Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

A flood of information bombarded him in an instant. His normal status panel was the first thing he saw, but he moved his eyes to the other panels instead.

There weren’t any large differences in his attributes stats, seeing as he hadn’t actually gone into any cultivation session. He had only fought with the Neanderthal warrior, so his gains were more in skills rather than in attributes.

[Notice!]

[Your proficiency in the metallic aspects of cosmic essence has increased significantly]

[Basic Metal Sense (Level 1) → Basic Metal Magic (Level 3)]

[New Skill Developed: Basic Earth Magic (Level 2)]

[New Skill Developed: Basic Thermal Magic (Level 3)]

[Titles Gained]

Technique Prodigy: 2nd in world to create 3 cultivation techniques. (+80 Merits)

Total Merits earned: 1,481

As Uhtred scanned the System messages of his skills created and his title gained, he did not fail to notice that there was nothing about the Neanderthal mentioned at all.

He would have thought there would be a title at least for facing such a powerful foe and coming out of it alive. He had not just come out of it alive, but the Neanderthal had been so weakened that it had been forced to retreat at the end.

Yet the System had made no mention of anything of the sort.

More importantly, however, he had still not seen anything regarding what Diya had asked him to check.

But as his eyes glanced further down, moving to the quest panel, they widened immediately at the contents.

Holy shit...

[Notice: Global Quest activated]

[Quest Title: The Sapiens’ Crucible]

[Description: The System recognizes humans, the dominant species of planet Earth, as the rulers of their world. However, the System operates on absolute equity. In its impartiality, while reconstructing the ancient fauna, flora, and beasts from the geologic record of Earth to reshape the world, the System also brought back the ancient variants of your species]

[In its justness, the System recognizes that the current ruling variant of any integrated planet might not necessarily be the best to have ever lived, or the most optimal choice to represent their lineage on the path of ascension.

It is entirely possible that variants from your past possessed greater baseline thresholds and a superior capacity to handle cosmic essence.

Therefore, the System has granted the ancient human variants an equal opportunity to challenge your position and claim planetary dominance]

[Should they prove their worth and superiority, the modern variant of humans will be relegated to total extinction, and the ancestral factions will take your place to represent planet Earth on the multiversal stage]

[This quest was not scheduled to be triggered until six months after the initial integration phase, giving modern humans a natural grace period to settle.

However, due to the ingenuity of modern humans in foiling the first tactical probe of the ancient men, the timeline has been altered.

The System has acknowledged this feat, and as a direct reward for your early success, a three-month information blackout has been granted to the modern humans]

[For the next 90 days, the ancient variants will remain completely blind to your developments, coordinates, and camps. Take control of this period to prepare your territories and cultivate your cores before the true conflict begins... The war for the cradle has commenced]

[Quest Type: Mandatory. Global Scale]

[Time Limit: 4 years : 364 days : 16 hours : 32 minutes]

[Clear Conditions: Eliminate the three ancestral factions or force their absolute submission before the end of the integration buffer period]

[Failure Penalty: Extinction]

"...Fuck. Me."

Uhtred’s mouth hung open in absolute shock as he read and re-read the contents of the System quest again.

"Yeah..." Diya sighed. "Apparently, we’re up against extinct variants of our species... And if we fail to kill them or make them submit to us, we’re going to face extinction."

Uhtred’s expression became solemn, and his mind quickly went to work analyzing the situation like it always did whenever he was faced with something surprising or tense. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

First off, after reading the content of this quest notice, the move by the Neanderthal warrior and the Homo erectus scouts to enter into their camp suddenly seemed more logical.

But then again, there were still questions regarding exactly why they had taken the children specifically. If they wanted to learn about humans, it was better to simply take a full-grown adult instead.

Maybe because children are easier to coerce?

A frown colored Uhtred’s face. The ancient factions were already showing how decisive they were. Uhtred knew that among humans, even if they were to have the head start advantage that the ancient factions had been given to enter their camps, abducting children was not the first thing they would have thought of.

It simply went to show just what kind of people they were dealing with here and how seriously they took it.

Which brought Uhtred to his second thought. The sounds of the screams he was hearing in the distance.

The Homo erectus scout.

The little bit of discomfort he had felt earlier from hearing those screams disappeared entirely.

He rose to his feet, startling Diya.

"Let’s go. I want to see the prisoner myself."

"Ah. But you’re not fully recovered. I’d advise that you should rest for a bit longer. The others are taking care of—"

Diya suddenly went silent, noticing Uhtred’s blank stare leveled at her. She swallowed instinctively, then stood to her feet and moved in front of Uhtred, leading the way without any other word.

From behind, Uhtred watched her back for a second, then followed after her. He could sense that she did not like what was happening there.

One had to remember that she was simply someone who led a simple life just a day ago, and now she was having a hand in matters that, frankly, went beyond even her wildest of imaginations.

He could understand that torture was something she would be uncomfortable with. Even he had felt a bit of discomfort from hearing the screams earlier.

But just like the way he had quickly reoriented himself, she would have to learn to do the same.

Within the span of the time between the previous quest the System had given him: Your Law, Your Order, and now, Uhtred had had a change in perspective about the people around him.

Especially with this new quest that posed a threat to not just his own life but the extinction of humanity as a whole, he had now actively started to look out for people who could be of great use to him. Talents that he could be sure would be able to step up even when he was not there.

Perhaps it was somewhat haughty to be thinking like this already, but the current situation called for such thoughts from him.

It was one thing to have his ambition to forge up the path of ascension alone, but it was another thing when the survival of the species as a whole was being threatened.

He was still going to maintain his goal to not be bogged down by the whims of others or their expectations, but he would make sure to play his part in the survival of their species.

And the first step to doing that was forcing clarity into the perspective of those who were still somewhat hesitant, talents who were still being held back by their views of the old Earth.

As they drew near to the enclave where the screams emanated from, Diya at his front began to tremble and hesitate, but Uhtred leveled a gaze at her.

"What are you doing? I want you to lead me... inside."