NOVPUBThird-Eye Chakra Island - Inside Cultivation Sanctuary
Alaric was on top of a mountain peak, meditating on his third-eye chakra. The cold winds whipped his hair while his face absorbed the warmth of the radiant sun. It evoked memories of his personal cultivation chamber from his previous life - The Titan Peaks.
His dive today into The Grey Terminal had been interesting. He had managed to hurt Beta #87 with his new oath skill. Within a few more weeks, Alaric was confident that the cyborg wouldn’t last even one of his strikes fuelled by his chant of empowerment.
Alpha #9 was a completely different monster. It was more akin to a living suit of armor wrapped over bits of flesh that encased vital organs such as the heart and brain - all with over 80% mana potency.
Frustratingly, the mechanical parts were shrouded in an energy barrier that destabilized his mana pulses, effectively blinding him to whatever machine augmentation it possessed.
Thus, he couldn’t gauge the depth of its power during that brief encounter, but he was certain he wouldn’t be able to defeat it anytime soon. Not when it had overpowered him so easily.
But what truly made him worried was that Alpha #9 knew his name, and it seemed much more aware than the other variants. He had the distinct impression that the advanced cyborg had been monitoring his progress in the final zone.
That begged the question - were all Alpha variants capable of tracking his activities? It somehow seemed far-fetched, but it didn’t solve how the cyborg knew his name.
A bizarre thought struck him - is it linked to the system and drawing on its power? That would explain how it knew about him.
Not now. Alaric shook his head to dismiss the errant thoughts. I will have time to discover all the secrets eventually - now that my third-eye chakra has awakened.
His third-eye chakra had already been purified up to the limit. The whispered chanting of his oath skill had finally served as the catalyst that triggered the partial-awakening process.
He inspected the description once again.
Ajna (Third Eye Chakra): Purified (Partially Awakened)
Passive Effect - The purified subtle energy of the Third Eye Chakra continuously nourishes your mind, enhancing its ability to process information faster and with exceptional clarity.
With a purified mind, your ability to discern knowledge from raw information improves, enabling you to see the ‘Truth of Things’. Exceptionally important for grasping new insights in order to form new skills, abilities, and Daos.
Active Effect - By channeling the purified energy of your Third Eye Chakra, you can temporarily open your mind’s eye, gaining tremendous insight required to process complicated information.
Extremely useful for forging new and powerful abilities, skills, and Daos just from a seed of understanding. This heightened state enables you to craft abilities and grasp Daos, otherwise outside your reach.
Warning: Reckless use of this power may result in extreme brain fog, robbing your ability to reason and function with your mind.
He felt connected to his new body now more than ever before in his life. His mind swam with insights - each of them a new seed for attaining a new skill or ability - but he knew not all of them were equally valuable.
The purified energy of his third-eye chakra was far too precious to waste on acquiring random skills. Fortunately, he already had the insight necessary for a powerful ability.
Activating his [Superior Mana Manipulation] ability, he concentrated his mana into the middle of his forehead - where the third eye resided within the subtle body.
It started throbbing - gently at first, but increased in intensity as he poured more mana into the spot.
When his forehead threatened to rupture due to the pressure, he ignited his third-eye chakra, trickle-feeding the purified energy into the seed of insight that would blossom into his next ability.
The seed of insight was akin to a living being - greedy, ravenous - unsatisfied with a single drop. It began draining the purified energy of his third-eye chakra until the final drop had been depleted.
Alaric was utterly exhausted - mentally and physically. But the deed was done.
A small, vertical cut split the forehead of his subtle body, revealing a pupil-less eye with countless golden tendrils adorning it. Golden energy oozed out of it, congealing into more golden tendrils that gradually crawled their way and latched onto his mana core.
With the first pull of mana from his core, a black pupil materialized inside the third eye. Alaric’s vision expanded, revealing a multitude of shifting colors. Flashes of inspiration streaked through his mind, almost overloading it before everything went blank and dark.
Congratulations! You have germinated a rare insight into an ability - [True Vision] (Rare+)
Finally, it’s done. Alaric opened his eyes and exhaled a deep, satisfied breath before inspecting his new ability.
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True Vision - This ability activates your third eye and enables you to witness all forms of energy with your eyes. As a result, it allows you to penetrate beyond the physical realm and perceive the deepest layers of reality. Wield it with care for it can uncover hidden traps, counters stealth, and reveal weaknesses in your enemies otherwise undetectable.
The ability description didn’t do it justice. When wielded by experts, the ability revealed its tremendous combat application. In his previous life, [True Vision] served as his signature ability, which granted him an unfair advantage over many other cultivators.
The fact that the ability was rated as Rare+ meant that he needed to evolve it to unlock its true potential. Regardless, even in its current form, the ability would offer himan unparalleled advantage.
A wave of nostalgia slammed into him as he realized how far he had come in this new world.
From time to time, he liked to do a quick scan of his status screen to remind himself of how much he had accomplished and how much further he had to climb.
Abilities:
Superior Mana Manipulation lvl 3True Vision Lvl 1Skills:
Zen Flow lvl 15Disruptive Pulse lvl 2 (Oath Skill)Mana Core Stage: Liquid Core (Peak) - Viscous Liquid: early crystal formation.
Body Reforging Status:
Average Reforging Progress - 21%Average Mana Infusion Potency - 22%Everything appeared about right. Instead of inspecting the progress of each aspect of his body individually, he had commanded the system to display an average value portraying the overall picture.
The low reforging progress of his heart and brain dragged down the overall value even though he had already crossed over 30% in all the other aspects. But that didn’t bother Alaric.
Since he had resolved to reforge every aspect of his body to its fullest potential, this was a more accurate representation of his progress. Of course, he could still track individual progress whenever he wanted.
Now, I need a test subject to inspect the usefulness of my ability. Gliding down from the mountain peaks, he descended to the meditation grounds of the third-eye chakra island.
The cultivation sanctuary was an enigma in his senses, engineered by the system using advanced space, matter, and time manipulation techniques woven with a hint of extraordinary Daos.
It was uniquely designed by the system to aid him in his chakra cultivation. However, there was something else that was fascinating about this pocket dimension - it reminded him of the Tutorial Rift.
For a long time, Alaric had longed to unravel its mysteries. Now, he had the opportunity to do so, but he filed that desire for later. It could draw him into a rabbit hole he didn’t want to explore at the moment.
Instead, he was itching to use his new ability to defeat the monsters in the Grey Terminal.
***
Inside The Grey Terminal
Alaric sat on top of a tall skyscraper, silently observing the massive metal and concrete frames that adorned the skyline. Among the rubble overtaken by nature, he detected the presence of hundreds of Z variants mindlessly lurking for their next victim.
Far in the distance, a few powerful Delta variants patrolled the city, some commanding a horde of lesser zombies into action.
Not a single Beta variant greeted his sight. The cyborgs always popped up whenever the lesser zombies were in danger as if somebody was tracking his activities and ramped up the challenge when he had it too easy.
Far in the distance, he perceived the faint outline of a mountain range in the dim illumination beneath a grey cast sky. Up until now, he had failed to perceive beyond a few hundred meters with his mana pulses.
Now, he possessed another option that allowed him to perceive everything within many miles with unmatched clarity. Alaric activated his [True Vision] ability and experienced his surroundings transform into a kaleidoscope of colors. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓾𝒷.𝒸ℴ𝓂
With an effort of will, he filtered the information and concentrated only on the abominations. Countless brown dots filled his vision while everything else faded into grayscale.
The brown dots of power - zombies - were easy to identify against the stark contrast of everything else. A sparse few red dots represented the delta variants.
Alaric ignored them and fine-tuned the sensitivity of his ability to isolate more powerful presences. Gradually, the brown and red dots started to fade into gray, unveiling two yellow dots - beta variants - on opposite ends.
According to his estimate, the beat variants were a few kilometers ahead.
Very good. The ability is working as expected. Satisfied with the initial testing, he cycled through the filter to detect anything out of the ordinary.
For a while, nothing happened. Then, he discerned a faint golden shimmer blanketing the entire sky - a barrier of massive proportions.
The energy required to sustain a barrier of such magnitude baffled him. But more importantly, what was it protecting the city from, and what lay on the other side?
How far is it? Alaric longed to inspect the barrier up close. With some quick calculation, he estimated that the nearest side of the barrier from his location was about 15 kilometers ahead.
He grinned. It’s time to find some answers. With a newfound determination, he leaped from the skyscraper and bolted towards his new destination.
***
Reaching the site took longer than he had anticipated. He had to eliminate many Z and Delta variants along the way and escape a few Beta variants when they entered the fray to intervene.
Up close, it was fascinating to observe the energy systems of these vile creatures. The Z and Delta variants were fueled by a corrupt, necrotic energy that mimicked vital energy.
But there wasn’t a shred of life energy in them, nor a subtle body with a chakra system, which confirmed his suspicions - these creatures were truly dead. The Beta variants also lacked a subtle body and chakra system, indicating the same.
Every living being possessed a subtle body and chakra system, something undetectable by any other ability except for [True Vision].
He cleared his mind, resolving to inspect the abominations at a later date. There was no time to waste.
Not long ago, he barely managed to flee from a strong Beta variant. Who knew how long it would take that predator to track him down again?
Advancing towards the radiant golden wall that stood in his way, he pressed a hand against it.
Congratulations, Alaric! You have discovered the Great Barrier—the critical junction separating the Tutorial Zone from the Dark Continent.
Conditions Met:
Accessing the Grey Terminal - Confirmed
Discovering the Barrier - Confirmed
Defeat an Enemy of the Grey Terminal - Confirmed
Eligibility for receiving access token to the Dark Continent - Confirmed
Status - Pending
Current Rank - Delta
Pending Objective: Defeat higher-tiered enemies to attain elevated access.
Time Limit: You have until the age of 14 to clear this zone.
Note: This is the final zone of a simulated environment. Only a lucky few individuals have amassed power along with the system’s trust and goodwill to be granted access to this zone.
You are one of them. But make no mistake - this is no ordinary trial.
This simulation — The Grey Terminal — is a direct replica of reality, designed to prepare you for the enemies of the System. Survive. Adapt. Conquer.
