Chapter 355: Panel and the Virtuoso Collaboration, Cyan Moon’s Return Home
Chapter 355: Chapter 355: Panel and the Virtuoso Collaboration, Cyan Moon’s Return Home
"Hey, Uncle Rein. And Ella. Looks like I got here just in time."
Lance said with a smile.
In truth, the only reason Lance had found the two of them so quickly tonight was thanks to Yvette’s help in pinpointing Rein’s location.
Even though he had engaged in some rather excessive "punishment games."
Which resulted in marks all over the walls.
But...
Even though Yvette was still in a huff, even declaring she would never speak to him again...
After learning about his new blessing, the Witch, still pouting, had used her Magic Pet to find Rein while she went to ask her sisters for information.
Lance stood at the mouth of the alley, his gaze sweeping over Ella, whose neck was being squeezed by Yasa. His eyes narrowed slightly.
Then, he glanced at his panel.
As for the Lantern Carrier’s earlier advice from the Soul Space—that becoming an Alchemist would help develop and perfect his [Biological Research] ability...
He now had another reason to look forward to it.
Because [Jhin, the Virtuoso] had already started to synergize with his panel.
Specifically, with the long-unseen [Commission Quest] panel.
Although at present...
Lance’s [Jhin, the Virtuoso] Profession Level was still at the lowest stage, Level 1.
At this Level, he couldn’t yet clearly observe the complete trajectory of a person’s destiny and its future branches, as the Lantern Carrier had described.
He could barely see anything clearly, let alone proactively select and use the power of Jhin, the Virtuoso to perform a "cut."
But...
’My golden finger is just too damn awesome!’
’It can actually bypass the limits of my Profession Level and let me experience the ability to cut destiny ahead of time!’
However...
Perhaps because Lance’s own Professional Level was low...
The panel didn’t directly list branches of destiny for him to choose from, as the Lantern Carrier had described.
It only generated a single, clear intervention quest.
[Commission: Protect the Cyan Moon Werewolf Ella from being captured by the "Black Iron Command Bureau" tonight.]
[Quest Difficulty Rating: Low]
[Destiny Cut Rewards: 1,000 General Experience Points]
The difficulty was very low.
’But this is a whole freaking thousand General Experience Points that can be used directly, without any Profession restrictions!’
’How many Ordinary Demons would I have to grind non-stop to accumulate that much?’
It was a bit of a shame, though.
The settlement for this one didn’t include any rewards like the enemy’s Specialties or Skills.
’Looks like I’ll have to try more of these in the future.’
’I wonder what kind of insane, rare rewards—far beyond the normal scope of Jhin, the Virtuoso—this [Commission Quest] system will offer once my Profession Level gets higher and integrates more deeply with it.’
’Golden Finger! I’m counting on you for the good life from now on!’
’The Foreigner panel! The Proper-Person panel!’
’You are both my godfathers.’
The moment Yasa saw Lance appear, he released his grip on Ella’s neck without any hesitation.
Because...
At that moment, Yasa’s danger sense was screaming wildly in his mind!
DRIP.
A drop of cold sweat slowly trickled down Yasa’s cheek.
’Danger! Danger!’
’He’s definitely an Advanced Professional.’
Yasa made a split-second decision.
’I have to go all out and seize the initiative!’
"BANG!"
The ground beneath Yasa’s feet instantly shattered from his explosive Burst Power.
With unstoppable momentum, he charged directly toward Lance at the mouth of the alley.
But...
A mere second after Yasa took his third step, when he was still five meters away from Lance...
His charging figure was suddenly sent flying backward, even faster than he had come.
"BOOM!"
Yasa’s massive body seemed to have been struck head-on by something.
He flew right past Ella and slammed heavily into the blank wall behind Rein.
A huge, spiderweb-like crater of cracks exploded outward from the point of impact on his back.
Yasa was literally embedded in the wall.
This was the power of [Repulsive Force] in actual combat!
Lance stood his ground, not having moved a single step.
He looked at Yasa embedded in the wall.
’Repulsive Force is limited by Perception and Spirit Attribute.’
’Is the current effective range only about eight meters?’
He compared it to the Ash Dragon Breath.
’The base damage per hit is a little lower than Ash Dragon Breath. Only about 29 points of concussive damage.’
As long as the target was within range and their Power wasn’t strong enough, they would definitely be sent flying by this Repulsive Force.
Besides, that last move, slamming a person straight into a wall, was visually spectacular.
But Lance discovered through his Perception...
...that although the guy embedded in the wall had spat out a mouthful of blood,
he could apparently withstand several more attacks of this magnitude before dying.
Lance activated his Outer World True Vision.
’A defensive body Specialty. He’s really durable.’
However...
Besides direct attacks, the two phase-changes of [Gravity] and [Repulsive Force]...
...could also be used to alter the surrounding Force Field, bolster one’s own physical defense, and even produce miraculous effects like pulling, binding, and restricting an opponent’s movements.
In the complex and ever-changing reality of combat, this flexible Force Field control had a tactical utility that was even slightly higher than the purely destructive Ash Dragon Breath.
’Since he’s so durable, I’ll try using Gravity combined with the Azure Dragon Extreme Intent Style to finish him off directly.’
Lance slowly raised his right hand.
Yasa, still reeling from being slammed into the wall, was suddenly enveloped by a powerful suction force.
"CRACK... CRACK... CRACK..."
The stones around him in the wall began to loosen and fall away.
Like a cannonball, Yasa’s body was forcibly ripped from deep within the wall by the Gravity, flying straight toward Lance.
Facing his incoming prey, Lance took a half-step back with his right leg, his core muscles instantly tightening.
[Azure Dragon Extreme Intent: Top Dragon Horn]
Just as Lance’s knee was about to slam viciously into Yasa’s undefended chest...
He suddenly heard Rein shout.
"Lance! Leave him alive for now!"
"I have a great use for him!"
Hearing this...
Lance immediately felt the [Commission Quest] panel that had just been triggered in his mind tremble slightly.
However, the words on the panel only blurred for a moment and didn’t coalesce into a new cutting quest as one might expect.
’A follow-up quest didn’t trigger?’
Lance wondered silently.
’Is it because I haven’t had enough contact with this guy yet?’
It seemed he still had much to learn about the mechanics of how Jhin, the Virtuoso interfered with fate.
Although his mind was racing, Lance’s movements didn’t hesitate.
"POW!"
With a muffled thud,
Lance forcibly pulled back eighty percent of the power in his knee strike.
The Top Dragon Horn merely connected heavily with Yasa’s chin.
The alpha wolf...
...hadn’t even managed to touch the hem of Lance’s clothes.
His eyes rolled back, and he was knocked out cold, slumping to the ground as peacefully as a sleeping baby.
Rein leaned against the wall, watching everything unfold.
The look he gave Lance was extremely complicated.
A mixture of shock, relief, and many other ineffable emotions.
Lance relaxed his stance and was about to walk over to ask what had been going on.
But just as he took his first step, he froze in place as if paralyzed.
He turned his head, his gaze locked intensely on Ella.
Lance’s eyes were filled with immense shock.
Because in the instant they drew closer, the ability granted by his [Jhin, the Virtuoso] Profession had been forcibly triggered.
The world around him began to distort in his eyes.
He had passively entered the "fate vision" state unique to Jhin, the Virtuoso.
In this grayscale world,
Lance saw...
...that high above Ella’s head, in the depths of the sky,
Countless thin threads, glowing with an eerie red light like puppet strings, were continuously descending from the void.
These threads attached themselves precisely to Ella’s shoulders and limbs, ultimately weaving an airtight spiderweb that bound her entire body tightly.
Lance numbly raised his head, following the red threads upward into the sky.
Through these threads, he seemed to catch a faint glimpse of something within the great river of fate.
An unnatural force was pulling at the trajectory of Ella’s destiny, forcibly changing the course of her future.
And at the source of that force,
At the very edge of his vision, he could vaguely make out an image.
It was a slender hand, holding a quill, unhurriedly writing something on a sheet of parchment.
With every word written, the threads of fate tightened.
But what terrified Lance even more was...
...when he tore his gaze away from Ella,
He discovered that these eerie red threads weren’t just attached to Ella.
The nearby Rein was also entangled in quite a few of the same threads.
Even Lance himself had them!
However, unlike the tight entanglement on Ella,
The thin threads connected to Lance seemed to have been forcibly snapped by some power, yet they remained tenuously connected for now.
"Molok."
Lance silently watched this absurd and terrifying scene.
He knew it was precisely because his own fate was on the line that his Jhin, the Virtuoso ability—still only at Level 1 and not supposed to have this kind of vision—had been forcibly and passively triggered.
Just then,
A brand-new commission quest, glowing with a dark gold light, slowly materialized.
[Chain Commission: Cyan Moon’s Return Home]