Chapter 2: Chapter Two: The Return of a Prodigy

Chapter Two: The Return of a Prodigy

"Hey, faded prodigy. What are you doing here? Still feeling delusional that you’ve evolved? Hahahaha, quit dreaming. How about this? Come, be my guard and I’ll give you a high pay. Also, I have a high-grade body and my potential is limitless. I’ll probably surpass level 100 in the future and it’ll be your honour to serve by my side." Mocking laughter resounded as soon as Valen stepped into the testing hall.

Tracing the source, Valen realised that it was the lean young man who had exited the large hall within a few minutes.

However, Valen only smiled in ridicule. Surpassing level 100? That was a legend in this world. It was researched and confirmed that those with a high-grade body had a slight possibility of reaching that height and those with a peak-grade body had a higher possibility.

But in the end, it was all possibilities. This is why many people sought to enter the Astral Veil. Only in that legendary land of opportunities would one have a chance to attain higher body potential and evolve beyond level 100.

Yet, some wannabe dared to claim he could surpass level 100? Quit dreaming!

Valen shook his head and was just about to ignore him, when, out of the corner of his eye, he sighted two distinct figures. One of them was a youth with a frosty air around him, his long black hair freely flowing down. The other was a red-haired teenager with a casual expression on his face.

At this moment, everyone was observing Valen—including them.

’Now I can’t put on a disappointing performance in front of them, can I?’ Valen thought, massaging his forehead.

The black-haired youth and red-haired teenager were both people he wanted to recruit into his future guild. If he were to ignore the lean young man’s arrogance, it might be viewed as cowardice and who would follow a cowardly leader?

’This is just too troublesome. Now I have to prove myself in front of everyone to regain some face.’ He thought with annoyance filling his heart.

Now that he had evolved, every minute was precious. He needed to make a lot of preparations, but he had to waste time here, proving himself. However, he really needed talented recruits, so he couldn’t blame anyone for that.

Valen didn’t display any of his annoyance. On the contrary, he smiled faintly, like a kind neighbour next door. Then he asked in a calm tone, "How about we have a little competition? You’re confident, aren’t you? Then let’s prove it through our grades in the evolution assessment. Are you up for it?"

"You? You want to challenge me? If it were three years ago, or even a year ago, I would’ve had to admit defeat even though you never evolved. After all, your legend of possessing a peak-grade body has been undefeated by any, so who knows if there’s something special about it? But today you actually regressed so much that you came out of the hall within the last batch of people. I’m certain that you possess a low-grade body now.

Even if you endured the filling up of your body, you would only possess a mid-grade body at most and even if you evolved, you wouldn’t be able to exert too much strength. So what qualifications do you actually have to challenge me?" The lean young man shook his head, his initial arrogance vanishing and being replaced with utmost seriousness. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Valen was a bit taken aback. Turned out the lean young man wasn’t an obnoxious fool as he had initially thought.

’I guess what father had written in his notes about never underestimating anyone was true. Well, this young man is not a lost cause after all. This wouldn’t be a waste of my time.’

As he thought this, Valen’s smile widened while his gaze towards the young man changed significantly. He nodded and replied to him; "It’s of no use hiding it right now. I’ve successfully evolved today, so I want to check my evolution path using the humanity system. I may have indeed regressed quite a bit, but I don’t think it’s by much. What do you say about the challenge?"

Valen’s words sent a significant ripple amongst the crowd of onlookers. Those who stood by the side with the hopes of enjoying a show subconsciously stood up straight. The ones who had disdain in their eyes quickly retracted it. A pindrop silence had also enveloped the testing hall.

Everyone was indeed shaken by this announcement. Three years ago, Valen was once renowned as the world’s greatest genius after his father— the Dragon Slayer— because of his peak-grade body. He was literally born to absorb energy. With such a body, he had a chance to reach heights which even his father, who had slain a dragon, couldn’t.

But shortly after his potential-rating, it was realised that Valen couldn’t evolve. No matter the amount of energy he absorbed, it was useless as his body was like a bottomless pit. It could fill up, but could never trigger an evolution.

So, everyone gave up on him, thinking it was a flaw of his peak-grade body. Only Valen was seemingly unwilling to resign to reality. Each month, he would continuously undergo the potential-rating like a madman, wanting to evolve, but it was useless. Yet now, he had successfully evolved!

Although people mocked Valen for being a ’faded prodigy’, it was due to their jealousy. After all, holding the crown of the world’s greatest genius was something to envy, even if it was only for a short time.

However, if Valen were to have truly evolved, then it would be a news capable of shaking society to its core. Everyone shuddered, glancing at Valen with both fear and unwillingness.

Was the world’s greatest genius really back? No! They couldn’t and wouldn’t accept it. They must defeat him and claim that title of themselves. Otherwise, their vanity wouldn’t be at peace.

Valen could sense the change in everyone’s expression and the mad glints in some eyes. Even so, he didn’t particularly mind. Their reactions weren’t something he should concern himself with. Right now, his aim was to grow stronger rapidly and claim a similar legacy to his father.

He was only willing to waste some time with the lean young man because he needed to keep up appearances so recruiting experts wouldn’t be difficult.

The lean young man took a step forward, his expression solemn as he stretched out a hand. "I accept your challenge. Just don’t regret it later. Also, my name is Edward."

"Don’t worry. I’m not a sore loser. I’m Valen." Valen stated as they shook his hands.

This was the basic courtesy when challenging others.

Following which, the small crowd parted. The hall was just a long corridor with doors on opposite sides. Currently, a few rooms were unoccupied, so he and Edward chose two separate rooms.

Valen touched the door with his thumb and a green light scanned his fingerprint. Slowly, the door slid open, revealing a white room.

Without hesitation, he stepped in. This wasn’t his first time here. The door quickly closed behind him, leaving him alone in the room.

The moment the door sealed behind him, silence swallowed the room.

Valen stood alone in a space so white it felt slightly unreal. There were no visible machines or panels, just emptiness.

Then, a faint hum sounded beneath his feet and a cold, emotionless voice echoed from everywhere at once.

[Subject detected. Identity confirmed: Valen. Username: Night Star. Initiating Evolution Path Assessment.]

Valen exhaled slowly, clenching his fists.

’Here it comes.’

Although this was not his first time here, all his previous tries had yielded no results and this inevitably left a scar in his mind, causing him to inadvertently fear failure.

[Test One: Body]

The air gradually grew heavy and even a novice would sense it.

At first, it was formless and pressed against his shoulders, as though wanting to push him down.

Then it slowly doubled... and tripled. Then quadruple and soon, his knees began to bend slightly as an invisible force came crashing down on him.

[Applying gravitational pressure... 2x... 5x... 10x...]

The cold, emotionless voice of the humanity system resounded throughout the room. Its only job was to collect data and since that was unfulfilled, it wouldn’t care about the subject... at least for now.

The floor beneath Valen groaned, but it was well-built to withstand such pressure. So, in the end, it was only a groan.

A normal human would have collapsed long ago, but Valen gritted his teeth and did his best.

His muscles tightened, veins surfacing along his arms as trophic energy instinctively surged within him. The previously clogged-up energy now slowly began to flow, reinforcing his bone and flesh.

Soon, he felt the weight on his shoulders significantly lighten and he gradually stood up straight.

Shock flashed within Valen’s eyes. He felt that his strength wasn’t normal. He knew of the gravitational force applied by the humanity system. Right now, it was 15x and yet, he could casually withstand it after the trophic within his body strengthened him.

Initially, he could barely endure 5x, but now he could deal with triple that! Every increment in the gravitational pressure was literally astronomical as a normal human could only bear about 3-4x with the best of them reaching 5x at most.

Just as he began to marvel at his strength, the cold voice of the system reached his ears.

[Evaluating physical durability...]

[16x... 18x.... 20x... 22x]

A faint crack immediately echoed. Glancing downwards, Valen’s eyes sharpened. The floor beneath him had actually cracked—albeit faintly.

He gritted his teeth. This... was nothing! Three years! Three whole years of his body being filled, and subsequently being emptied of energy, over and over again. Yet, he had endured! This level of strain and pain? HE. COULD. ALSO. ENDURE!

All of a sudden, the pressure vanished, causing Valen to stumble forward. Still, he held himself from falling.

Once again, the system’s voice sounded as a blue screen popped up before him:

[Test One Completed]

Result: Peak Threshold

Strength — 2x standard (Level 0.07%)

Stamina — Peak Threshold

Durability — Peak Threshold

Bone Density — Abnormal

Muscle Efficiency — 200%

Cellular Regeneration — Active

Energy Absorption Efficiency — 200%

Energy Retention — 99%

Stress Adaptation — Exponential Growth

...

Energy Resistance — Extreme

[Note: Subject needs 5x-10x the amount of trophic to evolve compared to others.]

Valen massaged his forehead as he stared at the rows of words floating in the air. When he read them, he felt both excitement and gloom.

Excitement because he actually possessed twice the stats of those at his level, meaning he could match a Strength Path Evolver, but the system hadn’t deemed it his evolution path. So, there was a chance he had evolved through more than one path.

Gloom because he finally realised why he hadn’t evolved for the past three years.

As it turns out, his energy absorption efficiency was 200%, but his energy resistance was extreme. Coupled with that was the fact that he needed between 5 to 10 times the amount of energy to evolve compared to others. Who wouldn’t feel gloomy?

However, the system gave him no chance to think more on this, as its cold voice, laced with indifference, returned.

[Proceeding to Test Two: Speed & Reflex]

Valen exhaled slowly. He was slightly excited. In all his previous tests, he hadn’t cleared Test One, so he didn’t know the contents of Test Two.

A sharp click echoed, then small holes appeared on the walls of the white room, sending chills down his spine.

Before he knew it, five thin, needle-like rays of condensed light shot toward him at terrifying speed, from unsuspecting angles.

Valen’s pupils shrank as he surged into motion. His body moved and he evaded one ray, then he lifted an arm and evaded the second. He stomped his foot on the ground, leaping backwards, and evading the third. Then he outright plastered himself to the floor, just in time to dodge the fourth.

For the fifth ray, Valen rolled aside, placing all strength into his arm as he pushed himself upwards, remaining mid-air for a split second.

But this split second was enough to evade the fifth. The next moment, Valen was back on the floor, inhaling wildly to catch his breath.

However, he soon noticed something wrong. His gaze searched and to his shock, all the five rays had turned around and shot towards him once more. This time not sparsely separated but had come together to encircle him.

Not only that, a sixth ray had even joined their midst at some unknown time. Even so, he wasn’t one to be underestimated.

Although he hadn’t evolved, he had still trained diligently for the past three years. Resources weren’t a problem for him. Not only was his father’s wealth enough for him to live well for the next dozen or so years, his grandfather was also an evolver and had a small fortune of his own.

So, training his body to the utmost peak of a normal human had been no trouble. The rays, no matter how fast for now, were still within the limits of a normal human. Hence, Valen evaded them with a bit of difficulty.

However, what made him nearly spew blood in anger was the fact that not one, but three rays had now joined the fray, and the speed of the previous rays had more than doubled.

Too fast. It was simply too fast.

Before Valen could comprehend, they were already before him.

*****

A/N: Please vote with power stones.