‘Now that I think about it, is there anything I need to do during the upgrade process?’ Taking in a couple of deep breaths to calm down his emotions, a thought swiftly surfaced in Valyr’s mind, prompting him to ask the question that came along with the thought to Sana. ‘Speaking of which, I should have brought a forging hammer with me, huh.’

‘There’s no need for that at all, Master.’ In response, Sana’s voice resounded throughout his mind, telling him that there was no need for a forging hammer at all. ‘All you have to do is insert me within the opening your friend had made and I’ll take it from there.’

‘For some reason, I find it wrong to do so, but alright.’ As his mind wandered about for a bit, briefly imagining of scenes that involved inserting things into openings, Valyr quickly shook the useless thoughts off his mind as he moved closer to the incision Tristan had made, ready to plunge Sana into the insides of the Tidemother.

‘Wait a second…’ Just as Valyr was about to insert his spear into the incision, another thought popped up in his mind, reminding him of the conversation he and Sana had back then regarding the latter’s upgrade process. ‘You said back then that you need the parts of a Lesser Tidemother to upgrade to the next tier, right? This is a corpse of a Prodigious Lesser Tidemother. Would it be fine?’

‘More than fine, Master,’ replied Sana, its voice continuing to resound within Valyr’s mind. ‘If anything, the parts of a Prodigious Lesser Tidemother would possibly allow me to upgrade to a far higher tier. Aside from that, there’s also the blood of the Prodigious Lesser Tidemother.’

‘Well, if you say so…’ Deciding to trust in his spear, Valyr took in yet another deep breath before proceeding to shove the spear into the incision Tristan had made.

For a few seconds, nothing much happened, with the sight in front of Valyr being that of his spear barely sticking out of the incision. Fortunately, just as he thought that the upgrade process was unsuccessful, the spear started to leave the incision on its own, a thick strand of the Tidemother’s blood connecting to it as it eventually started to hover in mid-air.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Within seconds, Valyr’s spear started to radiate a faint crimson glow as the red blood of the Tidemother gradually crept up on its surface, eventually covering the spear in its entirety. However, the crimson glow of the spear still remained even after the Tidemother’s blood covered it, only for the glow to take on a tinge of gold as the power inherent within the blood fought against the blood that existed within the spear.

Unlike before, where the blue blood the spear had absorbed back when he was in the Experience Pit lost to the crimson blood within the spear, the crimson blood from the Tidemother that had hints of gold within it won against the blood that already existed within the spear, taking its place. Of course, not all of the crimson blood that existed before within the spear could be erased, instead melding with the crimson-gold blood of the Prodigious Lesser Tidemother to reinforce and strengthen itself even further.

Swoosh!

At the very moment Valyr’s spear had finished absorbing all of the blood that had surrounded it, a far stronger wave of energy emanated from the spear, causing Valyr to look at the changes his spear had undergone. Within seconds, Valyr noticed that the spear had gained an ornate design around the boundary that separated the shaft from the spearhead, being made up of small crimson extensions that looked similar to the limbs of the Prodigious Lesser Tidemother.

Aside from that, the spearhead underwent a slight change due to the blood it had absorbed, taking on a slightly longer shape as Valyr felt immense sharpness just from looking at it. As for the shaft, it had gained faint intricate carvings on its surface, all of which were connected to the design surrounding the boundary.

For a brief moment, Valyr wondered whether these carvings would aid in the delivery of energy through the spear, considering how they were connected. Though, before he could obtain the answer to his question, a large surge of energy moved through the strand of blood connecting his spear to the Tidemother’s corpse, causing the corpse to slightly rumble as he took a look at what had just happened.

“Holy **.” Standing near the edge of the Tidemother’s torso, Valyr was finally able to see what had caused the slight rumble, his eyes instantly fixated on the splayed limbs of the Tidemother.

Before he had begun the upgrade process, the limbs of the Tidemother still appeared to be full of energy of vigor. In contrast, the limbs of the Tidemother now looked as if it had been siphoned of all its energy, causing it to look atrophied and emaciated, similar to the limbs of what a person in their old age would look like.

With that, he returned his gaze to his spear still hovering half a meter above the Tidemother’s corpse, noticing that the energy from the Tidemother was continuing to transform the spear even further. However, just as he was about to watch the spear’s transformation unfold in real-time…

Rumble…

Out of nowhere, the corpse continued to rumble once more. With that, Valyr stood up yet again to find out what was causing the rumble, only for a wave of energy from the Tidemother to come out of nowhere and hit Valyr from his back.

Bang!𝗈𝗏𝒍xt.𝑪𝐎𝓂

“Gah!” Thinking that an enemy had appeared out of nowhere, Valyr swiftly turned around to see where the wave of energy had come from. However, just as he had done so, a great influx of information bombarded his mind, causing his eyes to roll as he fell on his back as a loud and shrill voice resounded in his mind.

“To you who defiled the body of a Tidemother and transformed its strength into your own, I curse you till the ends of time.”

“Gone are your days of peace. Gone are your days of security. In every waking moment, any monster you come across shall attack you without hesitation, their attacks all aiming for one thing: death.”

“May you feel the wrath of the Tidemother whose body you defiled and stolen strength from. May you feel the wrath of the monsters that all seek to kill you.”

“May you feel the wrath of the Alltide.”

Chi! Chi! Chi!

“Aaaaggggghhhhh!!!” As the words from the shrill voice resounded in his mind, his body was being subjected to an immense amount of pain. With Valyr enduring great physical and mental anguish, the wave of energy that hit his back earlier appeared once more, burning the flesh on the surface of his back as it slowly carved out a mark while he continued to scream out in pain.

By the time a few minutes had passed, the small mark of a spider being surrounded by an intricate magic circle appeared on Valyr’s back, only being hidden by the armor set he wore.

However, at that point, the amount of mental and physical pain Valyr had gone through had exceeded what even he had endured from the skill books back then, causing him to fall unconscious as his spear still continued to hover in mid-air.

…

…

…

Ding!

You have gained the Mark of the Alltide (Tier I).