Chapter 122: May Ra Be With Us!
Mark immediately started to think deeply about which skill to choose. The only thing Mark knew about his trial was the fact that there were going to be tons of monsters. He is going to be dealing with a very large crowd, so he has to choose a skill that will help him in killing a lot of monsters.
The taunting skill was definitely not an option. Even though Mark liked fighting, he was not stupid. Why would he draw all the monsters to him when he did not know anything about their strength or number? The Taunting skill was also one of the least-ranked skills, so there was no use picking it. True Sight was also out of the question.
It would be useful, but not useful enough for him to use it against an entire horde of monsters. He can gauge the strength of the monsters by exchanging blows with them. True Sight does not give him the weaknesses of the scanned subject, so it was pointless getting it.
That left Blunt Force Trauma and Mana Circulation. Both of them would be extremely useful in this situation. Mana Circulation helped Mark by improving his already high stats and making him stronger than his rank allows him to be. Truthfully, it was this exact skill that helped Mark to stand toe to toe against some of the stronger Calamity classes on that island.
Mark was only an A rank and he had no business winning against Calamity classes, but due to his skills, he was able to put up a good fight against them.
But the most useful one here will definitely be Blunt Force Trauma. Mark knew there would be a large number of monsters and they would be coming towards him relentlessly. That meant that he could deliver a considerable number of blows consecutively and slowly improve his chances of landing critical attacks until every hit he delivers becomes a critical attack.
That was the best-case scenario that Mark could see, and he decided that he was going to choose this one.
[Does the User wish to pick [Blunt Force Trauma] as his activated skill? Yes/No]
Mark picked yes, and he saw the confirmation message from the system as the other skills in his system tab were blurred out, and the blunt force trauma skill became the only activated skill.
...
-> Blunt Force Trauma: This skill heightens the probability of landing a critical hit as the user delivers consecutive successful punches to the enemy, harnessing the cumulative impact for devastating effectiveness! Critical Attacks deal +100% extra damage to the enemy!
Current Rank: D Rank [102/400]
Probability of landing a Critical Attack: +10% for every successful consecutive hit.
Probability of landing a Divergent Attack [exponential 2.5 per attack]: +0.5% for every successful consecutive hit.
...
[All the Gods watch with keen interest]
...
SUPERHUMAN SYSTEM
Name: Mark Vanitas
Race: Human
Title: [He Who Perseveres Through Hell. [+10% increase to all stats.]] [He Who Defies Destiny]
Rank: S [3080/5000]
Affiliation: True Neutral
Unused Stat Points: 0
Unused Skill Points: 0
...
Strength: 1380 [+138] [+217]
Stamina: 850 [+85] [+127]
Agility: 850 [+85] [+85]
Durability: 810 [+81]
Mana: 520 [+52]
...
Artifacts: [Gloves of the Thunder God - S]
...
Mark squeezed his hands into fists and loosened them up again to prepare himself as the woman in front of him started to speak again.
"Newbie! Draw your sword! What do you think you're doing!? These monsters aren't going to wait for you to get your head straight! They'll tear you apart!"
Mark saw a sword strapped to his waist, and he drew it with a frown on his face. He tested the sword a few times by swinging it about, and he eventually decided that it would be of no use to him.
Slide!
Mark sheathed the sword back into its scabbard before he took off the entire girdle and threw it to the side and the woman who spoke to him stared at him like he had gone mad! What the fuck did he think he was doing!?
Mark didn't want to use the sword because he knew that his fists would be more useful in this situation. And besides, Mark never learned how to use a sword in the first place. He was more likely to hit one of the people fighting beside him than to hit the monsters coming towards them with that sword.
'Now, let's see if this works.'
Mark reached out to his system and requested something from his store, and he gained a cruel smirk on his face as he saw it fall into his palm. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
[The god of lightning and storms, Zeus, furrows his brow in confusion as he stares at you. Zeus leans forward on his throne and exclaims in shock as he views the artifact in the user's arms.]
Doon!
[Zeus is sending an alarming amount of animosity towards the User.]
Mark chuckled as he put on the [Gloves of the Thunder God] that he got from his system. The system never said that his artifacts were sealed, and Mark knew that Sozin hid his artifact from the other gods on purpose to give him a better chance in the trials. If Thanatos knew about these gloves, then there was no way he would allow Mark to use them.
[Zeus promises death if his property is not immediately returned.]
Mark threw the middle finger into the air, and he could literally hear thunder rumble from a distant place. Oh yeah, Zeus was pissed.
...
Gloves of the Thunder god.
[Effects]
+30% increase in strength
+30% increase in Agility
Grants the user the lightning-based Skills [Lightning Surge]
[Lightning surge: This skill enables the user to channel a formidable wave of lightning, measuring up to 100 gigajoules, through their gloves, unleashing devastating power upon their adversaries.]
...
[Comment from GoG: Hey, Mark, how about not antagonizing the literal god of lightning, yeah? I'm the one that'll get heat for your actions, and I'm not in the mood for a cosmic battle right now.]
Oh right, sorry.
Mark got his mind back in the game and turned to look at the entrance to the cavern. The woman that had been speaking to him all this while was no longer giving him any attention. Mark could tell that she had given up on trying to make him pick up his sword, and she already assumed that he was going to die before everyone else.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The ground under Mark's feet began to rumble and shake, and Mark narrowed his eyes at the dark entrance of the cave as he waited for what was about to come through it.
"Prepare yourselves! Here they come! May Ra be with us all!"
One of the men at the front shouted at the top of his lungs as he readied his weapons, and the rest of the prisoners all agreed vocally as they also got ready. Ra? Was that their god? Mark wondered if the kingdom his system told him about was an Egyptian kingdom.
[Time Remaining: 5:00:00]
[Time Remaining: 4:59:59]
RARRGGH!! RARGHH! WRARGHH!!
Before Mark could think more about that, he was suddenly assaulted with a loud sound.