With MJ dealing with the Obelisks, Jay found himself with valuable time to focus on training and cultivation. Over the past hour, he devoted himself to mastering the newly looted Unique Talent. Since he had only looted the Talent itself and not the associated Mastery, he had to start training it from scratch.
Fortunately, the process wouldn't take as long as it did for the Talent's original owner. Back during the Tournament, when Jay had scanned the memories of all participants to identify those infected by Possession Seeds, MJ had recorded every useful detail.
Those records now proved useful. By reviewing the memories of the Talent's former owner, Jay quickly familiarized himself with the training process.
Although this method wasn't as effective as directly synchronizing with the Mastery, it significantly accelerated his progress. Within an hour, he was already close to reaching Stage-2 Mastery in the Unique Talent—a feat that would have taken several hours, if not days, to achieve.
As another fifteen minutes passed, Corin-10 had already cleared the first two floors of the Obelisk and proceeded to the next floor. During that time, Jay had reached the Stage-2 Mastery and unlocked the second Exclusive Skill tied to the Talent.
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Neutralization Field (Active)
Grants host the ability to temporarily neutralize the skills of all enemies within a specific Range.
Cost: Neutralizing skills costs the Host a fixed amount of 50 stats for Tier-1 lifeforms, regardless of the number of targets or skills affected.
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The second Exclusive Skill Jay unlocked was a powerful Area-of-Effect (AoE) ability. It neutralized almost all skills of anyone who entered a certain range around him.
At Stage-2 Mastery, the range was limited to 100 meters—a modest radius, especially when opponents could attack from hundreds of meters away. However, once Jay advances the Neutralization Mastery to Stage-3, the range would expand to 1,000 meters and grow even further with each subsequent stage.
This ability affected anyone within range unless deliberately excluded, without needing to target them directly. The only exception was that it worked only on those of Tier-2 and below at the current stage.
While the ability wasn't game-changing for his present self, Jay understood its potential at higher stages. Its value would soar as it became capable of neutralizing skills across vast areas and affecting higher-tier opponents.
The base ability of║NEUTRALIZER║, was even more straightforward. It allowed Jay to neutralize a target's skills irrespective of distance. However, the neutralization came at a cost—Jay's own stats were temporarily restricted. The amount of stats used depended on the specific skills being neutralized, rather than being fixed.
The main drawback of║NEUTRALIZER║was that it could only be used on one target at a time. Furthermore, activating it left Jay weakened, making it a double-edged sword. While powerful, it carried a significant risk.
When Jay experimented with║NEUTRALIZER║, he noticed something peculiar. Normally, the ability required him to restrict a single stat to neutralize a single skill of the selected target.
If the target's skills requirements exceeded Jay's Neutralization Mastery Stage, the stats needed for neutralization multiplied tenfold. This scaling increased further with a greater gap between the Mastery Stage and the target's skill.
The issue wasn't the scaling itself—it was the limitation that only his normal stats could be used as collateral. Jay couldn't use his Looted Stats for this purpose, no matter how he attempted to.
At first, Jay thought of this as a restriction. But as he considered it more carefully, he realized it was a hidden advantage.
He recalled the battle in the Colosseum, where multiple debuffs had been stacked against him, reducing his normal stats to a mere one-tenth of their original values. Despite this, he remained unaffected in INVERSE mode, as all his combat power came from his Looted Stats, which were entirely immune to debuffs.
This revelation made Jay appreciate the reliability of Looted Stats even more. Compared to his normal stats—derived from evolution, Essence Fruits, Undistributed stats, Achievement Titles, and items—all of which could be affected by debuffs, Looted Stats stood as an unshakable foundation of his strength.
Jay leaned more toward cultivating his Origin Physique and integrating Looted Stats into his attributes, prioritizing this path over advancing to higher Tiers and relying on normal stats for strength.
With this in mind, he temporarily set aside his comprehension of Neutralization Mastery and returned to cultivation.
Time flowed quickly. By the time an hour had passed since Jay entered the Obelisk, all ten Corins had successfully conquered the Obelisks they were assigned. Once again, Trial World announcements erupted, informing everyone that Jay had gained Primary Authority over another ten Obelisks, bringing his total to 72 out of the 100 on the 7th Trial Continent.
The announcements stirred the entire Trial World into a frenzy. Many speculated whether Jay would manage to conquer all 100 Obelisks before Day-20 ended.
His name dominated conversations among all participants, and even the Tournament Managers across the Trial World had caught wind of his exploits through their respective Alpha Chosen competitors.
However, there were exceptions. Wibbit, for instance, was among the few who hadn't yet heard of the announcements. But even if or when he did, he would be shocked. Wibbit, like others who had seen Jay in action, had likely already come to expect such feats.
Jay anticipated the widespread commotion his actions would cause, but he didn't hold back. For one, this would solidify his reputation as the strongest Alpha Ranker, making it easier to recruit others into his faction with minimal effort.
Secondly, conquering all 100 Obelisks on the continent would trigger the next stage of the Trial Program, unlocking a new set of challenges and rewards.
However, Jay had been cautious. He only proceeded with his Obelisk conquests after confirming that it wouldn't further shorten the already reduced Trial Program duration.
Confident in his plans, he entered Phantom Form once more, heading out to retrieve the Corins from where he had left them. One by one, he stored them back into the Inventory Space and then moved toward other Trial Regions where Obelisks remained unconquered.
The entire process took just a few minutes. Jay moved with his usual efficiency, but this time, he didn't linger with the Corins or the Obelisks. Instead, he returned to the Tournament Island.
By now, over two hours had passed since the end of Round-1, and the next round was approaching. Jay couldn't afford to risk disqualification by failing to show up on time. After everything he had accomplished, it would be a waste to lose his qualification for something so easily avoidable.
The revamped version of Volume 1 is now live on Kindle. You can find it on Amazon by simply searching the book title. Thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy the new edition!
Volume 2 Revamped Chapter Release Schedule
📅 Daily Releases – A revamped chapter will be released every day until Chapter 130.
These revamped chapters won't interfere with the usual chapter updates.
Exclusive artwork for every free chapter is now available on my PATRE0N page! You can find the link in my Discord server.
The first ten to comment for new chapter releases will get '1 ADVANCED CHAPTER' for free on Earth Alpha Prime's Discord server.
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Discord Link for 'Earth's Alpha Prime' :
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