Chapter 193 - Troubles During Integration!
5 minutes in the parking lot of the stadium...
Felix was dragged by his grandfather to the elders' car. Felix knew that they wanted to hear a report on what happened between him and the president as well as what Mr. Jones told them earlier.
He had nothing to hide as he quickly gave them a quick recap on those two conversations.
After hearing what he said, the elders decided to double down on the hotel's security team and also add an extra bodyguard for each junior.
"Felix, mind explaining why did you show us in the practice runs only one pillar instead of the ten?" Abraham changed the subject by mentioning Felix's ability *Poison Pillars*.
"Why would I show you ten pillars, when no one in the team managed to defend against one?" Felix looked at them in bewilderment.
The elders' eyelids twitched at his answer. They wanted to argue, but his answer was truly impeccable.
"Still, you could have at least informed us about them." Albert said.
"You never asked." Felix blinked his eyes innocently and said, "I am not a show-off to start tooting about my abilities and bloodline for no reason."
"Sigh, forget it."
After seeing that they were going nowhere with their questioning, the elders decided to drop the matter entirely. As for the red inducement? They already knew about it as Felix showed it before to them.
....
15 minutes later...
'Asna prepare yourself.' Felix looked from the car's window at the hotel entrance, which was getting nearer, and said, 'I am going to integrate the last 5%.'
'Oh? Are you finally ready?' Asna asked.
"There is only one way to find out.' Felix frowned his eyebrows, thinking about the unpleasant last time he integrated.
During the last month, Felix split the 21% remaining of the J?rmungandr essence into the usual 5% per integration. During the first two weeks, he finished three integrations with extreme difficulty.
Forget about integrating every three days, Felix gave himself 6 days break in between, yet he still found it difficult to handle the torturous agony of each integration.
Heck, in the last integration, he actually almost fainted during the process even though it was just 5%!
One should never forget that Felix had 15 minutes period during integration even though he was drinking four pain relief potions. while the rest of humans only had 5 minutes period without drinking potions.
All of this without mentioning the pain that was threefold than the normal known one. This meant, in each integration, Felix feels like he was walking on boiling lava for 15 minutes straight.
For the sake of recovering his mental health to peak form again, he decided to chill on his bloodline path until at least the tournament ends. There was absolutely no point in rushing if he was getting harmed in the process.
Everyone else was complaining about having a week to a month-long cooldown period between each integration, but honestly, the entire reason they were still sane and have not yet given up on gaining strength was due to it.
Felix didn't have it, which seemed like a good point. But, if he didn't pace himself even better, it would turn into a curse that would tip him into giving up on everything.
....
20 minutes later, in Felix's Hotel room, he was sitting on the carpet near the bed with his upper chest n.a.k.e.d.
Everything needed to integrate was placed next to him. Potions, bloodline bottle, injection needle, a new set of clothes.
"Hopefully, it won't go as shitty as before."
A bit nervous, Felix picked the needle and extracted whatever remained in the bottle. The needle didn't get even 20% full after emptying the bottle.
"Ah, I need a refill again." Felix sighed dejectedly after seeing so.
Though, He soon shook those negative feelings away and placed the needle on his chest.
He started taking deep breaths until he felt completely relaxed...Then, he stabbed his heart with the injection needle, forcing all of its content deep within.
Without a pause, he took out the needle and drunk all the potions needed to facilitate the integration process.
After doing so, he closed his eyes and waited with his eyebrows frowned for the pain to kick in. He never loved this feeling of calm before the storm.
"It's just 5%, you have survived double that. It's just 5%..." He kept murmuring with his eyes closed, trying to pump himself up.
Sadly, the moment the integration started, his eyes were forced wide open while his slits were enlarged to the maximum.
Waves of pain never felt before kept on striking every fiber of his being!
In an attempt to hold himself from screaming, Felix bit on his lips as hard as he could until they started bleeding. Too bad, that was enough to hold himself for only a minute before getting forced into letting out a heart-wrenching scream.
Aaaaaaaaaa!!
"F*ck mee!!!" He kept on screaming while his hands were gripping the carpet tightly until he ripped a portion off.
'Hm? What's up with him?' Asna wondered in confusion while eating a mouthful of popcorn. She might enjoy hearing his screams again, but the fact he was actually struggling to just integrate 5% was too weird to pass by.
For god's sake, Felix integrated a whopping 12% or so in the earlier days. The process might have been nasty, but he still passed through it successfully. Yet now, 5% was giving him trouble?
It was uncanny, especially after Felix gave himself 15 days or so break from integration.
Just like him, she assumed before that it was a mental health problem, which was making integrating with lower percentages seem harder than before, but now? Seeing him screaming with bloodshot eyes and veins protruding from every part of his body, she wasn't certain anymore.
...
15 minutes later...
Thud!
Felix's body smashed face down on the wet carpet. His eyes were closed peacefully while breathing in a shallow manner.
'That was close.' Asna wiped a drop of sweat from her forehead. Her playfulness was nowhere to be seen as she kept gazing at Felix with a worried expression.
Her worry was understandable, as she had to intervene three times during the integration process, to help Felix from passing out cold. She didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't like the outcome.
...
12 hours quickly passed by...
Felix's body which was lying on the ground motionless finally showed some reaction, as his fingers were moving slightly while his eyelids started to quiver.,
'Argh! My head!' Felix opened his muddled eyes while having a pained expression, as a nasty headache assaulted him the moment he woke up.
'Welcome back. Took you forever to wake up.' Bored, Asna yawned with a hand covering her mouth.
'How long was I asleep?' Felix asked while murmuring softly, "Shit! I feel like my head is about to split into two."
'12 hours or so.' She looked at him trying to reach the rejuvenation potion and advised, 'I think you need to downgrade your integration percentage. This time I needed to help you out three times, next time, it will be five or six, and after so, you probably won't even make it.'
Gulp, Gulp...
Unresponsive, Felix focused on drinking the rejuvenation potions. He finished one by one until the four ones he placed near him were all consumed.
Only after drinking that amount, did that nasty headache finally started to withdrew, giving him peace of mind.
"Ah, before making a decision I need to first know what the f*ck is going on."
Irritated and confused, Felix massaged his temples while standing up from the dried-up carpet, which was emitting a nasty stench just like his body.
Felix took the new set of clothes with him to the shower while thinking of the reasons why did his integration kept getting worse and worse.
His first guess before was his mental health. However, now he knew that it had nothing with increased pain, making him feel like he was integrating with a whopping 15% instead of just 5%.
15 days was more than enough as a break. Yet, the integration got worse by twofold than the last time!
"I don't get it. Weren't you supposed to feel less pain the further you approach origin purity?" Asna tilted her head slightly and said, "That's what I read in your memories."
"That's what is creeping me out." Felix sighed while cleaning himself thoroughly.
Based on what he knew about the bloodline system, the pain was supposed to get less and less the further a bloodliner got closer to origin purity.
The human researchers concluded that it was because the body had already adapted to the beast's bloodline, making it easier for it accepts higher percentages doses without increasing the pain waves.
The perfect example was awakening. Felix almost died during it even though he was using merely 1%! Yet the following integration attempts, he kept on increasing the percentage yet he was still fine.
But after he reached 50%, things started derailing from his expectations as now even 5% seemed like it was impossible to pass through safely.
"Sigh, it got to be the J?rmungandr's doing." Felix shampooed his hair and started rubbing it until the foam was all over it. Though, he still carried on talking, "I believe that my body is having troubles adapting to such a high percentage of the primogenitor bloodline."
Felix assumed so since in the beginning before 50%, his human bloodline was dominating by having the most percentage, thus the integrations were carrying as he expected.
However, now that he reached 50%+, it meant that the J?rmungandr bloodline was the one dominating. Especially now that Felix had a 76% integration percentage, leaving only 24% of his human bloodline.
This made him wonder, how was it going to be when he reaches origin purity, leaving only 1% of his human bloodline? Could he even reach it safely?
Felix tends to forget that he wasn't actually treading on the known human bloodline system, which everyone was practicing. Awakening with tier 1 beast bloodline and ending up as 6th stage bloodliner with a tier 7 beast bloodline.
He awakened with a primogenitor bloodline, a superior being, who was ruling part of the universe during the Primogenitors Era!
Asna might have removed any problems about oppression during replacement, making Felix unworried about finding a bloodline to replace the J?rmungandr.
However, during the integration itself, Asna had no control over the bloodline. If it wasn't for so, she would have assisted him on his integrations, making him pass through them smoothly.
This meant Felix was totally on his own until he reaches 99%. Based on how the last integration went, he doubts that would be easy to achieve even if he lowered the percentages used.
"Sigh, I guess we will find out in the next integration if this was the cause or something else. But now..." Felix closed the shower tab with an eager expression and said, "It's time to see the passives!"
Without further ado, he closed his eyes shut and dove deeper within the newly obtained information.