Chapter 356: Outsmarted?

[Flow Master Talent Orb (SSS Rank)]

[Just know that I’m praying for your downfall. I hope that your luck in encountering powerful monsters becomes as bad as your luck is good in getting rewards.]

[Effects: Improves your ability to sense Flow of magic spells by 500%.]

Alex couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he read the effect. This was exactly the kind of reward he needed, especially after everything he had experienced during the Trial.

Considering its difficulty and the skills he had been forced to develop to complete it, receiving a Talent related to sensing the Flow of magic spells seemed rather appropriate.

He immediately summoned the Talent Orb, which appeared as a small sphere containing slowly moving patterns of mana. Without wasting any time, Alex absorbed it, feeling a strange sensation pass through his mind before gradually disappearing.

He then opened his Status and checked the Talent section. Sure enough, Flow Master had appeared alongside his other two Talents.

‘I wonder how many Talents a single person can possess,’ Alex thought, feeling quite pleased with his rewards.

If the slots were limited, which they likely where, he wondered if it was possible to fuse Talents to free up Talent slots.

As he closed his Status, Alex noticed that his emotions had returned to normal, and his Will was no longer in the unusual state it had entered earlier. Desire Independence had finally worn off, but he could somehow sense that he would be able to activate it again after a day had passed.

‘That’s convenient. It means I don’t need to find another fruit to enter Desire Independence again, although I’ll have to wait a day between each use.’

With his Will returning to its previous state, Alex also realized just how much Neural Overdrive was improving his senses and thinking speed. He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, observing the difference, when a familiar voice interrupted him.

“Alex?” Yulia called out, quickly approaching him. “You’re back already? How was the Trial? Did you see the others, and do you know how they’re doing?”

Alex smiled briefly upon seeing how worried she looked. Yulia was usually quite calm, but whenever something involved Joseph, her husband, she seemed to have difficulty maintaining that composure.

“My Trial wasn’t combat-related, and I had thirty days to complete it. Fortunately, I finished it in one day, so I don’t know what would’ve happened if I had failed to meet the deadline. I was alone throughout the Trial, so I think everyone was sent into their own individual Trial,” Alex explained.

Yulia asked several more questions, and Alex answered them as best as he could. She seemed particularly surprised that he had returned so quickly, although Alex couldn’t tell whether completing the Trial in one day was actually unusual.

After speaking with her for a while, Alex ate something. He confirmed that he could not re-enter the Trial, then prepared to leave the Sunken Vault. One day had already passed, and according to their earlier calculations, the Second Assessment might begin in another six days.

Since they would need at least two days to bring Ascenders into Hell Difficulty after conquering the portal, that left them with approximately four days to hunt the Mountain Spiders.

‘There’s barely any time left, and we still have so much to do,’ Alex thought, feeling somewhat rushed by their tight schedule.

He quickly left the Sunken Vault and searched the surrounding area until he found a Low Rank Dungeon. After clearing it, he located another nearby dungeon and completed that one as well.

The two dungeons gave him an opportunity to become more familiar with Gerindas Wand and Neural Overdrive. Although he hadn’t completely mastered either of them, he was already beginning to understand how useful they could be.

‘Now I have enough Origin Energy for a round trip,’ Alex thought after checking his reserves.

He returned to Earth, handled several matters that required his attention, and made sure to feed his second body. Once everything was taken care of, he traveled back to the Land of Origin.

‘Now, I should get started with the preparations—’

Alex suddenly stopped walking, his eyebrows drawing together as he sensed something strange brushing against his body. It felt as though he had passed through something, but when he looked around, there was absolutely nothing nearby.

Even his Mana Vortex hadn’t detected anything unusual, which made the sensation even more confusing. Alex slowly waved his hand through the air, and this time, he clearly felt something brushing against his fingers.

He examined his hand carefully but couldn’t see anything attached to it. However, with Neural Overdrive enhancing his senses, Alex was certain that he hadn’t imagined the sensation.

‘It’s almost like I’m moving my hand through… spiderwebs,’ Alex thought, before suddenly freezing.

He immediately looked around again, this time paying much closer attention to his surroundings. Although he still couldn’t detect anything, his instincts were warning him that something was terribly wrong.

At that moment, Alex remembered something strange from their previous encounter with the Mountain Spiders. When his group had entered their territory, none of the smaller spiders had attacked them, despite there being plenty of opportunities to do so.

Back then, Alex had found their behavior rather unusual, and wondered why they were not attacking.

‘What if the Mountain Spiders are intelligent enough to recognize dangerous opponents? Perhaps they deliberately held the smaller spiders back because they weren’t certain whether they could defeat us without major casualties?’

If that was true, then the smaller spiders might have been observing their group the entire time, waiting until they understood their strength before attempting an attack.

And now that Alex was traveling alone, they might have decided that this was their opportunity.

‘Shit! If that’s what happened, I might already be surrounded!’

Alex immediately created a Mana Shuriken and flew toward the sky as quickly as possible. He didn’t know whether his guess was correct, but he had no intention of remaining on the ground to find out.

His eyes scanned the surroundings, and he saw—

..

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