157. Trail of Snow, and Crystal
And then everything turns black, and Rain opens his eyes to find himself in a snowscape. Rain looks around," Commander Angus mentioned, that the domain is a rainforest so why am I in a snowscape and looks like we are separated."
He again looks around for anything in the ground covered by snow that is unique and finds a black tower ahead breaking the clouds. He starts walking toward the black tower, he does not think anything can be more noticeable than the black tower.
As he walks, he feels difficulty as his feet get stuck in the snow, which slows down the speed. To speed up his walking, genetic energy surrounds his shoes, and his feet do not sink in the snow. He used the technique he used when walking in water.
He feels like he is walking on a solid ground. He looks around as he thinks in a white background it will be easier to spot someone. He jumps reaching a height of around 10 meters but he sees no one.
He did not mind walking for an hour, He jumped every five minutes to observe around him but it stopped after one hour and after two hours he started to curse," Finn and Marcus for the false information."
And he feels he did not get any closer to reaching the black tower, but he did not stop. He walks remembering his goal, which is to reach the black tower in two days otherwise his soul shield will break and the weird energy will enter his soul space.
According to Bit, by measuring the weird energy in the domain, he can only stay for two days. He tries to feel the weird energy, he sends out a wisp of his thought and then he feels the wisp freezing. So quickly retrieved his thought and cold followed his wisp enter his soul space.
Only for a moment but he felt his soul freezing.
After another couple of hours, his feelings turn to promise, when his strength is higher than theirs, he will kill them or find a way to make their life hell.
After another six hours, Rain stops thinking altogether, as he feels the coldness sip into his body even with the protection of genetic energy around his body and combat uniform which can handle -20 degrees Celsius temperature without the body being affected.
Rain finds that the coldness felt by his body is entering through holes in his genetic energy that he did not find. He controls his genetic energy to plug these holes.
Rain's body was hunched as he walked toward the black tower in the cold, around 10 hours passed. He saw a snowstorm forming and coming his way with nowhere to take shelter, so he walked toward the snowstorm.
Genetic energy fails to stop the cold from sipping in again, the coldness feels like a sword landing cuts on his skin. He did not find holes in his genetic energy but the cold wind cuts through his genetic energy and lands on his body.
He now regrets why did not practice the Life Vine shield, If he had mastered the Life Vine shield, he would have mastered the final form of the Life Vine shield. And he did not feel this cold.
" This is an excellent place for practice. The cold wind can act as an enemy." And a vine shield emerges inform of him. And in 10 seconds, the shield is destroyed by the cold wind.
He identify where the cold wind cuts destroyed the shield. So, he strengthened the place and this lasted 30 seconds and he again strengthened the spot. He feels his control of the Life Vine Shield increases and can genetic energy required for using the Life Vine Shield decreases by 20%.
As time passes, Rain walks inside the snowstorm, while practicing Life Vine Shield which reaches the proficient level. He can now cover his body except his joints in armor made from vines.
Every time his Life Vine Shield advances, his feeling of cold decreases by 20%.
Rain stops counting the time that passed after a more couple hours and after some time, which feels like days passed, he stops as he collides with something, which is made from a black material like a mirror.
" I must have reached the black tower." He thinks and surveys around finding a wooden door and he opens the door. The Life Vine Armor blocks 60% percent of the cold. But using the Live Vine Armor requires genetic energy which is half left now.
After 12 hours his genetic energy will be exhausted and he will die. So, he opens the door.
He does not have the energy for any preparation and if anything attacks behind the door, he will not even put up a fight. Then also he opens the door because if he remains in the snowstorm, he will die after his genetic energy is exhausted.
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And then everything turns black, and Rain opens his eyes to find himself in a rocky land with dark clouds with thunder covering the entire sky. Rain looks around," Commander Angus mentioned, that the domain is a rainforest so why is there a thunderstorm in front of me, and where are the rest."
He looks around finding no one with thunder and lightning raging around him.
He again looks around for any of his team members and no one only him in the rocky land but he spots a black tower ahead of height reaching the thunderstorm cloud. According to the guidebook of the weird domain. He starts walking toward the black tower, he does not think anything can be more noticeable than the black tower.
As he took the first step toward the black tower, his senses warned him of dangers. Before he can find the danger, light flashes among the clouds, and a thunder lands on him throwing him backward.
Rain closes his eyes and remains lying on the ground, as his body and combat uniform heals themselves. He feels after the injury heals his body has gotten stronger and his genetic energy has condensed like the genetic energy of a true body realm genetic warrior.
Rain stands up and starts walking, and his senses warn him of the familiar danger. He stands still without genetic energy covering his body and a thunder again lands on his head and spreads through his body. Because he was ready, the thunder did not throw him in the air.
He stands still, for the influence of the thunder to disappear and his body to heal. After, this he starts to walk again and after five minutes he gets hit by thunder again. This goes on for the next 12 hours, he getting hit by the thunder and his body healing itself.
In, the process, his body gets stronger and genetic energy becomes more condensed. Now, standing near the black door, with the black tower door's handle in the reach of my hand. His genetic energy is one step away from advancement to true body realm genetic energy.
But the last step is like a rock standing in his way to true body realm genetic energy. He wants to return to get hit by the thunder but his genetic energy is nearly consumed by the self-healing and lost in the process of advancement. He finds the resources he bought with him when he entered the domain are missing.
And his body got used to the thunder and the increase of his body's strength and condensation of genetic energy is negible. He calculates for his genetic energy to advance, he has to get hit by thunder for two months. And he has only 1 and a half days to remain in this weird domain.
" Let's wait for a few minutes, for any team member." Rain thinks he is worried about Siobhan and Lily. When he thought of them he started to think, about how Marcus and Finn lied to them. Even if the entire team is annihilated, they will not be safe.
And why did they lie, he can understand Marcus lied because Angus is only his friend's younger brother. But Finn his lie can lead to his brother's death. And even if they escape, their families are finished.
Seeing no one coming, Rain takes a final glance around the rocky land, opens the door, and steps inside the black tower.
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And then everything turns black, and Rain opens his eyes to see in front of him a black color storm. Rain looks around," Commander Angus mentioned, that the domain is a rainforest so why do I see a black color storm raging in front of me and where are my teammates."
He murmurs," According to the weird guidebook, when team members are separate return to the domain gate or find a landmark, which can be spotted from anywhere inside the domain."
Before Rain can find out about the black storm suddenly he gets a cut on his cheek. "ouch" Rain exclaims, it does not hurt him and heals in a moment. But the sudden attack surprised him. He touches his chest to see a black needle struck in his combat uniform but is unable to fully pierce it.
He holds the needle in front of his eyes to see it is made from black color crystal. He finds many needles stuck in his combat uniform. He suddenly ducks as he at the last moment notices a needle heading toward his left eye. Before he thought his body reacted.
Every part of his body except his face, so he covers his face with his energy. He then looks around for any landmark that any can spot from anywhere and finds beyond the black storm a huge black tower.
The black tower is so huge that the black storm is unable to block its view. Rain looks at the black storm and feels that the combat uniform would be unable to block all the needles. And for extra protection, he covers his entire body with his energy.
And enters the black storm, as he dives deep inside the black storm, Rain starts feeling needles entering his body. He feels the genetic energy is unable to protect him, the pain and injuries heal instantly. But it causes discomfort while walking.
As he dives deeper inside the black storm, he feels the needles piercing his flesh, crystalizing his body. Rain removes the combat uniform from his thumb where a black needle pierced a moment ago. He sees, the skin of the thumb change to a crystal skin, and it is spreading.
His self-healing is unable to stop the crystalizing, he stands there closing his eyes and his full attention to see his thumb where his energy is fighting against foreign energy. He feels more infected needles piercing his body and spreading the crystalizing. He steps back and finds the needles that pierce his body are no longer infected.
He with his genetic energy can overwhelm the infection and return to normal. But he wants to reach the black tower, he has to find a solution for the crystalizing of his body. He stands there and experiences how the infection is spreading. He watches with his senses how the infection turns his cells into crystal cells.
When he reached the complete peak D-rank genetic warrior, he gained a new ability. The ability to control your cells. Rain has not tried it before because he did not have time and he can get injured before a mission. And the change of a cell cannot be healed by the body itself.
But now is the time to use the ability, Rain takes control of a cell which starts to turn into a crystal. He feels the entire process of how his cell is turned into a crystal, He feels this in multiple cells next. He figures out how his cells turn into crystal cells.
Changing his cells back will not help me reach the tower. He has to accommodate the crystal transformation. He then starts to slowly invade the crystal cells takes control of them, and changes them to his flesh and blood cells. They are not flesh and blood cells before crystalization, it is an improved version with the advantage of both the cells.
Crystal cells are rigid, difficult to regenerate, and energy-hungry these are the disadvantages. The advantages are better defense and a large energy reserve. Rain removes the disadvantages of both forms of cells, and reconciles the advantages.
After changing all his cells back, Rain started heading toward the black tower and now the black needle can even break his skin to enter his body and walk which felt like days. He reached the black tower and looked around for other members, finding none. He entered the tower.