Chapter 730 A victory and a failure
Rudra chose to comprehend water next as he felt that out of everything else he had the worst odds of truly understanding water.When he started to comprehend water , he was shown a myriad of system images that did not resemble the water on earth at all.
He was shown frozen planets , tidal planets and muddy swamps that were nothing like the solid earth with clear oceans.
However a distinct feel of wet liquid touching his body soon embraced Rudra as he felt comfortable inside the swimming pool like water that he was in.
He was then shown various lifeforms that thrived on water , the water that absorbed the holy energy and became healing water as well as the water that absorbed minerals and became mineral water.
The swimming pool that Rudra was in then started to bubble up as the water turned into steam and formed rainclouds over his head that pelted down as snow and hail and froze the pool in solid.
In the end Rudra heard a small phrase that said ' Be shapeless , be formless , be everything yet nothing '.
Rudra was then brought back to reality as he felt moisture on his skin and the intense fire element burning inside him calmed down as he felt a cool energy flowing through his mana circuit.
Being enlightened by the images Rudra started to think about the nature of water. The water that humans knew of was made of hydrogen and oxygen however that wasn't always the case in the wide universe.
It seemed that there were a myriad of different elements that humans had no idea about that could make up different kinds of water. However regardless of the type of water, it's base properties remained the same.
Water was formless , it took the shape of any contained it was filled in as well as formless. Water was continuously changing from solid to liquid to gas and while sometimes the rate of conversion was so slow that it appeared to be stable in one state , it was actually never the case.
Water was also something that could be imbued with the nature of anything. It could be destructive it could be poison it could be holy or it could be salty. It all depended on what sort of materials and process u subjected water to but basically water in and of itself was accepting of everything.
However water in and of itself was nothing. This paradox helped Rudra understand something deeper about the nature of man as he realised that in this wide world every man had been born with a purpose to serve. If they defied that purpose and revolted against the will of the heaven then they were met with punishment.
The only way to break the cycle was to become everything and nothing at the same time.
As Rudra understood this he got a system notification
Player has comprehended 51% of the secrets of the water element , current progress 2/6
Rudra smiled to see the system notification, he felt lucky to be enlightened and having to break through as this time around the concept was more philosophical than logical and the understanding that one needed to figure out water was more about self reflection than the chemistry of the element.
Feeling confident he started to contemplate the wind element.
As usual a series of pictures were shown to him and shockingly there was also the recap of the fight he had with Mahrez not long ago as he saw the massive palm descending on his city filled with the laws of the wind.
However after all the images displayed to Rudra which widened his horizons , he actually felt completely lost in trying to contemplate the origin of the wind.
At first he beleived that the rotation of a planet created wind , however he had seen planets in his vision that were not rotating and yet had the most violent winds on their surface.
Rudra tried to approach the problem from various angles however he could never stumble upon something useful that would give him useful insights into the element.
6 hours passed by and Rudra was not able to move past the 3% understanding mark after which the system regarded this session as a failure
The system notification said
Player has been unable to derive any insights from the element in the past 3 hours. This test has failed , current progress 2/6.
Rudra was shocked .... He had failed a test. This meant that getting a SSS rating was no longer possible in this test.
For a moment Rudra felt melancholic, ever since joining Omega he had continuously gotten SSS rating in every tier promotion test that he had attempted and although the desired effect of getting a legendary class was achieved at tier 4 , he did not want to lose his streak coming into tier 5.
However the reality of the situation was harsh, as he had indeed failed the test for wind.
This was a test in which one needed to rely on their natural comprehesive abilities and no cheats could help them. Even if Rudra was giving this test for a second time , his fundamental understanding of the concept was not something that could be changed.
The only thing he could do now was to put his head down and try his luck at the other elements and hope that he could pass this test first try.
Taking a deep breath , Rudra activated the test for the earth element. It was the element that Rudra had a little less confidence in understanding however that notion changed completely after he saw the video for it.
The concept of earth that he had in his mind was like the battle moves of mudwall and earth spears and the like . However the images he was shown were of lifeforms as big as entire planets who used giant stars like the sun as a source of nourishment and energy.
Looking at those massive balls of space ... Rudra felt a chill go down his spine.
/// Bonus chapter for the super gift by Sivanthe, please thank him in the comments section for this one! ///