Super Righteous Player
Chapter 435 - 432 Curse: Heart of Sisyphus_1

Chapter 435: Chapter 432 Curse: Heart of Sisyphus_1

Annan carefully examined the skills of the Victorious Knight.

"...This profession is really not bad at all."

He marveled.

—It truly is an extremely rare profession.

One hundred consecutive error-free failures, followed by a final success... Annan even doubted whether there have ever been ten people who advanced in this profession.

Victorious Knight LV23: [Winter Sword Technique LV10 (Max)], [Frost Sword Technique LV10 (Max)], [Cross-Weapon Mastery LV1], [Will of Victory LV1 (Max)], [Brilliant Sword LV1], free skill points 3

The level one [Hand of Silver] and [Silver Blade Strike] had evolved into two new skills: [Will of Victory] and [Brilliant Sword].

Will of Victory is a passive skill that reaches max level with just one point.

Its effect is that when the sum of strength and agility is lower than the will attribute, you can, once a day, use the will attribute in place of strength or agility for any check.

For every ten points of will attribute, you can get an additional use of [Will of Victory]. Currently, Annan’s will attribute is 31 points, meaning he can use it four times a day.

This was the first skill Annan had seen that required suppressing an attribute to trigger its effect.

—Without a doubt, it was an incredibly strong skill.

It was so powerful it even startled Annan a bit.

Essentially, it meant several instances of "temporary doubling of strength or agility attributes" each day.

Keep in mind that the sword technique [Full Force Strike] uses three times the stamina to boost strength by only 30% temporarily.

Moreover, in a clash, even ten instances of a 30% boost might not be as decisive as a single 100% boost.

Brilliant Sword, on the other hand, is a skill linked to both will and constitution:

Its description reads, "Burn the will to the limit, granting damage immunity directly proportional to the will attribute (currently 31% immunity) and storing all received damage. Use this skill again to unleash all absorbed damage in a massive radiant slash; the lower your own health, the greater the power of the radiant slash, peaking when health is below 30%."

This skill can be used once per day and is a true "ultimate move."

Simply put, taking hits during the charging phase can increase damage, ending with a massive beam of light for the strike.

Its greatest value lies in the flexibility of the charging time.

It is considered a Guided Spell.

As long as Annan doesn’t use any other Guided Spell or Chanting Spell, he can maintain the charging state indefinitely. Even if he launches other sword techniques, it won’t interrupt the charge.

If Annan equipped the [Hand of Elves], he could even use another Guided Spell while in the charging state. It wouldn’t affect Annan’s condition... basically, a semi-permanent damage immunity.

So, without hesitation, Annan allocated all three free skill points to [Brilliant Sword].

Each level of Brilliant Sword did not qualitatively transform; it simply increased the additional damage...

But when Brilliant Sword reached LV4, it finally triggered its first special effect:

[At LV4: This skill’s damage increases by an additional 50%]

...Annan’s mindset was rather complex.

It had been so long.

He finally started to look a bit like a boss...

—Although he had become a desperate fighter, he was still somewhat boss-like.

His golden "Rare Elite" template finally gained some persuasive power.

"I finally have my first ultimate move... My very first legitimate area-of-effect attack skill."

Annan immediately felt that [Silver Blade Strike] wasn’t as attractive anymore.

Indeed, the new profession was exhilarating.

However, since this skill’s form of release is a "slash,"

It might possibly interact with Annan’s first Curse Binding, further enhancing the damage.

"’Victorious Knight’... huh."

Annan murmured to himself.

One skill could only be activated by suppressing attributes, while another required a lowered state to be used.

He inexplicably felt a touch of irony.

"Forget it, claim the decryption reward."

Annan sighed.

He prepared to accept his reward.

His "Radiant Element" already had an awakening depth of 63%. In the "Great Hunt" nightmare, Annan had raised it to 73%, and after accounting for the boost from Elemental Extraction, it had reached 95%.

Now, with this acceptance, Annan officially crossed the 90% threshold. There was no need to pursue a 100% awakening depth... because Annan could now safely achieve complete extraction of the "Radiant Element". Even if he burned a part of his soul for training, the remaining part could be quickly replenished.

Next, he would pursue the other four elements.

— "Wisdom", "Glory", "Beauty", and "Strictness".

Counting the "Radiant" element, whose awakening had essentially been pre-completed, and the naturally mastered "Frost". These were the six major elements Annan possessed.

Only by perfectly clearing Twisted Tier nightmares could one stably and safely enhance the awakening depth of an element. Although the awakening depth is not equivalent to the awakening rate, it can be regarded as "aptitude".

Or rather, it’s "inheriting" the nightmare owner’s awakening depth of the element. Of course, one must also possess the aptitude for the element as a precondition... Otherwise, the relevant rewards would not be triggered.

This is one of the reasons why many Transcendents suppress their state before advancing to Gold.

Apart from searching for a suitable advancement and rituals, they seek Twisted Tier nightmares that fit them, to siphon the Elemental Power from the nightmares’ owners, thereby enhancing their own awakening depth. It’s like in an immortality simulator where one cannot ascend if the quality of their golden core is not high enough.

An awakening depth of at least over 90% is required to have a chance at perfect crystallization of the element without relying on drugs. Of course, if one is a Transcendent of the Truth Tier or a direct descendant of deities, they are born with one element at 100% awakening.

However, a completion rate of 90% just for the first phase?

Then what triggers the second phase...

Annan pondered.

After his confirmation, two traces crossed in front of his eyes:

[Received instance decryption reward: Elemental (Radiant) awakening depth increased by 20%]

[Received instance decryption reward: Curse "Heart of Sisyphus"]

"...Eh?"

Annan made a light sound of surprise.

This was the second time he received an extra Curse in a nightmare.

...Could it be Denton’s final curse?

Annan felt a bit anxious as he opened it to take a look.

"..."

He suddenly fell silent.

[Curse: Heart of Sisyphus (Taboo Type): You shall not despair from failure.]

[This Curse is attached to oneself, with no maintenance cost and is automatically activated, and is lifted automatically after the conditions are met]

[When you consecutively fail any check three times and attempt to retry the check—]

[All abilities applicable to this check temporarily increase by +1 before the check succeeds]

[This Curse can be triggered an infinite number of times, but each activation of this Curse increases the corrosion degree by +1; if triggered multiple times on the same check, then the second activation adds +2 for a total of +3; the third activation adds +3 for a total of +6, so on and so forth]

[A final gift and a mark of respect from a failed challenger—Denton]

Is this... your final ripple?

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