Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

He let out a low groan.

The Gnostic Eye was also far too powerful to simply abandon. Beyond peering into the deeper truths of reality, it offered his first tangible path toward understanding Esoteric magic since his battle with the Homo erectus general. That alone was enough to make him lean more towards the eye.

It was between that and the privilege to overwrite a mandatory choice.

Slipstream Stride was an extraordinary technique, but compared to the unique nature of the other two, it felt slightly more replaceable.

He could theoretically create a movement technique like that further down his path of ascension. Of course, selecting it now would spare him centuries, and perhaps even millennias of trial and error, but he would in turn, lose out on two items that could never be replicated.

As Uhtred wrestled with the decision, the Towermaster observed him in silence, an unreadable glint in his eyes.

Suddenly, Uhtred froze. A realization struck him as he replayed the Towermaster’s exact words in his head. He looked up, locking eyes with the ancient elf.

"You asked which of the gifts I will choose, right...?" Uhtred asked slowly.

The Towermaster gave a single, quiet nod, his expression a mask that revealed nothing of his thoughts.

"...Then," Uhtred drawled, testing his theory, "I choose all of them. I choose all three gifts."

He held his breath, watching the Towermaster’s face for the slightest micro-reaction. He knew that if his logic was flawed, he risked forfeiting everything.

The Towermaster struck him as someone that abided by rules. If he was wrong, then he had just made his choice and would not be given a second chance to select any of the gifts again.

...But Uhtred didn’t think he was wrong.

The Towermaster had asked which of the gifts he would choose. The natural assumption was to pick a single item, but the phrasing had never explicitly restricted his selection to a single reward.

The silence stretched for a heartbeat... until slowly, the Towermaster offered a faint, approving nod.

With a slight flick of his wrist, the Towermaster released the three hovering spheres. They shot toward Uhtred like streaks of light, dissolving directly into his chest before he could even react.

The first to kick into action was the Gnostic Eye.

Uhtred suddenly felt a searing heat surge up his body, through his chest, where the orb had entered, then upward, via his spine, till he could feel a pressure right behind his left eye.

Flashes of the day he got his Inspect skill resurfaced in his mind — the painful memory of both his eyes undergoing a violent biological reconstruction back on Earth.

But that was a long time ago. Uhtred was no longer the same weak person as that time. He could easily handle the pain of a structural reconstruction of his eye...

...Or so he thought.

White hot pain like he had never felt before rocked his senses from out of nowhere.

Before his mind could register the impulse, his left hand shot up instinctively, his fingers clawing violently at his left eye socket.

The pain was so ungodly that his body sought to tear the eye out entirely rather than endure a single second more of the transmutation.

It took every shred of Uhtred’s willpower to grab his left wrist with his right hand, forcefully locking his arm down to stop himself from gouging his own eye out.

A guttural scream tore from his throat as he collapsed onto the starry glass floor. He writhed in agonizing torment, his body spasming violently while the transmutation reformed his eyes.

He had to remind himself several times that this was something good — that he was gaining an ability that would be very beneficial to his future growth.

Yet the mind-numbing agony made the future benefits feel utterly trivial compared to the sweet relief of tearing the eye out.

How he was able to scale through the entire process was a surprise even to himself, but after what felt like an eternity — but was only a little more than a minute in reality — the pain subsided.

Uhtred blinked repeatedly. His left eye was entirely bloodied. He had scratched his face furiously, until blood streamed down like a river.

However, that wasn’t his main concern.

An immense sense of disorientation overtook his mind as he looked through his left eye.

Lines that were previously invisible to him became visible, superimposed on the reality he saw in front of him.

He could see glowing, ethereal threads outlining every single one of the millions of alien spectators frozen in time around the arena under the Towermaster’s spell.

More importantly, he could see distinct strands of energy extending from specific figures in the crowd, tracing all the way to the exact spot where he had been standing before the Towermaster’s arrival.

He saw it all at once. While the Host had been conducting his interview, some powerful figures in the audience had been probing him without his knowledge. Their probing strands were currently locked in stasis by the Towermaster’s spell, but their origin and intent were laid bare to his gaze.

It was a deluge of information that rocked his mind till he forcefully closed his left eye shut, lest he ran crazy.

Panting heavily, Uhtred pushed himself up slightly and turned toward the Towermaster. For a split second, the temptation to open his left eye and gaze directly upon the ancient elf crossed his mind. But even with the eye shut, he felt a clear sense of danger that went beyond just his intuition alone.

The Gnosis Eye was telling him that peering at the Towermaster was going to cost him dearly.

"You seem to have recovered," the Towermaster said, a trace of humor in his voice. "Good. Then you can handle the assimilation of the Slipstream Stride technique."

"H—Huh?" Uhtred breathed, shaking his head with a tremble. He was in no way ready to begin assimilating a technique right now.

This was definitely going to be like assimilating a technique from a manual shard — a jarring process that usually left the brain dazed.

And going by his experience with the Gnosis Eye just now, assimilating Slipstream Stride was definitely going to be way, way worse than any technique he’d ever assimilated before.

Uhtred immediately opened his mouth to protest... but it was too late.

Before he could choke out any words, another round of pain slammed into his mind.

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