Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 170: Level 10 Tribulation

Jun perspired since he was directly under the sun. He couldn't take off the camouflage cloak since he wasn't sure if Hunters could still smell him this high up. He wasn't willing to know nor wants to risk it.

The building next to this one only had two-stories. He could see the airvents that looked like it hasn't been cleaned for a long time. 

As he get intrigued with the movements from the map, he remembered the notification from earlier. On his peripheral vision, he focused on the exclamation mark and the notification showed itself.

What does it mean my essence reached a bottleneck? Is it experience?

It took Jun several days, just to be able to reach his current place. He killed and slaughtered man or evil along the way, and he was finally about to level up.

So the gap from level 9 to level 10 was so huge that it took him more than four days to level up. Now that he finally reached the limit, he became excited and eagerly accepted the 'tribulation' prompt.

Jun's current stats was leagues above everyone else. The only people who could probably match up with him were people like him, the blessed ones.

The azure sky suddenly turned ominous. The clouds above him became as black as coal, followed by loud rumblings that echoed reaching far away distances.

Jun stared at the dark clouds above him and became aware of the weird situation. The inner parts of the dark clouds were lit up by several crackling thunders.

And all of a sudden, a lightning came down and struck him.

-10

Jun's body trembled as he received the full brunt of the attack. A few burned patches of skins produced hissing noises. He also felt slightly paralyzed and wasn't able to move for a second.

When he recovered, he stared at the clouds and noticed the inner clouds with crackling webs of lightning. The only thought lingering on his mind was that he was still alive!

Seconds later, another lightning was unleashed. He rolled to the side with the intention of dodging the lightning, but instead of striking his original position, the lightning shifted slightly and struck Jun.

-20

Jun felt a sudden epiphany after the second lightning struck him. "Is this what it mean for the tribulation? Should I hide inside the building?"

Before Jun could decide on what to do, the dark clouds rumbled once again, charging up on lightning. Not a second later, another lightning hit him.

-30

The lightnings only dealt damage on its very first contact with him. Afterwards, the lightning energy would travel around inside his body, paralyzing him.

Since he couldn't move his body, he circulated his energy and followed the paths the lightning took. He felt the paralysis being lifted on the body parts that his body was able to circulate into and felt at ease. With this discovery, he fueled his whole body with energy, chasing and eliminating all the lightning element still left on his body.

Just then, the fourth lightning arrived as he was driving out the remnant lightning on his body.

-3

Jun became dumbfounded when he saw the damage done to him. Although he still felt the sting from being burnt, the paralysis was almost negligent compared to the previous attacks.

He stared at the charging dark clouds, feeling bewildered. He begun thinking of what possible reasons could have resulted to the damage reduction, and could only infer that it was because of his endurance stat.

According to logic, every lightning strike becomes stronger after the other. His current endurance was 37, and the fourth strike that should have dealt 40 damage, only dealt 3.

To solidify his theory, he stopped circulating the energy on his body and waited for the fifth lightning tribulation.

He could afford this experiment since he had 41 strength that translates to 820 Health.

If he was a regular person, to reach the boundary of level 10 would mean that you earned 18 stat points. The lightning tribulation damage pattern meant that someone who had 450 Health, which translates to 23 power could survive the tribulation and successfully reach level 10. Even if a weak woman who only had 6 or 7 initial power could easily reach the 23 power stat mark. Now that endurance even helps out negate some damage, the difficulty of surpassing a tribulation would become much easier.

The heavens above rumbled once more and brought forth another lightning.

As expected of the fifth lightning, it dealt 50 damage to Jun bringing his health down to 707. Even if he didn't circulate his energy, he could easily survive his tribulation.

Jun chose to play it safe and circulated his energy all over his body.

The sixth lightning came and dealt 23 damage. Jun felt the energy circulating in his body, fought back the lightning energy that wanted to enter his body and caused both energies to disappear with each other. Jun suddenly became shocked with his new discovery.

His energy was reduced by 37!

It seems like that even though endurance helps negate energy, it doesn't come free of costs. Jun didn't realize this earlier since the damage was negligible, but now he felt the pinch! He could continue using energy to negate some damage, but he could pass out if he suddenly ran out of energy. 

The seventh lightning was coming and Jun decided to continue using energy. Even though he have used and casted a few skills earlier, he still have enough energy to negate some damage for three attacks.

The seventh lightning came. Then the eighth. His health keeps on getting reduced together with his energy.

The regular carriers were in chaos on the first floor while the Hunters only stuck to the floor but continued roaming the hallways, looking for their unfortunate targets. The nearby carriers around the area were also behaving strangely as if they were scared of those lightnings. 

This time, the dark cloud took much longer to charge. Jun had the time to take a breather and was able to clear his mind.

The first thing that he thought off was why he was not getting shredded physically. 

"Yetu, let's be honest with each other. We both know that you're somehow related to all of this. Can you tell me why does the lightning doesn't kill me?"

Jun waited for the odd voice to answer him but it didn't came. But when he was about to dismiss it, he heard Yetu clicking his tongue.

"You only know to chat when you need something. People like you are the worst. However, since you gave me a nice show to watch earlier, I'll answer your question."

"These lightnings only target an individuals soul. The burns you received from them were only used as passage ways to attack your soul."

"Does that mean my health is my soul?"

"It is a representation of the power of your soul. It is your essence as a whole that creates and defines you. All the memories you have are stored there."

"So people that were already old loses the power of their souls? What about people with brain disorders? Does that mean that they lost a part of their souls?"

"You can say so. It could also mean that the soul is decaying and its commonly seen on old people."

Jun nodded his head in understanding. "So, you were really related with all of this. Let's chat some more in the future. I'm beginning to like talking with you."

Jun didn't receive a reply, but he understood that Yetu was probably pissed at him. At the same time, he heard the loud rumbling from the sky and embraced himself for the lightning.

-53

He received the ninth lightning, then quickly circulated his energy to get rid of the paralysis inside his body. By the time he finished, he only had 20 energy left from his 210 max energy.

Jun happily smiled when he saw the dark clouds disperse together with his level up notification. The warm feeling from getting a level up helped him recover fully. He removed his burnt cloak and stashed it on his storage.

The azure sky has returned together with the warm sunlight. He sighed in relief and quickly sat down to relax his body.

His heart was still beating fast due to excitement and nervousness from the recent event, when he suddenly felt the floor below him tremble. The closer the vibration went, the clearer the sound became.

A Hunter was shrieking like a mad dog in pursuit of something. Jun was wondering who was the unlucky one when the rooftop's door suddenly got clawed by sharp razor claws.

The door's durability quickly reached zero and the Hunter that came out, sniffed the air. It found Jun after looking around with a simple turn of its head.

Jun then realized that he probably smelled like a delicious meal after his flesh got burnt by the lightnings! With the Hunters roaming on the buildings, they easily found Jun after he removed his camouflage cloak!

He hastily stood up from meditation and was about to ready himself for a battle, when another Hunter came running out of the rooftop's door.