Space and Time had always been powers that few could comprehend, especially so when these were the primary paths of the Jai Empire.
If used properly, these powers had no equal.
While Varian agreed that 'all divine paths were equal', it was only under ideal circumstances.
The universe, for whatever reason, wasn't an ideal source. It was heavily biased and the advantages of power changed from era to era and region to region.
Life powers were obviously be the strongest in a forest full of life. Fire powers in a volcano and so on.
Near blackholes, Space-Time powers obviously held the greatest leverage. It allowed someone to exert more power than they usually could.
Varian knew it because the creature's space folding technique grew stronger after approaching the black hole.
But luckily for him, not just the space but even the time field around the black hole was distorted.
While he couldn't win against the creature in space powers, he could attack it through the time route.
Varian's time sense scanned the region and with some help from his space sense, he found a mass of blackness hiding in the space cracks under the outer space layer.
'No way…'
It was the creature he was supposed to hunt and bring home to manufacture a proof for 'Human Empire' staying under the radar for so long.
He heard these creatures lived near black holes, and stars and transversed through space cracks regularly.
During their growth, these creatures would monopolize the aura of entire star systems using their space powers so that the regions would appear barren under observation.
They were domineering, ruthless and took centuries to advance.
But even the youngest of these started out from rank 4 and the powerful ones could go as far as peak of rank 6, a few going even further.
That's why Varian wanted to strengthen his artifacts before hunting down these nasty creatures. But who would've thought he'd encounter them in a goddamn tower he never intended to enter.
'If I could just take the corpse of this creature, mess it up enough and show it as the proof, then the biggest issue facing humanity would be solved.' Varian's thoughts, which were full of escape until now flipped and a thick killing intent permeated the space.
Maria distanced herself from the confrontation and covered herself in a silver barrier from one of her treasures. She wasn't staying still though.
Taking out a long telescope-like treasure, she poured a few drops of her blood onto its lens.
The space around them shook violently for a moment before an invisible force dragged out the dark creature hiding in the space cracks.
Neither the creature nor Varian was expecting this sudden change. Not the one to miss out on opportunities, the Emperor of Humans unleashed his powers without reservation.
Thankfully, wearing the pendant and the ring saved him from explaining much. But of course, the creature wasn't spared.
As it struggled to get back into the space cracks, a spiritual attack struck right at its soul and began to gnaw at its consciousness.
The collapsing space around Varian and Maria stabilized as the creature suffered an unexpected injury.
The space-time around the creature also began to suffer. The creature felt a disconnect between its conscious decisions and the actions its power took.
It was a clever application of time powers, by doing so, Varian prevented his enemy from reacting properly and pushed it into a passive state.
All the creature could now do was defend but faced up against Varian's spiritual attack, its consciousness was slowly fading.
If it had a choice, the creature would never confront a Spirit Pathwalker directly. Instead, it'd attack him from space cracks where his powers couldn't reach. But Maria's treasure messed everything up.
"Now!" Varian's sliver powers acted on his origin and six of his powers added to his Spirit Power, pushing it past rank 3 and taking it to the peak of rank 4.
[Binder Rank 4: 999/1000
Light up the fire of the soul and create a strong bond with the body, strengthening both the body and the soul, becoming a master of spirit power.]
Varian's spirit power underwent a fundamental change and his eyes glowed with a silvery light.
"Sleep." He spat out a single word but it caused the creature to suddenly stiffen and lose its strength like a puppet with its strings cut off.
The creature felt its soul dissipate and knew it had no chance of survival. So, it poured all its strength at the last moment and gave Varian one last strike.
BOOM!
Varian in his Binder form was unprepared to face the space attack. Despite reacting, he was only halfway through pushing all his powers into Space Path when the attack hit.
"Woaaah!"
The world around him spun, stretch, and shrunk as Varian found himself rushing into the horizon of the blackhole—the boundary beyond which even light couldn't escape.
"Holy sh—!" Varian changed his powers' composition and split them into Space and Time.
This conversion was never ideal, so he didn't gain as many ranks as he should but it was still a great booster.
[Space Rank 3: 499/500
Time Rank 3: 499/500]
Varian's field of space-time began to fight against the distorted space-time of the black hole.
The confrontation lasted for hours during which Varian was forced to familiarize himself with the way the black hole manipulated the space-time fabric.
But for Maria, it was just a second before Varian returned.
Varian didn't say a word and put away the creature's corpse. Maria crossed her arms in protest at him monopolizing the hunt but didn't say anything.
She just didn't understand how Varian had such powerful spirit, space, and time treasures.
'It feels like he has the treasures of all powers. And all of them are quite strong. Who the hell is this guy?'
Her initial assessment of him being a country bumpkin changed into him being a disciple of a reclusive powerhouse, perhaps even a divine ranker.
Otherwise, how could he have so many treasures that even she as a princess and disciple of Miss Calamity find weird?
'If not divine ranker, then definitely rank 9 celestial. This guy isn't normal. He's definitely hiding something. Maybe a lot of things…'
Varian didn't know Maria's changing thoughts and wouldn't have cared even if he did.
Their partnership was bound to last only until he could get out of the tower. Once he reached that point, he'd leave, whether she liked it or not.
Now that he got the 'corpse', he just wanted to rush back to the Empire and secure it before the census began and exposed them.
[(C) You can choose to exit the tower after clearing Zone 2.]
That meant he'd have to cross the 60th floor somehow.
From what he noticed so far, the mechanism of the floor was safeguarding the weaker rankers from the stronger ones.
For instance, even though they encountered several rank 6s so far, they hadn't shown much interest in them since they'd only get 30 minutes of survival time for hunting them. And they had a cap on how many challengers kills they'd be rewarded with.
If that rule didn't exist, things would've been way more chaotic.
If Zone 2: Floors 31st to 60th didn't have similar rules, then Varian would need absolute strength to clear it.
Schemes could take him far but not the finish line.
Thankfully, he had advanced in Space and Time paths as well using the Blackhole crisis.
Now, he's an out-and-out rank 3 celestial.
[Mystic Rank 3: 50/500 [+50]
Famine Rank 3: 60/500 [+60]
Spirit Rank 3: 120/500 [+20]
Matter Rank 3: 10/500 [+10]
Energy Rank 3: 10/500 [+10]
Space Rank 3: 0/500
Time Rank 3: 0/500
Remarks: Host, you're no longer an illiterate battle junky who advanced just by fighting. You actually learned something about the paths, well, quite a bit for the time you spent.
Thanks to the time you spared here, you wouldn't be facing any bottlenecks during your rank transition. Happy ranking!
PS: Do not try stupid stuff like fighting rank 6. They'll kill you in a breath.
PPS: Even if you use all the artifacts.]
"Whose IQ are you underestimating, dumb system of mine?" Varian sneered. "Why would I even confront a rank 6? Just tell me, why?"
…was what he said. But—
"I want to kill that fucking bastard!" Varian screamed as he teleported with Maria and ran from the team of challengers pursuing them.
The space around them collapsed and exploded as dangerous attacks passed them closely, threatening to kill them upon even the slightest of contact.
"They have a rank 6 for fuck's sake! Just run!" Maria yelled and continued teleporting away.
Varian stared back at the tall skeleton at the back of the group chasing them down.
[Low Rank 6]
But that wasn't all.
"Die!"
"You aren't going anywhere!"
"Pay for your sins!"
Varian hopped onto a planet for a moment and jumped out when the attacks rushed in. A moment later, the planet exploded into pieces, and not a single lifeform was left.
This time, he didn't even have the leisure to look back as he kept running through space.
But even if he didn't turn around, he could feel the thick killing intent on his skin. More than the killing intent, he could feel their overwhelming power.
Fifty Rank 4s.
Ten Rank 5s.
One Low Rank 6.
Oh boy, just the fifty rank 4s had a good chance of killing him off. The ten rank 5s were ten times more dangerous. And the low rank 6 was ten times further dangerous.
"System, System! Come out you fucking bastard! I promise not to kill you!" Varian screamed inwardly as he ran across the 29th floor.
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