Zarek was almost sure that he was seeing wrong. But the more he stared at it, the calmer he became.
All the while, he had only been speculating on what was going on around him. When his luck and Karma were being tampered with, he had started to think—and overthink—everything.
Logically speaking, he should have seen through it already.
The Harmonic Recall Tear tested your memory—your ability to navigate through a maze that looked identical everywhere you went and pick out the smallest details in the end.
The Temp Duplicate Tear made you fight against an endless mirror of beasts that could duplicate and clone themselves.
And this Tear… the Hero Gladius was an existence that relied heavily on the links between himself, his treasures, and the domain around them.
No matter which Tear he entered, the reward at the end was, at the very least, loosely linked to the nature of the challenge. It made sense for Atom Link to appear here.
It was a Talent that could link two things that weren't necessarily supposed to be linked, and Zarek had been facing off against an enemy who did exactly that with their treasures.
He should have seen through it already, but he had been too focused on one—actually surviving—and two… well, maybe he was a little too confident in his deductions sometimes.
Too often, his gut was correct. Maybe this time he had overextended himself a little bit.
However… this Atom Link felt different than the one he knew of.
The Atom Link he was familiar with was only a B Class Talent. This didn't feel like that. It was A Class—almost certainly—and quite powerful among A Class Talents at that.
'I see. It's one of those Godsfall Tears…'
When Zarek entered, he had been speculating about a lot of things, including what sort of challenge this was.
If Zade and his brother had entered this Tear together previously, how would the challenge have been different?
There was a class of Tears that changed their rewards and methods depending on who entered. This seemed to be one of them.
Because Zarek had entered on his own, the reward had been increased as a factor of the difficulty he faced in doing so.
By extension, though… this might not necessarily be a good thing. An increase in the Talent's strength would make it more difficult to fuse with others in the future, and its effects might suppress the others too much—even if a fusion was successful.
It felt like Zarek was stepping from one problem to the next already.
Originally, his new target Talent was good enough for him not to be concerned by this. That was because, with it taking the root of everything, it would work out perfectly for the new path Zarek was considering.
But if this Atom Link took center stage… that would be a problem.
It had to be remembered that Zarek only wanted a small piece of what this Talent was capable of. He only wanted the Quantum Awareness.
Being able to link things wasn't as important to him. He only cared about it insofar as it would allow him to better replicate and create things in the future—and most importantly, to finally begin weaving together organic materials through Temp Duplicate.
But if that became the main ability, the creation aspects would take a backseat…
Temp Duplicate was B Class.
Harmonic Recall was also B Class.
But now, rather than being the B Class Talent he expected, Atom Link had suddenly become A Class.
There was another worry as well… was it just a coincidence that he had run into Atom Link like this? Or was his Karma being messed with again?
Zarek took a breath and closed his eyes. He seemed to have completely forgotten about the pain wrecking his body, his thoughts swirling.
But in the end…
—
[Yes]
—
'Breakthrough.'
Chi.
Zarek's energy surged, his body blooming as he pulled on [Limit Break] to unearth every ounce of potential he had.
Atom Link was an Intelligence-based Talent. If he could trigger it now, it would mean that his Intelligence Growth Potential would definitely improve.
Taking on Talents that were so strong would always influence Growth Potential. If you used [Limit Break] at the same time, you would almost certainly be giving a tiger wings.
Zarek's body began to undergo a rapid evolution, large amounts of Godsfall surging toward him.
A Tear was always formed from a large amount of Godsfall. When it was closing, and it had nothing left to sustain, that Godsfall would disperse…
And in this case, a D Class Tear was formed of a large amount of Godsfall as well.
So why would Zarek not take advantage?
And complete his second Core Breakthrough?
Chi.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: D-] <A>
>[Dexterity: D-] <B>
>[Intelligence: D-] B->
>[Endurance: D-] <B+>
>[Charisma: D-] <B->
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: E+] <B->
>>[Abilities: Mirror]
[The world's matter…]
>[Harmonic Recall: D-] <B+>
>>[Abilities: Echo]
[The echoes of the past…]
>[Atom Link: F-] <A+>
>>[Abilities: Link]
[The particles of the world speak to you and communicate with one another. Listen in on their stories. Using this Ability, link two items together. No matter the distance, experience sensory recall and perception between the two
Skills:
>[C Class Scouting: C+] <C+>
Notes:
[Ha. Leave it to you to finally get your hands on what you wanted all this time and yet still screw it up anyway. Good luck, fucking loser.]
—
Zarek took a breath once more, the aches in his body having faded considerably.
Normal breakthroughs didn't heal you, but Core Breakthroughs were different. They were akin to a holistic evolution of the body. Although he wasn't back to 100%, he was at least at 70%. And there was no longer a leg on his shoulder or a gaping wound at his side, so that was certainly a bonus.
He clenched his fists and then unclenched them.
'If my original path doesn't work anymore… that destruction path has quite a bit of potential. With Atom Link at this level… I feel like I can do it.'