Divine Path System

[Superhuman L7: 10k/10k (+0.2k)

Space L7: 10k/10k (+k)

Lightning L7: 10k/10k (+1k)

Plantae L7: 10k/10k (+0.5 k)

Psychic L7: 10k/10k (+1k)

Macrokinetic L7: 10k/10k (+1k)

Water L 7: 10k/10k (+1k) ]

[This is the status before your fight with the little wolf.] The system's voice sounded.

'Hm?' Varian raised a brow.

Each floor had dozens of regions and hundreds of monsters. Luckily, they were restricted to their own turf and didn't come out.

So, he could clear a region, and rest for a while before going to the next region.

That's why, while Varian only cleared 11 floors in a whole day, he had faced thousands of foes already.

Most of them were weak and didn't contribute anything.

But each floor had a handful of monsters that helped him greatly. And he cleared eleven floors.

So, it's no wonder his stats went that high.

'What about after the giant wolf? I can feel the bottlenecks, but not too many.' Varian enquired.

Bottlenecks were like walls you needed to break.

If Level 6 to level 7 has six bottlenecks, then level 7 to level 8 should have 7.

But Varian felt only four or five for each path.

[The insights from Sia and Sarah, especially Sia, who already cleared these bottlenecks have helped you skip a few of them.

The paths you have in common with Sarah also got a boost since her experience was different from yours and in some ways, more thorough.]

'Oh? Synergy is useful like this, eh? Good, good.' Varian's expression brightened.

[Once you hit the bottlenecks, the insights were taken into account, so your current status is:

[Superhuman L7: 2/7 (Due to Sarah's experience)

Space L7: 3/7 (Due to Sia's gravity path which belongs to the same vein as Space)

Lightning L7: 2/7 (Mainly Sia's darkness path, Sarah's water path to some extent)

Plantae L7: 1/7 (Synergy)

Psychic L7: 4/7 (Sia's psychic path insights)

Macrokinetic L7: 2/7 (Insights from Sia's psychic path)

Water L 7: 2/7 (Insights from Sarah's water path and Sia's darkness path)]

Varian was pleasantly surprised.

As a whole, the synergy ended up clearing 16/49 of the bottlenecks.

Nearly one-third of the work had already been done. Varian felt that he could clear up these bottlenecks faster compared to the ones of level 6.

'Once Sia reaches level 9 and Sarah comes out of her seclusion, we can dual cultivat—I mean, synergize again.'

It wasn't just him who got the benefits. Due to his seven paths, Sia and Sarah would also have a much easier time clearing the bottlenecks.

Bottlenecks were the major reason why awakeners that reached the peak of a path would have to typically spend a decade or two trying to advance.

Even if Sarah and Sia's talents were top-notch, they too would have to take a significant amount of time to clear them up.

But with Synergy, the one thing that took away most of the time was removed. So, their progress would truly skyrocket.

'We'll be better prepared for war. We better win, if we lose…' Varian's expression turned grim.

Even in the worst case, he could take the people close to him and escape in the ghost ship.

But.

'Humanity will cease to exist.'

The early years after blink were strife with conflict. Nuclear wars, viruses, comet, murlocs, and terrorism. They were years filled with death and destruction.

Humanity was close to becoming history.

Even then, with a tenacious will, they survived.

With the advent of abyssals, humanity nearly went extinct.

Driven out of their moons, space cities, and planetoids, humanity was confined on the planets like animals in cages.

If not for the Heaven's will selecting the sovereigns, humanity would've been extinct.

But it took nearly three decades for Sovereigns to appear.

In those thirty dark years, no human believed they were going to survive this. It seemed as if it was their fate to be destroyed.

But they refused to yield to that fate.

They kept fighting.

Man or woman, young or old, strong or weak, no one stayed behind.

When their families perished, they went to the battlefield.

When their friends vanished one by one, they gripped their weapons tighter.

When life was leaving their bodies, they poured all their strength for one last attack.

It was this desperation, this collective will that kept humanity alive until sovereigns appeared.

They died for children of the distant future.

For the people they'd never meet.

For the people who wouldn't remember them.

Yet, they willingly sacrificed their lives so that their ending could become a new beginning.

Varian would never know whose sacrifices were allowing him to be alive today.

'But I do know that they don't want mankind to perish.' Varian took a deep breath.

'The future rests on me.' Varian's shoulders sank from the invisible weight.

When he was a child, Varian wanted to become an emperor. The ruler of the entire race.

But it was only now that he got a gist of what it entailed to be shouldering the fate of an entire race.

Varian closed his eyes and thought about his future.

His eyes snapped open after a minute.

Without wasting another moment, Varian smashed a talisman and exited the tower.

At the exit of a giant red tower were four abyssals headed by Ron. The others who wanted to follow were instructed to go back by Mendis who noticed their absence.

"Why did he come here all of a sudden?" Vella, rank 2, asked with a curious expression.

"…I spoke about war yesterday," Ron said.

"He wants to go train than hunt?" Vella tilted her head.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to. All this time, he was training after all." Ron rubbed his forehead and said.

"If he isn't coming, we'll go by ourselves." Osbert, rank 1, shrugged.

"Since we came so far, let's check the rankings at least." Trak, rank 3, suggested.

"Fine. Fine."

So, the four abyssals ended up in front of a list magically engraved on the tower.

There were three lists in total and they were looking at the first list, showing the performances of level 7 across the eleven floors.

1. Tren

2. Holly

3. Sidne

4. ….

5. …

6. …

10. Travis

…

…

16. Osbert

24. Vela

33. Trak

….

100. Jill

This list was an all-time recorder. It made the difficulty in climbing to the list that much harder.

Unlike humans who were growing stronger with each generation, abyssals were more or less stagnant in their overall power.

So, even though this list was reset in 300 YAB when abyssals came to the solar system, it covered over two centuries of geniuses.

How many level 7s had the Dark Tower witnessed in these two centuries?

More than fifty thousand.

To get into the list, you need to be top 100—0.2%.

"Do you think he'll make it to the top 50?" Vela, the rank 2 abyssal, asked with a curious expression.

Despite being ranked second on the hunting list, she only managed to reach 24 on the dark tower list. Even so, she was deemed as one of the brightest.

"Top 50? He could enter, but it's too early for him." Trak, the rank 3 abyssal shook his head.

The three of them cleared all but one bottleneck and were on the verge of clearing even that and entering level 8.

So, in level 7s, they were already the strongest they could be.

What about Var?

According to rumors, he was only at peak level 7 and didn't break any bottlenecks.

"Right, Prince Ron?" Trak asked.

Ron thought for a moment before shrugging. "Maybe he did break bottlenecks. No one saw him fight his best."

"…"

There was an awkward silence in front of the tower.

The guards watching them from the distance were also curious. They didn't know the prince they let in casually had so much potential.

"If he's at the peak of his strength, maybe he can reach the top 10," Osbert said with a chuckle.

"Top 10? Are you kiddin—" Trak swallowed his words abruptly.

If archduke Mendis praised him so much, then maybe…

"Your father's rank might be snatched by him." Osbert clicked his tongue and smiled at Ron.

Ron looked at the name on rank 10.

10. Travis.

'Dad…' Ron smiled lightly.

"Well, he's brilliant, alright. His record so far has been excellent. But top 10 is really hard. Maybe 25." Trak scratched his cheek.

25. Jera.

"Oops, it's your grandmother, Prince's Ron." Vela smiled.

"Yours is really a lineage of great warriors." Osbert complimented as he gazed at another rank.

15. Ron

Father 10, Him 15, Grandmother 25.

Three ranks in the top 25 were held by a single family.

'Even though Ron spent so much time for his sister, he reached 15th. If he didn't, I'm sure he'd be top 10. Even top 5 is not impossible.' Osbert sighed inwardly.

As the four abyssals were chatting, the list gave off a brilliant light.

One by one, the names began moving and the list began writing itself from 100th.

Since this happened, it only meant that Var entered the list!

"Woah! He did it."

The name of the 90th rank was written.

But.

"I can't find him?" Trak was confused.

80th name.

"He really broke bottlenecks, huh?" Vela narrowed her eyes.

50th name.

"How many bottlenecks did he break, I wonder." Osbert rubbed his chin.

40th name.

"40?" Ron was confused.

30th name.

"Holy fuck, he crossed me!" Trak saw his rank drop from 33 to 34. "Are you fucking kidding me? He's really stronger than me, top 3?"

Hearing Trak's remarks, the expressions of the remaining three grew heavier.

There were just random rumors that Var was strong enough to be in the top 3. No one took them seriously.

But here they were.

What the fuck?

It didn't end there.

"Oh fuck!" Vela cursed, drawing the attention of the three. With a shaking finger, she pointed. "M-My rank."

Rank 24 Vela was now rank 25.

Ron's grandmother was pushed to rank 26.

Var was really in the top 25!

"My rank too?" Osbert rubbed his eyes.

Rank 16 Osbert fell to rank 17.

Then the next name, showing rank 16 appeared.

16. Ron

"F-Fuck!"

Rank 15 Ron fell to rank 16.

"You must be fucking kidding." Ron couldn't believe Var was already so strong. He knew Var had more potential, but he always thought he was yet to grow.

But now…

Rank 10 Travis, Ron's father, fell to rank 11.

"Top 10! Oh my…"

They eagerly searched for his name in the top 10.

Was it tenth or was it ninth? But…

"Top 5? Kill me!" Vela yelled.

No one reacted to her words.

They were all staring transfixed at the ranking. Even the guards stopped their duties and were staring at the list from behind.

The top 5 rankings appeared one by one.

5. Riven

4. Sidne

3. Holly

The ranking list seemed to pause for a moment.

Everyone held their breath as their eyes shone with boundless curiosity.

This was it.

This was the moment they were waiting for.

Was Var rank 2 or….

2. Tren

"DAMN!"

"FUCK!"

"WOAH!"

Even before screaming the rank 1, the abyssals let out gasps and screams of bewilderment.

As if to stand true to their reactions, the name did appear.

1. Var

With emotions in turmoil, the four abyssals and two guards stared at the name with mouths wide open.

When the truth finally appeared in front of them, they were shocked to the point they didn't know what to say anymore.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Even when the sound of footsteps sounded from behind, they didn't turn around.

Even when someone tapped Ron on his shoulder, he didn't turn around.

Ron's eyes were fixed on the screen like he was frozen.

So, when someone blocked the screen, he scowled and was about to curse before he realized who it was.

"V-Var?"

Hearing that name, the three abyssals, Osbert, Vela, and Trak gasped and clung to his arms.

"Boss!"

"Future Demon King!"

"Master!"

"…."

Varian was confused at first, but after glancing at the list, he realized what was going on.

But his expression didn't change much.

Freeing himself from their grip, Varian tapped his bracelet and a message popped up.

[Let us go hunt. The final three Xanders. They're on my hunt.]

"Y-Yeah…" Ron was barely able to respond.