Chapter 1849: Compensation?

When Valyr received the skill Zenith gave to him, the first thing he felt while looking through the notifications was confusion.

After all, the skill he got was called the [Seven Realms Origin Essence Physique]. Not even one word on the skill had anything to do with the Full Cycle Ether Gathering Technique that he had come to know.

But, as he gave the name a bit more thought, the young man soon had a feeling that the skill was far more powerful than he initially thought.

Of course, whether or not that was true would still need him to go through its description. However, just from the fact that the name of the skill involved the concept of realms...

That was enough to tell him that he had struck it big.

However, just as he was about to take a look and see what made it different from the Full Cycle Ether Gathering Technique, a gut-wrenching pain wreaked havoc all over his body, only to then gather towards his head a second later.

"Aaaaggghhh!!!"

Although Valyr already had experience putting himself through intense mental strain, the amount of mental strain he felt right now was far greater than the times where he had pushed his mind to the limits.

For reference, the past times where he had gone through intense mental strain would make him fall unconscious once.

In comparison, the indescribable pain he was feeling at that moment gave him the feeling that falling unconscious a thousand times in a row would not even diminish its strength by a single percent.

Then again, compared to going through this mental anguish while conscious, the young man would’ve preferred being knocked out unconscious by the searing pain.

Yet, no matter how much he surrendered his body and mind to the anguish he was currently feeling, his consciousness did not succumb and fall asleep whatsoever.

Because of that, he was left with no choice but to grit his teeth and bear through it as much as possible.

"Fuuuuuuccccckkkk!!!"

For the next few minutes or so, the young man felt as if his mind was being scorched by the hottest flames in the universe, only to then alternate with the coldest temperature the universe could muster.

At the same time, he felt as if multiple lightning bolts were striking against his head every second, giving him the feeling that his head had turned into a watermelon that had become prey to a massive sledgehammer.

Fortunately, at the exact moment he felt his head burst just like a watermelon, the pain wreaking havoc in his mind finally began to subside, allowing him to take in a wide breath of fresh air.

"Holy hell..." Valyr muttered to himself as he waited for the pain to fully subside. "Is this some sort of trial I have to go through before I could truly obtain the skill?"

As the thought lingered in his mind, the young man shifted his attention towards Zenith, who looked back at him with both concern and shock in its eyes.

Though this did not fully dispel the suspicion he had towards the being’s actions, Zenith’s reaction told Valyr at the very least that the suffering he had just gone through was unexpected even for the being.

"Haah..." Letting out a soft exhale as the pain finally disappeared, his expression became solemn as he looked at the being in front of him with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn’t do it." Understanding what the eyebrow meant, Zenith shook its head. "What you went through had nothing to do with me."

"Really?" Valyr continued to look at the former with suspicion. "But from the looks of it, it seems like you were expecting it to happen."

"Expected? A bit." Zenith nodded. "However, that expectation was from the conjecture Veradine had made before her death. Though she had the feeling that the one that accepted it would have to go through a trial, she never expected it to be so... harsh."

"Harsh is a gross understatement," the young man could not help but reply, recalling how he briefly entertained the thought of ending it all at the time.

Then, seeing that the being before him had fallen silent, the young man decided to return his attention back to his notifications...

Only to find out that a long string of them had appeared.

"What the..."

Going through them one by one, Valyr’s eyes eventually widened in both shock and fear the moment he read that the Apparatus had tampered with the skill.

’It tried to remove the skill?’ the young man asked himself, his expression that of confusion. ’Why, though?’

As he continued reading, he saw that the Third and Fifth Administrators had made a move to stop the skill from being removed, prompting the young man to inwardly thank the two once more for their hard work.

However, on the next notification, the Apparatus mentioned that the Administrators had already stopped it from removing one of Valyr’s skill in the past. With that, it told them that Valyr would need to go through a trial first in order to keep the skill.

To that, the Administrators agreed.

’Wait...’ As he went through these specific string of notifications, a memory from the past began to resurface in his mind.

Specifically, the memory of him heading to the Four Pillars’ Inheritance to obtain [Eyes of the Sagacious One].

’So... this is the second time the Apparatus has tried to remove a skill,’ thought Valyr to himself, causing him to scratch the back of his head as he gave it more thought. ’Realizing that doesn’t really change anything.’

’What I really need to find out is why the Apparatus is trying to remove the two skills from me.’

From the limited number of times he had used [Eyes of the Sagacious One] in the past, Valyr could confirm that the skill was immensely powerful at his current level.

However, that power came at a massive cost that pushed him to the brink of death.

Considering that the skill he got related to Azradas had that kind of mechanic, the young man had a feeling that the skill he had just received would possibly revolve around a similar mechanic.

But if it’s just the fact that the skills were immensely powerful with similarly immense caveats, then that didn’t make sense.

’What does the Apparatus see in those skills?’

As the young man pondered over this question, the young man eventually noticed that the Third and Fifth Administrator had sent a couple of messages to him.

Considering how it was at the end of the string of notifications he had received, Valyr had a feeling that their messages would talk about it for a bit.

With that, he went ahead and opened their messages, curious to find out more about what he had just gone through.