"Break the shackles that bind you and soar to the heavens like a phoenix." - Modrich
Noah read the status panel that floated before his eyes.
[Congratulations on unlocking another aspect of your bloodline!]
[Bloodline: Thundrith]
[Effect 1: 200% increase in every attribute with a cost of 100% Mana in the mana pool. NB: Applicable only for reverse mana]
[Effect 2: Bloodline transformation (Use 100% of blood to transform into the full form of Thundrith)]
His blood drained completely, yet the instant regeneration of his inverse mana somehow allowed his blood to regenerate.
The drained blood of his body summoned out of his body as a monstrous form, covering his body with a viscous liquid in the shape of blue armor.
Scales containing power appeared on his limbs, and most of his face was covered by glittering blue scales, leaving only his striking blue eyes visible.
His height increased; now he towered above seven feet. His attributes doubled in this state, which was further amplified by 200%.
His blood slithered to his hammer, making it shimmer with lightning.
A dark shadow appeared above his head, its golden claws ripping through the air, aiming for Noah's head.
If this had happened before his transformation, Noah might have struggled against this monster. But now…
His lips curled in disdain. Without using his hammer, he thrust his scaled fist toward the exposed belly of the monster.
A sickening sound of something piercing through flesh echoed in the air as internal organs rained down.
-1400
[You have killed a mid-stage tier 1 Gloom Stalker]
[Essence ball x1: 30 exp]
"So you're mid-stage tier 1." Noah didn't wait for the monster to recover as his figure flashed.
The sounds of angry roars followed by painful cries echoed throughout the dim cavern.
While Noah was clearing his first dungeon, the outside world was caught off guard by a storm.
In the castle of the Zenith Lord, a group of six people gathered around a table. The atmosphere was heavy with a depressive aura emitted from them.
In the middle of the table sat a young man in his late twenties with dark golden hair, decorated by a crown.
Adam Zenith, the Lord of Zenith.
Contrary to the expressions of the people in the room, he had a soft smile on his face. He leaned back in his chair, muttering in a low voice.
"A dimension break... that's interesting..."
The reason why the six Tier 40 Ascendants gathered together was the occurrence of a dimension break.
Dimension breaks were entirely different from dungeon or rift breaks.
It was a situation in which moving points of two dimensions met at one point, resulting in the creation of a multidimensional rift.
Multidimensional rifts were treasure troves of different types of shards; they might even contain bloodlines!
The presence of such a rift was an opportunity, but alongside this opportunity was danger. The rift was not only available for runners in their dimension but also for beings from the other dimension.
It could act as a passage to enter either dimensions, that's what the people in the room worried a lot.
Almost everyone who challenged an ascension knew that only their dimension had humans.
The rest of the hundreds of dimensions had different life forms, and most of them harbored evil intentions against humans.
"We don't know anything about the race from that dimension," a Tier 40 Ascendant, Milon, said.
"They may be a lower race or middle race like us. But if a higher race were to appear..." His voice turned grave.
Adam tapped his fingers on the table with a thoughtful expression.
Milon was right. Their human race had the capacity to fight against lower and middle-graded races.
But against higher races...
Adam thought about the arrogant beings he saw in his ascension challenges. Most of the people from higher races he met looked down on the human race; others outright tried to kill him.
For those from higher races, humans were like rift monsters. If such a race were to be in the other dimension, then he could imagine the bloodshed that would happen.
"Don't forget about a hundred years ago..." Milan stopped.
A hundred years ago, a dimension break opened in Eldoria, their dimension. At that time, humanity lost a shooting star and millions of runners in it.
Considering everyone selected to the shooting stars were prodigies capable of ascending to Solaris, that was a huge loss for humanity.
Only because their current emperor and his party successfully completed the rift challenge did humanity survive extinction.
"I've already asked for assistance from the empire. It will take at least two months for them to react to my call," Adam pondered.
Most of the powerful Rift Walkers would be actively challenging Rifts to power up. For them to get his call and rush here to assist might take time.
The imperial army was scattered throughout the dimension. They would also take time to gather before reaching here.
"But Lord, until then..." A Tier 40 Ascendant stammered but his mouth sealed shut when Adam glanced up at him with irritation.
"Our opponent being a higher race is highly unlikely. From my knowledge, the Nord points of the higher races were a lot of distance away from us.
Even if we are unlucky and a higher race has to come out, doesn't everyone here is the best of the best in the entire human dimension?
If we can't even protect Zenith before the main army arrives, I doubt any of them even succeeding an ascension challenge."
Because the journey of Zenith had only just started, runners here now ranged from Tier 1 to 5. Sure, all of them were amateurs, but they were all with talents similar to his and the rest of the guardians in Zenith.
If such people couldn't defend Zenith, at least for two months, then Adam believed it was better for them to just die rather than wasting precious resources.
"Also, it will be a greater experience for them before their ascension challenges start."
The meeting concluded with Adam ordering the six guardians to personally train the runners.
Luckily, as per the seer of their empire, the meeting between two dimensions would take a month to happen.
So Zenith had to defend the planet for a month before reinforcements arrived.
Adam then opened his smartwatch and published an urgent announcement in the forum.
Noah knew nothing as he breathed heavily, surrounded by the corpses of Gloom Stalkers.