Wizard: My career panel has no upper limit

Chapter 342 Abyss KPI Assessment
The massive coral reef, composed of flesh and bones, resembled a sleeping behemoth, breathing slowly in the darkness.

This place was once the forward base established by the Brotherhood of Steel.

That was three thousand years ago, when a wizarding organization specializing in mechanical modification attempted to establish a semi-permanent stronghold in the abyss.

The result can be imagined.

Today, those once indestructible steel fortresses have completely merged with flesh and blood, forming a bizarre existence that exists between architecture and life.

The thick alloy armor plates were covered with dense blood vessels, and the intricate circuits were replaced by nerve fibers. Thick bodily fluids flowed from the muzzles of the giant turrets.

"I really miss... the squeaking of those little insects..."

Nari gently stroked an area on the wall where the Brotherhood of Steel emblem was still visible.

There now stands a huge compound eye, its pupil still reflecting the fear of humans.

It vividly remembers the scene when the fortress was captured.

It wasn't because the battle was particularly intense, but because the sounds those explorers made before they died were so amusing.

Some cry, some laugh, and some sing.

Nari never understood why different people would react so differently when faced with the same death.

Countless eyes grew on the wall, densely distributed like a honeycomb on every inch of the surface.

These are all extensions of its body, used to monitor every corner of the nest.

Tentacle nerves hanging from the ceiling sway gently in the air; their ends have tiny auditory organs that can detect the sound of a pin dropping.

Nari loves to hear all kinds of sounds—the scraping of metal, the dripping of liquid, the heartbeat of a living being, and even strange whispers coming from the void.

These sounds wove together in its consciousness into a complex symphony, a rare form of entertainment for it throughout its long history.

However, right now, Nari is most concerned about his treasure vault.

This is a special space located at the deepest part of the nest, wrapped in a thick, colorful membrane.

These membranes come from the "brain jellyfish king," the leader of a group of brain jellyfish that can transform extracted information into a translucent membrane.

In this kaleidoscope-like, dazzling world, float the "treasures" it has collected over the years:
A still-beating heart is perfectly preserved within a vesicle.

That heart belonged to an arrogant, solitary wizard.

When Nari found him, the poor wretch had been eroded to the point that only his heart was still stubbornly beating.

Nari found this tenacity "cute" and kept it.

Dozens of glowing soul fragments danced like fireflies inside the container.

These are all "pure memories" that I carefully selected.

It contains the sweetness of first love, the warmth of maternal love, and the preciousness of friendship, but also the pain of betrayal, the fear of death, and the darkness of despair.

Nari enjoys watching these emotional clips when he's bored, learning about the complex world of human emotions from them.

Sometimes it wonders, "Why are the minds of these little insects so much more complex than I imagined?"

"Another new friend has come to visit..."

Nari carefully placed the sac containing the substitute puppet into the center of the vault.

That kind of excitement is like a little girl finally getting the toy she's been waiting for.

“You look different from the other collectibles.”

The enormous monster swam slowly around the vesicle, its body moving with remarkable agility in the confined space.

"It has the scent of a wizard, the aura of the abyss, and something else... I've never felt anything like it before..."

Just then, a wave of excruciating pain swept through Nari's consciousness.

Having just emerged from its slumber, its mental structure is still in an extremely unstable state.

Chaotic energy flowed wildly through my mind, bringing not only pain, but also a sense of tearing apart my very being.

It craves order to stabilize its thinking, but the chaos within its nature fiercely resists this desire.

"Ugh...it's happening again..."

Nari curled up in pain in a corner of the vault.

The eyes on the walls closed as if sensing their owner's pain, as if they too were enduring the same torment.

This kind of pain is different from physical trauma; it is a tearing apart of the soul.

Every Abyss Apostle must face this destiny—the greater the power, the heavier the burden of chaos they bear.

"Mother... if only you were still here..."

Nari's thoughts became as faint as silk, carrying a childlike helplessness:

"You'll tell me what to do, right? You won't look down on me for being clumsy like everyone else..."

The rules of survival in the abyss are far more complex than they appear on the surface.

Although this place is full of chaos, it is by no means a crazy world without any rules.

Conversely, the Abyss has its own unique system of order, a set of cruel laws based on strength and adaptability.

First and foremost is the necessity of maintaining rationality.

Although Apostle-level beings possess world-destroying power, their chaotic nature constantly erodes their consciousness structure.

Nari could clearly feel the presence of this erosion.

Whenever it overuses its power, its thinking becomes blurred and chaotic.

Memories begin to become disordered and rearranged, and may even generate a strong urge to self-destruct.

It has witnessed examples of things getting completely out of control.

"The Devouring Maw" Karazon, an apostle even older than Nari.

Because of the inability to maintain a rational balance over a long period of time, it eventually spiraled out of control completely.

The once incredibly cunning monster has become a living disaster that only knows how to eat.

It devoured the territory it had painstakingly cultivated for thousands of years, along with all its subordinates and collections.

Finally, it came to an end through self-consumption, leaving behind only a huge void.

To avoid this fate, the apostles had to find a way to maintain their sanity.

The most effective way is to develop subordinates:

By implanting one's own seed of power into other living beings, a special spiritual connection is established.

This connection not only transmits power, but the growth process of subordinates also generates a special kind of feedback energy.

This kind of feedback is similar to the "favor" mechanism in the Wizarding World, but it is more direct and brutal.

When a subordinate's strength increases, their mental structure will experience fluctuations in order.

These fluctuations are transmitted back to the Apostle's body through the Power Seed, stabilizing those chaotic consciousnesses.

However, the process proved far more difficult than imagined.

While awakened individuals transformed from wizards possess higher intelligence, their power growth is slow.

Moreover, they often maintain a considerable degree of independence, making them difficult to completely control.

Even more critically, wizards' mental defenses are often quite robust, making the success rate of forced conversion extremely low.

While the Abyss Mutants grow faster and are easier to transform, they are also more chaotic.

Unexpected mutations can easily occur during the breeding process, and they may even turn against their owner.

For a born apostle like Nari, while its intelligence surpasses that of ordinary mutants, its chaotic nature is also more profound.

This contradiction presents it with an almost unsolvable dilemma when it comes to training subordinates.

The infusion of power requires precise control, but nature rejects any form of order;
It also yearns for understanding and communication, but its way of thinking is incompatible with that of other creatures.

As a temporary alternative, the apostles would voluntarily release their power to stimulate the mutation and evolution of the surrounding abyssal creatures.

These enhanced creatures will produce a weak feedback in the short term, barely maintaining the apostle's rationality.

However, the effect of this unconscious influence is negligible.

For something as volatile as Nari, which is on the verge of spiraling out of control, this is simply a drop in the ocean.

What it needs is proactive, substantial, and stable feedback, not this dispensable residue.

Nari painfully raised its head; it had no choice but to contact its only direct superior.

………………

Deep within the magma sea of ​​the ninth layer of the abyss, the "Dragon-Headed Demon" Cha Ye is conducting his daily training.

The appearance of this Supreme Apostle has long since transcended the realm of any known creature.

Three faces surround a central giant eye, each face expressing different emotions and personalities.

When its four pairs of crimson wings are spread, they can blot out the entire sky, and the lower half of its tail is covered with razor-sharp scales.

At this moment, Chaye is enduring the extreme pressure at the deepest part of the magma ocean.

This special magma sea is not only much hotter than ordinary magma outside, but also has extremely strong gravitational pressure.

But for Cha Ye, this environment was just the right place to hone his physical skills.

He strengthens his essence by enduring pain; pain, stress, and struggles on the brink of life and death are all catalysts for the growth of strength.

When Nari's timid cry for help came, Chaye's three faces simultaneously showed expressions of extreme disgust.

"It's that piece of trash again..." His voice boomed like a furnace:

"If it can't even handle such a basic problem, how could I have thought it was a useful thing in the first place?"

Chaye clearly remembers the scene when he first met Nari.

At that time, it had just been born from the primordial will of the abyss, exuding a suffocatingly powerful aura.

Cha Ye was thrilled, thinking he had found a treasure.

Naturally born Apostle-level beings are extremely rare, and they usually possess astonishing potential. As a result, the more Chazelle interacted with them, the more disappointed he became.

This so-called born apostle is indeed powerful, but he's utterly stupid.

What he found most intolerable was that during their interactions, Nari's chaotic thought patterns even affected Chaye's mental stability.

After each conversation, Cha Ye needs to spend several days clearing away the affected thought fragments.

Nari was completely clueless when it came to basic skills like training subordinates.

No matter how patiently Chaye instructed, it always made the same mistakes.

Either the force is too great and kills the target outright, or it is not properly controlled and goes out of control.

What angered Chazelle the most was that Nari never seemed to learn from her failures, repeating the same mistakes in the same naive way every time.

“Lord Chazelle…” Nari’s thoughts were filled with grievance and despair:
"I...I really don't know what to do...I fail every time...every time..."

"Shut up!" Cha Ye angrily flapped his wings, unleashing a massive tsunami of lava:

"I'm neither your father nor your mother. I'm too lazy to care about a stupid and useless person like you anymore!"

He stopped cultivating, his massive body slowly rising, his three pairs of eyes flashing a dangerous red light simultaneously:
"The time for the turn of events is almost here... and you're still worrying about such childish problems!"

The word "switching positions" deepened Nari's fear.

That was the ultimate competition among the Abyss Apostles; the losers would not only lose their status but might also be directly devoured by the victors.

Because of his chaotic thinking and difficulty in controlling his power, Nari could easily defeat ordinary explorers who were weaker than him.

However, they had no chance of winning in this kind of competition among their peers and could only barely survive by relying on Cha Ye's protection.

“Furthermore,” Cha Ye’s voice grew even more somber:

"Recently, that damned Cassandra conducted some kind of forbidden experiment in the deep zone, disrupting the energy balance of the entire abyss, and those cracks have also shown unstable fluctuations."

Even for the apostles, there are still countless forbidden areas in the depths of the abyss that they dare not venture into.

Those places are inhabited by beings even more ancient and powerful than the apostles.

Most of them are terrifying entities that have infiltrated from other dimensions.

"I'm warning you one last time, Nari." The dragon-headed monster's threat was like a death sentence delivered by the Grim Reaper:
"If you fall into a long-term slumber again, I will not protect you during the next battle."

At that time, the other apostles will be more than happy to tear you to pieces and share the essence of power accumulated within you.

After communication was cut off, Nari collapsed in a corner of the vault, overwhelmed by a wave of despair.

Although Cha Ye's words were harsh, every word was true.

In the Abyss, a nakedly cannibalistic world, even apostles must fight each other for survival.

It began to recall the "success stories" of other apostles, trying to find some inspiration from them.

"Mad Bit" Mogroon commands a legion of mutated werewolves.

These werewolves not only possess combat strength approaching that of a Moon-level being, but they also maintain absolute loyalty.

Their brains were implanted with mogrom seeds, making betrayal physiologically impossible.

Nari tried to imitate this method, but the result was disastrous.

Its seeds are so powerful that any organism that receives them either dies instantly or transforms into a mindless berserker.

Mogroon's success may seem simple, but it actually requires extremely precise control of his power, which is precisely the skill that Nari lacks most.

What made Nari jealous was the success of the young apostles.

Although Asmond, the "Grand Duke of Blood and Tears," became an apostle nearly two thousand years later than Nari, he had already established a vast family network.

These family members are scattered throughout the human world, gathering intelligence, spreading chaos, and searching for new targets for Asmond's transformation.

Asmond's secret to success lies in taking things one step at a time.

He begins with the simplest blood parasitism, gradually strengthening the host's body and mind, and ultimately completing a perfect transformation.

Although this method is time-consuming, it has an extremely high success rate.

Moreover, the transformed "family members" almost all retained their original wisdom and personality.

Nari had tried similar methods, but he was always too hasty.

Seeing the slow progress of the experimental subject, it can't help but increase its power output, wanting to accelerate the conversion process.

The result is often failure at the last minute, with the test subject suddenly exploding and dying at the very last moment when success is just around the corner.

These memories reminded Nari of her failed attempts, each one a painful lesson.

The first attempt took place thousands of years ago, targeting an abyss exploration team composed of several Dawn Star wizards.

Nari was very young at that time and had extremely poor control over his power.

It naively believed that as long as it forcibly injected its abyssal essence into the bodies of those explorers, they would naturally transform into loyal subordinates.

The result was disastrous.

The power of the Abyss Apostles was too violent for ordinary creatures; the explorers' bodies began to mutate uncontrollably the moment they came into contact with them.

Their muscle tissue grew wildly, blood vessels burst and reorganized, and bones twisted and deformed.

In the end, everyone completely collapsed amidst piercing screams, leaving only a pile of unrecognizable flesh and blood fragments at the scene.

“Why…why is this happening?”

Nari looked at the wreckage with bewilderment, unable to understand why the transformations that other apostles could complete so easily were so difficult for him.

The second attempt took place more than two thousand years ago. Nari learned from the previous experience and chose a more powerful Moon-level wizard as his target.

This time, instead of directly injecting power, it attempted a "gentle" transformation through a spiritual connection.

Everything went smoothly at first.

The target wizard's body did not show any obvious rejection reaction, and the mental connection was successfully established.

Nari excitedly began transmitting fragments of his consciousness, hoping to gradually transform the other person's mindset in this way.

But problems soon arose.

Nari's consciousness was so chaotic that when fragments of its thoughts entered the wizard's mental world, it immediately triggered a violent cognitive conflict.

The wizard's rational thought process began to collapse under the impact of the chaos.

Fragments of memory scattered and flew about, and the core of the personality teetered on the brink of collapse.

Although his body was not physically harmed, the wizard's spirit had been completely shattered.

He became an idiot who could only laugh foolishly, occasionally uttering completely illogical words, all caused by the remnants of Nari's consciousness.

"You...you pig-like creature, what have you turned this precious transformation sample into?"

Upon hearing the news, Asmond, the "Grand Duke of Blood and Tears," rushed over to mock him, saying:

"I've seen many failed transformations, but this is the first time I've turned a Moon-level wizard into an idiot."

Nari was speechless and could only watch helplessly as this worthless failure was produced.

Ultimately, it had to end the wizard's life with its own hands, burying its own illusions about "gentle transformation."

The third attempt took place more than 600 years ago, when Nari decided to adopt the "slow erosion" strategy recommended by other apostles.

It carefully selected a wizard, imprisoned him in a specially made biological cage, and injected him with a small amount of abyssal energy every day.

This method is indeed more reliable, as the target's physical and mental state did not collapse immediately.

Nari can sense the subtle changes in the other person every day.

His skin began to take on the dark purple hue characteristic of the abyss, and chaotic light occasionally flashed in his eyes; his way of thinking was also subtly changing.

Nari thought he had finally found the right way and began to look forward to the wonderful moment when his first subordinate was born.

It even prepared a comfortable residence for this "prospective subordinate," filled with various collectibles that it considered "beautiful."

But disaster still struck.

While slow erosion is gentle, it also gives the target enough time to adapt and resist.

The wizard was an expert in alchemy.

During the transformation, he gradually figured out the structure of the cage and learned how to use the abyssal energy within his body to enhance his abilities.

On the seventy-third day of the transformation, the wizard successfully broke the biological lock on the cage and escaped control while Nari was out foraging for food.

It also deliberately destroyed one of its extremely precious music boxes.

Enraged, Nari immediately gave chase, but could no longer find any trace of the other party.

"Why...why do I always fail?"

These three disastrous failures almost made Nari give up on the idea of ​​training subordinates.

Whenever it saw other apostles successfully establish their own power, it could only hide silently deep in its lair, pretending that it didn't care about that loneliness.

But now, with the switcheroo approaching, Nari knows he has no other choice.

Just as it was falling into despair, an unusual phenomenon suddenly appeared in the treasure vault.

Around the vesicle containing the mysterious puppet, abyssal energy began to gather in an unprecedented way.

These normally chaotic and disordered energies were arranged into a regular spiral pattern, like the preparations for some ancient ritual.

Even more strangely, the surface of the puppet began to emit a faint and pure light.

It wasn't the distorted light unique to the abyss, but a gentle radiation that gave Nari a strange sense of peace.

“What is this…?” Nari stopped her chaotic thoughts and began to observe this unprecedented phenomenon with full concentration.

Throughout its long life, it has never seen abyssal energy exhibit such a regular pattern of behavior.

Perhaps, fate has finally bestowed upon it a special gift.

A long-lost flame of hope began to burn in Nari's terrifyingly large eyes.

(End of this chapter)