Chapter 205: The Paragon’s Judgment - SSS Rank
Luke let out a helpless sigh and nodded. Since there was nothing he could do about it now, he decided to ask another question.
"Then when will Nyx, Caelith, and Myrkhal wake up?"
[No idea for now.]
[Though when your new Titan will awaken, that one will awake.]
Luke’s expression fell again, but he could only accept it. Just then, however, he noticed the crimson Origin Fragment in his hand suddenly dissolve into particles before disappearing completely.
"What happened?" Before he could panic, the system answered.
[Luke, there is no need to panic. Your SSS-rank Origin Skill has already absorbed it.]
"WHAT?!"
Luke shouted in disbelief.
All this time, he had assumed that simply completing the quest by finding the Origin Fragment would evolve his skill, allowing him to obtain another Origin ability.
[(⊙_☉)]
[Luke... don’t be so greedy.]
Luke’s mouth twitched before he silently listened.
[The Origin Titan’s arrogance was one of the reasons for his downfall.]
[Think about it. Do you believe the beings capable of defeating someone like him would simply leave all of his fragments behind as rewards for others?]
Luke froze for a moment before slowly nodding.
That... actually made perfect sense.
If he were the one looting an enemy’s territory...
Ahem.
If he were the one liberating another noble house. He would loot everything valuable first.
Seeing Luke was realizing, the system continued.
[Even though the Origin Titan fragment’s consciousness couldn’t be found, I can see that he was being corrupted.]
"What?!" Luke immediately looked at the hand that had been holding the fragment, his expression turning worried.
’Please don’t tell me it works like those corruption novels...’
He hurriedly inspected his palm from every angle, afraid that some strange corruption had already begun spreading through his body.
Fortunately nothing had happened.
[Which is why I’m certain some of the remaining fragments have already been completely corrupted, while others have likely fallen into their hands.]
[So don’t expect the next trial to be as straightforward. It may be far more dangerous... or simply far stranger. Though that’s a problem for another day.]
Luke slowly nodded. "Thanks for the warning."
Even so, he couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that he hadn’t received a brand-new Origin ability.
[(－‸ლ)]
The system’s exasperated face immediately appeared.
[Luke, I’ve already told you many times.]
[Everything produced by the System is the finest of its level.]
[Your evolved Origin Skill will naturally grant you a new ability.]
Luke’s eyes instantly brightened.
"You’re right, System." He nodded seriously. "Who cares about some corrupted Origin ability anyway? Mine is definitely better."
[(-_-)]
The system responded with a thoroughly unimpressed expression before a new screen appeared before Luke.
[SSS-Rank Origin Skill: TITAN KNIGHT, EVOLVING...]
A few moments later—
[Evolution Complete.]
[SSS+ Rank Origin Skill: NEXUS TITAN]
"Wow..." Luke couldn’t hide his excitement.
He had expected the skill to evolve into another SSS-rank ability at most. Instead, its rank had increased altogether.
That outcome alone was more than enough to make him forget about the so-called Origin ability.
Even the new name sounded far cooler.
A few moments later, Luke finally calmed down and looked around. Since Nyx’s Void had disappeared along with the ancient temple, rays of sunlight now poured down from the opening above.
"Hmm... it’s morning already." Luke sighed before suddenly remembering something.
’Please don’t let Aurielle be awake yet...’
Although she occasionally told him to sleep outside whenever she was annoyed with him, but if she woke up and found him missing from the bed without any explanation.
Then he knew he would be in deep trouble.
"Oh, Goddess of Luck," Luke clasped his hands together dramatically, "please keep blessing me with your luck like always."
The System fell silent for a moment before displaying a speechless expression.
[(－_－)]
Which brought a speechless look from the system, like he wanted to spread the word that the hero of the Goddess of Light had an affair with the Goddess of Luck.
After finishing his ridiculous prayer, Luke looked around once more.
The entire underground space had changed beyond recognition. It now stretched nearly fifty kilometers across, with a height of almost ten kilometers, as though an enormous piece of the land had simply vanished.
"What a huge place." Another exclamation escaped his lips.
"I’ll check my rewards on the way."
With that, he activated his first form of his second Titan.
Then using winged titan, he unfolded vast wings from his back, and with a powerful flap, he soared toward the opening above.
From the sky, the destruction looked even more unbelievable. The gigantic crater extended deep into the Stormhowl Mountains, giving the impression that an enormous portion of the land had simply been devoured.
"Nyx’s Void... was really something," Luke muttered to himself as he looked down at the golden sword Caelith had given him.
He had been holding it the entire time.
"System, can I inspect this?" he asked.
Normally, the System couldn’t inspect items unrelated to it. However, since the sword had been created by Caelith, who was connected to both him and, in a way, the System itself, perhaps it would be an exception.
The next moment, instead of receiving a reply, a familiar blue screen appeared before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Paragon’s Judgment]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rank: SSS
Type: Growth Artifact (Weapon)
Current Output: G-Rank
Maximum Output: Transcendent
Status: Sealed (99.99%)
Description:
"A transcendent sword that judges all elemental laws."
"Unlike ordinary weapons, Paragon’s Judgment possesses no fixed affinity. Instead, it can manifest any elemental attribute, allowing its wielder to adapt to nearly any opponent."
"However, the sword’s true authority remains sealed. Its current output is limited to G-Rank, restricting both the quality and quantity of elemental manifestations."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Artifact Traits]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Growth-Type Artifact
• The sword evolves alongside its wielder.
• Higher cultivation unlocks greater output and releases additional seals.
■ Elemental Manifestation
• Can manifest elemental energy along the blade.
• The wielder does not require natural affinity to utilize an element.
• If the wielder possesses natural affinity toward an element, manifestation becomes significantly easier and consumes less energy.
• Elemental manifestations are limited by the sword’s current output.
■ Elemental Judgment (Passive)
• The sword instinctively analyzes the target’s elemental nature.
• It can manifest the most effective counter element against the opponent.
• Higher-ranked elemental authorities require greater output and a stronger wielder.
■ Affinity Synchronization
• Compatible elemental affinities greatly improve manifestation speed, stability, and power.
• Incompatible affinities consume more energy but remain usable.
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