Chapter 46: Chapter46-I Declare We’ve Broken Up!
After a brief moment of thinking, Caelan finally made his decision.
Anyway, when he farmed [Endless Abyss], he was definitely going to pick up plenty of items.
He could just sell them for gold coins later—there’d still be more than enough to upgrade skills!
With that thought, Caelan immediately opened his skill panel.
Thanks to his level increases, a bunch of new skills had been unlocked across his three skill trees.
But this time, his gaze locked onto [Corrosive Blade] on the White Swordsman skill tree.
Originally, the effect of this skill was pretty simple: it coated his longsword with a corrosive buff, dealing a bit of extra damage.
But to upgrade it to lv99999... it actually required 1.5 billion gold coins?!?
Just looking at that number, Caelan already understood—
The ascended skill of [Corrosive Blade], [Annihilation Storm], had to be something ridiculously overpowered!
So Caelan didn’t hesitate. He directly chose Max Level!
As gold coins vanished like water down a drain, a brand-new skill finally appeared on Caelan’s panel!
[Annihilation Storm]
[Passive Effect: Any of your attacks will deal additional annihilation damage, and annihilation damage ignores all defenses.]
[Active Effect: Create an Annihilation Storm. Within a certain area, everything will be completely annihilated—nothing will remain.]
...???
Reading the effects, Caelan was completely stunned.
Forget everything else—the passive alone was already absurd.
Not only did it add extra damage, it ignored all defenses!
Wasn’t that basically... true damage??
And the active effect made Caelan suck in a cold breath.
Annihilation wasn’t something ordinary damage could even pretend to compare with.
With normal damage, monsters could at least tank it a little.
But annihilation damage was erasure at the fundamental level—deleting matter from existence!
Was [Annihilation Storm]... a bit too broken??
In that moment, Caelan found himself looking forward even more to what kind of insane skill he’d gain after completing the [3-Star Class Mutation Quest].
Normally, after 3-star, the skill tree would unlock an Awakening Skill.
For any awakener, an Awakening Skill was basically their ultimate trump card.
It consumed a lot—but the effect was unbelievably powerful!
So... what kind of Awakening Skill would he unlock??
A trace of longing flashed through Caelan’s eyes—but then he realized something else.
If one skill tree could unlock one Awakening Skill...
Then once he had four skill trees, wouldn’t that mean he could unlock four Awakening Skills???
Insane. Absolutely insane!
But the problem was... his gold coins probably wouldn’t be enough.
At that instant, Caelan’s desire to earn gold coins shot straight through the roof!
"Earn gold coins... earn gold coins!!"
...
Mylanne City, Teleportation Array.
Caelan’s original plan had been to just pick a random entrance and enter [Endless Abyss].
But after checking the relevant information, he decisively abandoned that idea.
In fact, [Endless Abyss] impacted human territory far more than Caelan had imagined!
In the central plains city-states, where powerful awakeners gathered, every outbreak of [Endless Abyss] would be suppressed instantly.
But in frontier city-states, things were completely different.
To border cities, every outbreak of [Endless Abyss] meant a terrifying disaster.
After all, true powerhouses disdained staying in remote places like that.
So Caelan made his choice: he headed to Sandstorm City, located in the west of human territory.
Since he was going to farm the Abyss anyway, he might as well help a border city deal with the trouble too.
...
Mylanne City, Upper District—inside a luxurious mansion.
The lazy cousin, who had supposedly been "job hunting," was currently lounging comfortably on the sofa.
Her fair legs were crossed, gently swinging back and forth as she casually browsed the latest major news.
[Frostguard City Crisis Resolved—The One Who Acted Was a Mysterious Young Man!]
[Alyssa’s Most Awkward Moment: Exclusive Front-Line Interview—Don’t Miss Out!]
[Reports Say Endless Abyss Has Fluctuated; Recon Team Missing. All Awakeners, Proceed with Caution.]
Mysterious young man...?
That silhouette... why did it look so much like her little cousin?
No—Frostguard City was so far away. It couldn’t be him.
But... it wasn’t entirely impossible either. Yesterday’s trial mission really was to deliver supplies to Frostguard City. And that little girl Alyssa seemed to have gone too.
Could it be that Caelan, her little cousin, was also in the convoy—and had performed that outstandingly?
Talia shook her head. Then she figured—even if it really was her little cousin who acted, there was nothing surprising about it.
Because his bloodline was right there.
A strong bloodline was naturally far more powerful than ordinary people.
After all, Caelan’s grandfather—Howard Grey—was one of the greatest geniuses of the Grey family.
According to news from half a year ago, Old Master Howard had apparently reached Level 940. Rumor had it he’d even left Earth, hoping to try his luck in outer space and see if he could keep breaking the level cap.
And as for Caelan’s maternal grandfather, his status was no less astonishing. Even among all of humanity, he was considered a top-tier big shot, with a level that had reached 930!
With conditions like that...
As long as her little cousin wasn’t an idiot, his bloodline would continuously supply him with power.
But Talia also knew that what bloodline brought was actually very unstable.
Just like how the children of geniuses were, more often than not, mediocre.
How far Caelan would ultimately go still depended on his own effort.
What Talia couldn’t understand was why neither of those old masters ever came to see Caelan.
Even if they casually gave him a bit of help, his future development would surely be smooth sailing.
She couldn’t figure it out—but it didn’t matter!
Those big shots probably had difficulties no one knew about.
Talia shook her head hard, tossing all those messy thoughts aside.
Talia, you’re really going too far!
At such an important moment, you’re still thinking about that brat?
Your dear boyfriend is about to go on stage for his performance—how can you be thinking about your little cousin instead??
So Talia immediately grabbed the remote and switched to the live concert broadcast.
But the moment she saw Belia’s exaggerated makeup, a heavy wave of disappointment surged on her cheeks.
"Too ugly. Belia’s makeup is way too ugly!"
"I declare we’ve broken up! You’ve officially become one of my ex-boyfriends!"