30 minutes later…
Felix had finished the integration smoothly without fainting. The process was painful alright, but 5% was manageable for his pain tolerance. As always, he immediately went for a shower after he was done.
Shortly after…
Felix exited the bathroom and went to get dressed. After putting proper clothes on him, he sat in the bedroom and closed his eyes shut with an eager expression. ‘Please be something good.’
The moment Felix dove into his memories and noticed the unlocked information, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise after reading an unfamiliar name for a passive. The other one he already had clue about it.
“Absolute Sand Defence?” Thoughtful, Felix opened his eyes while resting his chin on his hand. He never heard of such a passive before and especially one that had ‘absolute’ in it.
Felix knew that those abilities were named personally by the Sphinx, and for her to add Absolute in an ability only meant that it was the real deal.
“Let’s see if it lives up to its name.” Felix closed his eyes again and dove back, wanting to read the rest of the ability’s details.
A few moments later, he opened his eyes with clear agitation on them. “Automatic sand defense? This is f*cking nuts!”
Felix might have only seen how the ability worked, but it was enough to blow his mind!
Without a second delay, Felix laid on the bed and requested the Queen to log him in. He was too eager to test out the ability’s bold claim!
…
In the Measurement Center, in a VIP room…
Felix had just closed the door behind him before getting greeted by the room’s AI. Felix walked to the center of the small white room and requested an Elemental assessment.
Soon the room was split into the same four areas. Felix went to the defensive area where he would be subjected to all kinds of attacks. Whether elemental, physical, or mental.
After standing before a silver machine, that resembled a canon with a screen on top of it, Felix requested, “Please switch to different abilities from different elements periodically.”
“Understood.” The AI asked, “Do you want to upgrade the strength of the abilities gradually or just fixated on a single level?”
Felix thought about it for a second before choosing the first option. After so, he relaxed his muscles and held his hands behind his back. He looked at the mouth of the canon and smirked, “Fire!”
Whoosh!
Felix narrowed his eyes in focus on the approaching ice spear and simply kept thinking, ‘Any moment now, any moment no…F*ck me!’
Alas, by the time Felix realized that something was wrong, the spear was already in front of his face.
Boom!
The icy spear penetrated Felix’s forehead and disappeared right after, leaving behind it a bloody hole that showed Felix’s mushed-out brain matter!
He died instantly…
Plop!
His body fell to the ground as it couldn’t keep on stranding like this without support. However, a second later, Felix broke into light particles and rearranged again in a healthy state.
“Should we carry on?” The AI asked.
The moment Felix was hit directly, she stopped the following attacks.
“Give me a second.” Felix murmured while massaging his forehead.
Although there was no pain, Felix’s mind kept repeating the same experience over and over again, making him feel like his forehead was aching.
“I can’t believe I just went from being immune to peak 1st stage bloodliners’ abilities to get one-shotted by them.” Felix sighed in dejection, “I am missing my superstrength passive already.”
Obviously, the moment Felix unlocked those two sand passive abilities, he lost his superstrength and poison immunity.
When Felix still had his super strength, his body defenses were able to withstand elemental abilities fired by even a peak 1st stage bloodliner. But after it was replaced with one of those two sand passives, he lost almost 40% of his strength.
Now? He was barely immune to abilities fired from Sylvia!
For his body to be this shitty, Felix knew that he wasn’t going to survive the upcoming gold game as a single ability would turn him to dust.
Thus, he felt extremely happy when he read the description of Absolute Sand ability. But, it somehow failed him against this attack, and Felix was currently thinking deeply about the reason.
After a couple of seconds, Felix slapped his forehead, “I am a f*cking idiot.”
He realized that his eagerness to test the ability made him ignore a huge requirement for the ability to work.
Felix didn’t waste more time berating himself as he swiftly requested, “AI, please create a field of sand around me.”
The AI did as she was told obediently, manifesting a wide area of sand around Felix. After feeling that he was rising slowly, Felix requested for it to stop.
Felix bent down and lifted a handful of sand. He opened his palm and looked at the golden shimmer of the grains with a hint of fascination.
He might have reached 100% sand affinity two days prior, but this was actually the first time Felix was near sand created by elemental energy!
“Let’s try again.” Felix dusted his palm and stood with his hands guarded in front of his face. His cockiness had been taken away with that spear attack.
“Are you ready?” The AI asked while pointing the cannon’s mouth at Felix.
Felix took a deep breath and nodded his head firmly!
Whoosh!
Immediately after, a thick arrow made of flames was sent flying in his direction. Felix merely tightened his fists but didn’t move from the way.
Heck, he didn’t even blink as he didn’t want to miss seeing his new passive in effect.
Thank god for that decision as the moment the arrow flame was only two meters in front of Felix’s face, the sand underneath him propped itself automatically and blocked the arrow from advancing any further!!
That wasn’t all, as the sand engulfed the arrow like a beast devouring a snack!
A split second later, that portion of sand withdrew back to the field, lying peacefully with the rest like it never moved in the first place.
Felix throughout the entire interaction just stood frozen stiffly in his place, looking like an idiot with his guard up and eyes widened in shock.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The AI didn’t care about his reaction, as it sent two elemental abilities this time! One was a massive water drop and the other was a silver sharp sword.
Just like earlier, the sand moved on its own. However this time, it created a curvy sand wall that resembled a half-sphere in front of Felix!
Against it, those two elemental abilities could only get blocked and engulfed inside the belly of the thick wall.
The sword disappeared from existence while the water gave the sand a bit of trouble as it made the sand wet and hardened it slightly.
Still, not a single drop of water managed to touch Felix’s clothes, succeeding again in its defense. The wall of sand then broke apart and fell into the field.
Just as the AI wanted to attack again, Felix waved his hand slightly giving her a signal to hold for now.
He then crouched down with a faint grin creeping upon his face. He kept looking at the peaceful field of sand and couldn’t help but start laughing by himself.
“I struck the f*cking Jackpot!” Felix shouted as he kept throwing a handful of sand above his head with a feverish expression.
He read the description of the ability but he was still skeptical about the truthfulness of it.
Because it clearly implied that as long as Felix was near sand, it would always be on standby to protect him from attacks!
What did that mean? Felix had literally just received an automatic shield that could block every ability even the ones fired at him from his blind spots!
Felix never heard or saw such defensive passive before. But considering that he was using the Sphinx bloodline, it was only natural that he could unlock possibly its best defensive ability!
After venting some of his excitement, Felix reared in the rest as he still had tons of tests waiting for him.
Such as testing if the sand was able to block mental abilities, or testing the limits of its defenses.
After all, those abilities fired at him were equivalent to attacks from only peak 1st stage bloodliner. The sand couldn’t possibly withstand abilities fired at him from high-leveled bloodliners.
After Felix stood up, he crossed his arms above his chest and decided on the first test, “AI, please manifest tens of silver machines around me and fire at the same time and continuously.”
“Understood.”
Promptly, silver machines started to manifest one by one around Felix until there wasn’t enough space for the machines to aim at Felix without hitting the one in front of it.
Felix kept turning his head, glancing at the gleaming silver cannon mouths of those machines. However, he didn’t seem nervous by being put right in the middle of such a suicidal formation.
Instead, he had a look of anticipation on his face.
“Ready?” AI asked.
“Fire!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Phew!…
Tens upon tens of colorful abilities were projected at the same time and in a single direction.
Felix heard the sound of the wind as they approached him, aiming to wipe him out of existence.
WHOSH!
Alas, the sand underneath Felix rose as one akin to a beast waking up from its slumber.
Then?….Boom! Boom!..
It kept moving on its own as it slapped abilities back, engulfed some as a whole, and arranged defensive barriers all over Felix, protecting him from everything thrown at him!!!
Felix neither moved nor spoke, he just kept standing with his hands crossed above his chest and eyes peering in every direction at the abilities failing to touch his clothes.
The sand field truly resembled his loyal guardian, who would do anything to keep him safe.
Only after seeing this sight and being inside its protection did Felix feel like he was a real Sand Elementalist!
