Published at 10th of August 2023 11:19 am

Chapter 93: Transcendent

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“Come on, show yourself! What kind of System user hides behind a rock like that?!” The lone man taunted in a clear loud voice while walking measuredly towards the two of them.

Kyle’s eyes narrowed. This was the first time he had heard anyone other than him talk about the System, maybe save for Lady Yona who mentioned she had seen transcendents before. “Feldon, don’t fight. I need you to hide and stay alive for as long as possible. Play dead or run as far as you can if you have to.” Kyle whispered in a low voice, to Feldon.

“What? Why? Who is he? I can take him down easy.” Feldon hefted his arctech handgun as he crouched behind the cover, raring to strike first.

“No, I’ll handle him, but I can’t have you pulling me down. Remember, don’t-” Before Kyle could finish, a lightning sword impaled through Feldon’s lower abdomen with a splitting sound like the clap of thunder, the blade piercing through the flesh while the hilt knocked Feldon back and sending him to the far side of the cavern.

“Best to get all the useless chaff out of the way first. Judging from the way you’re treating the unchosen… Bekin? Is that you? Mother already told us not to bother with such meaningless things. Just walking bags of EXP.”

“Wait!” Kyle adjusted his voice into a more frightened tone, stepping out of the cover with his hands raised up completely. “We’re just explorers who fell in the catacombs! We never intended to offend you in any way!”

Now that Kyle stood out in the open, he got a better view of the lone man. He looked like the stereotypical handsome blonde hair hero, complete with a rugged armour set that showed its age, though Kyle had no doubt that it was filled to the brim with arctech engravings as well. The man was clearly very young, with Kyle pegging his age to be in the range of nineteen to twenty-two.

More importantly, Kyle noticed the man only had one lightning sword yet, the tendrils of electricity still visibly sparking brightly along the jagged edges of the sword.

The man scowled as he came to a halt, no longer advancing as his wary eyes locked onto Kyle. “Drop the act, cunt. I already got word there was a transcendent trying to muscle in on my operation here in Tenar.”

“Imagine my surprise to hear that a certain Kris Greyborn was trying to eliminate my preciously trained Nest underlings. I was half expecting it to be one of my siblings trying to undermine me, but now that I look at you, I don’t recognise you at all. Whatever optical illusions you’re running, you better stop it before I flood this whole place.” The man raised his lightning sword at Kyle.

“I-i-I don’t know what you’re talking about? What transcendent?” Kyle still feigned ignorance, trying to buy time as his eyes glanced around the room, trying to craft a plan to overpower the man. He’s not attacking me yet for some reason – he seems to be wary of what I can do. He looked around, noticing that there was another exit passageway that was now open, opposite the entrance.

He spotted the man’s eyes also darting around, noticing the three green-tinted slovesa cores lying behind Kyle. The man’s eyes widened significantly, his face an expression of pure shock. “Seriously?! Did you kill the final boss of the trial? What the fuck?! Why would you even do that? Who the hell gave you the System? My god, you just overturned my entire EXP grinding plan! ARGHHH” The man rubbed his head roughly, messing up his hair as he stomped in frustration.

“What’s the System? What’s EXP?” Kyle tried to act timidly, trembling visibly. Weird, he’s still not attacking me despite being that pissed off.

The man’s tantrum was interrupted by Kyle’s question, who looked incredulously at Kyle before grinning. “Look, stop playing. I can see you have the System in your body – and it’s near impossible to clear even the first wave of the trial…. Aha! I know who you are! You’re a transcendent from beyond the Great Waves, no?”

“Uhh…” Kyle only furrowed his eyebrows, displaying an obvious lack of understanding and confusion.

“Even then, how fucking rude it is to crash into someone’s dungeon! Did you not fucking check the notice board set up in the Council of Wardens?! What kind of etiquette has the other side been teaching you? I already clearly booked this dungeon for three years, starting last year!”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Are you for real?”

“Yes, I’m just an explorer.”

“Okay.”

Without warning, the man lifted his feet, a lightning arc causing a shockwave clap between his shoes and the ground and propelling him forward at an alarming speed.

The sudden sound caught Kyle off-guard as the man swung the lightning sword with a cross swing from the left aimed right at Kyle’s neck, the dazzling white lights blinding Kyle.

Penchant for Violence!

Instead of ducking or stepping back, Kyle moved forward to avoid the blade cutting him, instead positioning himself at the shoulder of the man and attempting to grapple his arm.

However, as soon as Kyle laid hands on the armoured sections of the arm, a fierce high voltage sent waves of nerve-numbing pain through his body, causing Kyle to uncontrollably twitch with his muscles cramping up.

The man took the opportunity to grab Kyle’s hand and fling his entire body overhead, slamming Kyle into the ground with a single arm before pinning Kyle down with his foot and aiming the lightning sword right at the head.

“There are only three possibilities: one, you’re a hostile transcendent from beyond the Great Waves. Two, a walking bag of EXP who somehow got lucky. Or three, which I find the most likely – you’re a rogue transcendent. Either I kill you, or I beat you to a pulp and drag you back to Mother to sort you out. How would you like it done?”

“How about neither?” Intimidation Aura!

The effects took place immediately on the man, causing him to step back and release Kyle involuntarily. With the Penchant for Violence still in effect, he rushed for the Pulverizer which was still on the ground, grabbing it before charging at the man.

“There we go! You’re not just a walking bag of –“ Before the man could complete his sentence, Kyle was already swinging the warhammer at him with full force. The man grinned as he confidently blocked with his armguard, the metal clashing with one another in a resounding clap that resonated through the cavern.

“Hah, that’s noth-“ The follow-up shock wave reverberated through the innards of the man, causing him to gag as his organs were shaken violently.

Kyle pressed the advantage, pulling the warhammer again and throwing another swing at the man’s legs this time. However, the man quickly recovered and leapt backwards, avoiding the sweeping action while hopping backwards.

“Alright. Let’s see how much EXP you’re worth, you cocksucker.” The man grinned, wiping off the saliva from his chin from the shock.

Suddenly, pure white lightning emitted from the armour, completely enveloping the man. The high voltage arcs increased dramatically, with the contact points of the arc scalding the ground hot wherever the arc landed. The claps of thunders as the arcs split apart, the air particles continuously filled the cavern with a series of non-stop deafening booms.

Kyle immediately pulled back, unwilling to go anywhere near the veritable ball of lightning. That skill can’t last forever; I have to outrun him. More importantly, I have to pull him away from Feldon. He began to sprint out of the cavern with haste, aiming for the exit passageway.

The man gave chase as well, with the two of them running down through the exit passageway. Kyle noticed that the man no longer had the same explosive speed as the first time he was attacked. That must have been a skill – what’s the cooldown?

As Kyle ran along the length of the passageway, he sidestepped plenty of skeletons in destroyed and rusted exosuits crawling with moss. He noticed a long damaged steel rebar pole lying on the floor, and quickly bent to pick it up, continuing his sprint while dodging the lancing arcs that tried to singe him.

There must be something along this passageway – if the dungeon is artificially created by an A-class state, they must have this basic functionality! Kyle kept his eyes peeled as the arcs were deafening, the enclosed space of the passageway amplifying the sound to even greater heights.

Kyle turned a few corners, skipping many rooms before finally spotting something in the distance that looked like a wall control panel, except it was completely covered by overgrown underground vegetation that was feeding off the residue radiation. Good enough!

With a hefty stab, Kyle smashed the rebar right into the control panel, the pole sticking out prominently while Kyle continued to run away, leaving it behind.

As he took another step, suddenly, long lines of lights built into the passageway began to flicker on. Huh, it worked.

Kyle turned around to see the man collapsed on the ground, the white lightning being drawn in a continuous short towards the rebar and into the electrical system of the dungeon, immediately draining the man of energy as he was unable to sustain the high current.

“What the fuck…?” The man weakly grunted as the lightning died out, though he hardly looked injured. Before he could recover, Kyle was already in front of him, stabbing forward with the warhammer head right into his chest.

“Ugh!” The blow sent the man tumbling along the floor, crashing into a rusted exosuit. He quickly leapt out of the way as Kyle swung continuously, with the man earning a few blows. To Kyle’s surprise, the armour of the man hardly showed any signs of cracks or fracturing despite the repeated hits of the warhammer and the follow-up shock.

Before Kyle could launch yet another attack, the same distinctive clap could be heard, prompting Kyle to raise his warhammer handle to protect his neck immediately, barely in time as the blade of the lightning sword sparked against the handle.

The man was suddenly back to full combat ability, striking out hard while forcing Kyle onto the defensive and retreating down the passageway. “Thought I was fucked, huh?” The man taunted as he slashed and jabbed. “What kind of transcendent can’t just simply stop their own skill? Do you really think that small-ass trick is going to take me down? ME?!”

“I don’t even know who you are!” Kyle grunted through gritted teeth as his arms were going numb from the sudden increased strength from the man, his knees nearly buckling from the impact. Penchant of Violence is long over, and the Intimidation Aura has no more effect.

Kyle racked his brains for a way out of this fight and kept his eyes sharp, watching for an opening. However, as soon as he tried to counterattack, yet another distinctive clap could be heard.

Kyle instinctively dodged ahead of time, with the swoosh of the lightning sword heard from behind him, nearly slicing through his shoulder.

“Haha! Look at your face! You thought I had a different cooldown!” The man grinned as he rushed at Kyle once more, swinging the sword downwards with fearsome strength, smacking the warhammer out of Kyle’s grip while following up with a strong kick into Kyle’s chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Crashing into the wall, Kyle slumped to the ground, the pain stinging his every vein and bone as multiple fractures and bruises were all over his body. The Necklace of Healing was hardly able to keep up with the number of hits he was getting.

Before Kyle could try to get up again, the man already had his sword aimed right at Kyle’s face, the edge just centimetres away from Kyle’s nose. “Don’t bother. I’ve already decided. I’m going to drag you to Mother and let the Wardens deal with you.”

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