Chapter 152: Gaining Powerful Psychic Abilities, Trapped In The Noosphere?!

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After acquiring the SSS+ Rank Psionic Avatar Talent, Riven felt a sharp, stabbing headache explode inside his skull. Label, the only one close enough to witness the changes, watched as his already powerful mind wavelengths began expanding outward around him like a living veil. That veil slowly started taking the vague shape of a humanoid silhouette, yet it remained extremely blurry and barely formed.

The new talent had granted Riven an incredible power instantly, but it would still require his own focused effort to perfect and train properly. In its current unstable state, the Psionic Avatar seemed more likely to do harm than good. There was a high chance it could backfire severely on Riven if he failed to control it correctly.

"Haaa...! Haaa...! Haaa...!"

Riven gasped heavily as sudden visions flooded his mind. The world around him began revolving and spinning wildly. Stars, planets, and countless swirling nebulas expanded in every direction before disappearing and contracting all the way back to Earth. He could sense the thoughts of every living person — a massive collective of invisible energy that usually remained completely undetectable even by modern technology.

The Noosphere had already existed long before Mana and the Gates first appeared on Earth, but those new forces had caused it to grow massively in both size and intensity. Mana was an incredible element that empowered everything it touched, and the Noosphere surrounding the planet had expanded rapidly as a result.

In the span of a single second, Riven found himself floating somewhere else entirely, completely confused and disoriented. An endless sky of psychedelic clouds and shifting colors stretched in every direction. The countless thoughts of every intelligent being on the planet appeared here and took strange, bizarre shapes that constantly clashed against one another without end.

"What the fu...!"

It felt crazier and more overwhelming than anything he had ever experienced before. Riven was almost euphoric as he saw, felt, and fully experienced everything surrounding him in this strange mental realm.

For an untrained Psionic Mind, however, the Noosphere was an extremely dangerous place...

RUMBLE!

"?!"

A giant mass of pure darkness began rapidly approaching him from the distance. Riven tried to take a step back, only to realize there was no ground or solid place to stand in this endless chaos of thought and color.

The darkness slowly revealed itself. Countless blinking eyes stared directly at him. Massive distorted heads and gaping mouths opened and screamed without sound. Huge grasping hands reached outward toward his form.

"What is that?!"

Unable to keep himself together or properly control his new power; the darkness seized his incomplete Psionic Avatar and dragged him straight into its waiting jaws. Riven tried to fight back with everything he had, but he still did not know how to use this ability correctly and found himself completely helpless.

"RIVEN!"

FLASH!

A familiar voice suddenly echoed behind him. Label’s hand touched his shoulder, and in that instant Riven was violently pulled back into the Physical World. He gasped for air as if he had been drowning for a long time, coughing hard as he tried to recover.

"Cough, cough...! Ugh, fuck! What... what was that...?" He slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. "Sorry... I... uh."

"It’s fine," Label said calmly. "I already told the others... You were standing there for half an hour just staring at nothing. Your mind got sucked into another place, didn’t it?"

"I think so," Riven admitted. "Do you know about the Noosphere? I think I got lost inside it... I couldn’t find a way back to my body on my own."

"Oh... that’s extremely dangerous," Label nodded with clear concern. "But I was able to pull you back, thankfully... I kind of understand my own power a little better now? After I touched your shoulder... somehow the connection just worked."

"I see," Riven nodded slowly. "Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that thing after all. It gave me such strange and bizarre powers..."

"Well, that’s what you get for eating an alien, dude," Kagehisa said with a dry laugh. "What exactly did you expect would happen?"

"You’re not wrong," Riven admitted. "I guess I knew what I was getting myself into... Anyway, it’s done for now."

Ding!

[Predator Class Level 100 reached.]

[Gluttony Triggered.]

[x10,000 Reward Multiplier Activated!]

[Vitality +1,000,000 | Mana +1,000,000 | Strength +1,500,000 | Endurance +1,500,000 | Intelligence +1,000,000 | Agility +800,000 | Spirit +800,000.]

"Ah..."

Riven felt his body growing significantly stronger, yet this time there was no longer any accompanying pain. There was only a smooth flow of pure raw energy as his already massive reserves of Mana continued to expand even further.

With this enormous amount of Mana and other energies now available to him, it should finally be possible to continuously use the more mana-heavy skills such as Netherworld King Swordsmanship without worry.

He was going to completely crush Ryujin when they next met.

And yet the process was not even finished.

His body responded on its own, rapidly beginning to absorb a set of new and immensely powerful genes that were ready to be infused into his Titan Physique. Among them was one particular gene that had not appeared earlier because it had been incredibly difficult to decipher. Gene Absorption had already reached Level 4, however, and when he activated the synergy ability "Absolute Assimilation" on top of it, the hidden gene finally revealed itself fully.

[The Class Skill: [Gene Absorption – Level 4] has activated successfully.]

[The Synergy Ability: Absolute Assimilation has activated successfully, doubling the effectiveness of Gene Absorption.]

[You have absorbed [Genesis-05 Cells] Super Rare Gene x100+.]

[Genes are divided into four rarities: Ultra Rare, Super Rare, Rare, and Common. The higher their rarity, the stronger and more powerful they can be cultivated.]

[Do you wish to automatically absorb and cultivate all genes into your main Titan Physique?]

[Ultra Rare Genes have a 25% → 50% chance to manifest a Trait.]

[Super Rare Genes have a 15% → 30% chance to manifest a Trait.]

[Rare Genes have a 5% → 10% chance to manifest a Trait.]

[Common Genes have a 1% → 2% chance to manifest a Trait.]

[Traits are physical mutations of these Genes into your Physique. They can be from claws, scales, exoskeleton, the power of breathing fire without using Mana, etcetera.]

[Traits can be easily activated or deactivated at will.]

[You have extracted over one hundred of the same gene. Do you wish to absorb them all into your Physique?]

[Yes] [No]

"One hundred...?!"

Riven was left completely speechless after realizing there were so many identical genes from the same creature available for absorption.

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