Chapter 60: The First Halo

[Ding!]

[The Event ’Bishop Emergence!’ has completed!]

[Quest 1: Reduce the Casualties in Wynthalor! — Completed!]

[Quest 2: Contribute against the sudden attack! — Completed!]

[Quest 3: Help the Bishop escape the city! — Completed!]

[Ding! Granting suitable Reward according to contribution rate and completion of the quest...]

[Ding! You have got a passive ability ’Absolute Resistance’!]

[Ability: Absolute Resistance]

[Description: This ability helps you to resist against any form of corruption and poison attacks. The corruption will automatically convert into mana to enhance your strength temporarily.]

Alden didn’t even glance at the quest screens. His gaze remained firmly fixed on the battered Bishop lying in the ground before him.

"Are you not going to run away?" Alden asked casually.

The Bishop flicked his blurry eyes toward him, looking at the boy with a strange, calculating gaze. He slowly reached into his ruined clothes and brought out a crumpled teleportation paper. He placed the paper on the ground and marked it with a smear of his own blood.

"I don’t know why you are helping me, but thanks..." the Bishop muttered.

As he imbued his red divinity into the paper, the teleportation circle started to take shape in the air. Alden quickly stepped back, maintaining a safe distance.

"Don’t thank me. Thank your mom for ever birthing someone like you."

[Infinity Halo Art: 1st Halo: Implosion!]

Without wasting a single second, Alden punched forward! Stellar energy coiled tightly around his fist. As the spell dissolved into a flash of blinding light, the punch hit the Bishop’s body squarely. The bishop didn’t even get the time to react. A halo of energy gathered right around his heart, and his body imploded instantly! His bones crushed under the sudden, immense pressure. His face distorted in sheer agony as his heart and internal organs burst inside his chest. The last hint of life faded away, and his ruined body lay motionless on the forest floor.

"Huh... I didn’t think it would work on my first try, but it seems to really do the job."

Thanks to his earlier win against the Bishop back in Kaelian’s body, Alden had received a brand new martial arts technique. At that time, he fell unconscious before he could even check the reward. But after waking up in the hospital, the information had already flooded into his head automatically. He got a basic overview of how to use this new power, though he knew he had to put in the work to truly master it.

[Infinity Halo Art]

[Description: A supreme martial art that transforms your emotions, willpower, and mana into infinite halos. The stronger your conviction, the greater the might of each halo. Every halo unlocked represents a new stage of mastery, carrying an overwhelming authority capable of bending the battlefield to your will.]

Looking at the description once again, Alden felt a bit of a dilemma about how to increase his mastery over the skill. Since the technique relied mainly on the his emotions, he wasn’t quite sure how to harness that concept just yet.

Even just now, what he used was mostly a lucky fluke. He had already planned to kill the Bishop right after making him think he was escaping. Of course, why would he let an enemy go who had probably killed thousands of people and spread chaos across the city?

If he actually let him escape, he didn’t know what new troubles the guy would bring tomorrow. Plus, if anyone found out he had saved a Bishop, he would be declared a traitor to humanity. He wasn’t fond of becoming a hunted criminal in his current state.

His eyes fell on the Bishop’s dead body.

Suddenly, a thick trail of red divinity started to leak from the corpse and flew straight toward him! Alden tried to back away, but it was too fast. As he raised his hands to block the incoming energy, it hit his skin and started to absorb directly into his hands.

His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the red divinity sinking into his flesh.

"What the hell?! Why is it absorbing inside me?!"

Before he could even use his own mana to interfere and stop the red energy, the process was already over.

Alden stared at his hands and patted his body, frantically looking for any sign of mutating into a monster like that Heretic. He found nothing.

He stared blankly at the Bishop’s body, which was already starting to disintegrate into thin air. His mouth opened and closed, unable to find an appropriate answer to what just happened.

[Ding! All of your stats have increased significantly!]

[Ding! Your mana capacity has increased slightly!]

[Ding! You have achieved a minor breakthrough to C-rank!]

Hearing the sudden chime of the system, a sense of awe washed over him. He realized that for some reason, after killing the Bishop, he could absorb their corrupted power to enhance his own! He didn’t feel a single sign of corruption inside his body, which meant his new ’Absolute Resistance’ ability must have converted that toxic energy into pure mana to boost his stats.

’Wait, doesn’t that mean I might have also gained energy from killing those normal Heretics on my way here?’

Without wasting time, he opened his status window to check his current level.

[DING!]

[STATUS WINDOW]

[Name: Alden]

[Titles: None]

[Age: 18]

[Race: Human]

[Talent: Unclassified]

[Class: Swordsman]

[Rank: C-]

[Bloodline: Awakened!]

[Affiliation: Rising Star]

[Elements: Wind, Water, Fire, Ice, Darkness, Space.]

[STATS]

[STR: 152/200] [AGI: 154/200]

[DEF: 158/200] [INT: 172/200]

[HP: 700/750] [MP: 890/890]

[LUCK: SSS+]

[Techniques:

•Basic Swordsmanship (C-)

•Astral-Step (C-)

•Infinity Halo Art]

[Abilities:

•Growth-Acceleration (SSS++)

•Absolute Resistance (C+)

•Stellar Manifestation (C+)

•???]

[Skills:

•Hunter’s Mark (Rare Grade)

•Infinite Nexus (Divine-Grade)]

As his eyes darted over his stats, he couldn’t help but feel shocked. After breaking through to the C- rank last night, his stats were hovering around 100. But now, all of his attributes skyrocketed directly past the 150 mark! His mana capacity also increased forcibly. He was already overflowing and ready for a proper breakthrough since his core was full.

Without wasting another moment, he sat cross-legged in a lotus position right there on the empty forest ground. He inhaled the cool air, closed his eyes, and used his special technique to absorb ambient mana.

The secluded forest was the safest place for him to cultivate. His breakthrough wouldn’t be detected by anyone out here. The other students already knew he had advanced recently, and when an Awakener like him pushes through a major rank, the expulsion of impure mana often creates a small-scale explosion.

He wasn’t worried about hiding his actual rank either. With his system skill ’Absolute Concealment’, his true power would remain hidden from others. The only way someone could gauge his real strength was if they faced him directly in a real fight.

As his core greedily absorbed the natural mana from the atmosphere and flushed out the remaining impurities, he felt his core crack just a little. A wave of pure mana quickly swallowed the tiny cracks, healing the core in a second and solidifying the new rank. The breakthrough was a success! He opened his eyes and looked around the empty clearing.

Unlike a major breakthrough to a new tier, this minor breakthrough happened peacefully. No explosions rocked the forest. There was just a slight fluctuation in the mana, making the surrounding air feel a bit empty for a moment.

Alden stood up and stretched his stiff muscles. He looked around the one last time at the quite forest as he organized his thoughts.

’I should go back before the professors or the other students declare me dead.’

[Astral-Step!]

Concentrating mana into his legs, he took a deep leap through the fabric of space and teleported back toward the city limits!

The small forest clearing returned to silence, save for the swaying wind and the rustling grass. The chaos of Wynthalor was finally over, though several secrets and mysteries remained hidden behind the tragic event. As the pale moon lowered and the warm light of the morning sun started to rise over the horizon, a brand new day dawned. And with a new day, new troubles and problems were bound to arrive.