NOVEL FROG Chapter 148: Forgotten Dream and the ridiculous rise in Proficiencies!
In a blurry world, a yellow hooded figure towered in the sky, laughing demonically.
This laugh had an uncanny and soul-shuddering feminine touch about it, seeping into the bones of all the listeners, filling them with repulsive, chilling horror.
Over this figure, almost beyond the sky's limit, a brilliant flash of yellow pulsated in hideous, nauseating rhythms.
Below this figure, on earth, the realm of mortals, waves of strange, terrifying beasts, were wreaking havoc, leaving behind mangled flesh and blood in their wake.
The figure's surroundings were lit with bright green and red flashes, and the air smelled of slaughter and doom. Last words and dying screams seemed to have replaced the natural sound of the world.
The scene blurred.
Now the same figure was running, chased by some unknown fear.
The tattered strips of the figure's yellow robes bellowed noiselessly. The same yellow globe of light was still pulsating high in the sky, but it seemed to cut away as if the figure and the yellow globe were in two different realms separated by an unbreakable dimensional boundary.
The pursuer was catching up to the figure.
A terror, accompanied by chaotic and unheard murmurs, gripped the figure's heart. The hooded figure stopped suddenly and turned around. It lifted its head to look at the pursuer. There was nothing under the hood but inexplicable and indescribable darkness.
The Darkness of death, destruction, madness, and doom.
In this darkness, a yellow sign shone like a phantasm on the figure's forehead.
A sign that was incomprehensible but equally mystical, formidable, and ghastly beyond humane understanding. A sign that couldn't be drawn, remembered, or perceived by mortal beings. A sign that represented the creepiest, foulest, and most unnatural force of the universe.
The yellow sign wriggled as if hundreds of thousands of tentacles were flailing in abominable madness. From the center of this sign, a gaze from an unknown eldritch realm came out, penetrating all the boundaries that separated the sane from insane, from mortal to immortal, and …
… from order to chaos.
…
Kai's eyes snapped open, his body shaking in feverous heat.
A gasp escaped his mouth as he sat up too soon, points of light bombarding his eyes under the pressed eyelids. All the sights from the nightmare were becoming smoke, and he struggled to hold on to them with a futile but desperate emotion. His heart still pounding, he opened his eyes a little, and the first scene that he saw made him widen his eyes in shock.
The black Abnormality Limiter Bar was almost transparent as if someone had siphoned out its blackness. In front of the bar, the value 3% blinked with a deliberate menace, forewarning the worst fate a Contestant could hope for — Annihilation.
This fresh horror loosened Kai's grasp over the already fleeting scenes from his dream and it would be many years before he would recall them in their entirety.
Under the emptied bar, a notification was flashing, just waiting for him to see.
…
[
Elementary Telekinesis: Proficiency 70% (+25%)
…
Elementary Telepathy: Proficiency 40% (+20%)
…
Elementary Seamanship: Proficiency 60% (+30%)
…
Elementary Fear Absorption: Proficiency 100% (+19%)
Elementary Fear Absorption has leveled up to become Advance Fear Absorption
…
Advance Emotions Manipulation: Proficiency 20% (+5%)
…
Advance Twin-Saber Style: Proficiency 15% (+12%)
…
Master Snake Instinct: Proficiency 2% (+1%)
]
…
"Master!" an old yet contrastingly powerful voice rang in his ears. "You woke up."
Kai shook away the fright. He saw Meg almost approaching him in two hurried steps, her face pale, but lips arched up in a genuine smile of relief, awe, and fervor.
"Wine…" Kai said, savoring his resurrected voice as if he was still dreaming. "I am thirsty."
Meg fumbled for a mug and poured the wine hastily before handing it over to him.
Kai drank the wine in several slow gulps. Only after emptying the half-filled mug did he breathe again. He moaned, satiating his thirst, and suddenly realized this thirst couldn't have resulted from a few hours. "How long was I out for?" he asked, looking around and noticing his nakedness. "Why the fuck is my Abnormality Limiter Bar so low?"
Meg looked at Kai for a few moments, nodded to herself, and pulled a chair next to him, sitting down while sighing all the while. "Three days, master," she finally said, filling the mug with more wine. "It's almost night. The good news is that the ship is on course and the crew is working fine without asking questions, except for one seaman whose leg seemed to have broken. The bad news is that the storm had thrown the ship off course by enough distance to lengthen our voyage by a week."
Kai gawked at her. He saw the paleness of her face, the lines on her forehead, and somehow he knew that there was something worse than the bad news she had already given him.
Sure enough, Meg took a deep breath before continuing her report. "Worse news is that, and I am guessing here, master, I think the mate, Andrik, saw you doing something extraordinary. No. I am sure he didn't see your Golduck form, otherwise, you would have died already."
Kai's heartbeat quickened even more. "How can that be?!" he blurted out. "Weren't you there behind me, and your eyes were towards the ship's bow too, right? How could he have come on the deck without you knowing of it?"
Meg looked appalled and ashamed. "I… I indeed saw him coming up," she stuttered out, her body quivering in fear. "My mind was unfocused, I admit. But the moment I saw Andrik's tall blurry figure standing on the deck, I almost rushed to create a paper wall. Before I could do so, though, I think you used a Skill, I really can't say, and I lost consciousness. It was almost like someone had banged inside my skull using a sledgehammer.
"When I woke up, I found you in your original form, covered in cracks. You looked dead, master. So I thrust the HP capsule in your mouth, which you had given me for a case like that. Only when I was taking you back to the captain's cabin did I see Andrik lying on the deck? If I am correct, then he had only taken the merest glimpse of you before getting knocked out like me." 11
Kai saw her hesitating after explaining herself.
He was already angered enough to rebuke her for letting something like this happen.
His mind, though, kept going back to the words One-directional he had seen on the Focus Punch Skill's stat. That blast shouldn't have knocked out Meg completely, when it wasn't even directed at her, given her strength of a top 3rd-floor Contestant, he knew. Something was wrong with all this. So he kept his mouth shut and nodded at her to go on.
"… what troubling me is that," she continued, deliberating each word, "how Andrik is still alive after getting hit by the same thing as me? If it was your use of a Skill that had knocked me out, then Andrik's existence must have been obliterated by the same. Don't you agree?"
Kai agreed, and his lips became thin as he repeated the same lines to himself.
Footnote 1 -
Reasons why Meg didn't relate her losing consciousness to Kai's use of Conqueror's Haki —
1. As mentioned, she had been extremely distracted by Andrik's arrival, and when combined with the deafening thunder and hail around her, it was impossible to perceive what was going on. Remember, though she is a fallen top-floor Contestant, she doesn't have the Stats of one
2. Only those who have experienced Haoshoku Haki can truly tell it after looking at its use and effect. But even if she had seen it before, she wouldn't have compared the two events. I will talk more about it later in the chapters
