Chapter 519: New Talent, Rock Core Barrier

In the Cultivation Chamber.

A new prompt appeared as the interface popped up. Lu Chao’s consciousness jolted. Soon, he felt a familiar pulling sensation and let it draw him deep into his mind.

Once again, he saw that boundless darkness, and the phantom of a giant towering in the center. Stars formed its veins and skeleton. A golden-rock flame beat within its heart, pale silver light covered its feet, and a scarlet hue pierced its chest. In the center of its mind, a bright blue light flickered constantly, flowing in silence.

Witnessing this scene, Lu Chao’s eyes flickered, his curiosity growing ever stronger. He had lost count of how many times he had seen this reflection of his own soul. Every time he came here, he couldn’t help but marvel like a creator, wondering what kind of mighty power had granted him such an extraordinary anomaly. The thought flashed through his mind. He pondered for a few seconds but found no answer, eventually shaking his head.

His gaze then fell upon the four pillars stretching up to the heavens. Different colors represented different dimensions. The four pillars of light stood around the giant’s phantom like colossal trees propping up this realm. At this moment, several bright badges were already embedded in the thick, trunk-like pillars—representing his eight awakened talents: [Resilient Body], [Titan’s Power], [Hunter], [High-Efficiency Skill], [Barbarian]…

Lu Chao scanned them, his eyes sweeping over the four pillars one by one. Up to now, the violence dimension already had two mid-level talents, satisfying the anchor conditions for a subsequent High-level Talent awakening.

[Prompt: The mid-level branch progress of the violence dimension has reached 50%!]

Recalling that prompt from last time, it was obvious that the number of mid-level talent awakenings in the [Potential Progress] was not limitless. He guessed that four awakenings per dimension would be the maximum.

Since that was the case, Lu Chao shifted his gaze to the remaining three major dimensions. Undoubtedly, awakening one more mid-level talent in each of the other dimensions and biding his time to gather the requirements for [Potential Fission] would be the fastest way to awaken a High-level Talent. This was far more cost-effective than focusing solely on a single dimension, and the resulting boosts would be far greater.

With this in mind, Lu Chao’s gaze steadied, finally resting on the golden-rock pillar stretching to the sky.

“The survival dimension…” Lu Chao muttered to himself. For now, his talents in the violence dimension were sufficient. Moreover, he thought of his previous battle with that warrior of the Clare People. The Electromagnetic Kinetic Energy Weapons from the Starry Sky were terrifyingly powerful, surpassing the scope of low-speed gravity weapons and even shattering the powerful defense effect of [Titan’s Power]. If it weren’t for [Resilient Body], he probably would have been severely injured.

“You’re the one,” Lu Chao said, locking his gaze as he made his decision.

The next instant.

BUZZ!

The world trembled.

As if sensing his choice, the golden-rock pillar erupted with a blinding light. The gray fog surrounding it parted as if pushed away by invisible hands, revealing several dormant gray badges. In the random selection process, all the lights flickered erratically before finally converging onto a single badge. Like rust fading away, the dull gray dissipated. The golden-rock light illuminated inch by inch, ultimately pouring entirely into that talent badge.

[Talent Specialty: Rock Core Barrier!]

[Quality: Mid-level — Survival Dimension!]

[Effect 1 — Physical Resistance: Physical damage resistance permanently increased by 35%. You will mitigate most standard physical damage taken, including but not limited to firearms, Superpower melee damage, and beginner-to-mid-tier energy weapons!]

[Effect 2 — Rock Core: When taking damage, your body will naturally accumulate [Rock Core] energy. Each valid attack endured adds 1 layer of Rock Core (maximum of 20 layers)!]

[Effect 3 — Barrier: When you consume Rock Core layers, you can enter the Barrier state, increasing bodily defense by 50%-240% and granting immunity to physical negative status effects such as hitstun, knockback, stun, and imbalance!]

[Prompt 1: The defense boost of the Barrier state is positively correlated with the number of Rock Core layers consumed. The more layers consumed, the stronger the boost!]

[Prompt 2: The duration of the Barrier state is positively correlated with the number of Rock Core layers consumed. The more layers consumed, the longer it lasts!]

As the sequence of prompts appeared before him, Lu Chao digested the talent information word by word, a gleam gradually shining in his eyes.

“Rock Core Barrier…” The effects of this talent were even better than he had anticipated. First was the 35% physical damage resistance. Not only could it stack with the powerful defense effect of [Titan’s Power] to reduce the damage from more firearms, but more importantly, it could also reduce damage from energy weapons. For instance, it could weaken the threat of the Clare People’s Electromagnetic Kinetic Energy Weapons by thirty to forty percent.

His eyes lighting up, Lu Chao continued to process the information for the other effects. [Rock Core] and [Barrier State] were undoubtedly powerful means of boosting his defensive capabilities. They allowed him to convert incoming attacks into Rock Core energy. After stacking a certain number of layers, he could consume them to increase his defense by a maximum of 240%, and even become immune to many physical crowd-control effects.

Without a doubt, this perfectly complemented [Ten Thousand Jins Return Flow]. One allowed him to stack power for counterattacks, while the other let him accumulate energy to fortify his defense. While others would grow weaker as injuries piled up from incoming attacks, he would only grow stronger the more he fought, continuously converting his enemies’ power into his own.

“Excellent.” Nodding to himself, Lu Chao grew increasingly satisfied. This talent truly lived up to its mid-level tier. It paired almost perfectly with [Barbarian] and flawlessly covered the stamina shortcomings of [Titan’s Power].

[Prompt: The mid-level branch progress of the survival dimension has reached 50%!]

Unsurprised by the new prompt, Lu Chao thought to himself that it was exactly as he had expected.