Chapter 721: Runebinder (1/2)
Zac spent the next few hours stabilizing his mind and getting back to perfect condition. The final snippet to evolve Bodhi still eluded him, and he eventually gave up. He knew all-too-well the Dao couldn’t be forced, especially not for him. Sitting around pondering was all-but-useless with his affinities.
But he did eventually realize what was responsible for the sense of wrongness in his epiphany. It was related to the source of his vision.
The scene of the fighting species beneath the Bodhi tree was just like how he conceptualized how he should fight in his human form. But his Evolutionary Stance was not just Bodhi, it also contained his understanding of the axe. It wasn't pure, like the Dao of Life he needed to move toward. Meanwhile, the vision he had created for the Fragment of the Coffin was both a proper concept of its own and a link to his Inexorable Stance.
But he knew he had at least formed a proper framework. The part of his epiphany that worked was based on change. Conversely, his insight into his Death-attuned fragment represented finality. Life and death; Creation and Oblivion.
His Dao progress had come to a stop, but there were more things to work on. Zac had already spent close to a month in seclusion, but he wasn’t done there. First, he spent three days filling up his still-empty nodes on his Human side, pushing his level to 109 with the help of a stack of Supreme Nexus Crystals and the energy that his [Void Heart] kept spitting out as it purified the Twilight Energy.
Only then did he swap back to his undead form and took out another set of [Aethergate Pills].
The odd sense of damage and weakness was all gone by now, which should allow him to go for a few levels. A surge of energy entered his body as he swallowed one of the pills, but he frowned and threw one more pill into his mouth as he felt the lacking energy that shot toward his node. The damage was gone and the accumulated Pill Toxicity was within what was acceptable, but he was starting to build up an immunity to the [Aethergate Pills].
Thankfully he had a backup plan, and he eventually swapped to his human form after having broken open two nodes with [Aethergate Pills]. One pill had almost opened three nodes the first time around, but these two nodes alone had forced him to take seven pills. The supreme leveling pills weren’t usable in his human form, but that was fine by Zac as he took out another inlaid box.
Inside were the best leveling pills that the attendant could get her hands on, and Zac felt a powerful surge in his body after swallowing the shimmering amber-colored pill. The pills were not as potent as the [Aethergate Pills], but they had a greater effect when considering the immunity he had built up toward those specific pills.
He once more entered the slow but steady cycle of gaining levels and filling nodes with Supreme Crystals, but Zac sighed and stopped after he had forced open five nodes in total. The result wasn’t as good as back in the Twilight Harbor, but the damage to his body was almost at the same level since each node was harder to break open than the one before. Besides, both his immunity and accumulated Pill Toxicity would become a problem if he went any further.
His [Purity of the Void] was fast at work, but much of its efforts went into expelling the invasive energies from his body, leaving most of the accumulated Pill Toxicity untouched. Zac couldn’t be sure, but he probably wouldn't be able to gain any levels this way again inside the Twilight Ocean unless he found some opportunity that cleansed his body like the lava bath did.
Until then, he would have to do things the old-fashioned way.
The [Chainbreaking Pills] were still waiting to be tested, as was the [Stone of Hope]. Hopefully, he’d get the opportunity to try those things as soon as the imperceptible damage to his foundation had healed. For now, Zac spent another week filling up his levels with the help of Supreme Miasma Crystals on his undead side until both sides were maxed out.
Name
Zachary Atwood
Level
114
Class
[E-Epic] Fetters of Desolation
Race
[D] Draugr - Void Emperor (Corrupted)
Alignment
[Earth] Port Atwood - Planetary Lord
Titles
Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer, Child of Dao, The Big 500, Planetary Aegis, One Against Many, Butcher, Progenitor Noblesse, Duplicity Core, Apex Hunter, Heaven's Chosen, Scion of Dao, Omnidextrous, Eastern Trigram Hunt - 1st, Tyrannic Force, Achievement Hunter, The First Step, Promising Specialist, Tower of Eternity - 8th Floor, Heaven's Triumvirate, Fated, Peak Power, Monarch-Select, Frontrunner, Apex Progenitor, Pathstrider
Limited Titles
Tower of Eternity Sector All-Star - 14th, Weight of Sin, Equanimity, Heart of Fire, Big Axe Gladiator
Dao
Fragment of the Axe - Peak, Fragment of the Coffin - Peak, Fragment of the Bodhi - High
Core
[E] Duplicity
Strength
7599 [Increase: 105%. Efficiency: 238%]
Dexterity
3406 [Increase: 75%. Efficiency: 187%]
Endurance
6019 [Increase: 96%. Efficiency: 238%]
Vitality
4558 [Increase: 84%. Efficiency: 228%]
Intelligence
1345 [Increase: 69%. Efficiency: 187%]
Wisdom
2545 [Increase: 76%. Efficiency: 187%]
Luck
435 [Increase: 91%. Efficiency: 197%]