Samiel has been undergoing nonstop training. After he got the Level 4 Transcendental Ability Architect, and his learning capabilities and comprehension abilities became out of the mortal realm, even the mighty Menuhyutt Faulhaber wanted to see how far he could go.
For the old man, it was an unprecedented situation because people who managed to obtain a Level 4 Transcendental were very, very, very, very, very rare across the Cosmos, and they could be counted on one hand. Practically every few thousand years, one of those would appear; at least, statistics said so.
And thus, Samiel, aside from his disciple, also became a testing subject, as the knowledge and information were just flowing into him like a ferocious water stream. The Hall Master was curious what was the extent of the learning capabilities of his disciple and the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath after he awakened Level 4 Transcendental Ability like Architect, and truth to say, there were frightening.
Two weeks non stop training in the Polearm Arts, as the old man wanted Samiel to achieve the Mastery Skill as fast as possible. For Samiel, the only thing that he needed was a small two-hour-long pause between each training season and eating a few souls, and he would be good as new and could continue with the training without any problems.
It grew to the point that even the meals were forsaken, not like somebody suffered for it, aside from Nefertari who became very grumpy, that she needed to hunt her own food and soil her holy catiness for that, but what could be done. She was Elder Wampus Cat, so hunting was in her blood, but she was just lazy as fuck, and preferred to sleep all day and let herself to be spoiled and fed.
And of course, the results were tremendous. With the addition of Architect and its capabilities, Samiel basically mastered the entire Polearm Arts in two weeks, skyrocketing from 40% to 100%, which was tremendous growth.
Mainly because after getting a proficiency of 50%, then the growth of anything got remarkably slower and slower, but due to Samiel's special situation, it didn't seem to be any problem at all here as he still progressed at a steady pace. Aside from this fact, typically, people would spend their whole lifetimes getting a single skill like the Polearm Arts to the 100%, but that was mainly for those with average talent and lifespan.
[Proficiency with the Skill Polearms Arts has been increased by 2%.]
[Proficiency with the Skill Polearms Arts has been increased by 3%.]
[Proficiency with the Skill Polearms Arts has been increased by 6%.]
[Proficiency with the Skill Polearms Arts has been increased by 1%.]
[Proficiency with the Skill Polearms Arts has been increased by 4%.]
[Proficiency with the Skill Polearms Arts has reached the 100%]
And then, it came when the Polearms Arts reached 100%, signifying that he had learned everything about the Polearms and their actual usage. From the point of your average warrior, Samiel could be considered a veteran in handling any kind of polearm. Yet, in reality, from the point of view of the whole Cosmos, he mastered just the entrance level, and now he could choose the specialization.
[Due to the Skill Polearms Arts having reached 100% Proficiency, it is suitable for the Evolution.]
[Evolution of the Skill Polearms Arts has been initiated.]
[Browsting through the records of the Samiel Zentaur.]
[Becuase the User Samiel Zentaur has been recorded to have an affinity for the Trident, the Skill Polearms Arts have evolved into the Skill Trident Mastery.]
[Proficiency with the Skill Trident Mastery has been increased by 2%.]
Samiel heard the voice of the Akashic Records as he finally achieved one of his goals what he wanted to achieve, gripping the ice trident in his hand. Previously, he didn't have any feeling when wielding the trident, but it felt natural to him right now.
As if obtaining the Skill Trident Mastery gave it a whole new dimension.
[Advancement Quest: Make a Martial Achievement has been completed.
Description: The 5th Floor has the natural enviroment for enlightenment and achieving martial breakthroughs. Make the martial achievement during your stay on the 5th Floor; the reward would be appropriate for the achievement accomplished.
Reward: Frost Crystal]
And not even a few seconds later, after he obtained the Skill Trident Mastery, he also finished the Advancement Quest from the Tower's System, which was to make a Martial Achievement, which would be judged by the Tower's System to be glorious enough. Technically the germination of the Level 4 Transcendental Ability doesn't count as making a Martial Achievement.
The germination of the Ability Seed didn't really fall onto this, for first, because it wasn't related to the martial arts or the weapon mastery, and secondly, to germinate the Ability Seed, one didn't really need to do anything, aside from waiting or consuming some treasures to hasten up the germination of the Ability Seed.
Soon after, he was holding in his hands a small ice blue crystal and the second the crystal appeared in his hands, the temperature dropped drastically in the entire area, so much that even the Hall Master Menuhyutt Faulhaber opened his eyes to check up on the things, what was happening.
"Frost Crystal... I haven't seen one of those things for a long time already."
He stated when seeing the Frost Crystal shining in the sun's rays in a shining azure blue color. The moment the Frost Crystal appeared in his hands as the reward for the completion of the Advancement Quest on the 5th Floor, the temperature dropped drastically in the entire area, to the point that Samiel was able to see his breath clearly.
Certainly, Samiel didn't really feel coldness or anything, and the only thing that he felt from the Frost Crystal was a weird attraction toward the shining azure gem like it should be part of his very own being.
"Master, what would be the best use of the Frost Crystal for me?"
Samiel asked because, for sure, the old man would be able to find the most suitable and effective usage of the Frost Crystal. In truth, he didn't know what to do with a thing like the Frost Crystal, Samiel knew that it was something very precious and useful, but even such things could effortlessly go waste when someone didn't know how to utilize them properly.
"Absorb it into your Mana Core to obtain another Mana Quality."
After a few moments of consideration, he answered back. The Hall Master decided that this would be the most suitable usage of the Frost Crystal, which would bring Samiel tremendous benefits upon absorption.
The Mana Quality was basically a special property of Mana. Normally, the Mana was neutral and without any additional properties. One could obtain a Mana Quality non-naturally by practicing some kind of Mana Control Method, but those which contained some kind of element or so were exceedingly rare.
Mostly, one was already born with a certain predisposition for Mana Quality. Right now, Samiel had the one Mana Quality, which was the Void, due to his racial heritage and also learning the Nuclear Void Mana Control Method.
With some time and increasement in the proficiency of the Nuclear Void Mana Control Method, he could obtain another Mana Quality, the Nuclear Mana Quality, but that was very far in the future. For now, obtaining another Mana Quality that was compatible with his already existing was hard, and one the most suited it would be Ice or Frost Mana Quality.
The Void itself had a freezing presence; thus it would be very much compatible with the plan that Menuhyutt proposed.