Defiance of the Fall

o pills before eaten, and that scary fruit was probably one of them.
He had less than 30 minutes remaining, but he still spent 10 of those vigorously scrubbing off the foul gunk.
The smell was making him nauseated, which was saying something considering he could be covered in blood without noticing it nowadays.

Zac immediately discarded any thought of eating any more of the treasures as he stepped into the teleporter with a tired sigh.

[Eigth Floor Complete.
Upgrading Title.]

[Choose Reward: [Two Extremities Physique Array], [Divine Investiture Array], [Yin-Yang Arhat Soul Array]]

Zac found himself in the familiar black dimension, and he almost felt some wistfulness that this was the last time he would come to this place.
Of course, the wistfulness wasn’t brought on by nostalgia, but rather that this was the last of the rewards.
He first opened his title screen to sate his curiosity.

[Tower of Eternity – 8th Floor: Reach the 73rd level of the Tower of Eternity.
Reward: All stats +10, All Stats +10%, Effect of Attributes +10%]

The upgraded title was just as he had expected after seeing the change on the seventh floor, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit curious about what would change upon finishing the whole tower.
Was there a secret title waiting at the top after all? However, his attention was soon diverted from the Tower title when he noticed that there was a new addition to his ever-growing list of achievements.
And it was an odd one.

[Terminus – Gaze upon the Terminus.]

’

There was only a short description and no reward, the first empty Title Zac had encountered thus far.
Zac guessed the Terminus either referred to the lightning sea or the pattern that he could no longer remember, but he didn’t understand why the System would add a title if it wouldn’t dole out any Attributes.

Perhaps someone in the Base Town would know, but he felt that keeping this experience to himself was for the best.
Stuff like the Dao of Chaos involved the System itself and the peak individuals of the multiverse, and just talking about it might bring a calamity upon his head.

He could only close the title screen with mixed emotions and instead turn his attention to the three arrays up for grabs.
However, the rewards honestly had him a bit stumped.
He understood the words as he read them one by one, but he had some trouble understanding what they meant.

Zac was surprised that the rewards didn’t feel as tailored to his situation compared to the previous floor.
Truthfully, they even seemed worse compared to the ones he had been awarded after succeeding in the Battle of Fates, as each of them had represented a clear and almost immediate boost to himself or his force.

Was there an element of luck where you could either get a good set of reward choices or a subpar one? Or were the arrays perhaps even better than the 7th floor awards, but Zac was too ignorant to tell? He looked back and forth between the three options, and he felt some helplessness at the fact that he didn’t know what any of the three arrays did.

The first array, the [Two Extremities Physique Array], might be some sort of training array to form a unique constitution.
It might even be an extremely suited constitution based on the name.
Two Extremities could refer to life and death, or perhaps even Creation and Oblivion.
Remolding his body to be able to withstand the two remnants seemed pretty amazing.
That might just be wishful thinking though.

That would mean that the award was an upgraded version of the body tempering manual, an array that would directly awaken a life and death constitution.
However, there was another possibility, based on the wording of the first and third rewards.
One was called a Physique Array, and the other a Soul Array.

That kind of wording was a bit reminiscent of War arrays, and it made him remember something; the Fire Golem down in the Underworld.
Parts of its body had been engraved with crude fractals, and he had learned this was a common way for constructs to improve their power.

Was the same thing possible for humans? Was it perhaps an array that would be engraved to his body, somehow boosting it beyond its normal capabilities? He guessed something like that would work like a synthetic constitution or something, where it provided similar boosts.

Whichever way the array worked the end result was most likely the same.
It would probably directly increase his combat power by improving his body, almost like having a private War array.
It would give a direct and convenient boost to his Strength, and it was definitely a viable choice.

’

As for the [Divine Investiture Array], he had no idea.
Judging by the name it might be something that could improve a person or an item.
Divine Investiture, maybe it meant that it could bestow Heaven’s Blessing.
Perhaps it was something like the array that he had passed when he climbed the 8th floor, but a greater version? Or was it related to fate?

Getting the System’s blessing didn’t sound too bad right about now, and it sort of felt like the System owed him one after the last two levels.

Then there was the final reward, one related to the soul.
He would have preferred one that mentioned caging rambunctious slivers, but this one rather seemed geared toward taking advantage of the odd scars covering his soul.
It seemed to be based on the concept of duality just like the Constitution Array, but he had no idea what a ’Soul Array ’ could do.
Did it improve one ’s control over the Dao ’s, perhaps?

It did however include the word Arhat, which was a Buddhist term.
He didn’t know if what would cause any issues with his cultivation or his recently acquired manual, but he guessed that anything he got from the eighth floor would be compatible with him.
An Arhat was a perfected being who had reached enlightenment, so perhaps the Soul Array would be able to push his soul to a perfect state?

Advertisements

Zac looked back and forth between the options, but he truthfully didn’t need to look too long before he decided on the third option, the [Yin-Yang Arhat Soul Array].
It wasn’t that he felt it was perfect for his situation, as he honestly had no idea what it did, but he’d obviously take anything that helped his soul at the current juncture.

The other two options were probably great as well, but they were luxuries compared to a necessity.
His arm reached toward the hovering prompt in front of him, but he suddenly froze in shock as the silence of the special dimension was broken.

[First choice will grant you power.
Second choice brings rectification of regret.
Third choice will lead you down an alternative Path]

Zac didn ’t know how to react when he heard the emotionless voice in his head.
A year had passed and he had almost forgotten those early days of the Integration, but it all rushed back to him at that moment.

The System was once again directly speaking with him.