Ascension of Chaos - Book 3 - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

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Don't mind this. It's fluff so that free readers can't see the link when the chapter is not free.

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For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

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Table of Contents

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Click the following link for chapter 17! It is 1384 words long!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13gGg_SgT3kBYNNHb9dx2-bBR5jq7UagyO-bnB0-uvMo/edit?usp=sharing

Continue scrolling down for the unformatted version of the chapter.

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Ashley

The pain floods me for several seconds, almost making my mind go blank from the shock. But it also doesn’t take long before I lose all sensation as my nervous system is completely fried. Leaving me both unable to feel and unable to move.

Everything except my eyes, that is. And what I can tell through my eyes by the time the lightning finally comes to a halt, revealing a rather badly struck boat beneath me that’s somehow still perfectly fine other than the charring on it, I’m not exactly in good condition.

My entire body is charred beyond belief, with my skin and even some of what’s beneath my skin completely wiped away throughout most of my body. I can also tell that my internal organs are mostly destroyed as well. Leaving me in a state that would be completely dead right now if it weren’t for me still having a pretty large amount of energy left.

I manage to lift my eyes to look at the thunder giant, only to find him kneeling at the front of his ship in his regular size again. Not his giant size.

His body is also covered in nearly as many wounds as mine. But unlike me, I can tell that his body is beginning to shut down.

He’s dying.

The only difference between us right now is Resolution of Order and our energy capacities.

And even our capacities aren’t too far apart. I just have more because of my Queen of Destruction Skill Tree. And I have skills to make my mana and energy more powerful on top of the one doubling my capacity.

So the gap in our levels is cleared for mana and energy capacity through those skills.

Still. Once again, one of the biggest differences between us becomes incredibly relevant right now as I activate one healing skill after another on myself. Which, when combined with my passive healing and regeneration skills, very slowly restores my body bit by bit.

All while the Thunder Prince’s own body is just falling apart and slowly becoming afflicted with frostbite.

And to top it all off?

The barrier around him that he was using to block my True Damage shatters as if it’s taken enough True Damage and can’t hold on anymore. Leaving him defenseless against the Eternal Snow around him and my own Gaze of Destruction.

So, as I slowly restore myself while trying to manage my mana and energy to make sure I don’t run out, and he slowly falls apart with parts of him completely freezing and other parts disintegrating, we both smile. Or try to, at least.

I try to smile but fail due to the lack of nerves in my face right now, and he succeeds in smiling.

Putting the pain aside, that was a fun battle.

“Let’s meet again outside,” the prince says with a smile and a weak nod of his head. Then the light in his eyes fades and he dies.

Of course, I make sure to use Assimilate before he dies. Which, in turn, gets me quite a nice reward.

{You have been granted 200 Skill Points for killing a user within the System Event.}

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Thunder God}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Thunder God, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 400. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 401. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

…

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 418. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

Now that’s a nice number of levels.

While I heal, I go ahead and look at the root skill of the new Skill Tree he just gave me.

{Perfect Lightning Mana Manipulation – This skill grants the user the ability to turn their natural mana into lightning mana and use the mana to perform lightning magic spells of all kinds. Additionally, the user may experiment and create new runes of their own for spell-crafting purposes.}

And that adds one more perfect mana manipulation skill to my arsenal.

Nice!

Now I can learn lightning magic, also known by some as electric magic, without any limits. Just like the royal family of the Thunder Mountain.

“You will likely have requests for communication from them after this event now that you have their family Skill Tree,” Chaos says, surprising me for a moment about the fact that there is a such thing as a family Skill Tree. “There are items that can be used to imprint skills into the Skill Trees of your descendants, and all of the royal families use such items in an attempt to craft their own perfect Skill Trees to be passed down their family tree.”

That sounds slightly unfair.

I’m guessing each new royal in their line adds new skills as well? The ones they’re born with?

“Correct,” Chaos answers. “This is the reason royal families have so many potential skills in their Skill Trees.”

Yep. Definitely unfair.

Are the royals going to be upset that I got one of their Skill Trees?

“That would depend on the royal family whose Skill Tree you assimilate,” Chaos answers. “The Thunder Mountain won’t be upset and will likely rejoice at the chance to find a worthy rival for their young prince who you just killed. But some other royal families may find it unpleasant and retaliate.”

Hmm. Judging by the fact that they’d consider retaliating even with your backing…

“You are correct,” Chaos once again states as I wait for my body to continue healing. “There are rules in place regarding certain royal families due to the backing of other Primordials that make it difficult for me to act against them without consequences.”

Something tells me Chaos still plans to act against them if they do anything drastic though.

He suspiciously doesn’t respond to that.

I smile a little as I wait for my body to finish recovering. And once I recover enough to finally move again, I fly straight towards the prince’s boat before swiping all of the fish in it and putting it into my own boat. Which is suspiciously in perfect condition again now that the battle is over.

That’s convenient.

After putting the fish into the ship, I go ahead and check the leaderboards to see how the Thunder Prince’s haul changed my score. And, lo and behold, I am now at a much more satisfying rank on the leaderboards.

Four Quarters Fishing Leaderboards

1. Ashley Chaos

2. Azaryth Valecrown

3. Aralan Argol

4. Diana Reltfel

5. Rellatia Cove

6. Noura Al-Farsi

7. Alric Dawnspire

8. Ysara Moonveil

9. Valethra Ash Dominion

10. Blank

…

Nice! First place!

Of course, this is because I just stole the second ranked hunter’s fish. But that’s beside the point.

After all, stealing the fish of other players is part of this event. So I don’t feel bad whatsoever.

Anyway, there are suspiciously few fish corpses around the ravaged waters here. No doubt due to those scavenger hunters from before who were swiping away the dead fish that resulted from my battle.

Which is rather annoying, but I can’t exactly go hunting them all while my mana and energy are this low. So I’m stuck searching for more fish.

Too bad most of the fish in this area are all dead.

Maybe I should move to a different ocean?

I purse my lips at that thought before nodding my head.

Right. Time to check out the Shock Ocean next. Since I just got Perfect Lightning Mana Manipulation and all.

I also have other skills that let me absorb and release electricity. So the Shock Ocean is probably my best ocean out of the rest of the oceans in this event.

So it’s time to set sail again.