Chapter 529: Rank 3 Transcendent

"Well then, I will be leaving for now, Huang. This sub-dimension will probably need at most a year to be completely repaired."

As I stood in front of the exit of this sub-dimension, Huang, the digital clone of a former Rank 3 Sage was bidding me farewell.

I got his Legacy without any mishaps, completed my Mortal Pathway and actually reached the 2nd Realm of my Transcendent Pathway.

That sounded great, right? After being stuck to Mortal Pathway for too long, I jumped ranks to the 2nd Realm of my Transcendent Pathway that I ended up calling the Energy Reconnection.

If I was treading only one Pathway, this should be equivalent to a Rank 2 Transcendent.

However, given that I had long reached that point before completing my Mortal Pathway, I surpassed the threshold and firmly stepped foot on being a Rank 3 Transcendent. Or more like, I even surpassed some of the Rank 3 Transcendents we encountered.

I was now approaching Rank 4 Transcendent.

It was all because of the bonus stats from completing the Mortal Pathway, the stats I acquired from completing the 1st Realm, the stats I acquired from the progress I made from the 2nd realm, bonus stats from enduring the 'torture' of Chaotic Energy and bonus stats generated from my Transcendent Pathway.

Each of my five Mortal Pathways gave a total of 18 stat points that were allotted differently depending on the specialty of that Pathway.

System Pathway gave 6 Strength, 6 Endurance and 1 Intelligence.

Noticeably, 1 Intelligence was equivalent to 6 Strength and 6 Endurance. So that's still a total of 18 stat points if everything was allotted to Strength and Endurance.

Physique Pathway gave 12 Strength and 6 Endurance.

Spirit Pathway gave 6 Strength and 12 Endurance.

Psyche Pathway gave 3 Intelligence.

Elemental Pathway gave 9 Strength and 9 Endurance.

And that was just the bonus from completing my Mortal Pathways.

Following that, by swiftly completing the 1st Realm, it gave the equivalent of how 150 UPL; the difference between someone who had just reached Transcendent Realm and someone who had broken through to become a Rank 2 Transcendent.

And that 150 UPL was divided between the three stats with Intelligence getting the larger portion. Or to be exact, as what was shown in the notification by my System when I broke through from the 1st Realm of my Transcendent Pathway into the 2nd Realm, it consisted of 100 Strength, 100 Endurance and 35 Intelligence,

If I would compute that using the formula for measuring UPL, that's exactly 164 UPL. The additional 14 was what I mentioned as bonus stats that came from either the tempering I received from absorbing and expelling Chaotic properties as well as bonuses generated by my Transcendent Pathway.

And that's not everything I got. As soon as one embarked on their Transcendent Pathway, each progress would result in an increase in one's stats.

That's why there were those notations called early, mid, late and peak. A Rank 1 Transcendent or someone at his or her 1st Realm of Transcendent with 90% progress and above was called peak Rank 1 Transcendent. If it was based on UPL then it was probably around 240 up to 250 could be called peak Rank 1 Transcendent.

The remaining 50 UPL to reach the 300 UPL threshold for a Rank 2 Transcendent could be achieved by breaking through the 1st Realm.

Consequently, that's also how it was in the higher ranks.

Considering there's 400 UPL difference between Rank 2 and Rank 3 Transcendent, 250 UPL could be gained through progressing to it and 150 UPL after breaking through or completing the 2nd Realm of one's Transcendent Pathway.

And since I reached 50% percent, I had already gained half of the intended stat points. To be exact as notified by my System, I already gained 80 Strength, 80 Endurance and 30 Intelligence. That's equivalent to 136 UPL. The additional 11 Points were once again attributed to Chaotic Energy and my Transcendent Pathway.

Just with that, my gains could already be said unimaginable. That's just an addition to my base stats after all.

With the Shared Growth skill, all of my Companions would've felt the growth through receiving bonus stat points. Furthermore, all the World connected to me through World Assimilation would also feel the progress. 

I was already informed by the Incarnation in my System about the progress of the World of System and Ele also messaged me about the progress of her World.

She had already reached the last 10% before the World of Elements evolved to becoming a Transcendent World.

In any case, I opened my status page to see how much I had truly grown in this short time I used by absorbing half a Chaosworld worth of Chaotic Energy.

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[Peerless Support System (MAX)

Energy Reconnection: 2nd Realm (50%)

Universal Rank: Rank 3 Transcendent

Strength: 476.8(768) 

Endurance: 486.7(793.4)

Intelligence: 105(127.7)

UPL: 931.04

Updated Skills:

Inherent Awakening (System)

Imperial Subjects (Physique)

Spirit Bestowal (Spirit)

Energy Inheritance (Psyche)

Elemental Disciples (Elemental)]

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After leaving the sub-dimension, I was greeted by the dark place Atlantis had become after the Artificial Intelligence turned off to recuperate from using up his stored Source Energy to power up the place.

Thankfully, I got the Legacy from Huang and included there was an emergency exit that I could use. Or… I could just exercise the World's Will's Authority to open a portal out of this place.

With the Artificial Intelligence and the gigantic machine down, this place was now harmless. Those Automatons were back to being lumps of metals.

Nonetheless, accessing this place from the outside would be near impossible.

Well, to not disturb this place until its next opening, I refrained from opening a Portal inside and just moved myself to the location of the Emergency Exit.

Perhaps it's wrong to call that Emergency Exit. It's actually an Escape Route in case this place was raided by enemies a lot stronger than Huang.

When I reached that passageway, it appeared to be an ordinary wall. However, just by standing in front of it, the small storage device that I got from Huang as part of his Legacy lit up and shined towards the wall.

As if recognizing its master, the wall emitted mechanical sounds before seemingly cracking as it gradually opened, revealing a door.

Without hesitation, I entered it and an obscure water tunnel appeared before me.

This was supposed to be invisible if one was looking from the outside and it would lead to a place that was far away from Atlantis. It's an Escape Route so… it ensured the safety of whoever would use it.

By the time I reached the end of the passageway, I already messaged all of my Companions including those not on Earth like Ophelia and Lexie to check and ask them about the gains they received from the Shared Growth.

Apart from that, I also responded to Alwyn's messages that I forgot to respond to because of how I was fully focused on absorbing. At first, her message was only annoyed that she was actually sent by Illiana to retrieve something and she's asking me for advice on whether to land on a planet with Source Energy or a Chaosworld. But as time went by, the woman became angry and began nagging at me. And that was most of the contents of her messages.

However, the final message I received from her told me that she was running out of time so she was going to land on the planet with Source Energy instead.

Starting with an apology as my response, I sent her successive messages to ask about her situation.

However, even after an hour had already passed, I still hadn't received an update from her.

I had no idea if she landed successfully or if some mishaps happened. However, given that her crystal was still intact, she's still alive wherever she was at the moment.

Perhaps she was only upset with me that's why she's not replying but… I couldn't help but worry. She might not be my Companion but I owe her my life. Moreover, she was sent on a task that was supposed to help me. I couldn't just turn a blind eye to that.

"Should I contact… Illiana? But I have no means to do that at the moment."

After sighing deeply and shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I stepped out of the passageway and returned to the surface.

I could wait for at least a day, if Alwyn remained silent, I had to assume the worst and look for a way to contact someone from the Dark World. And I already had a certain someone in my mind…

Remilia.