Chapter 213: Awakening (1)
Chapter 213: Awakening (1)
"How certain are you of doing this?" Agnes asked, brows furrowed.
"Hmm, about fifty-fifty," Warden answered, holding the container of Quintessence of Light. "Pretty good odds, wouldn't you say?"
"I still think that it's a terrible idea," she said, studying the array layered on the barrel-shaped construct Warden completed last night to help him awaken his lineage power. Ignoring its misshapen shape, the array was one of the toughest stuff he had built.
The captain certainly didn't understand the art that went behind for it to come to fruition. "Void and Light attributes don't mix well together."
Warden knew that. His void energy would likely swallow down the light whole, but he had a sinking feeling that there was more to it than just that. The light-attributed power of the celestial was something special. It wasn't simply light, but the Light of life, of creation. It was radiance.
While void might seem opposite at first glance, it wasn't directly so compared with Darkness and Death. If he could make his Radiance power as strong as the void energy capacity, he felt there wouldn't be a problem wielding both powers.
"I never heard of people awakening contrasting power," she muttered. "Even if they had, they didn't survive to tell the tale."
Honestly, Warden was a little iffy about using the quintessence of light inside the subspace. However, considering it would take at least a week to advance to the next layer, he thought they could afford to spend a couple of days on this. Besides, his radiant power would aid in hunting the moon spawns.
"Well, it's not like you are going to die or get yourself crippled," Agnes said.
Warden was not so sure of that at first. That's why the array. It had taken a lot of his creative brainpower to come up with it and a lot more effort to carve it into the huge barrel, which he would use to channel the quintessence of the light.
"OK, let's begin," he said and poured exactly two grams of the quintessence into the array. As for the intensity, he thought for a moment and set it at 10%.
Ten percent of a gold rank quintessence was something only silver rankers could endure. But considering Warden was more resilient than your usual ranker, on top of having the Void vanquishing physique, he deemed 10% would not be a problem for him.
Agnes frowned at him without replying, calm disapproval evident in her gaze, but she wouldn't stop it even if it was stupid.
Warden removed his janitor's attire, afraid it would be destroyed. He didn't have the same fear for [Maya's Protection]. With everything set, he entered the barrel. Agnes stood outside in case anything went wrong or something attacked; she could deal with it with ease.
He turned on the array, and immediately, blinding golden light crashed into his eyes. It was was an intense fiery sensation that spread throughout his being. It felt like his whole body was set ablaze. An overwhelming sense of danger flowed through him.
The ordeal lasted about a couple of seconds. His void energy moved on its own, coursing through his body, and swallowed up the light, as Agnes had feared. What surprised him was how Maya's protection reacted to the light; it too absorbed it, making it easy for Warden to withstand the intensity.
The two grams of quintessence lasted for about a quarter of an hour at 10% intensity. By the time it finished, Warden found his void essence had weakened in some form. He would certainly regain it; it would just take some time.
Surprisingly, the quintessence of light had transformed a small part of the power into thin wisps of light-attributed energy. The change was so minuscule that it couldn't even light a candle.
But a smile crept up on his lips as he considered.
"It's working," Warden said as he emerged from the array. The pallor of his skin had already recovered; now only a hint of sweat remained with a reddish glow.
"I don't believe you," said the captain.
Warden grinned. He raised his index finger and channelled the newly transformed energy. A twinkling little light appeared above his index finger, causing Agnes to frown in surprise.
"Is this a trick or something?" She asked. "Even for people with no attribute, it is terribly harder to acquire, and you did it in just like 10 minutes?"
"Perhaps, Captain, we both have underestimated my light affinity."
Well, he certainly did underestimate that. Even with all his hopes and wishes, Warden did not think it would work on the first try. He was prepared to go the long way if his first few attempts failed, but it appeared all he needed was more intensity of light.
"Are you going to get into that again?"
"Obviously," Warden said as he began removing his light armour. "The armour is light-attributed. It was absorbing much of the intensity before it could stimulate me."
Agnes nodded as he entered the array again, this time bare-chested. The intensity is set at 20% on this occasion, with five grams of the quintessence.
Warden triggered the formation, and it was an even more intense feeling than before. It was akin to being burned in a master blacksmith's forge. Light crashed into his eyes, blinding him; it surged through his skin and into his system. Void energy came to battle against the invading force, both equally impressive.
But it was the home turf for void energy. Although Warden restricted some capacity of his energies just so that the quintessence could stimulate him further, void energy claimed victory in about a quarter of an hour, though it had ravaged his skin and muscles swelled up, his channels ravaged with burning intensity. It would take at least an hour to heal them completely.
This time, a whole lot of his power had weakened, and replaced by light-attributed energy, which wasn't necessarily strong enough to be threatening to a person, but at least could illuminate the dark.
Hopefully, he could grow more. There are still 93 grams of the quintessence left for him to use.