Chapter 168: Beating His Own Record
"Haa!" Varian felt prana pulsing from his heart and spreading throughout his heart.
It also rushed to his head, and a soothing sensation spread in his mind.
Even though it didn't erase the pain, it improved his resistance.
Plant Morphers were bad at offense and speed, but their mental resistance was touted.
Of course, since Varian was only a Level 3 Morpher, the increase in resistance was very low, but for him, it was enough.
Soon, Varian's lightning sense found a guy hiding in a bush. He was incredibly lean and looked pale.
But this guy that looked harmless tormented Varian for the past few minutes.
Zap!
Varian shot him down with a lightning bolt.
Looking at the disintegrating body, Varian rubbed his forehead. "Fucking telepaths."
[+10 Xp
+10 Xp
+10 XP
Mind Path Level 0: 30/30
Mind Path Awakening]
"What?" Varian raised his voice in surprise.
Soon, he felt something click in his head. Aura gushed into his body, shooting straight to his head.
The outside world seemed to slow down and Varian slowly opened his eyes.
His thoughts were clear and Varian felt his control over the body slightly improve.
It was something that had to be done through endless practice—what practitioners called as Exquisite Control.
But now, his control over his body rose without any warning.
"So, this is the first level of Mind Awakeners. Perfecting Body Control with the brain." Varian clicked his tongue.
He recalled even when he was close, he couldn't detect the other party's breathing. Heck, there was no other physical movement as well.
Even Body Awakeners would make light movements and could be detected. But Mind Awakeners...
Varian decided to check it out later and instead asked the System. "Why didn't I awaken in other paths when the clones attacked?"
[Host, awakening in multiple paths of the same avenue is virtually impossible. This System has to go through a careful procedure each time a new Divine Path is added.]
Varian raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"
[Like the System explained a while back, a person only awakens in the Avenue they have the highest affinity with. Even in that Avenue, the affinity of each path differs.
So essentially, they awaken in the highest affinity path of highest affinity avenue.
If they have equal affinity with two paths, they awaken in two paths. But it is impossible for two paths in same avenue to have equal affinity.]
Varian could understand this a bit more now.
According to System, Sage Avenue included Body Path, Mind Path and Morpher Path.
Creator Avenue included Space Path, Gravity Path and Time Path.
Ruler Avenue include all the Elemental Paths.
The Dual Awakeners he came across were two.
Seth awakened in Body and Gravity Path.
Sarah awakened in Water and Body Path.
There were no records of anyone awakening two elemental paths or space and time path or even Body and Morpher path like him.
"But now, I awakened in all three paths of Sage Avenue, didn't I?" Varian frowned.
[Yes. System...is able to change the affinity of host's origin towards the paths temporarily and uses that to awaken you in other paths.
However, host would need to wait for some time before your origin returns to Stability.]
"So some period of waiting time, huh." Varian felt the pain from the previous battle fading.
[It's complicated, but yes.]
'Status.'
[Body Path (Enhanced) Level 4: 900/1000
Thunder Path Level 3: 350/400
Space Path Level 3: 0/400
Morpher Path Level 3: 65/400
Mind Path Level 1: 0/100]
"Five paths." Varian couldn't help but smile.
One Mind Path levels up, it would be very helpful in dealing with telepaths. In fact, he could become the bane of Mind Awakeners.
He glanced at the Xp necessary and sighed.
Perhaps it was the System's fault, or maybe his own, the highest gain in Xp was always from battle.
Of course, a single day of his training was also very effective. It was worth more than three weeks' training of a normal awakener.
But a normal awakener barely advanced a level per year in low levels. Once they reached bigger levels, their speed practically crawled.
"For now, Body Path and Thunder Path are my priorities. They have the biggest impact on my combat power." Varian circled out the two.
He clicked on the floating line and it dispersed before a new line floated in front.
[Rank 30: Level 4 Peak]
The phantom body shot waves of fire at him.
Varian grinned and teleported.
Soon, the match ended with Varian's red fist.
The tower took its time and evaluate his combat power again.
With each strength, he showed more power.
[Rank 10: Level 4 peak]
It was a beast morpher who partially transformed into a wind tiger.
His speed was incredibly high, touching that of a Level 5 Body Awakener.
He reached Varian in the blink of an eye and raised his paw.
But—
Space Block.
Zap!
Varian's space block was even more powerful after his Space Path advanced. Coupled with the numbing nature of lightning, the speed of Beast Morpher was more or less affected.
Then his fragile neck was crushed.
[Rank 1: Level 4 peak]
Surprisingly, the Rank 1 was a Dual Awakener.
Of course, it made sense. At the same level, Dual Awakeners were the strongest.
Of course, not all Dual Awakeners were equal.
The strongest were the ones whose divine paths complimented each other.
Like the guy in front.
Mind Path and Earth Path.
Even though he appeared in Varian's vision, he was not an easy prey.
He used his earth powers to shield himself from Varian's attacks and attacked him with his mind power.
Finally, Varian used the lightning bolt on the earth wall, then superposed his physical strength with Space Armor, thus breaking his defense and ending him.
However, Varian also had a harvest.
The intangible benefit was this match made him realize the importance of powerful combinations.
The more tangible benefit was of course the Xp due to taking attacks from a Level 4 Mind Awakener.
Awesome!
[Mind Path Level 1: 100/100]
Varian couldn't help but grin widely.
His Body Path took around a week to reach the peak of Level 1. Space Path took two weeks. Thunder Path took quite some time. His Morpher path was the fastest so far, but that was under the formations.
Even then, Mind Path was the fastest. In a matter of minutes since awakening, he advanced from a low Level 1 to peak Level 1.
He broke his own record of the fastest Level 1 peak.
As Varian revelled in joy, a line of text floated in front.
[Do you want to challenge the fifth floor? Please note that the challenges are all Level 5.]
Varian recalled the Honor List.
Even the 500th spot was occupied by a Low Level 5.
Since the Honor list was the most comprehensive ranking of combat power of all cadets, Varian wanted to see how far he could go.
"Yes!"
He was transferred to the fifth floor.