Chapter 620: Breakthrough Complete
The next fifteen minutes were one of the most difficult moments of Leo’s life, as while on one hand Existential Overload made it extremely difficult for him to focus on breaking through, through sheer willpower, he managed to get through the tough times without making another mistake.
Time became a slow grind of pain and breath, as the potion’s tide raged and receded in cruel waves, while his circuits widened another hair’s breadth with each passing heartbeat.
He rode the storm without flinching, letting it batter him as he kept his mind lashed to a single point of focus, until at last the violence began to soften.
Twenty five minutes after he first drank the potion, the pressure that had tried to tear him apart finally started to ebb, as a steady warmth replaced it.
What remained was residue. Not a flood, and he found himself capable of letting it out without too much strain.
[Fade Step]
He moved through the chamber like a blade cutting fog, releasing, guiding, and bleeding the surplus mana into the rune-lined floor, while his breath steadied and his vision cleared.
A final swell rose from his core, seeking purchase, and he met it with calm hands and a calm mind, shaping it outward as if he were sculpting light.
Then the storm broke.
The potion’s power subsided fully, its task complete, as the last threads of excess mana slipped from his pores like faint mist, leaving his body faintly luminous and strangely weightless.
The tension that had gripped him all this time suddenly unwound all at once, as he dropped to one knee, then to both, as fatigue seized him in a firm embrace.
"Hah... hah..."
He laughed, breathless and raw, sweat streaking his face while his chest heaved with the ache of survival.
"I did it. I’m a Transcendent now."
The words tasted unreal and perfect at the same time, as a grin pulled at his lips despite the tremor in his limbs.
He shut his eyes and sank inward, not to sleep, but to inspect the new shape of himself.
At first it felt like standing on the shore of a new ocean, the air salt-sweet and the pull of the tide unfamiliar, as the boundaries of his body had shifted in quiet, profound ways.
His mana circuits no longer traced a separate map from his nerves and vessels, as at certain junctions they had merged, knit together by the breakthrough’s forge, so that brain commands, mana current, and blood circulation now spoke a common language.
’This feels amazing....’ He thought, as he leaned into that language.
He whispered a thought at the base of his skull, and the command rippled outward along nerves and mana channels in the same breath, allowing him to take command of things he could never control before.
Throughout his life, if there was one part of his body that he could never control at will, it was his heart, and his circulatory system, as no normal human could control their heartbeat at will, however, after this breakthrough, he could achieve that impossible feat.
Now, with his three vital systems intertwined, he could guide blood where he wanted it to go, and could also control its pressure and pulse.
This meant that, if he wanted, he could now guide blood to important muscle groups in the heat of a battle for added strength, or away from certain areas, if he was ever cut open or was seriously injured.
’This new ability will definitely come handy...’ he thought, as he introspected some more and found more changes to his body.
"My muscles..... they have improved in quality by leaps and bounds..."
He mused, as he introspected his muscle density, which appeared thicker and stronger than ever before.
However, that was not all.
Now, for the first time in his life, he realized that he could unlock the full 100% potential of his muscles at will, which was previously only activated by his brain in a fight or flight situation, under the influence of adrenaline.
Previously during training, he could only unlock about 70-80% of his absolute peak strength, but he no longer had that restriction anymore, as with his tri-circuits fusing, he now had full control over all nervous functions.
"Not only can I unlock the full potential of my muscles, but I can also operate them with a precision unlike ever before..... my dexterity has gone through the roof—"
Leo realized, as he felt unprecedented control over every single strand of muscle in his body.
He could now contract muscles to a precise breath!
A quarter-pull here, a three-quarter there, with tendons sliding like silk over oiled pulleys while the nervous system kept pace, translating intention into exact compliance.
Fingers that had always been lethal became instruments now. He could feel the precise moment a knuckle wanted to over-commit, and he could hold it back with ease, as though the body were a loyal hound that no longer needed the leash.
"This feeling... it’s something else."
Leo said, as he flexed both hands slowly, spreading the fingers until the joints whispered, then closing them again until the tendons drew taut lines beneath the skin.
*Jump*
He rose to his feet in a single smooth motion, no wobble, no pause, and reached for his dagger, the grip settling into his palm like an old friend meeting the new him, before bringing the blade up to his nose and unleashing a casual, unhurried slash.
*SHROOM*
A neat line carved itself into the reinforced floor, narrow and deep, as mana harmonized with muscle at the instant of contact.
*Carve*
He had not swung hard, yet the devastation the blow caused was akin to his peak strength at Grandmaster, which was way beyond his expectations.
"Holy shit!"
He muttered, as he realized that his new strength was no joke.
Having risen in tier, everything about him had improved.
His natural speed, strength, reflexes, they had all gone up, and so had the lethality of his skills.
Every active skill in his arsenal was 30-70% stronger now, with some of his passive skills growing even stronger.
"Awesome," he murmured, the word slipping out with a grin he did not bother to hide, as his body felt light and deadly at once.
Yet for all the improvements, one change stood above the rest, which was in the form of the [Faster Regeneration] passive, improving by a huge margin.
As after his breakthrough, [Faster Regeneration] was no longer just a background hum, but a valuable bloodline skill that was finally able to show its real value.
"My stamina.... It feels endless now–" Leo assessed, as never before in his life had he felt as energetic as he did now, to the point where he realized that he might not have to sleep or eat for months on end.
Faster Regeneration kept filling his body with endless reserves of energy, while also repairing the micro tears within his body at an unprecedented rate.
’This has greatly improved my odds of escaping from a relentless pursuit and fighting a never ending war.’ Leo thought with a smile, as he cracked his neck.
"What else is new?" He mused, trying to look for more improvements, but before he could, suddenly the medics opened the door to the breakthrough chamber and rushed in.
"Lord Shadow Dragon..... are you feeling alright?"
They asked, as Leo simply smiled and said.... "Never been better."