Free Web NovelChapter 8: Title & Talents
Aidan first checked the title.
[Title: The One Beyond Despair]
Description: You have conquered despair. When despair is nearby, you can sense it. When you feel despair, your anger will increase and convert into Relentless Force.
—> Relentless Force can be converted to any attribute or action to boost it. 1 Relentless Force = 10% boost. Relentless Force: 0
’Interesting. But I need to feel despair to convert anger into Relentless Force, right? How will I feel it when I am immune to despair now?’
[You will find out.]
Shaking his head, Aidan put it aside and checked his talents.
The first was Power Bond.
[Power Bond | SS-rank Talent]
Description: The only bonds you seek now are the bonds of power. Everything that doesn’t have will, but power, can acquire a temporary will borne out of its power if you touch them. If you respond back, the power bond may form between you two.
Power: 0
Slot: 0/1 (Next slot power requirement: 500)
Effect:
—> You inherits all aspects and attributes from the bonded power.
—> The number of power bonds you can have depends on the total power of your bonds.
Aidan blinked as he read everything. ’This sounds quite mystical. And it doesn’t work with living beings.’
Previously, his F-rank talent could bind with living beings, like it did with Hina. If he could bond with living beings now, he would have surely bonded with Arthur.
[Maybe, you can bond with living being if you manage to evolve your Power Bond talent to SSS-rank.]
Arthur got a response from the program’s system.
’Evolve it to SSS-rank?...Wait...’ Arthur narrowed his eyes. ’Are you saying my previous F-rank talent was actually an SSS-rank talent that just hadn’t fully awakened yet? Is that the reason for glitch?’
[That is true. Your talent was on the cusp of breaking the bounds of SSS-rank, but since that is restricted by Terreign’s influence in this sphere, it was glitched. You were targetted by them, and then you killed yourself, so they easily got the opportunity to pull your soul into their Darkness of Despair.]
’Fuck...’ Aidan’s veins popped. ’FUCKING HELL, I WAS MORON! I SHOULD HAVE WAITED!’
Arthur roared and flinched as if he felt something.
[Please don’t get angry. Despite saying you don’t want to recall the hells you lived, I understand it is not easily forgettable. But what done is done. This is your second life. The faster you conquer the pain, the better you will survive.]
Aidan’s lips tremble before he took a deep breath.
Arthur roared in a low, vibrating hum as if comforting Aidan after sensing his emotions.
"Thanks, buddy. I’m fine."
Aidan then moved to his second talent.
[Exotic Summoner | X-rank]
Description: The world of Nine Realms Tree is filled with countless lifeforms, but only a handful can be called truly exotic. Through your unique connection to the unknown, forgotten, and extraordinary, you may establish pacts with beings beyond ordinary classification. The summoning also includes beings that had died before blooming their exotic brilliance.
Pacts: 1
<Arthur — Argon Bloodsun Cyber Dragon>
Effect:
—> Manifests an Exotic Portal that connects you a random Exotic Being. Weather they accept the pact or not depends on your first exchange. You can manifest a portal once a day.
’So it depends...’ Aidan wryly smiled and patted Arthur’s back. ’Thanks for accepting the pact, buddy.’
"Rawrr!"
The sun was visible now as Arthur had crossed quite a distance and arrived in a different time zone than city G.
"Looks like you took us quite far."
Aidan then checked his inventory. It was time to open the Surprise Reward Box.
He focused on the box in his mind, and it opened with sparks.
[Congratulations. You have obtained the following things.]
— Dread Light Mask (Tier-10)
— Random Weapon Box.
— Random Technique Scroll.
Aidan took out the Dread Light Mask. It looked eccentric with black woody texture with dark gold patterns that looked chaotic, but had a subtle order to its design.
[Dread Light Mask]
Rank: Tier-10
Effect:
—> Allow you to change your appearance, including height and voice.
—> At the cost of 1000 Mana, you can turn invisible to senses and eyes for 1 minute. Cooldown: 1 minute.
’This seems very handy.’ Aidan wore the mask.
Next, he was about to open the Random Weapon Box when suddenly, he felt a sharp beep in his mind like a prick. It was annoying.
The beep came again. Sharper this time. Like a needle pressing behind his eyes.
Aidan’s brow twitched in irritation.
’The hell is this? Some kind of system glitch?’
[That is not a glitch, Player Aidan.]
’Then what?’
[That is despair.]
Aidan went still.
’Despair? I don’t feel any despair. I’m beyond that crap now, aren’t I?’
[Correct. The despair you are sensing is not yours.]
His golden eyes sharpened. freewebnøvel.com
’...Others’.’
It clicked all at once. His title. When despair is nearby, you can sense it. He’d been so caught up wondering how he’d ever feel despair again that he hadn’t thought about the simplest answer.
He didn’t need to feel it himself.
He just needed someone nearby to be drowning in it.
Aidan turned his head slowly, like a compass needle finding north. The beeping wasn’t random. It pulled. Faint, but real, a thin thread tugging at the back of his skull from somewhere to the west.
’There.’
"Arthur." Aidan’s voice flattened. "Change of plan, buddy. That way. Fast."
"Rawr?" Arthur tilted his head mid-flight.
"Don’t ask. Just go. Something feels off."
Arthur didn’t argue. His wings beat once, hard, and the wind screamed past Aidan’s ears as they shot toward the horizon.
The despair grew louder the closer they got. Not louder, exactly. Denser. Like flying into smoke.
By the time the land below turned from city to scattered industrial outposts, the beeping had become a constant, grinding hum that made his teeth ache.
A giant M was glowing in a huge tower at the city center.
’City M, huh.’
Then he saw it.
A Terror Tear.
It hung in the air above a cleared stretch of flatland, a vertical black slit roughly twenty meters tall, its edges glowing with dim shimmer. Below it, a cluster of vehicles, tents, and equipment had been set up in a wide ring, and floating beside the tear was a sleek silver device projecting a glowing holographic readout.
[ Tier-8 Terror Tear] — [12 hours, 23 minutes, 17 seconds]
The countdown.
This was a proper one. Dormant. Not like the three feral tears that had spat Terrors at Beatrix’s mansion the moment they appeared. This thing was on a clock, ticking down to the moment it would finally open and vomit out its monsters.
But that hum of despair wasn’t coming from the tear.
It was coming from inside it.
’People are in there.’
Aidan’s eyes drifted to the tear. To the dim shimmer of it. To the hum crawling under his skin.
His brow creased. His annoyance increased. frёewebnoѵēl.com
He didn’t feel despair, so the despair he felt was converted into anger, on top of blasting his head with annoying noise, which was irritating him.
