The air above Caelus shifted, becoming colder, the clouds above still dark gray, ready to strike him with Tribulation. The longer the lightning waited, the more nervous Caelus got. Finally, the first Strike flew down, heading directly to Caelus, striking his upper body and spreading evenly through his body as it travelled through Mana. However, it wasn't painful; it still stung. Only realizing his Staff was still held by him, seeing that, he put it into his pocket as quickly as possible, as it fell into his inventory.
"...If it travels in Mana... Then what if..." Caelus thought, moving his Mana up, almost all of it leaving his lower body, until there was none on his lower body, going fully into the upper body, the second Bolt flew down, striking at his back, spreading across only where the Mana was, not even touching his lower body, only this lightning suddenly forced his Mana back down, causing him to get hurt a lot more. Coughing slightly, his body stung more from the Strike.
He wasn't going to try that again since the Tribulation didn't want him to do that, while he did want to try using the Mana barrier he used against Tellus, he wasn't going to experiment right now, the third Blast flew down, striking at his head, causing his body to actually feel the electricity, flowing through his body he absorbed part of it, hurting almost double the power of the previous Strike.
[The chance of you failing this Tribulation is about 14%, A little lower than usual, because of the pill you took. The damage is mitigated by absorbing it into your body, which makes you stronger. Though those types of pills are scarce and usually only able to be gotten by those of the Soul Formation Realm and above, so don't expect to find them, even then, the pills usually only help with those of lower Realms and aren't even perfect most of the time.]
Caelus listened as the fourth Lightning Bolt flew down, causing his lungs to burn lightly, only for it to correct itself and send out the lightning. His body was taking real damage after only four strikes, and he had five more to take.
Taking a short breath, he straightened himself, his tail swinging side to side as if excited, his body filled with more Mana, his body became considerably stronger, now being beyond what his Draconic Biology reached, and beyond a normal human at Virtuoso, because of that. The fifth Strike flew down, hitting his body at full force. A sharp pain ran through his body, but he could handle it a lot better because of the extra Mana his body got, which spread out evenly, into the most vital parts of his body.
His Mana pool only became bigger, the more Mana he could contain the more that flooded in, at the point his blood felt a lot warmer than usual, and he noticed Lightning brewing for longer within the Clouds, the Sixth Blast, flying down and causing the ground to crack, as his blood began boiling from the sudden jump in temperature due to the lightning coursing through his body.
His cheeks swelled up, and only when he opened his mouth would blood spit out, landing in front of him. Even if he had a Draconic body, he still wasn't used to such pain; his body began to tense. His eyes closed as he braced for the next Strike.
Caelus suddenly remembered something he'd learned from his old world: he wouldn't have to brace because he'd expect it to be worse; thus, his body would be tricked into actually thinking it's worse than it is.
Because of that, he didn't brace. Bracing meant expecting resistance. Instead, he let the Strike come, refusing to tense for something he already knew would hurt. Shaking his head, the pressure dropped, a numbing silence rang, only for thunder to go after the Seventh Strike flew down, crashing into his body and causing the ground around him to crack more, making Caelus shake and almost lose balance, only for his tail to hold him in place.
Caelus still felt pain, but it wasn't as bad as before, because he didn't brace and thus think it would've been worse, but his body was still incredibly hurt by it. Three of his Scales on his body fell off; the feeling of it ripping off and flying into the wall was the same as waxing his leg three times. Yet he could still handle it; his scales slowly repaired themselves, growing back over a few seconds, but even the regeneration was painful.
"Maybe they died out because anything that hunted them could hurt them, got a lot more time due to the pain of scale regrowth, or maybe... It's just me lingering on it." Caelus thought, his mind distancing itself from the pain or even the strikes; his body coursed with Mana, becoming physically stronger, and his Mana liquified into a spherical shape at the center of his chest.
The second last Strike, the Eighth strike flew down, Static crawling on his scales as it struck Caelus, who was deep in thought, making his eyes shut as he felt they'd be shot out if he didn't.
Like an instinct his human self didn't have, Caelus let the pain release, gritting his teeth he made sure not to release any scream, just incase it gave away his location, his Mana spiraled uncontrollably, spreading out across the interior of the Mountain covering it completely, only for him to quickly regain his own control, pulling it back into his body.
None of the damage stayed longer than it should've, maybe one or two blood vessels popping, it was dangerous, and he was using some of his Mana to make sure his Adrenaline didn't appear, because he knew how horribly it went before.
His Mana surged inside his own body, spiraling through like a storm in the sea, causing the vessels that exploded to repair themselves faster, as he stationed all of it back to where it should've been, with him becoming more meticulous about where his Mana went. His Draconic Core lit up as if it were activating. However, it was simply the Core managing the Mana for him, like a second version of himself, which he could rely on.
The Mana finally settled as his liquid Core took its form. He was finally at the Virtuoso Stage and able to handle the Final Strike without too much damage.
Of which, the pressure rose, as if being cleared, only for it to drop all of a sudden causing his body to resist it, as if changing to adapt with the pressure change, as the final Strike formed, the ground beneath him exploded out, destroying anything around him, completely eradicating the floor, creating a small crater around and under him.
As the final Strike entered his body, his muscles tensed up. His blood began flowing a lot faster, as if going into a state of overdrive, which Caelus had no control of, his heart rate rose to the point he could hear it as if it were drums being played next to his hear, covering his ears he tried to make sure it didn't get hurt, only for blood to began leaking out due to his inner ear rupturing, a ringing which turned into silence.
Caelus knew he was doing this to catch up to Tellus... But he didn't understand why he was doing this for himself; he only watched to catch up to someone he'd only recently met, yet he felt close to them already, and he felt like he was chasing someone, not being himself; it felt wrong. Only then did he realize he was doing this to actually be something; in his old world, he was just someone who studied a subject that most didn't even acknowledge unless it helped their side.
"This isn't for others, this is to be worth something for myself..." Caelus only now began believing in himself; before this, he had only followed or done what he thought was right, not what he truly wanted. He wanted to enjoy the view, sometimes fight, and sometimes make something that wasn't real. Yet for him it would be.
Only now, while he was doing this, did he realize he had already passed the Tribulation; his Draconic Core was working intensely to equalize the Mana in his body. Finally finishing, it deactivated, no longer glowing, his ear, which had ruptured, healed nearly instantly, as he felt his Mana denser than when he was at Foundation.
"So that's why Virtuoso and higher realms are stronger... Denser Mana is neat. If someone did make this world, they'd have done a good job with that." Caelus spoke to himself, chuckling, feeling proud, then shook his head. He grabbed his hair, the static going through his hand from the repeated lightning hitting him.
It didn't do much damage other than a light sting, to which he shook his hair and released Mana above his head, turning it into water to flow down only on his hair to drag down any excess on his head and hair.
Finally, he left the Mountain in the way he entered, falling down. He landed about midway down the Mountain, as he began sliding down, Mana coating his legs just to protect them from burning up, but still falling faster now. Finally reaching the ground, his Mana moved up to his hand almost instantly, leaving no residue on the ground like it usually did before at the Foundation Stage.
"Time to test out my moves... I'll go for Simple Cut last, just to see." Caelus smiled, moving his hand forward. He took his Staff out of his pocket, the inventory being half full as he took it out. Holding it forward, Mana began flowing through the Staff, as it turned into flames, burning brighter than before. It shaped itself into an arrow, pointing towards a desolate area on a mountain.
"Burning Temptation!" Caelus's voice was loud, looking excited as it flew out at the speed he used to move in bursts, reaching the other Mountain, which was about twenty kilometers out, reaching it in twenty-four seconds, realizing he already gauged it in mere seconds when his human brain would still be thinking how far away that even was.
The flame arrow exploded out into a sphere expanding far enough that it almost reached Caelus himself, only to collapse and climb up into a pillar of flames, reaching high into the sky, but still not large enough to get even halfway above the Mountain he shot at, which was large in its own right.
"That was clean," Caelus spoke to himself, happy that it was more powerful, but he made sure he wouldn't use it unless it was dire and wouldn't hit Tellus or anyone else he was fighting with.
Caelus moved his Mana down to his legs. Now using Horizon Step, his Denser Mana only made his activation quicker; otherwise, it had the same range, with a bit of extra space to go around. He could travel one hundred meters with four steps, but it'd exhaust him now. "Horizon Step"
Caelus spoke the technique's name, forgetting that it didn't just make it stronger for attacks. Still, for any technique said out loud, a single step went twenty thirty five meters instead of the twenty five from before, meaning he could go farther, but it would be dumb to say it out loud because it would give away his position, so he'd stick to keeping quiet.
Caelus, finally reaching the last ability he wanted to use, his first one, Simple Cut. Caelus pointed his Staff towards a tree. He'd fix it after he tested his ability; he didn't want to needlessly keep something destroyed when it could be fixed.
"Simple Cut." His voice rang out, echoing, even though he never enhanced it.
A slash formed, flying out at incredible speed, faster than he could've moved before, even quicker than his Burning Temptation.