Chương 410: Chapter 381: New Friends?

Thalion looked at Eric, who now stopped glowing like the hope of humanity and looked far more like a corpse. His helmet and parts of his chest armor were melted away, and beneath the molten sections were deep flesh wounds. The dark green mist had gone much deeper than Thalion had expected. He had thought the armor would block more damage and not be destroyed in mere seconds. At least Eric wasn't completely unlucky. His armor was already beginning to repair itself.

"Ha, quite the encounter. You need a healing potion or something?" Thalion said, trying to break the ice. Eric wasn't doing so well, and even though he didn't breathe, Thalion could almost hear his heart pounding from exhaustion. In response, Eric only waved a hand while pulling out a potion. Drinking it underwater looked rather funny from Thalion's perspective. Almost like a baby sucking milk from a bottle by the way he tugged on it. After a few moments, Thalion began to frown. Why wasn't Eric saying anything?

His face was already healing quickly, so health shouldn't be the problem. Thalion watched as Eric swallowed three more potions — one red, one yellow, and one blue. After that, he summoned a token and threw it toward Thalion. Eric probably wasn't used to throwing things underwater, because the token lost all momentum halfway. Thalion, still ten meters away, looked a bit perplexed before diving after it as it began to sink.

He switched back to his human form to grab it properly — and immediately remembered how annoying it was not to be able to breathe. The moment Thalion touched the token, Eric's telepathic voice echoed in his mind.

"Thanks for the help. You came just at the right time." Even through the telepathic link, Thalion could tell Eric was barely standing. At least his armor would fix itself soon enough.

"On that note. Who was that guy? Do you have any information on him?" Thalion asked, hoping Eric's patron might have told him something.

"No idea. That prince is an enigma. I first saw his name on the leaderboard before he ambushed me here," Eric answered, shaking his head in disappointment, his gaze wandering over the slowly sinking corpses.

"Hm… interesting. Do you have any idea why he was so strong? And what was that dark green mist?" Thalion pressed, trying to gather as much information as possible. After all, the prince had threatened him too — and even though Thalion doubted he could track his scent underwater, he wasn't so sure about later in the trial. Better to be prepared. Against an enemy like that, running for your life might be the only smart option.

"I'm pretty sure it's a combination of an extremely powerful bloodline and a transcendent skill. I don't think a single bloodline alone could make someone that strong without divine guidance," Eric explained. Transcendent skills? Thalion had never heard of that. Did transcendent come after divine? How did you even get one? The thought caught him completely off guard.

He knew the system served as a greenhouse for powerful gods, which was why he needed to reach the divine rank to destroy the system's mark, but he had always thought divine was the highest rarity within it.

"By the way," Eric said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Did you lose your armor, or why aren't you wearing it?"

"Ah, yes. My armor's gone. Had an annoying encounter with the Chosen of Pyrael. It melted during the fight," Thalion muttered, letting his thoughts drift back to transcendent skills. Maybe that was a way to close the power gap. Maybe he could somehow upgrade his divine passive skill. But his thoughts were interrupted again by Eric.

"Wait, you fought another Chosen and survived? I have information on that elf. His god is a weak elven god of fire, but he's quite the real deal. His bloodline boosts his flames while keeping mana consumption low — unless he goes all out."

"Yeah, I got away with an escape token, but it completely melted my armor and sword, which is kind of frustrating. Too bad we didn't meet in that stage — I'd have liked to see how well his flames work underwater," Thalion said with a grimace, keeping a few details to himself. There was no need to mention that the elf had tortured him just to glimpse the name of a patron who didn't even exist in the first place. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Hah! Yes, too bad. In here he's probably kinda screwed. I guess he'll be hiding in some illusion array until the stage is over. So, what are you doing next? I need assistance to keep my position in this trial. I hadn't thought there were so many enigmas ruling this stage like the prince or the First Daughter of the Hive. Have you encountered any of them before?" Eric rambled. It was clear the Chosen hadn't imagined that the trial would take such a turn.

Those were two tricky questions, and Thalion took his time before deciding to answer only one of them for now.

"I don't know the First Daughter personally, but I clashed with one of her weaker siblings in the tutorial. They're a termite hive that has evolved beyond all limits."

"Termites… that's a problem. Those insects are always a planet-conquering threat. What about my first question? My Patron can compensate you for the lost lifetime. We have body-tempering manuals, items, experienced masters who can teach you all kinds of things, and much more." Eric's last words sounded tempting, but Thalion had different plans. Even if the god kept his promise, it wouldn't be worth it. His goal was to reach a divine class at E-grade, and for that, he needed to place very high in this tutorial.

"Well, this trial is kinda important for me, and I can't give up any leaderboard points. Your god helping me later wouldn't really make up for it," Thalion said firmly. Eric's eyes widened at that, and he quickly followed up.

"Why is this trial so important to you? Your chances of ranking high without my help are low. Is it because you want a high-rarity class when evolving to E-grade? That's really not worth it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have evolved so early. High-rarity classes are important, yes, but not if it takes too long to reach them. In that case, you need to evolve and push forward; otherwise, you won't be strong enough to compete for the resources you need.

The difference between F and E-grade is nothing compared to the gap between E and D-grade. Wasting so much time just for a higher rarity class isn't worth it. Just look at you... You're missing out on all the experience this trial offers." Thalion understood Eric's reasoning, but he couldn't tell him the truth about the system or his real plans. Aiming for a divine class would sound like a fool's dream to most. So instead, he decided to craft a more believable lie.

"I did a few things that stop me from evolving for now. I need to reach the highest possible position on the leaderboard as a requirement. If you help me reach the top spot, I'll return the favor in the next system events. I don't really care much about those, and I did save your life today. I'll even hand you the treasure for first place if it's something physical I can give away."

"Wait, what? You want to pay me? I'm a Chosen — I need to perform well in this trial! I can't afford to miss out on this system event, especially after the entrance price was so high. I've already lost so much of my lifespan, I probably won't even attend the other events!" Eric exclaimed, his voice a mix of surprise and anger. He clearly hadn't expected Thalion to play the reverse card. Thalion hadn't expected him to accept the offer either — after all, he was still the Chosen of a god.

"Well then, good luck with the trial. But you still owe me one for saving your life," Thalion said, in a slightly more serious tone than he intended. Traveling together wouldn't be worth it — they'd have to share treasure, and the remaining combatants were weak enough for either of them to handle them alone easily.

"Wait. Here, take this. It's a token that always points in my direction and I've got one that does the same. This way we can find each other in the later stages," Eric said, throwing another token. This time he used more force, and Thalion managed to catch it. He looked down at the small black token in his hand. A thin white line pointed toward Eric — or rather, toward the matching token he held.

On one hand, it was nice to know where support could be found; on the other, Thalion didn't like the idea of being tracked like a dog. What if Eric ran into another human Chosen and handed them the token? It didn't even have to be intentional — they could trick him into doing it. Thalion doubted they would tell Eric the truth about him but rather some made-up story. Besides, he wanted to face this trial alone.

This was about proving to himself that he could become a god — that he could live up to expectations and still win against all odds.

"Nah, I'll have to decline. I'll be fine. Good luck until the later stages. But just to be clear — if we end up fighting for the same treasure in the final stage that decides everything, I get first pick. I did save your life today," Thalion said, his tone shifting from playful to deadly serious. He didn't trust the whole'my god will pay you later' promise, and if there really was a grand treasure at the end, it was only fair that Eric give it to him.

After all, if Thalion hadn't intervened, there wouldn't even be an Eric fighting for the top spot. And it wasn't like anyone else would profit from it — certainly not the other Chosen.

"I think that's a fair deal. Good luck, and see you later in the trial," Eric said with a small nod. Thalion got the hint that Eric wanted to heal and nodded back before smoothly shifting to the Tidecaller Serpent. With a powerful flick of his tail, he disappeared into the distance, leaving the Chosen alone to recover from his near-death experience.