The first nuke had detonated on the ground, carving out a crater three hundred ters in diater and forty ters deep, reaching the island's unbreakable bedrock. To Priam, the explosion had been mind-blowing, unleashing a level of destruction that eclipsed anything he had ever witnessed—the volcanic eruption hadn’t been very noticeable from his point of view.
All in all, the atomic eruption was spectacular… if less than optimal.
Seeing most of the energy wasted in the ground and the significant number of corrupted that survived along the valley’s edges, Priam realized he could have triggered an even bigger explosion. As the idea of a second nuke started to take root in his mind, Jasmine’s subsystem confird that they hadn’t reached their soul-collecting quota, sealing the deal. It’s just a sha that the System thinks I don’t deserve these Sun Points. Next ti, I’ll buy them.
Priam burst out laughing as he hurled a new explosive device. He would have found any excuse to set off a second detonation.
The second A-bomb exploded three hundred ters above the ground, nearly killing him. The fireball engulfed the valley, and the blast wave caused the cliff to collapse. As the ground gave way beneath his feet, Priam accepted the fall to escape his rivals’ sight. He didn’t want to give them the idea of exploiting his mont of weakness.
A mangled heap of bones and molten flesh slamd into the rocks below. Despite the intense heat, his blood refused to evaporate, and his hearts kept beating. The damage was catastrophic, pushing him to the brink of no return, but his constitution was formidable, and his body had adapted to the first nuke. Without that... Priam shivered as his nerves lted. The thermal flash and shockwave brought him face to face with Death, but he refused the invitation, burning through his lifespan to fight the hellish heat.
Gamma rays from the nuclear fission, followed by the conflagration, inflicted fourth-degree burns on him. The skin facing the explosion had vaporized, leaving charred muscles and a scorched ribcage to shield his organs.
In the face of such danger, Priam’s mind cleared the euphoric high induced by witnessing the cataclysm and focused on survival. According to Micro and [Diagnostic], even his inhuman regeneration was outpaced.
Though the direct and indirect radiation from the nuclear blast was imperceptible to his senses, the Homo Elysian felt its effects. His cells were dying one by one, most committing suicide as the DNA and proteins within them were critically damaged by the ionizing radiation.
[Humanoid Anatomy] inford him that the various particles were bombarding his cells faster than they could repair themselves or multiply. The second milestone of vitality helped correct genetic errors, but the radiation dose was so massive it was hopeless. In short, Priam’s body was disintegrating faster than it could heal.
That was bad news, but there was worse. The radioactive particles were also affecting the aether, altering the properties and affinities of the primordial energy. The tiny runes etched into his cells were deteriorating, which undermined his resistances and weakened his body. The tainted energy coalesced into grotesque clusters, like magical tumors.
Radiation is a physical and magical blight!
Alerted, Priam scanned his ridians and growled. His resilient pathways were under severe strain, but they were protecting most of his aether. The rest of the energy perating his body, however, was gradually becoming corrupted, preventing him from using certain skills and scrambling his Domain.
As the mushroom cloud settled into a thick radioactive fog and the temperature beca bearable again, Priam began coughing up blood. The dust he had inhaled was destroying him from the inside out. This was the first symptom of the acute radiation syndro that had gripped him—but it wouldn’t be the last.
Overwheld by a wave of fatigue, he collapsed onto all fours. Bringing a hand to his head to massage a splitting headache, he was wracked by a spasm and opened his mouth to vomit. His pupils dilated in shock as a flood of blood poured from his open mouth. Fuck, what’s happening to ?
Swallowing bile, Priam’s eyes widened as he looked at the hand he had braced against the ground for support. It was burnt, covered in red blisters. Struggling to get to his knees, Priam brought his hand closer for inspection. It was trembling, unable to stay still. Neither his dexterity nor Micro could protect him from the onset of ataxia.
"Radiation... My body’s falling apart," Priam murmured. Cellular damage was piling up, and the degradation of his body was accelerating.
His vision began to blur, and Priam swallowed hard. Should he flee? If he didn’t develop a resistance soon, he would die. Even though he was burning through his lifespan, his regeneration was slowing down. His add-on inford him he was digging his own grave: forcing his cells to divide was increasing genetic errors and accelerating the symptoms. His high vitality was fueling the fire even as it healed him.
With blood flooding his lungs, Priam refused to give in to panic or flee. Ignoring the pain, he relied on Micro and his skills to identify the root of the problem. Once I figure that out, I can find a solution.
Combined with skills, the Supremacy was perfect for listening to and examining his body. His soul resonated with his organism, attuned to its many pleas. Two things caught his attention; his digestive system had shut down, no longer providing chemical energy to his body, and his damaged bone marrow had stopped producing blood. The very foundation of his regeneration was defective.
The list of bad news was getting longer. His cells were dying too quickly to mutate and adapt to the radiation; the radioactive poisoning was too severe, preventing his body from developing resistance. By the ti he grasped this, Priam was hit by a seizure that left him powerless, curled up on the ground.
I need to do sothing...
His nearly blind eyes turned to the sky as Priam opened his interface and selected a rit Tree. His body might have been depleted, but neither his mind nor his will was ready to give up.
Trees of rit
[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 1: You can develop resistances normally inaccessible to your race. ACQUIRED
Not imdiately necessary, but definitely useful.
[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 2: The closer you are to death, the better your body adapts. ACQUIRED
If Priam could have, he would have smiled. The mass of flesh he had beco rely trembled.
[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 3: You can select a resistance and accelerate its rate of progression. ACQUIRED
...In case the first levels of [Radiation Resistance] aren’t enough.
[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 4: You can develop resistances normally inaccessible to your Soul Tier. NEW
6 Unused rit Points.
Sothing changed, though Priam couldn’t quite explain it. Nonetheless, the results were clear, and his cells began to mutate at a rapid pace. With his new rit, the pathetic state of his body was now a blessing.
Seconds ticked by, and his face turned pale as blood poured from his body without being replenished. Driven by a fierce will to live, Priam focused Micro to scan his body. Fuck.
So of his cells were mutating to resist the radiation, but they seed... alien, as if disconnected from his body. He quickly found the cause: the radiation was desynchronizing his spirit body from his soul. In a way, it was the aether flowing through his ridians and perating his body that defined the boundaries of his spirit body. By altering his aether signature, the radiation was severing the connection between his cells and his ridians, preventing any communication with his soul.
My cells might be mutating to endure the radiation, but without resonance with my soul, the System won’t grant the resistance.
Priam kept his cool as Death’s breath lingered on the back of his neck. Now that he understood the problem, he was confident he could solve it. To buy ti, he summoned a dense fog that dimd the ambient radiation. A parallel thought manipulated his aether to manually combat the radioactive blight.
Rather than trying—and failing—to save his entire body, Priam focused on his bone marrow. The stem cells protected by his bones produced new blood cells, and that was what he was missing right now.
Aided by his add-on, Priam took control of the aether in his cells, strengthening his hold on them. Every second, a terrifying amount of radiation sought to corrupt his energy, and every second, his dual thought processes fought to refresh his signature. He had to maintain the connection between his cells and his soul to synchronize his future resistance.
The task was as thankless as bailing water from a ship with a hole in its hull, the radiation relentlessly gnawing away at his aether. Still, Priam persevered. His pulse slowed, his body entered a state of hibernation to survive as long as possible, and he waited for enough of his cells to mutate so the System would grant him resistance.
Reviews
All reviews (0)