Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

The next two weeks passed quickly and quietly.

There were no dramatic battles along the border and no sudden changes to the stalemate. The Jotuniel defensive wall held firm, manned by high-level Nascent Realm powerhouses whose presence made any serious attack completely suicidal. Neither the human faction nor the ancient variants tried to push through.

The System also remained silent the entire time. It gave no new prompts, forced no moves, and added no new objective to change the current situation. That silence matched what it had stated at the start of the trial: defeating the otherworlders was practically impossible.

Meanwhile, back in the Grotto Heavens of Zone 2, talk about Perfection’s earlier prediction spread quickly through the human population. Now that even Uhtred and Zara, the two highest-ranked humans, had returned from Zone 3 with news of the blockade, Perfection’s prediction became something like a prophecy.

Everyone wondered how exactly he knew this would happen, and his name was now shrouded in mystery and mystique.

Uhtred knew the real details were not exactly as Perfection had said, but the fact remained that he had actually predicted this. That alone made him rise very high on Uhtred’s list of people to watch with vigilance.

Aside from the suspicions around Perfection, the news of the blockade also brought about another change among the surviving human population in Zone 2.

The general mood settled into a mix of relief and deep exhaustion. Most people who made it this far had seen enough death across the trials that staying put to cultivate was a welcome change. They were glad to be alive, grateful for a chance to breathe, and eager to grow stronger in an essence-dense environment without constantly fighting for survival.

Naturally, a few ambitious powerhouses still wanted to push into Zone 3 despite the odds. The System’s scoring criteria included total damage done to the otherworlders, and some wanted to chase a better ranking regardless of the blockade ahead.

However, those voices were quickly silenced by the grim reality of the Jotuniel defensive line. Every ascender who eventually made it to the border saw for themselves just how impossible a wall the Jotuniels had set in place.

Even a strong-headed ascender like King Alexei was reported to have retreated after seeing the blockade for himself.

A similar situation played out among the ancient variants. Several aggressive commanders under the two generals pushed for an attack, eager to score points against the invaders regardless of casualties. They were willing to sacrifice their numbers just to come out of the third trial victorious over the modern humans.

But both Krijn and the female general stood their ground, refusing to order a charge. Despite disagreeing with Uhtred’s choice, both generals still had the presence of mind to know that wasting their forces for a potential leg-up against modern humans was useless.

Over the course of the two weeks, several other changes occurred.

For starters, Uhtred and Zara found Diya and Dennis, reuniting the whole crew again. However, no one was quite the same as before. Diya, just like when Uhtred met her after the first trial, was more reclusive and silent, carrying herself with a more poised air of leadership. But that wasn’t particularly surprising, considering the role she had taken on.

Gathered around Diya and Dennis was a large group of ascenders, roughly a hundred people who had joined them over the course of the trial, exactly as Diya had told Uhtred beforehand.

Uhtred looked over the group carefully. Several were array-type elementals whose backgrounds in engineering, electronics, and design had turned into formation and inscription classes. Others had specialized crafting or synthesis classes. A few were even healers who had come to learn under Diya, though unlike her Epic-grade class, their talent grades were Common and Uncommon. There wasn’t even a single Rare-grade healer among them.

Still, their expertise was very much welcome.

On the surface, none of these ascenders had the fighting-type classes Uhtred would have looked for before entering the trial grounds. But his perspective had changed. Looking at them now, he saw the foundation needed to build his territory into a real, fully-fledged city once they returned to the main continent. Diya and Dennis had recognized this early on and handled the recruitment for him.

”You did good work here, Diya,” Uhtred said, looking at the group. ”I’m grateful for what you’ve put together.”

For a second, a hint of the old Diya showed through her guarded expression before fading. She had put a lot of work into this. The current hundred recruits had even been more than ten times higher before she and Dennis had trimmed that number down.

They had both extensively screened out those whose ideals, characters, and goals would not align with Uhtred’s, based on what they knew of him.

The hundred who remained after the brutal screening looked at Uhtred with a mix of curiosity, eagerness, and silent assessment. Their ages and genders varied wildly, just like their specializations and classes, but one thing was common among them: they all seemed pleased that they would get to work closely with the number one human ranker on the entire planet.

Uhtred noticed that eagerness in their eyes, and he couldn’t help feeling equal parts flattered and exasperated. He realized then that he had become something more than just a name to not only these people, but also the entire human population in general.

He was a symbol of strength and hope... though he didn’t really know if that was something he was ready to take on.

With the matter of the recruits settled, Uhtred and the crew spent the remaining days focusing entirely on cultivation.

Uhtred split his time between leveling up, practicing his unified spell technique, and trying to figure out the Esoteric blood magic he had gotten from the Homo erectus general.

His progress in the unified spell was very slow, but at least there was some improvement. By the end of the two weeks, the technique was still nowhere near the terrifying display he had seen in the Sovereign of Chaos, Drakgon’s memory, but it was no longer an unstable, energy-draining mess either.

It had become a workable, low-level spell that channeled multiple elemental streams at the same time without blowing back into his own body, even if the final result was still crude.

The Esoteric blood magic, however, remained a complete wall. He tried to absorb a small part of the Homo erectus general’s essence core to kickstart the process, but his own core only drank in the essence, converting it to a generally attuned stream.

He had to stop before he wasted the core entirely. He needed direct guidance or observation from someone with a natural Esoteric affinity to know how to cultivate with an Esoteric core before even moving on to building a proper foundation. The female ancient variant general was the obvious choice, but starting that kind of interaction with her was not a risk he was willing to take yet.

By the time the two weeks ended, Uhtred’s level had climbed from Level 25 to the peak of Level 33.

His increase didn’t quite fall in line with the ten levels he had estimated at the start of the third trial, but one had to remember that this was the Nascent Realm. Increasing by eight levels in just thirteen days was already a crazy feat.

Back when Uhtred had been at the last few levels of the Mortal Realm — which were the hardest to cross within the entire Mortal Realm — he had still maintained a pace of a level and a half per day. Now, with the same effort, that speed was less than half.

It just went to show how much more depth each level held within the Nascent Realm, proving that even with his Primordial-grade talent and Formless Core, his speed had a firm physical limit.

What surprised Uhtred, however, was that even with his insane pace, Zara sat right below him at Level 32.

She had only just entered the level and was at the early stage compared to Uhtred, who was already at the peak of his Level 33, but it was still absurd.

One had to remember that Zara had not crossed into the Nascent Realm until after his return from the Jotuniel city, right when the stalemate began. That meant she had gained eight full Nascent Realm levels in roughly twelve days instead of thirteen!