Chapter 757: Second Set (1/2)

Zac looked at the receding backs of Catheya and her two companions, sighing before he set out alone again in his submersible. As he looked at the empty chamber of the vessel, his thoughts drifted back to Triv’s list of necessities for cultivation. One of them was companions, and Zac felt that today.

It was easy to get engrossed in your own world when secluded in cultivation. But while that kind of life had its benefits, it lacked the color of pursuing the Dao in the company of others. He had only spent a day with the trio to catch up and plan his next step, and nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Yet that single day was more memorable than traveling through the Twilight Ocean for the past three months, seeing all kinds of marvels. Certainly, it was hard to stay indifferent when being the constant focus of attention to a great beauty like Catheya. He was even starting to get used to the abyssal eyes that he and she shared, and they no longer simply felt like gates to the underworld.

While the situation was flattering, it was a bit hard to deal with. He knew he was a bit dense, but he wasn't blind. There was a streak of something real mixed in when Catheya teasingly flirted with him, and that truthfully scared him. Certainly, part of it was because he was still raw from what happened to Thea, but there was something else.

It almost felt like he was cursed. Hannah had a mental breakdown and tried to murder him, and she was the one that was the best off among his romantic interests. Alea had been reduced to a Spiritual Tool, and Thea had been straight-up murdered by his own family. The Multiverse was a dangerous place, but part of him couldn't help but wonder if it was the System's machinations at play.

What if the System wanted him focused solely on cultivation so he could keep conjuring chaos patterns for it, and it nudged fate to remove all distractions from his path?

There was, unfortunately, no way to know, and he soon dropped the matter to refocus on the task at hand. The volcano was two weeks away, and it would take another two months to reach the ravine afterward. By then, over two years would have passed in the trial, and only the confident would remain.

After all, people weren’t automatically teleported out from this trial. The final three months were a safe zone when anyone could leave without getting contribution points deducted for not staying the full trial. Those who were too late would be stuck inside, and none had ever survived such an ordeal.

There were only so many exits as well, and most would be guarded by hunters looking for wealth and contribution points. Some warriors were mostly here for wealth, and they’d start looking for a way out before the hunters gathered.

The trip was thankfully not too eventful. The appearance of the City of Ancients had drawn a lot of attention, and the number of cultivators that had flocked in that area was approaching a million according to Varo. That left the other regions of the middle reaches pretty desolate in comparison, which suited Zac’s purposes perfectly. Encountering cultivators in this area would only waste time without bringing any benefits, considering his [Ocean Chart] had already been filled in by Catheya.

Zac wasn’t just sitting around during this time. He set his vessel to autopilot the moment he reached a desolate stretch before he took out a pile of boxes. Inside were the Attribute Fruits Catheya had identified.

Wasting no time, Zac immediately bit into the first of the fruits, though it rather looked like a fleshy pinecone. It was one of the fruits that should boost his Luck, and Zac ate it stem and all. There was no stream of energy spreading through his body after eating the thing, but he rather gained an odd sense of interconnectedness with the world around him.

He felt like a Buddhist monk who had become one with the universe, but the feeling only lasted for a moment before the feeling passed. Soon enough he was back to normal, but he still opened his Status Screen to see the results. A smile immediately spread across his face as he saw that his Luck had increased by 12 points in one go, meaning the fruit had provided a full 6 points before his titles boosted the number.

Of course, if the fruit had rather provided something like 50 points like normal Peak E-grade Attribute fruits did, that would have been far preferable, but Luck fruits didn’t scale like that. Perhaps that was for the best, considering that let Zac maintain his advantage even against higher-grade enemies.

The Monarchs already gained enough Luck through their Daos as is. If they could gain thousands of points into the mysterious attribute through simply eating some fruit, then his enemies would simply stumble upon Earth by chance sooner or later.

After having eaten the first, Zac kept going, working his way through the Luck Fruits until moving onto the other stats. It was lucky the Natural Treasures were almost instantly refined to the essence needed to boost his physique, considering he stuffed himself with over 20 kilos of fruits before he was done.

And the result was pretty impressive. He had already set a small foundation with the Technocrat mixtures he looted from the Mystic Realm, but this was his first palpable step forward. Altogether, he had gained over 100 base attributes per stat, a massive step forward that was essentially the attribute equivalent to a High Mastery Dao Fragment.

That might not be enough to make a difference against someone like Uona or Ykrodas, but every little bit counted. The real prize was his boost to Luck though, and the benefits that it brought.

[Grand Fate: Reach 500 Luck at E-Grade. Reward: Effect of Luck +6%]

Zac was hadn’t expected to see a title like this, considering it was functionally the same as his old title called ‘Fated’. Normally, the first title of a certain type would prevent him from getting a similar one at higher grades, yet he somehow got both.

His best guess was that things worked differently for things related to Luck, or that some title series simply followed their own rules. For example, the given effect of Luck this time around was 1% higher compared to the E-grade, making Zac believe it was a chain where he could get the succeeding one during every grade. Put together, they would provide a tremendous boost to Luck.

That was ultimately just a guess of his, but more Luck was always a welcome sight, and he was now solidly above 1,000 Effective Luck. Hopefully, that would mean an even stronger Danger Sense and even greater instincts for opportunities. Who knew, the boost might even allow him to get the two remnants without issue, though Zac didn’t hold much hope for that happening.

He knew that Uona was a disaster waiting to happen, and a couple of Attribute Fruits wasn’t enough to give him any confidence he could withstand her furious revenge. That was mostly why he targeted the Shard of Creation first, apart from it being closer to where Catheya hid. Absorbing the first one had almost allowed him to fight a Technocrat Hegemon in F-grade, and this time his soul was far stronger compared to when he visited the Little Bean.

The Shard would hopefully become the ace that would allow him to complete his mission one way or another.

Catheya’s information package was extremely detailed, with not only dangerous sites clearly marked, but also popular hunting grounds where one was bound to run into other trial takers. It allowed Zac to plot a course with minimal interruptions until he reached his target; the Ouroboros Loop. It was yet another current, this one running perpendicular along the middle reaches.

It took him along the middle ocean through all kinds of underwater environments, but Zac was more interested in going over various information packages than enjoying the view. He had seen it all by now, and these treasure spots were just a cheap mimicry of the dangers and opportunities he had encountered at the heart of the ocean.

His time was better spent working on his cultivation, but since he was a mortal that wasn’t an option during downtimes like this. The long bouts of uneventful travel over the last three months had even made him seriously consider taking up some sort of side profession. Previously, he had put the matter aside to prioritize shoring up his lacking theoretical foundations, but he was fast catching up with the general level expected of a young E-grade scion.