Tower of Heaven

[Flame Wheel]

Atlas raised his arm and channeled his qi, setting it ablaze. Yet, flames made of his own qi wouldn't harm him. And since enough beasts were charging at him to help him complete the trial, he didn't hold back with energy usage.

With [Intrinsic Foresight] still active, he brought his arm down as fast as he could, discharging his flames in the direction of the incoming leopards.

As the name of the attack suggested, a wheel of flames formed and rushed towards his opponents. It spun fiercely in the air, rotating on its own axis to increase its cutting power.

And indeed, against a Qi Seed realm beast, such an attack was a death sentence. The fierce rotation of the flame wheel shredded the scales of the leopards until there was no defense left on their bodies, and the heat of the flames melted their inner organs, causing them to fall limp to the ground.

[Total Kill Count: 12]

Naturally, his strength wasn't enough to kill all 15 of the leopards that charged him, but he was able to wipe out a sizable chunk. As for the remaining leopards, they turned around and dashed back into the crowd of beasts without another look at their fallen comrades.

"Haa…haa…" Atlas slumped to the ground trying to catch his breath. His head was throbbing and all sound was drowned out. At most, he could hear the muffled shouts and roars of the other battles taking place.

Total depletion of one's energy reserves would always lead to immense fatigue and sometimes even loss of consciousness. Even now, Atlas was biting his tongue until it bled to stay conscious.

He knew that fainting would mean failing the trial.

Slowly but surely, color returned to the world and everything returned to its normal speed. The sounds of battle raging in the surroundings became more prominent, causing some of Atlas's weariness to fade.

'That was terrifying, but amazing at the same time.'

Such fantastical actions were exactly what he had dreamed about as a kid. A wheel of flames made from his own power that obliterated anything in its path.

'Still, it wasn't enough.'

An individual in the Qi seed Realm could barely even be considered a cultivator, and even a normal human could kill them with enough preparations. This small achievement wasn't something he should be celebrating.

As for the flame wheel, it held a somewhat special place in his heart.

There wasn't much he could do at his current level of strength, but there were a few attacks that he learned at the beginning of his journey that maintained their relevance even as he gained power.

That was one of them. Even though the concept he primarily focused on was different, his overall prowess with flames allowed his fire wheel at its peak to raze hundreds of enemies whenever he used it on the battlefield.

[Ascender [Atlas Vaun] has met the required conditions for success.]

[Reward Granted. Check [Status Panel] for more information.]

[Trial of Attrition complete. You are the [3rd] person to complete the trial. Transportation to the next trial is on standby until the current trial is finished.]

'Finally, I can get myself a weapon.' He thought as he read the notifications. Opening his status panel, he noticed a new section that was highlighted in red.

[Reward Shop]

Underneath this tab, there was a plethora of both weapons and armor ranging between anything imaginable.

For weapons, there was anything from gauntlets to long-range weapons with many that Atlas had never heard of. As he already had experience using a sword in his past life, he wanted to go towards that category almost immediately.

But, something stopped him from doing so. His intuition once again rang bells inside his mind indicating that his choice wasn't the right one. Instead, it pointed towards a category and weapon that he never would have thought of.

Following his intuition, Atlas's gaze landed on a pair of sickles. When he focused on them, a holographic 3D image appeared before him.

The sickles had curved blades that were around a foot in length. Their handles were connected to thick chains that spanned for an unknown amount of distance.

The handles themselves were long enough to grip, indicating that they'd be effective in both close and mid-range combat. As for the design, it was entirely black with deep purple highlights.

'What kind of weapon is this?'

He could understand the practicality, but it didn't fit his established fighting style at all. He was someone who would go into battle without any sort of strategy or refined technique, focusing purely on brute force to climb his way to the peak.

This was also why he loved his old sword. It was massive and sharp, containing all the qualities that matched his personality. It was a sword that could be powerful no matter whose hands it was in.

With a weapon like this, form and technique were of utmost importance as, without them, the weapons wouldn't be able to show their power. In fact, the usage of the chain might be entirely scrapped without proper training.

Still, Atlas trusted his intuition. He hadn't reached a level of cultivation where his base intuition was something he could trust without fail, but his eyes were different. When his eyes told him something, it had to be important. There was no doubt about that.

And so, Atlas chose his weapon.

[You have chosen [Darkstar Chain Sickles] for your reward.]

The pair of sickles materialized in front of Atlas and a window containing information about them came as well, but neither were his focus at the moment.

'Darkstar. Darkstar. Darkstar.'

The word repeated over and over again in his head. Once again, everything else was drowned out and only the single word remained prevalent.

Atlas's eyes became clouded as a foggy memory appeared in his mind.

"These chains are made of Darkstar Iron, so even you, the Heavenly Emperor, have no chance of escaping!" A maniacal voice stated with ridicule.

Atlas could vividly feel the cold metal against his skin, sapping away any strength in his body.

"*******, I didn't expect that you of all people would be the one to put me in this position."

He was filled with rage, but his sadness was even greater. He had to wonder how important this person was to him to elicit such strong emotions.

"It's hard to imagine?! This is your problem. You were never truly able to understand the hearts of the people around you." The voice responded.

Before the rest of the conversation could play out, a thunderous roar snapped Atlas out of his daze.

'What was that just now?'

No matter how he tried to remember the face or the voice of the person in his memory, he couldn't. Even the memory itself was slowly fading from his mind as if a thick fog was cast over it.

At some point, he forgot about it altogether.

'These chain sickles are a weapon I've never seen in use before. Learning how to properly wield them will take me a very long time.' He thought as he looked at the weapon in front of him.

In reality, the chain portion wasn't as long as he expected it to be, only being around 3 feet long, but that wasn't necessarily a problem, since just like all other artifacts, this one had a special ability.

[Expansion]