MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

The darkness faded away, and as Alex's senses returned, his vision settled on a sheath, crystalline and clear, like glass forged from crystal, and within its transparent surface, clouds of darkness swirled, chaotic, and restless.

Alex felt his heart drop as he saw the sword, and with his breath held, he slowly walked toward it, paying no attention to the void that surrounded him.

Alex had many questions about his current circumstances, but at the moment, all he wanted to do was get a hold of the sword floating in the distance, so lost in getting a hold of it that he did not even bother to check for any danger.

Alex took hold of the handle, its surface cold and smooth beneath his fingers, as a cold shiver ran through his body, a realization hitting him that it was much heavier than he expected, but still, it also felt as light as a feature, perfectly balanced.

As he firmly gripped the crystalline sheath, the swirling clouds inside whirled seemingly in anger or joy, and with a sharp pull, he unsheathed the blade in one fluid motion, the metallic hiss cutting through the silence of the surrounding darkness.

Alex lifted the blade to his face, its surface darker than the surrounding void. His first emotion was happiness, but his second was disappointment, as he found the blade covered in cracks.

Its jet-black metal was filled with countless hair-thin cracks, like an old relic that had long lost its value to the passage of time. To see how much it was damaged, Alex began channeling his mana into the blade, and as if waiting for the moment, it reacted.

The reaction was violent, to say the least, as Alex felt his mana veins on fire, his muscles freezing under the strain of having all their mana sucked out in an instant, his mana heart automatically entering the overdrive state as it took the mana from his body to maintain his organ.

The sword took not just mana but all that he had to offer, as his mana was drained to the near bottom, his life force siphoned, and his mental energy drained all in a matter of an instant.

Alex had his jaw hanging open, not even having enough energy to voice his pain, while every fiber of his being was drained and left dry, weak, and brittle at the cusp of collapsing.

The sword was putting good use to the energy it drained, as the cracks were gone in a flash, and the runes that once adorned its surface came back in all their glory.

A thin layer of clear energy formed at the edge of the blade, twisting and turning the darkness, spiraling into the energy field, where it broke apart in fragmented waves, dissolving into disorder.

Alex's mind was fading, slipping into darkness, while his body stood lifeless, with every organ shut down except for his mana heart, and the only thing keeping him alive was his extreme resilience.

Alex pushed himself to fall back, forcing his left hand toward his mouth before he took out a healing elixir from his space ring, nearly losing the elixir and dying as his skull was cracked open as he hit the floor.

Alex pushed the little amount of mana he had left into his mouth, getting hold of the vial with his teeth and without a moment's delay crushing it, consuming some, and spiling the rest on his dried-up skin, doing so just in time before his consciousness faded away.

Alex was a bit surprised by how things turned out, but he did not doubt that it would accept him as its master since he just had that strong feeling the moment he laid eyes on it.

Moments later, when his conciseness returned, a smile spread across his face, as he felt a deep connection with the blade in his grasp.

'Let's see what this beauty has in store for me,' Alex thought as he sat upright and placed the sword on his lap before using appraisal on it.

Alex looked at the status and for the following few seconds, he was left contemplating whether the sword was better, much better, or slightly worse than he expected, but with each passing second, he leaned more toward it being far better.

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Name: Sorrow

Weapon Type: Unknown

Quality: Mythical (???)

Grade: Sixth Rank {Growth Type}

State: Sealed

Bound: Hidden One

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•①-Effect: -Increase Chaos Element Damage by 25%

⦿- Increase critical hit Damage by 25%

⦿- Increase critical hit chance by 10%

•②-Effect: 25% Less Mana Usage with All Chaos Element Skills.

⦿- 25% Chance to instantly cast an echo of your last attack at full power on a critical hit, without any cost.

⦿- 25% Chance to disrupt time, freezing all enemies for 1 second on a critical hit.

•③-Effect: {Chaotic Madness- Passive}

⦿- {Chaos Essence- Passive}

⦿- {Entropic Touch- Passive}

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[Skills]

•➊- [Pandemonium Blade] The sword's form unpredictably shifts between solid and ethereal, with each ethereal strike phasing through shields and defenses, disrupting the energy it connects with, while each solid strike unleashing an unpredictable surge of elemental chaos. (Mana Required: ???) (Cooldown: None)

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•➋- [Nexus of Havoc] Creates a vortex of pure entropy that warps the laws in the surrounding area, tearing at their very essence and stacking chaos debuffs like accelerated aging, mental degradation, and unpredictable elemental afflictions.

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•➌- [Rift of Anarchy] Opens a rift to the Void Realm, with the size and duration of the rift determined by the amount of mana channeled. The rift releases chaotic entities that rampage until they die of mana poisoning or are killed.

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•➍- [Chaotic Reversal] Reflects any incoming physical, magical, or spiritual attack back at the enemy, amplifying its force based on the mana invested, while also adding one or more random chaotic effects (fire, darkness, Mind Erosion, Spirit Shackles, etc.).

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•Description: A weapon forged by the Ancient known as Dark, crafted as a parting gift for his beloved sister before embarking on his expedition in search of the greater cosmos.

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'Sorrow, a fitting name for a weapon of its nature.'

'However, beyond its name, it grants gifts worthy of nature, at least in its current state,' Alex thought, knowing the weapon was sealed since it was never meant to be wielded by someone as weak as him, yet it still offered the best perks he had seen.

The skills were self-explanatory, as each of the four did not have any cooldown or limit on mana consumption, and the only way to know what they were truly capable of was thorough testing.

The perks were great, as the two semi-passive effects were just great, but the true stars were the three passive effects, as each one was as broken as it could be below the Elemental Ruler Ranks.

The Chaotic Madness passive took effect from the moment the sword was drawn, and it began siphoning Alex's mental energy, pushing him closer to the brink of madness with every passing moment, but in return, it made him grow stronger.

There were four stages to it, namely, Chaotic Influence, Empowerment, Berserker's Edge, and finally Chaos Overload, each stage making Alex grow stronger significantly before finally losing his sanity and going berserk, only stopping when he dropped dead.

The first state gave Alex a 10% boost in all his stats and chaos element damage, and in the second state, that number went to 20%. Each attack fueled by chaos mana resulted in a burst of a random element. In the third stage, the boost went to 50%, with his recovery receiving a hefty boost, but his sanity also rapidly slipped away.

If he failed to control his sanity, he would go on a rampage, and the longer it lasted, the more damage his body would receive, but even with its m, major and uncontrolled drawback, the passive was of immense value.

The second passive, Chaos Essence, was much simpler. It made Sorrow constantly siphon energy from the chaos around it, feeding on the destruction in its vicinity and using it to fuel Alex's regeneration, restoring health, mana, stamina, and mental energy.

The greater the chaos in the environment, the stronger the regeneration becomes, and this was true for all three passives and the two semi-passives, meaning they were much more beneficial on a battlefield.

The third passive, Entropic Touch, made each physical strike deliver the power to unravel the target's magical and physical defenses, eroding him with every blow while also corrupting the target's mana and life essence, gnawing away at his internal defenses until his mind and body shut down.

'I can't wait to test these skills, but that's aside now I need to decide whether I keep using a single sword or shift to dual wielding,'

'I would be wielding duel swords once I got my hands on two good enough swords, and seeing that Sorrow will offer its best when used purely for the chaos element, and I have gotten comfortable with using Misery, I can give it a try' Alex thought as he contemplated his options.

Alex never picked up a second sword because before, he was not strong enough, and when he was, he had already lost Umbris, and he was not going to make the transition with two random swords, no matter how high of quality they were, since they were bound to be replaced.

Since a sword was the same as a limb to a swordsman, it was not something replaced on a whip, so he never considered it, but now the circumstances were different, as he had one of the best swords and was already comfortable with using Misery.