As another volley of lightning strikes manifested themselves in the air , with only a split second for Rudra to react , he could feel his body too stunned to move as his muscle coordination was shot after all the electric currents running through his body .
Unable to move , unable to evade , Rudra was in a peril !
In the last possible second Rudra used blink as he narrowly avoided the lightning strikes incoming his way as he teleported a few meters away.
CRACKLE ! CRACKLE! CRACKLE ! BOOM!
After lightning came the sound of thunder booms , that were loud enough to shake the ground a little , as Ronan struggled to his feet and started running towards the rocks about 1800 meters away.
However just as he tried to pick up pace he could feel his right leg not responding to his commands as a system notification made him aware of his situation .
[ Status : Everything on the right side below the spine has been paralyzed by excessive lightning retention. Unable to move for 30 seconds ]
‘ F*** F*** F*** ‘ thought Rudra as he started limping , however the sky above him was not merciful enough for a limp as more thunder strikes were sent coming his way.
Rudra’s heart started to beat faster as in a split second he had to make the decision for fight or flight , but considering his limping leg Rudra chose fight!
Using the power of the wooden necklace , he created a three intersections of wood right above his head who took the brunt force of the first two lightning strikes before being set on fire , as Rudra was hit by the third strike.
– 40,000
Rudra recieved very little damage because it only hit his toe , however unfortunately for him it was his right toe which was already paralyzed as after the hit a new system notification alerted him.
[ More lightning retention , the entire right side is paralyzed for 30 seconds ]
Rudra fell flat on his bum , as the right side of his facial muscles made a weird expression while his right hand felt useless.
‘ Excellent , exactly what I needed ‘. Thought Rudra as he looked towards the sky with his one good eye nervously as he instantly stayed to use the wooden necklace to build a protective shield around himself. Interweaving layers after layers of thick wood to make a impenetrable wood layer.
Only with the sky no longer visible did Rudra finally find a moment of releif as while he could feel lightning colliding against his wooden hut , he had a moments time to think properly .
Taking a deep breath Rudra noticed that his good left side was shivering from fear , as he calmed his nerves and told himself that even if he failed the test today it would not be the end of the world and that his future achievements would be on his own merit and not dependant completely on what class he chose.
Once Rudra realised this fact he no longer shivered anymore as he understood the reality of his situation.
He was too carried away with what could be to focus on what he had currently , and his achievements as a normal mana knight were not Inferior to any other class at all. He was the last person who should worry about getting the mythic class as if his life depended on it.
His ultimate goal was to become the strongest guild master and not the number one player. Undoubtedly he needed to make the best of the opportunity he had currently , but failure did not mean the end of the road here , he needed to know it within his heart.
Calming down Rudra could finally rationalize properly as he started to think like Shakuni the mastermind and not Rudra .
When he thought like shakuni he questioned the purpose of this ascension test , as he was sure that there must be more to surviving a thunderstorm than it met the eye , as just surviving a thunderstorm was pretty much pointless.
Technically he could just keep using the wooden necklace to keep building protection after protection untill the thunderstorm passed , however he was sure that it was not the intention of this test , which is when he noticed a critical detail of the lightning that kept attacking him.
Every lightning strike was basically of the same intensity!
Although every attack did varying damage depending on when it struck him , the lightings innate power was the same , as if it was a benchmark!
Rudra was enlightened at that moment as he felt that he knew the answer to ascending in his heart.
The goal of the test was to not survive the thunderstorm but to beat the lightning strikes back!
When Rudra realized this he understood that once his right side became functional again , he needed to go on the offensive and start beating back the lightning strikes.
Although he did not know how , he had a hunch that it was the only way.
And Rudra was not wrong in his conclusion as although he had no idea about the correct way of passing the promotion test , had he chosen to hope himself up inside the wooden protection chamber , the test would have went on forever and the thunderstorm would have never ended.
Had he really been able to reach the hills , he would have failed the test the moment he stepped outside the fields of thunder defeating his purpose of being promoted.
The only viable way was to fight the lightning back however the criteria for passing was beating 10 consequetive lightning strikes each one being stronger than the last .
This was something that Rudra had no idea about , however he was on the right track as the moment the paralysis ended Rudra bursted out of the burning wooden cover and eyed the heavens with defiance .
” COMEON ! “. Shouted Rudra as he prepared the elven sword to strike back towards the heavens .
The moment the lightning left the clouds above , Rudra responded with the strongest move of the elven sword under his arsenal.
Countering lightning with a fierce WORLD SLASH! , Rudra awaited the collision!
——
( Meanwhile in Purplehaze city )
Karna was extremely close to understanding the secrets of ether , thanks to Ethan Grey and his team of encryption geniuses , the pool of ancient documents brought by Rudra and co was deciphered as soon translated texts were presented to fatty.
Inside one such translated papers was the secret to making ether , as fatty understood that ether was more of a forging material in of itself than a liquid brewed by potioneers.
A combination of compressed steam infused with molten mercury and sodium , the mixture needed to be forged with extreme care to make the fuel for the ancient weapon to work on.
While the formula was decoded and understood , some experimentation needed to be done by Fatty before he could create a modern and efficient method of creating the ether that was much needed to fuel the war efforts.
However time and time again fatty was only met with failure as forging the mixture while keeping the conditions of pressure and temperature constant was a very tough job.
Fatty knew that even if he was able to forge ether himself , it was impossible to mass produce it . Hence his mind started to work in another direction as he started to think like a real engineer from the modern world.
Deciding to build a machine who would take raw sodium , steam and molten mercury as input and perform the necessary forging under constant conditions giving ether as output , fatty began the designing phase of the process.
It was a big gamble on his part as should he fail he would deprive the Elites of thousands of rounds of fuel that he could have been forging now while he wasted time making a new machine. However should he succeed he would only be doing his job correctly.
Such was the thankless life of those in the lifestyle profession , as they were never given appropriate respect for their work in this dog eat dog world where strength was the only absolute while talent and craftsmanship were second.
—–
( Meanwhile in reality )
” It’s been 34 days since the boy came out of his pod , he isn’t dead or something is he? “. Father Rajput complained to mama rajput who had been hyper for the last 4 days anyways , however thanks to Naomi who logged out recently she was able to understand that Rudra was on a really important buisness in game .
This was one aspect of Rudra’s life that mama rajput did not like , he vanished in other world for days at end , which deprived her of seeing his face , which for a mother sometimes made it unbearable.
However she needed to be supportive of his ambitions for which reason she would tolerate his two week long absenses , but this time Rudra was crossing all limits , and her patience was growing thin.
/// Special shoutout to knightwing2014 for the 2000 coin dragon! I appreciate the patronage!
Bonus chapter will be there today for hitting the powerstone goal. We are also close at hitting the next GT goal with only 45 tickets needed . So get on it guys ///
