To use his own life and death as a mere resource in his preparations did feel odd to Jake, but in truth, he had no other choice. Valdemar was simply too overwhelmingly powerful for Jake to possibly defeat him in a single attempt, and Jake also suspected he was just a straight-up cheat, as while he didn’t use any skills... well, it wasn’t like the S-grade Valdemar fighting the Malefic Viper in the vision had used many either. The only real thing Jake remembered him using was that Fang of Man skill, along with what Jake assumed to be a self-made brew to help cleanse the toxins.
So, all Jake could do was keep dying as he accumulated knowledge through several deaths.
When he only had five lives remaining, Jake fully confirmed that Valdemar had indeed entirely transcended the limitations of a G-grade human body. For Jake, in his current state, having a kneecap broken or his tendons severed would make him unable to move properly, even if he could force some movement using his internal energy. The action would be stilted and far slower than usual, though.
Valdemar did not have these same limitations. During this life, Jake had managed to fully destroy his one kneecap during a borderline suicidal attack, only to see Valdemar continue running toward him, the entirely crushed knee somehow just holding up due to the golden aura. Ultimately, he concluded the only way to limit Valdemar’s range of movement was to cut off a limb entirely... or some-fucking-how kill him outright.
As for how Jake could accomplish that one? Well, he had hoped that his big arrow could be a solution... so when he had four lives remaining, Jake stayed at his own entrance area as he took out his quasi-Protean Arrow and began charging his skilless Arcane Powershot before Valdemar even entered the arena.
It was a bit scummy, but he had to at least give it a go. Valdemar had walked up to the arena as Jake finished charging the attack. Without hesitation, he had let it go, only for Valdemar to laugh loudly as he took it head-on. Axe met arrow as a massive explosion rocked the arena, sending destructive shards of arcane mana flying everywhere as the large arrow fragmented like a grenade.
When the dust settled, Valdemar still walked out of the cloud of dust, small wounds covering his chest, but otherwise completely unharmed, his body burning with golden aura. So, in conclusion, Valdemar swinging his axe really hard was roughly equivalent to Jake’s strongest attack...
That life had ended pretty quickly after that, as Jake had caused some self-damage with his quasi-Powershot, making him a tiny bit slower than before, which naturally resulted in a rapid demise. Jake did get a bit more experimentation in during that life, though... because he had noticed one thing already several lives ago.
While Valdemar’s stats were through the roof, he was lacking in Perception. The arrow Jake had shot up that hit him in the collarbone hadn’t been a one-off... so that was where Jake could focus. He would exploit the one weakness he had found to land meaningful blows and hopefully pull out a victory that way, if possible.
When he had three lives remaining, Jake began to implement some level of proper strategy as he also finally did something he should have done far earlier. While Jake wanted to figure out how the hell Valdemar’s Transcendence worked and had done many things to test it, there was one thing he had neglected to try:
Just asking the guy.
After a few clashes, Jake found himself on the backfoot but also managed to land some hits. So far, the fight hadn’t gone terribly, and Jake finally questioned the Primordial.
”How does that golden aura of yours even work? It’s a Transcendence, right?” Jake asked, in all honesty, not really expecting any answer. It was actually pretty dumb of him to even ask. Why would someone like a Primordial just tell some random mortal something like tha-
”System does sure call it a Transcendence,” Valdemar nodded as he looked to really rack his brain for a moment. ”As for how it works... well, it just does.”
”It.. just works?” Jake questioned the pretty empty statement with a deadpan expression.
”Oh, look at you judging! Then tell me, how does that weird mana of yours work!” Valdemar asked, crossing his arms.
”Well, it’s an arcane affinity, so it’s pretty normal that I don’t know exactly how it works,” Jake answered promptly.
”So you don’t know how it works,” Valdemar stated with confidence.
”I do know what it does,” Jake mumbled. ”I can make it stable and destructive, making it either incredibly durable and practically a physical object, while the destructive variant deals incredible damage.”
”That just sounds like normal mana,” Valdemar scratched his beard. ”Ya sure ya didn’t just accidentally color your mana purple or something?”
”Pretty sure I didn’t,” Jake sighed. ”And it’s inspired by normal mana, it’s just... more.”
Valdemar just smiled, his facial expression full of satisfaction as if he had just won some major argument. ”As I said... ya don’t know.”
Jake felt kind of defeated arguing against a guy who didn’t rely on logic, as he countered. ”Well, I answered you, so at least tell me what your odd golden aura does. To me, it just looks like it somehow makes you stronger.”
”It’s my fighting aura! It’s from my fighting spirit!” Valdemar grinned widely. ”At least that’s what I call it.”
For the first time, Jake truly kept up and fought back with vigor. He landed several devastating blows, nearly ripping off Valdemar’s arm at one point, even if he lost his own in the exchange, and successfully stabbed him a few dozen times. All that coming after he landed quite a few arrows. For a while, it looked like he could truly fight equally with the Primordial - a while being a good fifty seconds, in this case, before he reached his limits. His resources began to run out, and his body could no longer take the forceful circulation of destructive energy as it began to fall apart. He didn’t even have the time to die to his own skill, though, as Valdemar’s axe finished the job before nature had the chance to take its course.
One life remaining.
Jake chose to return to the day he issued the challenge when he revived. Not because he needed the extra prep time but because he wanted to spend the time getting in the best mental state he could while also enjoying his remaining two weeks with Artemis, Owen, Polly, and even chatting with the Battlemaster. No matter what, the next fight would be the last.
After two weeks of relaxation, Jake was back in the Colosseum. During this period, he had tried not to think too much about the fight... but as he walked down the tunnel toward the arena, he felt his own heartbeat begin to speed up. This time, there was no trace of fear or trepidation but only pure excitement.
Jake was down to his final attempt. A final duel with the most powerful level 0 human alive... or, hopefully, the soon-to-be second-most powerful level 0 human alive.
It was time to find the one true Grand Champion of the Colosseum of Mortals... no, the true Grand Champion of humanity.
The level 0 G-grade version of humanity, anyway.
“That last match was impressive,” the Wyrmgod commented. “Better than I expected... but not quite enough. Not against Valdemar.”
“Yeah,” Minaga nodded. “We did kind of overdo it with this Grand Champion, didn’t we? Even if we did try to even the playing field by not necessarily requiring them to kill him and giving him his memories.”
Vilastromoz stayed silent as he just observed. He didn’t really have any questions about why they had done as they had with him retaining his memories and all. There was zero risk of him showing favor to people from his faction or other humans. Valdemar would never surrender just to give someone a free win... his honor simply wouldn’t allow it. In fact, it was potentially the only way to allow anyone to beat him.
“Say, Vilas... do you think Jake can win?” Minaga asked, clearly not that confident himself. “I would have said yes under normal circumstances... but Valdemar’s Transcendence is... yeah.”
The Viper thought for a moment before smiling and waving off the question. “It will be tough no matter what, but wouldn’t I be a horrible Patron if I didn’t even believe in my Chosen?”
He said that, but in truth... Vilastromoz had no idea. It was two people full of unknowns fighting, and based on their talk during Jake’s third-to-last life, he got the feeling anything could happen. Jake had his Bloodline that could do something ridiculous, while Valdemar had his Transcendence. Something that the Viper also had to admit he didn’t comprehend.
Transcendent skills came in many forms. Jake already knew of his swordsman pal, who had an interesting one he could activate to temporarily experience a change. The Undying General was a person who could activate his Transcendence to make himself impossible to kill for a period, while the Transcendence of Eversmile was a skill that could be activated to completely destroy someone, effectively erasing them from the Records of the multiverse. Or, as a final example, Aeon who could activate his to truly stop the very concept of time for a period.
And while these were all incredibly powerful, they all had one keyword attached: activate. They needed to be used. One needed to trigger them, with every use having some associated cost. Often something extremely valuable or even an antithesis to what the skill did. They were all skills no one would use haphazardly but always saved as their final ace.
Even the Holyland created by the Holy Mother had a great cost associated with it. Not only did keeping the skill active cost a lot of the faith energy she absorbed, but Vilastromoz also knew she had to pay an astronomical cost when she first established it, and should the Holyland ever get damaged or be destroyed entirely, remaking it would prove extremely difficulty and costly, to the level of his fellow Primordial potentially considering it impossible.
However... to this date, Vilastromoz had no idea what the hell the cost of Valdemar’s Transcendence was. At first, he had thought if maybe the cost was a permanent sacrifice in intelligence and wisdom – and not the stats – but the man had proven uncharacteristically smart and wise at times.
He had come up with many more theories and even tested them. Was his simple fighting style a requirement? Was it some hidden special resource? Vilastromoz had even considered that he had entirely transformed his stamina and mana resource polls into a special new Transcendent resource... but none of them proved accurate.
The worst part was that Valdemar himself also clearly didn’t know. He wasn’t even sure when he got the Transcendence, making the Viper think it was potentially from before the system had even arrived. He just had it, and he used it all the time. This is where it truly stood out, and the Viper had realized something:
His Transcendence didn’t need to be activated. It was a passive skill. Vilastromoz had, in all honesty, not considered that Transcendent skills could even be passive before he met Valdemar, but the man had proven him and everyone else wrong. All while just shrugging it off like it was no big deal.
But... at the same time, the Viper also didn’t understand Jake’s Bloodline. Nor did he even fully understand his arcane affinity. It was two humans that truly puzzled him fighting, so the Viper couldn’t help but look forward to the outcome. To see what Jake could pull out of his ass this time around... or if Valdemar’s eternal bullshit once more proved superior.
“Since you said you believe in him, are you willing to bet on your Chosen?” Minaga said, the forever-opportunist. “I like Jake... but I vote on Valdemar winning the duel. I’ll even give you good odds.”
The Viper considered for a while as he looked at Jake walking down the tunnel. In the recording, he saw him walk with steady steps as the Viper saw the look in Jake’s eyes and just smiled.
“You’re on.”