Ascension of Chaos - Book 3 - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

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

I noticed an error a few chapters ago regarding Ashley's level, so that's been fixed.

Click the following link for the 1453 word chapter 33:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FRRCZfxUTVacF2b1jUNUyaF9kLcVS1fDAXuD40mYV_M/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Ashley

I continue to experiment with the totems over the course of a couple weeks. Just going around and collecting them with quite a bit of pain and difficulty before placing them around to test them. Whether it’s the range they can reach, or the power they make, or just how they work. I experiment with it all.

And I figure out quite a few useful details about them.

For one, the amount of black fog the totems generate increases with every totem collected. Making it a rather powerful trap.

I was worried at first that the thickness of the fog would decrease the further out I spread it, but that doesn’t actually happen. And the more totems I have, the thicker it becomes on top of that.

Then there’s how they spread out. When there are more than two totems, everything inside of the lines between them gets covered by black fog that’s a little less thick than the black fog in the lines between the totems. Which will make things a lot easier to set up a trap.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of a limit to how far apart I can set the totems. But that limit expands with every new totem I add.

Still. Considering the enormous size of the Void God itself, which was over a hundred meters in height and over three hundred meters in length.

It’ll take a very large field to actually get it to be fully inside of the field.

Lastly, the most important thing I discovered about these totems, they don’t hurt me anymore after I claim them. Although this only started after I claimed ten of the totems for myself.

Which means I can fight inside of the territory covered by the totems without having to worry about the black fog made by said totems hurting me.

Honestly, if there wasn’t this ‘friendly fire’, or ‘self-fire’, I guess, feature added, then I’m pretty sure these totems wouldn’t actually be all that useful. Since they’ll be dealing a gradual amount of damage over time, unlike the previous two items I used to take down the previous two Unique Monsters.

The gunpowder from the King of Destruction, and the jewels from the System Tower and the Tiger of Eternal Snow.

Both of those served as enormous single instance damage attacks against the Unique Monsters in those Unique Domains. Like blowing them up, for instance.

Although the jewels also served to fuel my mana.

But these totems just put up a damage-over-time field. Even if it is mental damage.

I’m going to have to figure out how to get the Void God into the field myself.

Still. Before any of that, I continue going from one Void Temple to another. Clearing them all out along with the totems inside of each temple.

All the way until I finally collect twenty-five totems total. At which point something unexpected happens.

The moment I get the twenty-fifth totem and leave the Void Temple, the temple suddenly begins to warp before collapsing in on itself. Then a rift appears in its place. Almost as if it were summoned here by my claiming this totem.

Right. The mission.

I pull the mission message back up to look.

♢– SasxdFasdfASdv asdf ASDyfASdf  –♢

Complete Objective 1 to conquer the Unique Domain.

Objective 1: Kill the Void God

Objective 2: Seal all twenty-five Void Rifts

Objective 3: Survive

Objective 4: Slay the five Void Demi-Gods

Twenty-five Void Rifts. Twenty-five totems.

Coincidence? I think not.

And considering that I haven’t seen a single Void Rift until now despite the vast amount of distance I’ve covered inside of this Unique Domain, maybe the rifts only begin appearing after clearing each Void Temple.

I’ll probably have to go look back at the other Void Temples to test my theory, but for now, I just have to deal with this Void Rift.

I grit my teeth a little at the immense amount of void energy I sense rushing out of the rift. Far more than was inside of those Void Temples.

There’s also a lot more black fog inside of the rift than in the temple. Despite the temple having the totem.

Does that mean there’s another totem inside? Or is something else letting out the black fog other than just the totems and the Unique Monster?

Maybe it’ll prove helpful in my fight against the Void God?

Either way, before I go inside, I finally let my System Messages play through. The ones I’ve been holding back until now.

Or, rather than let them play through, they just play through on their own. No doubt due to the message at the end forcing them out.

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 490. 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 491. 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 492. 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 501. 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 502. 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 584. 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 585. 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 671. 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 672. 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 721. 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 722. 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 750. 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 the maximum possible level for Class C! To continue leveling any further, please head to a Spire and ascend to Class B!}

Well, there’s no point in hunting down monsters anymore. I just need to find the source of this black fog now and clear the objectives.

That said, it’s rather… I’m not sure what exact word to use. Ironic? Ridiculous?

Unusual.

It’s rather unusual how I’ve already hit the level cap in this Unique Domain without even meeting the void demigods yet. The likely mini-bosses of this Unique Domain.

I haven’t even cleared a single Void Rift yet.

The problem is that the monsters are already at level 750. And these are just the regular monsters.

From what I understand, the monsters in a Unique Domain are scaled in level to fit a few different things. For one, the Class of the Unique Domain. The monsters in the Domain start out at higher levels the higher the Class.

And I mean higher levels of the Class the Domain is in. Not just higher levels in general.

There’s also the Unique Monster itself that has some influence on it. So the monsters are also affected by that.

Overall, it means this Unique Domain is a lot more dangerous than the two I was in before.

And that’s not surprising.

It’s the first Class C Unique Domain I’ve been in.

I take a deep breath at that thought before shaking my head and going into the Void Rift.

Let’s see what’s inside.