[System Alert: You have successfully dodged an attack from a Tier 4, 10-Star powerhouse. Movement Technique Proficiency +10!]
[System Alert: You have successfully dodged an attack from a Tier 4, 10-Star powerhouse. Movement Technique Proficiency +10!]
[System Alert: You have successfully dodged an attack from a Tier 4, 10-Star powerhouse. Movement Technique Proficiency +10!]
The system pings echoed incessantly in Lance’s mind.
To understand how he had reached this point, one had to look back an hour. After uploading the video of his [Grandmaster (Rank 1)] Cinder Demon kill, Lance had ventured deeper into the magma pins and located this Tier 4 Peak—a 10-Star—Cinder Demon.
In their first exchange, Lance had done something insane: he deactivated ninety percent of his physical defenses and allowed the demon to nd a direct hit.
The result was instantaneous. Lance was incinerated into a pile of ash.
Had he not left a single shred of reinforced tissue to act as a catalyst for his [Undying God-Body], he would have died permanently. But because he survived, that single "death" had netted him over five hundred points of Constitution (CON) reserves through his [Evolutionary Compensation] mechanism.
He didn't stop there. Once fully restored, he continued to provoke the titan.
The Cinder Demon was predictably infuriated. To be mocked by a mere "ant" was an insult it couldn't tolerate, so it unleashed a relentless barrage of world-shattering attacks.
And thus, its nightmare began.
Lance was like an unkilble cockroach. Every time the demon reduced him to sg, he manifested again a second ter, perfectly healthy and wearing a smug grin. As he farmed his CON reserves, Lance also realized that dodging these high-intensity attacks was the perfect way to grind his movement skills. Just like his spear techniques, his footwork possessed its own proficiency levels that significantly boosted his evasion and burst speed.
Within a single hour of "training," Lance had pushed his movement mastery to the very limit of the [Proficient] rank. Simultaneously, his CON reserves had skyrocketed, reaching a staggering total of 100,000 points.
[System Alert: You have successfully dodged an attack from a Tier 4, 10-Star powerhouse. Movement Technique Proficiency +10!]
[System Announcement: Congratutions! Your technique rank has evolved to: [Master - Early Stage] (0/10,000). Speed Multiplier: +500%!]
The moment his CON reserve hit the 100,000 mark, the notification chimed. His footwork had officially broken through.
"Let’s take a timeout. I need to handle a breakthrough!" Lance shouted, his voice booming over the roar of the va.
The Cinder Demon’s gargantuan body actually faltered for a second. Then, a wave of pure, unadulterated humiliation washed over it.
"ROAR!!! Human, you are too arrogant! I will see you in HELL!!"
The demon had finally reached its breaking point. It let out a desperate, sky-rending howl as its internal [Fme Power] began to detonate in a chaotic chain reaction. Its massive frame began to swell rapidly, like an overinfted balloon of molten lead.
"Wait, this look..." Lance blinked, his eyes widening as he realized what was happening. "Holy sh*t, this dog-thing is going to self-destruct!"
Lance was genuinely speechless. He couldn't understand why the demon was choosing death over a little more sparring.
But he wasn't looking at it from the demon's perspective. It had been sleeping peacefully when Lance woke it up. Then Lance had harassed it, mocked it, and survived everything it threw. When the demon tried to leave, Lance had pinned it down. After an hour of being used as a sentient punching bag for an unkilble monster, the demon’s mind had simply snapped.
"Human, DIE WITH ME!!!"
With one final, venomous shriek, the Tier 4, 10-Star Cinder Demon detonated.
BOOM! RUMBLE!!!
An explosion that reached the very edges of the atmosphere erupted. The ground beneath the bst zone didn't just crack; it colpsed, forming a crater dozens of kilometers wide. A mushroom cloud tens of thousands of meters tall surged into the sky, preceded by a shockwave of white-hot thermal energy that incinerated everything in its path.
Even other [Grandmaster]-level demons in the surrounding areas were reduced to ash by the sheer heat of the bst.
The output was so massive that the proctors orbiting in the Tier 6 warship saw the fre from space.
"Which human expert is fighting a [Great Grandmaster]!? That explosion just hit the [Great Grandmaster (Rank 1)] threshold!"
"Incredible! If we can take out a [Great Grandmaster] Cinder Demon, pacifying the Pyre System will be ten times easier!"
"Nonsense. We don't want to pacify it; the resources here are more valuable if the ecosystem remains intact. But killing a high-rank demon is always good news!"
The bridge crew erupted into fierce debate. They had no idea that there was no [Great Grandmaster] involved—only a Tier 4 Peak demon that had been bullied into suicide.
Amidst the swirling pilrs of fire and falling magma, Lance stood perfectly still, still cradling the unconscious Sienna in his arms.
A faint, bck-gold barrier of energy shimmered around him. His [Bck-Gold War Body], combined with his [Heavenly Demon Disintegration] sacrifice-repair cycles, had allowed him to weather the bst unscathed.
The barrier was currently spider-webbed with cracks, looking like it would shatter at a touch. Lance had been forced to sacrifice nearly his entire physical body during the millisecond of the bst's peak to fuel his regeneration, but now he was fully restored.
"That was pretty much my defensive limit," Lance noted. "Any stronger and I’d have to rely on the active shielding of my [Star-Thunder Wings] or my [Bck Syer Set]."
He let out a long sigh, looking at the scorched wastend where the demon had been.
"What a waste of a good training dummy. I guess I’ll have to find another one."
He flicked his wrist, and a cracked [Void Core] flew from the debris ten kilometers away, nding in his hand.
"At least it didn't shatter completely. It's a bit damaged, but it’ll still fetch a decent price," Lance said, pocketing the Tier 4 Peak core.
Finally, he looked down at the girl in his arms.
Sienna possessed the elegant, transcendental aura of a true swordmaster. Her beauty was on par with Selina’s, but more mature. Lance felt a bit helpless. Do I just have a magnet for trouble-prone girls? If I had this kind of luck in my previous life, I wouldn't have died a bachelor.
"Whatever. System, use my 100,000 CON reserves to push my [Source Essence Compression] to the 6th Rotation."
Lance set Sienna down gently on a retively cool patch of basalt and gave his command.
[System Alert: Command received!!]
A torrent of power flooded Lance’s meridians. Inside his Dantian, the pools of pale-gold liquid began to swirl and condense with violent intensity. Under the pressure of 100,000 CON points, the liquid transitioned from pale gold to a deep, lustrous obsidian-gold.
The density of his energy was becoming so extreme it was bordering on the physical.
"If I keep this up, people are going to think I’m some ancient cultivator from a xianxia novel," Lance muttered. "I’m literally forming a Golden Core. This is getting ridiculous."
Lance let out a helpless chuckle, but all in all, things were looking up.
With his Source Essence at the 6th Rotation, 1 point of Lance’s Constitution (CON) was now equivalent to 18 points for a normal person.
Calcuted this way, his raw physical power was already on par with a [Grandmaster (Rank 1)] who had achieved a 2nd Rotation.
And he hadn't even broken through to [Grandmaster] yet. Once he officially advanced, his base strength would jump another ten-fold. Even if that happened right now, his raw power would be equivalent to the CON of a [Grandmaster (Rank 6)]. Combined with his various high-rank techniques and [War Arts], his actual combat potential was nothing short of terrifying.
He took a moment to review his updated [User Status Panel].
[User Status Panel]
Name: Lance
Reconstruction Quota: 1/4
Martial Rank: [Gold Tier, Rank 10] (6th Rotation, 0 / 300,000)
Soul Rank: [Gold Tier, Rank 10] (Tier 3 Metamorphosis, 91,000 / 100,000)
Constitution (CON): 10,000 (1 pt = 1,800kg of force)
Soul: 10,000
Skills: Spear Mastery (Peak Proficient, +400% dmg, 1,000/7,000), Movement Mastery (Master - Early, 5x speed, 0/10,000)
Traits: [Undying God-Body] (SSS-Rank), [Elemental Saint Body] (SS-Rank), [Sor Stelr Fme] (S-Rank), [Holy Light Power] (SS-Rank), [Infernal Dark Fme] (SSS-Rank).
Techniques: [Titanium War Art] (Rank 4 Low), [Eternal Soul Protocol] (Immortal Grade, Rank 5 Broken, 32x), [Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art] (Rank 8).
War Arts: [Titanium Colpse Fist] (Rank 4 Low), [Meteor Spear Art] (Rank 6 Mid), [Sor Fre Bst] (Rank 6 Peak), [Fme Dragon Fsh] (Rank 7 Mid), [Star War Body] (Rank 7 Mid).
Items: [Bck Syer Set] (Rank 7 Mid), [Bck Fme Spear] (Rank 7 Mid), [Star-Thunder Wings] (Rank 8 Mid).
Pet: [Infernal Cerberus-Dragon] (Noir) (SSS-Rank, Tier 4, 7-Star).
Lance fell into deep thought as he looked over the data.
"After the 6th Rotation comes the 10th, and then I can officially promote to [Grandmaster]. To hit the 10th Rotation, I need 300,000 CON reserves. That's not too bad—I can farm that in three or four hours with another Cinder Demon.
The Soul rank is the slower one. Thankfully, even though ninety-nine percent of that [Void Core's] power went into the [Infernal Dark Fme], it still gave me a Tier 9 Soul reserve of 100 billion points. That’ll st me until I'm well into the [Stelr Css]. Right now, I can gain 2,000 Soul points every ten minutes—that’s 12,000 an hour. Reaching the peak of the 10th Rotation for my soul will only take a day or so. Not long at all."
He closed the panel. "Intellect, activate her defensive field." He looked down at the unconscious Sienna.
Buzz!
A shimmering barrier manifested around the girl. Lance noted that her combat suit was Rank 4 Peak-grade—capable of negating a casual strike from a [Gold Tier, Rank 10]. However, against the full suicidal detonation of a Tier 4 Peak Cinder Demon, it hadn't stood a chance.
"She should be fine now," Lance muttered. He kicked off the ground, disappearing into the sky and leaving the ruins behind. He wasn't her bodyguard; saving her once was more than enough.
Ten minutes after Lance left, Sienna slowly regained consciousness. Her suit’s internal medical systems had been working overtime to repair her severe internal injuries.
"I’m... I'm alive?" Her first instinct was to check her body. Finding herself completely healed, she blinked in confusion.
"Was it him?" A vivid image of the bck-cd youth fshed through her mind. There was no doubt; only that monster of a boy could have pulled her from that inferno.
"Who is he? How can someone so young possess that much power?" Sienna frowned, her mind spinning with questions. She didn't for a second think he was one of the new examinees. No freshman could possibly be that strong.
Elsewhere, Lance had found another Tier 4 Peak Cinder Demon.
He repeated his earlier process: using his movement, spear techniques, and [Undying God-Body] to farm CON reserves while simultaneously honing his skill levels. Although focusing on skill proficiency slowed down his pure energy accumution slightly, it didn't matter. He was waiting for his Soul Metamorphosis to catch up anyway.
With the Tier 9 reserves backing him, his soul was evolving at a terrifying rate. In just forty minutes, he gathered enough Soul points to push his [Soul Metamorphosis] to Tier 6.
He continued to use the Tier 4 Peak demon as a whetstone for several more hours. Finally, in the seventh hour of the trial, his CON reserves hit the magic number: 300,000.
"Finally reached the quota," Lance sighed.
If anyone else had heard him, they would have probably died of pure envy. In just a few days, he had gone from a slightly-above-average weakling to a [Gold Tier, Rank 10] powerhouse capable of one-shotting [Grandmasters]. And he was compining about it being "not easy"?
"System, push my Source Essence Compression to the 10th Rotation!"
[System Alert: Command received! Consuming 300,000 Constitution (CON) reserves for Source Essence Compression.]
System Notification: A massive stockpile has been detected!
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