B.F.HUUPS
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Chapter 49
🕑 Added 2025-08-03 20:03:26 +0000 UTCFrom all around, the toxic fumes rushed toward him, and a smile formed on Aaron’s face. He still had work to do with his senses, but he had learned all he was going to from this mana. Further improvement would require exposure to various Skills and mana types. So, for now, he was happy to make this trial a little more exciting.
Oozagh’s powerful breath wasn’t going to save him from this, he quickly realized. Whatever was pushing this attack toward him was well and truly compensating for Aaron’s countering Skill.
And since it was flooding toward him from all around, there was only one solution to buy time as he came up with an idea. He had to go up.
Jumping into the sky, Aaron took the opportunity to test [ Gust Step ] out a little more. He had gotten quite fond of treating the trials like his personal training ground. Who knew how opportunities would present themselves to him once he left this place? Might as well make the most of it while he could.
Activating [ Gust Step ], he bounced up and into the clouds above. Each step didn’t consume much MP, but it would get somewhat costly to spend extended periods of time in the air. Also, any additional mana costs whilst fighting and using Skills were something to be cautious of. Still, he was able to escape the fumes up here for quite some time, and he had plenty of food and adipose stores to replenish himself with.
It was actually a pretty nice view, he thought. Rolling fields dissected by small patches of forest went on for as far as he could see. It reminded him of what he imagined the English countryside to look like, save for no buildings. In fact, that was kind of weird. The landscape was clearly manicured, but no signs of civilization were about. Then again, the trials never seemed to care much about following logical rules.
The shrill howl reverberated through the air again, and Aaron could feel the monstrous mana coalescing below him. It obviously wasn’t happy with his method of escaping, and a moment later, a powerful wind blew it upward.
Aaron hadn’t imagined that any Skill could be this powerful if wielded by a powerful user, but he could sense the absolutely ridiculous amount of mana all around him. The entire countryside had been filled with these poisonous fumes, and now they were about to engulf the air above.
He continued upward for a while, attempting to outrun the fumes, but the mana cost of [ Gust Step ] grew more and more expensive, the higher up he went. Not to mention, he had no idea how long the trial would go on. However, the cost of flying with the Skill grew cheaper as he consumed mana from his fat. As he grew lighter, the Skill required less mana, and he maintained his natural reserves by draining adipose tissue.
Time was still on his side for now, but Aaron knew that if things continued as they were, he’d be back in the hallway soon.
He had a wild idea and decided to pull a serving of Tainted Chili Con… Everything from his pouch and consumed it.
Combining a lick of fire from his flaming pot, he used his [ Oozagh’s Breath ] attack and blew a massive wave of flames down at the climbing fumes. Why did he do this? Well, he sensed something in the mana that told him it’d work.
He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but the longer he spent around the mana, the more attuned he became to it. For a second, he pondered the origin of this ability. Perhaps dying so many times to so many different attacks had acutely tuned his senses to energy itself, opening a door to a new sense.
He was only on the precipice of this breakthrough, but he understood the importance. If he could sense the kind of mana or stamina being funneled into a Skill, then he could potentially understand how to counter it more effectively.
But for now, he was fighting to survive and had barely a second to think on these thoughts. And as it turned out, the toxic fumes were indeed very flammable. His breath set off a chain of explosions that rippled across the horizon and blew him back like he was facing off against an impossibly powerful, destructive force, as if he were Hiroshima, and it was Little Boy.
Aaron was flung through the sky like a cartoonish ragdoll. If not for his superhuman strength, he wouldn’t have been able to fight against the G-force to feed himself desperately.
Skin peeled from his body, and burns rippled across his skin. The force of the explosion broke bones and crushed limbs. But somehow, very, very, very painfully, he survived the ordeal. Barely, though.
For a moment. An odd moment. He hadn’t even intended to do what he was doing, but it was like he was hanging onto his soul, anchoring it down to his broken body.
His eyeballs moved just enough for him to take in his own gory scene. It was horrific. But why wasn’t he dead?
It mattered little because several seconds later, the toxic fumes rolled back across the land. In his battered and basically dead state, Aaron could do little, and the fraction of life he hung onto was severed.
Gasping as he awoke in the hallway, Aaron wondered what the hell had happened. He had felt it. He should have died, but he hadn’t. He had been entirely broken and was essentially hanging onto a corpse, but still. He had refused death.
He wasn’t sure how he did it, though, and the feeling was elusive, similar to when he’d seen himself in his ghostly form. It was something he would think about, but not something he could get stuck on at this moment. Especially because Aaron had a feeling that whatever it was, it would eventually reveal itself as he continued to die against the trials.
Not only that, but he had a clear goal to work towards. He wanted to continue honing his senses against the mana in the toxic fumes as he worked toward completing the trial.
If he could fully dissect the nature of the mana, perhaps he could come up with a more effective means of combating it. A means that didn’t end in his death.
Rushing back to the trial, Aaron cleared his mind and focused on the fumes rolling across the land.
A similar scene played out, but he wasn’t worried. Each death brought him closer to unlocking a new secret of the multiverse, and a little pain was a small price to pay.
Interestingly, it seemed that the toxins directly attacked his Vitality. Not just his HP, but Vitality itself, damaging health regeneration as well as killing him.
Over his next deaths, he learned about the poison that took his life and how its mana worked. Gradually chipping away at it and understanding its makeup.
He felt how it moved, the energy that pushed it across the land, and how it was formed. The airborne toxins didn’t need to be breathed in; that would make surviving them too easy. No, they could easily poison him through his skin.
Soon, he even got a feel for how much mana was used when using the Skill. It was a gigantic amount, but that was hardly surprising. The fumes filled the entire trial and traveled up high into the sky. Aaron could only imagine how powerful one would need to be to use such a Skill.
Whether or not there was somebody behind it, and whether or not they could be found and killed, wasn’t a concern. He was close to a breakthrough, and he would continue pushing until he reached it.
Dozens and dozens of deaths followed as he grew to understand the toxins on an intimate level, and with that knowledge, he fiddled with his mana sphere.
Making minor adjustments, he changed how it worked, using it more as a literal force field against the toxins.
It was no easy task, and many deaths followed as he tweaked his mana output, but eventually, it happened. The toxins assaulting him were held at bay.
Still, it was far from easy. The barrier was raw and undefined. Not a true Skill, and therefore, was wasteful and imperfect, draining his mana away.
But luckily for Aaron, he had his [ Faux Core ], [ Adipose Fusion ], [ Conductive Gut ], and mana anchors cycling energy simultaneously as he continued to feed himself.
He had a natural advantage against this trial now that he had figured it out. No one was pressing an attack, and therefore, he could focus on eating without disruptions, maintaining a consistent mana supply.
Even so, this was a fifth-stage trial, and the toxins grew stronger, pushing against his barrier with renewed vigor as the hours dragged on, and Aaron grew increasingly skinny.
But he could hold out much longer. Closing his eyes, he entered a meditative stance and focused on his control of the mana sphere and cycling his mana as he continued to eat.
It was an amusing sight. A man with a seemingly limitless hunger, eating constantly as his body grew skinnier, and skinnier. His bones protruded and his face grew gaunt, but he soldiered on, shutting down non-essential parts of his body to conserve energy as he fought back the toxins.
He had learned what he needed to, and now it was time to finish the trial. Though it was not clear how easily he would be able to employ this technique in the future.
It had taken a tremendous amount of time to understand this attack, and simply learning this technique far from guaranteed he’d be able to instantly understand attacks coming at him in the future, but at least he had his foot in the door.
Aaron's eyes sprang open. He was still reaching into his pouch with shaky, bony, skin-taut hands for food and eating whatever he pulled out.
But he’d done it, he already knew. And he forced himself up on stick-thin legs as a smile crept across his face.
“Not—too—shabby,” he muttered with a full mouth as he dusted off his clothing.
Stage five of [ Trial of Endurance ] COMPLETED!
You have tested yourself against the deathly toxins of a poison world and managed to survive.
Quest Rewards: Ongoro’s Special Spice Blend [ Elite ], Crafting Station upgraded to level 5!
Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!
Ding!
[ Brawler ] has LEVELED UP!
22 → 23
Aaron nodded approvingly as he read the notification. Even though he had wanted to start leveling at a faster pace, he knew that what he had learned was worth it in the long run. Besides, pushing himself like this was what he needed to do if he wanted to achieve the best possible evolution.
His Class evolution was only two levels away now, and every ounce of effort would pay dividends.
F grade was nothing in the grand scheme of things. E grade evolution was the true foundation, and if he set foot on the right path, it would have reverberations that would continue throughout his progression. Such value could not be underestimated.
But it wasn’t just his Class he had to worry about. A Profession was an invaluable asset that could help elevate him far beyond what the Class could do alone. And both evolutions needed to be treated seriously.
What is Ongoro’s Special Spice Blend anyway? Well, I was on the hunt for more ingredients.
Aaron’s smile widened. He had felt like his Class was on the right path for a while now, and so anything that helped his Profession catch up was more than welcome.
Let’s get this done! Final run toward evolution!
Comments
Adhoah Cinnidhlaoch-McCoinnich
I love the imagery here, so good, tftc!
