The Epic Tale of Chaos vs Order

120 Pillar of Resilience (II)

The heat in the room slowly increased while the oxygen took the opposite turn.

Cain closed his eyes as he adopted a meditative position, ensuring his body would require less energy to work correctly. The level was still far from enough to overcome his resistance, but the Pillar of Resilience was not a test of defense but one of attrition.

On the battlefield, you might have to spend entire days on high alert, enduring a harsh environment, and knowing how to preserve your energy was essential.

Twenty minutes went by before the heat in the room reached such a high level that it forced Cain to summon his Wave Cloak. He kept his eyes closed and pushed Synergy Flow to the peak to ensure his Astral Wave would last long enough.

Another ten minutes went by before Cain activated Wave Burst. Instead of immediately pushing it to a high level, he slowly raised the Astral Wave output so it could go hand-to-hand with the increase in the heat.

Time passed, and the heat reached such a high level that an average human would have been burned to ashes by now.

Cain was sweating profusely, and his lungs were doing their best to capture the little oxygen in the room, so he would not suffocate. His Wave Burst had already risen to 2000%, but the heat still managed to sear his skin even with that.

Cain’s eyes opened as he felt his Wave Cloak about to vanish due to the depletion of his Astral Wave. Although he had a rough estimate of how much energy he had left, he couldn’t be 100% precise.

Any other Wave Warrior would have to give up when they felt their Wave was close to depletion. If they did not do it, and the heat was still active when their Wave Cloak vanished, they would suffer severe burns.

.....

However, Cain was unlike other Wave Warriors since there was a system fused with his soul that could give him a perfect assessment of how long his Astral Wave would last.

‘System, assess how much time I have left until I deplete my Astral Wave and my Wave Cloak vanishes.’

As soon as Cain gave that command, he heard the system’s voice in his mind.

[Task received.

...

...

...

Task completed.

...

Vessel’s Astral Wave will deplete in 2:43 seconds.

2:42 seconds.

2:41 seconds.

...]

Cain focused on the virtual screen that appeared in his mind, forgetting everything else. Every second that passed was hell, but he would give his all.

There were already flames in the room, covering everything, including Cain. If not for his Wave Cloak, he would be enduring severe wounds by now.

[2 seconds.

1 second]

“Stop!” Cain shouted that word, and the flames vanished a fraction of a second before his Wave Cloak turned off due to the lack of Astral Wave.

He fell to the ground and took huge breaths of air since his lungs had been unable to receive any form of oxygen for the last two minutes.

There were burn marks all over his body. Even if his Wave Cloak protected him from most of the heat, it was not impervious to the flames’ power.

Cain took a container with blood and began to consume it while mobilizing his Blood Refinement Art. That would help him heal his wounds.

‘Impressive. It has immense vitality, but that is to be expected from the refined blood of a Level 5 Wave Beast.’ Cain was thrilled with the amount of blood energy that circulated through his body.

It took around ten minutes before most of his wounds healed. Although there were still some, they could not affect him at all.

Only after making sure he was fine did he leave the Pillar of Resilience. He might not care about showing his wealth, but he did not want people to know about his Blood Refinement Art.

Cain did not have a choice during the battle against the horde. Besides, he doubted one of the soldiers could decipher the nature of his technique, but he had no idea who was looking at him inside the fort.

The moment Cain appeared outside the Pillar of Resilience, he saw people looking at him with a clear sense of awe. He turned toward the Cadet Ranking and saw his name in the upper section.

N°1 Blood Lord – Early Level 5

N°2 Saint of Killers – Limit Level 4

N°3 Earth Fiend – Late Level 4

Once again, he ended up in the second position, but that did not discourage Cain. He did not bother to compare himself with others. The only one he had to defeat was his previous self, and he had advanced at gigantic steps recently.

Three months ago, he could have barely entered these rankings, but now he had reached the top. That was worth celebrating.

After giving one final glance at the Pillar of Resilience’s Cadet Ranking, he walked to the Pillar of Speed before adopting a meditative position and taking out his wave crystal.

As the Wave inside the crystal filled his body, Cain frowned. He felt something different and used his Ego Wave to analyze it but could not find anything.

Cain’s Ego Wave was powerful but far from enough to measure the changes happening at a near-cellular level. Luckily, he had the system for such a delicate task.

‘Apex?’

Although the system would give him a direct answer, it would be pure data without context. Apex could summarize the information, giving him the gist of it.

“Your foundation is growing more solid. Each time you push yourself to your limit and drain your Astral Wave, your meridians become thicker and more resilient.

Just like with muscles, once they reach their limits, they suffer micro-tears and heal stronger.

Of course, that is considering you give them enough rest and energy to heal, and the damage is not exaggerated. Your Blood Refinement Art and wave crystal overflow your body with vitality and Wave, so you will be fine as long as you know when to stop.”

Cain nodded as he understood what the System Spirit told him. Pushing himself to his limit would help his foundation, but if he did not allow his body to rest or did not grant the proper energy for this one to heal, it would have a diametrical effect on his cultivation.

After an hour, Cain felt his Astral Wave had refilled entirely, and his body was in peak condition, so he put his hand over the Pillar of Speed and vanished.

Cain found himself in a long white corridor, four meters wide. A black line was two meters ahead of him, and there was another in the distance.

The Astral Wave concentrated on his eyes, and Cain could see the golden line a thousand meters away. A message reached his mind the next second through the [A.I. Chip Module].

“Cadets, the trial will begin once you cross the black line. You must reach the golden line as fast as possible. Objects will appear in your path at random intervals.”

Cain’s eyes narrowed when he heard that. Clearly, this trial would not be as simple as just running in a straight pattern.

If it only measured how fast you could run in a straight line, the mark given would mean nothing in battle, as it would not consider reflex and reaction speed.

Cain got close to the black line before unleashing his Wave Cloak and making it burst at 2000%. There was no need to start slow as this trial would not take more than a minute.

Just unleashing his Astral Wave at full power was far from enough.

He focused his Astral Wave on his legs and spine. While the first would be the one in charge of his speed, he still needed control over his upper train to move through the obstacles.

Once he finished that, Cain used Lightning Armament, transmuting part of his Astral Wave into lightning, enhancing his speed and reflexes.

Cain adopted a sprint position near the black line before taking a deep breath. His eyes burst with red light as he flashed forward at full speed.

In less than a second, Cain had already covered fifty meters, and then he saw small pillars rising from the ground. Although they were fast, thanks to Lightning Armament and his Ego Wave, Cain’s speed of thought was outrageous for a Wave Warrior.

In his sight, those pillars moved in slow motion, and he was able to jump over them without losing momentum and carrying on at full speed.

More and more obstacles appeared in Cain’s path, each faster and more complicated than the previous one, but he managed to pass through them without slowing down.

Cain carried on like that until reaching the 600 meters mark when he saw a wall descend from the ceiling, leaving a small aperture less than thirty centimeters high.

Cain’s speed of thought was high enough to react to the wall, but his body was not. He had to slow down a little before sliding down beneath the wall.

Things only grew harder from that point on.