Chapter 52: The Third Flame-Chaser
Rovel took a moment to review his progress, pulling up his skill panel.
1. [Basic Kendo]
- Quality: Common (White)
- Proficiency Level: Minor Accomplishment
- Skill Proficiency: 40,000 / 100,000
- Derivative Skills: Consecutive Slash, Borrowing Force, Dual Wielding
- Additional Effects: Sword Qi, Sword Intent
- Sword Intent Derivative: Clear Mirror Sword Intent
2. [Hokushin Ittō-ryū: Battōjutsu]
- Quality: Superior (Blue)
- Proficiency Level: Proficient
- Skill Proficiency: 741 / 1,000
3. [Basic Fighting]
- Quality: Common (White)
- Proficiency Level: Mastery
- Skill Proficiency: 5,000 / 10,000
- Derivative Skills: Block
- Additional Effects: Bone Fracture (Light) (Debuff)
Beyond these three, a new, fourth skill now sat at the bottom of the list—the one he had just learned from Kalpas. Its quality grade was a dazzling, Legendary-tier Gold.
But the effect... it was something else entirely.
4. [Kalpas]
- Quality: Legendary (Gold)
- Proficiency Level: None
- Skill Proficiency: None
- Skill Description: This is not a technique, but a gamble. This is not an attack, but an act of martyrdom. Strip away all protection, burn away everything you possess. Compress 'future'and'possibility' into a single, blinding instant. Use the most defiant and purest self-will as a guide to exchange for an ultimate bloom that transcends the shackles of all rules! Burn everything... until only death remains.
- Skill Effect: Maximum HP is locked at 1. The next attack's base damage will be equal to the sum of the user's four basic attributes multiplied by 1000. This damage is forcibly converted into True Damage that ignores all defense, ignores all resistance, and is guaranteed to hit. After this strike, the user immediately enters the 'Ashen Extinction' state.
- Ashen Extinction: All attributes are reduced by 99%. During this debuff's duration, the user cannot receive any form of healing or recovery. Duration is inversely related to the sum of the user's four basic attributes; the higher the sum, the greater the physical fortitude, and the shorter the debuff's duration.
This was the move Kalpas had taught him, a technique that shared its creator's very name. Reading the description, Rovel could only conclude that it was a glorified suicide attack.
Even with his current stats, a quick calculation revealed that the skill would unleash a strike with a base damage of 300,000. And that wasn't just any damage—it was True Damage, an absolute concept that bypassed every defense and resistance imaginable and could not be dodged.
Three hundred thousand hit points. To put that into perspective, that was the equivalent of 3,000 points in the Constitution attribute.
Rovel glanced at his own Constitution stat, which sat at a meager 72. Against the current player base, this single strike was an absolute death sentence. There was nothing, and no one, that could survive it.
As for the monstrous entities native to the Honkai world... he couldn't see their attributes, so he had no way of knowing for sure. But he had a feeling it would leave a mark.
"Phew... I hope I'll never have to use this," Rovel murmured, a heavy sigh escaping his lips.
To use this move meant he had truly been pushed to the brink, with everything on the line. In the game, the consequences were manageable—a respawn at worst.
But if he were ever forced to use it in reality...
Kalpas teaching him this was more than just passing on a skill. It was an acknowledgment. It was Kalpas entrusting him with the unfinished responsibilities he himself had carried. He didn't want Rovel to suffer the same powerlessness he once did, to lose everything he sought to protect when faced with an impossible choice.
'Brother Kalpas... you really are a hero,' Rovel thought, a quiet respect filling his heart. He let out another long breath. He never imagined that a single sentence, a simple declaration of his will to protect, would move the Flame-Chaser enough to hand over his ultimate, life-burning technique.
The purity of Kalpas's conviction was truly humbling.
Shaking off the heavy thoughts, Rovel followed the coordinates Klein had provided, soon arriving at a small, unassuming house. It looked perfectly ordinary, blending in with its surroundings.
According to Klein, Kalpas would need a long period of rest to recover after demonstrating that move. To prevent Rovel from seeking him out again—and to prevent another potentially world-ending training session—Mobius had recommended another Flame-Chaser for him.
This would be the third Flame-Chaser Rovel would meet in the Elysian Realm.
With a heart full of apprehension, Rovel raised his hand and knocked on the wooden door.
A few moments later, the door slid open gently. A handsome young man with... wait. Rovel blinked, correcting his initial assessment. A girl with short, gray hair and striking green eyes, whose features carried a subtle, androgynous charm, stood before him. She didn't look very old at all.
Hua sized him up, her gaze calm and measured. "Are you... the new Trial-taker?"
"No, I am a Descender," Rovel replied, shaking his head. "My name is Rovel. Dr. Mobius recommended I come find you."
"Dr. Mobius?" Hua's expression flickered with surprise. Her first thought was a wary one: 'Does Mobius want to run some new experiment on me?'
"Wait," she said, her brow furrowing slightly. "You said you're a Descender. I remember Klein saying it would be another few years before any Descenders could set foot in this place." She blinked, a hint of confusion in her emerald eyes.
"I also came here by accident..." Rovel gave her a brief, simplified explanation of his circumstances and the purpose of his visit.
Hua listened patiently, nodding in understanding. When he finished, however, a look of hesitation crossed her face.
"Is there some difficulty?" Rovel asked, puzzled by her reluctance.
"Well... my strength is meager, and my martial arts are merely mediocre. I am not a prominent figure in the Elysian Realm, and I have no experience teaching others..." Hua explained, her tone soft and sincere.
Rovel realized with a start that she wasn't worried about him; she was worried she wouldn't be a good enough teacher.
A corner of his mouth twitched. "Please don't underestimate yourself," he said, a wry smile touching his lips. "With your strength, you're more than capable of pinning me to the ground and beating me into next week."
As with the others, the system display hovered above Hua's head, though one detail was markedly different.
[Name:???, Level:???, Trust:???, Danger Level: Low.]
"Ah..." Hua seemed to finally register the vast power gap between them. "That was... indeed a lack of consideration on my part." Realizing that Rovel's strength was, in fact, not very impressive at all, she finally agreed to his request. "Ahem. If you need it, then I will do my meager best to teach you well."
"Thank you, Master Hua," Rovel said, bowing respectfully.
The title, however, seemed to fluster her. She quickly waved her hands, a slight blush on her cheeks. "Please, don't call me Master Hua! Just... just call me Hua. With my seniority, I am not worthy of the title 'Master'."
"Then I'll do as you wish, Hua," Rovel replied with a smile, not pressing the issue.
Hua visibly relaxed, breathing a small sigh of relief. She turned and led him through the house to a spacious, Shenzhou-style training ground in the back.
[You have entered 'Hua's Dojo'. During training, all skill proficiency gain is increased by 100%!]
Rovel's eyes widened slightly. The bonus wasn't specific to any one weapon or style; it was a universal buff. That could only mean one thing.
'As expected of the legendary Fu Hua,'he thought.'She must have achieved mastery in all eighteen traditional martial arts.'
"Then, we shall begin," Hua announced, her demeanor shifting from humble to focused in an instant. She turned to face him, her posture immaculate. "First, let me test your fundamentals."
She kept her left hand gracefully tucked behind her back, while her right hand, fingers held together, rested calmly before her chest.
"Okay." Rovel mirrored her, falling into his own stance.
The feeling was completely different from when he faced Kalpas. There was no devastating pressure, no suffocating killing intent that threatened to tear him apart. Hua just stood there, silent and still as the surface of a deep, placid lake. Her aura was perfectly natural, so smoothly woven into the environment that it presented not a single flaw or opening.
It wasn't a state she was consciously maintaining; it was simply her natural state of being. She had become one with her surroundings.
From this alone, it was terrifyingly clear that Hua's martial arts were anything but "mediocre."
In terms of pure martial attainment, of sheer technical perfection... she might even be a cut above Kalpas himself.
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