The Ascension : A New Beginning (Solo Leveling x Tower of God) [ON A HIATUS]

Chapter 30 : Stage - Cleared

Yeah... It took longer than expected. On the plus side, the word count is more than double that of what I usually go for, so there's that too.

Enjoy

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"Hey, hunter turtle. Who were you fighting earlier? I smelled someone strong near you." Rak asked Jinwoo, as the two teams made their way towards the centre.

"... It was someone named Ryong." Jinwoo replied after a few seconds, not explaining anything thereafter.

"Did you win?" Rak pressed on.

"..." Jinwoo glanced sideways at Rak through his new black mask, locking eyes with him for a second as they continued walking forward. "He actually left before the fight concluded."

"What? He ran away?" Rak seemed a bit surprised at this.

"He wanted to fight me because he thought I was someone else. " Jinwoo clarified. "Once he realised I was not, he no longer had any reason to continue fighting me. Or so he says."

"It's still a bit hard to believe." Len chimed in. "To think there is another regular taking the test who is as strong as Boss...."

"Just goes to show you how big the world is." Jinwoo shrugged. 'Still, something about him really was strange. It was almost as if -'

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he felt his danger senses going haywire. Not even a second later, he felt an overwhelming pressure directly attack his mind. He froze in place for a moment, before he heard the familiar sound of the system's notification.

["Curse : Fear" was applied to the user.]

["Buff : Longevity" has been activated. All status ailments will be removed.]

[3, 2, 1... "Curse : Fear" has been removed.]

'What was that?!' Jinwoo was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. Looking around, he found the others in the same predicament - Rak and Sam were rooted to their spots, sweating profusely. Len and Ho were unfortunately in much worse condition, lying on the ground and shivering.

"I couldn't block it." Lauroe crawled out from his blanket, breathing heavily, as a bead of sweat travelled down his forehead. "I raised a barrier around all of us as soon as I sensed something was wrong. But whatever attack that was, it bypassed my defences like it was nothing."

'Even with his sleeping habits, I guess he can still be counted on when it matters the most.' Jinwoo inwardly praised him. "There was nothing any of us could have done about it. It's honestly remarkable that you recovered this quickly."

"Says the guy who is perfectly fine even after getting hit by it." Lauroe scoffed. "Techniques that attack the mind typically do that by messing up the flow of shinsu around our brain." He clarified, rubbing his temples. "If your shinsu control is good enough, you can 'fix' that flow back to what it was. On the downside, it will make you feel a bit tipsy for a while."

"Then, can you help the others get back on their feet?" Jinwoo asked him.

"Fine, I'll do it." Lauroe grumbled, before kneeling on the ground beside Ho, and placing his open palm in front of his face. "It might take some time, since I need to be extra careful since I'm manipulating the shinsu inside another person."

Jinwoo nodded, looking towards the direction the attack seemingly came from. His brows deeply furrowed when he realised something peculiar with the earlier attack.

'An attack that targets the mind and applies a 'fear' debuff... That is strikingly similar to my 'Bloodlust' skill, but on a wider range. Is this a coincidence?'