Chapter 178 First Trial [Ticking Time]

Day 3

Completing a 10-page long 'essay' to thank the creator of these trials in my diary, I got to work.

What work, you ask?

Scanning weapons and creating Constellations.

Why I'm not going into the sky to scout the area?

Hahaha... indeed I should do that. And then when the monsters, sensing my ether core, come after me, I'll run.

Oh, right! These bitches(uhm.. fitches?) despite being overgrown, were super-fast too, I guess I'll end up in their belly after a few minutes.

Yes, I should do that!

Why should I make preparations before doing anything?!

Sanity is overrated, anyway!

PS – I am using my device to count days. There is no concept of the night here.

*

Day 4

Constellations: 14

Number of Weapons: 80

Vial of Elixirs: 60 (Yes, I overstocked, never had been more glad)

Rations: 6 months (There is one more Trial after this)

I wrapped a thick layer of [Zero] around my core. I hope this helps me go unnoticed by the monsters.

*

Day 6

I traveled for 48 hours straight and made a few discoveries.

1. The space here is warped. I kept walking away from my initial position, but every time I go too far my mind becomes hazy and I'm suddenly back at my starting position.

2. The ground is dry. Not just dry, it's almost as if something sucked every drop of water from it.

I tried digging but got a similar result to my traveling. After going a few meters deep, I can't maintain focus, and then boom! I'm back above the ground and the ground is back to how it was before I began digging.

*

Day 7

I tried burying my stuff, but everything comes back with me above the ground.

There were a lot more things I tried, but nothing worked.

Result: The map has no glitches

*

Day 8

I decided to scout the sea.

My constellations now numbered 26 in number, but I knew I couldn't damage those fishes with them. My only choice was God-Killing Sphere.

Fortunately, after I sacrifice a constellation to God-Killing Spear, I can again create the constellation of its weapon. Thus, I had no shortage of constellations to perfect God-Killing Spear.

*

Day 10

My rations were 180 packets of SHTM packs. Each pack provides enough nutritional value to keep a horse running for the whole day. Additionally, the packs also fulfill our water needs.

SHTM food packs are made using highly developed alchemy. Thus one's body absorbs the whole thing without leaving anything as waste.

*

Day 11

Today I climbed in the sky using my swords and made two more discoveries.

There was good news and bad news.

Good News – The leviathans wouldn't come out of the sea. They sometimes jump out of the sea, but a part of their body will always remain underwater. I'm still not sure if this is by choice or necessity.

Bad news – The number of leviathans was decreasing.

Each day one leviathan will dive underwater and never re-surface.

Maybe there were only 15 leviathans in the sea.

But what was going to happen when their number reaches zero?

*

Day 12 and Day 13

I began building an underground tunnel.

As long as I don't go deeper than 5 meters, my mind doesn't become hazy, and the tunnel remains.

The tunnel was to hide myself in emergencies.

What emergencies?

I don't know, but with the number of leviathans going down daily, I feared the day they would vanish completely.

Using a blunt bastard sword as a shovel, I kept digging.

All that time, I had a weapon strapped to my body. I was digging and creating constellations at the same time.

With increasing [Understanding], I no longer needed to mediate and could create constellations while doing other manual tasks.

It took me hours of trial and error to create a 10-meter-long tunnel that didn't collapse immediately.

Tunnel(Shelter) – Obtained

*

Day 14

The ticking time was straining my nerves. I decided to train… a bit differently, to calm myself.

Training: How to fly

The leviathans were flying too high, but I could tell that they moved extremely fast.

If one day I needed to outrun them or kill them (I sincerely hope this wouldn't come true), I needed to be faster than them.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had a way to move faster than those monsters.

Shooting the weapons I construct is like firing a bullet. They slow down the farther they travel, and I have no control over them once I shoot them.

Theoretically speaking, if I climb on a weapon and shoot it, I could cover a lot of distance in one go swiftly. I did something similar in Underworld.

Let's say, I construct a new weapon while I'm standing on a weapon that has been shot and flying forward. Then, I jump on the new weapon and shoot it, too.

This was like standing on top of a train and then riding a bike there. The speed I would gain will be the combined speed of the train and the bike.

Also, if I repeat the process, I can accelerate endlessly. It is no different from saying there is no upper limit to the speed I can achieve.

There were demerits too. Once I start flying, I would not be able to stop and falling could lead to fatal wounds or possibly death.

However, *tada*, I had elixirs!

And here I had time too!

If I don't take risks now, then when would I?!

*

Day 15

I flew for 1000 meters while changing my ride(weapons) five times.

Result – Broken legs, arms, punctured lungs, sprained ankles and wrists, barely avoided breaking my spine and smashing my head open.

I think you get it… the first flight test was a failure.

I fell while flying.

Firing the weapon in the correct direction so that it doesn't fall too quickly, moving from one weapon to another in the middle of the flight, tanking the air resistance, not falling off, firing the weapons slower and slower to get off at the end, there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong.

But what actually went wrong?

My clothes.

They bloated up as too much air went into them too quickly, and I slipped from the weapon.

If I had to explain, it would be like parachutes. A parachute works by forcing air into the front of it and creating a structured 'wing' under which the pilot can fly.

Yes, I know, this is a result of air resistance too, but, in my defense, what threw me off was the air resistance working on my clothes, not my body.

Additional Result – 58 vials of elixir remaining

I'm continuing to perfect God-Killing Spear, enlarging the tunnel, and practicing flying.

*

Day 19

Four days ago was the day when the last leviathan would've vanished.

That day...

Rain poured and all hell broke loose.