Chapter 225: The Origin Mark’s Importance! Breaking the Energy Net, System Configuration?

Caelus opened his eyes to see himself standing in a void.

This void, he recognized.

This was the place for the Origin Mark.

Then, the Origin Network’s notification arrived.

[In the real world, the Origin Mark holds more importance than just being something for show.]

[It is your key to take the powers you acquire from the domain into the real world.]

[This is also why you were level 1 with no EXP and base combat score when you woke up. You in this world did not gather enough Origin Power to bring back the power.]

"What." Caelus was baffled hearing this.

There was such a thing?

Now, everything made sense, didn’t it?

If he wasn’t wrong, this was the third day of the domain. People were already growing strong, but he decided to spend the time gambling away...?

[Ding! You can go to the market and gamble Origin Power. Many do it.]

"Just what exactly is this market?"

[Something that is crucial to the players and the town/kingdom.]

Hearing this, Caelus wanted to go there immediately and see the place for himself.

"So, how does one normally acquire Origin Power?"

[Monster Cores, rewards from challenges and game modes, gambling in the market, and more.]

"Oh." Caelus nodded.

That should be effortless for him, then.

[I will rebind the Origin Mark back to you now.]

Funnily enough, Caelus did not have an Origin Mark until now.

That was because the "him" now had not entered the domain yet.

An imprint of a line and two helix lines crisscrossing each other appeared on the back of his hand like a hard, imprinted tattoo.

Caelus examined it closely.

[Origin Power: 0%]

He nodded, and soon, he descended into the Origin Ascension Domain as blinding light burst out in his vision.

[You have entered the Region Lord’s Tier 1 territory area.]

[You need to use the portal in your town to reach the Origin Expanse.]

As soon as the notification rang, his vision cleared to see himself in a place with tons of players and non-players around him.

There were several housing units everywhere he looked, and also people.

"Looking for a healer. I don’t take in any bums. You need at least level 5."

"Looking for a tank. We are a party of pretty girls who can do offensive magic, but our defense is weak."

"Looking for a sugar mommy who will carry me..."

It was filled with activities, some players sitting in front of their housing units having put up stuff for sale.

Some did this because it was better to sell here than selling at the market, which was crowded with players not just from this town but also other towns.

While all this happened, Caelus saw a new notification appearing.

[Your Faction Powers have unlocked]

[The Faith Power you had in the Abyss has been converted to 1,400 Faith Power in the real world.]

[You can summon your pillars once again as you reach the intended 5M Faith Power.]

Caelus’s lips twitched seeing this.

It seemed like he had a long way to go.

His Chaos Faction was his greatest asset.

[Some benefits of the faction have been removed from the system as they won’t make sense in the real world.]

[The remaining benefits are:]

[Benefit 1: Joining Starter Perk of Permanent Combat Score increase from anywhere between 1 to 5 and aura gauge reaching 15 instantly. (Inactive until your aura reaches 15/15)]

[Benefit 2: Level 20 milestone. They unlock the power of Chaos Erosion and also the "Aura Perception" skill. Additionally, reaching Level 20 grants the title "Chaos Soldier", which increases damage dealt to players from other factions by 10%.]

Caelus quite liked the second benefit. It gave his faction members the benefit of slightly using power, Chaos Erosion, that came with the Chaos Axiom Energy.

[Chaos Erosion: A damage-over-time status effect that erodes the target’s HP, MP, and stamina over time while shredding away their magical defenses and buffs.]

---

[Benefit 3: Profession Scaling. If a faction member acquires a new profession, the rank of that profession will automatically scale to match the player’s current life rank.]

[Benefit 4: When reaching a new rank, cooldowns automatically end.]

The rest included the faction wheel stuff. The previous faction wheel could not be used as it held items of the abyss; hence, he had to remake it.

The Chaos Soldier title was pretty good, though.

Just then, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

It was Chad.

"Hey big man," Chad smiled. "Are you ready to go out?"

"Yes." Caelus smiled back immediately.

Behind Chad were Jennifer Miller and Ryan Murphy. They were his classmates as well.

"Chad. Do we really need to take Caelus with us?" Jennifer asked with a sigh.

"Of course we do." Chad shook his head.

"We are going to help him level up. He’s still level 1."

"Tsk. Caelus," Ryan spoke. "I know you are all into gambling, but to think you would do it continuously for 3 days straight."

"I bet you saw that Uutube video where a dude went into the market and showed you ’Tips & Tricks’."

There was all sorts of scam content going around these days for clicks and views.

Dumb players like Caelus would fall for it because he was addicted to gambling. The people who put out the video would get views when someone saw it for the first time, and one more view when the player who saw this video went back to it to try it out once inside the domain.

It was a quick way to get lots of views, and views equaled money.

"There is even one going around about something related to buying a slave from the market and unlocking a hidden class after buying a reality breach card to bring them to reality." He added.

"What?" It was Caelus’s time to get shocked. "Buying slaves and then bringing them to reality."

He had done it with Prime before, back in the abyss.

To think even non-players could be taken out of the domain?

What the hell?

As for why Jennifer and Ryan didn’t react to his new face was due to him hiding it. He wore a mask, hence they couldn’t see his face.

"Enough," Chad spoke. "Let’s go into the Origin Expanse and begin hunting."

Chad and the others were already level 5.

Ryan had an Electricity Application Talent at the C-Rank.

It allowed him to apply electricity to anything, including weapons, to deal more damage.

Jennifer had a Healing talent at C-Rank as well.

She could form a healing domain that would forever stay 25 meters and heal you over time, and this lasted for 5 minutes with the cooldown being 5 minutes as well.

It was simple and straightforward.

Chad, on the other hand, had a sword talent.

Sword Bone (Upper B-Rank)

He could control swords through his Sword Bone and generate swords at the cost of mana.

And at the same time, he also had a state called Sword Overload.

He could fuse with his swords, amplifying himself, and his fists obtaining the cutting power of a sword.

Soon, they walked towards the portal.

Jennifer and Ryan were obviously in a bad mood. The domain only opened for six hours, but they had to babysit someone at level 1?

It was rather annoying.

The portal looked like a gate and was at the center of the town.

But aside from the portal, there was also another green portal. This one led to the market.

There were naturally many players there.

Seeing them, Caelus got curious.

"By the way. Who is the head of the town now?"

"Hm?" Chad looked at Caelus strangely. "Did you really hit your head after all, Caelus? How can you forget this? It’s David, David Wilson. Our school’s top A-Rank Talent."

"Him?" Caelus was surprised.

He knew David. He was one big arrogant dude; he thought the world revolved around him, and if someone didn’t listen to him, then he would get angry.

But this could be attributed to the endless riches he had and seeing others as beneath him.

And now in this supernatural world, that arrogance must be naturally more amplified.

With that thought, they entered the gate.

Caelus’s vision distorted. The next moment, words lit up before him.

[Misty Woods 1-10]

An area for players with levels 1 to 10 and having level 1-10 monsters.

As soon as they arrived near it, a white Burly Rabbit shot towards them with immense speed.

"It’s a Burly Rabbit at level 2. Be careful. It can form energy nets that can bind you down in place and restrict movement until you break out of it, Physical attacks don’t work on it at all." Chad shouted as he formed a gun-like gesture using his finger at the rabbit.

The following moment, a wave of invisible energy erupted from him as a golden sword shot out of his fingertip, slicing into the rabbit.

[Ding! You’ve successfully eliminated a Burly Rabbit at level 2]

[You’ve obtained +30 EXP]

[You’ve obtained 4% Origin power]

"30?" Caelus commented.

The Origin Network’s system message immediately came seeing his confusion like a father teaching his son.

[The rule of the Origin Ascension System makes it so if you fight a beast one level higher than you, you will receive more EXP. The ordinary number is 15 EXP, which can also be amplified using EXP cards.]

"Oh." Caelus nodded; he was glad to know that.

The reason he got the entire EXP was because these people had already grinded the Burly Rabbits to max, meaning they could no longer get EXP from them anymore. Hence, all the EXP went to him.

There was also another thing he noticed: you no longer obtained Origin Credits by killing. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Just then, the bushes around them began to rustle, and out of them, many Burly Rabbits emerged. It was an entire pack.

"What? Why are there so many? Did we teleport into some Burly Rabbit den?"

Everyone immediately began moving; the rabbits rushed in with fury in their eyes after seeing their kin die.

However, while they were rushing in and dealing with the rabbits, clearing more than 60% of them, a rabbit had sneaked past them, going straight for Caelus.

"Watch out!" Chad and everyone else shouted.

It was a rabbit at level 3, and it had a combat score of 6. Someone who was level 1 simply couldn’t deal with it under normal circumstances.

The Burly Rabbit bared its fangs as energy surged from it.

Then, an energy net formed in the air, rushing straight for Caelus.

The others paled. "If that gets on him, escaping will be hard!" Jennifer shouted.

And she definitely didn’t have any confidence that Caelus could do something like dodging this net.

However, Caelus just smiled.

His muscles bulged as he stared at the upcoming net.

His fist burst forth, crackling the air around him, and the next moment it came in contact with the energy net.

Boom!

The energy net burst into bits of just illusory light as Caelus’s leg thrust forward towards the rabbit like a snake.

Boom!

The rabbit was crushed by the immense and precise power coming from Caelus’s legs.

[Ding! You’ve successfully eliminated a Burly Rabbit at level 3]

[You’ve obtained +30 EXP]

[You’ve obtained 7% Origin Power]

"???" Everyone froze in their tracks seeing this.

"Did he just... break the energy net with his bare hands?" Jennifer’s mouth hung wide open.

Caelus, however, was focused on the rabbit he just killed.

[The Burly Rabbit has successfully dropped a system configuration]

"System configuration?"