Chapter 1013: Only For It to Worsen
Chapter 1013: Only For It to Worsen
Astarto Town, outside the town’s walls.
“Haah.”
Shaking his head with a look of slight disappointment, Tristan slowly made his way out of the town gates as he gazed out at the battlefield. “What’s taking him so long?”
With the entire town more than prepared for the monster tide thanks to Valyr’s help, it went without saying that the speed at which monster tide was cleared was significantly faster than before.
Of course, with Valyr taking care of the last two waves, that speed was further amplified, allowing the entire town to clean up the entire battlefield before the sun began to set.
Then again, even though the battlefield from earlier had already returned to more or less how it looked before, there was still one thing on it that hadn’t been removed by the townspeople. Whoosh!
Pushing his body to its limits, Tristan soon began to dash through the vast plains surrounding the town at great speeds, eventually arriving in front of what seemed to be a small hill of sorts.
However, if one were to take a closer look at the small hill, one would soon realize that it was not a small hill.
Instead, it was the dried-up body of the Greater Tidemother that terrorized the town earlier.
“Hup.” Though he was slightly surprised that the Tidemother’s body had changed so drastically in a matter of hours, Tristan deftly made his way up the surface, expecting to see the young man there.
Yet, against all odds, Tristan saw no signs of Valyr whatsoever.
It was as if he hadn’t visited the town in the first place.
“Hmm…” Frowning at the oddity of the situation, the man brought up the conversation he had with the young man in his mind regarding the Tidemother’s parts.
Recalling how Valyr wanted the remainder of the Greater Tidemother’s blood, Tristan soon made his way to the opening he’d made on its body, only to click his tongue as he found that every drop of blood the Tidemother had was siphoned clean.
“…That’s weird.” Scratching the back of his head as he looked at the opening in confusion, Tristan soon made his way down the Tidemother’s body before making his way back to town. Then, letting out a low sigh, a few ideas came to mind as to why Valyr seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. “Well, there’s the possibility that he was urgently called back.”
“After all, with how quickly he handled that Greater Tidemother, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was fighting against the orcs in the frontlines.”
“Then again, there are some other reasons that come to mind,” murmured the man to himself, letting his mind briefly spiral down into what felt like a rabbit hole.
Though, in the end, he shook his head to remove such thoughts, instead letting out yet another sigh as a brief look of sadness appeared on his face.
“I guess this is how you planned on saying goodbye to us, then?”
“…If so, then I wish you had a better way of doing it.”
…
“Mngh…!”
Oblivious to what was happening back at Astarto, Valyr writhed and wriggled in pain as the mark fully formed on his back.
Taking up a larger portion of his back while also emanating an aura that felt more sinister than before, the young man inwardly let out a disappointed sigh as he continued to endure the pain the mark was giving off.
Gritting his teeth as he slowly sat upright, Valyr was eventually able to ignore the pain coming from his back as it began to subside, allowing him to pay attention to the fight that was continuing to unfold between Vaughn and the Alltide.
“I guess it was useless to resist,” murmured the young man to himself, letting out a self- deprecating chuckle. “After all, I’m basically fighting against a Divine-level being. It was a losing game from the start.”
Shaking his head as he briefly admonished himself for doing something so foolhardy, the young man let out yet another sigh as he brought up his notification screen, immediately being greeted by what seemed to be an inevitable outcome.
Ding!
[You have incurred the Alltide’s wrath.]
[Channeling this wrath towards you, the Alltide has implanted the Mark of the Alltide (Tier III) on your body.]
[With this mark, the Alltide is confident that you would never be able to avoid his gaze.] “Tier III, huh,” said Valyr with a bitter smile, bringing up the description of the upgraded mark as he continued to read through its accompanying notifications.
Seeing that the system blatantly told him that the mark was the Alltide’s way of tracking him, Valyr felt an odd sense of ease as he read through the upgraded curse’s description.
Only for him to feel dread once more.
[Mark of the Alltide (Tier III)] (Curse)
Rarity: ???
The Mark of the Alltide is considered a curse that even those at the Divine level would not want to obtain, with the mark’s fifth and final tier even having the ability to pull gods to the ground. Fortunately, the solution to not obtaining it is incredibly simple.
Just don’t incur the Alltide’s wrath.
However, to those that have received the unfortunate fate of incurring the Alltide’s wrath, the Mark of the Alltide could only be described as a living nightmare, especially for those who live in areas teeming with monsters.
Those who have obtained the third tier of the curse are considered beings that haven’t truly incurred the Alltide’s wrath, but are also infuriating enough to the Alltide that he wouldn’t mind them dying from the mark’s effects.
As a mortal with this mark, there is only one conclusion ahead of you.
Despair.
As long as the user is within an area unclaimed by civilization, any wild beasts and monsters within a 500 meter radius around the user shall aim to kill you no matter what. Additionally, all beasts and monsters within the 500 meter radius shall have their strength augmented to two tiers above their usual level of strength. Killing beasts and monsters under the effects of this augmentation causes them to transform into Tidespawn of similar
strength.
“…” Becoming completely silent as he finished reading through the curse’s description, Valyr eventually let out a low sigh as he closed the screen, imagining the hardships that he’d have to face in the future now that he had such a dreadful curse.
Back when the curse was at its first tier, Valyr felt that the curse still had some upsides to it, such as the fact that he gained more XP from killing the monster that was affected by it.
Yet, there was no trace of that benefit whatsoever on the current version of the curse, instead giving the young man more suffering by further augmenting the strength of the monsters
affected by it.
Not only that, but killing those strengthened monsters wouldn’t give any additional XP
whatsoever.
Instead, it would just give him more monsters to kill.
Taking in a deep breath as the thoughts continued to fester in his mind, Valyr took the time to calm his thoughts down, eventually allowing him to look at the curse from a slightly more
positive perspective.
“Then again, the fact that the curse doesn’t apply in settlements anymore is good,” murmured the young man to himself with a dry chuckle, only to let out yet another sigh
because of it.
Closing his eyes for a bit to gather his thoughts, Valyr briefly glanced at the ongoing fight between the two Divine-level beings before returning his attention to the notifications he
received.
Recalling that he’d seen a few more notifications aside from the ones that talked about the upgraded curse, the young man brought up his notification screen once more and scrolled beyond the ones he’d read, only to be greeted by a pleasant surprise.
Ding!
[You have assimilated a trace of the energies of the Divine level into your energies.]
[Because of this, your mana, Void Energy, and Prime Azure Energy have begun to show a portion of their abilities normally unlocked at the Divine level.]
[Due to your feats, you have obtained the title ‘Glancing at the Edge of Divinity’.]
Unsurprisingly, Valyr’s mood immediately underwent a 180 degree shift after reading through these notifications, his eyes glistening with excitement as he instantly felt a greater
surge of power coursing through his body.
Exhilarated, the young man decided to continue reading through the notifications in hopes of possibly obtaining some more good news from the system.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the system was intent on letting him down one more time.
Ding!
[You have absorbed a power you should not have access to at your current level.] [The Apparatus has interpreted this as you going against the natural flow of the universe.]
[Due to your actions, the Apparatus has now deemed you a true Defier of Fate.] [Your current species ‘Reforged High Human | Junior Defier of Fate (3rd Unsealing)’ has been
reclassified by the system as ‘Reforged High Human | True Defier of Fate (3rd Unsealing)’.]
[You have obtained the title ‘True Defier of Fate’.]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[The Apparatus has taken notice of you.]
[The Apparatus has decided to keep an eye on you.]
Sᴇarch the ɴ0velFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.