Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

Chapter 117: Deviant [10 Reviews Bonus Chapter]

While the entire continent of Australia had been turned completely on its head by his announcement, Uhtred, the one who had done the deed, was scrolling through his status panel without a single care.

He had placed the bounties and immediately moved on to his own urgent priorities, as if what he had just done was something entirely casual.

Right now, he was carefully checking everything the System had awarded him after his crazy achievement inside the beast.

[Congratulations! You have achieved an odds-defying feat while within the constraints of the Mortal Realm!]

[You have successfully created a sub-core formation within your cosmic essence core!]

[You are among the first in your universe to achieve a multiversal-level feat!]

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[Titles Gained]

Universal Deviant: 82nd in local universe to form a sub-core before reaching the boundary of the Mortal-Nascent realm. (+8400 Merits)

Hardy Mortal: 1st in world to fight a Nascent realm beast while at the Mortal realm and come out alive. (+500 Merits)

Total Merits earned: 88,901

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[Notice!]

[Your affinities have been successfully segregated into independent sub-cores]

[Your comprehension of these affinities has deepened. Spell processing speed and simultaneous affinity manipulation have significantly improved!]

[Basic Earth Magic (Level 4) → Basic Earth Magic (Level 5)]

[Basic Metal Magic (Level 4) → Basic Metal Magic (Level 5)]

[Basic Thermal Magic (Level 6) → Basic Thermal Magic (Level 7)]

As Uhtred looked at the contents of his new titles and the sudden increases in his spell levels, he couldn’t help but raise a brow.

His eyes particularly locked onto the System’s explicit text stating that he was one of the first to achieve a multiversal-level feat in his universe. This was the first time he had ever received a title that went entirely beyond the scope of just planet Earth alone.

Not only that, the specific title itself, ”Universal Deviant,” sounded exceptionally unique.

”Deviant...” Uhtred muttered under his breath, liking the sharp way it rolled off his tongue.

Among the countless entities across his local universe, the System had officially classified him as one of the deviants.

The title was a massive wake-up call that completely reoriented Uhtred’s mind. It wasn’t just their planet Earth alone that was being integrated into the Grand Multiverse during this five-year buffer period.

There were other planets out there within the universe, separate worlds with sentient life on them, that were actively going through the exact same brutal integration trials that humans were currently enduring on Earth.

The realization filled Uhtred with a sudden, giddy excitement, but he quickly stifled it and moved to the next item on the log, which was his specific rank among these so-called ”universal deviants.”

”82nd?” Uhtred couldn’t help but mutter out loud in surprise, his brow furrowing deeply.

Without a single doubt, his act of creating a sub-core before reaching the peak of Level 24, the absolute boundary between the Mortal and Nascent realm, had been an incredibly odds-defying act.

Yet, despite that massive achievement, Uhtred wasn’t the first within his local universe. He wasn’t even among the top ten, the top twenty, or even the top fifty. He was sitting all the way down at rank eighty-two.

Which simply meant there were a whole lot of monstrous people across the stars who had gone ahead of him to achieve the exact same thing.

The sheer reality of that fact sunk in heavily. Even with his terrifying talent and a primordial grade core, he wasn’t the only anomaly when things were taken to the scale of the cosmos, let alone the scale of the grand multiverse.

The realization was deeply humbling, but at the same time, it was equally exciting. It meant there were many powerful people out there across the galaxies, alien peoples who had started their integration cycles at the exact same time as he had here on Earth, yet were still terrifying enough to outpace him.

Uhtred was instantly re-invigorated with a fresh dose of urgency. Simply being number one on Planet Earth was no longer enough.

His competition was not just the people on Earth. Moving forward, he needed to operate with the understanding that he was competing against every single integration world within his local universe.

After the five-year buffer period concluded, he didn’t just want to be sitting somewhere among the top one hundred. He wanted to be among the top ten, or even the absolute number one.

”But still, to say I am among the first...” Uhtred muttered with a light chuckle, staring back at the number eighty-two again. One would typically think he was part of the top ten when the System used that kind of phrasing.

But then again, being ranked 82nd on the scale of an entire universe was actually a crazy feat.

Uhtred didn’t know exactly how many planets out in the universe bore sentient life and were currently in the same integration buffer period as Earth, but he reckoned even if intelligent life was exceptionally scarce, the total number of worlds was still staggering.

Looking at that number eighty-two again, he didn’t feel too terrible about the position. Though, he still craved to reach the true apex rather than being satisfied with this alone.

After relishing the feeling for a brief moment, he quickly moved down the panel to inspect the notice regarding his sub-core formation and its benefits.

Even without needing the System to explicitly explain anything, Uhtred had already understood the advantages when he was fighting against the giant Dune Strider serpent.

The speed at which he could now cast spells, his overall element efficiency, and his raw ability to simultaneously manipulate separate affinities had all improved dramatically.

The minor increases in his skill levels didn’t even do the transition justice. Uhtred had not really spent any time increasing his understanding of each separate element. Rather, the skill level increases had materialized simply as a natural offshoot of how incredibly efficient he had become with casting each of those spells due to the presence of the sub-cores.

The benefits weren’t something that could really be put into words. It was only when he was engaged in a fight that the true depth of the sub-cores revealed themselves to the utmost.

Not to mention that right now, Uhtred was still within the boundaries of the Mortal realm. He could only wonder how much better he would perform with the full benefits of the sub-cores when he reached the true required cultivation stage — the Nascent realm, where a sub-core formation was actually required.

However, it wasn’t all flowers and roses...