Deadly rain, tearing winds, and a hailstorm fierce enough to pulverize bone—this was the cocktail awaiting in the Deluge’s fourth zone. A brutal symphony that had nearly killed Priam less than an hour before. When he entered it a second ti, he was ready and on guard. Among the flood of sensory data pouring in from his Mist Concept, the trajectory of an approaching object alerted him.
A chunk of ice, the size of his fist, was hurtling toward him. Just minutes ago, this very type of hailstone had slamd him back into the third zone, flinging him into roaring updrafts. But since then, Priam had changed.
Instead of dodging, Priam planted his feet and lowered his stance, then t the attack with a brutal headbutt. The collision between his forehead and the hailstone was explosive…for the projectile. It shattered into a cloud of glistening frost.
“You’re going to have a nasty bump,” Jasmine warned.
“I know.”
“That was stupid.”
“Not at all. I just showed the Deluge I’m ready to face it like a warrior.”
“It’s a storm. You’re trying to impress a storm? Ugh, boys…”
Priam shook his head. If Jasmine didn’t understand the thrill of smashing ice chunks with his skull for the price of a minor bump, that was her loss.
The rest of the fourth zone was relatively calm. After the boost that ca with unsealing his constitution, neither the rain nor the wind were able to slow him, and only the occasional hailstones tossed by the storm posed a threat. Most simply bounced off his skin, discharging their kinetic energy in a futile attempt to shove him into the tumultuous waters below. The only real challenge was dodging the larger chunks of ice, but thanks to his Mist Concept, he saw them coming well in advance.
An hour later, Priam spotted a massive white shape through the rain and hail. Pressing forward, he soon stood before a colossal iceberg. It called for a Captain Obvious mont, which he dutifully delivered.
“The ocean’s frozen over.”
Despite his near immunity, the storm was far from a pleasant environnt, and Priam eagerly continued his journey. Lighting a small fla beneath each of his fingers, he carved his own holds and scaled the ice sheet with the ease of an arctic primate. The opaque sky remained silent, not a rumble announcing punishnt. Just like Mist, Pyro was permitted.
Fifty ters up, at the top of the icy cliff, Priam discovered a white curtain—a realm where the rain gave way to snow. The cold radiating from this new zone was so intense it disrupted his kinetic platforms. From here on out, he would have to rely on his own legs.
Fourth zone of the Deluge cleared. Valaryth’s Ocean’s reward: Myth Fragnt.
Integrating with System…
Title won!
[The One Who Braved the Deluge - Silver] - The wrath of the heavens provoked the fury of the oceans, a force that trembled the earth. From the smallest lizard to the largest bird, all creatures knew fear, sensing the end had begun.
While all fled the torrential downpour, a hero walked against the flow. He wanted to see the heart of the cataclysm with his own eyes.
For his courage, his tale is told.
TA (Perception) 10%
TA (Authority) 10%
As frost clawed at his bare feet and the blizzard roared before him, Priam understood: the Deluge was taking the gloves off.
“If you want to bail, now’s the ti,” he cautioned Jasmine as he glanced up at the piercing light breaking through the white clouds above them.
“Are you serious?”
“If I die in there, I doubt you’ll be able to escape.”
By slipping into the storm’s shadow, Jasmine could navigate the first three zones without trouble. In contrast, the ambient brightness of the fourth zone was her nesis—as light scattering off the snow, each falling flake disrupting her shadows. To an assassin, it was a shifting maze with no beginning or end, whose alleys constantly rearranged.
“Then don’t die,” was her only answer.
“It’s kind of my specialty.”
With those words, Priam ventured into the snowstorm. The first thing to hit him was the searing cold. The second was a spinning ice disk.
The ambush struck his left collarbone with the force of a guillotine. Without his impossible constitution and an ideal slashing resistance, Priam would have lost his arm—and his human heart. Instead, the icy blade shattered into a hundred fragnts that were sucked back into the storm, leaving only a slight cut as evidence of its existence.
“I told you not to die,” Jasmine reminded him.
“I sensed it too late. My Mist sense isn’t working in this snowstorm.”
Without mist, his perception was severely compromised. The sub-freezing temperature ruled out any fog, and Domain beca his sole reliable source of information—a three-ter sphere to spot every danger lurking in an ocean of ice.
While half his attention monitored the blizzard, the other half focused on his collarbone wound. Instead of healing, it was freezing, offering a breach for the cold to seep deeper into his body. Priam felt the essence of winter invading his body, slowing his pulse and even the flow of his aether. There’s a Concept at work here…
With the tip of his finger, he touched the frozen blood and called upon Pyro. A feeble fla flickered to life, struggling against the winter chill. Still, it managed to thaw his blood until it began to flow again. The vital liquid stimulated his regeneration, sealing the wound until the cut vanished.
Nodding to himself, Priam trudged on through the powdery snow. The fresh drifts reached up to his thighs, turning each step into a battle. He tried several tis to fashion kinetic skis to speed up, but the enchanted cold eroded any fine creations. As he pondered a solution, a projectile darted into his Domain, and Priam ducked just in ti to dodge another ice blade.
“I swear, the System’s screwing with ,” he muttered as he watched a lock of his hair get swept away by the wind.
“Hm?”
Priam kept slogging through the snow, advancing one painful step at a ti.
“I have a Domain three tis the radius of a typical Tier 0—and we’re talking about a genius who managed to gain this Supremacy before Tier 1. Yet, these icy guillotines carried by the wind are so damn fast that I can barely dodge them once detected… and you know I have high agility for Tier 0.”
“Your stats may be sky-high, but your dodging skills are trash,” the assassin pointed out.
“Fair point. Still, with an average Domain, it’d take agility over a thousand and an ideal epic dodging skill to survive these ice blades… not to ntion the cold that’s literally freezing my balls off despite my insane constitution.”
To protect his family jewels and his future offspring, Priam summoned a fla boxer. He scowled, picturing the author of his descriptions chuckling at the sight of him shielding his manhood.
“This place is hellish, but I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Jasmine admitted.
“I’m saying it takes nearly impossible stats for a Tier 0 just to survive here. The Cold Concept—or its local cousin—is affecting despite my insane physique. I’d bet even an elite Tier 1 would struggle in this blizzard. The System’s difficulty level is complete bullshit. This isn’t just a Mythical quest.”
“Of course, it’s not. To , it’s Seraphic.”
A flurry of icy guillotines cut the conversation short.
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