Cosmic Peak

After the Ruin Bringer was destroyed, a loud blast occurred that sent Aren flying because he was just 15 meters away from the impact.

[Ruin Bringer Weapon destroyed. 30,000 Exp gained.]

*Puchi...*

-4358

Aren's health decreased his this blast was an energy wave blast that raptured his organs and caused internal bleeding.

After spurting blood, Aren halted himself from shooting backward by controlling [Weimbus] and saw that the power nucleus was surrounded by a barrier and was perfectly fine. It was glowing brightly and rapidly descended.

[Two objectives completed. A portal gate as opened near your location.]

Aren saw a portal appearing on the ground right below him. However, right after that notification and voice, he heard another.

[Destroy the power nucleus within two minutes. If you fail, then you will die.]

"so that's how it rolls? Cough...," Athan muttered before spurting some more blood. A few [Health Potion] tubes appeared in his hand as he drank them to heal his body before taking all the gears from his Armalist Drive's inner space.

He started making basic attacks with [Destruco] and [Lech] while he approached the Power Nucleus and started punching it.

[Pyrin] and [Miren] were out of the question because he didn't want to waste the little spirit energy he had left, and attacking with those two rings consumed a bit of his spirit energy with each attack.

-6784 (Destructo)

-3404 (Lech)

-1874 (Aren's punch)

The power nucleus had tough physical defense as well, which reduced the physical damage dealt by his weapons and his punch.

After fifteen seconds, Aren's punch damage started to get lower since he was using his full strength and punching was about using his body's energy, aka stamina. Since his stamina started to decrease, his punching strength started lower as well. Naturally, it was not a deep decrease but a small one of 100-150 damage difference.

After another thirty seconds, the durability of Power Nucleus finally decreased to 0, and it was destroyed.

Right after that, he got several notifications with voice.

-----

[Congratualtions! You have completed all three objectives and have completed the dungeon.]

[100,000 path and normal exp gained.]

[A skill box containing a random skill (A-SS) related to the dungeon added into your inventory]

[An ancient key with unknown use added into your inventory]

[A Skill Fusion Stone added into your inventory]

[A box containing a random grade force level 2 spirit stone added into your inventory]

-----

Aren looked at the rewards and wondered if they were really worth the loss he suffered.

Shaking his head, Aren didn't leave the dungeon right away but sat down at the edge of the cliff to get some fresh air and a gentle breeze.

He took out [Fortuna-Infortunium] gear and pointed it at himself to check the stats.

[Aren]

-Current Luck: 3

-Lifespan: 150 years.

'Since it's only 9, then I should use the Dream Infortunium bullet. Depending on the result, I will open the boxes,' Aren thought before he closed his eyes and started meditating.

After a bit over half an hour, Aren recovered his Armalist force to full and opened his eyes.

He consumed 1000 Armalist force to produce a Dream Infortunium bullet in the revolver and shot himself.

A gentle sound of an object traveling in water with buffed bass sounded from the revolver as a colorful wisp released from its barrel and hit Aren in the middle of his forehead.

After a second, Aren heard the notification about his luck and sighed.

[Your current luck: -54]

He wanted to curse his luck, but he was tired, so he just stood up and floated by manipulating [Weimbus] and entered inside the exit portal that spawned after he destroyed the Power Nucleus.

...

Lord and Tarrox were sweating bullets for Aren when they saw -54 luck of Aren.

"Don't tell me he forgot about its effects?" Lord frowned, "if he doesn't do anything, then he will die."

"Lord! Please, you must save him," Tarrox looked at Lord and spoke pleadingly.

"I can't do anything. Just watch," Lord said indifferently and coldly.

Tarrox clenched his fist and hoped Aren would realize his situation before the disaster-hit him.

"Oh?" Lord was surprised and smiled, "looking at his ugly expression, I think he realized his situation."

...

Indeed. After Aren arrived outside from the portal, a certain realization dawned on him, and his expression turned ugly.

He hurriedly took out the random box of spirit stone and opened it.

After he opened the box, it disappeared, and a notification appeared with his voice.

[congratulations! You have received a common-rank force level 2 spirit stone]

[Error! The spirit stone clashed with the transferring process into your inventory due to a faint space fluctuation, causing it to be destroyed before it could enter inside the inventory allocated to you.]

Even though speechless about this incident, Aren sighed relief and checked his luck with the revolver.

[Aren]

-Current luck: 4

-Lifespan: 150

"What would have happened if I continued traveling while carrying that -54?" Aren muttered and slightly shivered as he didn't want to think about it.

Shaking his head, Aren put away all of his gears except for the shield on which he decided to stand while flying. He controlled the shield [Hexshira] and his armor [Weimbus] both.

On the other hand, Tarrox sighed relief as well while the Lord nodded with a smile, "It looks like he didn't disappoint us. However, he will soon be disappointed when confronted with his meridian's situation."

...

Aren arrived back into the Underworld city, and without wasting his time, he directly went to the Apocrathy District.

In that district, he entered inside Rusai's All-encompassing Apocrathy Center.

After entering, he went to the registration desk.

However, before he could speak, the woman behind the desk shook her head with pity while looking at Aren, "young man, It will not be easy to heal and recover your lost meridians channels."

"You can tell?" Aren was surprised, but his expression turned determined after a second as he spoke, "please tell me the ways to fix my situation."

"The damaged meridians can still be healed, but some of your meridians channels are totally destroyed," the woman who looked to be in her thirties spoke with a helpless smile, "there are only two ways to fix your problem. One is the Meridian-Mystic Flower, but you will never be able to get your hands on this flower. I will tell you reasons later."

Aren interrupted as he asked hurriedly, "what's the second way?"

"The second way is also very hard but still easier than the first one," the woman said, "you need a bloodline orb of epic-grade and above."

"Epic-grade means bloodline orb of an Epic lifeform person, right?" Aren asked with doubt, "but lower lifeform than Epic like Exceed or Supreme would also work, no?"

"Nope," the woman wryly smiled and shook her head, "Only when one reaches an Epic lifeform can they create a Bloodline orb to pass to other people and add them to their ancestry line. If a mortal was born with a bloodline, then it means that that mortal's ancestor was at least Epic or above. The strength of that bloodline depends on its concentration in that mortal."

"I see...," Aren nodded slowly with a disappointed expression.

"There are two clans in this city with Epic lifeform ancestors. However, creating a Bloodline orb is a very exhausting process, and after creating it, that ancestor gets weakened for a year. Another thing is that if you receive a certain bloodline orb, you naturally become a part of that clan," the woman explained patiently.

"However, getting a Bloodline orb by asking a powerful clan who already have one stored or begging for it is still easier than getting that flower," the woman continued as she explained the difficulty of getting that flower, "that flower grows randomly, and by using it, you get four affinities depending on that flower's colors on top of reconstructing your meridians into the highest grade ones."

"Oh?" Aren was surprised, but he was disappointed as he understood the difficulty of getting that flower, 'I can't waste time searching for that flower when the despair is imminent in less than two years and ten months.'

"Thank you for the information," Aren thanked the lady before he left the clinic with weighted shoulders.

"He only had three years to get as strong as he can, but he lost his meridians early," the woman muttered with a pitiful expression and shook her head, "saddening indeed...sigh."

...

On the other hand, Aren returned to the inn where he had stayed before and entered the room before lying on the bed.

He first wanted a good sleep before anything else right now.