Chapter 84: The Tempus Collection
"Huh? Can you fight them all alone?" Juliana asked, staring at the young man sitting opposite her. To her, taking on an entrenched Awakened dynasty like the Lebretons—a family that commanded private armies and fortified estates—seemed like a suicide mission for one person.
"Alone? You can’t assist me with anything; if you had my strength, I would surely take you with me, for now, I will handle this alone." He said. His tone wasn’t meant to be insulting, but rather a cold, pragmatic assessment of their current reality. An F-Rank stepping onto an SSS-Rank battlefield would be vaporized by the energy pressure alone.
"I might not have your strength, but I have a big advantage."
"Big Advantage? What’s that?" Asher sat up, wanting to know more about this third wife of his. Every time he thought he had her figured out, she pulled another impossible wildcard from her sleeve.
"You know the restriction placed on Awakened, stopping them from using Equipment and skills above their ranks?"
Asher nodded his head. It was the absolute, fundamental law of the Awakened System. If a low-ranking Awakened tried to channel energy through a high-tier artifact, their meridians would instantly shatter under the sheer density of the energy, resulting in catastrophic poisoning or spontaneous combustion.
"I don’t have that restriction, I can use all the ranks, even a Mythic-Tier equipment, or a Divine-Tier Skill book, I can use them all." She said with a proud smile, her words stunning Asher in place.
"How is that? Impressive right?" She asked, closing her eyes, expecting a compliment, but got none.
".....?!"
Juliana opened her eyes, staring at Asher with a frown: "What are you thinking?!" She yelled, and froze, slowly turning her head to Sara.
She was so deep into the Lebreton family, and forgot she was the transmitter.
’No, I think I am a Translator, or maybe Narrator? Forget, whatever I am called, as long I can help Sara, it’s worth it.’ She nodded her head, and explained everything both she and Asher had just discussed.
She listened to Sara’s words and turned to Asher in shock:
"What the hell?! You have Aether, and you can also use the equipment and skill books above your rank?! Not only that you also have two Physiques!!" She yelled in disbelief, staring at Asher in shock.
"...?!"
Asher raised an eyebrow; he had never mentioned he had two physiques, and he was pretty sure Juliana didn’t know about this, then? He had kept his most lethal trump cards completely hidden from the world.
He turned to Sara, blinking continuously: ’Does she have a skill that can even see through that?’
’What the hell?! What sort of wives do I have??!’ The realization hit him like a physical blow. Sara, sitting quietly with a gentle smile, possessed a skill so terrifyingly absolute that it could bypass his SSS-Rank concealment and read his very code like an open book.
’What the fuck!’
He watched as Juliana relaxed in her seat:
"Sara said we will stay put, and you can go ahead." She said, waving her hand dismissively at him.
No matter how she wants that young master dead, she can’t go against her second sister, who was like a mother figure to her. If Sara deemed the battlefield too dangerous for them, Juliana would obediently ground herself without further complaint.
"You mentioned being able to use all equipment and skills above your rank, surprisingly, I have some skills and gears for you."
He snapped his fingers, and the next moment, a full mage equipments appeared, all Mythic-Tier; topping it up with three Divine-Tier Skill books. The living room was instantly bathed in a suffocating, blinding aura of energy. The sheer pressure radiating from the artifacts warped the air, humming with a primordial frequency that made the very foundations of the villa tremble.
The moment the gears appeared before them, both Juliana and Sara were speechless, staring at the weapons in disbelief. They were seasoned veterans of the Awakened world, yet neither had ever seen so much divine power casually dumped onto a table.
"Your ability is good, but your current energy isn’t large enough to help you cast many skills... So I specifically picked these gears for you." He said with a smile:
"There is one Upper Mythic-Tier, and the rest are Mid Mythic-Tier." He added.
"How did you gain so many Mythic-Tier equipment?!! You didn’t bring this out last night." Juliana exclaimed, staring at the gears in shock as information appeared on her awakened system:
[Head: Tempus Crown: When wore, all Stats increased by 500%. Create shields which block a total of ten attacks from anyone three ranks above. Spirit energy increase by 200,000. Health Point increase by 200,000. Mid Mythic-Tier.]
[Chest: Tempus Robes: Skill casting rate increase by 300%, and gained 200% agility, and defense abilities increase by 300%. Magical attack increase by 100,000. Mid Mythic-Tier.]
[Neck: Tempus Amulet: Increase Hit rate by 1,000%, No one five ranks above user can dodge any of User’s skills. Magical attack increase by 500%. Elemental Resistance increase by 50%. Cooldown rate reduced by 200%. Once Equipped, can see through the stealth, and illusion of anyone five ranks above User. Upper Mythic-Tier.]
[Hand: Tempus Bracers: Increase Spirit energy by 200,000, and Cooldown rate by 500%. Abilities attack, defense, and support effects increase by 200%. Defense increase by 100%. Mid Mythic-Tier.]
[Legs: Tempus Short Pants: Increase Spirit energy by 500,000. Increase Dodge rate by 500%. Increase Agility, and skill casting speed by 100%. Mid Mythic-Tier.]
[Feet: Tempus Boots: Agility increase by 300,000, spirit energy increase by 100,000, defense increase by 100,000. Skill Damage effect increases by 300%. Skill support ability effect increase by 100%. Health Point increase by 100%. Mid Mythic-Tier.]
[Back: Tempus Cape: Grant the Ability to fly. Elements disadvantage attack dealt increases by 500%. Agility increase by 100,000. Sealing, stealth, illusion and trapping skills success rate increase by 1,000%. Elements disadvantage attack receives reduced by 90%. Mid Mythic-Tier.]
"...?!!"
Not only the two, even Asher was dumbfounded; he didn’t dig deep into the equipment last night, he just handed it over because they were all one set, but this... This is crazy. With this equipment, even an F-Rank, can take on an SSS-RANK. The compounding stat multipliers and absolute defensive rules stacked so high that they effectively broke the scaling mechanics. Now he fully understood why weaker Awakened couldn’t use gears higher than their ranks—items of this magnitude were practically weapons of mass destruction.
Asher exhaled; these gears weren’t something you can buy, you can’t even see one in the market, even the top families, and guilds could only have two or three at most, which will all be low Mythic-Tier, but here he was, dressing his wife with Mid and Upper Mythic-Tier gears. A single piece of the Tempus set could spark a continental war if its existence was leaked to the public.
’Wow, I am so rich.’ He thought, unaware of the dangers heading towards them.