Chapter 301: Elite Rank Ascension
The light faded around Caelus as he appeared inside an empty space.
Sylvia was nowhere to be seen.
Then, a System message appeared before his eyes.
[Ascension Quests are unique to every person.]
[Trials are made based on current skills, existing weaknesses, combat style, and recently gained powers.]
[A personal trial has been made for Player: Caelus Kross.]
He understood right away what this meant. Whatever challenge waited for him here was made specifically to see if he deserved Elite Rank.
The empty space around him began changing, colors showing up like ink spreading through water.
Stone platforms appeared under his feet.
Big pillars rose from a bottomless hole below. Each one was covered in strange symbols that shined with a weak purple light.
The sky above was not a sky at all. It was a spinning storm of gravity pulling in different directions at the same time.
Broken rocks floated through the air at weird angles. Some pieces went up while others fell. Some spun in place while others shot sideways without warning.
The air pressed against Caelus’s body like a heavy weight. The gravity here changed wildly between crushing pressure and no weight at all.
[Welcome to the Crucible of Eternal Gravity.]
[This trial will decide if you are worthy of advancing to Elite Rank.]
The words hung in the air before him, glowing with scary power.
[Analysis complete.]
[Your biggest weakness has been found: not enough control over recently gained Talents.]
[This Ascension Trial has been made to use that weakness.]
[Gravity Domain and Adaptation Wheel will be tested to their limits.]
[Failure to show growth will result in failed Ascension.]
[Begin.]
The first challenge started with a loud crack.
A part of the stone platform under Caelus suddenly flipped its gravity, shooting him up toward the spinning storm above.
He naturally reached for the Telekinesis power to steady himself, but he paused.
The System found his weakness clearly. If he relied only on familiar powers, he would never prove himself worthy of Elite Rank.
Instead he activated Gravity Domain.
The feeling was very strange, like trying to write with his bad hand while blindfolded.
He could feel gravity forces spinning around him, but controlling them perfectly felt almost impossible.
His first try made a gravity field that was way too weak. It barely slowed him down from flying toward the deadly storm.
His second try was too strong, smashing him down with enough force to crack the stone platform under him.
Pain shot through his legs as he struggled to stand.
Sou! Sou! Sou!
Just then, three stone guards came out from the pillars around him. Their bodies were made of the same old stone as the place itself.
Each guard moved with crazy speed. Their arms and legs ignored normal rules as the wild gravity pushed them in random ways.
Caelus raised his guard as the first guard reached him. Its stone fist swung toward his head.
He dodged sideways, but the changing gravity suddenly shifted and pulled him right into the attack.
The hit caught him across the shoulder and sent him spinning across the platform.
This trial wants me dead, he thought while rolling to his feet.
The second guard was already on him. Its leg swept toward his ribs with deadly force.
Caelus activated Gravity Domain again. This time he tried to increase the weight around the guard’s leg.
The field appeared too slowly.
The kick hit him and launched him toward the edge of the platform.
He caught himself at the last moment. His fingers dug into the old stone as the bottomless hole opened under him.
The third guard jumped toward him with both fists raised.
Caelus rolled sideways as the attack broke the edge where he had been hanging. Stone pieces fell into the endless hole below.
He pushed himself up and faced all three guards at the same time.
’Think, Caelus’ Caelus’s mind raced with thoughts. ’Watch their patterns with your eyes.’
His Chaos Perception Eyes immediately began tracking every movement.
It studied the guards’ attacks and the timing of the gravity changes in the area.
The changes were not random. They followed a pattern that repeated every few seconds.
Gravity Domain activated once more. This time he focused carefully on a small area right under the nearest guard.
The gravity pull increased to twice normal, then three times.
The guard’s movements slowed down a lot as it fought against the heavy weight.
But keeping the field active while dodging the other two guards was almost impossible.
His focus broke when the second guard’s fist scraped his ribs, and the gravity field broke right away.
Caelus ground his teeth and continued fighting.
The guards showed no sign of getting tired. Their stone bodies healed any damage he managed to deal.
He needed to change his plan completely.
The rocks, he thought while looking at the floating stones around the battlefield. Smaller objects should be easier to control.
Instead of targeting the guards directly, Caelus focused Gravity Domain on the floating rocks around the battlefield.
The gravity was easier to keep on smaller objects. It took less focus and let him make faster changes.
Stone pieces began flying around him like a shield.
When the first guard attacked again, Caelus threw the rocks into its path.
The pieces smashed into the guard’s chest with enough force to push it back.
The second guard rushed forward, but Caelus was ready this time.
He made a heavy gravity spot right in its path. He timed it with the area change he had memorized.
The heavy pull combined with the natural gravity change caused the guard to trip and lose its balance completely.
The third guard tried attacking him from behind, but the flying rocks blocked its attack automatically.
For the first time since entering the Crucible, Caelus felt like he was actually fighting instead of just surviving.
The battle continued for what felt like hours.
Each guard fell eventually. Their stone bodies broke into dust that spread across the old platforms.
But new challenges quickly replaced them.
The place itself became deadly. Platforms shifted and spun without warning, and the gravity flipped at random times.
Flying monsters came out of the storm above. Their bodies sparked with energy that messed up his focus whenever they got close.
Every plan he made became useless as the trial changed to beat him.
Heavy gravity fields stopped working when the monsters learned to attack from outside his range.
Rock control became useless when the platforms stopped giving loose pieces.
Fighting head on failed when enemies showed up in numbers too big to fight one by one.
[Adaptation Wheel activated.]
[Small resistance to energy attacks gained.]
The message surprised him. The passive Talent finally worked after dozens of energy attacks had already hit him.
But Caelus did not rely on it.
Instead he watched, thought, and changed using his own brain.
The flying monsters always came from the same angles compared to the storm above.
The platform changes followed a pattern that repeated every twelve turns.
The energy attack had a short wait time between uses.
He started using these patterns to his advantage.
When huge numbers showed up, he stood where the platform changes would scatter the enemies before they could surround him.
When fast enemies tried to beat him with speed, he timed his gravity fields. He activated them during the short moments when the area’s gravity changes made them stronger.
When flying enemies attacked from above, he used their easy patterns to prepare his own attacks before they arrived.
By using it all the time, Gravity Domain was becoming smoother and better.
What used to need total focus now felt natural.
He could make multiple gravity fields at the same time. He could change their strength in the middle of a fight, and keep them active while doing hard moves.
But the progress came from practice and doing it over and over. It did not come from System rewards or Talent upgrades.
The trial kept getting harder, but Caelus got better with it.
Then the final challenge showed itself.
The platforms joined into one giant arena as the storm above came down toward him.
Out of its spinning middle came something weird.
It was a monster of pure gravity given a real body. Its body constantly changed between shrinking into a ball and spreading out.
One moment it looked like a hard ball no bigger than a fist. The next moment it exploded outward into a bunch of twisting arms that stretched across the whole arena.
[Final Trial: The Gravity Sovereign]
[Defeat this monster to finish your Ascension to Elite Rank.]
[Failure means failed Ascension.]
The Gravity Sovereign attacked without warning.
Its body shrunk into a bullet that shot toward Caelus faster than anything he had faced before.
He raised a gravity field to block it, but the monster simply ate his gravity and used the energy to go even faster.
The hit sent him flying across the arena. His body skipped across the stone like a thrown rock across water.
Caelus pushed himself up just as the Sovereign expanded again. Arms of heavy gravity swept across the arena like whips.
He made multiple gravity spots to push the arms away, but the monster adapted instantly.
It began using his own fields against him. It sent attacks through the gravity spots he made.
It absorbs gravity, Caelus thought while dodging another arm. My Gravity Domain is feeding it.
Normal strength could not defeat this thing.
Gravity Domain alone could not defeat it either. The monster was made of gravity itself.
Adaptation Wheel remained silent. The passive Talent refused to activate even after getting hit by the Sovereign’s attacks many times.
Only his own mind could find a way forward.
He stopped trying to overpower the Gravity Sovereign. He started watching its patterns with total focus.
The monster had a rhythm. There were short moments between shrinking and spreading out where its body became weak.
When shrunk it was nearly impossible to hurt. When spread out it was fast but thin. But between states, it flashed with clear weakness.
Caelus waited for the next cycle. He watched the Sovereign gather itself for another bullet attack.
The moment it started shrinking, he made a gravity field not around the monster but around himself.
He increased his own weight a lot. He stuck himself to the arena floor with enough force to crack the old stone.
The Sovereign’s bullet attack hit his raised guard. But instead of being launched back, he took the hit using pure weight.
The monster bounced back from the surprising block. Its body flashed and looked very weak.
That was the opening.
Caelus flipped the gravity field around himself and shot up with crazy speed. He closed the distance before the Sovereign could fix itself.
His fist hit the monster’s weak core at the exact moment between states.
The hit made a shockwave that spread across the whole arena.
The Gravity Sovereign screamed. It sounded like the world itself was being torn apart.
Its body broke down completely. Its arms threw themselves around wildly as it struggled to stay together.
Caelus did not give it time to recover.
He made stacked gravity fields that pulled the monster in multiple directions at the same time.
The Sovereign tried eating the energy again. But the fighting gravity forces made a mess it could not handle.
It can absorb gravity, Caelus realized, but it cannot handle opposite forces at once.
He poured everything into making the hardest gravity pattern he could manage.
Fields pulling left and right, up and down, in and out all at once.
The Gravity Sovereign screamed as its body started tearing itself apart.
One final shrink, one final spread, and then nothing.
The monster turned into pure energy that spread out across the arena before fading into nothing.
Silence fell across the Crucible of Eternal Adaptation.
[Congratulations.]
[You have successfully finished your Elite Rank Ascension Trial.]
[You have shown the skill to beat your weaknesses through smarts, watching, and hard work.]
[Ascension to Elite Rank confirmed.]
[Rank: Rookie -> Elite]
[Level: 20 > 1 (0/200)]
[Combat Score: 187.5 (Rookie) -> 4.87 (Elite)]
As the system message came, origin power poured into Caelus at an alarming rate, his body broke through the shackles of Rookie rank and reached the elite rank.
His body and cells became extremely active, surging with endless power and multiplying to store the surge of power.
That simple 4.87 combat score was 487 combat score of a Rookie. that was equivalent to almost five level 50 Rookie Ranked Individuals and that was his power level at just level 1 thanks to his Ender class giving +3 each level up.
Soon, the old arena began melting away around him. The stone platforms broke into golden light.
Caelus looked around one last time at the Crucible that had pushed him past his limits.
Then the teleport light swallowed him completely.