《Immortality System: The Last Human's Transmigration》


 Chapter 1 Humanitys Final Hours

    "Humans! We, the prestiged elven race havee back to take what is rightfully ours! We shall no longer watch as you dirty our. Instead, we shalle back as its rightful owners and the original inhabitants of this! We shall annihte the human race for the sake of mother earth!" A world-shaking voice spoke with a calm tone yetced with something deep and endless.


    That voice had said those words almost 5 hours ago, and ever since that announcement, I had been trying my hardest to survive against the iing storm of these so-called elves.


    However, now I had found myself trembling on the floor as two corpsesy in front of me, blood slowly seeping out of them and staining the carpet. Those were the corpses of my parents who had died before I had even arrived back home.


    Right behind them, however, stood a young girl with long blonde hair, as well as a pair of long pointy ears poking out from her hair and making themselves visible to the world.


    "Please, Julia. I loved you! Why are you doing this?!" I watched as the boy cried out, struggling to get out of the iron-d grasp of the girl who was holding him up by the neck. Fear, grief, and pain could be seen in his eyes, yet not one of them was directed toward the two corpses below him.


    On the other hand, tears could be seening out of the girl''s eyes too, yet her resolve was clear while her determination for her species allowed her to carry out her final order. An order that she might never forgive herself for carrying out.


    *Snap*


    I could only watch as the boy, who happened to be my best friend, drop to the floor, and join the two corpses on the ground to make them three.


    I could feel my eyes well up in tears while my body began to slowly heat up with something indescribable. It was not anger, no...


    My vocal cords couldn''t perform their job as not a single sound came out of my mouth. My brain couldn''t function and none of this felt real.


    A burst of psychoticughter entered my ears before the girl in front of me dropped to the ground with an audible thud and cried her heart out.


    All of this urred in front of a white-haired man d in golden armor with deep white engravings, each one creating a symbol of its own. He looked at her with an expressionless face, yet his eyes betrayed his expression since they radiated with warmth, remorse, and even pity.


    "Why?" I finally forced out, causing the man''s eyes to dart towards me in curiosity.


    ''I guess he really is the boy of the prophecy...'' His eyes narrowed as he peered into my soul, analyzing every fiber of my being.


    He looked at my eyes which had begun to stream out in tears. At the same time, unlike the rest of my eyes that were filled to the brim with tears, my irises themselves were as hollow and empty as the Sahara desert itself.


    "I see..." A wry smile stretched from the corners of his mouth before his arm stretched towards my neck, grabbing me off the floor like some kind of weightless item.


    "I''m going back to the ship. Don''t mourn over the human for too long, you are a princess after all." The man said his departing words before finally disappearing alongside me.


    Everything around me warped and stretched to create a tunnel with millions of different colors, some that I had seen, and others that left me mesmerized.


    Before I knew it, I was now at a very high altitude while being held up by the neck, consequently strangling me in the process.


    The surface of the area we arrived in seemed to have been made out of a dark gold, bent and molded into tes that had been ced with the utmost mastery.


    This was a ship... An enormous one at that.


    "I''ll kill you!" I tried to struggle out of his iron-d grip, yet it was all for naught. My eyes were still dull and almost lifeless, yet deep within them, you could see a powerful burning hatred forming and expanding at a tremendous pace.


    "It''s over, Ezra. This is the end of the human race." He finally let go of my neck, allowing me to breathe again, yet I immediately choked on my saliva and began to cough violently.


    ? Looking up, I ultimately met the eyes of a man in the distance, his blood-red eyes piercing and analyzing me from head to toe while everything from his aura to his ck and red armor screamed extravagance.


    My body instinctively forced me to look away and into the distant cities that had been decimated beyond recognition, and the city under the ship we stood on was no exception.


    A scorching hot trail seemed to have slit the city in half like a hot knife through butter.


    I saw countless battles, all of them being extremely one-sided in the elven people''s favor.<novelnext></novelnext>


    This was no longer some kind of apocalyptic event for the human race that would leave barely any of them alive. This was humanity''s extinction, and I was watching it ur while standing on the representation of front-row seats.


    Anger red within my eyes as I tried to look back at the man who was clearly the orchestrator of this one-sided massacre. However, I suddenly felt a sharp paine from the middle of my chest causing me to fall to the ground while only being able to simply watch as blood spilled out of my body.


    While I knew that the white-haired man was someone who had powers beyond myprehension, I knew that it wasn''t him that had attacked me. It was something I could tell from his facial expression alone.


    It was not one of victory, nor was it one of apathy. Instead, his face was filled with shock and even traces of fear.


    "This is not a battle you can fight at your current state... You are still too weak." A voice rang out in my ears before the visual of a foot moved in front of my line of sight.


    Before I could react to his words, My vision had already been swallowed by the ever-expanding darkness. A darkness so deep and endless that the moment I focused on it, I felt as if I was before a ck hole, slowly sucking me in and bending the fabric of space to pull me into the endless abyss.


    I didn''t know why but I could feel my blood slowly seep out of my body and stain the magnificent golden ship we stood on.


    My body was bing cold and my vision had ever so slowly faded.


    ***


    As the darkness swallowed me, I could feel my consciousness drift in the cold and ever-expanding void. I could not help but reminisce on the days when everything had been fine, simple, and overall...


    Normal.


    But due to the invasion, I had lost everyone. I had lost everything.


    For countless days before my death, I had been left on the verge of crying after witnessing visions and scenes of my family, my friends, and my girlfriend all dying right before me. One could call them premonitions of what was toe while others couldbel it as a coincidence. However, unlike all these people, I knew better than to give this ability... No. This curse, a name...


    I would get short yet powerful feelings of dread that would make me want to curl up into a ball and cry myself to sleep.


    I thought they were nightmares or some kind of horrible visions which my mind created to torture me, yet only now could I understand what they truly meant. Their purpose was clear.


    Only after everyone died right before my eyes did I find a reason why I had to suffer so much for thest few weeks.


    Before this cycle of hell, I had an amazing life. I had a girlfriend named Crystal who I was going to propose to in a few days. I had a best friend named Alex, who I had known for as long as I could remember.


    I had a beautiful little sister called Emily who I loved from the bottom of my heart and two unconditionally loving parents who would give up everything they had in a heartbeat for their two children.


    To think something as precious as life would have been so fragile in the face of overwhelming power.


    This seemed to be my fate.


    After all, what kind of normal human would I be if I could change my own fate?


    [Ding!]


    [You have died]


    [Initiating System Activation]


    [Wee... Humanity''s Final Anchor]


    Those robotic words were thest things I heard as my soul faded back into the infinite abyss.

 Chapter 2 The Awakening

    Earth


    A man with long ck hair stood in front of the corpse of the young man that he had just killed with a single stab of his hand.


    A sympathetic smile curved up the edges of the man''s lips before he finally shook his head and took a step back, appearing almost 50 meters away in less than a nanosecond.


    "You are quite strong. You must not be human" The white-haired elf concluded aloud, making sure that the man heard thest part of his sentence.


    "You are wrong..." The man finally spoke, his deep voice resonating with the air while creating spatial distortions as it left his mouth. "I am human. I am the most powerful human anything in this universe willy their eyes upon... Yet you seem to not remember me?" the man let out a subtle smirk before once again shaking his head.


    After finishing his short dialogue, he did not waste another second as he slid his right foot back. At the same time, he ced his left fist at his hip while stretching his arm forwards, opening his palm, and gesturing to the white-haired man with a ''Come at me'' movement of his hand.


    "Insolence! The human of the prophecy is dead and yet you dare stand against me!?" The white-haired man began to float in the air, his hair floating up and dancing around in the wind while a chaotic red and ck aura, simr to the color of his armor began to shroud him within it.


    "Dare?" The ck-haired man scoffed before unleashing an Azure-golden auraced in a deep red, an indication of how many people he had to kill to get to where he was today.


    "Let us see who the arrogant one is after our sh shall we." as the aura exploded out of him, it caused his hair to also blow back and flutter in the winds, finally revealing his handsome face without a trace of imperfections.


    Simultaneously, his deadly golden eyes with several deep crimson Halo''s around his silver pupils locked onto the flying red-figure draped by a red aura, making that very same figure feel a shudder down his spine, a shudder that he had not felt in over tens of thousands of years.


    ''Is it who I think it is?'' The man''s face stretched with a cruel smile reaching from ear to ear. It looked like something straight out of a horror film.


    At the same time as this battle began, a figure d in ck from head to toe looked towards earth from an ashen grey sphere outside of earth that just happened to be the moon.


    He watched at two lights, one gold and the other crimson-red, begin to shine with enough radiance to blind a normal human even if they were seeing it from space. Those lights eventually began to expand further, bingrger andrger until finally, they had each covered half of the with their aura alone.


    "Another failure huh..." The cloaked figure spoke out loud, and even though he was technically in a vacuum, his voice traveled through space as if he had spoken into a microphone on Earth.


    His eyes narrowed down as his gaze fell upon the body of an unmoving corpse of a boy less than 20 years old. A hole could be seen through the boy''s chest, blood gushing out almost endlessly, yet their eyes remained lifeless.


    A smirk appeared on the face of the man, however, in an instant, the man disappeared into thin air with his final words echoing through the vacuum of space.


    "Look''s like I''ve found my next subject..."


    ***


    [Ding!]


    [You have died]


    [Initiating System Activation...]


    [Rebooting Life-force...]


    [Decoding the universal Code...]


    [Breaking the universal code...]


    [Calcting energy needed...]


    [Absorbing ckholes for energy...]


    [1 supermassive ck hole has been absorbed into the system!]


    [Soul-Energy deficit!]


    [117 874 982 105 wandering souls have been absorbed into the system!]


    [Polishing code...]


    [Patching loopholes...]


    [Creating ''The Dice'']


    [Rolling dice to determine system type]


    [Rolling...]


    [System type has been confirmed]


    [Ding!]


    [The Immortality System Has Been Activated]


    [Wee to the Immortality System, a system that makes sure you never die as long as you work for it!]


    [Ding!]


    [You survived for 19 years, 7 months, 20 days, 05 hours, 53 minutes, and 06 seconds]


    [You have been rewarded with 3 Immortality tokens]


    [You will receive 1 immortality token after 5 years of survival]


    [Immortality Tokens have been locked until the trial period ends]


    [Trial period will begin in 30 seconds


    29


    28


    27


    26


    25


    ...]<novelnext></novelnext>


    I watched as the number began to tick down every second, and even if I wanted to look at something else, I could not.


    Right now I felt like an unknown entity floating in the depths of the abyss that we humans called space. However, unlike what people would usually imagine being in space would look like, I saw nothing but darkness.


    There was not a single trace of light, not from the stars that were millions of light-years away from earth, nor the moon that we humans would see when looking towards the sky whenever it is night.


    I couldn''t feel my body, nor could I speak, turn my head or even move. It felt like I had be nothing but a conscience floating in the waves of the ocean with nothing but water in sight, being forced and dragged to wherever the waves would take me.


    At this point, I couldn''t even hear my own thoughts. All I could do was listen to the constant dings that entered my ear every time the timer went down by a second.


    [9


    8


    7


    ¡ê("*&


    @:$¡ê(%^]


    [A error has urred]


    [Transmigration to any nearby has been deemed impossible]


    [Rerouting...]


    [Rerouting has been deemed impossible]


    [No foreign intervention detected]


    [Contacting operators...]


    [Unable to contact operators]


    [Finding the nearest with life detected...]


    Proxima B: 4 Light years away]


    [Habitable: Yes]


    [Life: Existent]


    [Power: Almost non-existent]


    [You will be transferred...]


    [Unable to Transmigrate Entity: Ezra]


    [Sovereign of time; Lord Chronos has detected a problem with the transmigration process]


    [Solution has been proposed!]


    [You have received -Time Crystal-]


    [-Time Crystal- has been shattered]


    [Absorbing ck holes...]


    [34 ck holes and 2 supermassive ck holes have been absorbed into the system!]


    [Enough energy has been collected]


    [You are being sent back in time]


    After that final message, I could feel my mind consciousness slipping into a deep slumber, one that might have taken millions of years to awaken from.


    ***


    *THUD*


    "AHH!"


    The sound of me hitting the floor echoed throughout the forest, subsequently causing me to scream out in pain.


    [Transmigration into a humanoid vessel was not possible]


    [Humanoid body had been created in the reference to your previous vessel]


    [Vessel had been created]


    [You have arrived at your destination]


    : Earth]


    [Age: 4.268 Billion]


    [Tier: A]


    [Description: A world with millions of known species alongside millions of unknown species. It is filled with different climates, from hot to cold, an enormous amount of intelligent races, and high concentrations of mana, some areas richer than others. You cannot ascend past the Astral ne on this unless some conditions are met.]


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 Chapter 3 I Dont Want To Die...

    [You have arrived at your destination]


    : Earth]


    [Age: 4.268 Billion]


    [Tier: A]


    [Description: A world with millions of known species alongside millions of unknown species. It is filled with different climates, from hot to cold, an enormous amount of intelligent races, and high concentrations of mana, some areas richer than others. You cannot ascend past the Astral ne on this unless the conditions are met.]


    I slowly began opening my eyes that immediatelynded on the system notification telling me what I was on.


    I felt unimaginable pains coursing through my body, but those pains were nothingpared to the amount of psychological and emotional pains I was going through.


    After finally pushing myself off what seemed like the forest ground, I finally got a chance to look around at the area around me.


    My eyes trailed off before my chin began to rise as I stared at one of the trees with an agape expression. Even though back when I was on earth, there were countless trees in the world ranging from extremely small to huge trees like the ones in the rainforests, none of them would be able topare to the tree I was looking at.


    In fact, none of the trees back on earth couldpare to any of the trees I was standing in front of.


    "What the..." I couldn''t help but mutter those words as I retreated in fear, my hands shaking while my eyes did not waver from the tree.


    After looking up at the trees for a while, I was distracted once again by the clothes I found myself wearing.


    ''Clothes?'' I looked down and saw that I was currently wearing the clothes that I had died with, a hole with a bloody texture in the middle of my chest.


    "So that''s how I died" I muttered before


    [Ding]


    [Mission has been received]


    [Trial mission: Survive for 7 days]


    [Conditions: -


    -All system-rted abilities have been locked


    -All blessings have been locked


    -All affinities have been locked]


    [Reward:


    -1 Immortality Token


    -Appraisal


    -(The rest of the rewards will be given depending on your achievements and actions during the trial period. You will be graded for your performance)


    I looked up at the trees, seeing their size before looking down to see a few ginormous footprints. A shudder could not help but shoot down my spine while my skin began to crawl at the thought of how bad the next few days would be if I even survive that long that is.


    I could immediately conclude that I probably wasn''t on Earth anymore, or at least not the Earth I''ve grown to know.


    [Ding]


    [You have received Chrono''s blessing]


    *Shriek*


    Before I could evenprehend the notification that came up in front of me, a loud shriek derailed my thought process, forcing me to peel my eyes off the notification to look toward it.


    When my eyes finally looked at the location the shriek hade from, I could not help but widen them, terror engraved deep within them with a single nce.


    "Ahhhhhhhhh!" A sky-piercing scream came out of my mouth as I fell back onto the muddy floor,


    Using my fingers, I tried to grip the muddy ground, wing away at it fanatically as I tried to get away.


    To think a single nce at the creature would cause my legs to be dysfunctional almost immediately...


    *SHRIEK*


    The shriek grew louder and closer as well as the sounds of its legs piercing into the wet ground. Fear was trying to seep into me at a tremendous pace, one that I could not handle/


    Before I could even move 3 meters away from myst location, its entire body had be visible to me.


    A huge centipede, almost 2 meters in length and could stand 4ft high charged at me with its w-ended maw pointed to my throat. Not only was the speed horrifying, the power it wasing at me with could be felt through the loud and powerful vibrations it caused every time one of its legs pierced into the ground.


    It was only then that I felt a slight feeling within my legs, adrenaline coursing through all my veins, being pumped into every cell by my heavily thumping heart.


    In the next second, my vision had turned red, and I had already turned away from the centipede, running at full speed towards one of the trees at a speed I would not believe even the fastest runners back on earth would be able to rival.


    Without thinking, I grabbed a fist-sized rock nearby and catapulted it towards the centipede, yet to my dismay, the rock simply ricocheted off its rock-hard scales like a bouncy ball hitting a hard surface.


    My face grew paler and paler by the second as I snatched rocks off the ground and tried my best to shoot them toward any exposed soft spots or weaknesses in its body.


    I had only hit its eye once, yet not only did it not hurt it significantly, it had only angered the centipede into charging at me with more fervor.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''I don''t want to die!'' Was the only thought going through my head. Everything else was urring almost on instinct as if I had awoken a beast inside of me that would do everything to survive or kill the abomination that had been running after me this whole time. Images of my family and my loved ones, all of those who I had lost to those disgusting horrible long-eared beings, shed before my eyes.


    I was on the verge of crying, however, before my panic could grow even further, a cold expression washed over my face while three words rang out in my mind, giving me everything I needed for that moment in time.


    "I am not going to die." My voice echoed throughout the forest while the sound of my own voice gave me enough courage to do the most reckless thing I had ever done.


    ''Fight.''


    ''Kill...''


    ''Survive!''


    The whispers of different voices grew louder and louder while also bing a choir in my ears as if thousands of different individuals were telling me to fight as if millions were telling me to move, to live, and fight.


    My eyes were engulfed in a crimson light while a blood-red wave shot out of my body, an illusory visage of millions of eyes looking at the centipede with instinctual rage.


    The ck-scaled centipede that was once running after me froze its ce, the fervor it once had extinguished from its eyes like an unprotected ember in the stormy winter.


    Unbeknownst to me, as the surge of crimson aura shot across the forest, every single beast, insect, or animal, in general, looked in my direction with fear. Fear that whatever had emerged in the middle of their forest would soon take over and destroy everything within its sights.


    In a cave dozens of miles away from where I was sat arge figure covered in shadows, making it so anyone who would enter would on see the silhouette of the terrifying being that they had juste to face.


    The sleeping figure slowly opened its eyes before a membrane-covered eyeball slid to the sides of the eyes, leaving their verticle slits for pupils visible for the world to see. Its wings unfolded and spread themselves wide while Its piercing red eyes darted in a certain direction as it got up.


    Once it left its cave, it was finally able to get a better view of the red aura washing over the forest, as well as a red beam of lighting shooting towards the skies, enveloping everything in a crimson hue...


    ''That thing... for something so weak to have such a powerful killing intent...'' The figure narrowed its eyes and its legs began to shake violently. This was no longer a difference in strength, but a difference in ss.


    In the other corner of the forest stood a monkey with fiery red fur. Its eyes pierced through the forest before they finally narrowed down after theynded upon the figure in the middle of the crimson spire.


    "Father, is something that matter?" A smaller red monkey asked while dropping to the ground and kneeling towards the other.


    "Yes my child. It seems like there is a new candidate. One that can reap the crown for himself."


    Back where I was, I found myself standing in the middle of the forest with sweat dripping down the drenched clothes that I had on.


    Eventually, I copsed onto one knee because it was only then that I felt the exhaustion of whatever I had done seep into my body, almost knocking me unconscious. something I tried to fight with all my power to the end.


    Yet, even after trying so hard, I could feel my consciousness slip out of my mind, sinking me into the darkness of the abyss.


    ***


    When I opened my eyes once again, I quickly scanned my body but was surprised after seeing that I was not injured in the least.


    By the time I had woken up, there was not a single scratch on my body.


    Images and scenes of the invasion and the deaths of those I loved most shed before my eyes at unbelievable speed and frequency, but even after feeling the desire to cry my head out, I simply shut my eyes and shook my head, as if trying to shake those memories and thoughts out of my head.


    ''I need to get out of here... From what I knew, there is no way that this ce was about to stay dormant or peaceful for long. Even though I knew that I should have thrown all my previous knowledge about the world out of the window, I still chose to use that knowledge just in case I was wrong.


    Better safe than sorry.


    Getting off the ground with my newly invigorated body, I swiftly began traversing the forest with huge trees and animals that were many times bigger than their earth counterparts.


    ''Wasn''t this supposed to be earth?'' I inwardly cried


    At the same time, I used a walking technique that I had learned back I was on Earth that would allow me to traverse ces like forests or jungles bynding on the side of my foot first before slowly beginning the rest of my foot onto the ground to minimize the sounds of crunching or twigs breaking. I had already mastered it to a certain extent to the point I could jog while using it.


    My speed while jogging wasn''t spectacr, but it would do for now. However, I do have to note that even though it could be considered jogging, I was still moving at a slower speed than the average jogger due to me having to use the walking stealth technique at the same time.


    After traversing around 50 to 100 meters, I finally heard the sound of rustling as a small yet extremely quick figure moved towards where I wasying barely a minute ago.


    ''I was lucky¡­'' I could not help but feel a tinge of cold sweat forming at the back of my neck as I tried to move even faster, away from where Istid.


    After around 5 minutes of jogging away silently, I finally heard another sound that echoed throughout the silent forest, a sound that had immediately sent a shiver through my spine the moment I heard it.


    ''Crap'' my eyes shook and my heart dropped as I finally realized where the sound hade from.


    Looking down, I looked at the foot I hadnded on just to see a twig that had broken into two.


    While this might not have meant much back on earth, everything on this was much stronger,rger, and more powerful than their earth counterparts. While before, a bat might have been able to locate everything within 30-60 meters with their echolocation, a bat in this world would probably be able to double if not triple that number.


    *SCREECH*


    *SQUEAK*


    *ROAR*


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 Chapter 4 Sole Anchor

    Every hair on my body stood up at the same time as I threw all caution out of the window and began running even quicker.


    ''I don''t want to die'' My eyes began to soak up tears once again as I ran at my fastest, jumping over the enormous tree roots and avoiding all the mud in the way that could have probably swallowed me whole and fossilized me for the future archeologists to find me.


    ''Wait¡­ That system thing said that I was traveling through time¡­ It said Earth was only around 4.2 billion years old¡­ Earth is 4.5 billion years old¡­ Did I just get sent back to the carboniferous? Wait no, it should be the Triassic. Right? GODDAMNIT! I should have revised!'' I felt like all the knowledge I had gained from my geology and geography sses were failing me.


    *ROAR*


    *SCREECH*


    *ROAR*


    Countless and continuous roars rang out through the forest yet again, causing shudders to go down my very being. Yet, even after feeling so much pressure...Even after fearing for my life at every step, I swallowed down my fear and ran. Ran like hell itself was right behind me, waiting to devour me into its deepest depths and burn me for my every sin.


    *ROAR*


    To my dismay, even after everything I had done to run away, I watched as a maw got closer and closer to me from the corner of my eye.


    The maw was humongous while the sheer power, that I for some reason could feel now, radiated from it like heat radiating off the surface of the sun.


    My instincts kicked in almost immediately, causing me to do something I would have never thought I would be able to do in a million years.


    In a split second that it took the maw to reach me, I spun on my heel and performed a roundhouse kick, hitting the creature in its eye.


    Even though I didn''t think it would have done anything, I was still surprised to see that it did not even receive a scratch.


    I did not waste another second because while it might have not flinched, my kick did surprise it to the point where it did not attack me straight away after failing its first attack.


    Without knowing what hade over me, I felt like millions of years of muscle memory hit me at the same time, and while I might have not had the physique to perform everything that I was about to do, it was still beyond my capabilities of anything I could have imagined a human to do.


    *Swooosh*


    Before I knew it, I had already pierced the giant hippo''s eye with two fingers sticking straight into them without a single hint of hesitation.


    *ROAR*


    The hippo''s roar shot through the forest and could be heard by almost all the creatures that lived in the forest within a 5-mile radius,


    I chose to not waste another second a quickly jumped away from the hippo before sprinting in the other direction of where I hade from and where most of the roars had originated from.


    For the next 10 minutes, I ran with my life hanging from an untethered thread.


    I could not count the number of close calls I had, from the maws ofrge lizard-like monsters snapping their maws shut an inch away from my head, to almostnding incorrectly and falling back into the deep mud that would have killed me within minutes, if not even less than that.


    ''Survive!'' Was the only word that rang out within my mind. I could think of nothing else as my brain worked on overdrive to find me the best way to get out of the situation without dying, let alone losing a limb or two.


    As if a light bulb went off above my head, I felt like my mind had be clear and my instincts told me exactly what to do.


    In the same instance, my eyes shed with more determination than I had ever felt in my entire life.


    ''Survive!''


    Looking around, I ignored the constant noise from behind me and looked forwards. Immediately, I could spot at least 4 different animals getting ready to ambush me, yet that was not what had caught my eye.


    ''SURVIVE!''


    Within the split second between seeing the vine and moving, I felt as if my whole body began to move on its own again, finding the best way to survive without me having to do anything on my own


    I knelt and shot through the forest at a speed I did not think was humanely possible, yet due to my adrenaline, I could not feel the pain of my muscles working to their limits as my heart rate rose to be sky-high.


    ''Sur-''


    I halted my steps for a single second, allowing me topletely avoid the huge maw from biting my body into halves.


    ''-VIVE!''


    My hand blurred as I moved it away due to all the hairs on that arm rising at the same time as a shiver that went down my spine.


    In the same millisecond, I watched as something swooshed past me before crashing into the huge dragonfly that was right on my trail.


    ''I will not die!'' Tears began to well up, but they quickly dried up.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Looking forwards, I could finally see the vine from up close.


    Luckily, the vine didn''t have any spike but even if it did, I would have been forced to use it anyway.


    Jumping off one of the enormous roots that I was running on, I grabbed hold of therge vine and swung myself across ake that I did not know the existence of.


    I nned to simply swing to cover more ground, but instead, it seemed like I was fortunate enough to have ake under me, something I doubted that any dinosaur or animal would ever choose to go through, or that was what I thought anyway.


    *SCREECH*


    A screech rang out from behind me, causing my skin to crawl in both fear and confusion.


    Looking back, I could not help but exim the obvious.


    "THEY CAN FLY!" I eximed, having,pletely forgotten about their main ability of flight.


    Panic finally started to set in as I slowly swung across theke, and even though the speed was technically faster than I had been moving before, due to theck of trees the flying oversized dragonflies and bugs had a much easier time moving, therefore allowing them to also increase their speeds.


    ''Please! God! God, I beg you!'' I cried inwardly. To me, this was the end of my life. The life that I had preserved through the sacrifices of my family and friends. What were the chances that I would be the final human and thest human to perish? Luck... I had been saved purely due to luck, but who knows if I would have been the best choice. The system could have chosen a billion people better than me, yet now that it had chosen me, I only served to fail every human that had died to the hands of those elves.


    I had nowhere to run, I had nowhere to hide...


    I was powerless.


    *SPLASH*


    *SNAP*


    As I watched my life sh before my eyes, I heard a loud snap alongside the sshing of water echoing from behind me, causing me to look back with hope and fervor lingering in my eyes for onest time.


    "Oh my god..." I muttered under my breath, unable to believe my luck.


    From what I could see, arge number of huge frogs hade forth from around theke, snapping their tongues toward the insects that had been flying toward me.


    At the same time, the insects were unable to run away, being instantly swallowed whole by the long maw of a crocodile, yet unlike normal crocodiles, this one ran with the same theme of being overly huge.


    After a few more seconds passed, I found my feetnding on solid ground once more.


    ''I survived'' I thought while panting.


    "I SURVI-" I almost eximed out loud in joy, but I quickly covered my mouth and looked around, hoping that there wasn''t an animal or beast nearby.


    ''I survived! How? I was so dead! How did I do it? Is this fate?! Is this good karma? Did I do something good in myst life for this to happen?'' Tears of joy started to pour out of my eyes while low muffled sobs could be heard if one were to listen hard enough.


    The forest, however, was no longer silent. Instead, it was bustling with noise.


    After taking a breather, something finally hit me.


    ''Wait... Gaint toads? None of this makes sense. Even the centipede and those insects are way too big to be normal. This is supposed to be the Triassic, right? I know the oxygen levels in the atmosphere are high and all, but still. There is no way anything should be that big, especially toads!''


    After pondering for a bit, I finally dropped the thought as I had something much more important to think about.


    Right now I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and I had been given a mission.


    ''Survive for one week, huh... If the beasts of the forest don''t kill me, dehydration, hypothermia, or malnutrition will kill me first. Plus, there might be some ancient diseases in this ce that could probably kill me in less than 24 hours.'' I sighed in exasperation before rubbing the bridge of my nose with aplicated glint within my eyes.


    ''I guess I''ll just call this goal something like "Mission Impossible" hahaha'' Iughed in self-mockery at the situation I had been dropped into, not knowing that this sameugh would be the sole thing I would lean on for the next few adventures as I struggled to keep my sanity in check.


    But eventually, my dreadedughter had turned into the loud and wretched wails of a boy who was now in pain... A pain that very few would have experienced. The pain ofplete istion with nothing to look forward to, and no hope in sight.


    This was too much for any human to take, and it would at least time me a few days to get used to.


    Despite being surrounded by greenery and different beasts, it felt like I was stranded alone in the middle of the infinite cosmos, in a ship that was slowly losing oxygen as the freezing cold of space seeped into the ship, slowly but surely killing me, making the very ship I had to put my hopes of survival on, my very grave.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 5 The Pains...

    [You have assisted in killing a Dragonfly]


    [You have gained +1 EXP]


    [You have assisted in killing a Dragonfly]


    [You have gained +1 EXP]


    [You have assisted in killing a Dragonf...]


    I heard the distinct ''dings'' that came from the system as it informed me of my kills, yet due to my wails of agony and my tear-filled eyes, I could not see or hear the screen before me, as if my mind was trying to ignore its existence as a whole.


    Sorrow filled my voice for a short second, yet when I finally realized what I had been doing, I quickly rose up from my position and finally wiped my eyes of the moisture that had umted around them.


    Even though I was crying, it was not because of my family''s death, the death of my closest friend, nor was it due to the death of my girlfriend in the hands of those disgusting, deplorable aliens.


    Instead, I was simply crying out of agony.


    I felt in pain.


    The pressure of wanting to survive.


    The adrenaline streamed through me for so long that I had be numb to its effects.


    The fear of death hitting me at every corner and turn. It might have seemed selfish, but at the moment, I could only care about myself and nothing else.


    I needed to survive and therefore, I simply did not have time to grieve. If I didn''t survive, then who would carry the memories of my family? The memories of my sister, my closest friend, and the person I held most dear to me?


    And no matter how cowardly it might have seemed, running was the only thing I could do...


    And therefore, I was going to dedicate every part of my being, every organ, tissue, and cell, to make sure that I would survive... To make sure I run as fast as possible while surviving for the next 7 days.


    Getting up, an unworldly amount of determination flickered in my eyes as wiped off the tears and snot that had trickled down while I had been sobbing silently.


    ''I am weak... I don''t have anything that would make me stronger than the beasts in this forest... The oxygen levels on earth in this moment of time are way too high, meaning everything in this forest would be erged making them extremely strong in the process.'' I touched my chin and began thinking of ways that I would somehow be capable of surviving for more than a week.


    It was only then that an idea hit me like a lightning bolt crashing down on my very being as if the thing was right in front of me the whole time yet I happened to be too blind to see it.


    ''Of course!'' A wry yet excited smile stretched at the corners of my lips as I looked towards the location where I hade from, unable to understand how I had been lucky enough to survive the encounter with the dragonflies.


    ***


    5 hours quickly passed as my encounters had dramatically dropped ever since I had been chased by dozens if not hundreds of beasts. I couldn''t understand why I was the only one getting chased since many of the beasts I saw were instinctually enemies, yet I could only guess that the reason was due to the red energy I unleashed before copsing into a slumber, yet even after 5 hours of thinking, I could understand how and why it urred.


    Besides that, even though one would think that the encounter with the hundred beasts would have been all that happened that day, they would be severely mistaken.


    Currently, I was jumping from tree root to root, making sure that I didn''t fall off one of the roots since that would automatically mean death for me.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The expression on my face was one of a man who was scared beyondprehension, yet the slight glint of determination within my eyes never extinguished... Not for a single second


    After jumping a few more times, I finally nced back at the lone dragonfly as I saw that I had gotten close to the area I wanted to get to.. finally allowing me to execute the n I had been hatching for thest 5 hours that would allow me to obtain food.


    When I finally saw where I was, I dropped down to the floor and began running in a straight line between tworge trees with a narrow gap that would barely allow a single human into it, yet it was more than enough space for the dragonfly to fly right through it without any obstruction.


    Since the dragonfly was moving in one direction now, it was much faster than it was before, making this a race of who can reach the narrow pathway before the other.


    I did not dare look back for even a single second as the buzzing of its wings got louder and louder. Eventually, however, I was finally able to run through the narrow pathway between the two trees before turning around and finally looking at the dragonfly head-on.


    Even though it was quite determined to kill me, the moment I had turned around and made direct eye contact with it was the same moment when it was forced to halt its movement forwards, yet since the momentum was already carrying it toward me, the halting of its velocity failed and it shot towards me without control of its movements at all.


    Without thinking twice, I immediately took a step forward and lunged toward the dragonfly while taking something out of the belt of my trousers and thrusting forwards with all my might, yet in the same moment, I could not help but close my eyes and wait for the oue.


    *Spluch*


    Opening my eyes slowly, I found that my arm was still intact as well as the rest of my body seemed virtually unharmed. On the contrary, the dragonfly that had been trailing me for so long had been impaled by a long yet slightly blunt wooden stake.


    When I had gotten an idea 5 hours ago, the first thing I thought of in the spur of the moment was the question, ''how did humans survive for so long?''


    While yes, they might not have needed to survive through a Triassic period with dinosaurs and erged insects, they were still capable of living through the extremes of the world''s climate as well as bing capable of hunting animals much bigger than them until they eventually became the beings at the top of the food chain.


    The key to all of this was their intelligence which was superior to every other species on the as well as the sweat nds that allowed them to run for much longer periodspared to the cat species or the dog species who could not recuperate their stamina while running away or towards something, causing them to take breaks and halting their attacks due to being exhausted.


    I knew that, while I might not be the most intelligent person in the world, I was more intelligent than these beasts that worked purely on instincts therefore easily being able to outsmart them in situations like these where-...


    *ROAR*


    Before I could even process what had happened, the smell of the blood and organs that had sttered everywhere had already wafted into the noses of other beasts nearby, causing them all to simultaneously roar whenever the smell would reach them.


    Without thinking twice, I dropped the stick and instantly bolted in a random direction that the roars had note from.


    For the next half an hour, I ran with extreme caution, making sure that I did not make too much noise as I avoided every living organism within the forest, but after a while, I finally looked at the screen that had been urging me to look at it for thest half an hour, yet when my eyesnded on it, I could not help but widen my eyes in surprise.


    [You have killed a Dragonfly]


    [You have gained +10 EXP]


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 Chapter 6 Im Tired...

    Eventually, after all the running and hiding I was no longer capable of maintaining such a lifestyle.


    After some consideration on what to do next, I had chosen to sleep yet, just like everything else in this world, it was much easier said than done.


    Sleeping was close to impossible without dying or being eaten while being asleep.


    Alongside that problem came another.


    "Where the hell am I supposed to sleep" I blurted out, the bags under my eyes as evidence of myck of sleep alongside the amount of stress I had endured in thest day alone.


    My normal human body was not used to having to be alert at all times no matter what, and due to it being this way, I had be incredibly exhausted.


    I felt as if every bone in my body began to grind against one another while my muscles had be sore to the point where trying to move was more painful than being stung 20 times in a row by random flying insects.


    Thankfully, right before I was about to pass out from exhaustion, I had found a seemingly empty cave at the top of the mountain.


    I wasn''t sure why, but the instant I had been enveloped in the aqua blue light that had been blocked by the trees of the forest, I felt extremely safe.


    However, I did not think about the feeling as the only thing that ran through my exhausted mind was the pain that continuously coursed throughout my entire body due to it being pushed past its limit more than a dozen times within the same day.


    Finally entering the cave, could not help but look around even in my exhausted state.


    I kept having this constant premonition that I would be attacked at any moment, to the point I would even have visions of random beastsing to attack me from all sides, as if I was an animal dipped in blood and lifted high for all of them to smell from miles away.


    However, even if I was trying to be cautious, even if a beast was hiding within the shadows of the cave waiting for me to lie down and be helpless, there wouldn''t be anything I could do to retaliate, even if I were to find it.


    Not realizing this, however, I kept looking around frantically like a crazed man, looking into all the different shadows in the room as my bottom finally touch the ground, making my exhaustion all that more prominent.


    Failing to find anything, I slowly lowered my head onto the rough, hard ground, allowing my face to grind against the bumps of the surface of the cave''s floor.


    Looking up with tired eyes, I recalled the system message I had gotten a hours ago, and as if the system was waiting for this thought to pass through my mind, a screen appeared before me and caused me to widen my eyes slightly.


    [Level: 1]


    [Progress: 20/100]


    ''Seems like this is just like the games I used to y'' I sighed and immediately closed my eyes.


    Even though I would have usually been annoyed or agitated by the condition of the surface that I would be sleeping on, the only thing I could feel was the relief of finallyying down alongside the exhaustion within me slowly percting out of me to seep into the ground under me, as if the ground itself was soaking up all the hours of hard work, all the hours of running, all the hours of hiding...<novelnext></novelnext>


    Everything that I had done for the whole day slowly seeped out of my body as my conscience finally fell into a deep slumber.


    ***


    In a space where the only color that could be seen was white, a white that seemed to span out infinitely sat a single person on a throne made out of what looked like it had been created out of all the elements on the.


    The strange glints of blue light reflecting off the diamonds from an unknown source of light intertwined with vines, metallic textured ores, and all sorts of other materials one would be capable of finding on earth.


    It was as if it was sitting on miniature earth that had been morphed into the shape of a throne, yet even though one would feel a sense of harmony while looking at it alongside the throne, one could also feel powerful chaotic energy fluctuating around it.


    Even though this was the case, it seemed like chaos and harmony were living alongside each other, as the moltenva that would have set the world afire flowed alongside the green vines and the brown roots of trees, even intertwining with one another as if they were made to live alongside each other.


    The person who was sitting on the throne was a woman with ivy green skin and beautiful silky emerald hair that reached the floor.


    The emerald hair seemed to reflect the light of the unknown source of it, radiating the ce around her with a green aura that made her look even more divine than she already did.


    Her face was motionless alongside the rest of her body, while her eyes seemed to be closed as if she was in a peaceful sleep that nothing in this world could shake her out of.


    However, suddenly her eyes had fluttered open, allowing her emerald eyes to shine onto the space around her with an even brighter light while simultaneously releasing an emerald green aura that seemed to span out the same distance as the white void.


    Out of nowhere, her irises began to be enveloped in extremely small runic patterns that slowly moved towards the center of her iris, moving towards the pupil and also forcing it to switch from being ck into being pure white.


    However, even though this change was small, her eyes now seemed to hold the secrets of the world within them, as if they could see everything yet at the same time, blind to everything they saw.


    Immediately after, golden runes began to imprint themselves onto her temple, subsequently causing her eyes to brighten further.


    After a few moments passed, her expression seemed to have worsened as creases began to appear and deepen proportionate to her brows furrowing in a grimacing expression.


    ''Why is he here?!'' she thought, gripping the armrest of the throne was sitting on while losing control of the powerful fluctuations of power that emanated out of her.


    ''Why is a human on my?!''


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 7 *Crunch*

    *Doom*


    ''What is this feeling?''


    ''It feels familiar...''


    ''It feels like... Home?''


    ''But then, why does home feel so ufortable?''


    ''Why would home make me feel like I was looking into an empty void, where I was but a speck in the infinite cosmos, floating around without any weight... Any meaning... Any help.''


    ''I loved my home...''


    ''I had everything, didn''t I?''


    *DOOM*


    ''Then why do I associate this feeling of dread with it?


    "Have you already forgotten?" A voice, that seemed to have been manufactured out of the vocal cords of a million people.


    It was as if someone had tried to create a sound that sounded like a person''s voice without having heard one.


    As if the voice had been created from the unintellectual ramblings of a mad man trying to exin what a voice was to a deaf vocalist.


    I widened my eyes slightly, yet it was only then that the barrage of feelings... The dreaded emotions... The terror of dying... The pains and sufferings I had to bear for my survival...


    Yet at the same time, I knew that or at least felt like my current emotions were meaningless.


    What is the point of crying when everything you would have cried for is now dead? What is the point of wailing if there is nothing left to wail for? I am alone in this... I am the lone survivor yet I darein about the pain that I had been struck with?


    There are so many others who had died, those who were much better than me... Those who would have sacrificed their entire lives to save a single innocent child without regret...


    So why would Iin when I know that they are much worse off than me?


    The only thing I can do is survive.


    Survive even if it means I have to injure, kill or destroy everything in my way.


    That is my fate after all.


    "Survive," I muttered before finally opening my eyes, finding myself in a puddle of my own sweat...


    My eyes slowly drifted to the entrance of the tunnel where the gleaming light of the dawning sun pierced through the small cracks in the cave, entering it and leaving behind a beautiful array of lights.


    The entrance also had a bit of light shining through it, yet due to the position of the cave that did not corrte with the current position of the sun, the change in visibility had barely changed.


    "To think I slept for almost an entire day." I chuckled to myself, yet that chuckle was more forced than I would like to admit.


    When I had finally gotten up to a sitting position, I began to look around the cave to see any resemnce of life having been inhabiting this ce before me.


    Analyzing the area, I could not help but notice the scratch marks on the sides of the tunnels, the remnants of fur... But, it was not any kind of fur. This first was white, yet at the same time, it was bloodied and almost tattered?


    *DOOM*


    It was when the feeling of dread finally returned to me that I realized where I was.


    ''This feeling... It is the same as the one I felt before...'' I could not finish the sentence even though I was saying it in my mind, yet I knew exactly what I meant by it.


    ''I need to leave''


    Without skipping a beat, I immediately began to sprint to the entrance, but I had instantly halted my movements as a realization hit me.


    ''If something ising, why the hell would I try to leave through the entrance?''


    *Thump* *Thump*


    The loud yet at the same time, strangely muted sounds of footsteps reverberated throughout the area, a sound that caused therge burds in the distance to flee without hesitation, while other animals found shelter underrge objects such as trees, holes in the ground, and evenkes nearby.


    ''Sh*t!'' Without thinking twice, I ran towards the other end of the cave where I had seen cracks in the walls which I could only hope would have beenrge enough for me to fit through.


    *Thump* *Thump*<novelnext></novelnext>


    Its footsteps were getting closer...


    The dreaded feeling was now oveing me like no other.


    I could feel it...


    It was imminent death standing barely a few dozen meters away from me.


    Looking up, I saw that the crack would have probably been big enough for me to fit through if I were to squeeze myself in, but there was one problem that I had to face before reaching it.


    It was too far away.


    My heart was now racing, pumping adrenaline throughout my entire body.


    If I were to fail this task, it would mean the end for me.


    Not daring to look back at the monstrosity that was about to enter its cave, the same cave I had identally infiltrated, I quickly jumped towards the edge of one rock before swiftly catapulting myself to the other.


    *Thump Thump* *Thump Thump*


    That was no longer the sound of the footsteps getting closer. That was the sound of my heart beating loudly like a drum.


    In the split second where I had jumped, my hand had moved with lighting reflex and had gripped onto the thin ledge.


    *ROAR!*


    *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* *Thump*


    I could hear the thing get closer...


    My heart was now beating loudly, to the point where it had almost deafened my ears from the skin-crawling roar that the thing had released.


    I still did not know what it was, but that only made the experience more terrifying.


    My fingers were growing numb by the second, but that did not stop me from exerting all my strength to pull myself up.


    *Thump*


    It was getting closer.


    I could feel the power behind every single step.


    *Thump*


    Exerting thest bit of power within me, I made a final pull that threw me up and towards the crack in the upper walls of the cave.


    *Thump*


    The reverberating sounds of its footsteps had only sent more and more shivers down my spine.


    I could feel death getting closer and closer with every one of its steps.


    My arms from the elbow down were now practically numb, after all, I was not a mountain climber or anything.


    I was, and still am just a normal man, with a normal goal that had been thrown into something beyond the scope of my imagination.


    I had told myself that the pull was thest thing I had to do, but once again I had found myself telling myself the same lie.


    ''One more push''


    Lunging myself toward the crack, I found myself barely fitting inside it, but it seemed like I had done enough to survive.


    The keyword in this sentence being ''seemed''.


    *Crunch*


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 8 *Screech*

    Lunging myself toward the crack, I found myself barely fitting inside it, but it seemed like I had done enough to survive.


    The keyword in this sentence being ''seemed''.


    *Crunch*


    I thought that I had stopped hearing the footsteps of the creature, and I was right.


    I thought that I had escaped from the monstrosity that had been following me, and I would have been right to think so.


    The footsteps had stopped... That should have been a good sign, right? The fact that it might have just stopped and simply given up on me... It made me feel a sense of relief.


    Who would have known that not looking back would have been my biggest mistake so far?


    Right the crunching sound had reached my ears, I felt a warm steamy sensation envelop my arm from the elbow down.


    I could almost feel the moisture within the air that had enveloped it.


    It was cool, yet at the same time hot and steamy.


    It was wet and even felt bad to be around, yet at the same time, it feltfortable.


    Of course, that was only the case until the pain had kicked in.


    Within a split second, before the pain had hit, I stepped back and out of range and simultaneously out of the cave.


    It was only then that I was given the chance to look down because, for some strange reason, my arm felt light, almost too light.


    A warm sensation pulsed out of it while I could almost feel my heart rate through the pulsing heat that came from it.


    When I had finally taken a proper look at my arm, I could immediately see what was wrong. It made me almost question why I hadn''t thought of the possibility earlier...


    Of course, that was only until the pain had kicked in.


    [Emergency Mission has been received!]


    [Emergency Mission: Survive]


    [Information: Seal the wound and stop the bleeding


    -1 Minute and 30 Seconds until you lose consciousness


    -4 Minutes until death]


    [Reward:


    -The Title ''Seeker of Death''


    -Increased affinity with the Death Element.


    -20 EXP]


    An enormous wave of pain hit me like a tsunami, traveling through every cell in my body...


    No...


    The pain traveled through every bit of my very being.


    If I were to rank the pain at the moment it had urred, I would have told you that it was the worst pain any human could have felt. How naive would that have been?


    A shrill, skin-tearing scream of pain left my mouth, a sound I had, until this moment, only believed coulde out of something with vocal cords more developed my mere human ones.


    The screech of pain was almost inhuman.


    It was not something I had thought would evere out of my mouth.


    Blood gushed out of my open wound like a waterfall of crimson-red liquid.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Everything on my left arm from the elbow down to fingertips had disappeared into the maw of the creature that had attacked me, a creature that I could see now as being a giant lizard-like animal with the maw of a t-rex, the eyes of a snape, and the body of a hippo.


    It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was as if the thing had been created on the spot, by an artist that had never seen the skeleton or drawing of a dinosaur.


    I was not sure if this thing was a dinosaur or not since dinosaurs weren''t supposed to exist for another few million years or so, but of course, this was the least of my worries.


    With my quick thinking, I had immediately taken off my shirt and tore off a piece of cloth before getting enough to wrap and tighten it around what was remaining of my arm to make sure that I kept the blood loss to a minimum.


    Without skipping a beat, I slowly jumped down from one cliff to the other, taking precautions so as to not fall from any of the cliffs when moving down the hill-like cave made out of a conglomerate I could not identify, or simply could not bother identifying at that moment of time.


    I was bleeding for god''s sake!


    *ROAAAR*


    The creature roared at the top of its lungs in rage.


    How dare I, someone who had infiltrated its territory leave without a fight? Flee like a coward? Not face it head-on?


    Those were all the questions that were probably going through its mind, yet even then, I simply did not care.


    There was only one word going through my mind and it was to "Survive".


    ''I''ll probably die of an infection at this rate.'' I thought to myself as I gripped what remained of my left arm, something that immediately caused me to wince in pain.


    Removing my hand from my left arm, I put it to my side and clenched my teeth before finally taking myst jump,nding safely onto the rock b under me.


    Of course, the ''saftey'' of thending, just like everything else in my life so far seemed to be temporary, since the moment I had tried to take a step forward, I had lost my bnce and fell onto my backside.


    "Ugh," I grunted, the bone-shattering pain traveling through my body once again and giving me a feeling that would have caused my teeth to rattle in ce.


    *ROAR*


    The creature had once again roared, but this time it seemed to be a little further away while the noise that had been created from its roar echoed throughout the cave, reaching the outside and causing me to pale even more than I already was.


    ''Crap''


    I found myself whispering "One more push" More often than ever.


    My blood was rushing through me faster than ever which not only meant that I was getting adrenaline to calm my pains but also meant that the blood loss from my missing arm would only increase in rate and volume.


    Yet, no matter how fast I might have been, I was simply not as fast as I would have liked to think I was.


    The ground shook, evident when looking at the rocks that bounced up and down whenever I would hear the footsteps behind me, slowly but surely getting closer to me even though I was moving at my fastest speed.


    Maybe I would have had better chances with two arms, but one?


    The chances did not look like they were going to be in my favor this time.


    Was this going to be the end?


    Was I really going to fail everyone and everything that had ever believed in me?


    Am I really going to die in vain, just like everyone else?


    Was this... Was this really the end?


    *Quaaaaak*


    A loud, sky-shaking shriek reverberated throughout thends and swept through the forest, making every creature within it shake involuntarily.


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 Chapter 9 If That Hits...

    *QRRRUAAAAAAK*


    A loud, sky-shaking shriek reverberated throughout thends and swept through the forest, making every creature within it shake involuntarily.


    Even I, as I ran for my life away from the creature and through the heavily tree-packed woods, could not help but shudder at the loud shriek that overcame my senses for the split second that I heard it.


    Even the echoes that bounced off from tree to tree created a sense of gloom and fear.


    The dread that I had been feeling for thest 7 to 9 minutes only grew to ache with even more intensity, shaking me to my core and making me exert more strength, agility, and perseverance.


    If someone were to look at me in the eyes, they would have seen a me within my pupils, that no matter how powerful the storm, burned with determination and stubbornness.


    ''Survive...''


    Those were the words crystal-mouthed to me right before vanishing into the spectral light.


    The only words that mattered...


    "No" I muttered.


    Something, a feeling, an emotion that I could not understand...


    It took over me.


    Without a second thought, I had already halted my movement and had turned to my right before sprinting in that direction with all the energy that I had left.


    I could not understand it.


    One second I waspletely exhausted, and in the next, I was filled to the brim with vigor?


    ''I won''t die''


    Droplets of tears formed in my eyes, falling out and being left behind as I elerated more and more by the second.


    I felt like I was Usain Bolt, running at a speed that no other human being could have rivaled.


    I jumped, ducked, and dodged trees, swerving from right to left, making sure to create an obstacle in between me and the creature where ever I could.


    It was a mechanism that, while maybe sacrificing a lot of my speed in the process, had yielded results that no other n I could have created in the time frame between leaving the cave and reaching the forest could have.


    Every time I swerved past a tree, I would swerve back, making it difficult for something as big as the creature to attack me.


    This was now a battle against time.


    I didn''t know how much time I would have left, but I knew that my best chance of not dying was for the flying creature to intervene, and from what I had seen and heard so far, I could assume that it would attack therger prey rather than the small, two-legged one which was practically helping it catch therger one.


    As I swerved from right to left for over two minutes, I finally felt fatigued teach my knees while the constant heaving had caused my chest to be sore, making me feel ins that shook me to the bone.


    Clenching my teeth with a glint of determination within my eyes, I jumped and sprinted with almost renewed vigor, yet unlikest time, this time I did not have the aid of adrenaline to numb my pain.


    *ROAR*


    A distant roar, one that was much further away from thest one forced me to smile widely.


    Of course, the smile did not reach my eyes but it still shone with pride, and this was only the beginning.


    ''Now, let us proceed with the second stage of my n...'' My smile grew slightly wider, twitching at the corners as bolts of pain traveled through my body.


    As if I could not feel them, I pushed and pushed until I found myself entering a part of the forest that was more lit than before. To be exact, the area itself was less dense in trees as well as having their heights reduced as I got closer to the light in the distance.


    Of course, fewer trees also meant that the creature would have an easier time following me, but at the same time, it also signified my victory.


    *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* *Thump*


    The footsteps were growing closer, almost to the point where I could feel their vibrations through the solid ground.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Just a little more.'' I told myself, forcing my body to give a final push, knowing fully well that after this I might not be capable of moving a single muscle.


    *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP*


    The footsteps were incredibly close now. I could almost feel the dread loom over me while the scent of death wafted into my nostrils.


    At the same time, I could taste it... The taste of victory stood barely a few meters before me.


    ''JUST A LITTLE MOOOOORE''


    The creature had already opened its maw, ready to chomp down on my head.


    I could feel its warm and wet breath touching the back of my neck.


    Every single hair on my body had now stood up.


    Was this the end?


    *WOOSH*


    *Rattle*


    *QRUAAAAAAAK*


    *Pitui*


    *ROOOOOOooooooaaa-*


    *BOOM*


    The winged creature had swooped down with a war cry that made me freeze in ce and feel my eardrumse to the edge of rapturing.


    Without hesitation, the winged creature had aimed its talons toward the neck of the creature that had its maw wide open but forced into being frozen in ce.


    The talons gripped onto the creature tightly, dug their ws deep within the scaly surface of its skin, and pped its wings, catapulting both of them into the air.


    The force from the ascend alone could have decapitated any creature. but this one was sturdy and stubborn, holding on to life by a hairbreadth and a half-destroyed neck.


    It roared at the top of its lungs, or at least it tries to, but rather thaning off as intimidating, the roar was reduced to a pained growl which did not affect the absolute monstrosity that was holding it by the neck.


    "QRUAAAAAAAK!!!" the flying monstrosity let out the same sound as before, but instead of sounding like a shriek, this one sounded like a dragon''s cry. While I''ve been thinking of running this whole time, the thought had been immediately thrown to the back of my mind the moment I found my entire body paralyzed, not only due to the cry but even before that it had been forced into a halt after my exhaust finally caught up to me.


    In the same instant, the flying beast clenched its talons harder and pierced deeper into the skin of the creature it was holding.


    Its figure shot up to the boundless blue skies, bing but a dot within the cyan blue ocean littered with patches of white we called clouds.


    For some reason, I felt a horrible feeling ovee me, one that was simr but a lot more toned down than the feeling I felt before Crystal''s, my girlfriend''s death as well as the death of everyone I ever cared for.


    I remember feeling the same dread whenever I looked at my girlfriend''s best friend even though it was a lot less noticeable.


    After blinking a few times and squinting my eyes, as my vision had be enhanced I began to see what the flying creature was about to do with a clearance that I would have never been able to aplish in myst life.


    ''If that hits...'' panic overcame me, causing me to freeze and drop to the floor. A secondter I found myself wing at the ground with my remaining arm, trying my hardest to move out of the way before-


    *Whistle*


    *BOOOOOM*


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 10 Miserable

    ''If that hits...'' panic overcame me, causing me to freeze and drop to the floor. A secondter I found myself wing at the ground with my remaining arm, trying my hardest to move out of the way before-


    *Whistle*


    *BOOOOOM*


    The sky was a deep aqua blue given a tone of purple by the rising sun shining from the east with all its radiance and glory, oveing the darkness and turning the sky into a fabulous artwork filled with so numerous colors, stars, and depth far beyond my imagination.


    Yet, within the depth was a shadowy figure, given the dark tone due to being illuminated by ring rays of the sun from the other side.


    All I could see of the creature was but a tiny shadow in the distance, and before I had even realized it, the shadow was bing bigger... No. It was getting closer.


    Its speed was something else. Something that broke several sound barriers with each p, making the creature only close the distance between the ground and it at an extraordinary speed.


    With another p of its wings, the creature was capable of generating enough force topletely stop its descent.


    Yet, this was not all since the whish effect from the immediate stop had caused the creature it had been holding onto with its talons could only feel the dreaded feeling of them being torn apart and eventuallyunched into the ground, creating a huge dust cloud in its wake.


    The flying creature held the other creature''s head in the grasp of its talons for a few seconds while not breaking eye contact with me... The wide-eyed, shivering, and whimpering me could only watch in awe, fear, and most of all, excitement.


    It was an excitement I had never felt before because rather than just enjoying myself, this feeling felt like an addiction corrupting every part of my brain, cell by cell, atom by atom.


    Yet, this did not mean that the fear I felt at the moment had nullified, in contrast, it had be amplified causing the two emotions to sh in my mind.


    I never broke eye contact with the flying creature that was seemingly using its wings to float mid-air, expanding them outwards to show the thick membrane that formed its wings alongside the bones that went through them, sticking out at the end of each wing-like sharp daggers waiting to stab something or someone...


    The flying creature had an elongated head with two eyes on each side capable of moving around and looking in any direction, giving the creature something close to a 360-degree span of vision, leaving almost no blindspots other than the one behind its elongated head which would have blocked the view of anything directly behind it.


    Its piercing yellow eyes looked at me with slit-like venomous pupils that seemed to analyze and cut me into a thousand pieces, or at least that was what I had felt.


    The tension was only growing, finally getting to a point where once could cut through it like a hot knife through butter.


    As the novels back on Earth, or should I say in the future would have put it, I was courting death.


    This was not some kind of novel where I was invincible because of some kind of plot armor. Yes, I might have happened to go through time, but for what? just to suffer for days with minimal food and water? To be the meal of some hungry creature that my body would barely nourish due to my small size? To lose my arm and barely have enough time in the day to thoroughly think about anything other than surviving.


    Is this the life I want to live? Is there really, in reality, any point in me having to go on like this?


    All those questions passed through my mind, yet like the breeze of the scorchingly cold winds of the winter, they eventually did stop, or at least for now, they did.


    My eye was still locked with the piercing eyes of the thing in front of me.


    Its intense gaze sent shivers down my spine.


    My thoughts now were only consistent with the one question anyone as weak as I would have at this moment.


    ''Will I survive?''


    How would I know, after all, I was just another weak human...


    The staring conteststed for what seemed like hours until finally, it seemed to be repulsed by me, eventually pping its wings and leaving


    behind the corpse of the lizard-like creature that had ripped off my arm.


    When the flying creature was finally out of sight, I looked away just to have my eyesnd on the headless corpse thaty there, motionlessly...<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Emergency Mission: Completed]


    [Information: Seal the wound and stop the bleeding


    -1 Minute and 30 Seconds until you lose consciousness


    -4 Minutes until death]


    [Reward:


    -The Title ''Seeker of Death''


    -Increased affinity with the Death Element.


    -20 EXP]


    [Wound has been sufficiently sealed. Blood loss had been kept to a minimum. Rewards (except EXP) shall be received after the trial period ends.]


    "For god sake! I do all that just for it to say that my rewards willeter! Do I look like some kind of joke to you!?" I roared in anger


    I could feel an unrelenting rage build up and boil within my very blood.


    The rage was like nothing I had ever felt before, and even though I could understand where it had beening from, I didn''t understand why it was so intense.


    A piercing, destructive and chaotic killing intent began to seep out of every pore in my body until I was finally enveloped in a dense red aura.


    This was the second time this had happened, but an inkling inside me told me that it was going to be far from thest time.


    Before I knew it, my legs had begun moving on their own and I found myself dashing towards the corpse.


    When I was finally in front of it, I used everything I had and kicked the body, yet the only thing I received in the feedback of the kick was the mind-numbing pain that reverberated through my entire being, shooting through every neuron.


    ''God... DAMNIT!'' I kicked again as if I hadn''t learned from my first kick, making the pain even more intense.


    This thing was simply too big, scaly, and overall just too powerful to be moved by something as simple as a kick.


    I was also certain that this thing could have beenpared to the size and weight of a small truck, and since it did not have wheels pushing it would have been significantly harder than a car.


    After a few more punches, kicks, and even some barging, I gave up and began to walk away.


    I could have used the creature for food, but its scaled were simply too tough and hard to take off while even if I was capable of taking them off by some kind of miracle, the meat itself would have been too tough for my mouth to chew.


    I walked away sulking, my body still aching and my stomach as empty as a bottomless bucket.


    I was truly miserable...


    I was painfully pathetic...


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 11 The Red Monkeys

    On a tree in the middle of the forest stood a figure with tattered clothes and only one visible arm.


    Of course, that figure was me, standing on a branch of arge tree that I had painstakingly climbed to find a better spot to look around.


    At that point, a day had passed ever since thest encounter, or to be precise, it was thest dangerous encounter with a beast, creature, or whatever abominations this world held.


    I knew that something was extremely wrong. Yes, I might have not been the best at my studies, but I was slightly above average and therefore I knew a lot about the periods that Earth had been through for thest 4.5 billion years. After all, I was studying the subject in college.


    There were simply no geological records of some of the creatures that I had seen in thest 4 days, including the giant toads, the oversized Dragonflies, and hell, most of the lizard-like creatures that I am seeing right now aren''t supposed to exist before the Triassic period.


    Let''s not forget to mention the pterodactyl-like creature that I met yesterday. If a creature with the power to reach the border between space and earth, wouldn''t that be a huge scientific discovery?


    Yet even then, even if I juggle through my memories, looking at every single one with the intent to find precisely what I wanted to know, I still could not find any records of something with that kind of power, nor anything being as big as that flying creatures.


    However, even after seeing so many things that simply did not add up, I had a suspicion


    I had a feeling that not only in this forest but on this entire there would be things that were much, much more terrifying than the flying creature.


    Creatures that would exceed our understandings of the sciences themselves... Something that would make every one of us question the boundaries between fiction and reality.


    However, right now, all these things were the least of my worries. I could have not cared less about the scientific impossibilities or the unknown creatures I had seen, I simply had one thing in mind and it was to survive... To survive through the next 3 days without dying so I could finally activate this system thing that I''ve been wondering about.


    [Level: 1]


    [Progress: 60/100]


    ''Immortality System huh... To think I would have gotten 20 whole experience points for the assist alone...'' I sighed and jumped down one of the branches,nding safely on another, and another, and another until I felt my feet touch the ground.


    I had minor difficulties trying to keep my bnce, but for some odd reason, I found myself capable of getting used to it quite quickly... It was as if the disability was not there and it was something as easy as getting used to an itch at the back of your neck.


    Jolts of phantom pain had forced me awake multiple timesst night, but I guess that also must have been for the better as it was when I had woken up for thest time when I had finally heard something pass by the cave where I stayed at for the meantime.


    When leaving my cave, I found that the passing tide was one made out of hundreds upon hundreds of monkeys with deep red fur with scattered yellow across it.


    I felt a fiery me within their eyes, a determination I had never seen on any creature before, and also the building power that emitted from every single one of thembined.


    The power was more symbiotic than individual, and even though I could not take away the reality that their powers were far higher than my own, they were far weaker alone than the monstrous threat they emanated as a group.


    I even theorized that it would have probably been possible for them to take on the pterodactyl with only a quarter of their tide alone.


    At that moment, I had looked at the monkeys before looking at my crumbling stomach, causing me to decide that in any other instance would have been seen as being the worst decision I could ever make.


    Desperate and hungry, I followed through the forest, jumping around trees and swerving my path to make sure that did not realize that I was right behind them this entire time.


    Thankfully, this worked for a while but after a few hours of this, I finally felt the aching pains from the night before assaulting me alongside my limits as a human, simply not being capable of moving for that long without rest.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It was then that I had decided to climb one of the tallest trees with an array of different branches, just strong enough to hold my weight but at the same time not noticeablyrge enough for them to ever pay attention to it.


    These monkeys, while looking and having the agility of monkeys, looked closer to being goris instead.


    Their weight was probablyparable to a rhino''s while their size was 2 or three timesrger than the average ck gori.


    from a distance, one could probably mistake them for being a flock of giant fireflies rather than being apes with red fur, yet even though they might have looked like fireflies from a distance, the danger they emanated was no joke no matter how far away you were looking from.


    Getting on top of the tree, I looked into the distance, trying to find out in what direction they were going in since they hadn''t really changed the route, and instead, we were goingpletely straight, swerving past a few trees here and there but still maintaining the same path as before, as if they were programmed to do so.


    Seeing this, I could not help but sigh and take a long spear out of my pants made out of wood that I had carved and sharpened just enough to break the skin of any creature that did not have scaly skin.


    This made it a lot easier to eat the small creatures like the giant rats, weakened centipedes, and even at one point I found myself in front of an injured baby bear with no animal in site, allowing me to kill it and take its meat to cookter when I got back to the cave.


    My eyes zed in their direction, not directly looking at them but at the same time looking in their direction. I secondter, they red up in determination, making me finally drop down to the floor, stepping down branch my branch while barely stabilizing my bnce before finally dashing in their direction.


    ***


    In the faraway distance, yet so close that one could feel their eyes, a being with pale green chartreuse skin sat atop the canopy of the forest, watching and listening as everything unfolded in front of her.


    She had glistening green hair while having a pair of beautiful emerald eyes.


    Vines wrapped around her entire body like clothes, covering her from top to bottom with the green ropes which seemed to have a life of their own, twitching every now and then, something one would pick up after looking at them for a while.


    She was not sore to the eyes in any way, however, and with all honesty, it might have been theplete opposite.


    However, while her beauty would have caught the eyes of everything, from random animals to intelligent creatures, there was one thing that everything found their eyes drifting to and that was therge crystal in the center of her forehead.


    The crystal, just like her eyes color, shone with a crystalline emerald. The crystal was barely the size of the tip joint of the thumb, but even then it just happened to find itself being the most eye-catching thing about one of the most beautiful creatures on the.


    The creature, unlike everything I had seen up to that moment, has a twinkle of free will and intelligence within her eyes.


    Her eyes were currently looking in a certain direction, them eventually narrowing when seeing that I was following a herd of red monkeys that ran around in numbers that far exceeded a hundred.


    "So that is the human huh... To think he is this weak..." The woman shook her head and was finally enveloped by tree roots which eventually dispersed and left no one atop the canopy.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 12 Fear

    After traveling at a speed at which I could conserve energy, I finally became incapable of seeing the red monkeys anymore.


    This was mainly due to the fact that they were abnormal creatures that moved as slow as me, but at the same time could keep moving at that same speed for hours if not days.


    The journey so far had not only made me more hungry than before, but the injuries that I had developed from being chased by the creature were beginning toe up once again as if they were old scars losing their ability to seal the wound anymore.


    Of course, this was a huge pain in the ass since I knew that there was a very high chance that I probably would not be able to catch up to them, but I had already gotten this far and as if a devil was whispering to me from my shoulder, I chose to not give up and continue to move forward.


    After running, jumping, and swerving from side to side every now and then to both avoidrge tree roots as well as any ferocious beasts nearby, I finally found evidence of them having gone down this direction, making me sigh in relief.


    It seemed like they had all dropped down to the ground for a reason I could not understand since they clearly had the advantage up at the rooftops of the forest, jumping from branch to branch, yet my question was answered rather quickly after I strolled a few hundred meters ahead of where they hadnded.


    There, in the middle of a battle-riddenndscapey the corpse of what looked like a pterodactyl...


    Its eyes werepletely hollow not an ounce of flesh could be seen still sticking onto the bones of the creature.


    From how its bones were aligned and scattered, it looked like its organs had been violently ripped out of its body, and destroyed with such arge difference in power that it had taken only seconds to pick it apart.


    The creature''s wings looked like they were probably made out of a thick membrane, but at the same time, they contained long jagged bones which went down and reached the end of the wings, probably even sticking out as if they were sharp little daggers.


    Its head was elongated, and its talons were like three sharp hooks attached to the end of its legs.


    This was the same flying creature that had killed the lizard-like beast that had ripped off my arm...


    ''Holy sh-''


    Before I could curse, I heard a distinct rattling in the distance, making my entire being freeze before my head seemed to regain enough energy to finally look back.


    My heart was racing at a pace that I only felt when my arm had been ripped off, and now that it was happening again, I knew exactly why...


    It was fear...


    One would probably retort with ''Of course you are scared. You are up againstplete monsters'', but to them, I would only have one thing to say.


    This was not the same fear I felt on Earth, or should I say in the future... No. This was an indescribable fear mixed with a dreaded feeling which would have made any other man puke their guts out the moment they felt it.


    This was something beyond the fear of death itself as if I was scared of something beyond it.


    When my eyes had found the strength to look back at the thing that wasing up behind me, rattling in the nearby bushes and looking at me with its piercing eyes, I could not help but sigh in relief.


    The creature that had snuck up on me looked a bit like a wolf mixed in with a gori to make the thing I saw. It was huge, but in no way was it more terrifying than the red monkeys I saw earlier.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I had already given up on hunting one of them by catching it by surprise, but seeing the corpse had been the g for me to turn right back the way I hade from, throwing away the little semnce of hope that i had within my heart that was telling me that I could probably win if I take it by surprise.


    ''I can take on this thing, right?'' I asked myself, clearly and utterly unaware of how weak I must be in front of this thing.


    However, I had one thing on my side and that was my intelligence. An Intelligence that I believed that no one on this so far could rival.


    Carefully, I took out the miniature spear I had created and used rocks that I could find in the cave to make it sharper and more deadly if something were to get stabbed by it.


    "Alright, show me what you''ve got." I taunted the creature, and as if it could understand me, it began to growl and lower its center of gravity until it was ready to lunge at me.


    Its deep ck fur began to emanate a dark hue that I noticed almost immediately, making me a little more cautious about attacking the thing in front of me.


    From what I could tell so far, things in this ''world'' did not always follow the same rules that applied to us humans in the future.


    ''I have to be careful. I only have one arm so I might lose my bnce at a crucial moment, but if this thing is as stupid as it seems, I should be able to kill it without having to get injured again.'' I calcted while my eyes darted all over its body, trying to find a weak spot that wasn''t located around its face.


    When the wolf was around 5 meters away, I quickly sidestepped to the right, something it seemed to anticipate since it had also turned to at the same moment as me.


    However, what it couldn''t anticipate was that the moment it did so, I would immediately take a much bigger leap to the left, something it could not do immediately since it would have to sacrifice its bnce, pronouncing it dead in the process.


    At that moment, I could see in its eyes.


    It had finally realized that I could threaten its life even though I was technically half its size.


    ? And when it saw my sharp spear for the first time pointed towards it, it felt something that it would have probably only felt from something like the lizard-like creature or the pterodactyl from before...


    It was fear.


    ''Doesn''t feel so good now does it.'' I inwardly mused with a strange smile perking up at the corner of my lips.


    Holding my miniature spear, or more urately, my wooden stake, I drove it towards the eye of the wolf, twisting every joint in the process and using all my body weight to cause as much damage as possible and to dig the stake as deep as possible.


    *Pichu*


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 13 Dread

    *Pichu*


    I watched as the wooden stake sunk into the eye of the wolf, reaching deep inside.


    Unfortunately, I could tell that it wasn''t enough to kill the thing and would have just been an injury, meaning it could still fight.


    knowing this, I found myself jumping back as I took the stake out of its eye before rolling on the ground, narrowly dodging the bite that was aimed at my head.


    Seeing the bite and hearing the sound it had made when the maw closed onto nothing, I knew exactly what would have happened if my head was there.


    A vision of a watermelon exploding yed in my mind, subsequently causing a shiver to go down my spine.


    Without hesitation, I swiftly jumped from my crouched position and rolled to the right, evading the w of the wolf by a hairsbreadth.


    This time, instead of simply staying in my crouched position, I found enough time to get up and stand opposite the wolf before walking around, both of us circling one another and not breaking eye contact.


    Its ferocious eyes looked into my determined ones, a spark forming between the two of us as we both tried to calcte the other individual''s next move.


    Abruptly, I felt an enormous feeling of dread hit me, and as if I knew exactly what it meant I quickly tilted my head to the left by a few degrees.


    A stinging burning pain began toe from my cheek as a tiny droplet of blood traveled down it.


    For a split second, I saw it.


    A razor-sharp ck needle, barely the size of my index finger, shot past me at a blurring speed that I would have not caught if it was not so close to my face.


    The needle was made out of deep ck color, something I had instantly recognized to be the same color as the fur on the wolf''s body.


    ''So it wasn''t taking me seriously before huh...'' I thought with anger boiling up inside me, or that was the only thing I could really exin it as being.


    It was, just like many of my other emotions, something that I could not exin with proper words. It was something beyond my understanding and trying to exin it would have made it even more confusing.


    However, at the moment I was not thinking about that. No...


    The only thing I was thinking of at that very moment was how I could slice the wolf''s throat and chop its head off for underestimating me as if I wanted to teach it onest lesson before ending everything it was with a single sh.


    However, not only did I not have a de to ''sh'' it with, but I was also too slow and weak to get any closer, but it was then that it had hit me.


    ''Every time I''m in danger, I feel some kind of dread... It''s as if I can feel that my life was about to slip out of my hands at the moment, and just like with the razor-sharp needle, or the hippo that had tried to bite my arm off on the first day or second day, I could dodge it in time to save myself by a hairsbreadth.


    ''If only I knew this before having allowed the lizard creature to rip off my arm.'' I grunted, but still stood tall and unflinching at the gaze that the wolf was giving me.


    If gazes could kill, I would have died a few hundred times by now.


    ''I need to kill that thing!''


    Without hesitation, or to be more urate, without me realizing, my entire body had been filled with a vigor that dulled my pains.


    I moved with the speed of a top-notch athlete while watching the world around me slow down, every step feeling like an eternity as my feet moved forward, touched the ground, and sprung my body forward once again.


    I had be oddly conscious of everything around me, from the leaf on the floor to the calmly dancing trees around us.


    Of course in this area, there weren''t as many trees as in other areas around here, but there were a few that I could easily take advantage of, something I did not hesitate to do when I saw the wolf''s hair spiked up, another thing that I didn''t realize had happened before.


    I quickly ducked down and rolled to one of the trees beside me, allowing me to hear the soft thuds of multiple sharp needles hitting the ground that I was on before being aimed towards the tree, hitting them with a soft yet hollow sound.


    ''Wait...'' My eyes widened in horror while my legs once again moved on their own.


    I quickly sprung up my kicking my legs forward and dashed to a nearby tree that looked exactly like the tree that I was behind before.


    I had made sure that I moved to my left and the wolf''s right as that would have been his blind side, forcing him to turn his entire head to look at me, giving me a second to reach my desired location before getting shot in the behind.


    The wolf had taken a moment to realize that I wasn''t behind the tree, but at that moment he had already short almost 100 spiked hairs towards the tree, finally showing what I had been so horrified of.<novelnext></novelnext>


    After being shot at for a few seconds, the tree had already given out and had mostly crumbled before falling in the direction of the wolf.


    ''I knew it...''


    The tree was dead.


    I already realized this of course, but the same cannot be said about the wolf since it had run back a few dozen meters the moment it had seen that the tree was beginning to fall, something it did not expect to happen even though it had been shooting at it constantly with the aim to kill me.


    In the moment of its distress, I had already run past the broken-down tree and through the dust cloud it had created.


    As if I could see everything clearly, I shot toward the wolf that was justing back to its senses and revealed myself by partially separating the cloud in the wave of my exit.


    The dust could still be seen trailing off my body as if it was trying to cling on as I only got closer and closer to the wolf in front of me.


    Its eyes quickly changed from surprise and shock to anger and rage. lunging at me without a second thought, something that would end up being its biggest mistake.


    With all the energy and strength my feet could muster, I ced the tip of my foot onto the ground to its left, the side with its only remaining eye, before shifting my body to my right, narrowly avoiding the jaw that came for my chest with the intention of ripping me to shreds.


    I heard a loud chomp as it snapped its maw shut in the area where my left arm would have been.


    An agonizing pain shot through my body originating from my... left arm?


    I couldn''t understand.


    In my moment of confusion, I had been frozen in ce unable to move.


    The pain wasparable to when I had my entire arm eaten off, but how is that possible?


    I don''t have a left arm anymore, so that shouldn''t be possible, right?


    I didn''t even feel the same dread that I would have right before being hit.


    Maybe the whole dread thing was a lie I had deceived myself into believing?


    Maybe I had put too much into a theory I was not even sure was true yet.


    I was just a normal human after all.


    What kind of normal human has a spidey sense that allows them to avoid danger!


    I''m not a superhero!


    I''m just a normal guy...


    I was quickly kicked out of my confused state and thrown into the real world by another dreaded feeling. This time it was more of a pressure, a pressure that pushed me in a certain direction, a direction I did not hesitate to move in.


    I once again watched the maw travel past me with an immense speed which would have been a blur to my eyes if I didn''t have so much adrenaline running through me that made me perceive everything so much more clearly.


    As the wolf''s open maw swooshed past me, I could feel its razor-sharp tooth nicking the tip of my nose and causing me to bleed slightly, yet unlike before, this was not enough to cause me to freeze in my spot.


    My eyes shed with boiling rage and a wave of what I wouldter learn was killing intent, shot out of my body.


    With the determination to kill burned brightly within my eyes, allowing me to take the final decision of lowering my already raised arm into the remaining eye of the wolf before me.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 14 Gift From Beyond The Grave

    The determination to kill burned brightly within my eyes, allowing me to take the final decision of lowering my already raised arm into the remaining eye of the wolf before me.


    *Pichui*


    I stared at my stake as it sunk into the eye socket of the wolf with a wet sound one would expect to hear when squeezing a wet paper towel.


    The sound was slimy and wet, yet at the same time, I felt like the more disturbing sound was the pained howl of the agonized wolf.


    However, those howls of pain only captured my attention for a split second since it was only then that I realized that the fur on the wolf was bing sharper and more jagged than it was before.


    ''Crap!''


    My eyes darted around to find any escape route, yet there was none.


    Even if I were to try and run to the nearest tree, I was sure that the wolf would have used its final attack, one that I would not be capable of running away from no matter how far I were to go.


    As long as I was within range, I would die a horrible and gruesome death that would have left me as a corpse with as many holes as swiss cheese, if not more.


    There was only one way I could survive now, and it was either to try and push down on the eye socket even more than I had already done, or...


    A realization hit me, making me quickly take out my stake before putting my weight on my heel and twirling to the front as fast as I could while also gaining momentum.


    When I found myself in front of the wolf, I stabbed in an upward motion where I would be aiming for the area below its chin.


    I knew trying to stab it from within the mouth would be near impossible as the wolf could have simply closed its mouth and I would be forced to say goodbye to my second hand and most likely die of blood loss since I would have no way to stop the bleeding.


    Instead, aiming for below the chin would have been much more sessful even though it might seem slightly harder.


    The stake was just long enough to pierce the entire head, but for some reason, I could never hit the right angle whenever I tried to pierce the wolf''s brain through its eyes so now I simply resorted to using all the power left in my to stab it from below.


    With a final push, my hand moved at a blurring speed, nting the stake through the bottom jaw and even reaching the upper jaw, but no matter how much power I tried to put into it, it simply didn''t go any further.


    In ast-ditch effort to survive, I threw my hand backnded it on the floor, and kicked up both my legs hitting them into the butt of the stake, allowing it to finally shoot through the upper jaw and into its brain, causing it to finally die.


    I watched as all the hairs on its body went from being razor sharp topletelyid within a matter of seconds, like scruffy hair having warm water poured onto it.


    With a loud thud that echoed thepletely silent wastnd left behind after our battle, the corpse fell with the only sound besides it being the sound of my constant panting.


    I could feel my heart pumping the hot adrenaline-filled blood through my veins, each heartbeat sounding like a drum to my sensitive ears.


    [You have killed a Dark-Spiked Wolf]


    [You have gained 40 EXP]


    [You have sessfully leveled up]


    [You have gained 2 stat points]


    [Stats-


    HP: 12


    Strength: 12


    Agility: 12


    Intelligence: 12


    Vitality: 11


    Mana: 0


    Defence: 0 ]


    [Level: 2]


    [Progress: 0/200]


    The exhaustion seemed to finally kick in, allowing me to fall backward onto my behind and forcing me to look at the sky as my neck snapped back due to the momentum of my fall.


    My neck was too tired to hold up my head anymore which further kept me in the position that I was in.


    I didn''t know I was this tired, yet here I was barely able to move.


    It was in the peace and quiet where it kicked in.


    This feeling wasn''t dread since I wasn''t in danger.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I wasn''t happy even though I had won against an enemy which never in my wildest dreams did I think I could win again.


    The thrill of the fight didn''t excite me.


    The adrenaline didn''t make me feel good at all.


    ''I''m not a fighter.'' was something I told myself not only in thest 4 days but ever since I had my first fight in 3rd grade.


    I can''t fight, because I am weak... Because I have nothing to fight for. Why do I fight?


    Questions I asked myself for what seemed like a century, yet it had only been 4 days.


    In thest 4 days, my face had been covered in dirt while looking like it had simultaneously aged a couple of decades.


    It was as if I had lost something deep within me that I didn''t know has existed before. Something precious. Something I had taken for granted.


    "Hahahahahaha." A soft, maniacalugh left my mouth.


    "Hahahahah." Theugh was croaky and almost horrid.


    "Hahahahahaha!" It was no longer theugh of a normal man. Maybe it never was.


    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" No... It was theugh of a man who had lost everything he held dear.


    A man who had watched as everyone he ever cared for and loved was snatched away from him without remorse.


    Without an ounce of sympathy


    By those cruel and horrid creatures.


    Spawn of the devil himself.


    Demons in the bodies of what looked like humans, but not quite...


    He was a man that had no one to care for anymore, nor anyone to care for him.


    He was lonely, scared, distraught... Hell, he hadn''t even gotten enough time to allow the situation to fully sink in.


    Every day he found himself running from a new danger. A new problem. A new threat that might tear another leg or arm off, and maybe if he were lucky enough, even his head.


    "Haha *Sob* HAHAHAHA *Sob* HAHAHAHAHA *Hic*"


    Tears poured out of his eyes... Out of my eyes.


    They were like glistening waterfalls, each one of its droplets holding a memory that now hase to pass.


    "M-Mom... D-Dad... Emily. Crystal. Everyone." My cries, my sobs, and my wails grew louder and louder.


    "Why did you leave me?" I asked with a little bit of anger in my voice.


    "Why did you all leave me to suffer alone?" I asked once again, my questions not really directed at anyone. Maybe I was speaking to myself, or maybe I had gone crazy. Who could tell?


    Yet there was one thing that I was certain of, and that was that I myself didn''t know how I was feeling.


    My echoingughs intertwined with my wails of dismay and sorrow, further mixed in with my cries of anger.


    My body slowly moved in and curled up into a ball that rocked back and forth with my hand grabbing onto my hair as if wanting to rip them out.


    My sobs did not waver and my cries of agony were just as loud as before.


    The phantom pain from earlier where I felt as if my hand had been bitten into still resonated in me, yet I could feel it being dramatically nullified by the pain of loss.


    While I cried my heart out, I slowly felt hands, hundreds of hands ced onto my shoulders and back. The feeling was abnormal as if hundreds of hands passed through once another, yet every one of them touched me at different intervals.


    Aforting and soothing feeling washed over my body as if I had been dipped into a cool river after standing in the light of the scorching summer heat.


    I could not understand it at the moment it had happened, but one could say that it was a final gift from beyond the grave.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 15 The Girl In The Forest

    It had been 6 days ever since I had been thrown into the hell hole that is Earth almost 250 million years ago, or to be precise, just a million years away from thergest mass extinction to ever be recorded, or that was what I thought anyway.


    I was never the best of students and when it came to trying to remember things like these, I usually failed to recall them. For all I knew, the P-T mass extinction was the most catastrophic one, killing 75% of all terrestrial animals as well as 82% of all marine ones.


    Yet, the things I''ve seen in thest few days alone had indicated to me that many of the "fun facts" that I knew of before simply did not matter anymore, as now there were creatures that simply defied all logic.


    Speaking of defying logic, right now I was standing before the very thing that did so.


    It was something that sent shivers down my spine. One could even say that it was my human instinct to be terrified at that very moment, or at least creeped out.


    The thing that stood in front of me looked human, dressed as a human, and even stood up-right and bipedal, walking around as if it was a human.


    It did not have long ears like those things that invaded Earth. I believe the mangas, games, andic books called them Elves?


    No, it looked nothing like them.


    The Elves that I saw back then had crystalline white skin that shone with the radiance of a thousand suns. It was as if they amplified that light that hit them as well as giving themselves a halo of divinity and purity, something iplete in contrast to the massacres theymitted right before my death.


    However, unlike the elves, the thing in front of me looks exactly like a human. An average, female human barely 5ft 4 chest long ck hair, dark brown eyes, and an average outfit one wouldn''t nce at twice.


    I read somewhere before that it was a human''s instinct to be creeped out by things that looked human, but were not quite human enough? If that makes any sense?


    I was not quite sure what was wrong with her, maybe it was her skin, he normal teeth, her normal smile, and he naturally long and straight hair without a sign of being disheveled.


    Oh, wait... I found it... She looked too normal...


    Too calm. She is in the middle of what most people would deem an apocalypse after all.


    Too normal. Everything she did was incredibly average.


    Yet at the same time, there seemed to be nothing wrong with her.


    For a few seconds, after I had looked at her in the dark forest, peering at me behind a tree in the middle of the night, I had thought I was hallucinating.


    What kind of creature just looks at you from behind a tree with the most innocent smile? A smile that would have caused animals to submit to her, like a flytrap mixed in camouge.


    I had mistaken her eyes for being normal dark brown eyes that I simply couldn''t differentiate from ck in the dark forest, but I was wrong.


    Her eyes were pitch ck and hallow. It was an abyss one would grow more insane after looking at for too long.


    So you might be asking, "How did you get yourself in this situation, Ezra?"


    To answer that question, how about we have a pop quiz question.


    What do you get when you add depression, sadness, realization, self-awareness, grief, and pain to an armless depressed, desperate person fighting for their life every day for a reason they themself could not understand?


    Well, usually, the answer would be alcohol and a lot of it. Maybe even drugs, who knows. I''ve never really done any of those but at this point, I wouldn''t have minded an overdose while I still could, since, of course, I was simply too much of a coward to die normally.


    So of course, since none of those things existed yet to my knowledge, I went with the second-best thing.


    I went on with my day as if there was nothing wrong.


    Not a better way to fix yourself other than repressing all your emotions, am I right, or am I right?


    What is the point of being sad if I could just force myself to smile?


    And so I did so.


    Getting up and wiping my tear-filled face, I threw on a wry smile, one that looked oblivious to everything that was happening.


    Any other human would have realized that the smile never really reached my eyes, but I pushed on making sure that my smile looked normal, not that anyone around would have seen it anyway.


    ''Smile'' I told myself as I skinned the corpse of the animal I had in.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Smile'' I told myself as I created a fire, something my father had taught me in the countless camping trips we had gone on, despite the wood and mmable materials around me not being as big or as damp as I was used it.


    ''Smile'' I told myself as I roasted the wolf''s parts, like the arms and legs while keeping things such as the stomach, liver, and several other organs to eatter, or at least before they rot.


    I went on with my day, choosing the end my pressure on the red monkeys or at least put it on hold until some time when I actually feel like bing a skinless, organless, muscle-less corpse.


    I quickly returned to my cave, not caring much about my surroundings as I simply moved too fast and with too much agility to look right or left, since there was always a tree blocking my sight.


    Eventually, by following the tracks me and the monkeys left behind, mainly the monkeys though, I finally found my cave, entering it and making more food for myself as I had just run for almost 3 hours straight on the way back.


    For the rest of the day, I created a few more weapons for myself, mainly using stones and wood to create stone tools wherever I saw suitable.


    An example would be when I had found a sharp and wide rock that would have done amazing as an ax, and so I used it but putting the rock through the top of it and being able to wield it around and attacking things with enough power and momentum that it would pierce their skin, no matter how durable they were, or at least if they were more durable than a sharp rock.


    For the rest of the night, I either looked at the stars, the stars which shone brightly in the night sky and illuminated thend below with their radiance, alongside thes which I for some reason could see almost clearly now.


    Looking at the sky like this had only made me think back to what the elf man had said, and when thinking about it, I could not help but as the question that would have been on the mind of anyone.


    ''Was he right?''


    If I were to look at it from his perspective, humans were just an infestation that managed to repopte the Earth with intelligent life, yet at the same time due to this, they had made it so the Earth had be polluted, while the beauty of nature was destroyed alongside animals who were enved to popte and give us food.


    We destroyed habitats like it was nothing, while somehow at the same time causing small extinctions of thousands of animals all around the world, those we know of and those we have no idea exist.


    letting out another sigh, I quickly willed for my status screen to open, and before mey my stats telling me everything about my strengths and weaknesses.


    [Stats-


    HP: 12


    Strength: 12


    Agility: 12


    Intelligence: 12


    Vitality: 12


    Mana: 0


    Defence: 0 ]


    ''I''m still extremely weak so adding a few points to strength won''t change anything... However, I am very good at evading, and even though this might not help in the long run, I know that the best thing for me to do right now is to strengthen my strengths and hope I survive.''


    "Put two points into agility," I said aloud.


    [+2 Agility]


    Other than looking at the stars which were no longer shrouded by the pollution of the greenhouse gasses we produced without care, I went to sleep in the cave which seemed to be some kind of safe zone in which no creature would enter.


    The next day, I went through the same routine, this time however I tried to sharpen my ax but failed a few times, cracking it half on others, and eventually barely seeding just for it to shatter after the first use.


    When I had finally gotten how to do it, I had created my first properly usable stone tool capable of both cutting down trees and killing creatures I could not kill with my bare fists.


    Anyway, after looking at the stars, mesmerized by their radiant light as well as the moon''s beautiful lunar light, I fell into another deep slumber, waking up on the 6th day of my adventure with a newfound vigor to explore the forest, something I would deeply regret afterward.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 16 The Girl In The Forest II

    Throughout thest 5 or so days, I had learned to always trust my gut instinct, but at this very moment, I had to go against it.


    I knew that going in without a n would be dangerous, especially since I now knew there were creatures out there that could have probably devoured an entire town in minutes without feeling an ounce of fatigue in the process.


    However, I also knew that the food on me would probablyst less than a day before growing bacteria and eventually rotting, meaning I would eventually have to leave my cave and find some food.


    I had already cut all the meat and roasted it before containing it within a small rock tomb which I had tried to sanitize with both hot water and the fire that I had created.


    After doing so, I left my little cave hideout and began to stroll towards the forest behind it.


    When I entered, I felt a very light dread, something that felt like it was just a cold breeze passing by yet at the same time, a premonition of something worse toe.


    For that reason alone, I had chosen to not go deep into the forest while also making sure to keep an eye on the sun so I could return before nightfall.


    Walking through the forest, I encountered a few creatures here and there yet I had already learned how to avoid most of them.


    On the one hand, the dragonflies were really easy to kill, only having to draw them into a narrowed space where I could turn around and indent my ax into their heads.


    The recurring hippo on the other hand was a lot harder to run away from.


    ? Hippos are bodies of water that are extremely fast, and these were not even normal hippos. These were hippos on steroids mixed in with alligators while also having a tail that seemed to only function for the sole reason of making them swim faster.


    Of course, I could just avoidrge bodies of water likekes orrger rivers, but there was also one more thing that made them uniquepared to the hippos in my era.


    They could camouge pretty well!


    You might be asking, ''Hey Ezra! How is this possible?''


    Well, the answer is quite simple youngd!


    They cover themselves in mud and start rolling in leaves and grass, and while that would usually work pretty well on smaller animals, the hippo somehow made it work as they could use their ws! Yes... You have heard me correctly. They had ws.


    Anyway, they would use their ws and simply dig into the ground, leaving nothing but their gigantic maw above ground as well as their backs that kind of just poked out yet at the same time was almost invisible to the passerby.


    Anyway, today was a different day, however.


    I was not looking towards preying on some dragonfly, wasp, or enormous bee that I might happen to find that will most likely have another allying bee close by. Instead, I was looking for fruits!


    While fruits might not have a lot of protein, something I really need for my wounds to heal, they have almost everything else I would need to survive, meaning I could just live as a peaceful vegetarian and not eat meat for the rest of my life since I am almost certain that there must be some kind of nt out there that has a good amount of protein.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Vitamin C also is a huge help since it helps with fixing wounds, while the protein simply helps with gaining muscle mass and fixing issues. I think...


    As you can see, I clearly was not a biologist.


    Anyway, I carried on with my day, avoiding certain animals while simply killing the annoying flying creatures which happened the be half my size and capable of biting my head off.


    Eventually, however, I began to smell something. Something pleasant and sweet. It was something that had made my nostrils re, not out of disgust, but more out of surprise and pleasantness.


    "That smell... Its amazing!" My eyes lit up as I muttered those words and immediately began dashing in the direction of the smell.


    My instincts were all telling me that the thing would be delicious, to the point where my mouth was uncontrobly salivating nonstop.


    When I felt like I was within a 100-meter radius of the source, I suddenly paused and began to look around with caution.


    There was no way that I was the only one who could smell the thing, meaning that there must have been a few others around who also came close to see what it was.


    At the same time, how did I not notice such a good smell before? It was as if it had appeared out of nowhere which was not so much of a good sign.


    After looking around for a few minutes trying to find someone or something that might have been attracted by the smell, I finally realized that the area around my ass was oddly quiet.


    "Something isn''t right." I muttered to myself just to feel a sense of dreading from my right.


    Without hesitation, I quickly jumped back andnded before sliding a few meters back while watching something dash in front of me, grazing the tip of my nose in the process.


    ''Crap!'' I thought, ducking again and putting my hand over my head to protect it from whatever wasing after it.


    Within the split second, it had taken me to duck, I had felt the creature appear behind me and reach out to stab me through the chest, yet due to me being crouched it hadpletely missed and instead grazed my shoulder.


    With my senses and reaction time being at their peak, I quickly turned around with the ax off my back and now in my hand being swung at full power towards the creature that had appeared behind me.


    ''Let''s see you survive this one.'' I smirked victoriously, however, just like every other time where I had smiled before hitting my target, my facial expression quickly dropped to one of panic.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 17 The Girl In The Forest III

    ''Let''s see you survive this one.'' I smirked victoriously, however, just like every other time where I had smiled before hitting my target, my facial expression quickly dropped to one of panic.


    Without a second of hesitation, I had already given up on striking the thing and had already jumped back and slid a few meters away from it.


    I looked forward once again just to have my eyesnd on something terrifying...


    It was something that sent shivers down my spine. One could even say that it was my human instinct to be terrified at that very moment, or at least creeped out.


    The thing that stood in front of me looked human, dressed as a human, and even stood up-right and bipedal, walking around as if it was a human.


    It did not have long ears like those elves that invaded Earth.


    No, it looked nothing like them.


    However, unlike the elves, the thing in front of me looks exactly like a human. An average, female human barely 5ft 4 chest long ck hair, dark brown eyes, and an average outfit one wouldn''t nce at twice.


    She was the embodiment of average, almost to a creepy level.


    I was not quite sure what was wrong with her, maybe it was her skin, he normal teeth, her normal smile, and he naturally long and straight hair without a sign of being disheveled.


    Her clothes as well lookedpletely clean, as if she had just been thrown into this world, yet not even I had the luxury of keeping clothes that werepletely intact since my shirt had a hole in it from when I had died.


    While at first, I had thought that maybe her eyes were just a dark brown, the hollow bottomless depth within them said otherwise, making me finally realize that not only did her eyes be dark like an infinite abyss, but the area around me had to be visibly dimpared to when I hadst remembered it.


    ''Wait... Weren''t there a few hours left until nightfall?'' I asked myself visibly confused to see the lunar light barely pass through the canopy of the forest due to all the leaves and branches that were in the way.


    However, even though I had looked away for a second, my eyesnded on the woman before me and began looking at her eyes once again.


    "What are you?" I asked, taking a step back towards the area where the scent came from.


    I hadn''te all this way to simply go back without having gotten anything, so of course, the least I could do was find the source of the smell so I could maybe returnter.


    However, as I stepped back, I watched the woman step forward, the shadows somehow being manipted to keep most of her body from being seen by me from the angle I stood at.


    Yet, even though I could barely see most of her body, there was one thing I could see and that was her facial expression.


    The moment I had asked the question, the thing had tilted its head to the right by a few angles to express its confusion, just to give out an unsettling motherly smile towards me, as if it was trying to lure me into a sense offort by somehow telling me that everything would be ''fine''.


    I did not hesitate to crouch down and put my ax into a battle position, waiting for the thing to get close enough for me to sh at, yet that simply did not happen.


    The smile it had was only growing more unsettling, while the corners of her lips perked upwards and creased her face just for those creases to never reach her eyes.


    After what seemed like an eternity I finally saw her feet move forward while his head tilted to the right even more.


    *Thump Thump*


    *Thump Thump*


    My heart was beating rapidly, and she knew that.


    With every step she took, the sweat on my forehead doubled and my heart rate skyrocketed even more than it had done before.


    I was terrified.


    Yet, as if it was my instinct. Something I would have naturally done in a moment like this, I smiled...


    ''This is fine.''


    The smile was awkward and ufortable, nevertheless, I still smiled to the dismay of the woman, no... The creature in front of me.


    Her smile froze, quite visibly in fact. While before I could visibly see the smile grow wider and wider, now it seemed like it had paused as well as the rest of her body, her foot simply hovering above the ground as it neither twitched nor moved the whole time as if someone had clicked the pause button on it.


    ''I''m going to kill it!''


    Finally, as if the pause had been lifted off her and the slow-motion effect had been reduced, I watched as her neck snapped to the side in an abnormal manner. I had almost imagined seeing the bone sticking out of her neck, yet I saw nothing of that sort.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Her neck was just bent there as if it was something natural.


    ''On second thought, maybe I should run?'' I thought with self-mockery.


    In the next moment, I had already pulled out a long stake and had thrown it toward the creature, giving me a split second to run away.


    I had felt it before and it was clear what was happening.


    After every step, the dread had increased while the pressure around me had done the same at the same rate as the dread. It was as if the air around me was bing denser and heavier, feeling like I was moving through water instead of air.


    With the hatchet back in my hand, I shot through the forest, moving towards the source of the smell until I finally saw it.


    It radiated with a bright light that shone onto the area around it. At the same time, the immacte smell only became more concentrated as I got closer.


    The most surprising thing however was not the light or smell, it was how easily I could breathe around what I had finally found out was a fruit.


    While at first, it had been hard to get used to the oxygen levels when I had found myself in this world filled with ''dinosaurs'' that weren''t supposed to exist for another 10 or 20 million years, alongside flies and animals that weren''t supposed to exist at all, I had eventually gotten used to the oxygen levels.


    Breathing it in for the first time felt as if my lungs had been cleansed and my breaths had more meaning than before. It was like being introduced to a much more efficient way of breathing where I could make the most out of every breath I took.


    Another thing I realized was that fire was something that I had found much easier to make in this world even though many of the trees, greenery, or wood thaty about were a lot damper than the ones in my era, yet that is something for me to talk aboutter.


    Right now I was still being chased by the creature, which even though had been moving at the same speed as me the whole time, was still strolling rather than running.


    It was as if I was being pulled back by a mysterious gravitation pull, or that my steps simply meant much less than one of hers.


    However, when I had finally gotten within a certain range of the fruit, I felt something other than the amazing breathing I had felt before.


    The breathing before felt twice as efficient as my normal breathing in this climate/era, but now rather than just improving my breathing, it felt as if it was giving me a newfound vigor to run faster than I had ever before.


    My body was bustling with energy and even felt like it might have exploded at any time if I was not careful, but at the end that did not happen.


    When I was finally 10 meters away from the source, I looked right up at the golden fruit that dangled off one of the branches of the trees before me.


    Forcing myself to look through the light of the fruit, I finally saw it.


    The fruit which dangled off the tree was like one I had never seen before. It had a stem, just like an apple but at the same time, its shape was a little more angr and elongated.


    Its shape resembled that of a crystal-like raspberry the size of one''s palm, being split into different sections as if they were scales that could very very easily be cut into.


    "REHAAAAAAAAAAAH"


    The woman finally gave out a mind-rattling screech as it saw that I was looking at her, before turning into a blur anding towards me with killing intent visibly radiating off her.


    The killing intent was red yet at the same time, it was mixed with a deep ck hue that overshadowed the rest of the red making it seem much less crimson than one would think at first nce.


    However, no matter how fast she was, it was toote since I had already found my way up the branch and had cut the stem off with my ax allowing me to put away my weapon and grab the fruit before running away at full speed. At the same time, while I might have been too busy thinking of the best ways to run, I heard a distinct ''ding'' that could not help but ingrain itself deep into my mind.


    [Ding!]


    [Obligatory Notification: A mysterious energy is running rampant within the fruit you are holding]


    [Suggestion: Do not consume the fruit until full analysis isplete]


    Simultaneously, I heard dozens of roars, the most prominent one being the one that came out of the woman''s mouth.


    *ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAR*


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 18 True Monster...

    *ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAR*


    A brain-rattling roar left the mouth of the woman that had now started moving at a blurring speed.


    However, she was not the only thing roaring.


    While yes, her roar was different from the mind-shaking screech that she had released earlier, there was something deeper about this roar.


    After a few milliseconds, I felt like the area around me had visibly slowed down, as if the world had gone into slow motion and nothing mattered anymore.


    The dread that followed immediately snapped me out of whatever I had been thrown in.


    Out of my daze, I quickly spun my body and barely dodged a tentacle that flew toward me at lightning speed.


    It wasn''t that I was faster than it, it was just that I knew it wasing way before it had actually attacked me.


    It was as if all my instincts were going overdrive, making sure to do everything and anything to stop me from dying a horrible and gruesome death.


    With the fruit still in hand, I ced my foot on the floor and twisted my upper body causing me to spin in mid-air. ce my other foot on the ground and give a roundhouse kick right into the face of the oing woman.


    That kick, while being powerful enough to probably knock out a bodybuilder, was no more of a hindrance than a fly in front of the creature before me.


    I watched as her face deformed into a smile that cut through most of her face, making a visible partition between her lower and upper jaw that went all the way back to her hairline.


    *SCREEEECH*


    ''Crap!'' I thought, yet the smile on my face showed something different.


    Of course, it was riddled with fear, terror, and fatigue, but something had visibly changed.


    I was no longer just simply going through the motions. I felt stubborn for once.


    After kicking the woman, I immediately began running again yet to my dismay, the woman did not even need to run anymore to catch up to me.


    Her entire existence kind of just defied reality, making one of her steps worth many of mine and allowing her to move several meters with one step.


    It didn''t even look like she was lunging across thend. It was just that when I happened to look back at her, she was always closer to me than before while walking at what seemed to be the same leisure as before... With that same monstrous smile on her face... Ridiculing every fiber of my being.


    ''You know what?''


    I looked back with a mocking smile and stopped running, simultaneously stopping the woman in her ce, mainly out of curiosity about what I was doing rather than out of obedience.


    Lifting her hand into the air, I felt countless gusts of wind around me as if something had stopped right before hitting me, and I would be correct to think so.


    I could only watch as several creatures retracted their attacks all varying from ones that were invisible to ones that just had a speed I could see to even ones that had long-ranged attacks, an example of one of them being the creature that had retracted back its tentacle right before it had shot through my head.


    I had felt all of them about to attack me, yet even if I wanted to dodge, with my current physical abilities it was near impossible.


    "Who are you?" I asked once again, yet I did not receive a proper answer.


    Instead, the woman in front of me simply gurgled some words while letting out some noises that sounded like what a person with an extremely dry throat would say if he wanted to try speaking.


    It was as if her vocal cords were made out of sandpaper, constantly creating soul-shivering sounds whenever she triedmunicating.


    "Seems like you can''tmunicate huh." I sighed and stood upright with drooped shoulders and a rxed stance.


    I finally looked into the sky, barely capable of seeing through the canopy of the towering forest.


    "Looks like this is going to be my grave huh..." I muttered again, yet this time my voice had changed and my smile had turned self-mocking.


    "Hahahahahahah." I finally began tough, something that confused everyone including thedy who was now only tilting her head slightly.


    "If I''m going to die... I''ll allow myself to be petty onest time." I finally shouted with a visible sense of craze within my eyes.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Without hesitation and just sudden enough for them to not be able to stop me, I held the golden fruit high and took a massive bite out of it to the horror of the creatures around me.


    They had all froze at the same time and I knew this would be my chance.


    mming my foot into the ground, I leaped a couple of meters before sliding onto the ground making the razor-sharp tail of the komodo dragon that was closest to me, yet I did not stop there.


    Quickly taking 2 more bites out of the fruit and quickly gulping the pieces down, I found myself kicking up, throwing the apple into the air and spinning in ce while swinging my ax right into the eyes of the komodo dragon.


    I felt a vibration run through the wood of the ax I held in my hand the moment the stone had pierced itself into its eyes, but once again I did not stop there.


    I felt the dread get more powerful and more concentrated but I simply did not knew which direction it wasing from.


    At the same time, a skin peeling screech came out of the woman, not only making me freeze but also everyone else who was attacking me, yet unlike them, I did not stay frozen in ce for very long.


    Side-stepping to my right, I felt something whiz right past me before the wet sound of it imnting into something rang out and entered my left ear.


    Looking in that direction, I saw that arge Cameleon was standing there, now no longer invisible to the naked eyes as it had been before. At the same time, I could see a gaping wound in its head as the tentacle pierced right through it and stted its brain matter all over the ground.


    [You have assisted in killing an Invisibility Cameleon]


    [You have gained +5 EXP]


    Once again, I felt the dreading my way yet it was just far enough for me to look up, grab the fruit and take astrge bite out of it.


    The woman had seen this clearly making her scream like a banshee in return, yet once again, I was ready for her attack.


    Throwing what remained of the fruit away, I had grabbed my ax and swung it with all the strength that I could muster, swinging just at the right time to theoretically decapitate the woman with a single swing.


    [Ding!]


    *Swoosh*


    *St*


    The sound of my ax ripping through her neck reverberated throughout what seemed like the entire forest because it was just a secondter that I realized how quiet everything had be, and at the same time, just how eerily dark the night was.


    [You have consumed the Golden Fruit]


    [Attributes and benefits shall be ingrained into your soul and the Immortal''s system]


    As if being put in slow-motion, I watched her head descend towards the ground, her eyes still locked onto me even after being detached from her body, while her smile seemed to be evesting, not rxing a single bit even after being sliced off its host.


    "Kekekekekekekekekekekek"


    Theugh was soul-shaking.


    It was something one would hear from horror films back in my era.


    Herugh was croaky and almost disgusting. Her every syble sounded like the soft yet sharp tapping of a wooden table.


    Simultaneously, it felt as if her voice had a constant creak that made my previous theory of her vocal cords being made out of sand paper sound less usible.


    This was more like two rough pieces of wood being mmed, tapped, and ground into each other until they are finally turned into dust.


    This was the sound of a true monster


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 19 Escape

    Her voice was closer to sounding like two rough pieces of wood being mmed, tapped, and crushed into each other until they are finally turned into dust.


    This was the sound of a true monster.


    I could not help but look down at her decapitated head that was nowying on the floor, and that was when I saw it.


    A smilerger than ever. Eyes that peered into my soul. A voice that sent shivers down my spine.


    Everything about her was wrong. So very very wrong.


    "Ahhh!" Out of pure horror, I simply kicked the head and made it fly into the distance, yet what happened next only shocked me more to the core.


    The body that was now headless was moving on its own, and unlike how it was its movements were before, mostly being refined and almost graceful, now she looked more like a mindless animal that used nothing but its instincts to hunt.


    This time, I watched as the body blurred and immediately entered my reach allowing me to swing my ax on instinct as well.


    The body quickly dodged the horizontal ax swing and had now crouched to the floor and ready to jump towards me with its w-like hands ready to rip off my head the moment they were close enough.


    Simultaneously, I felt another sense of dreade from the direction I had kicked my head, allowing me to kick back, and dodge the first attack from the body before swinging in the direction I felt the dreade from.


    To my surprise, the head was not where I had attacked and instead, there was just hair that happened to be there at the time.


    "Crap," I eximed out loud, jumping up and barely dodging the 3 tree root-like tentacles that hade from behind.


    I side-stepped once again, now dodging a razor-sharp tail that swooshed past my face at a hairsbreadth.


    It felt like I had an infinite amount of energy... An amount that felt like I was absorbing vitality through the very air I inhaled.


    Every single one of my muscles was bustling with more power than they had ever done before and this was no coincidence. No. I knew exactly why this was happening, it was just that I did not know exactly why.


    Why did the fruit have such a property?


    Was this the reason why everything in this world seemed to be abnormal?


    Maybe this is how they gained their powers?


    These were all questions that needed answering, yet answers would have to wait since I was still technically in a life or death situation.


    ''I can''t win...'' I concluded long ago, yet I still felt the need to say it in my head just loud enough for it to echo within my mind.


    ''But I can sure as hell run!'' I thought, this time gleaming with the same awkward smile that I forced my facial expression to form. A mask that might one day convince me that I am fine.


    With my ax in hand and newfound confidence, I waited and waited for the right moment until it finally happened.


    After dodging an attack from the hair that flew at me like long and thin flexible needles, I felt a sense of dread ovee me from a certain direction as my entire body told me to move, yet even so, I resisted until the final moment where I-


    *Pitui*


    Tilting my head to the right, I watched as my ear had beenpletely ripped off, but I could argue that at the moment this was more than worth it.


    The tentacle-like root went right past me and hit the woman''s body and shot right through her heart, stopping the body in ce while making the head scream in pain and rage.


    At that moment, the head of the woman shot hundreds of hairs toward me, yet with the amazing detection skills that I somehow developed in thest 6 days, I found myself dodging and swerving until it finally happened.


    Just like with the body of the woman, the hairs missed me by a millimeter, barely grazing my cheek before shooting behind me and imnting themselves into the body of the kimono dragon.


    However, even after seeing that she had hit her fellow teammate, she did not stop and instead shot all the hairs out of the kimono dragon''s body, killing it in the process.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [You have assisted in killing and-dragon variant]


    [You have gained +4 EXP]


    At the same time, the hairs redirected and beganing my way as well as the tentacles from afar, yet now that I did not have to deal with the body, the invisible creature, and the kimono dragon, I finally felt like I had a chance of running away.


    Who would have known stopping for your enemy could be one''s biggest mistake?


    I dashed in a random direction in which I had no idea where it wouldnd me.


    I could not see the moon due to the trees in this area, and at the same time, the lighting overall was simply just too dim for me to make out anything other than the basic outlines of creatures and trees.


    I trusted that my instincts would tell me if there happened to be something lurking in the shadows and that even if there was, I would be capable of dodging it in time before it was simply toote.


    *Click Click*


    The sound of a wooden clicking, one that sounded like the drumming on an old wooden table, or maybe even the creaking of a 100-year-old door...


    The sound didn''t make sense yet what it portrayed was as clear as day.


    They wereing, and they wereing fast!


    My speed increased a little but at that moment, I did not think I could increase my speed any more than I had already done without banging my head into a random tree.


    The thing about the dread was that even though there were cases of it working on inanimate things or even more of a sense of foreboding rather than actual danger, I could not magically activate it whenever I wanted.


    It was not a switch I could turn on and off instead it was more of a switch that would turn on by itself, like an automated toilet light or an automated tap that would only activate after entering a room or if my hand moved under the motion sensors.


    *Click Click Click Click*


    The send of foreboding was getting stronger and the dread was bing more concentrated than before.


    The wooden old and creaky clicks grew louder.


    I could hear something...


    *Thud Thud*


    Was it my heartbeat?


    *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*


    No, it didn''t sound like my heartbeat... But it couldn''t be footsteps, right?


    Maybe it was the creature that used its tentacles to attack me, but why would it be that? That thing usually stayed high up in trees...


    Could it be...?


    *SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 20 The Creak Of The Forest

    *SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*


    A terrifying screech left the open maw of something terrifying.


    It could not have been the woman''s scream, right? Her body had been impaled so many times that I''m pretty sure that no human in existence would be capable of moving from that.


    How wrong could I have been?


    To think that even 6 days in I would continue to judge the creatures of this era with normal human standards.


    These things weren''t humans. Hell, I wouldn''t be wrong to question if they were even mortals like you and me.


    These things simply weren''t human or any kind of normal mortal. And even though it might sound repetitive, it is true. They were something beyond humanprehension, something I could on,y understandter on.


    For now, however, I could not help but shiver at the screech, as if my entire being was screaming for me to run away.


    Since I could hear her footsteps now, it meant that she has her old body back and therefore also indicated that my fate was sealed.


    Fighting the body and head individually was hard enough, imagine trying to fight this creature when it''s back to its original shape and form, and on top of that, the creature happens to be really angry at me for eating its fruit?


    However, I did not let this dissuade me from running fast, faster than I had ever run before.


    Even faster than the time, I found myself running from the lizard beast that got decapitated by the flying creature from before.


    My eyes had already begun to shine with a dim gold while my every cell was filled with a golden radiance.


    It was invigorating and even felt slightly warm and cozy, but I simply did not have enough time to think about such things.


    I used all the power in all my cells to run even faster.


    Faster and faster.


    This was going to be it!


    I was going to survive!


    I didn''t know why I was so happy at that moment, just a few days ago I wouldn''t have minded dying on the spot.


    But now I was happy?


    Like everything in life though, I did not get time to contemte my existence and only ran for my life, and for the first time, I actually began to outpace the woman.


    IT was then that I began to recognize thendscape around me, remembering it as the route I had taken when following the red monkeys and also really close to the ce where I had fought the wolf.


    ''Maybe I should try losing them? But they would find me really quickly though... I don''t even have anything that could properly damage them either. The closest thing I got to damaging them was through friendly fire, yet even then I can''t really go the friendly-fire route when there are only 2 of us left.''


    Cursing under my breath, I quickly shuffled through my brain trying to find a solution to my current problem.


    Right now the only thing I could do was to try my best to run, and even though that seemed a little unrealistic seeing how I most certainly will run out of stamina before the two that wereing after me, it was my only solution.


    Finally, I felt an idea hit me like a truck while my eyes lit up like two little lightbulbs.


    With the same grin on my face as before, I began running, dashing, and even climbing in random directions that did not corrte with what I had done before.


    *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid*


    I heard the things hit the trees around me but I did not care.


    All I cared about was dodging and moving with a grace that I could swear no one else on earth could have moved with.


    Even ballerina''s at this point might have had a hard timepeting against the grace of my every movement, myndings seeming like the ones of a butterfly, and my dashes looking as smooth as a perfectly sanded ball.


    However, despite being smooth and graceful with my every move, they were all still random.


    *Thid*


    *Thid*


    *Thid*


    The sounds still echoed in the forest, continuing to go on and on until they finally just... Stopped?


    *ROOOOAAAAAR*<novelnext></novelnext>


    It let another roar. No. This wasn''t the woman anymore.


    The roar hade from above.


    I craned my head back and looked up, allowing my eyes to meet the piercing hazel-green eyes of a creature that kept most of its body within the shadows.


    The only thing that I could see of it which would have even told me it was there were its eyes, but I could already guess that this must have been the creature that was attacking me with the root-like tentacles.


    I was not stupid though. It knew where I was and therefore meant that it was about to attack me and so I began to sprint in a random direction once again, yet this time much faster than my random jumps and bursts of running that I was doing before.


    *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid* *Thid*


    I once again heard the thing hitting the trees but this time the hits sounded much more powerful. It was as if it was using all its power to create something that would destroy anything and everything within its path.


    ''I think I knew what you are...'' I looked up at the creature in the shadows before looking back down at the woman who now had her head back intact, looking around with a confused expression.


    ''Seems like all of you are pretty stupid though.'' I smirk crept up the corner of my mouth before finally bursting towards the woman.


    As if she could hear my foot m into the floor, she looked back at me allowing her to see my widening grin as well as an aura of confidence that I exuded like a sr re.


    I knew that the thing didn''t see me as a threat, but at that moment I could see its eyes visibly widening while its face paled.


    Its face has always been pale, but the difference this time could have been used as nightmare fuel.


    Its face had be as white as milk and as smooth as a nkndscape that happened to have eyes and a mouth.


    Watched as its hair sharpened and elongated, finally bing long enough to shoot through the air and bend in every way possible.


    Seeing this, I did not even need my dread to tell me where to dodge as I had immediately rolled to the left, allowing the hair to smash into the tree and this time, right through it.


    ''Goodbye.'' I mused with an unreadable expression, the only real emotion within my eyes being the crazed hue of a victorious man. A man who had climbed out of the bottom of the food chain and was now running up it, kicking down anything that might stand in his way.


    *Dishhh*


    Without an ounce of hesitation, my remaining hand had grabbed onto the ax on my back and had swung it with all the power I could muster, something that in a situation like this was was a lot more than I would have expected. Simrly, however, this could have just been due to eating the fruit from earlier which might have given me more power.


    My ax ripped through the air and smashed right into the trunk of the tree and exactly where the hair had pierced through.


    I could feel that something wasing my way, but since the dread was extremely low, I ignored the feeling andmitted to the ax swinging.


    With one more ax swing, I felt a difference in how the ax entered the wood, and as if it was some kind of signal, I ran away the moment it had left the trunk of the tree.


    *Kruk*


    ...


    Everything was silent.


    *Kruk*


    *Kruk*


    Nothing seemed to want to make a sound in that instant.


    *Kruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurk*


    The creak of the wood being bent shot throughout the entire forest.


    I could feel hundreds of eyes lock onto our location, yet nothing could move, not even the person who was in the most danger at that moment.


    Nothing could move except for me.


    ...


    *SNAP*


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 21 Slice And Dice

    *Creeeeeeeaaaak*


    ...


    *SNAP*


    The sound of the wood snapping echoed throughout the forest and entered the ears of almost everything within a certain distance, and as if the snap was some kind of sign, everything stayed silent.


    It was as if my instincts were screaming at me to stay quiet. To zip it until something happened. However, another side of me just wanted to know what would happen to the woman and what her fate would be.


    Will she survive, or will she die? Will the tree even fall on her? She can dodge pretty easily right? But then why is standing still just like everything else in my eye-line.


    I did not have to wait very long to get the answer to my question which hade in a loud-


    *BOOM*


    A dust cloud covered the area where the tree had fallen.


    Even though the tree was dead, or at least half-dead, it still weighed a lotpared to the tree that had fallen onto the wolf before.


    I had thought that all the trees in that area had died due to some sort of disease that was in the soil, but when you get further away from the epicenter of the in area with barely any trees, you start to question if all the trees were dead.


    In reality, they didn''t look dead, or at least not enough for me to notice it at first nce.


    It was only after I heard the hair spikes and tentacles hit the trees that I recognized them as being dead or mostly dead.


    The trees furthest from the epicenter looked and felt the most alive especially after they were hit, yet on the other hand, the trees in the middle were the opposite even though it might not have been that obvious to someone like me.


    Anyway, I had already seen the tree fall on the frozen woman, her eyes opened extremely wide while her body continued to shudder now and then as if she was trying to move but failed continuously. It was almost like she was bolted to the ground unable to move nor blink at the iing death penalty.


    After the dust cloud settled, my body instinctively rxed and looked towards where she once stood, my face now holding the same grin it held when I had seen it attack the tree.


    However, no matter how confident I was that nothing could have survived being crushed by a tree of that size, I was still very wary of her still being alive, especially since I didn''t get the notification yet.


    Another reason I was wary was that I could see the thing within the shadows moving around while making sure to keep an eye on me at all times without failure, no matter which way it seemed to have turned.


    It was like new eyes were popping out on the back of its head, allowing it to look at me while simultaneously aplishing whatever it wanted to do in the process.


    When its gaze finally faltered off me for a second, I began to run with all my speed, eventually reaching the crushed woman within a split second, taking out my ax and mming it into her face over and over again without an ounce of mercy or remorse.


    [You have killed a Skinwalker]


    [You have gained 200 EXP]


    [You you leveled up!]


    [You have gained 2 stat points]


    [Level 3]


    [Progress: 7/400]


    In the same instant, I felt an overpowering feeling of doom closing the space between it and me at a speed invisible to the eyes, yet since I seemed to feel it long before it hade, I already had enough time to dodge out of the way.


    ''Speed!'' I inwardly roared


    [+2 Agility]


    The root shot right past my face, this time grazing my eyes in the process but not enough to automatically blind me, yet just enough to cause a gash across my eyelid.


    I swing my ax down at the root with enough power to cut it into two, yet just barely. However, even though I had barely aplished something that seemed so easy to a normal person, this root was twice as big as one of the other roots I tried destroying yet at that time I had failed to do so.


    Cutting the root in half did not seem to be the right choice since it had only taken the creature a millisecond to direct the part that was still intact towards my head, yet once again I dodged quite easily.


    I could feel that my footwork was getting better after every fight, but at what cost? Every time I fought it felt as if I was on the brink of death and almost every time I seemed to have lost something.


    My arm, then my ear, and now maybe even my eyes if I do not take care of it quickly.


    I was not a fighter... I was a coward and I always have been. From the day I had been born until this day, I have always been a coward. A scared little boy with limited power. A little boy who just wanted to be liked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I was not the warrior that I was putting the act on of. I just wanted to run, hide, cry, scream... Yet even now I find myself forced to survive with the once word my girlfriend had mouthed to me still ringing, bouncing, and echoing throughout my mindscape.


    "Survive."


    I side-stepped once again, allowing the root to barely graze my arm this time, however, it had not stopped me from carrying out my action.


    My ax descended towards the head of the woman, this time shining in an almost golden light that I, in the moment, could not differentiate between it and the lunar rays of the moon.


    *PSHCHH*


    With thatst swing, I watched as its brain matter exploded out of its head, now causing its entire body to shrivel up like an apple devoid of its moisture.


    On instinct, the moment I felt the dread once again I had already spun and attacked the root aimed at my head, cutting it into pieces while moving forward.


    I continued to spin, this time feeling some muscle memory kick in.


    ''Muscle memory? I''ve never used an ax before... But then why does it feel so familiar.'' I thought with a sense of familiarity awakening from deep inside me as if it had always been in a slumber, waiting for me to one day pick up an ax and wield it to cut down an enemy.


    I didn''t know why but I closed my eyes.


    Anyone would have called me stupid for doing so, hell, I was shouting at myself for closing my eyes yet it was like my body was no longer mine, but at the same time was?


    I didn''t feel like I was in control but simultaneously, I was the one moving, choosing to move.


    I felt the dreade and go while my arm iled around, creating what sounded like fleshy cuts, shes, and slices. Yet, the first thing I felt when iling my arm around with the ax was the feeling of a soft yet sturdy thud before a vibration would travel through my hand as the fleshy sound rang out again and again until I had finally be semi-numb to it.


    When I had finally opened my eyes, I watched my right arm move frantically while the rest of my body did so too. It sliced and cut like a master, and all of this was happening while I wasn''t even looking?


    After staring into space for a moment, I only realized where i was when I did not recognize where I was, but then it dawned on me.


    *Creak*


    *Creak*


    *Creak*


    Several trees were beginning to fall already, and since it seemed like we had not moved far from the epicenter, it meant that the trees would be lighter and more easily broken.


    With a burst of energy, I rolled to the right dodging the root that came towards me, and allowed it to hit a tree around 20 meters away from me. At the same time just like I had done before, I moved out of the way and watched the tree fall in the direction of the attacker.


    I could see that it was going to dodge no matter how fast the tree fell, and so I needed to stop it...


    I needed to put an end to this.


    My body was bruised and battered probably beyondprehension, while phantom pain shot through my every receptor as if my arm was still there, constantly being hit by some invisible force.


    Honestly, the pain from my phantom arm was a lot more paralyzing than any of the pain I felt from having to deal with the attacksing my way yet I still did not give up.


    Gritting my teeth and pushing past the pain, I made a split-second decision of making sure that I would not allow the creature, which I could now see was something close to a tree-golem, would not escape the falling tree.


    Of course,ter on, I would learn that it was a newly-birthed treant, but the naive me still had a lot to learn.


    I used every ounce of power I could muster, throwing my arm forward and flinging the ax towards the treant.


    I didn''t know how much power would be behind the throw, yet to my surprise, the throw did not go the way I had expected it to.


    As if thousands of years of experience and knowledge flowed through me, I adjusted my body to be more efficient while executing the throw of a lifetime.


    With onest push, the ax tore through the air and spun like a boomerang, now curving and-


    *Sshhhhhhhhing*


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 22 Set Aflame

    *Sshhhhhhhhing*


    The ax I threw had gained a terrifying amount of momentum, reaching a spinning speed that I could barely keep up with as it became a blur to my eyes.


    However, I knew how much power that attack of mine had kept behind its de, tearing through the air like a howling wind before finally digging itself deep within the neck of the treant.


    I heard the flesh being torn apart, or should I say wood?


    While treants were mostly made out of wood on the outside, the moment you went through oneyer of wood you would eventually meet their real body which would contain its organs that while being simr to any other mammal''s, also had their differences here and there.


    The axe was stuck halfway in between its neck, not budging an inch either way as blood gushed out of the open wound.


    The blood was a greeny red that shone under the lunar lights of the moon like the reflective waters of the forest, yet this time the green would be illuminated by the lunar light as if it had been charged, making it glow ever so slightly.


    The tentacles of the treant stopped moving while its body wavered, rocking back and forth until it finally-


    *thud*


    With a soft thud, the treant had fallen off the tree branch it was situated on andnded on the hard ground below, my axe still in its neck, the blood continuously gushing out without any signs of stopping any time soon.


    "KREEEEEEEHHHHHHHH!" The creature let out a gargled screech as it tried to get up, but it was quickly stopped by something on the side of its head stomping onto its right side.


    The pain caused it to screech once again, but I did not stop and looked at it coldly, my crazed smile vanishing into the breeze of the forest as if it had never been there.


    My eyes were ice-cold... They were the eyes of a killer.


    A dark crimson killing intent washed over the creature and for the first time in its short life, it seemed genuinely scared.


    Its eyes were filled with emotion it could not understand, but really, how could it?


    It was a mere infant, but what did I know?


    It had tried to kill me, immediately making it an enemy in my eyes. I knew that I would have to kill it, and I wouldn''t have stopped even if you had told me it was a child.


    Maybe it was only then that it had finally clicked in my head.


    There is nothing in this world to judge my actions anymore.


    I wasn''t being watched.


    Everything was an enemy.


    Why would I care about morals?


    Why don''t I just do whatever I want?


    Why don''t I just destroy everything?


    ''Hahahahahahahah.'' My eyes had be devoid of all emotion.


    "Keke-hahahahahaha" I finally beganughing out loud.


    The fear in the eyes of the treant deepened.


    I could see its soul leaving its vessel.


    It was terrified... of me.


    A mere human.


    A mortal.


    I had nothing.


    I was weak.


    Just a normal armless human.


    Yet, it had been forced to watch me as I killed all of itspanions one by one.


    One... By... One...<novelnext></novelnext>


    I stretched my only hand down to grab my ax. Gripping it within my hand, I wiggled it out, something that caused even more blood to gush out.


    The stone that I had used the create the de of the ax had been damaged severely, to the point where it might not even work as an ax anymore but more as a blunt object.


    I quickly tilted my head to the left, narrowly avoiding the root that tried to shoot through my eye and into my brain.


    I looked deep into the eyes of the treant and with a wry smirk, I lifted the ax to the right and swung it at the root that had attacked me.


    With a single swing, I was capable of cutting the too right off, and with a second swing, I had cut its arm off cleanly.


    "You think you can try killing me..." I breathed out.


    The silence between my sentence was deafening.


    My smirk to it must have been the smirk of a devil. How could something as weak as me kill it? I was nothing but an insect to them after all... Maybe I was ying with them? Maybe this whole thing was just a sick game to me? A game of life and death where I am the only decider who leaves this ce alive.


    Those were probably the thoughts of the thing I was looking at.


    "There is no longer anyone to judge me for my actions... My parents are gone... My girlfriend is dead... My best friend had died in the hands of those... things... And my girlfriend''s best friend happened to be a spy..." I kept bbering on to myself.


    "And I''ve been sent to a reality where they do not even exist anymore, or at least not yet, or maybe not ever."


    "My every move could mean that the future had changed. Me killing you could mean that my family would never exist. But at the same time, me killing you could mean that they do exist in the future."


    After realizing what I was saying, I finally looked down at its expressionless, yet somehow terror-stricken face.


    I would have wanted to cover the smile that crept up from the corners of my lips, but I simply did not have another hand to cover my mouth with.


    "What am I saying... It''s not like you can understand me anyway." And with those words, I raised my ax once more tond the final blow... The blow that would end my current temporary misery while ending the treants misery permanently.


    *Splitch*


    [You have killed an Inftant Treant]


    [You have gained +100 EXP]


    [Level 3]


    [Progress: 109/400]


    Gradually, I lifted my ax off the treants face, it now being dyed with the reddish-green color of its blood and brain matter.


    ''Thinking back, I do believe that I might be covered in the blood of all of them.'' I began to recall all the times they had been injured and other than the invisible creature, everything else had found a way to stter their blood onto me.


    ''Lets just hope they didn''t have aids... If that even exists yet.'' I chuckled to myself, ignoring the feeling of the blood actively beginning to dry and clot on my face.


    I gradually got up and stood up straight, now looking at the chaos that our battle had created.


    ''To think I would survive all of this.'' I tried to chuckle againpletely unaware of the unconscious tears that had begun to drench my face, merely mistaking them for some blood that happened to not have clotted yet and was beginning to fall down my face.


    Even the blurry vision was something I cast aside as an aftereffect of having fought for so long and so hard.


    With my ax still in hand, I walked out of the ins area and back into the dark woods taking one final nce back before moving forward to never look back again.


    Or so I thought until I had chosen to run back, painstakingly create a fire before running away once again after making sure that the two corpses of the woman and the treant had been lit ame.


    ''You can never be too sure.'' I lied through my teeth.


    I knew better than anyone else that they were dead, it was just that even in death, I wanted them to suffer a little more or at least not have a body to dpose overtime for the archeologists of the future to see, even though I knew that there was an extremely high chance that the people of the future would never find any of the fossils of the creatures that live today.


    Who knew that, while being one of the worst decisions I could have made, the fire would eventually be the very thing that would save me from the troubles of the future?


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 23 Set Aflame II

    It was finally the 7th day and thest day of this hell.


    While usually I am awoken to the piercing lights of the rising sun shooting through the cracks of the cave and trying to burn holes through my eyelids, today was a little different.


    I had no dreams so when I woke up, I was not startled at all... Or at least that was the case until I smelt something weird in the air.


    I had always heard that the normal human being cannot be awoken to a smell of any kind and therefore that was the reason why smoke detectors were so needed across all first world countries and even any good houses in third world countries.


    However, what I had been woken up to was the smell of burnt barbecue, making me even more confused than I had already been.


    ''Why would anyone have a grill this early in the morning.'' I thought to myself, slightly wishing that thest 6 days in this hell hole had been just a nightmare that I had finally woken out of and would eventually forget after a few years, possibly already having married to Crystal and with two kids to look after.


    I was kept in my daze by this scene. The scene of the two of us in a home, far away from the cities where we could simply look outside and find the waters of the shore washing up the sand and retreating back into the ocean.


    I imagined... watched as two kids ran in the distance while I shouted at them to not move too far away from us...


    Me and crystal both watched them on our beach bed as we clung tightly to each other like the happily married couple we were.


    The feeling... The cold breeze of the oceans passed in between us and made us cling even tighter to each other.


    The zing sun shooting down its rays and scorching our skins, yet at that moment, it was as if nothing mattered.


    That was what one would usually call a beautiful and happy life...


    A life where I had aplished everything, and the only thing left for me to do was to make money and raise my children before eventually watching them get married just like parents would have.


    But then, I didn''t know why... I didn''t even really want to... I knew that it was going to happen so I didn''t want to. Yet I still blinked, and with that single blink, everything disappeared. It was then that my nose was finally assaulted by the horrible stench that came with the barbecue smell.


    A faint glimpse of a burning beach torched and set ame by some kind of ck mes flickered with my eyes before disappearing once again.


    Thest thing I found myself doing at that moment was looking to my right and having one of the most horrifying scenes engraved and etched deep into my mind.


    Therey my ''wife'', skinless and charred beyond recognition. Nothing but the bone was left, not a single piece of meat still stick to her bones.


    With one more blink, I finally found myself being thrown back into the real world where I could look around and fully identify the source of the burning scent that was assaulting my now-covered nose.


    I almost felt like puking, yet with gritted teeth and a tightly clenched fist, I got up and shook my head of the ''memories'' I had seen, allowing me to finally focus on the things around me.


    [You have killed a Dragonfly]


    [You gained +10 EXP]


    [You have killed a Wasp]


    [You gained +10 EXP]


    [You have killed a ck-scaled centipede]


    [You gained +10 EXP]


    [You have killed a Dragonfly]


    [You gained...]


    The notifications went on and on, surprising me to my core before making me nod in understanding.


    I quickly shot up from the ground and ran out of my cave before looking back and behind the cave to see what was happening even though it was more than obvious after seeing the various animals running in a particr direction without taking a single nce at me.


    "Looks like the fire I made had spread uncontrobly... But what would have I expected from an era where oxygen is almost asmon as water." I chuckled while looking as if it was one of my most prized possessions.


    If someone were to look at me, they would have thought that I was almost proud of what I was seeing.


    A grin stretched across my face while I had almost forgotten of the scene that I had seen prior to ''waking up''.


    I watched as the mes finally engulfed the trees in front of me and let out a deep sigh of satisfaction with the same smile on my face.


    [You have leveled up]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [You have leveled up]


    [You have leveled up]


    [You have leveled up]


    [Congrattions, you have reached Level 7]


    [You have gained 8 stat points]


    [Level 7]


    [Progress: 530/6400]


    [You have unlocked the shop feature]


    My eyes glimmered for a moment, but I quickly shook my head after realizing what I should be doing.


    With that, I immediately turned around and walked back into the cave while taking everything I could hold with me. I had to leave all the remaining food behind but that was a given since they were going to rot any time soon anyway.


    "I should be fine if I walk at a good pace." I thought to myself before ncing at some of the running animals and beasts with the shake of the head.


    "What are they doing? It''s not like the fire can get any further without having trees to-" It was only then that I had taken a nce back, a nce that caused the blood on my face to drain while the expression I had frozen at an awkward smile.


    "Damn. Who would have known." I chuckled, but unlike my rxed upbeat tone, I was now running for my life.


    While I might have understood that the oxygen levels were one of the main reasons why the fire spread so quickly, Ipletely disregarded the idea that the me could spread quickly on the floor since it was littered with random rocks, patches with no grass, and even a tiny river that ran through the ce.


    Yet what I saw instead was that not only did the fire not lose out on speed, it had gained it to the extent where it began looking as if it was alive, its embers skipping patches of no grass and burning des of grass that was almost 9 meters away as if it was nothing.


    ''Crap...'' I ran with all the speed I could muster.


    I could still hear the constant ringing in my ear as I ran with all the speed and power I could muster.


    My sweating had increased to the point where the minimal amount of clothes that I had on was now being drenched with it, making it cling tightly onto me.


    This made it a little easier to run since the clothes weren''t really dangling anymore, but at the same time, I felt as if my mobility was being restricted even though my clothes were quite flexible and even kind of big for me.


    ''Why does this shirt feel so tight?'' I thought to myself, but after ncing back I did not ponder for longer than I needed to, immediately beginning to run again with a renewed vigor mainly fueled by the fear I felt when I saw that the mes were beginning to close in.


    Looking at the direction I was going, it seemed like the only way I could go was a forest that happened to be in front of me, but at the same time, I could vaguely feel a sense of familiarity when I looked at the forest.


    "Isn''t this the forest I came from?" I gasped, now remembering that I hadnded in this forest the first time I hade to this era.


    "Oh well." With my head down and my center of gravity lowered, I dashed into the forest alongside many of the smaller animals that happened to have a problem running away due to their small physiques.


    I could barely care about them, running past them without an ounce of remorse. This was a life or death situation after all. Why would I care about something that isn''t me?


    I could only listen to their shrill screams that resounded after they had been devoured by the orange mes that coated the entirend with an orangy-red hue.


    Even the sky was semi-orange, something I could only assume was due to the sun rising in the distance.


    "As long as I stay in this forest, I am a dead man... I need to find a way out of this" I muttered under my breath, yet even that had be difficult due to the heat that entered my lungs and scorched me from the inside every time I breathed.


    The mes were getting closer and closer.


    I could feel their heat on the back of my neck as if a scorching hot iron rod was being held up extremely close to my neck to see how long I could go before eximing out in pain, yet even doing that would have burned my lungs so I persisted.


    ''WHY IS IT SO FAST!'' I inwardly screamed.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 24 Set Aflame III

    The mes were getting closer and closer.


    I could feel their heat on the back of my neck as if a scorching hot iron rod was being held up extremely close to my neck to see how long I could go before eximing out in pain, yet even doing that would have burned my lungs so I persisted.


    ''WHY IS IT SO FAST!'' I inwardly screamed.


    I could feel the involuntary tearse out and begin heating up within my eyes, possibly even release steam?


    That might have been my imagination, but still. I was here running for my life while the screams of other animals and beasts echoed from behind me, yet even then I did not dare look back.


    Looking back would spell death, so why would anyone in their right mind do such a thing?


    I couldn''t really say that this was the fastest I had ever run before, but I could say that this is the faster than I had ever run while I had been alive if that life could even be considered to have ended.


    The images of my family, my girlfriend, my best friend, that elf bastard, and everyone I ever know and loved kept shing before my eyes.


    I could see their faces while my mind recreated their death scenes even if I hadn''t seen them when they had died.


    I could tell that every time I watched them die, the images would get worse and worse. It was as if my mind was trying to sabotage me by showing me the worst scenes of my life, even if I happened to not have seen them.


    ''Crystal... you told me to survive right? Mom... Dad... Emily... You would all want me to survive too wouldn''t you?'' I inwardly asked myself, a new flicker of determination sparking within my eyes.


    Remembering them, my suppressed memories of them had caused me to tear up a little yet my running alone had made the wind strong enough to dry them in an instant.


    ''Then I will survive...''


    My eyes were naturally dark brown as I had not inherited the same color hair as my parents. I didn''t really inherit much of their appearance either, or at least not as much as my sister had done. Of course, it had made me question if I was adopted or not, but my questions had disappeared after I had seen how much care and love they would give to me every single day.


    However, even though my eyes were normally a color extremely close to ck, now they were gradually turning crimson, the dark brown being devoured by the invading red lines that extended into my pupils making them slowly turn red in the process too.


    At the same time, It felt as if my body was gaining strength close to the strength I had gained when fighting against those monsters from before.


    No... This power was different from then.


    I had gained that power from eating the fruit that had satiated my hunger even until now.


    Now, the energy was a little different... It was as if something deep within me was being unlocked. I power that had been hidden within the depths of my DNA and consciousness.


    A power beyond the understanding of the normal human being.


    I could feel that my muscles were beginning to bulge a little, but not enough for it to be ufortable. The same thing was happening to all the veins in my body that stretched from head to toe before flowing with a crimson red energy.


    Simultaneously, my eyes did the same and also began shining with the same color.


    My eyes had be bloodshot now, yet the crimson of my irises had a significant difference in their shade that made it easy for anyone to differentiate between it and the bloodshot white of the eyes. That was if I were to not mention that the crimson irises were only around 70% red, the rest of it being a deep ck that had resisted the invasion of the crimson light.


    I could finally feel that the heat was beginning to get further away. Wait for no... I was running faster, much faster. In fact, I literally have not run this fast ever before. This speed was nowhere close to the speed of the woman I had fought the day before but if I had this power and speed then, I wouldn''t have struggled as much.


    ''Maybe I would have even kept an ear.'' I chuckled at my own dismay.


    After running for about 5 minutes, I could feel that the power within my body was being drained at an extremely fast speed as if I was a bottomless well that the energy was being poured into.


    My body slid to a gradual stop and my head turned back to see if the mes were getting any closer.


    The bulging muscles and veins were beginning to fade back into my normal body where I didn''t look like a man who could be killed with a single papercut.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Phew" a breath that I had not realized I was holding in left my mouth and allowed my lungs to rx.


    *Grrrrr*


    A low growling entered my ear and made me snap in the direction of the noise.


    A strong feeling of dread overcame me from several different angles but that simply was not enough to catch me off guard.


    I could tell that the things that were attacking me were much weaker than the woman or the treant, you could call it an instinct that I had somehow developed in only 7 days.


    When looking at something, I could feel a sense of danger from the stronger ones while the danger dropped significantly as you moved down to the weaker animals.


    Of course, in a world like this, there was almost no animal that wasn''t dangerous in some way or another, but I could easily tell which ones actually threatened my safety while also knowing which ones didn''t.


    I would get the same sense of ''danger'' from hostile creatures, while creatures who seemed to be passive or nonchnt simply released a dangerous aura that suppressed everything around them rather than having a hostile killing intent that attacked anything within a certain range.


    Right now, I could tell that the creatures that were attacking me weren''t much of a threat to the current me. Hell, even the old me on earth could have run away from all but one of them.


    Still, my eyes darted past every single one of me and analyzed them as fast as I could while I slowly drew my ax and began swinging to the right immediately.


    The momentum of my drawing my ax had caused it to shoot down with extreme precision that I would not have been able to gain if I were fighting more dangerous animals/beasts.


    The creatures that were attacking me were half my size, most of them either being bugs of some kind while others were some kind of 6-legged animals that I had never seen before.


    Yet, they were still much smaller than me so all I had to do was slice them down and destroy their bodies.


    I had killed all the smaller ones within a few seconds before finally jumping back and allowing my eyes tond on the human-sized rat in front of me, looking at me with its giant red eyes.


    "Nice eyes" I chuckled with an enormous grin on my face. I had no idea that my eyes were red just a few seconds ago, and remnants of that crimson red still remained in my irises.


    "Looks like I''ma have to kill you too big guy." I let out another chuckle that made it growl slightly and try to get down into a fighting position, yet without missing a beat my body had already burst from my position and had lunged itself towards the rat, shing towards its throat with my ax with all intentions to decapitate it on the spot.


    However, The rat had moved back slightly making my ax''s de barely graze its neck, allowing a small amount of blood to flow out of the wound without any signs of stopping any time soon.


    The cut wasn''t deep enough for the rat to drown in its own blood, yet it was not shallow enough for it to simply overlook as a battle injury.


    It was only then that it had chosen that the best course of action was to run, a decision that made me pause, look at the running rat andugh mockingly before lunging towards it at full speed.


    Thankfully, however, I was way too slow to catch it immediately meaning that I was likely to never catch up to it especially after you see the speed it was moving at.


    You might be asking yourself right about now, ''why thankfully? Isn''t this something bad?''.


    Well, he is the thing, it would be considered a bad thing for my prey to run away in normal conditions, but at that moment it could not have been better.


    As the rat had begun running at full speed in another direction, I watched as the bushes to its right rustled, and before the rat could react it saw the insides of an enormous maw that had enveloped most of the rat''s body before biting off everything other than its legs.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 25 The Flame Of Determination

    As the rat had begun running at full speed away from me, I suddenly felt a tinge of dreade from the bush beside it.


    Before we had even realized what had happened, the rat and I could only watch as a huge maw closed the distance between it and the creature that had been too busy running away from me to recognize what had attacked it in time.


    Snapping its maw shut, the creature that had left the bushes had swallowed the entire rat whole leaving nothing but its tiny feet outside as if it was some kind of memorial piece to remember that rat by.


    Honestly, while I wouldn''t usuallyugh at a horrifying scene like the one I just watched ur right before me, I found it quiteical, especially after watching the feet fall backward in such a fashion.


    This only caused a stifledugh to leave my mouth before I had closed it in hopes that the thing that had taken the rat would not notice my existence.


    ''Why the hell am Iughing!?'' I screamed at myself but it was already toote.


    The creature had already looked at me with its huge eyes, and at this point, I knew that there was no way I wouldn''t face it.


    ''C''mon... I foughts against a human looking thing and a treant. What is the worst that could happen?'' I inwardly chuckled.


    *ROOOOOOAAAAAR*


    A sky-shaking roar left the maw of the creature before it stood up, allowing me to finally perceive it at its full glory.


    Its body was several meters tall and several meters wide.


    Its hands were slightly smallpared to the rest of its body. Feathers poked out of the back of its head like a beautiful crown of red and yellow.


    Its piercing eyes stared down at me with an enormous pressure that would have made an elephant feel as insignificant as an ant before its presence.


    Such a domineering power stood before me and I had found myselfpletely frozen, the previous humorous act now out of my mind while the only thing I could think of were ways that I could somehow survive this encounter.


    I did not want to admit it, but I was scared... Scared to my core.


    "So you must be the creature that caused all the fuss I kept hearing about... I heard you even killed my child." The creature spoke... but it didn''t?


    The way it had spoken was weird. Its enormous maw did not move yet I could hear its voice as clear as day without a single sign of it being muffled or suppressed.


    At the same time, as it spoke those words I could not help but feel curious... A curiosity that almost fought back my fear of it.


    The keyword in that sentence being "almost".


    ''That was its child?!'' A boiling rage began to rise from deep within my conscience. I could not believe that the very thing that had taken my arm was the child of this freak, yet at the same time, I could believe it.


    My mind was being riddled with fear, anger, and curiosity which all made it hard for me to think straight.


    My curiosity was speaking to me, telling me that its words sounded usible yet my anger did the opposite.


    My fear on the other hand was screaming at me to do nothing but, yet there I stood motionless and unable to move even if I tried.


    I was not sure if it was the fear that had caused me to freeze or the anger and curiosity that had told me to stay and even fight the creature.


    "That was your child?" I asked, rage evident in my raspy voice.


    "Yes. Do not worry though, I have many children all across these forests. That one happened to have been a mutation that I kind of wanted to see grow but seeing that it had fallen to something as weak and pathetic as you, it meant that it was not worthy of my attention."


    I didn''t really understand why but those words had only made me angrier.<novelnext></novelnext>


    However, I did not act out of emotions and instead had closed my eyes and gritted my teeth in front of this thing.


    It watched me with curiosity, even lowering its body and putting its eyes right in front of me.


    Its eye alone was as big as 70% of my body.


    A thin membrane woulde from the side of its eyes and envelop it as if it had its own method of blinking that was unique to only itself.


    It was only then that I looked up to the eyes and stared directly into its pupil.


    Its eyes were a bright yellow that got deeper as it got to the edges of the iris. Its pupil on the other hand was just as ck as any other pupil, the only difference being that they were slits rather than rounded ones.


    "The mes areing..."


    "You think I can''t run away from them? I can even take them on." The lizard opened its maw for the second time since I had met it to release a loud and raspy roar-likeugh. Yet even then, the eye did not leave its ce and only looked more fierce as it looked into my very soul.


    To its surprise, I also began tough.


    "Hahahahahaha" It was a low and even croakyugh. To anyone else, it might have seemed fake, but the creature knew otherwise.


    I could feel the burning hatred within my eyes when I had looked at... It could sense the mockery and craze in myugh.


    "You are interesting. How about youe with me? We can have a little fun?" It chuckled


    "I''d rather not be experimented on." Myugh halted and a huge, almost desperate grin stretched across my face.


    ''I''m sorry crystal...''


    I grabbed the hilt of my ax with my remaining arm and swing it at a blurring speed that even therge lizard in front of me struggled to react to.


    ''But I''m not going to die without a fight''


    It was that day that the fire finally ignited in me.


    It was a fire that had been trying to emerge for days now, yet it was only now that it had been released from its chains.


    The fire of an unbreakable determination.


    A fire that symbolized my will to fight! My will to live!


    With a crimson light now erupting out of me like ashes from an erupting volcano, I felt my arm move, but this time I was in control.


    With all the red energy left in my body, my arm had taken the ax and sliced up, plunging the ax deep into the eye of the lizard and sttering its blood all over me.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 26 T-Rex

    With all the red energy left in my body, my arm had taken the ax and sliced it up, plunging it deep within the eye of the lizard and sttering its blood all over me.


    The blood began to sizzle on my skin causing me to grimace in in, yet the blood left no visible wound so I chose to grit my teeth and endure it.


    ''If I lose focuz for even a second, it would spell death for me... I need to survive.'' I closed my eyes and opened them again, this time both my irises containing crimson red rings around the pupils as if wanting to highlight.


    *Roaaaar* The ground shook in front of the brain-rattling roar, yet not only did I not cover my ears when I heard iting, but I also stood there unflinching as one of my ears began to bleed, a trickle of blood leaving its canal and dropping to the floor.


    As if that was some kind of signal, I stepped forward right before the blood would have touched the ground before squatting down and jumping up, ax in hand, and ready to murder everything before me if it meant that I could survive.


    "You think after all I went through..." My expression turned into one that morphed into rage and contempt, something that seemed to have made the crimson red ring be brighter than before.


    "I would submit to a bastard like you!?" I bellowed with a fury like never before.


    [Emergency Mission has been received!]


    [Emergency Mission: Survive against a Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor]


    [Conditions: -


    -Survive]


    [Reward:


    -Receive the skill ''Life Drain''


    -Instant Level Up]


    With my anger fueling the power behind my attack, I swung down with the ax and aimed toward the head of the T-rex in hopes that I could slice it in half.


    How wrong could one person have been?


    *Cre-ak*


    *Snap*


    My eyes widened while my heart dropped.


    I could only watch the stone of the ax shatter while the wooden part snapped into two pieces.


    ''Crap''


    I tried my hardest to get away but I was mid-air. Yet even though I was mid-air, I still technically had the advantage since the T-rex seemed to be in an enormous amount of pain after having an ax plunged into its eyes.


    When I had gotten close oversized lizard, it had automatically opened its other eye and peered at me with hostile intentions flickering wildly within its eyes.


    ''That look...''


    It felt so familiar.


    ''I don''t like it!'' With newfound vigor, I shifted my body and plunged into a descent, my foot aiming for one of its eyes while the other foot got ready to spring the rest of my body away if need be.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Eye for an eye asshole!" I roared one more time, my speed of descent increasing by an entire margin due to my posture reducing my surface area and therefore also reducing drag.


    *ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAR*


    Another roar had left the maw of the creature, yet unlike the other times where it had simply roared to scare something off or to establish dominance, I could feel something different about this one.


    Instantly, as if I had been hit by a truck, I felt an enormous force hit me directly before shooting me into the air.


    ''Sound wave? No... That simply isn''t possible.'' I was still in a state of shock, however, I was still capable of slightly changing the way I wouldnd.


    Right now I was several meters off the ground and the only way I couldnd without breaking something would be if I try using my legs to break the fall.


    Using the momentum I had been given from the shockwave-like eruption of sound, I flipped in the air and tried tond on one of the tree branches that were closest to where I was, yet before I could even do that I felt something else hit me, or to be precise, I felt something hit the back of my head.


    *Thud*


    Without having realized it, I had reached one of the tree branches towards the top and had mmed my head into it, yet since most of my momentum had already dissipated, the hit was not enough to knock me out.


    In ast-ditch effort to survive, I quickly threw out my hand and pushed away from the branch I hit and in the process barely dodged the iing dread.


    *ROAR*


    The waves left the maw of the T-rex once again but I had found myself barely dodging them this time due to my quick thinking.


    Not pondering over what happened just yet, I nted the soles of my feet on the trunk of a tree and slid down it until I found a branch suitable for me to grab on to.


    It only took a few seconds but those seconds to me felt like an eternity.


    I had to analyze and question which branch would hold me up the best, and even then, it was only after I had made a gamble did I jump to one of the tree branches hoping that it would not be slippy or weak.


    Thankfully, it wasn''t weak but that was beside the point.


    Once again, I could feel the dread getting closer by the second and so I had to move.


    I quickly shifted my body and kicked the tree branch below me before jumping onto one of the tips and springing myself up to one of the higher branches on another tree right before the wave could hit me.


    I could hear the wave absolutely eradicate the tree I stood on previously and immediately causing my heart rate to quicken in the face ofplete and utter despair.


    ''I can survive.'' I tried to convince myself


    ''I survived against all odds... Against that crazy-looking woman. Against a treant. Against an oversized kimono dragon and even an invisible creature that probably specialized in assassinations. What''s the difference now? It''s just another oversized lizard... I am fine... I will be fine... Nothing can kill me as long as I don''t give up''


    *ROAR*


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 27 Death Is Just Another Part Of Life...

    *ROAR*


    I swiftly flew down to another branch before running and jumping to one on the same level to avoid being thrown down alongside the obliterated tree.


    This carried on a few more times until the creature seemed to have gotten fed up with me and finally began fighting close range as if the long-range attacks simply weren''t enough suffering for me and so it had begun to get close and personal to make sure that I suffered even more than I already am.


    "If I had my other arm." I let out a gasp while stealthily hiding behind trees, moving around them and with a sense of randomness to confuse the creature.


    "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" it bellowed but its voice was not what had caused me to freeze.


    The smell of burning wood wafted into my nose and forced me to look behind at the orangendscape that looked like hell on Earth, only getting closer by the second.


    ''I need to run'' I thought to myself, yet the creature''s next words threw that thought out of my mind.


    "You think you can run away?" it asked, this time its voice symbolizing one of a calm woman rather than the bellows of a crazed one.


    I did not answer of course. What kind of person would I have to be to answer to such an obvious trap?


    "I see... So you aren''t going to answer... Well, that''s fine. I wonder though, how would your family look at you if they saw you like this?"


    My movement halted while my eyes widened before eventually narrowing with a cold expression.


    "What were their names again? Well, does it really matter? They are dead anyway, right?" I clenched my hand into a fist.


    "Dead people can''t tell you what to do, yet they watch over you all the time. Imagine how disappointed they would all be after seeing that their son hade out as such a failure." The creature chuckled while I simply stood behind one of the treespletely ignoring the oing mes.


    Blood trickled from the center of my palms as my fingernails pierced them, dropping to the ground without a single audible sound.


    ''It''s trying to provoke me...''


    "To think you would be thest of their family bloodlines. How sad they must be. Imagine having someone so ipetent, so stupid, so weak and so pathetic as the sole anchor to your bloodline? they mut think that you probably disgraced their famil- no... You must have disgraced their entire race." It chuckled again.


    I could feel the blood boiling under my skin.


    My teeth had been gritted so hard that my gums were bleeding.


    I was feeling so much rage, not because it spoke ill of my family even though that happened to be an element, but because I kind of believed its words...


    I felt weak.


    I felt useless.


    I felt powerless.


    They were all feelings I felt when standing before creatures of this era, and they also were the same feelings I felt when standing before the elves.


    "Don''t you just feel so w-" It bit its tongue when it began feeling something strange in the air.


    For some reason, the air around it had started to feel heavy while breathing seemed to take more effort than it had previously done.


    Its eyes darted all around the area but it simply could not find me.


    The only thing it could see were the fires in the distance getting closer by the second.


    It was almost sure that I would havee out by now, but then why couldn''t it see me?<novelnext></novelnext>


    Was I hiding somewhere?


    Its heart rate had started to quicken but it did not understand why.


    I was but a small bipedal animal.


    Wait...


    "Are you a dwarve!? An Elf? A mix-breed?" I roared yet it did not receive an answer.


    It wasn''t shaking, nor was it even scared of me... then why, why was I feeling so anxious?


    What was this feeling of dread?


    *BOOM*


    My body moved like a blur, yet it still wasn''t fast enough topletely miss the gaze of the T-rex. Hell, the T-rex even thought that the speed was slowpared to other creatures or even itself.


    It growled once more before letting out a sky-shaking roar to once again decimate the tree I stood on. However, to its dismay, it could only watch and try to follow my figure as I continued to jump from one tree to the other without hesitation or fear in my eyes.


    Of course, I was feeling fear. My hands were shaking uncontrobly while my breath was nothing but ragged.


    On would be capable of seeing the immense dread and helplessness if they were to look me directly in the eyes, but this creature simply did not have that luxury.


    Crouching down once again, I took the biggest jump yet since I could not see any trees nearby, and as if my jump was some kind of signal, it widened its eyes and snapped its maw towards me, ready to shoot out another roar.


    Seeing this, I could not help but imagine my body turning into dust the moment that roar reaches me and so the determination within my eyes only burned more erratically.


    It was do or die, and I was not about to die after everything I had just gone through.


    I could see that I could not get to the other branch in time without any interference.


    I did not have enough time to create anything that would help me in this situation.


    The desperate nature of the situation began to seep into my mind and body.


    I could feel every single muscle in my body scream at me to let it rest, yet I ignored them.


    ''I just have to get the right timing...'' I finally thought.


    It seemed like the world around me had dramatically slowed down and my thinking speed had reached a new height.


    ''Maybe this is what being on the boundary between being alive and dying does to you'' I let out another sigh as my eyes finally sharpened while my new ck irises with a crimson halo within them became oddly cold and distant.


    My eye darted towards the T-rex that was opening its mouth to let out another roar while my hand reached back and grabbed something from the belt of my pants.


    ''I''m not going to be the one who dies today... 8 Points into strength!''


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 28 My First Death

    ''I''m not going to be the one who dies today... 8 points into strength!''


    When its mouth had finally fully opened, I could see my vision narrowing and bing stretched while everything other than my target became unfocused and blurry.


    An unconscious grin stretched from the corner of my mouth and my hand tightened around the item I held.


    ''YOU ARE!'' I roared within my hand and through a wooden stake with all the power and energy I could muster.


    Suddenly, a red crimson aura exploded out of my body and enveloped the stake, and even though I was not on the other end of it, I for some reason knew that it was going to be a lot deadlier than it was before.


    The stake ripped through the air before colliding with the sound wave of the roar, yet to both our surprises it did not stop there.


    The stake, while having collided with the sound wave, still pushed forwards until it ripped through it and began to descend towards the throat of the T-rex.


    I could see its eyes widen and the desperateness seep into its eyes as it tried to close its maw as fast as it could, yet before it could chomp down and close its maw, a wooden stake entered its mouth and plunged deep into the back of its throat.


    I was immediately exhrated, yet it was then that it had happened.


    *BOOOM*


    I felt a sharp pain shoot out from my ears indicating that my eardrums had been torn. I felt the sensation of having my face stretched back and almost torn due to the pressure thrown at it. I felt the blunt yet brain-rattling pains of bones from my legs to my nose being shattered.


    Pops resounded in the area as if announcing the breaking of my bones, yet I could hear none of it. And even if I could have heard it, I would have been deafened and blinded by the pain shooting throughout my body.


    I wanted to scream, find a way to nullify this pain yet it was all for naught.


    My vocal cords seemed to have beenpletely destroyed, therefore making my screams only audible to my own mind.


    The dread was slowly seeping in.


    It was the same dread I felt right before being pierced through the heart back on Earth... Or if I can even call it that anymore.


    I couldn''t think because my mind was bing nk from the pain that had almost knocked me out of consciousness. Yet even then, I held and held on with a single phrase pushing me forward, telling me to fight this drowsiness that I knew would only take me into an eternal slumber.


    ''Survive.'' I heard crystal tell me again and again.


    It was no longer some kind of phrase I would remember every now and then... It was an order that I would religiously recite to never forget again.


    Iy there in the middle of shattered and broken trees, unable to listen to my own wails due to my eardrums and vocal cords beingpletely destroyed.


    My breathing had be close to nonexistent ever since I had started to feel the blood slowly trickle into my lungs, making me conclude that I would eventually drown in my blood.


    With the rest of my diminishing energy, I forced a single eye open.


    The only thing I could see was my vision gradually turning red as if they were being enveloped in this red cacoon.


    It was like I was getting tunnel vision but instead of the sides being blurry or ck, they were this beautiful bloody crimson.


    I did not dare blink since I knew it would be thest of me.


    I did not dare look away from the sky which looked down upon us creatures, fighting for what seemed like a pointless battle.


    A battle for survival that it could not understand.


    As the sky looked down at us, I could not help but peer into the depths of the immacte skies.


    The sun had not risen yet so it was still dark, yet I could still see the warm orange slowly taking over from the corner of my eye.


    The stars shone brightly like tiny little pieces of glitter, yet at the same time, their beauty was somethingparable to that of diamonds.


    I could still see the moon shining down with its stunning lunar light. Of course, all I saw was the crimson mix of the silver light, yet I did not doubt that it would have been the most beautiful I''d ever see.


    ''Maybe death isn''t so bad after all...'' I told myself, a tear barely trickling out of my eye.


    ''I''m sorry Crystal, Mom, Dad, Emily... You too, dumbass.'' I tried to chuckle when thinking of my best friend who had died in the pursuit of finding my parents.


    ''You won''t be angry with me if I die, right Mom?'' I tried to cry


    ''Dad... I am sorry I failed you... Why did you have to have such a failure as a son? Why did I have to be the one you would let your legacy live upon.'' The tears that came out of my eyes felt like scorching hot magma, yet I couldn''t even think about that while the images and memories of my parents, girlfriend, sister, and best friend shed in my eyes.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''I''m sorry that I failed all of you.''


    I once again looked into the deep blue sky and wondered... Wondered what my life would have been like if this catastrophe hadn''t happened.


    ''Goodbye... Wo...rl...d''


    [Emergency Mission: Survive against a Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor]


    [Conditions: -


    -Survive]


    [Reward:


    -Receive the skill ''Life Drain''


    -Instant Level Up]


    [Mission Failed]


    [You only survived for 13 minutes, leaving the Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor on the verge of death and several permanent injuries]


    [Failure Penalty: -


    -Lose 1 level


    -Lose 4 stat points from the stat with the most points]


    [Stats-


    HP: 12


    Strength: 16


    Agility: 16


    Intelligence: 12


    Vitality: 11


    Mana: 0


    Defence: 0 ]


    My eyelids felt heavy and began to shut by themselves.


    My life shed before my eyes. Every good, bad, grief-full, exciting memory reyed within my mind. It reminded me of everyone I lost and everyone I cherished.


    ''At least I had a good life.''


    These were thest words I could think of before my eyes shut and everything turned ck.


    ...


    ...


    ...


    "Your time has note yet... Immortal"


    "Awaken, and you shall never truly die again"


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 29 [The Trial Period Has Ended]

    "Your time has note yet... Immortal"


    "Awaken, and you shall never truly die again"


    Those words resounded and echoed within my mind, yet I could not hear them.


    Everything was ck, from my vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. I could simply not feel them anymore


    It was as if my soul was being dragged out of my destroyed and ragged body and drawn into a higher realm. A realm of warmth, calmness, life... It was the light at the end of the tunnel.


    I tried reaching out my hand toward it, yet I did not seem to have a hand. I didn''t have a body.


    Everything was ck except that peering light at the end of the tunnel.


    [The trial period has ended]


    [The Immortality System will now have all basic abilities unlocked]


    [Please stand by as the Immortality System unlocks...]


    [...]


    [...]


    [The Immortality System has been unlocked]


    [Please stand by as the System calcted your grade]


    [This might take a while, so please be patient...]


    [...]


    [...]


    [...]


    [Calctionsplete]


    [Wee to the System, Immortal~]


    [Ding!]


    [Mission has been sessfullypleted]


    [Trial mission: Survive for 7 days]


    [Conditions: -


    -All system-rted advantages have been locked


    -All blessings have been locked


    -All affinities have been locked]


    [Recognized aplishments: - (Strength has been taken into ount and will be used to assess the user)


    -Indirect killing of 6 wasps


    -Killed 20 wasps


    -Found Shelter


    -Did not activate the support feature of the trial period


    -Killed 1 Shadow Spiked Wolf


    -Indirect killing of 2 lesser Dragon Hybrid''s offspring


    -Killed 2 creatures with the dragon bloodline (<1%)


    -Killed 1 Skinwalker (Wearing the skin of a female human)


    -Killed 1 Infant Treant


    -Destroyed 83% of a forest and killed 68% of its inhabitants (Calctions are ongoing)


    -Severerly injured a Prime Trynasaurus Rex ancestor and left it on the brink of death


    -...


    [The System had deemed your aplishments near impossible]


    [Completion Grade: S


    Reward:


    -1 Immortality Token


    -Appraisal


    -Bloodline has been given the Evolutionary trait (LEGENDRY)


    -You have been given the title Craftsmith


    -You have been given the title Warrior


    -You have been given the title Seeker of Death


    -You have been given the title Lumberjack


    -You have been given an eye skill


    -You have been given slight control over the mysterious energy<novelnext></novelnext>


    -You have been given the skill De($¡ê*&th Lo2%$k]


    After reading through all of the words that had appeared on the screen before me, I could not help but let out a soft sigh, or at least imagined myself doing so.


    I could not really hear myself think, but I was thinking.


    I couldn''t use my body or speak, yet I knew I was there in some way or form that I simply couldn''t understand.


    It felt differentpared to thest time I had died. The first time I died it felt like I simply could not think for myself and was forced to observe, but this time it felt like I could produce thoughts yet simply not hear them myself.


    It was a feeling that made my previous trauma of having experienced death for the second time and suffering so much before it, simply dissipate like it was never there.


    I couldn''t hear my own thoughts and therefore, I could not hear my own wails and screams of pain and anguish. My cries which represented every second I had suffered... My wails that told a story all on their own.


    Of course, this was just a temporary solution to the suffering I had to go through since I would eventually be awoken again.


    It was only then that I realized that the screen in front of me had begun to change once again, forcing me to read it.


    [Status


    Name: Ezra ----


    Age: 19


    Sex: Male


    Immortality Tokens: 4


    Affinities: $*&¡ê


    Bloodline(s): Lesser Human -----> Awakened Human


    Unique Trait: Evolver


    Title(s): Craftsmith (Lvl 1), Warrior (Lvl 1), Seeker of Death (Lvl 1), Lumberjack (Lvl 1), Transgressor of Time(Null)


    Skill(s): Appraisal (Lvl 1)


    Blessing(s): Chrono''s Blessing ]


    I would like to think that my eyes would have widened at this revtion but I still seemed to not have a face or body so all I could do was feel the emotion of surprise without expressing it inwardly or outwardly.


    After what seemed like a few hours of me drifting through the dark and infinite space, the screen before me finally changed again, and this time it read a short and concise message.


    [A day has passed]


    [All death penalties have been removed]


    [The system will automatically assign 5 points to all stats for your aplishments]


    [Body has been reconstructed with all the additional system benefits unlocked]


    [Your body has be more resistant to sound attacks]


    [Your body has be more resistant to piercing attacks]


    The screen then disappeared and reappeared in what seemed to be the same instant with a different message.


    [Think ''Status'' when wanting to open your status screen]


    [Think ''Stats'' when wanting to open your stats screen]


    [Your consciousness shall now return to your newly constructed body]


    I felt the sensation of being pulled towards the light at the end of the tunnel. It was like a drifting sensation where I would move fasted the closer I got, yet it seemed like I was not getting any closer to the white light yet my consciousness felt like it was moving at turbo speed by the 1-minute mark.


    Eventually, at the 10-minute mark everything had turned into a stretched blur before finally, I saw that the light was close enough for me to touch if I had a body of course.


    However, even after knowing I did not have a body, I still tried to stretch out my hand and peer into the beyond.


    The feeling was close to instinctual, but at the same time, I felt like I was beingmanded to reach beyond the light. And so when I did, the sensation of my soul and mind being ripped apart tore my consciousness to its core before seemingly.


    A loud sound began to ring within my ears while my eyes felt like they were being burnt due to the brightness of the light.


    *SHHHHHHHHHHHHH*


    The sound only got louder and louder until finally


    *BOOOM*


    An explosion resounded within my ears forcing me away from my endless slumber.


    *Thud*


    And with it came the pain of bashing my head into the tree in front of me, causing it to shake while the leaves rustled, some even falling on me when I looked up.


    "Bastards" I cried out in pain, yet that was not the only pain I was feeling.


    I began to feel a burden on my mind, as if something had chosen to heavily stomp on it, putting it at risk of shattering into a million pieces.


    The situation finally sunk in


    I crouched to the floor with my head between my arms as I rocked back and forward, the memories, the pain, and the suffering of having to die again reying in my mind over and over again in an endless loop that would haunt me for the days toe.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 30 Struggles

    [Ding]


    [Notice: You have been idle for 2 hours and 32 minutes]


    A faint ding entered my ears while a screen appeared before my eyes.


    I immediately close my eyes, yet even after doing so it seemed like the screen would not go away.


    I had been sitting in the same spot for several hours now, and it had gotten to a point where my rocking had seemed to immactely blend in with the rest of nature as if it was just something meant to be.


    Not for a single second did I forget the pain of death, the cold sensation that slowly seeps into your mind as you lie there defenseless.


    I could vividly remember every moment of that nightmare and could identify it like the back of my hand.


    My entire body had not stopped shaking ever since I had been given this new body to inhabit...


    The worst thing about it was that the body didn''t even feel like it was mine.


    Every physical movement and sensation felt oddly alien to me, as if I was a newborn trying to learn how to move for the first time, yet at the same time vividly remembering how to do so without the need for any help.


    I could move fine, yet my movements were almost... rusty?


    The moment I heard the sound of the system notification, I felt a strange jolt travel through my very bones.


    I had once again remembered the moments before my death, the scenes ying out in my mind at a pace slower than the original.


    It was as if my mind was trying to constantly sabotage me, making me suffer more and more every single time I watched it by slowing it down. maybe it was a way for my mind to force me into getting used to the scene, but even then it would not have been the best way to go about things.


    The tears had not halted and instead, he only increased in volume in thest few hours.


    *Rustle* *Rustle*


    Yet, with a single sound, the tears that had been flooding out of my eyes stopped in their tracks. My high heart rate which had be erratic in the previous minutes had slowed down to about 40 beats per minute.


    I couldn''t even understand how I knew that it was around that much, but at that moment it didn''t matter.


    My body had sprung up and fixed itself into a fighting position. I only then realized that my left arm hade back, yet just like the heart rate problem that I was skeptical about, I simply did not have the time to think about it at that moment.


    My eyes had be cold and calcting without a speck of remorse or other emotion that could get in the way of my conquest...


    My conquest to survive once again.


    *Rustle*


    The rustle now was a lot closer and hade from one of the nearbyrge bushes, yet due to the size of everything in this world, I had found it a lot easier to identify the movement within the bush before eventually linking it back to an animal I had seen before.


    *Screech*


    A loud screech-like squeak left the mouth of the rate as it lunged towards me while baring its fangs at me.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Its movements felt oddly slow... Unlike the other rat, this one seemed to be a lot weaker, yet that was not the main focus of my surprise.


    It had only taken me an instant however, I had already found myself in front of the creature with my palm extended and muscles I had not recognized until now bulging from my forearm alongside several nerves.


    I looked at the rat with an unwavering stare of coldness and killing intent. A killing intent that dominated seemingly anything I looked at.


    Unbeknownst to me, my eyes were now containing a faint yet visible crimson halo that surrounded my pupil.


    I had been ready to kill from the moment I had heard its movement, and as if my body was moving instinctually to those thoughts, I could only watch as my body moved on its own and my hand turned into a blur before mming into the figure that had charged at me.


    *SLAM*


    The sound of my palm hitting the creature resounded in the area alongside the cracking of several bones before eventually, having the rat flung across the area we were in just to m into a tree, break the top part off and fall onto the broken tree just to have it get impaled in the same instance.


    My sight did not move from where it had been situated as my gaze grew more intense by the minute, not even blinking with the worry that there might be a chance that the rat is still alive.


    [You have killed a Swamp Rat]


    [You have gained +15 EXP]


    [You have leveled up]


    [Level 7]


    [Progress: 5/6400]


    I had finally gotten an indication of the rat''s death, yet unlike others who would have let their guard downpletely, I was still notpletely sure if the rat had survived my attack and so I was still ready to attack at all times no matter what position I were to be put in. It was like I didn''t trust my own system.


    I hated to admit it, but I was kind of scared. The simple palm attack I had done had already caused all rms to ring within my mind screaming at me to stop and retreat, yet I knew that I had no choice in the matter.


    It was as if my mind had a mind of its own, and while the situation was not as bad before I had died, the instinctual movements mainly activated whenever I was in a life and death situation, now they were activating no matter how weak the thing attacking was.


    My body seemed to think of everything as an enemy, from the grass that brushed against the soles of my feet to the trees that moved a little after the wind blew.


    Any movement, scent, touch, or sound would put me on full alert even though I knew that nothing could attack me without the feeling of dread oveing me and in the process, also warning me of an iing attack.


    ''This is bad...'' I thought to myself with a frown eventually converging onto my cold facial expression.


    ''I''m bing too paranoid, and at this point, it isn''t even me, it''s this damn body moving on its own.'' My frown deepened but I couldn''t do anything to resolve my mental turmoil, or at least not for now.


    The best thing I could do was try and ovee my fear of dying...


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 31 Skull

    I had found myself sitting on the ground with my head tilted to look toward the sky.


    My eyes seemed to have lost their previous glint. They had be lifeless and empty as if everything I had ever lived for was no more.


    Still, if one were to look deep into my eyes they would see an unwavering fire in the middle of a cold antarctic, facing off and fighting the piercing cold winds with enough fervor and energy to go on like this for years.


    However, to the passing observer, it might seem like I was simply looking into the sky and reminiscing something, I was looking at a brightly lit screen that floated in front of me and did not disappear even after I blinked or closed my eyes.


    It had been almost 2 days ever since I had been rebirthed into this world with a new body that I could recognize as mine, yet not mine at the same time.


    My eyes were telling me that nothing other than my muscle definition had changed, yet my mind and heart were telling me that the body I was now inhabiting was nothing like the one I had left behind barely 3 days ago.


    I continued to look at the notification before finally looking toward the ground and letting out a heavy sigh that had been weighing down on my chest for as long as I could remember, yet I knew that letting it out would not fix anything since the weight would always be there.


    It was something simr to feeling the weight of your sins, a weight that would always be there no matter how much you tried to forget. It was a weight ingrained into my very soul.


    Over thest two days, all I had been doing was running, hiding, and eventually being forced into fights that I would easily dominate in.


    I did not have to face anything like the treant, skinwalker, or even the creature that closely resembled a T-rex.


    It had only been 8 hours ago that I had found a sign of shelter in the distance giving me a glimpse of hope that I did not hold on for more than a second.


    I knew how cruel this world could be now, and therefore holding any semnce of hope would only equip you to have them shatter before your very eyes.


    On the way there I met one reptile and got a weird pop-up from the system after killing it, but even though it had given me almost 90 EXP from killing it, it was nothingpared to the 6400 I had to collect to move up to level 8.


    It took me about 6 more hours to find the shelter that I had seen before, yet from up close, it looked far different from what I had imagined it to look like.


    Rather than being a random cave on the side of a mountain, I could see two holes in the upper middle of the structure as well as an enormous opening at the bottom.


    It was all made of this grey-colored rock that seemed like it has been weathered into that color rather than being like that naturally.


    I could tell that the material was supposed to be a milky white, yet here it was as a dark grey.


    Before I could walk into it, I finally got a good look at the entire structure, and what I saw left me frozen and wide-eyed.


    A shiver went down my spine while my breathing became erratic and quick.


    I felt my heart drop while a distinct buzz resounded within my mind.


    I could see a distinct hole in the middle of the entire structure... Well, I couldn''t even call it a structure anymore.


    It was a corpse.


    A skeleton the size of an entire mountain.


    I didn''t even know if this highrise of a natural formation could even count as a mountain, but the thing in front of me certainly was a titan when it was alive.


    I could imagine scenes of it walking and destroying everything within its path.


    However, while I might have been temporarily scared and frozen, that did notst for very long.


    I did not get a sense of dread whening close or even being on the verge of entering the skull, so I simply did not see any point in being scared anymore.


    No matter what this thing was, in the end, it was just a death assemge stuck in a mountain. I can''t hurt me, and neither can I hurt it.


    It was then that an idea struck me.


    "What if I use bones as weapons!" I eximed to myself with excitement visible on my face.


    I was like a child that had discovered candy, yet instead of it being candy, I had instead thought of something revolutionary.


    My excitement didn''tst long, however. The moment I felt the joy sure within me, a sense of grief and guilt overcame me, yet instead of both emotions shing, I simply felt the joy dissipate while the only emotion left inside me was the feeling of a cold energy swelling in my chest as well as the guilt...


    How could I be happy while everyone I knew and loved had died? How could I feel joy when I had been put in such a cold and uncaring world?


    As my mood dramatically plummeted, I found myself once again sitting, yet this time I was in a ce that I had assumed was safe for me to stay in.


    I sat there for hours waiting for something to happen. I didn''t know what I was waiting for, but eventually, I found myself having looked at the ground for hours while my hands held my head in ce.


    At certain points, I would startughing out of nowhere, while other times I began to cry for minutes or even close to an hour. my emotions were rummaging and causing havoc within my mind. Everything had be a blur including the message that had appeared in front of me.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It was like my mind was purposefully trying to dy me from seeing it. I didn''t know why of course, the mind is quite the mystery. However, one thing I knew was that as seconds passed, I was beginning to lose my sanity.


    ***


    3 days before, under the canopy of the forest stood a beautiful woman. Her ears were pointed at their ends, yet unlike the sharp pointy ears of an elf, her ears were a lot more round and gradual.


    Vines covered most of her body making it so that the only thing uncovered was her face. Her facial features were round yet sharp in certain ces. Her eyes were slightly smallpared to what was normal, yet it had only added to her charm, even making her look a little bit ''cuter'' in the eyes of many men.


    Her skin was a tinge between olive green and oak-brown, making her seem more like a nt that hade to life rather than a sentient living being.


    However, the most captivating thing about her was her emerald eyes which shone like two stars in the semi-lit sky.


    She was simply standing on one of therger leaves at the top of the canopy without causing it to move even a little bit. Her body seemed weightless to everything around her, and her graceful movements only made her seem like a butterflynding on a nearby leaf.


    Yet, unlike her graceful movements, her facial expression had been morphed into a scornful one, her eyes peering down at the person responsible for the destruction of more than half of the forest.


    However, she could not stay angered for very long as she knew that the person responsible did not intend to burn down the entire forest and instead just wanted to make sure that the things that had attacked him were fully dead. She could sympathize with him, yet at the same time, she didn''t want to do so.


    He was not one of her''s creations after all.


    He was a human... A retched human that dared enter her without her consent.


    She watched the human boy dash around from tree to tree dodging the attacks of the dragon-hybrid after having failed to kill it with the ax he had created.


    She didn''t know how the human had gotten into her with such a weak physique, yet that was the smallest of her problems. Humans were not supposed to exist on her and if one were to try and infiltrate, she would have realized almost immediately.


    ''I don''t have much time left... This vessel is losing its power too quickly and I need to keep some of it to stop the forest fire.'' She scratched her chin with her right hand and stood there pondering her next move.


    ''Hmm?''


    Her eyes quickly widened before darting toward the unknown human. It was only then that her eyes narrowed down to his figure and began to scrutinize every cell and atom of his being.


    Through her eyes, she could see that a red hue had begun to seep out of the boy''s body while several strands of his hair became red as well as a crimson-halo forming within his iris.


    She was left frozen in ce with an agape expression. It was the first time in her life that she couldn''t understand what was happening. No... It was the first time in thest billion years that she felt energy she hadn''t seen before.


    ''Blood? No that can''t be it. It feels like death with the scent of blood. He smells like a human and even had the aura of one, so what the hell is this crimson energying out of him?! Did he unlock some kind of gic mutation when he ate the golden fruit? But that only happens in lesser races. He is a human for god sake!''


    She could not wrap her head around the fact that she could not recognize the energy, yet it seemed like she didn''t have to.


    She watched as I wrapped my hand around a wooden stake, enveloped it within my crimson energy, and threw it towards the open maw of the creature before me, allowing it to deeply impale the back of its throat.


    However, her eyes turned dim when she saw that the sound wave was stilling toward me. Her mind was conflicted one whether or not she should save me from the attack, yet in the end, she still held a small grudge against me for what I had done to her forest.


    She simply watched as the wave hit me and destroyed the entire front side of my body before throwing me into the, mming me into a branch and allowing me to fall to the ground where I would once again be injured.


    She could see my soul slowly leave my body as I lost the energy within me. She saw the fire within my eyes the moment I had been hit, and she saw the determination I had to not die, yet she still did nothing.


    She believed that it was better to watch and do nothing rather than help me, and in reality, she had every right to do so.


    Who would help a person who had invaded their territory, burnt their forests, and killed its inhabitants?


    She began to turn away knowing well that I would most likely die of blood loss or drowning in my blood.


    She didn''t look back for a second as she flew into the air, a strange surge of energiesing towards her in the form of visible specks. Her hands had been lifted and her palms were pointing towards the sky.


    *Snap*


    *Rumble*


    With the snap of her fingers, she caused lightning to thunder and the skies to shower the earth with its tears. Countless lightning strikes could be seen hitting the highest trees, yet the rain had immediately extinguished them with the only trace of their existence being the scorch marks they left behind.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 32 Appraissal

    [Ding]


    [Notice: You have been idle for 6 hours and 01 minutes]


    This time I did not bother opening my eyes since I could already see the screen without doing so.


    I could argue orin that it was a little too bright for my fragile eyes that hadn''t seen light for 30 minutes, but I did not see the point in doing so.


    I was feeling empty and dark thoughts were already filling up my mind.


    I had this feeling that I would never be capable of finding happiness again, and once again, I found myself opening my eyes and staring at the ground under me that still had the faint wet marks which were the only traces of my tears.


    ''Maybe I should just end it all?'' I asked myself while my eyes drifted towards the sky, eventually forcing me to squint due to its brightness.


    ''They are all dead... Why does it matter if I die?'' I used my right hand to push me off the floor, allowing me to spring up and finally stand on my two feet for the first time in 6 hours.


    They were a bit numb, yet at that moment nothing really mattered to me. With listless eyes, I began walking toward the entrance of the skull before using all the strength in my legs to climb up it.


    Taking a few detours and shortcuts, my feet finally touched the top of the skull, allowing me to slowly turn around and face the endless drop which was the cliff.


    My eyes did not waver from the edge of the cliff for a moment as the determination within my eyes burned brightly. I just wanted to see my family again. I just wanted to see Crystal, and Alex again. Why did fate have to go this way? Why did they all die while I survived?


    I had so much to live for yet now that they are dead, I feel so empty.


    My foot had finally hovered over the cliff, ready to jump off when finally, a realization hit me.


    ''What if I die and have to go through the same pain once again, just to be rebirthed into this world to die over and over again?!'' I pondered as hesitation reached my feet, causing both of them to get nted into the ground.


    "For god sake." I sighed with exasperation at the fact that my body was so determined to not budge.


    However, even the system seemed to not believe me as in the next moment, I watched it create a screen in front of me which read-


    [Unknown energy had been detected within you]


    [Please check your stats screen to allocate points]


    ''Hmm?'' I mild amount of curiosity began to control me, and even though I did not want to admit it, this was the thing I was waiting for the whole time.


    I was desperately trying to find a reason to survive, and now that I''ve seen a glimpse of hope sh before my eyes, I was hooked to it. My life literally depended on what I was about to see.


    "Status." I spoke out loud rather than my usual whisper, causing my voice toe out raspy and croaky due to me not having used it for so long, or technically not at all in this body.


    [Status


    Name: Ezra ----


    Age: 19


    Sex: Male


    Immortality Tokens: 4


    Affinities: None


    Bloodline(s): Awakened Human


    Unique Trait: Evolver<novelnext></novelnext>


    Title(s): Craftsmith (Lvl 1), Warrior (Lvl 1), Seeker of Death (Lvl 1), Lumberjack (Lvl 1), Transgressor of Time(Null)


    Skill(s): Appraisal (Lvl 1)


    Blessing(s): Chrono''s Blessing ]


    "Can I not check what the titles or blessings mean or do? I mean, the least you can do is tell what the hell any of this means. I am not a psychic you know." I crossed my arms and tried to let out a chuckle.


    [Please say ''Appraisal'' followed by stating what you would like to appraise.]


    "Uhm... Appraisal Chronos'' blessing"


    [Appraisal level is too low to appraise blessings]


    "Then why would you give me the option to..." I almost facepalmed, but I quickly held myself back and moved on to the next unknown.


    "Appraisal Unique Trait"


    [Unique Trait: A trait that only one person can have. However, this can range from being only one person on a, in a sr system, in a gxy, or in a whole section of a universe if not the only person in the universe to you that trait.]


    I read the words that popped up carefully and quickly moved on to the next word that would have answered my questions.


    "Appraisal Evolver"


    [Appraisal level is too low to appraise the unique trait Evolver]


    [System''s data hase back with a positive file on the unique trait evolver]


    [Evolver: a unique trait created specifically for the user of the Immortality System. This Unique Trait allows its carrier to evolve every time it dies, making it more difficult for them to die the same way it had done previously.]


    ''Did it just call me an ''it''? Do I look like some kind of animal to you?'' I shouted within my mind and even though I knew that it was very unlikely for me to receive a response, I still let out a victory smile when I heard no response as if I had left the system speechless and frozen in its tracks due to my immacte use of words.


    "Appraisal Awakened Human." I said out loud, half expecting it to not give me an answer.


    [Awakened human: one of the several human races that have awakened mana within their systems from birth. They are the most versatile human race as every feature of their being changes and forms to create something new after every ascension of a ne.]


    "Appraisal Ascension"


    [Appraisal level is too low]


    ''Damnit!''


    "Appraisal Immortality Token"


    [Immortality Token: is a token that allows the wielder to be resurrected from death with the only sacrifice being the token. Tokens can be gained through missions, aplishments, and overall system merits/achievements. Other functions have been locked temporarily.]


    "And finally... Appraisal, Transgressor of Time"


    [Appraisal level is too low to appraise titles]


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 33 A War I Am Unwilling To Lose

    [Appraisal level is too low to appraise titles]


    "Then tell me before I start appraising everything you stupid mother-" with a blinding rage, I began to stomp on the ground, or to be exact, the top of the skull that I stood on.


    I didn''t really understand why I was angry, but the moment I found a reason to be angry, I didn''t hesitate to take it and unleash my frustrations.


    It took me around 10 minutes to calm down before taking me another 5 minutes to stand up again.


    My anger had dissipated like a puff of smoke, yet I could still feel the frustrations within me get more energetic and even more powerful as time went on.


    "I''ll need something to release my frustrations on..." I sighed with worry.


    Every day I was bing more and more different from who I was back on MY earth. And the thing that worried me most about these changes was the fact that none of them were actually good for me.


    "I''ll need to make weapons first though, and the easiest way of obtaining a started weapon would be killing a beast and taking a bone to sharpen it into a weapon." I analyzed with my hand to my chin while my eyes narrowed towards the distance.


    I had realized that after my death a lot had changed about me, yet one of the main differences had been my intelligence as well as my physical strength.


    I could now see far more than the human eye should, while my physical strength had reached points that no known human had reached before me.


    Of course, something like a gun could probably kill me, yet even then my dread would always counter fast projectiles since it always told me what direction the danger wasing from, while my intelligence now would allow me to easily dodge an attack that would have scratched my cheek or even injured me.


    *sigh*


    With another sigh, I quickly jumped down the skull, turned around, grabbed onto the ledge of the eye hole, and swung inside to minimize the impact on my legs when I hit the ground.


    After sliding a few meters, I finally walked back to the entrance and left the skull while looking down the ''mountain'' in hopes to find the creature I was looking for nearby.


    I knew that I couldn''t try using one of the Titan''s bones since they were too big and too tough, so I digressed and simply chose the easier option of finding another animal and using its bones as weapons instead.


    "Pretty nice of the system to still let me have my old clothes though." I chuckled while looking down at the gaping bloody hole in the chest area of the shirt.


    These clothes were the same ones that I had died with, the only thing I didn''t have right now were the shoes that I for some reason could not locate or even recall wearing when I had been rebirthed.


    "Maybe I lose one pair of clothing every time I die?" I chuckled once again, yet this time my face quickly went back to being serious and cold as I thought of my next moves.


    "I should check my stats first... Stats!" I eximed, causing a screen to appear and hover a meter in front of me while blinking with the word "Stats" on it.


    After a few blinks, I watched as the screen expanded and held several numbers, each one indicating a feature about me.


    [Stats-


    HP:23


    Strength: 23


    Agility: 23


    Intelligence: 25


    Vitality: 23


    Mana: 4


    Defence: 0 ]


    ''That''s weird... I don''t remember my stats being this high... And why is strength so lowpared to the others, while intelligence is higher? When the hell did I gain stat points for mana?'' I asked, seemingly perplexed by this sudden change in my stats.


    The only reason I could think of was the red energy that was beginning to form within me, or maybe even my evolver trait... Yet even then a lot of this didn''t make much sense but I was not going to question any further on something that was clearly helping.


    "Aren''t I still kind of weak though?" I asked myself out loud.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I can barely fight the beasts with my bare hands and I still have to rely on weapons or other things in the forest that would make it easier to kill something as scaly as the lizard I met earlier. Many of my kills had been due to my luck or the stupidity of the other party." I analyzed before letting out a sigh once again.


    "I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. This isn''t a world for the weak, or at least it doesn''t seem to be. I can grieve, cry and screamter, but for now I only have one objective and it is to survive." My eyes had be fierce and once again lit with life.


    I was no longer going to ept death. No... I was going to fight for my life. I''m going to fight for what I want and I am going to fight and grow to never have to feel the same pain of losing someone ever again. I will fight to make sure that I won''t need to feel the pain of death again!


    With that thought bouncing and reverberating throughout my entire mind, I solidified my morale and hardened my determination as I left the skull that I had situated myself within for thest few hours.


    ''If I remember correctly, there is a shop feature... Open shop?'' I thought, and as if the system could hear me, a screen opened before me.


    [Shop]


    [Points]


    [Items]


    [Skills]


    [Techniques]


    My eyes glittered with excitement but a momentter, they turned gloomy while an almost angered expression showed on my face.


    ''What is this expensive crap!''


    From what I could see, the system expected me to gain these ''immortality'' points, and even though they were much less expensive than an immortality token, the conversion being around 10000 immortality points for one token, everything in the shop was way too expensive, to the point I was almost certain that the system wanted to do nothing but reap me of all my immortality tokens by forcing me to convert them to points.


    ''100 points for a single stat point? And even then, I can only buy 10 a life! 5000 for an intermediate martial art!? This is robbery in broad daylight!''


    Seeing this, I could do nothing but sigh in frustration before changing my focus onto something else.


    [Ezra ------]


    [HP:103/103]


    [Mana:20/20]


    "hmm?" I was slightly confused by the sudden status notification but I did not think much of it.


    I climbed down the mountain and ran walked in the forest, my eyes still darting around with worry evident within them.


    I was still scared of feeling pain. Everything that I subconsciously touched sent a shiver down my bones while at the same time, pain felt amplified in my current state.


    After what I had felt while dying, I would have thought that pain would only numb over time but I was wrong. It was theplete opposite.


    Yet even with that disadvantage more than evident, I still chose to move forward.


    No longer was I going to cower.


    No longer was I going to hide.


    This was no longer a fight... This was a war that I wasn''t willing to lose.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 34 Light Bulb

    In the middle of the wilderness, a sudden blur shot through the woond while leaving a red light trail that radiated from its eyes.


    The person was me of course, and I was currently pursuing a wasp that had attacked me, yet after it had seen that I had dodged as well as gotten ready to counter-attack, it immediately began to retreat to the thick parts of the woonds.


    However, while I simply did not care for the wasp, something had switched on a lightbulb within me and I wanted to try out the idea that had just hit me.


    "If I can pull this off, the fight for a creature''s bones might be easier and swifter than I would have thought," I muttered aloud.


    I continued to pursue the wasp, hoping that it would eventually tire, yet even that seemed out of reach. Honestly, to me, it seemed like I might have tired out first and the chances weren''t really in my favor either.


    [Unknown energy is beginning to awaken...]


    [Analyzing energy...]


    [Analysis]


    [Name: ??? (Unknown Energy)]


    [Description: An energy that seems to be fueled by the user''s emotions, primarily anger or thrill that transfers into an amplified killing intent or bloodlust depending on the situation. Mana can also be used to fuel the emotion, yet that is only a temporary and limited way of releasing this energy. This energy has never been seen before]


    [Effects: Amplifies physical abilities? Most effects so far are unknown. Please I crease mastery over this energy to acquire more information]


    "Well that''s useful ain''t it." I chuckled while struggling to breathe due to the air smashing into me as I shot through the air.


    I knew I had be physically stronger in thest few days, but I didn''t realize the sheer amount of change that had urred within my body.


    Before I would have struggled to jump from one root of a tree to the other, yet here I was now jumping from one tree branch to another without hesitation and without struggling for a second.


    However, I did not have time to think about these mild things. These analogies and theories about my strength can wait until I am strong enough to not have to worry for my safety everywhere I go.


    As the red energy activated, I felt energized and drained at the same time and it did not take me very long to find out why.


    [Hp: 115/115]


    [Mana: 5/20]


    "It took 15 mana from me just for this," I screamed and panted at the same time, unable to believe that so much of my mana had been used for something seemingly so useless even though I didn''t even know what mana was.


    Yet even with the sudden exhaustion, the power that was running ramped within my body gave me a new sense of invigoration allowing me to push my body to its limits with one more jump.


    My vision immediately turned ck and white while countless red structures... No, they weren''t structures... they were nts and animals. All of them were shining with a distinct crimson red that allowed me to identify the wasp even after having hundreds of trees between us.


    While nts like the trees and grass had these channels that ran up and down their ''bodies'', animals and other creatures with the smallest amount of sentience, while still having these same channels, radiated a unique and striking aura/hue which the nts didn''t have.


    This hue left behind a trail that I could easily pursue without much of a hitch. On the same note, it seemed like the energy wouldn''t dissipate any time soon therefore also making my return easier than it would have originally been.


    I slowly lowered my center of gravity towards one of the branches, crouching and cing both my feet firmly onto the 70cm thick branch.


    In the next instant, my feet left the branch and my body turned into a blur.


    The force ofunch had been so powerful that the branch had been flung back before whipping forward and destroying two of the smaller nearby trees.<novelnext></novelnext>


    My body flew through the air at an unimaginable speed. I could barely breathe anymore, yet that was the least of my worries.


    ''I... miscalcted...'' I tried to say aloud yet all that came out was a muffled scream.


    Thankfully, none of the trees in the area had been directly in the way of my trajectory, however, I still found myself missing branches by a hairsbreadth.


    ''I can see it.'' My eyes began to widen in excitement, yet the wind pressure quickly forced me to shut them tightly.


    This did not stop me from seeing however, instead, it had made my vision clearer while my field of view expanded to over 200¡ã, allowing me to see almost everything in front of me as well as everything in my peripherals with crystal clear vision.


    When I began to near the wasp, I also began losing speed and momentum however, my arms and hands moved on their own, snatching towards a branch, spinning around whilending my feet on the side of the tree before once again shooting towards the wasp yet this time using much less power than I had the first time.


    The power I used was more than enough though.


    My fist had clenched into a tight fist while red energy covered it.


    [Hp: 115/115]


    [Mana: 1/20]


    *BOOM*


    And with a swing of my fist, I watched as the upper portion of the wasp''s body exploded into remnants of its body.


    Brain matter and blood sttered on one of the trees nearby and dyeing the leaves and the wood in the process with the color of its blood.


    [You have killed a wasp]


    [You have gained +10 EXP]


    [Mastery over unknown energy: 0.01%]


    I could see guts and other organs sttered all over the tree too, yet the two things that caught my attention more were both the pain in my hand as well as the new descending another half of the wasp.


    I felt my feetnd on another tree before I swiftly lunged up, half somersaulted andnded at the bottom of one of therger branches.


    Since my body was upside down now, all I had to do was crank my head up to look at the falling half of the wasp before pushing myself off the bottom of the branch andunching myself downwards at a speed faster than the wasp''s body''s slow descent.


    When I finallynded on the floor, I had the body tightly embraced to my body using my right hand, yet while I would have been annoyed by the amount of blood thatnded on my body, I was too busy looking at something else.


    "Let''s test this out shall we." my face contorted a beaming smile, my eyes staring at the long pointy spike poking out on the bottom of the corpse''s body.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 35 Poison Spear

    Holding up the remaining body of the wasp, I quickly pushed down on it and pushed out a long and pointy stinger. I did not even have to touch the stinger to see that it was extremely sharp and could pierce through almost anything and everything with a single stab.


    "Goddamn." I eximed with a beaming smile.


    I was jubnt about how my mini-n had to been going so far and it was for good reason.


    Through that kill, not only had I gotten a weapon that would make other kills a lot easier and efficient, but I also gained something else through killing the wasp, something forter.


    "I really don''t want to touch the fleshy part of the stinger, but at the same time I don''t want wield around a weapon I can barely use due to my grip." I contemted aloud while looking around to see or find something useful for a situation like this.


    "If only I had rope..." My eyes wavered and finallynded on a plot ofnd filled with nt fibers and other straw-like materials.


    For a second, it seemed like my brain might have short-circuited since I had found myself frozen in ce with my eyes half squinted and my backying on a tree, allowing me to rx and simply look at the same ce for a few minutes.


    I wasn''t wasting time if there was nothing specific to look forward to any time in the future, right?


    Another lightbulb seemed to shine and hover over my head as it finally clicked.


    "The string cheese method!" I shouted a little too loudly causing me to quickly cover my mouth, yet the excitement never left my eyes.


    The string cheese method was a method where one can obtain lots of thin fibers, an example being the nt fibers I was looking at a few seconds ago. After obtaining them, you roll them and wrap them until you get something that resembles a rope.


    I did not hesitate to follow the steps as I had remembered them.


    I quickly separated the nts and fibers, and immediately got to making a rope. Afterpleting the task on my second try, I quickly ran around for 30 minutes and found a rock and a fairly short branch which I spent another 45 minutes trying to form into the shape of a spear''s handle.


    After getting something rtively close to what I wanted, I quickly shoved the stick into the fleshy part of the sting before wrapping both of them with the rope I had just made.


    [Your crafting proficiency has increased]


    [Craftsmith and reached level 2]


    I grew even more ted after seeing the notification, but I quickly closed my eyes and shook my head after realizing a ring issue with my current spear.


    "I''m going to have to re-tie it every time I used it since it would probably be loose, but it shouldn''t be too much of a problem, right?" I asked myself with an inquisitive expression.


    "Yeah, it should be fine." I replied to my own question before chuckling a little and beginning to walk away from the body of the wasp before anything elsees.


    However, right before I was about to leave, I heard a faint rustlinging from a couple of dozen meters away. I knew that the red energy hadn''t been activated which caused me to be subtly surprised by how far I could hear things as faint as a rustle.


    My eyes immediately darted towards the direction of the sound, while my hand had tightly clenched around the handle of my makeshift spear.


    I lowered my center of gravity and did not move my eyes away from the direction the sound hade from. I knew that the thing must not have been too dangerous since I didn''t feel any dread, yet there was a chance that it might have been as strong as me if not a little bit stronger.


    ''Maybe my dread tingle is adapting to the threats around me? It might see things that are at the same level of strength as me, as being a non-threat, while only alerting me if my life is actually in danger... This might be a problem tho-'' I couldn''t finish my thought since another rustle, one which was much closer than the other one, snapped me out of my daze.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I''ll just run I guess." I spoke out loud as if I was announcing my departure before sprinting the other way without looking back.


    This did not stop me from hearing the rustles move immediately after I sprang into action, while at the same time sending a shiver down my spine due to how fast they were closing the distance between us


    "There should be at least two..." I mumbled before taking a sharp right turn, running up a tree and beginning to jump from branch to branch.


    *Bzzzz*


    *Bzzzz*


    *Bzzzz*


    "Oh for god sake. Give me a break." I cried as I once again jumped from one branch to the other.


    The moment Inded on another branch, I felt a little bit of dreade from 5 different directions, 2 from below and 3 from the same level or above me, ones that I could only guess were the wasps that had appeared.


    I instantly ducked down and dodged a stingering towards my face before turning around and thrusting my spear in another direction.


    *Pitu*


    The needle stabbed right through something, yet on further inspection, I realized that it was not a wasp that hade after me.


    Yes, the one that hade after my head has been a wasp, but the second entity had been a dragonfly, one that looked identical to the ones that had attacked me a week and a half back when I hade into the world for the first time.


    "Were they always so slow?" I asked under my breath, weirded out by the fact that the same creatures that haunted me on the first day were so weakpared to other entities that I had fought against.


    "How the hell did they even catch up to me before." I asked with a frown before quickly spinning my spear and smashing down on the dragonfly with the butt of it.


    The spear once again twirled and deflected an iing attack from the same wasp that had attacked me the first time before stabbing it in the head and ending its life.


    *Swoosh*


    Something shot right past me, yet it did not take me very long to realize what it had been.


    My eyes squinted towards the direction it hade from, allowing me to see a mildly feathery bird flying high and raining down razor-sharp feathers like the ones that had just shed my cheek and forced blood to be drawn out of me.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 36 Bird

    My eyes squinted towards the direction it hade from, allowing me to see a mildly feathery bird flying high and raining down razor-sharp feathers like the ones that had just shed my cheek and forced blood to be drawn out of me.


    "Now... How the hell am I supposed to attack that thhing if it is so high in the air?"


    The bird quickly let out a cry as if taunting me, causing me to furrow my brows in anger and clench my teeth as my piercing eyes red at it flying above me.


    It continued to shower me in its razor-sharp feathers yet it seemed like its ain wasn''t the best since barely any of them actually came towards me or even got close to hitting me.


    A low squeak left the mouth of a creature under me, forcing me to look down just to see a mouse half the size of a lion looking up at me with ferocious eyes as a feather stabbed into its back and locked it in ce.


    "You think I did that?" I pointed at myself with a chuckle, as if I hadpletely forgotten about the anger that had boiled within my blood a few seconds earlier.


    "Hmm?" As if I was just reminded of the situation I was in, I instantly moved my head back and watched as a feather shot past me.


    The feather, while looking like a normal white feather that just happened to fall from the sky with a velocity that did not match its design, also had something else that looked weird about it.


    The feather shone with a specific luster as the lights of the sun reflected off it as if it was some kind of metal or reflective crystal.


    "Well, that exins why they are so hard" I once again chuckled to my own joke before once again narrowing my eyes into a cold and serious expression.


    "How do I deal with you... Oh wait, can''t I just run into a part of the forest with more dense trees and a short canopy? That way it would never be able to attack me withouting down from its flight, something I am willing to bet it won''t do" I concluded as I jumped to the ground and was immediately attacked by something to my right.


    I of course already knew that it was there even with my red vision, something that I hadn''t gotten used to anyway, gone. I wasn''t about to base my entire strategy on getting back to the skull home I now situate myself in, one something one-time vision trick that happened to activate at a time I needed it.


    I had already memorized and even left marks on the ces I traveled past and I was going to continue doing so until the bird loses chase of me.


    Anyway, I quickly stabbed my spear to the right without looking at what the threat was. The dread that came from the thing was low anyway, meaning that it was probably a weak creature anyway and the danger was only temporary since I wouldn''t have known where it was without the dread.


    I instantly started sprinting in the direction of the thicker woods, and the direction that happened to be where I had ''spawned'' after dying for the second time in my existence.


    The sound of running water immediately hit my ears and I chose to avoid that area entirely since chances were that there would not be any trees around the river itself.


    "The waterfall is a little far from her but I should be able to got there in an hour or so." I muttered under my breath, my expression as cold and calcting as the time I followed the reptile creature that had attacked me a few days ago.


    A few creatures popped out here and there yet, for the most part, they weren''t much of a problem for me.


    I would just stab them through the throat before using my other hand to rip their heads off. Some of them were a bit harder to kill causing me to slow down and almost get hit by the feathers a few times, but for the most part, the journey was quiet.


    *Qauwk!*


    I could tell the bird was getting frustrated, and as if that was a sign, a began hearing the sounds of crashing water up ahead, causing me to smile lightly while taking onest nce at the bird pping its wings wildly trying to hit me with its remaining feathers.


    Of course, it had not been shooting the whole time and instead, had been shooting at intervals and whenever I slowed down or whenever it had a clear view of me, yet all it had done was give me 2 scratches that had stopped bleeding 30 seconds after being cut.


    I swiftly ducked and rolled behind one of the nearby trees and allowing it to take the brunt of the attacks before running once again, trying my best to dodge any of the remaining feather attacks that were shot.<novelnext></novelnext>


    When I had finally run-up to the cliffside of the waterfall, I crouched down, bent my legs, and used all the strength within my legs to leap a few dozen meters before barelynding on a tree itself, not a branch.


    This did not scare me much however since I immediately used my spear to stab into the tree, holding myself up in ce and making sure that I would not fall.


    "On the topic of being tired..." I panted while continuing a conversation that I had with myself while running. "I haven''t slept in over 24 hours. No wonder I feel so sleepy all of a sudden." I tried to chuckle, yet it came out more forced than I thought it would have.


    At the same moment, I felt a shiver go down my spine as the dread reached another level, yet I knew that was the sign I was waiting for.


    The once majestic bird was now featherless as it prated through the high canopy of trees and shot down, yet before it could halt its movements to look for me, it saw movement in the distance wearing a white shirt with a huge red mark on the back and front.


    Its excitement took over its emotions and caused it to p its wings as hard as it could without a single bit of hesitation.


    The bird immediately turned into a blur as it moved across the forest, dodging trees and branches in the way until it was finally in front of the thing that it had been chasing for several days now.


    However, its eyes widened when it saw what it had charged at. A branch about 6ft tall with two smaller branches entering the holes where my arms were supposed to be, while therger branch went from the bottom to the top.


    Of course, it looked nothing like me, yet due to its emotions and the fact that it was looking at me from a distance, the only thing that mattered to it had been the color of my shirt.


    Before it could move, it felt its whole body shake violently in fear.


    Its eyes widened even more in desperation, while its wings tried their hardest to p and get out of the situation, yet its reaction was a little toote.


    A piercing pain shot through its body, its epicenter being its right wing as a pierced it with my spear that had be a little loose after myst act of using it to stay on the tree.


    The bird did not have enough time, and simply could not move enough to get me off its back so it only took me another second to take out the spear and shove it into the other wing.


    We destroyed several branches as the bird descended, yet not for a second did I care about the noise we made. The only thing on my mind was how I could kill the bird and I was already doing it.


    The poison from the spear had spread deep into its bloodstream, now causing a painful burning sensation to pulse from every blood vessel as its heart struggled to beat.


    It was letting out its final breaths while its body continued to be rammed and even pierced by the branches we fell on.


    [You have killed a Metal Feathered Seagull]


    [You have gained +100 EXP]


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 37 Speed

    It was letting out its final breaths while its body continued to be rammed and even pierced by the branches we fell on.


    *Boom*


    Arge dust cloud kicked up from the ground as we both mmed into the ground, yet I was left unscathed due to the bird taking the brunt of the fall.


    I let out a few repressed coughs while swatting away the dust from my face. At the same time, I pushed off the bird and jumped to the ground.


    "Good thing it didn''t have any feathers left, otherwise that would have gone a lot differently." I tried to chuckle, yet I instead let out another choked cough as my eyes watered up due to some dust getting in them.


    I slowly turned my head and looked back at the dead bird that was several timesrger than I was. It had no feathers left on its back while its wings had the minimum amount needed to fly.


    "The feathers are pretty sharp... And pretty big. If you think about it, aren''t they the size of a dagger, maybe a little bigger? Actually, I''m pretty sure its the size of a short sword..." My mouth was left agape as countless possibilities ran through my mind.


    The spear was useful of course and would probably continue to be useful as long as I don''t meet anything with scales that are too hard, but other than that I should be fine to use it. The only problem is that the moment I do use it against something, their meat immediately bes unedible due to the poison" I analyzed while narrowing my eyes at the tip of the spear, trying to see where the poison came from.


    I searched without sess, making me finally turn my head back towards the feathers before talking up to the wing and plucking one out.


    The feather was about the size of my hand, and forearm and would go a little further than my elbow if I put it and my arms side by side.


    "They''re pretty light!" I eximed while throwing it into the air and grabbing it by the stem of the feather.


    "The handle isn''t too great tho..." I sighed in disappointment, yet I quickly brightened up after innovative ideas for a handle began to run through my mind.


    I did not waste any more time around the bird''s corpse since I knew that I couldn''t eat it, making me ignore it and return towards the direction of the skull home I had created for myself.


    I took a few feathers with me of course, around 5 or 6 while putting them on the belt that had stayed mysteriously clean and unscathed this whole time, unlike my t-shirt of course.


    I had used my T-shirt since it had already been damaged far too much, to tie the poison sting spear to my back since I didn''t have any other way to hold it other than holding it with my hands, something I didn''t want to do since it would limit my mobility in situations like jumping from tree to tree or making long lunges in general.


    I was running around shirtless and I simply did not care for the matter. There were no intelligent animals nearby so I felt no shame in walking around shirtless or maybe even pantsless. Instead, even if there would have been some intelligent species roaming around, I still wouldn''t have been too bothered about being shirtless and instead, might have even been proud of it.


    My body had been toned beyond anything that I previously had back in my time period. Back then, my body was average at best yet now one could easily see my muscles without me having to tense.


    It was as if my body hadpletely shifted and evolved after my death to reach peak conditioning for my situation.


    I was still as flexible as ever while being even more agile than I was before. My reaction time and natural reflexes had reached a new level, while my bodily strength, in general, had also reached an all-time high, one I did not think any human of my era could havepeted with.


    I had already evolved past what was previously seen as possible, yet none of that mattered in a word like this. A world where the strong prey on the weak. A world where the only thing the weak can do is hide, while the powerful rule with an iron fist.


    "Speaking of strength..." I opened my stats screen once again before muttering a question to myself.


    "I wonder how I can increase them without the need for stat points. Is that even possible?" I scratched my head, but unexpectedly, I got my answer sooner than I would have thought.


    [Stats can be increased afterpleting exercises that link to the attribute, as well as pushing yourself to your limit.]


    "Ah... So like normal exercise then?" I asked yet this time I did not get a reply, not like I needed one anyway.


    "Status..."


    [Stats-


    HP:23<novelnext></novelnext>


    Strength: 23


    Agility: 23


    Intelligence: 25


    Vitality: 23


    Mana: 4


    Defense: 0 ]


    [You have 3 unallocated attribute points]


    "Oh crap, 3!? From where!? Was it when I fought against the Lizard after having died... No... I think it was after my death?" I halted my running and looked at the screen in shock.


    "But what the hell do I put them in? uhhh... Oh well." I scratched my chin before finally nodding as the obvious option shed in my mind.


    "Agility it is... 3 points into agility pleas-" I couldn''t finish my sentence since it only took the first 4 words to sh another screen before me.


    [Stats-


    HP:23


    Strength: 23


    Agility: 26


    Intelligence: 25


    Vitality: 23


    Mana: 4


    Defense: 0]


    A sudden surge of power shot through my body before dissipating in a matter of seconds, however, it did not do so without leaving behind a gift of its own.


    My body immediately felt much lighter while at the same time I felt it... An overwhelming sensation screaming at me to run as fast as I can roared within my mind. I could feel every fiber of my being wanting to run until I ran out of breath, yet I quickly shot those thoughts out of my mind the moment I felt them.


    It would be extremely dangerous to tire myself out in the middle of the forest with possible threats lurking by, and since I didn''t increase my vitality, it meant that my speed and stamina simply did not corrte making me possibly tire out faster.


    Letting a few breaths enter my lungs before allowing them to leave as quickly as they came, I finally opened my eyes and looked towards the direction of the skull mountain and crouched down to lower my center of gravity.


    "I''ll try to not overdo it..." I smiled to myself before pushing as hard as I could with my front before shooting off without restraint.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 38 Three-Part Mission

    "I overdid it." I cried aloud while trying to regain my breath.


    I had run for 20 minutes straight and now stood atop the skull mountain, reaching it at a speed I did not think would have been possible for me any time soon.


    "One stat point makes a huge difference... And to think I put them all into agility." I tried to chuckle, yet all that was audible were the pants I let out after every word.


    My eyes darted around one more time as I crawled into the skull, still exhausted even after having rested for several minutes now.


    "Maybe it''s the sleep? Or maybe it''s the food... Talking about food, I haven''t eaten in a long time which makes me wonder, how the hell am I still alive?" I tried to chuckle but the sensation of my eyes bing heavier by the second overcame me, forcing me into what seemed like a slumber that would force me to sleep for years.


    When the darkness swallowed my consciousness, I felt the overwhelming anxiety, fear and pain leave my body. It was as if it had given in, simply wanting to fall into the deep sensation of nothingness, a ce where neither my past nor my future could affect me.


    I felt free for the first time in a long time.


    I felt like I didn''t need to do anything. A ce where nothing was expected of me. A ce where my problems were simply part of my past, a past which I could easily swim away from.


    Yet then it hit me...


    The visions.


    The nightmares.


    The dread.


    No more was there a peaceful atmosphere.


    Everything I knew and loved about this realm was flipped on its head, throwing me into the pits of my darkest memories. Back to the days when my nightmares had crawled out of my mind ande to haunt me.


    ''Death... Is... Inevitable.'' I whisper spoke into my ear before being thrown into...


    Even though I was trying to pull my girlfriend Crystal, along with me, she found it extremely hard to keep up with my speed due to her wearing heels.


    I was holding her hand in an irond grip, making sure to not let go, making sure that both of us would leave this mess together...


    It was in thest stride where I had felt it...


    The feeling of emptiness...


    Why were my hands no longer being warmed by the hands of the girl I loved most?


    Why were my hands empty of her''s when I had left the mall...


    I swiftly turned around to catch her once again, yet, I was immediately tackled by my best friend Alex, and Crystal''s best friend Julia, causing my sister and me to getunched out of the mall alongside them.


    In the next instant, a beam of light several hundred meters in length shot right through the city while simultaneously vaporizing everything within its wake.


    Theser bore through reality.


    I could see it getting closer.


    It was aiming for the mall.


    The mall where Crystal was.


    I must help her out.


    I must save her.


    She must live on!


    How can she die while I am still alive?!


    How can I allow that?!


    How can I forgive myself?!


    *ZZZZZZZZ*


    Thest thing I saw before the light had swallowed the entire mall within it was the warm and loving smileced with dread, terror, and fear looking back at me.


    She did not know what was about to hit her, yet she knew it would be herst moment.


    The fear in her eyes... Her eyes then once shone like bright stars in the dark night.


    The dreaded feeling of knowing you would die.


    Her pale face filled with terror...


    Yet, through all of that, I could see a single thing that stood out more than the rest.


    Relief.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Relief that other than her, no one else had to die...


    Relief that she had been the only one amongst us tond in such a miserable state...


    With herst breath, she mouthed me her final words.


    "Sur-vive." She spoke with a regretful smile. Regret washing over her as she knew that she would never be able to see me from that day onwards.


    "Noooooooooo!" I bellowed while reaching my hand out towards her, just to see her disappear within the light.


    Iid there frozen, not being able to move a single inch...


    It was only then that my vision shattered and I was flung out of the vision and thrown awake but the sudden interference.


    I was coughing and panting while the feeling of dread lingered deep within my chest.


    ''I steeled my resolve... I pushed past the fear. I pushed past the guilt, the sorrow, and the grief. So why does it still hurt so much?!'' I began to sob to myself as my right hand clenched tightly above my heart as if it would stop the pain I was feeling


    After a few more minutes of this, I rolled back into ce andid there with my back to the floor and my eyes facing the ceiling. Yet even though one might have thought that I had begun to randomly look at the ceiling of the skull, if one were to look closely they would be able to tell that I wasn''t...


    My eyes were dull again and lifeless.


    "To think I would fall back into this pit again..." I closed my eyes once more, yet this time I had no intention of opening them any time soon.


    I stayed like that for a while. I didn''t know if it had been minutes, hours, or even days, but I had just stayed that way for as long as I could.


    I recollected all the precious memories I made with everyone I knew. With Crystal, Alex, Emily, and my parents. I reyed a precious memory before bringing back the scene of their death again and again. Every time my body would instinctually wince as I was forced to watch the scene ur in front of me as if I had gone back in time to witness the scene again.


    After what seemed like forever, I opened my eyes again however this time, they were no longer lifeless and as dull as they were before. No, they were filled with something else now...


    ''I will not fall to my own self-pity again!''


    [Intelligence +1]


    "Hmm? What''s this? And why is everything ck and white again?" I groaned while trying to get up.


    "Hmm?" My eyes darted around, immediately allowing me to understand the situation without the need for the system to exin it.


    [The Unknown Energy resonates with the Immortal''s burning rage]


    [The Unknown Energy resonates with the Immortal''s grief and sorrow]


    [The Immortality System understands your feelings of animosity towards the Elven race]


    [Three-Part Mission Received]


    [Mission 1/3: Locate the Elven settlements]


    [Conditions: -


    -Do not use more than 4 Immortality Tokens


    -No time limit]


    [Reward:


    -20 Attribute points


    -3 Immortality tokens


    -Receive random affinity (Unique +)


    -Receive the title ''The Will Of Humanity'' alongside ''Sovereign of ???]


    "The hell does ??? mean?" I cried out, my rage and griefpletely dissipating in my moment of annoyance, while my vision automatically turned back to normal allowing me to see that the sun was setting.


    "Hmm... If I remember properly, the sun had been around there." I used my index finger to point toward the sky before continuing with my other hand to my chin "Which means I''ve slept for at least 24 hours." I analyzed without skipping a beat.


    "The sky does look beautiful toda-." My sentence was immediately interrupted by the sound of my stomach rumbling, something that finally snapped me back to reality and allowed me to recall when thest time I had eaten anything had been.


    "Oh crap. If I don''t eat anything soon, I might die!" I cried before kicking up and off the floor before running towards the entrance of the skull''s maw, jumping over the teeth and beginning to run towards the forest as fast as I could to find something to eat.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 39 Emergency Mission

    *Crunch*


    I was sitting atop my little skull home as I opened my mouth and took a huge bite out of a palm-sized nut that I held with my right hand since my other hand was too busy trying to keep the rest of the nuts from falling off the skull and being tainted with the germs and impurities of the ground.


    "I can''t even imagine how many creatures have stepped on the surface of thesends, let alone that one that might havemitted unspeakable acts on this soil." A shiver went down my spine as I said those words as I imagined it.


    "At least a few million, right? But I mean, technically us humans have always been drinking dinosaur pee, so why does it matter if one of the nuts fall down there? Its not like a creature could have done anything to it in thest few weeks, right?" I asked myself, nuts and saliva flying out of my mouth as I spoke.


    It had been around 4 and a half weeks ever since I''d died for the second time, and nothing of real significance had happened in that time other than the mission I got exactly 4 weeks ago.


    I''d say I''ve be mildly sleep-deprived in thest few weeks, sleeping for god knows how many hours, yet staying awake for far more than 24 hours at a time.


    It wasn''t that I didn''t want to sleep, it was just that every time I would close my eyes to fall into a peaceful slumber, I would either jolt up in a panic after hearing a loud noise which in reality was just me shifting my body a little, or I would wake up after a few hours in a cold sweat from the nightmares that forced me to watch the scene of Crystal dying over and over again.


    Another thing I seemed to have forgotten about was my hygiene. Yes, I looked physically healthy since I for some reason could not lose muscle no matter what I did, but I still looked like a ruffled mess of a human whoy in the tatters of his clothes.


    My body was covered in dried sweat, dried blood, and many bodily fluids that I could not differentiate at this point due to each creature having a different tint or color for their blood, and a crap-ton of mud that stained my skin all over and made me look exceptionally dirty.


    "I''d love to argue that maybe not having a shower for such a long time is the reason for how miserable I''ve be, but I''m pretty sure it''s the sleep-deprivation. Hahahaha..." I beganughing hysterically to myself, not caring about the manners that had been ingrained into me from infancy.


    Why would anyone follow the rules when there is no one to enforce them?


    Morals you say? We are humans, not animals you say? Well, you are partially correct. We aren''t animals and morals drive many if not all our actions throughout our lives. But why would I want to follow something as unnecessary as etiquette when there is no one around to judge me?


    Why would I care about closing my mouth while eating if there is no one to be disgusted by my action.


    Afterughing at my own joke for a few minutes, I randomly kicked up,nding on my feet merely secondster. With the grace of a butterfly as well as a spring in my step, I found myself standing on the edge of the skull looking into the distance, reminiscing on what had happened over thest 5 weeks.


    "To think I suffered more in the first week than I had suffered throughout thest 4 and a half weeks. If I think about it, I''ve fought at least 3 times more life or death battles in the first week than I had after myst death." I muttered to myself, my eyes still lingering in the distance as if I was looking for something that simply was not there.


    I had spent much of thest four weeks this way, looking into the sky and the forests, observing and waiting for something to happen. I knew that I had a mission toplete and I was still only on the first part of the three-part mission, yet even then I did not know where to start.


    What was I supposed to do? Leave thefort of the home that I created just to walk in a random direction to find some kind of civilization


    "Ugh." Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I quickly jumped down the skull before swinging myself into it and through the eye hole.


    Sliding to a stop, my eyes darted around before finally finding what they had been searching for.


    Walking up to one of the nearest rocks, I lifted it up and took a peek inside before closing the lid and moving back to check the fire.


    After seeing that the fire had extinguished at this point, I swiftly moved across the room and rummaged through the countless items I had collected, trying to find the bow drill mechanism that I had crafted for myself to make fire-making easier and faster.


    Moving countless bones, skulls, unfinished weapons, and even some molds to the side, I grabbed the bow as well as the wooden state that I had chosen would be the drill for today.


    I carried out all the needed mechanisms and finally created a fire, leaving a satisfied smile on my face as I walked back to the stone, lifting it and taking out two leg pieces of an unknown species that I can''t recall killing.


    Everything went as normal, allowing me to feast one more time before having to go out to get more food and supplies such as water and even nt fibers so I can make more rope.


    "Wow, Ezra! You''re super clever. To think you could make a water filtration system with a few skulls, Brazillian nuts shells and a bit of gravel and sand." I suddenly eximed, looking at the air in front of me with a sense of awe.


    "Oh please, it was nothing!" I quickly turned around and looked the other way, as if I was creating a conversation that only seemed to happen properly in my mind.


    After feasting for a bit longer, I quickly put on some armor that I had created before cing 4 of the sharp steel feathers on my belt while wrapping a cloth around my torso so I wouldn''t need to carry my spear by hand.


    Out of the bones that I had collected over thest few weeks, I had used the vast majority of them to create armor pieces using a skull to make headgear and using a wolf''s spine to protect my own spinal cord from any significant injury.


    After a bit of trial and error, I finally found a way to safely take the wolf''s hide without damaging it in the process, allowing me to now have a fur coat that would not only protect me from iing attacks but would also keep my warm and covered at the same time.


    [Status


    Name: Ezra ----


    Level: 9


    Progress: 935/25,600


    Age: 19


    Sex: Male


    Immortality Tokens: 4


    Affinities: None


    Bloodline(s): Awakened Human


    Unique Trait: Evolver<novelnext></novelnext>


    Title(s): Craftsmith (Lvl 4), Warrior (Lvl 5), Seeker of Death (Lvl 1), Lumberjack (Lvl 1), Humanity''s Endling, Transgressor of Time


    Skill(s): Appraisal (Lvl 1)


    Blessing(s): Chrono''s Blessing ]


    [Stats-


    HP:23


    Strength: 23


    Agility: 26


    Intelligence: 26


    Vitality: 23


    Mana: 4


    Defence: +6 ]


    "Was the Endling title always there or am I just tripping?" I asked myself before quickly ignoring the possible change to my status, thinking nothing of it for the meantime.


    I finally left my skull home and moved back into the forest to find something to hunt down and kill, yet it was then that I had received a message that would send a shiver down the spine of anyone in the same situation as me.


    [Emergency Mission Received]


    [Emergency Mission: Survive the iing beast horde]


    [Information: After arge-scale forest fire, many of the inhabitants had been forced to move away and migrate to other regions. This has createdrge-scale territorial battles as well as many small-scale ones which eventually caused many of the creatures to instinctively team up with one another to take over different regions.]


    [Conditions: -


    -You have 30 minutes to prepare]


    [Reward:


    -A Basic Dagger Art


    -2 attribute points


    -Storage/ Inventory]


    "Damnit! Why now!?" I eximed while trying to control my anger.


    "Now of all times?! Give me a few days to assimte myself into this lifestyle before I have to leave it for good!" Iined again, yet now I knew it was not the time for me to do such a thing.


    Comining will not help me survive after all.


    My angry expression dissipated as fast as it hade while my eyes went back to being sharp and cold.


    I was creating the expression of a cold and calcting man who was ready to kill if the situation were toe to it.


    I didn''t like killing, but these were just animals, right? They aren''t intelligent beings, or at least not as intelligent as the Elves and Humans. It takes all the guilt out of killing them and would allow a man tomit massacres without batting an eye.


    We did the same thing back in my era anyway, so what was the difference if I were to do it again?


    After thinking for a while with my hand to my chin, a few different situations came to mind with a couple of obvious solutions, and since the situation right now was severe, nothing crossed the line. This was life or death.


    "I could just burn down the forest again but that might set off some rms with any nearby civilizations. At the same time, I lose the closest and most efficient source of food as well as one of the only secure and safe homes one could find on the entire continent if not the.


    "I wonder what Earth looks like right now-... This isn''t time for curiosity!" Smacking my cheeks to regain my cold and calcting mind, I went over my options once again and realized one thing.


    "The best option is to run and hide from the monster horde. Yes, I might lose the home I lived in for thest few weeks but I should find something close to it somewhere else..." My eyes slowly drifted back towards the direction the horde was probablying from before squinting.


    "I''m about to make one of the worst decisions of my life..." I let out onest exasperated sigh before steeling my resolve and straightening my posture.


    "I really hope I don''te to regret this..."


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 Chapter 40 The Beast Horde

    *Awoooooo*


    *Roar*


    *Screeeeech*


    Several ear-piercing sounds thundered throughout the forest, each one sounding louder and more annoying than the other.


    There were hundreds if not thousands of creatures that were running through the woods, each one kicking up dust in their wake and leaving a huge dust cloud behind them as if they were trying to disy their power and dominance.


    The beasts ranged from green wolves the size of horses, ck ones with a dark hue overshadowing their figure as well as ones whose fur would perk up into spikes.


    However, behind them stood the real monstrosities.


    Wolves reached the size of the T-rex that I had died to, while others were as long as some of the trees around them if they were to stand on their hind legs or slither up them.


    "I just have to avoid the bigger ones and I should be fine. Worst case scenario, I''ll have to burn the forest down." I muttered while sitting atop arge branch looking towards the iing horde of beasts that was now 100 meters away and closing in fast.


    [The Immortal''s stress levels are high]


    [The Unknown Energy is resonating with your determination and bravery]


    [An Unknown Energy is rising within your body.]


    My eyes slowly turned ck and white before all the living creatures around me began to light up with their distinct crimson color alongside the channels of red energy that ran through their bodies and energized their bodies with both life and vigor.


    [Hp: 103/103]


    [Mana: 10/20]


    ''It takes a bit less mana now, but 10 is still a lot especially since mana takes a very long time to regenerate.'' I thought to myself rather than speaking aloud, just in case one of the creatures heard me even though I highly doubted that would have been possible with the amount of noise they made.


    For those of you who might be asking the question, "Hey Ezra. Why the hell are you going up against hundreds if not thousands of creatures?", and to you my friend I apud you for asking such an important question.


    However, the answer to it was unknown even to me. I could have easily tried running away from the forest and leaving behind everything I had built in thest 4 weeks, and even though I knew that leaving the forest was an inevitable fate, I still chose to stand against the horde onest time before being forced to leave.


    I''m not sure if my mind had short-circuited and just decided that rather than being a coward and running, I would not leave this ce without a fight.


    The only logical reason I could think of for me staying was actually just the fact that my body would be pushed to its limit, and while I am still extremely scared of dying, my desire for revenge on the elven race had overshadowed my fear, allowing me to now look forwards with confidence and unwillingness to give up.


    After all, how am I supposed to get revenge when I am stuck being so weak and pathetic?


    With that thought crossing my mind, my eyes immediately sharpened while my muscles tensed up, readying me to jump off this branch and kill any creature that dares stand in my way.


    ''Just a little more...'' I thought to myself while pulling my hand back and grabbing onto the hilt of my feather de.


    ''40 meters...'' My grip tightened around the hilt and my body leaned forward.


    ''30 meters...'' I quickly did the same with the other feather de, yet this time I held it in a reverse grip rather than a normal one.


    ''20 meters...'' My body began to ooze out a red mist that shrouded my body from head to toe with its crimson glow.


    ''10 meters...'' I quickly shifted my feet and positioned myself at an angle that would allow me to shoot into the crowd if I were to kick off the branch.


    "Five meters..." I spoke aloud, making several creatures halt their movements, frozen in ce as their heads slowly moved up to look at me, or at least for as long as they could look at me.


    *Boom*


    *Snap*


    *Pitu*


    The image of my body turned into a blur as my figure pushed down on my legs, snapped the branch like a twig, and tore through the air just to appear in front of one of the wolves with my hand extended towards the eyes.


    With my right hand right in front of the wolf, I pushed down and ripped through the wolf''s skull, sttering its brain matter everywhere and while staining my clothes.


    [You have killed a Wind Wolf]


    [You have gained +50 EXP]


    ''I''ll need a shower after this...''


    *Roooa-*<novelnext></novelnext>


    The wolf''s roar had been cut off as a de immediately tore through its throat and forced it to drown within its own blood, incapable of making any other noise that did not consist of the gargling that came out of its maw.


    [You have killed a Wind Wolf]


    [You have gained +50 EXP]


    Feeling a sudden sense of dreading from my left, I lifted my foot and kicked the wolf into the sky before jumping up, somersaulting, and smashing my foot into its head before allowing the decapitated body to fall back to the ground.


    [You have killed a Lightning Leopard]


    [You have gained +50 EXP]


    All of this urred in merely a few seconds, yet to me, it felt like minutes had gone by as I calcted the best course of action, and which actions would give me the highest probability of survival.


    Of course, the option to simply run had always been the option with the highest probability of survival, but I quickly suppressed my cowardly thoughts and went on to kill the creatures attacking me.


    *Puff*


    Looking forwards again, I watched as a hippo-like creature grew closer by the second while constantly releasing some kind of gas from its nose. At the same time, there was something else that caught my eyes, immediately giving me a shback to my first day here in this world.


    Images of my fingers piercing the eye of a hippo appeared in my mind and caused me to smile wryly as I looked at its closed eyes, realizing that I might have actually given it a permanent injury.


    While I might have started reminiscing about the old times, I did not waste any time as I instantly sprang forward and pointed my feather knife/short sword toward the only working eyes of the hippo.


    As I stabbed it, another sense of dread hit me and in the process forced me to swing myself away from the hippo, leaving behind my knife that was now protruding out of its only working eye.


    ''Hmm?'' With the sense of dread still lingering, I waited for another second, analyzing the fluctuations in the amount of danger I felt until I sensed it.


    My head tilted to the right and barely evaded a w that was aimed towards my head and ready to rip it off in a single swing of its paw. Yet instead of attacking with my feather short sword again and killing it on the spot, I swiftly grabbed its neck with an iron-d grip before turning around and aiming it in a certain direction.


    I watched as several ck spiked hairs short into the wolf''s body, making it struggle one more time within my grip before finally giving up and falling prey to its wounds.


    I could see that almost 18 meters away stood a wolf with perked up ck fur that it shot as spikes, capable of shooting me and turning me into swiss cheese without even batting an eye.


    "Another shadow spiked wolf?" I muttered under my breath still didn''t lower my guard. Yes, I might have killed this creature before, but it still poses just as much of a threat as it did the first time I met it.


    "Sorry..." I let out a wry smile and let go of the corpse I was holding. Before any of the beasts around me could realize what had happened, they watched as a footnded on the chest of the corpse whileunching it towards the shadow spiked wolf.


    I could see that the body was slowing down dramatically since the shadow spiked wolf had not stopped shooting from the start, yet that did not matter to me at that very moment.


    From behind the iing corpse, the shadow spiked wolf saw a sudden burst of crimson light before a light darted up into the trees.


    With its guard now up, it stopped shooting the corpse and instead looked in my direction. Little did it know that its decision to stop shooting the corpse would have been itsst fatal mistake.


    The corpse carried enough momentum to finally barge the shadow spiked wolf, making it lose its bnce for a split second which was all I needed. In another sh of burning crimson light, I short from branch to branch and tree to tree until finally, I stood on a branch above the shadow spiked wolf.


    Seeing that it was still in a state of confusion, I quickly put away my feather de and grabbed onto my poison spear tightly.


    I could feel my heart beating with a new rhythm.


    Blood was shooting through my vessels alongside the adrenaline that made me forget about my fears of death.


    It was almost like I had tunnel vision.


    Everything before me had turned into a target rather than a living being, and the crimson highlights I got from my ck and white vision did not help with that matter.


    A smile perked up the corners of my lips before my hands gripped around the spear tightly and descended onto the wolf that finally understood what had happened.


    It did not have enough time to react to my sudden ambush, leaving it to use itsst resort, or maybe even an instinctual resort that had been developed throughout its evolution.


    Its eyes began looking at me with a pleading in its eyes, yet I did not buy it.


    The smile on my face grew when I saw that expression while a shiver of exhration shot through my body, reverberating in every cell until finally.


    *Pitschh*


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 41 The Beast Horde II

    *Pitschh*


    My spear passed right through the head of the wolf before hitting the ground under it.


    I could see that my spear had touched the floor and was not dripping with the blood of the wolf, but at that moment in time, I did not care.


    [You have killed a ck Spiked Wolf]


    [You have gained +100 EXP]


    I could feel a new level of exhration. A new level of power running through my body. A feeling I had beenpletely ignorant to. It was an uncontroble desire for blood that would send a shiver down my spine whenever I would recall it.


    It was bloodlust.


    In my now frenzied state, I pulled the spear out of the hole made in the wolf''s head before allowing my eyes to dart around for the next enemy. Throughout the moment, I kept an unconscious subtle smirk on my face that even if I were to try, I could not get rid of it.


    They were cold, yet deep within those wintery eyes zed an inferno that struggled to keep itself within. An inferno that represented my bottomless desire to kill.


    Alongside that subtle smirk, I radiated terrifying killing intent. It was powerful and extremely dangerous to anyone weaker than me, yet due to the weakness of both my soul and body, I could not create a killing intent that represented the magnitude of my desires. However, the crimson aura that seeped out of me did do its best to represent those feelings to the furthest extent it could.


    When my eyesnded on the struggling hippo, the scenes of a hippo just like it trying to snap its maw shut around my arm on the first day shed before my eyes. This immediately triggered the memory of my arm actually being ripped off making it so I could not help but see a mirage of the lizard creature whenever I would look at the hippo.


    Narrowing my eyes, I quickly put away my spear and disappeared from where I stood.


    The moment my body could no longer be seen on top of the wolf that had still been suspended in the air after its death, the creatures around me could only watch as its body mmed onto the ground while kicking up a huge dust cloud that would make it hard for anyone to see anything for at least a few seconds.


    Well, anyone except me of course.


    Before the hippo could react to the danger that had appeared beside it, it felt a dullness that eventually spread throughout the left side of its jaw before bing sharp and extremely painful.


    With a knee to the jaw of the hippo, I had disabled its mouth and shattered its jaw bones into countless pieces, making its only weapon unusable in the process.


    Not wanting to waste any time, I moved to its eye and violently pulled out my de while making sure to make it as painful as possible as I pulled it out.


    *ROOOOOOAAAAR*


    Letting out a sky-shaking roar of pain, it instantly tried to attack the direction that it felt me going. Little did it know that what it was about to attack was one of its allies rather than its enemy.


    Its body moved faster than anything I thought a hippo of its size could move. I would have struggled to keep track of its body with my normal eyes since it would have been moving at a blurring speed, but with my current ones, I could almost see all of its movements before it even began moving.


    It was as if the energy within its bodymitted to an action before its mind or body did, and with the dread that I felt every time something dangerous is about to hit me, my current state made me close to unhittable.


    That was beside the point, however, since it only took the hippo a second to m its body onto the unsuspecting feline that was making sure to watch my every move rather than keeping track of anything else that might attack it.


    "Too trusting..." I muttered under my breath and watched it get flung into the air and getting impaled by the horn of another beast.


    Seeing that the hippo wasn''t going to be much of a problem anymore, I left it to do its own thing and searched around for more victims that I could sh with my de.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ***


    A little bit over a kilometer awayy an enormous creature with a body that reached close to 150 meters in length. Its eyes werge and oval while its pupils were like two sharp slits that narrowed down on anything that caught their eyes.


    While its eyes looked and seemed like a wild animal''s, it contained a glint of intelligence one wouldn''t see in any other beast, especially the smaller and weaker ones.


    Two enormous fangs could be seen protruding out of its maw, while a forked tongue left its mouth almost rhythmically at different intervals and releasing a sound recognizable to most humans of my era.


    As it slithered through the forest, its scales hit many trees, creating friction but never creating a fire in the process. However, one could say that the reflective surface of the creature''s scales was another story since their luster alone made it hard for anything to look at it directly.


    Its scales were made out of a spotless white without a speck of dirt or mud on them even though they were constantly moving through those very things.


    It was as if its scales were dirtphobic [Author''s note: Just a word I made up. Think of it as being ''Hydrophobic'' but with things that might make it dirty]


    It slithered its way around the trees, swerving from right to left, yet never finding itself entangled within an area no matter which way it moved.


    Even if it were to be entangled, I doubt it would have made much of a difference to it since a single swift movement or uncalcted maneuver could send dozens of trees with trunks several timesrger than me tumbling.


    As it slithered past hundreds of trees, it seemed to finally halt its movement before perking up and towering over the trees to look from above.


    Its head slowly moved from left to right, scanning, and sensing something it seemed to have felt ever since it reached this location.


    ''This pressure...'' I thought, once again halting the movement of its head in a certain direction while releasing some kind of energy to scan the entire area it was looking at.


    ''It must be strong.'' I thought and began to bear its fangs with an open maw.


    *Rumble*


    A distant rumbling confirmed the snake''s guesses and made it release its pure white aura.


    From an outside point of view, this aura was beautiful. It was filled with a sense of holiness yet at the same time, one could see the determination and resolve it had without even having to feel it directly.


    However, to anyone within the vicinity of 1 kilometer, this aura was everything but holy. One could feel the sinister nature behind it. Rather than an untainted white, the aura now looked like the cloth that would wipe away the blood that would stain the creature.


    ''The cleanser is just as guilty as the one who wields the de.'' was a sentence that resonated with the aura that the snake was letting off.


    "AuuuuuuughhhhooOOOOOOO!" A voice thundered throughout the forest as if it had called upon the skies, it immediately began to rain and thunder as countless lightning bolts came down on the forest, setting alight countless fires.


    ''It doesn''t seem intelligent though...'' The snake thought, yet not for a second did it lower its guard in front of this beast if you could even call it that.


    ----------------------------------------


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    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 42 Battle Of Titans

    "AuuuuuuughhhhooOOOOOOO!" The creature let out a sky-shaking roar, making the trees around it ruffle and dance while making all the creatures within a kilometer radius freeze in fear.


    ''''It doesn''t seem intelligent though...'' The snake thought, yet not for a second did it lower its guard in front of this beast, if you could even call it that.


    The creature was aplete monster that exceeded in both power and created fear in an opponent. It had countless tentacles and was by itself, much taller than the length of the snake. It had hundreds of eyes that opened on random parts of its body whether that would be the tentacle or within its mouth.


    Its body was made out of azure-blue scales mixed in with a few pitch-ck ones that stood out under the rays of the sunlight since they would always be the only scales to not reflect any light.


    It had no hair but instead seemed to have 2 distinct wooden horns protruding out of its head. The horns seemed sharp but at the same time, they felt dull due to both the texture and luster.


    "AuuuuuuughhhhooOOOOOOO!" It let out another roar, yet even though this one was a little quieter than thest one, it still held the same impact on the surrounding environment.


    "Sssssstthhhh." The snake let out a low hiss in return for receiving the roar. Right now the battle wasn''t about strength, it was about mind games. Who would attack first? Who would lose the advantage of having the unknowns that they could use in dire moments?


    Right now, both of the creatures knew nothing about each other, yet that all changed when a subtle booming mming sound shot through the forest.


    One of the unintelligent creature''s tentacles hit the ground with an unfathomable power that sent shockwaves through the ground, making everyone within a certain radius feel it.


    Countless trees around the creature flew up to the air, some of them having been uprooted from the ground while others just happened to be smashed to pieces, kicking them up into the air alongside a huge dust cloud.


    The snake seemed to also lose all care for the environment around it as it slithered through the forest, destroying and creating havoc everywhere it moved.


    When it had reached a 100-meter radius from the creature in front of it, it quickly opened its maw and began bearing its fangs towards it before finally...


    *Pitu*


    The sound of its fangs entering the body of the tentacled creature caused the forest to turn quiet. It was as if nature itself was waiting for the oue of the sh with anticipation, every second that passed causing it to be more restless.


    ***


    "AuuuuuuughhhhooOOOOOOO!"


    My eyes immediately darted towards the direction of the roar, yet I only did so for a moment since I knew I was about to be attacked in the next few seconds.


    However, to my surprise I watched every creature around me freeze in ce, eyes wide open and maws left agape in both pure fear and horror. It was as if their muscles stopped working instinctually the moment they heard the roar.


    While many of them copsed out of the shock and the fact that they could not move their body, others stood there like frozen statues unable to even look at me anymore as their eyes had moved to either look at the ground or roll back into unconsciousness.


    I on the other hand, while feeling a slight strain in my movements, could still move normally. Yes, sometimes it felt like I was trying to walk through water, but other than that feeling it wasn''t too bad especially when youpare it to the feeling of dread I felt almost all the time whenever I fought.


    "If I think about it... Nothingpares to the dread that I felt a week before Earth''s invasion... Maybe I got a little used to it?" I asked myself before realizing that I had gotten a little sidetracked


    Not wanting to waste any more time, I swiftly lunged at an iing insect and plunged my de into its head before spinning around and decapitating it with all the strength I could muster.


    Without skipping a beat, I once again dashed in another direction, this time plunging my de into the throat of a wolf and killing it instantly in the process.


    [Mission Reinstated!]


    [The system has recognized your actions of bravery and courage and due to this, will allow you to redo a mission from your previous life]


    "What?!" I eximed while barely missing my attack, stabbing a leopard-looking creature in the side rather than in its throat.


    [A Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor has been detected nearby]


    [Mission: Defeat or kill]


    [Information: Defeat or kill a Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor without sustaining severe injuries. The


    [Reward:<novelnext></novelnext>


    -Receive the skill ''Life Drain''


    -Instant Level Up


    My eyes widened in surprise while my jaw fell out of shock.


    ''Is it the same one? I mean, how many Tyrannosaurus-Rex Ancestors can there be?''


    The thought of revenge had made the corners of my lips curve into a cruel smile. I wanted to avenge my previous death no matter what, and the system had just given me a way to do so while gaining some system benefits.


    ''If I gain a skill like life drain, I might be invincible. At the same time, life drain can somehow be the weakest skill ever, and since I''m getting it at level 1, I doubt that I''m going to be able to drain the life of a creature in a few seconds.''


    With a slightly disappointed sigh, I finally stopped myself from being consumed by the rage that was unknowingly bubbling inside me for thest 4 weeks. Nevertheless, it would be stupid to say that the fire of animosity had been extinguishedpletely, but only time would tell.


    Opening my eyes once again after having calmed myself down a little, I narrowed my eyes and searched the area around me until I saw it.


    A faint outline of a silhouette resembling the creature I had fought against a little more than a month ago.


    *Boom*


    My body turned into a blur of white, ck, and crimson red that shot through the forest with a speed unrivaled by any of the creatures around.


    [Hp:94/115]


    [Mana: 5/20]


    *Boom*


    I could feel my mana drain out of me for a second, but I was not too worried about that for now. All that was in my mind was all the ways I could end the life of the creature that had killed me earlier, and now that I had been given a chance to do the same to it, I would not let the opportunity slip by easily.


    When I finally appeared in front of the T-rex, I quickly halted my movement andnded on a tree branch, looking down at it as it looked up at me.


    I could see its eyes widen like saucers while its maw was also left agape due to my appearance.


    ''Impossible!'' It roared through its mind linking ability.


    "Tsk." I did not waste another second and stepped off the branch before beginning to plunge towards it with my de in hand and my rage ring once again.


    The sudden killing intent that dropped onto it like a mountain caused it to stop moving for a second. And that was all it took for me to get the advantage immediately.


    When I reached the same height as the t-rex''s open maw, a cruel smile once again shed onto my face. Images of what I had done to itst time crossed its mind as well as mine, meaning it knew exactly what I was about to do.


    With the flick of my wrist, I recreated the same scene asst time, throwing my de into its maw and hitting the back of its throat, making blood spill out while forcing it to drown within that very blood.


    Without skipping a beat, Inded on the ground hands first before flipping back and creating some distance by sliding away.


    My eyes never stopped looking at it the entire time, but I still couldn''t help but quickly analyze its body.


    From the ck and white vision alone as well as the red that highlighted all living creatures, I could see that the energy within its body was a lot lower than I had expected. Hell, it only double the amount the hippo had, and even then that shouldn''t have been the case.


    This is a Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor we are talking about. There is no way in hell that this creature would have such a small amount of energy.


    It was only when I stopped and thought of the situation that I understood what had happened. While I had my suspicions that this T-Rex was the same one that I had fought against and died to, I wasn''t too sure. I was simply releasing my anger on a creature that resembled it. Even after it said ''impossible!'', I still assumed that it might have said that due to my simrities to the Elves or even the Dwarves that thest T-Rex had talked about.


    Now, however, with the energy, speech, power, and simrities I could see, it was difficult to state that the beast in front of me was not the same one that I had fought against before.

 Chapter 43 We Meet Again

    I quickly closed my eyes when the realization hit me, trying my hardest to not let anger take over me even after knowing that anger was the trigger for the red energy. I simply didn''t want to lose my self-control, and the bloodlust so far had been a little overwhelming.


    ''How... How are you alive! I killed you! After what you did to me I destroyed your corpse and made sure that you could never be revived even by the work of a necromancer! Then how... HOW!'' It roared into my mind, only making me angrier.


    "You want to know how?" I asked it with a slight smirk to cover my rage.


    ''Bastard! How dare you smile! Just because you can use some silly trick to beat me doesn''t mean you are stronger!'' Its voice thundered in my mind once again and caused a vein to bulge on my forehead.


    ''I''m going to kill this bastard...'' I thought to myself before shaking my head as if that action would have gotten rid of those thoughts.


    "Let me tell you... How I did it..." I spoke, but unlike thest few times I had spoken, there was a strange authority within my voice that caused the T-Rex to shiver and shut up even while technically being on its death bed.


    I didn''t understand why or how he could understand me, but I could only guess that it was due to his little sound ability. That is the only way the two of us could speak like this without having anguage barrier.


    Slowly, I walked up to the T-Rex, looking it in the eyes and not saying a single word the entire time. Its eyes also locked on me as I walked up to it, but it also chose to say nothing.


    Unfortunately for it, I wasn''t nning on speaking. In fact, I wasn''t nning on saying anything to it. I just wanted to watch it die knowing nothing about my mysterious recovery. I wanted it to die while constantly asking questions.


    But at that moment, a strange feeling overcame me once again, making me mutter a few words before...


    "You''ve grown old..." I said while closing my eyes and grabbing my spear.


    ''Hey! What are you doing!?'' It asked with a voice that tricked my eyes into thinking that its scales had be pale.


    "Let me put you to rest..." I let out a subtle wry smile, one that was not filled with malice or anger. It was a warm smile that would have made anyone fall for my act as being one of kindness.


    However, the T-Rex was not just anyone.


    *ROOOOOAAAR*


    I watched as its maw opened and a sudden sensation of dread hit me like a truck. Without hesitation, I quickly rolled to the side and evaded the sound wave that was about to rip me into pieces, or at the very least cover me with the blood of the T-Rex.


    "I see..." My eyes narrowed at its maw, while the vision I had made it easy for me to see through it and look directly at the throat to know what happened.


    "Where is it-..." I tried to whisper something under my breath, but my mouth was once again left agape when I saw that not only was my de no longer in its maw, it had dropped into its stomach and had impaled itself within.


    "Well, you''re not gonna have a good time pooping hahahaha."


    The T-Rex didn''t seem to find my joke as amazing as I did, making both of us stand there awkwardly as Iughed while the other looked at me like it wanted to end my life right there and then.


    "Huh!?" Myughing immediately stopped when I noticed something strange happening. I could see the energy within it move faster than it had before, while the natural aura that had been surrounding it also became oddly chaotic in a sense.


    I could taste its desire to kill me, while at the same time feeling all my dread rms go off at the same time whenever it looked at me with those bloodshot eyes.


    [Warning: Your opponent has entered a berserker state]


    "Oh shiii-"


    *BOOM*


    The instant it had opened its mouth, I was forced to brace myself for impact while making sure that I wouldn''t hit any of the trees behind me, therefore making me have to think quickly on how I would position myself depending on the direction the sound wave came.


    My stupidity was only recognized after I felt powerful energy hit my crossed arms and shattered the bone armor on both my chest and arms into pieces.


    I was immediatelyunched back forcing me to slide and tumble before hitting one of the trees that I wasn''t able to evade in time.


    While feeling immense paining from all parts of my body, I did not want to waste time grimacing in pain and immediately kicked up, standing tall once again but now wearing a cold and determined expression rather than the rxed one I wore before.


    "You can still stand?" Its voice boomed and even caused me to lose bnce for a bit. It didn''t use the same trick it had donest time but I could easily tell why.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A sharp pain came out of my ear, but since I could still hear and there wasn''t any blood trickling out, I didn''t care. The pain was there, but I could only think of one thing the entire time.


    ''This is nothingpared tost time.'' I shouted at myself and quickly clenched to help me ignore the pain or at the very least resist it to a certain extent.


    I let out another breath as I moved my hand back to grab my spear, something that caused me to wince in pain while shaking a little the moment I felt it.


    I knew that none of my bones were actually broken, nevertheless, the pain was still there to indicate that there was some kind of injury that I should be worrying about.


    I let out another breath and pointed the tip of my spear towards the head of the T-Rex, my eyes ring up in rage and determination once again while my face continuously scrunched up every time the pain hit me.


    I''ve lived a life of peace. I hadn''t fought a life or death battle beforeing to this era, so of course, something as basic as the pain would throw me off my game.


    "This is nothing!" A spoke with the same authoritarian voice as before while trying to replicate the thing that the T-Rex had done without sess.


    "Hahahahah! For a small bipedal like you, you do have a lot of courage! Even after having beenpletely decimated by my attackst time, you still came back for more with your little revival trick? One question though... How did you do it?" The T-Rex started offughing but eventually changed to a much more sinister and serious tone by the end of it.


    "How about I give you a first-hand experience?" I smirked in response.


    "You? A first-hand experience?! You think you can beat m-" It couldn''t even finish its sentence since it had immediately been interrupted by the loud sound of an explosion, followed by the kicking up of a dust cloud that reached several meters in height and width.


    [Hp: 72/115]


    [Mana: 2/20]


    Having shrouded my foot with the red energy, I mmed my foot onto the ground below me with all the power I could muster, creating a dust cloud that would have stopped the T-Rex from seeing me as long as it did not have any ability like my eyes.


    My body blurred once again and blitzed past the dust cloud and appeared on one of the trees out of the T-Rex''s line of sight, and from what I could see, that was the right call to make.


    I watched as it opened its maw, but quickly turned away and jumped to the next tree, and then the next, and then the next while making sure that I did not lose momentum between every jump.


    *ROOOOAAAR*


    *BOOM*


    A sound wave traveled towards the dust cloud that I had created before parting it and eradicating the trees behind it, turning most of them into pieces of their previous form while even grinding the closest ones into dust.


    ''Good thing I moved in time...'' I thought as my eyes trailed off and trained themselves onto the destruction they saw in front of me.


    However, I quickly smacked my cheeks lightly and closed my eyes to calm myself once again.


    ''Why do I always feel like I''m about to break? Like I''m about to let go of some kind of emotion that would eventually lead to the end of me? I feel like the moment I begin to stop caring would also be the moment where something catastrophic leaves my body to reign havoc on to the world''


    I pped my cheeks lightly again, and with my spear in hand, I dashed towards the T-Rex while being shrouded in the red energy that was seeping out of my body.


    My eyes locked onto the creature and allowed me to locate all its weak spots or at least the ones that I could reach.


    Of course just likest time, the maw was the best ce to aim, yet it would be too predictable since I had already done it twice before.


    *Thud*


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 Chapter 44 Forbidden Skill: Deathlock

    Hearing a low thud from its left side, it turned its head and saw a de stuck in one of the trees and imnted deeply into the wood itself.


    Its eyes widened while its head perked up the moment it felt a sense of dangering from the other side, making it only capable of guessing what was about to hit it.


    *ROOOOOAAAAR*


    It quickly let out another roar, yet instead of aiming at something specific, it had simply aimed for the ground.


    *BOOM*


    I could only watch as the enormous creature was catapulted into the air before it began to turn and look at me from the sides of its eyes, yet still incapable of fully facing me due to it being unable to turn its head any more than it had already done.


    Seeing this, I kicked forwards once again and dashed to the side, getting out of the T-Rex''s line of sight while also taking a dagger out toplete my next move.


    Without hesitation, I grabbed the hilt of my de and threw it like a javelin towards the eye of the T-Rex after calcting how long it would take for it to turn, shift, and finally reach the right ce and angle for me to throw the dagger.


    *Pitu*


    *ROOOAAAR*


    The T-Rex let out another roar followed by a sound wave, yet since it didn''t know what direction I was in, it could not find which direction I had moved in and randomly picked an area to obliterate.


    ''To think half of the trees around us had fallen just because this filthy creature lost one of its eyes. Honestly pathetic.'' I scrunched my face up in disdain as Inded back onto the ground after distancing myself from the T-Rex to not allow it to feel my presence around it, nor hear the sound of my footsteps or movements.


    ''There is an injury on one of its scales that with enough force, will allow me to deeply impale it with my poison spear and kill it, yet due to where the scale was, it would be extremely hard urately locate and confirm the scale''s existence.


    ''I need to get closer without getting hit... Think Ezra, think! What would I have done if the creature in front of me was an elf?''


    ''Where are you?'' The creature once again used its ability that allowed it to speak into the minds of other people in theirnguage nheless.


    Even though I didn''t say a single word, I felt its eyes move closer and closer to my location before eventually...


    "Found you..." Its voice boomed, barely giving me enough time to roll into safety and evade the sound attack by a hairsbreadth.


    ''Think!'' I shouted at myself. What would have Dad done? He''s a fighting genius, right? What would have he done if he was in this situation with the same amount of power as me?'' I asked myself while dodging continuously and evading all the sound wavesing my way by simply feeling out the dread and moving in the direction it willed me to move.


    ''Think! Think!'' my life shed before my eyes whole the dread reached the same level it had reached when I died to it the first time.


    ''I''m not about to die to this thing... Not know and not ever!'' I positioned my legs into a running one which would allow me to gather a burst of energy from the start whole giving me a boost in momentum that wouldn''t stop until my sprint was over.


    *Boom*


    *Swoosh*


    My body turned into a blur for the umpteenth time today, but instead of evading as I had done for thest 7 minutes or so, I instead ran straight at the danger while wielding my spear.


    "So you''ve lost your mind now!?" It asked with mockery. Simultaneously, it used the sound that came out of its mouth to direct another attack toward me, shooting a sound wave that decimated the ground and left a trail wherever it moved.


    Unlike the creature in front of me, however, I knew exactly what was going to happen.


    Using thebination of both the dread I was feeling as well as my eyes, I quickly rolled to the side before it could even shoot the attack at me.


    *Boom*


    Even then I didn''tpletely avoid the attack since I couldn''t move and react in time, but after cranking my head back to see what was left of the area the sound wave hit, I could only sigh in relief and run as fast as possible.


    *Roar!*


    The T-Rex let out several roars and aimed all of them at me.


    Feeling the dread beforehand, I found that the only way was to duck, causing me to jump up to gain momentum before sliding down and narrowly evading the attack.


    ''How do you keep dodging! You''re not even that fast!'' It roared into my mind, yet answering its question was the least of my priorities.


    I kept dodging by rolling, ducking, and sliding away from the attack, and while I would still feel the shockwave, it was a lot better than being hit directly.


    I was now around 20 meters away and I could even feel the intense killing intenting out of the creature in front of me like never before.


    I quickly analyzed it with my eyes, trying to find a weak point until...


    [Ability discovered]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [New skill unlocked]


    [Discovered ability: Blood Eyes]


    [Description: Gives the user the ability to see features of a living creature that would have not been visible otherwise. Blood Eyes will automatically activate when the Immortal meets the conditions.]


    [Cost: Starting cost of 5 mana for a manual activation, and 1 mana for every 10 minutes it is active.


    The amount of mana needed will multiply depending on the level of the Blood Eyes (Example: Level 3 Blood eyes would take 15 mana points to activate while taking 3 mana points every minute. Automatic activation does not require mana to activate the eyes, but requires mana to supply the eyes every 10 minutes)]


    [Conditions for automatic activation: -


    -Burst of emotion


    -Extreme Bloodlust ]


    [Unlocked Skill: Blood Eyes - Pinpoint]


    [Description: Allows the user to easily identify weak spots on the bodies of their enemies. This will show up as a distinct red cross indicating the area of the weak spot but does not exin why it is a weak spot, nor how it could be used.]


    [Cost: 1 mana per minute]


    Without hesitation, I activated my new skill ''pinpoint'', and immediately dashed to the left to dodge the iing strike.


    I could see my vision flicker for a bit, but after a while, I couldn''t it stabilized and allowed me to look at the T-Rex. Now that I had the skill and had activated it, many of the things that I had been struggling to see became a lot more clear now.


    All the areas, from the eyes to the throat lit up with a distinct red cross on that area.


    I quickly dashed forwards once again, yet this time it wasn''t intentional.


    I felt like my body was moving on its own even though it was technically doing what I desired to do. It was following my desires and forcing me to move forward, and so I did...


    Images of ces and memories I''ve never experienced or seen before appeared in my mind while simultaneously, an uncontroble killing intent left my body and seeped into everything around me, shaking them to the core.


    ''This killing intent...'' The T-Rex shuddered but wasn''t too bothered by the sudden change in the atmosphere until...


    ''Why does everything have a red tint to it?'' It thought to itself before a screen only I was familiar with appeared out of thin air in front of it for no one by the T-Rex to see.


    [Your fate has been sealed]


    [The Immortal Ezra ----- has activated ''Deathlock'']


    ''Huh? What is that supposed to mea-'' It couldn''t even finish its thought since the meaning of those words hit it like a truck without warning.


    A suffocating killing intent dropped onto its shoulders with the weight of the moon, making it unable to move a single inch while watching me close the distance between us within mere seconds.


    It wanted to open its maw but it couldn''t.


    It wanted to roar and get out of this situation but it couldn''t.


    It wanted to survive but... It seemed like its fate had been locked and it knew that.


    For some reason, its mind automatically believed the system like a message but it still tried to find a way to survive and struggle until the end.


    I on the other hand was bing more numb. My movements all felt wasteful and meaningless, while the spear in my hand felt lighter than it had ever felt before.


    Suddenly, it felt like a beam of white light hit me before finding myself in apletely different location.


    I felt suspended, trapped and unable to speak, move or think freely. All I could do was observe in the state that I had been put in, yet unlike what I would feel whenever I died, this time I could actually see through the eyes of something... Or someone?


    A man, or at least what looked like one, stood atop a mountain of corpses and held a Suguyari spear in his right hand while simply holding his left palm out in a way that would signify he was ready to battle anyone who stood in his path.


    [Author''s Note: I am well aware that a Suguyari is a Japanese weapon. This note will make sense next chapter]


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 Chapter 45 Annihilation Beam

    A man, or at least what looked like one, stood atop a mountain of corpses and held a Suguyari spear in his right hand while simply holding his left palm out in a way that would signify he was ready to battle anyone who stood in his path.


    Thousands upon thousands of men looked at the man with fear in their eyes, while some even dropped to their knees out of either awe of his power, or terror that they might be next.


    The aura he released would go unrivaled. It was one filled with bloodlust and rage, as well as the bottomless intent to kill that seemed to seep into his enemies and make them more susceptible to their minds.


    However, within all the bloodlust stood the resemnce of a broken man. One who just wanted to avenge. One who just wanted to see his family again, living a happy life far away from all the havoc created when the 3 kingdoms sh.


    "Guan Yu! Why have you done this! Why do you insist on resisting the sun!? Look where Resistance has gotten you! It has left you in the gutter! Look at you! Because of your foolishness you have no wife nor chi-" The man couldn''t finish his sentence since a de had already impaled his throat before releasing some kind of toxin that killed him on the spot.


    "Guan Yu! How dare you!" Another roared before mming their foot on the ground and catapulting themselves towards me, or to be specific, the body through which I was observing everything.


    The man, Guan Yu, didn''t seem to care about the raging ''animal'', or at least that was what he thought of him at that moment. He was him as a raging animal who did not deserve an ounce of sympathy, especially after siding with the kingdom rather than him.


    "We used to be close..." I felt my lips move but instead of hearing my voice, I heard the voice of Guan Yu. Being in his body was like inhabiting apletely different world.


    Not only were his moves so much more efficient than my own, but there was also a certain grace to his every move.


    Everything from his steps to his facial expressions felt graceful, but my amazement didn''t stop there.


    *BOOM*


    *SWOOSH*


    Pushing his foot forward, he took a single step that catapulted him through the air and in the direction of the iing man.


    After having stepped forward, many of the corpses from the mountain he had created were kicked up, almost like it was their own dust cloud created to rece dust for bodies.


    His body shed from its ce and appeared in front of the iing man. The veins on his hands bulged as he held the Suguyari tightly.


    The iing man finally looked up to see the absolute behemoth thaty in front of him. A power beyond his understanding... A power beyond humanity''s understanding...


    "An Ascender..." The man quietly muttered having already epted his fate.


    I watched through Guan Yu''s eyes as the man closed his eyes.


    And so, Guan Yu pushed his spear, the Suguyari, forwards with all his might.


    His spear seemed to explode with a dark red energy filled to the brim with negative emotions. Hundreds, if not thousands of illusory faces appeared within the energy, yet even that was not as terrifying as the scream of terror, created out of the voices of millions of people.


    This sudden spike in energy and power shocked Guan Yu for a moment, but his face went back to his determined expression even though it was now tainted with a distinct evil.


    Finally, the spear touched the man''s chest...


    ***


    The winds howled and the skies roared with thunder and rain.


    Lighting bolts lit up the dark sky white the clouds seemed to be ck holes of their own, sucking in all the light and making sure not a single ray of sunlight hit the forest below.


    Thousands of creatures could be seen fighting for their lives, each and every one of them roared, screeching and crying whether that would be due to pain or anger.


    All of them let out distinct war cries, yet not one was as loud and sky-shaking as the roar of the beast that stood above the canopy and looked over the trees to meet the eyes of a white snake with red runes engraved asionally throughout its scales.


    While one would think that these engravings would have been a weak spot for the snake, reality begged to differ.


    Every time the towering tentacled creature tried to hit the snake in those areas, it would constantly feel a scorching pain, as if the intention alone could cause it to burn and turn into ashes.


    They looked at each other without blinking, the snake being moderately unharmed so far while the towering creature could be seen bleeding from several areas, blood pouring out like crimson waterfalls, while the poison inside its system had begun to take effect weakening it even further.


    ''I can still feel the energy, but it''s noting from this thing...'' The snake thought to itself while analyzing the creature for any resemnce.


    *BOOOOM*


    Suddenly, they both turned their heads and looked in a certain direction.


    A huge torrent of dark red energy flowed from the area and created havoc while wilting all the nts around it. Hundreds of trees could be seen aging and dposing, every time the red energy passed through them, but what came after was the real reason why both the ginormous creatures widened their eyes in horror.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A red and ck beam of light shot through and decimated the forest before it, turning most of the trees and animals in the way into cinders while incinerating the tip of a mountain in the distance before beaming into the sky.


    The behemoths weren''t the only ones who looked towards the energy. In fact, every single creature that could either hear or feel the energy had looked at it, creating a ceasefire for a couple of moments, allowing everyone to understand what just happened.


    Not wanting to waste any more time, the snake opened its maw and created a white ball of energy with the center of it being


    The color red.


    Instantly, it let out the beam of energy and shot the tentacled creature in front of it through the chest, killing it instantly and forcing it to fall back into the forest, and decimating it even more than it already has.


    ''I must see...'' The snake dropped to the ground and blitzed through the forest as fast as possible and eventually appeared in the area where the attack had been shot.


    There it saw a man shrouded in dark red energy that formed into something simr to the armors its saw some of the bipedal creatures wearing.


    Looking toward its hand, it could see a spear of sorts also shrouded in the red energy and pointed towards the torsoless corpse of a Tyrannosaurus. The only things that remained of it were the legs and tail, yet even those couldn''t let out blood since they were instantly cauterized by the beam.


    The snake''s eyes widened, not in shock this time but in fear.


    It couldn''t gauge the power of the thing that stood before it, but for some reason, it felt like it was looking at a titan rather than a small bipedal.


    It could only watch as the figure''s spear lost the red energy and turned into the dust before flying away with the winds.


    "I need to leave-" It choked on its own sentence and stopped speaking mid-way.


    The red energy was slowly peeling off the figure while the armor slowly uncovered itself to look like pieces of bone roped together to make some armor, yet even that turned into ashes the moment the red energy left.


    This went on until eventually, the red energy hadpletely dissipated while leaving a strange feeling of emptiness around it.


    ***


    I slowly opened my eyes to see nothing but darkness in front of me. Dark crimson darkness seemed to swallow my being whole, leaving me defenseless and suspended in an area I could not evenprehend or understand.


    Everything before me felt empty while I myself felt exposed.


    ''To think I''d still feel so vulnerable after such a long time... I guess it''s a feeling you can never get used to.'' I tried to smile but was immediately taken out of my trance and thrown into another world. A world of brightness? A world of sunlight?


    ording to my vision, everything I just said waspletely wrong. In fact, the ce I had been thrown to was theplete opposite. It was pretty much pitch ck due to the thick clouds, the only source of light being the asional lightning strike.


    ''I guess my Blood Eyes ability just ended...'' I concluded and looked forward.


    Simultaneously, a lightning bolt lit up the area, allowing me to see what was in front of me for a millisecond.


    My eyes widened in shock when I saw red energy leave my spear and turn into dust. At the same time, the thing that caught my eyes the most was the corpse of the T-Rex that I was fighting,ying in front of me dead with everything from the waste up seemingly incinerated out of existence.


    [You have killed a Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor]


    [You have gained +3000 EXP]


    ''What''s going on!'' I tried to step back, but it was only then that I felt my body get a little lighter.


    The bone armor that I had worked for weeks to craft and obtain turned into ashes before my very eyes. While yes, the chest piece and vambraces had shattered after having taken a hit, I still had the headgear and everything below, yet now it just turned into ashes without me even knowing why.


    Suddenly, an intense feeling of dread overcame me and forced me to look to my right.


    My eyes locked with two enormous yellow eyes with slits for pupils. Yet even though I was scared of it, I could see a deep fear within its eyes too.


    It was weary of me the same way I was weary of it.


    ''I guess I''ll be dying today after all.''


    ----------------------------------------


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 Chapter 46 Mind Games

    My eyes locked with the slit-like pupils of the snake.


    I watched its head drop a few degrees before looking up again, allowing me to once again lock with its scrutinizing gaze. Yet even with the scrutiny within its gaze, there was one thing I could recognize. It was something that shone within its eyes brighter than any other feeling it was currently going through. It also happened to be a feeling that I had be too familiar with in thest 5 weeks of my life.


    It was feeling fear.


    Once I saw its hesitation, I finally snapped out of my trance and let out a wry smile.


    ''I have to show it that I''m confident.'' I told myself while seriously pondering over my chances.


    If I were to run, I would realize that I am weaker than my previous disy of power. I, of course, didn''t know exactly what I had done to get it to be this fearful of me, but if the corpse in front of me was any indication of what had happened, I could argue that its fear had been reasonable.


    If I were to try and attack it, it would also realize that my burst of power from earlier had been temporary, therefore probably choosing to end my life right there and then just to get rid of a ''dangerous being'' like me.


    Letting out another deep sigh, I turned my entire body and faced it, trying my hardest to avoid wobbling or falling over due to the fatigue that was barraging my body.


    Breathing in once again, I quickly calmed down my heart rate before hardening my resolve. I only had a few more lives left before failing my mission, and I was not about to waste one of my lives on something as small as this.


    However, my eyes were peeled away from the snake''s eyes and forced to look at the screen that had appeared in front of me.


    ''Hm?'' My eyes widened in surprise before narrowing once again.


    [The Unknown Energy has resonated with your will to fight and kill the Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor]


    [Hidden title ''Endling'' had been forcefully activated]


    [Hidden ability ''Deathlock'' had been forcefully activated]


    [Hidden ability ''Deathlock'' requires a sacrifice to activate]


    [Deathlock activated for 3 seconds]


    [Mana: 0/20]


    [Deathlock has sacrificed ''Bone armor set'']


    [Deathlock has sacrificed ''Poison spear'']


    [Deathlock has sacrificed 4 ''Hardened feathers'']


    [Deathlock has sacrificed 1 level]


    [Deathlock has sacrificed 3 random attribute points]


    [Attribute chosen]


    [Stats-


    HP:20 (-3)


    Strength: 23


    Agility: 26


    Intelligence: 26


    Vitality: 23


    Mana: 4


    Defence: 0 (-6) ]


    [Hp: 26/100 (-15)]


    [Mana: 0/20]


    The corner of my mouth could not help but twitch as I watched my Hp stat drop to 20, therefore dropping my max Hp from 115 to 100.


    However, I did not ponder over my stats any longer than necessary since I still had to deal with the enormous monster in front of me that could probably kill me with a swat of its tail.


    After making eye contact for a little longer, I finally opened my mouth and tried to speak to it in the English tongue.


    "What is it?" I asked.


    The fear within its eyes deepened while its head retreated a meter or two, yet due to its ginormous body, it probably did not realize that it had done so.


    Unbeknownst to me, the snake hadn''t been frightened of me specifically, but instead had been terrified by the energy I radiated throughout our exchange.


    It felt a huge burden on its body as if a mountain had dropped onto its back, forcing it to carry the weight of my gaze the entire time and not allowing it to move for a moment.


    It felt like it was being peered at by the eyes of so many beings that it simply could not count the number of gazes thatnded on it.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It felt like it was naked in front of those eyes, leaving it exposed with nothing to hide.


    The feeling softened when I had looked away to look at my system message, yet it returned stronger whenever when I finally faced it.


    That was when it finally understood what was happening. It was my eyes. My deep dark-brown eyes with a tinge of crimson that had tainted a speck of them. The moment it saw that speck of red, it was thrown into a dark world where nothing but darkness could be seen for miles.


    Suddenly, however, it saw stars... Red stars... Ones that could barely be seen and others that were much bigger and brighter than the rest.


    However, there was one thing that they all held inmon other than the fact that they were red...


    It was the fact that they were all looking at the snake...


    "What is it?" I asked it, causing it to snap out of the vision and appear on solid ground once again before retreating a few meters in fear of having to feel and see that vision once again.


    "Hello?" I tilted my head to the right and took a step forward trying to talk to it, but even if it was in the right mind to listen to me, my words wereparable to gibberish in its mind since it couldn''t understand a single thing I said.


    ''How the hell did the other one understand what I was saying? How the hell am I supposed to get out of this situation if I can''t speak to the snake? I keep getting the feeling that if I do turn around and show it my back, I''ll immediately be attacked.''


    After massaging the bridge of my nose for a few seconds, trying to lessen the impact of the iing headache, I looked up at it once again and tried tomunicate with it a few more times until...


    "Hello!?" I waved wildly and forced it to finally look at me once again.


    "Who are you!?" It asked with narrowed eyes, but unlike it, I understood every word that came out of its mouth.


    "Me? You''re the one staring at me. Shouldn''t you be the one answering that question?" I snorted in return.


    It felt odd to talk to another person, yet at the same time, the feeling caused a warm sensation to spread from the center of my chest.


    When I focused on its face, I could see a few small changes to its attitude that indicated that it understood me.


    "Sorry for not introducing myself-" It said while slightly bowing its head and at the same time, regaining itsposure.


    "My name is nca. Ie from the white snake tribe and hade here to explore. However, after a small part of the northeastern enchanted forest had a fire outbreak, I was forced to move away. I eventually joined the invasion to find other intelligent beings but I couldn''t find any until now." I exined before looking up again with its scrutinizing eyes, watching my every movement.


    This was no longer a battle of power and instead had be a battle of minds.


    ''One slip-up and it could mean the end of my life.'' I thought before nodding at its exnation.


    I had to make everything I say seem believable while somehow making it think I am stronger than I was showing.


    "Heh. It has be quite hard to find any intelligent creatures around, let alone intelligent beasts." I threw a nce at the corpse before looking back at the snake and folding my arms.


    "Is this your territory?" It asked.


    While that might have sounded like a simple question, it had quite a lot of implications behind it.


    If I were to say yes then it would mean that I was the strongest one in the forest and therefore benefiting me. But that question could also throw me into an unnecessary fight to the death with the create, a fight that I would obviously lose.


    On the other hand, I could say that this wasn''t my territory, but that would also raise suspicions as it might indicate that I wasn''t the strongest in the area.


    However, in my mind, there was only one right answer to this question, and the answer was...


    "Nah. Just like you, I happened to stumble onto this ce a few days ago. When I saw that the ce was being invaded, I couldn''t help but want to get a closer look. In my defense, I didn''t know I would have been attacked by every creature that saw me." Iughed in a rxed manner.


    I didn''t want to show that I was in any way feeling threatened by the presence of the snake, and at the same time, I wanted to get across the fact that I was willing to settle everything without having to fight to the death.


    When it heard what I had said as well as the tone I had said it in, it closed its eyes and finally moved forward while scanning me from head to toe.


    Unbeknownst to me, there was only one thing it was thinking of at that moment, and it was not my tone of voice.


    ''I can''t feel his energy at all!''


    Its mind was stirring and trying its hardest to find a solution to this problem.


    ''From what I''ve seen so far, he cannot use that power again without sacrificing something in return. While I can''t feel his energy at all, I can still feel that the threatening aura around him had significantly dropped after the energy around himm had disappeared.''


    ''Another factor is the fact that his armor and weapons were made out of a material that simply could not handle the power he showed, indicating that he doesn''t usually use even a fraction of that power, showing that the energy that surged from him had probably been temporary.'' The snake concluded, yet at the same time, it chose to not kill me on the spot after another assumption hit it.


    ''What if the only condition for that power is to have a sacrifice? That would mean he can activate it again, kill me and then burden himself with the sacrifice that power would create. It''s best if I take the safe option and not try anything...''


    "I have a proposition..." It finally spoke aloud, causing me to tilt my head and speak while trying my hardest to stop a grin from creeping up the corner of my lips.


    "Sure. What do you have in mind?"


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 Chapter 47 Soul Contract

    "Sure. What do you have in mind?" I asked while trying to hold back the smirk that was threatening to creep up the corners of my lips.


    The snake on the other hand made sure to keep its head at the same level as my body, probably done to not anger or disrespect me.


    My eyes did not leave their own, making it finally open its mouth and speak.


    "I would like to propose that the two of us make a soul contract so neither side can break their end of the contract. On your side, I simply want to learn and study you. My ambition in life is to learn as much as I can from all the creatures in the world. I was to talk and learn from them, and in return I would give them a fraction of my knowledge too to pay them back for what they had told me." The snake exined.


    The desire to smile immediately dissipated while a confused expression reced the one I had worn before.


    "What makes you think I would allow you to study me? It seems like you are gaining a lot more from this contract than I am." I frowned and narrowed my eyes at it.


    "Well of course, I hadn''t even gotten to the part where you would be benefiting." The snake snickered at my words before continuing once again.


    "I am willing to apany you for a year, helping you in situations where you might need it as well as provide you with any information you might need. On top of that, I''m willing to provide you with techniques and arts that will help you get stronger in the future."


    My expression turned grim once again, yet in a final act of defiance, I asked once again "And what makes you think I would need your assistance?"


    For a second, I could have sworn that the snake had looked at me as if I was stupid, but it quickly closed its eyes and let out an audible chuckle that caused my frown to deepen.


    "I am aware that you have the capability of defeating, if not killing me if we happen to fight. However, I am also aware that with that poweres a sacrifice. While all the external sacrifices were clear, an example being your armor and weapons, I am also aware that there must be a few internal sacrifices to this power of yours."


    "What I am proposing here is apromise. I gain knowledge and information about you while you gain power, knowledge, and techniques from me. I will guide you, but in return, I get to observe you." If the snake could smile, I would have sworn that the expression it was looking at me with right now would have been exactly that.


    A huge grin on the face of someone who knows they''ve gotten you.


    After staying silent for a bit and quickly looking at an overview of my situation, I realized that there was no way out of this.


    "And what if I refuse?" I asked the snake, causing it to snicker at me for the umpteenth time and aggravating me in the process.


    "Nothing. I''ll go on my way and you''ll go on your way too." it replied in a matter that made me believe it would have shrugged if it had shoulders.


    "Why do you you want to observe me? Aren''t there any better candidates around the world?" I asked with an annoyed tone.


    "Well, you are the first... I don''t even know what you are! You seem like a dwarf-elf hybrid, but at the same time, I know that you aren''t. Plus, you are one of the first intelligent creatures I have met in a while so I am intrigued."


    After hearing its exnation, I could not help but let out a defeated sigh.


    What the hell was I supposed to say to that exnation? It was giving me a choice probably for the sole reason that it thinks that I can still activate that power of mine that it had seen earlier, while at the same time its reasons seem reasonable too.


    I gain and it gains too. Win-win.


    "Alright fine. I want to see this contract first though." I stated, causing it to look at me intently and almost weird me out. However, this onlysted for a few seconds since-


    [Ding!]


    [The White Snake nca is attempting to form a soul contract with you]


    [Would you like to see the contents of the soul contract?]


    Seeing this system message made me wonder for a moment how the hell anyone else without a system would have seen the contract details. Would they have just downloaded into the brain of the person? Would they have floated within their minds or something?


    Yet just like my confusion as to why the snake could understand what I was saying, I threw the thought to the back of my mind before I once again focused and began to read the contract.


    ''Yes!'' I replied to the system question.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Conditions: Through the creation of the contract, Party A deres to help Party B with any of their inquiries. Party A also deres that they will help Party B in battles whenever deemed necessary by either party. However, the contract does not require Part A to take action if Party A''s life would be put in danger.


    In exchange, Party A will be allowed to observe Party B for a year. Party B does not need to answer any questions or inquiries from Party A, while Party A is not required to answer any of Party B''s personal inquiries (E.g. species/n/tribe/sect secrets that would put its life in danger, as well as any personal inquiries about Party A''s past)


    Both parties cannot try attacking, injuring, or killing one another 2 years after the contract''s end. Breaking any of the prior rules would result in death.]


    ''So this is a soul contract...'' I thought as I finished reading it. After reading thest sentence, however, it was as if a lightbulb had lit up above my head.


    ''If the situation everes to it, I can always k-kill m-myself to get out of it...'' A shudder went down my spine that moment I thought about having to die again, yet my resolve to get stronger overcame my fear of death, allowing me to sit the next few words with my chest puffed out and my head held high.


    "I ept." I said, causing the snake to tilt its head to the right by a few degrees in confusion. That confusion immediately disappeared when it felt like something simr to a link forming between the two of us.


    Both our soul energies connected and I finally felt the link as well.


    *DOOM*


    An intense dread hit the snake, nca before its vision changed for a split second. Yet a split second was all it took for it to see everything it needed to see.


    Its eyes widened in horror as it watched the sky be a crimson red.


    Millions upon millions of eyes peered down at the snake from the skies. It was a pressure that no normal mortal mind would be capable of bearing, yet here was the snake barely able to keep its consciousness after having so many gazes locked on it.


    There was no malice within their gazes, and nor was there anything that might have indicated a desire.


    Their eyes were empty of emotion, yet their gazes alone had made someone like nca begin to tremble in fear at the pure quantity.


    ? After the split second had passed, the snake could still see those eyes whenever it closed its own. It was as if that memory had forever been deeply ingrained into its mind with the chance of bing an ever-recurring nightmare that the snake would struggle with for the next few weeks if not months toe.


    I on the other hand had not realized the dilemma that nca was going through at this current moment. I knew that it was no longer looking at me, but I was simply more engaged and interested in something else that had just popped up.


    [Missions Complete]


    ----------------------------------------


    Golden Tickets (Per month):


    -Top 200 = 1 Extra Chapter


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    -Gacha = 6 Extra Chapters


    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 48 Intermediate Martial-Art

    [Defeat or kill a Prime Tyrannosaurus Ancestor]


    [Status: Complete]


    [Reward:


    -Receive the skill ''Life Drain''


    -Instant Level Up]


    ---


    [Emergency Mission: Survive the iing beast horde]


    [Information: After arge-scale forest fire, many of the inhabitants were forced to migrate to other regions. This has createdrge-scale territorial battles and many small-scale ones This caused many of the creatures to team up to take over different regions.]


    [Reward:


    -A Basic Dagger Art


    -2 attribute points


    -Storage/ Inventory]


    [Due to having lost a level after using deathlock, your level shall remain the same and no extra attribute points shall be given for ''leveling up'']


    I looked at the screens with widened eyes, however, my expression quickly changed to one of nonchnce. I already knew that I was about to be rewarded and exactly what I was going to be rewarded with.


    The only thing that I had taken a mild interest in had been the system message at the end. I hadn''t expected the system to need an upgrade, but after reading the message again, I realized that the system was simply leaving its ''beta'' stage and entering its full release.


    My eyes slowly drifted away from the message and once againnded on the entranced snake looking at the sky. Its eyes had be slightly hollow while every muscle within its body had be stiff.


    I could almost feel the fear that radiated from it. It was a sensation that would have made anything think that the snake wasing face to face with death herself.


    "nca?" I asked, making it snap out of its trance and finally look at me once again with traces of fear within its eyes.


    ''What a terrifying presence...'' It thought to itself.


    "What is it?" It answered back while trying to regain itsposure.


    "Are you a male or a female?" I asked, causing it to freeze for a second at the simple question.


    "Female." nca answered after a few seconds of silence.


    "Oh, cool. Anyway, shall we get going? This ce is about to turn into a real mess in a bit." I let out an audible sigh, slightly depressed that I would have to leave this ce so soon.


    "Yes, we should. But first, we should go to the creature I killed earlier and loot its corpse. Some of its body parts can be useful to you bipedal beings, while the rest can be used to make things like potions. If we are lucky, we can extract a mana crystal from its corpse." It informed me, causing me to frown but still nod my head.


    "I''m guessing that the corpse is in that direction?" I asked, making it look at me weirdly.


    "Don''t look at me like that. I ran out of mana so I can''t really see any of its energy." I exined and caused it to nod at me in realization.


    It quickly turned around and was about to go towards the direction of the corpse, but it stopped halfway and looked back at me.


    "Do you want a ride?" It asked


    "Sure." I replied before running up a tree and jumping onto its head.


    We moved swiftly through the forest and due to the size of nca, we didn''t have any problems with any of the other beasts that happened to be around.


    While beasts usually happen to be stupid, they have the power of their 6th sense to tell them when and when to not attack something.


    Eventually, we both found ourselves in front of the ginormous corpse of a tentacle creature.


    "Holy crap. It''s HUGE!" I cried out in surprise, forgetting that there is someone who could hear and understand everything I was saying.


    Over thest few weeks, due to theck of any interaction with any other intelligent beings, I had formed a habit of talking to myself aloud.


    The snake would have looked at me weirdly as it did not see me as the kind of person to talk to all the time, but due to me still being on its head, it couldn''t directly look at me.


    Since the snake was taking me into consideration, it took us a few minutes to finally reach the corpse of the ginormous tentacled creature, a period that had been more than enough for my system to finally activate with a familiar yet brand new screen.


    I watched as the red hologram expanded before my eyes, surprising me due to the color change.


    The screen used to be blue before, but I could understand the change in the color scheme since this was technically the finalized version.


    "It said 1.0 so I''m guessing that it might have the capability of updating again." I mumbled to myself before sighing and shaking my head.


    The snake quickly descended its head to put me down, but I could feel it freeze for a second when it heard my voice. However, its freeze has been for less than a millisecond, an amount of time that made me question my current capabilities.


    I wasn''t using any red energy nor was I at my peak form. I was pretty much 4/5 dead at this point and in an extremely weakened state.


    However, instead of focusing on my current capabilities, I was quickly distracted once again by the system notification.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Arts-


    Taekwondo


    -Grade: Basic


    -Mastery: Novice


    Karate


    -Grade: Basic


    -Mastery: Novice


    Kung-fu


    -Grade: Basic


    -Mastery: Novice


    Boxing


    -Grade: Basic


    -Mastery: Novice]


    [Would you like tobine 4 of your Basic Arts to create an Intermediate Art?]


    My eyes widened for a split second before my mouth immediately opened, and on instinct, said "Yes".


    I quickly covered my mouth short after being unable to believe what I had just said.


    ''Why the hell would I say yes immediately!?'' I shouted at myself, but now it was toote to backtrack.


    [All four Basic Arts are beingbined...]


    [Ding!]


    [You have created 1 Intermediate martial art!]


    A stream of information flooded into my mind causing me to freeze in ce for a couple more seconds.


    [Arts-


    The Art of Wind


    -Grade: Intermediate


    -Mastery: Basic]


    Immediately, I felt as if I could feel several muscles on my body that I didn''t know existed before today. I felt as if I had a new control over my body as the influx of information entered my mind.


    Knowledge of how to seemingly move my body in a way that would allow me tobine all my martial arts and techniques without a hitch. This was the main reason why I felt like I could feel every single muscle in my body, however, even that was a temporary feeling since I would eventually get used to it.


    [Appraisal...]


    [The Art of Wind: A martial art that mainly focuses on speed bybining all the factors of Kung-Fu, Karate, Taekwondo, and Boxing. It utilizes both the legs and arms while using momentum and rotation to inflict as much damage as possible while not sacrificing the speed of the attack.]


    ----------------------------------------


    Golden Tickets (Per month):


    -Top 200 = 1 Extra Chapter


    -Top 100 = 5 Extra Chapters


    -Top 50 = 10 Extra Chapters


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    Gifts:


    -Castle = 2 Extra Chapter


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    -Gacha = 6 Extra Chapters


    ----------------------------------------

 Chapter 49 Skill Rune

    ''Holy crap that''s amazing!'' I stifled my shock while looking at the system message that was informing me about the merge between all 4 of my martial arts.


    ''Looks like the system is capable of doing more than just strengthen me and revive me. Of course, the revival thing is cool and all, taking a crap ton of energy to make someone such as me immortal, but this is taking it to a whole nother level.'' I thought before starting to imagine the capabilities of the system.


    ''I''ve only had you for a few weeks but you are already doing things like this.'' I mused in excitement, however, the notifications did not end there.


    [You have received 1 Basic Dagger Art]


    [Arsis: A form of dagger art that supports both dual wielding as well as one-handed wielding. This requires agility, quick-wittedness, and precise movement.]


    I once again felt a stream of information enter my brain, yet rather than flowing in like a calm river, this was forcing its way into my mind like water through a broken dam.


    After a few seconds of this, the headache eventually subsided and I found myself getting intensely stared at by the snake, scrutinizing me and analyzing every fiber of my being.


    Seeing what it was doing, I snorted and began to walk away in the direction of the body.


    The snake also stopped looking at me when it saw me walking away, but its eyes eventually narrowed when they reached the body thaty on the ground motionless and just as humongous as before.


    "It has some life left in it." The snake informed me, causing me to freeze for a second while also looking at the body. However, unlike the gaze of the snake, my eyes widened while a sweat drop trickled down my forehead and almost entered my eye.


    Before I could utter a word, I watched as the snake once again rose itself to a high altitude while absorbing energy into its maw, ready to shoot another beam. However, I simply could not allow that to happen since an idea had struck me the moment another notification had entered my vision.


    [You have received the skill Life Drain]


    [You have received 2 attribute points to allocate]


    [You have received the system skill Inventory/Storage]


    [System Leveling has activated. You can now level up and evolve your system over time]


    "W-Wait!" I shouted as loud as I could to make sure the snake heard me.


    The moment my voice entered the snake''s ears, it perked up and looked at me with the energy sphere still within its mouth ready to be shot at any second.


    "I want to try something! Then you can kill it!" I shouted once again, but this time the snake simply nodded in understanding but still didn''t disperse the energy sphere within its mouth.


    This was understandable since there was always a chance that the creature in front of us might go berserk, killing me and possibly injuring the snake in the process depending on howrge the multiplier is when it goes into an enraged state.


    From what I have seen so far, the enraged multiplier changes depending on the species, the power of the being who had gone enraged, as well as the being''s luck.


    The enraged state could alsost anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes depending on their luck too, but having a longer time still came with its own disadvantages. This was because the longer someone or something is in an enraged state, the more detrimental the bacsh will be to the specific individual.


    However, at that moment, the multiplier and specifics behind the enraged state had been the least of my worries as I wanted to check something else instead.


    ''Appraisal''


    [Appraisal Complete]


    [Life Drain: Allows the extraction of someone''s life energy/soul energy. This will take 1hp from them per second and will heal the user of the skill by the same amount.


    If the hp of the user is full, the energy shall be converted and modified to strengthen the unknown energy. There is also a possibility that the user can obtain stat points when they absorb the core life energy of the other party.


    Note: The amount of energy transferred as well as the number of state points given is dependent on the strength of the other partypared to the user.]


    After reading the extremely long notification, I walked up to the body that was still alive and touched it with the palm of my hand before closing my eyes.


    I tried to find the activation for the skill, however, unlike the appraisal skill, I didn''t think I would just be able to say the name of the skill and expect it to work just like that.


    As if being guided by something, I felt my consciousness move to a certain part of my body.


    Immediately, I felt my mind shake before I found myself in a dark space, one that looked simr to the one I would end up in when I died.


    Mild panic overcame me, but I quickly calmed down when I realized that instead of just drifting in the middle of the void, I now had a body and could even walk around as if there was solid ground under me.


    I hesitated to take my first step, slightly scared that I might just fall, but after I had taken my first step I quickly took my second, third, and then fourth.


    Eventually, I found myself moving through the void and walking in a certain direction almost instinctively. I knew that I was walking there, and I was intentionally moving my legs in that direction. The only question I needed to ask myself was why.


    Eventually, after having walked for several minutes I finally found myself in front of something, yet instead of being excited about having found something after such a long walk, I was almost weirded out instead.


    My face visibly scrunched while my eyes squinted to take a better look at the thing in front of me, yet I still could not figure out what I was looking at.


    In the end, I was forced to use appraisal, just to realize that it wasn''t working. None of my system-rted things were working meaning I could not pull up the system menu, skill section, arts section, and the two stat boards I had.


    Eventually, I extended my hand and tried to touch the thing in front of me.


    It seemed to have been a huge red drawing made out of several patterns that interlocked and interjoined with one another almost perfectly. As if they had been made for the sole purpose of being used this way.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It almost looked like anguage, and even though I doubted that it would have been anguage due to the structure andplexity of the simples and patterns, I still didn''t throw the possibility out of the window.


    I looked to my right and saw an even bigger version of the patterns in front of me, and while might say that it was just a bigger version, the facts were that these patterns were simr yet different.


    However, since the attraction wasing from the one in front of me, I stretched out my hand had touched the pattern. This caused a few words to resound within my mind. It didn''t make sense to me, nor could I understand or even repeat what it said. However, that was only the case if I were to simply listen to what it had said.


    My eyes widened when a word that I could understand linked itself with the word that had been said in the mysteriousnguage.


    "Rune..." I muttered before another few words resounded within my mind.


    "Blood... Rune... S... Life... Drain..." I said, trying to repeat after the voice that had entered my mind in some way I could not understand yet, but at that moment it didn''t matter.


    "Blood runes?" I asked with a raised brow before focusing and saying the other part of the sentence.


    "Life drain?"


    The runes immediately lit up in front of me before radiating with an insurmountable amount of heat that instantly kicked me out of the void and back into the real world.


    When I opened my eyes once again in a panic, I froze while watching several runic patterns move down my hand and into my fingertips before spreading onto the skin of the body I was touching.


    The spread was only a few inches, creating nothing but something close to an outline around my hand.


    [Life Drain Activated]


    [Draining...]


    [Hp: 21/100]


    [Hp: 33/100]


    [Hp: 47/100]


    [Hp: 69/100]


    [Hp: ...]


    I watched as my hp increased by 1 point every second, and while normally I would have been contemting ways to use this even with its extremely slow absorption rate, at that moment I had been too mesmerized by something else.


    Looking down at my arm, I saw how the veins on my hand and forearm had been glowing to a certain extent.


    [Hp: 100/100]


    I didn''t think much of the number in front of me and continued waiting for the creature to die.


    For the next 5 minutes, I watched as every cell in my body slowly filled with vigor while at the same time, feeling the red energy within me be more powerful by the second.


    After a few minutes, the snake dispersed the energy within its mouth and began looking at the body intently instead.


    It could feel that the energy within the body had remained the same the entire time, but for some reason, it still felt like it was getting weaker over time.


    Eventually, a screen appeared in front of me, causing me to finally look forward in excitement at what I was about to see.


    --------------------Rewards--------------------


    Golden Tickets (Per month):


    -Top 200 = 1 Extra Chapter


    -Top 100 = 5 Extra Chapters


    -Top 50 = 10 Extra Chapters


    -------------------------------------------------


    Gifts:


    -Castle = 2 Extra Chapter


    -Spacecraft = 4 Extra Chapters


    -Gacha = 6 Extra Chapters


    -------------------------------------------------

 Chapter 50 Space Magic?

    Eventually, a screen appeared in front of me, causing me to finally look at it in excitement at what I was about to see.


    [Life Drainplete]


    [You have killed a Mutational-Absorbant Abomination]


    [Due to your low contribution, you have only gained +10 000 EXP]


    [Level 9]


    [Progress: 10 355/25 600]


    [You have absorbed the Mutational-Absorbant Abomination''s soul core]


    [Calcting difference in strength]


    [Calcting amount of life absorbed]


    [Due to the number of existing mutations, stat points shall be allocated ordingly to all stats the Mutational-Absorbant Abomination specializes in.]


    [Stats-


    HP:24 (+4)


    Strength: 31 (+8)


    Agility: 27 (+1)


    Intelligence: 26


    Vitality: 33 (+8)


    Mana: 7 (+3)


    Defence: 0 ]


    "Holy mother of... This thing was that much stronger than me?! It gave me stat points like it was nothing. If that wasn''t enough, the fact that it was already 96% or more dead by the time we got here, yet I still got such a massive boost in power." I eximed to myself, still unable to believe how much of a power boost I had gotten from something as simple as using life drain.


    Once again, I could feel every single cell in my body be energized with power and strength. My muscles felt like they alone could crust trees into diamonds, while my skin felt like walls of 3-meter thick imprable steel.


    The snake on the other hand was looking at me with widened eyes, also unable to believe what it was seeing but for a different reason.


    ''How did he kill that thing? It took me almost 75% of my mana to put it into the state, yet all he had to do was touch it for a few minutes to kill it?'' The snake thought to itself.


    While the snake might have put it into a half-dead state, due to thest beam of energy it had used to put it down, it couldn''t have been done if the abomination hadn''t been so weakened in the first ce due to the poison that was ravaging its insides.


    After having battled the snake for several minutes, the abomination had several bite marks on its body as well as several limbs cut off, yet even after that it didn''t flee, forcing nca the snake to use her final attack against the abomination to end it all.


    After nca finished trying toprehend what happened, she slowly turned her head towards me just to receive another shock.


    With her eyes, she could see mana currentsing out of them and creating a small storm around me out of blood-red energy.


    ''It''s faint but I can feel it if I focus...'' nca''s eyes narrowed before finally closing again when she felt it.


    She could feel that the red energy was not like before. While yes, it might have been chaotic and unnatural, now it had mixed in with the essence of the abomination, tainting it indefinitely but also at a very small scale.


    Eventually, while at first being quite distinct and noticeable, the abomination''s scent became one and was overpowered by the blood-red energy.


    On my side, however, I was still too busy looking at my new stats with widened eyes to realize what was happening around me.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Oh yeah, I still have 2 attribute points.'' I perked up in realization, making me look through all the stats and finally choose which one I wanted to put my points into.


    ''Agility since it is the closest to reaching 30 points.'' I concluded and quickly put my two points in it, making the number go from 27 to 29.


    [Hp: 120/120]


    [Mana: 35/35]


    "Are you done?" A booming voice entered my ears, yet due to my new vitality stat that has reached the 31 points, the booming voice didn''t seem like it affected me much.


    "Yeah. You said we can do something with this body?" I asked with a raised brow while looking at the snake who was descending towards me.


    "Yes, we can. Sadly, it doesn''t seem like you have any way to store the parts of something so big so we might have to resort to grinding the pieces we need into dust." nca exined and did not wait for an answer since she immediately moved to inspect the body.


    "Oh, storage? I th-" My sentence was instantly cut off the moment I said the word ''storage''.


    A screen with boxes appeared in front of me, one that looked like the inventory screen of an old game I used to y called minicraft. While I could see that I had about 4 rows of 10 boxes, only 4 boxes were unlocked while a 5th read out the words "Armor".


    ''Appraise-''


    [Appraisal Complete]


    [Armor Inventory: Can store one set of armor which you can equip instantly without having to take it out of your inventory first.]


    ''That''s awesome! Too bad my armor turned into dust though.'' My lip twitched in anger as I remembered how the bone armor which I had been working on for months turned into dust in the split second I could not remember.


    ''One second I had the armor, the next second I had to watch the armor fly in the winds. Rest in piece, you will always be my only lover.'' I let out a silent imaginary tear for my armor set before finally going back to


    business.


    "H-Hey! nca!" I shouted to watch the snake''s attention.


    Hearing my shout, the snake stopped searching and looked at me with a tinge of annoyance.


    "I have storage space. I doubt it''s big but I''m pretty sure I can store at least 4 things inside." I exined and made ncae towards me to hear what I had to say.


    "Show me." She immediatelymanded me, once again causing the corner of my mouth to twitch while ideas of beating the crap out of the snake in front of me ran through my mind.


    I quickly discarded those thoughts, however, since I remembered how the corpse in front of us had died due to the snake that I was thinking of beating up.


    Looking around, I quickly grabbed a rock, an action that would have normally caused nca to raise a brow. However, that simply wasn''t physically possible for her to do.


    *PZZzzzt*


    I watched as a small crack appeared above the rock. The crack quickly expanded and eventually enveloped the rock before swallowing it into the storage area.


    nca''s eyes widened at this scene, but she quickly calmed herself down andmanded me once again.


    "Take it out..."


    "Uhm... Sure?" I thought of taking out the rock and instantly, watched as a rock fell onto the palm of my hand.


    I and nca seemed to exchange a moment of silence, however, but our minds were running at 100 miles an hour after seeing what I just did.


    ''How the hell did I do that?!'' I cried to myself.


    ''He has space magic!?'' nca inwardly screamed.

 Chapter 51 Gaia

    While at first, it might have seemed like the storage skill had no weakness, this was far from the case.


    After talking with nca for a bit about my storage space, I informed her how it worked without talking about the system or indicating where it came from.


    After telling her that I could only store 4 things within my storage, she quickly moved around the corpse and grabbed 4 of the things that we would need to be whole rather than broken into pieces or ground into dust.


    ''I should have probably made a leather bag... In my defense though, it would have probably ripped by now and would have be extremely useless.'' I nodded to myself while watching nca move around the corpse and collect all the things we might need.


    With my arms still crossed, I moved my right hand to scratch my chin, just for a realization to hit me.


    ''Is there a weight or size limit? Appraisal!''


    [Appraisalplete]


    [Storage/inventory: Does not have a weight limit but does have a size limit. Nothing above 7.5 meters cubed can be stored within one of the boxes]


    ''Sounds reasonable.'' I let out a sigh of relief and went back to watching nca collecting all the items.


    In the end, I had 4 items in front of me that I would need to store, while the rest would be stored within nca''s storage ring? Whatever that meant.


    I climbed onto nca''s head once again after having stored all 4 of the items in my inventory.


    "Where do you want to go?" the snake asked me, causing me to pause for a second and begin thinking about what I wanted to do next.


    All this time I had simply moved the way life was drifting me.


    First I moved through the previous forest because I wanted to find food, an example being the golden fruit that I still don''t know the name of nor its function. Another example would have to be how I was forced to move away from the forest alongside all the other beasts there to get away from the fire that I had identally caused.


    After dying, I hadnded in this mysterious forest where everything seemed a little easier due to the beasts her being a lot weaker, probably due to the abomination''s existence. Alongside having entered this forest, I stayed here because I found good shelter, something I probably would have chosen to not leave for months or years if not for the beast horde.


    ''Where do I want to go? My main objective is to reach the elven civilization, but then what? Would I try to get revenge for something that hadn''t even been done yet? Should I go and cry my sorrows somewhere else? Would I try to infiltrate their society to break them down slowly and painfully...


    What was I supposed to do? There was no correct answer to the question since doing one thing would always create another problem. The real question is if you are willing to deal with that problem or not, and whether it is worth the sacrifice or not.


    "How strong are the elves right now?" I asked the snake that was looking around with me still on its head.


    "The elves? Hmm. I''d say that they are the most powerful bipedal species on this. Their leaders should be close to reaching the peak of the Astral ne so they might be asking Gaia to take down the limiting formations." The snake replied, causing me to raise a brow in confusion.


    "You just answered my question with as many unknown terms as possible... I literally don''t know what half of what you said means." I snorted, but the snake who still hadn''t gotten used to my attitude tried to roll her eyes just to fail miserably.


    "The elves are a species of bipedal creatures that inhabit this. After something happened to their, they moved here and were warmly weed by Gaia who is the spirit of the. Since there were tight restrictions on the, Gaia agreed to loosen the restrictions and allow anyone within the Astral ne or below to enter the ne." The snake exined and caused me to nod slightly.


    "What do the nes mean then?" I inquired further, yet all that I got as a response was an angry retort from nca saying-<novelnext></novelnext>


    "What!? Have you been living under a rock for your whole life? Ugh... I and you are in the Mortal ne, and while I am higher than you in the mortal ne, I am still from being the strongest in the mortal ne. That form you went into before however seemed to be on the same level as someone in the high, if not the peak stages of the mortal ne..." nca once again exined before inwardly adding-


    ''Since that attack alone could have split mountains... Good thing it aimed for the sky. I doesn''t seem like you yourself know what kind of power you are holding within you...''


    "How strong is the average elf?" I asked


    "The average elf reaches the peak of the mortal ne by the age of 18 to 20. But as long as they are in the mortal ne their aging process doesn''t slow down. That''s why those who fail to reach the Astral ne before the age of 40 always die before reaching 150 years of age."


    "How would anyone even reach that ne? You aren''t exining much in terms of the process." I replied while crossing my arms.


    "While usually..." The snake paused for a second before continuing "Usually, someone has to do this thing called cultivation. They take energy from the environment and pull it into their bodies. Then they turn it into either energy that will refine their body or energy that will refine their mana. Those are called body or mana cultivators respectively." The snake exined, causing me to perk up and straighten my back in the hope to get the snake to teach me such a method.


    However, just a secondter, my hope had been thrown to the ground and made to shatter with the use of one sentence.


    "Don''t get riled up just yet, since from what I''ve seen of you so far, you cannot cultivate... Or at least not the normal way."


    "Wha-" My hopes had immediately shattered like a ss ne being smashed into an iron hammer. How was I supposed to even think about beating beings like the elves without being able to cultivate?


    It was only then that thest part of nca''s sentence registered within my brain, causing me to calm down and try to listen to what she was trying to tell me rather than jumping to conclusions.


    "From what I''ve seen of you so far, instead of normally cultivating by absorbing energy from your surroundings, you use that red runic pattern that travels down your arm to suck the soul core out of someone and absorb part of their power.." The snake rified, instantly making me smile brightly at her words.


    Before I could get riled up again, nca tried to shoot me down by stating "This however is just a theory of mine. Don''t get your hopes up too much since I might be wrong. Also, the energy takes a bit of time to settle into your body so there is always a chance that you will still have to do something different to stabilize that energy rather than allowing it to go rampant within you"


    However, even with those words echoing within my mind, I could not help but still get extremely excited. For the first time since I hade to this world. I had finally found a reliable way to get stronger without the use of missions that woulde around once in a blue moon.


    "My end goal is to get to the elven civilization, but for now I want to be stronger... Or at least strong enough to hold my own against some of their strongest?" I let out a wide grin that caused the snake to shudder as the memories of having looked into my eyes resurfaced.


    However, instead of mulling over the past, the snake decided that the best course of action would be to deeper into the forest rather than go into the outskirts once again, and the reasoning for this was simple...


    The beings of the forest got more powerful as you delve deeper inside, and the only way for a person to get stronger in this world was to constantly go through life or death battles.


    I was no exception...


    ***


    Unknown dimension.


    An emerald beauty sat on arge throne created out of a hundred if not thousands of minerals, rock fragments, and ores.

 Chapter 52 Gaia II And 1 Week Later

    ***


    Unknown dimension.


    An emerald beauty sat on arge throne created out of a hundred if not thousands of minerals, rock fragments, and ores. However, while some were darker than others, each one of them had its own uniqueness that made them stand out from the rest.


    The woman silently sat on this throne, her eyes closed and her breathing steady.


    Her emerald hair draped down her shoulders, calling down to the ground like an endless emerald waterfall, each strand of hair reflecting the light in the dimension with the brightness of a dozen suns.


    Suddenly, a frown reced her previous neutral sleeping expression, creasing her forehead and knitting her brows in the process. While this action would have been considered ugly by most, the frown only made her more beautiful, a direct contrast to how she was feeling at that moment.


    Her eyes flickered open while the strange expression never left her face. It was as if she had seen something she couldn''t believe and had been left momentarily in shock.


    "How... He was supposed to be dead... Yet he''s be even stronger now! How is this possible!" Gaia eximed in shock, well aware that there was no one around to hear her.


    Gaia, the ruler of Earth and the person to keep bnce within the was the strongest person on the, as well as the one person who had direct control over almost everything within the itself.


    With a snap of her fingers, she could change the climate from being a nice and calm summer to a wintery cold hurricane. However, this did not me she was omnipotent... She was very far from being so.


    While she could see almost anywhere on the as well as create avatars of herself toplete tasks in different areas simultaneously, she was still far from being able to see everywhere at the same time.


    This was the reason why she had been so shocked when she felt certain energy within the enchanted forest, and then when she finally moved her consciousness there to see what was happening, she felt her jaw almost drop to the ground.


    The boy...


    The same boy she had watched die in the hands of one of the beasts she had supported throughout their lives, was standing in the middle of nowhere with red energy surrounding him and a spear being extended towards the same T-rex from before.


    Her eyes threatened to widen as she watched an enormous beam of light vaporize the top half of the T-rex before going off towards the sky and vaporizing a tip of a mountain in the process.


    When she opened her eyes after seeing that ur, she quickly buried her face within her hands, before moving her hands over her face toe to her hair back.


    For a moment, she felt like pulling her hair out but she swiftly stopped herself from doing so, knowing full well that it would hurt a lot to do anything like that, especially with her strength.


    "What the hell am I supposed to do with this human." She sighed in exasperation and went back to lying on her throne.


    ***


    It had been at that point since I had met nca and fought against the beast horde. We were able to avoid the iing beast horde by going back to my skull house, before scavenging everything inside and leaving, not like there was much inside t in the first ce.


    ording to nca, the center of the rest was always the more dangerous part, therefore indicating that the closer we got to the center, the stronger the beasts would be over time.


    However, nca still chose to inform me that going past a certain distance would mean instant death even if she happened to be around to help me fight them off. ording to her, all the beasts after a certain point would be as strong, if not stronger than the enormous tentacled monster from earlier.


    "Ugh..." I let out a weak grunt before tensing my body. Even after having lived in these environments for over 6 weeks, I still had a hard time sleeping no matter when or where.


    "I''m never gonna get used to sleeping on hard floor." Iined while grunting again and pushing myself off the ground.


    "To think even after having so many upgrades to my body, I would continue to be this weak." Using both my arms, I kicked up and off the floor before beginning my stretching routine to not pull any muscles if I was ever put into a rough situation.<novelnext></novelnext>


    My eyes darted around the room until I finally found what I was looking for.


    "Good morning. How did you sleep?" nca asked, looking at me from the corner of the room in her miniature form.


    After having realized that I couldn''t take nca anywhere without attracting attention from the entire forest, making most of the weaker beings run away while attracting all the stronger opponents, nca suggested going into her miniature form.


    Her form, while being a little smaller than a normal snake, was just small enough to fully wrap herself in my arms without making me ufortable.


    Looking at nca with a slightly annoyed expression, I nodded wryly and dragged my feet to the entrance of the cave that we had situated ourselves in for the meantime, or at least until we find a better ce or are forced to move again.


    ''Annoying...'' I thought to myself, and it seemed like nca knew that I thought that way about her even though she had helped me to a certain extent in thest week.


    I didn''t know exactly why she annoyed me so much, but if I were to guess I would say it would be a mixture of the contract that she had basically forced me to pick and her nosy nature that made me hate her presence every single day.


    That is why I always chose to leave the cave whenever I could, to make sure I could get away from her for at least a few hours rather than having to deal with her all the time.


    "I''m leaving..." I told the snake coldly and quickly exited the cave without taking another look at her.


    Letting out a soft sigh, she also got up and went back to setting up the cave.


    For the next hour, I found myself strolling through the forest, making sure to use my dread to my advantage and avoid all of the extremely powerful beasts around.


    "I need to find a few more bones to make some new armor and even a few weapons... That piece of... snake didn''t tell me a single thing about weapon-making, saying ''Oh! Telling you would only make you a weaker person h h h." I spoke aloud with heavy sarcasm within my tone.


    *Rustle*


    I was going to continue speaking about the snake, but when I heard the slight rustle from my right side, I was forced to look in that direction, allowing me to see a pair of aqua blue eyes staring at me from the depth of the bush.


    Biting my tongue to stop myself from speaking, I think dashed back and avoided the iing strike that hit the tree behind me and destroyed it in the process.


    "You trying to kill me bro?" I asked with a slight chuckle.


    I found my chuckle stuck in my throat however when I was forced to roll andpletely evade 5 darts that dispersed after hitting the ground.


    "Mana..." I muttered, looking at the tiny craters on the ground with curiosity while a slight hint of amusement appeared within the smile that perked up the corners of my lips.


    "Let''s see what you can do with that mana of yours." I mused before dashing towards the creature in the bush while activating something else in the process.


    The red energy that I had now named the ''Blood energy'', enveloped my eyes before ingraining itself into my iris and bing a halo around my pupil.


    ''Blood eyes!''


    [Blood Eyes activated]


    [Hp: 120/120]


    [Mana: 30/35]

 Chapter 53 Crystal Deer

    The red energy that I had now named the ''Blood energy'', enveloped my eyes before ingraining itself into my iris and forming a halo around my pupil.


    ''Blood eyes!''


    [Blood Eyes activated]


    [Hp: 120/120]


    [Mana: 30/35]


    Dashing towards my opponent, I dodged all the manatles shot at me with ease. While at first, I couldn''t see them properly, now I could see that they weretles clearly due to my blood eyes being activated.


    I constantly moved my body with precise movement while trying my best to not waste any energy. While this made me a little slower since I was focusing my all on dodging with as little movement as possible, all that mattered was the fact that I still hadn''t gotten hit yet.


    ''Too bad I don''t have daggers on me. I would have practiced that Arsis thing.'' I thought to myself with a soft sigh after once again dodging atle that was aiming to plunge into my eye.


    "You''re a little too weak..." I whispered under my breath and in a split second, appeared right next to the creature before stabbing my hand into the bush and simultaneously reaching into its heart yet keeping it barely alive.


    Without thinking twice, I activated the red rune within that void space I enteredst time, causing the skill ''life drain'' to activate alongside it.


    I watched as red runes ran down my arms and imnted themselves into the heart of the creature, sucking its life force out and killing it almost instantly.


    After having taken the soul core and the EXP message, I couldn''t help but sigh and look down almost in defeat.


    After having killed the monstrous creature a week ago with the use of my life drain skill, I had noticed that the brightness of the runes as well as the power I felt behind them had be stronger and even a little more lethal than it had been before.


    While at first, this seemed like something good, Iter realized that there was something wrong with the skill now.


    It was demanding the lives of creatures much stronger than the one that I had just killed for the same amount of points. This seemed to be the case, especially for all my skills that have reached the 30-point mark, while other things such as my mana and hp needed creatures that specialized in both of those things. Yet even after having found one with mana, I would need to kill a few dozen more of these creatures to gain a point, something I seemed to instinctually know.


    On another hand, I had avoided killing the echidna right off the bat since I wanted to absorb some of its life energy before killing it.


    While I could still absorb life energy from a dead body as well as a soul core even after hours had passed, it didn''t mean there was no consequence to beingte.


    First of all, the life energy within a creature decreases depending on the amount of health the creature has. However, death for a creature usuallyes when there is only 20% life energy left within their bodies, but the moment they die they also lose another 10%, meaning a corpse would have a lot less life energy withinpared to a creature on the verge of death.


    "I can forget about trying to find an intelligent creature in the forest.'' I sighed to myself for the umpteenth time, already tired of being awake even though I had been asleep for 8 hours beforehand.


    My eyes drifted away from the corpse in front of me and eventually looked in the direction of the deeper part of the forest, however, without hesitation I peeled my eyes away from it.


    Going deeper meant certain death, and while I could probably take care of the weakest beasts in the deeper areas, I would probably be food for any of the average or stronger creatures of that section.


    This did not mean that there were no creatures like that in this section of the forest, it just meant that they were a lot rarer the further you branch out from the forest.


    I went on a hunt for the next few hours, trying to find the best-tasting beast rather than trying to find something that would give me stat points.


    After having killed several rats, a few insects here and there as well as a few birds that happened to be sleeping, I finally felt a tinge of dangering from a certain direction.


    Simultaneously, I felt like there was a lot of mana being exuded from the direction. The mana currents were powerful, yet at the same time, they were too far away for me to analyze them correctly.<novelnext></novelnext>


    My eyes narrowed slightly while the desire and curiosity to find out what was in that direction began to soar. Eventually, I gave in to the desire and dashed in the direction while trying to create as little noise as possible.


    [Blood Eyes activated]


    [Hp: 120/120]


    [Mana: 11/35]


    I eventually found myself crouched on a branch while my crimson-ck eyes peered at the creature below me.


    It had two beautiful horns that branched out with countless gems embroidered on them. Its two sparkling crystal-like eyes sparkled with a hint of intelligence, yet everything from its movements to its aura seemed natural and instinctual.


    The rays of the sun shone upon it with a radiance that would have caused the average man to close their eyes while grimacing in pain.


    ''A deer?'' I stifled a burst ofughter and calmed myself down without catching its attention.


    While the beast might have looked like a pocket monster from those old games that I used to y as a kid, it had an aura that made me get serious.


    ''Being around it feels dangerous.'' I thought to myself after having calmed myself down. All my dread bells were ringing, but it was only to an extent. The thing in front of me, while being stronger than the T-rex by arge margin, was still not strong enough to create a disparity close to the one I had with the T-Rex.


    ''Attacking it right now would give me a significant boost at the start of the fight, but if there is a chance that it is intelligent, I could just speak to it instead.'' I scratched my chin.


    ''Worst case scenario, the deer is both intelligent and unwilling to cooperate. In that situation the best thing to do is to hit and run... Simply running is also an option but I doubt I am as strong as it.'' I let out a tired sigh and chose to go with my wit.


    ''Should have gotten ranged weapons for this.'' were thest words that ran through my mind as I descended, touched the floor, and immediately turned into a blur.


    The reason why I hadn''t collected any of the bones so far was that most of them were of really bad quality, to the point where using my hands would be a lot more effective than using bone weapons from these weaker creatures.


    Also, one of the main reasons why I hadn''t created a weapon was because nca had promised to make me a sword created from the bones, fangs, and a few other things alongside some leather armor made out of the skin of the abomination.


    *rustle*


    The silent rustle caused the deer to instantly enter its battle mode before turning around, ready to ram anything with its horns the moment it saw theming towards its direction.


    To its surprise, all it saw was an outline of a white figure releasing a trail of crimson from its eyes and moving at a blurring speed. Without hesitation, the deer quickly stepped to the right and appeared several meters away in the blink of an eye.


    "Hm?" Confusion was evident within my expression, while my eyes darted in the direction that the deer had gone in.


    Pivoting off my hands, I did a front flip off the floor andnded safely with my bnce unaffected by the suddenck of an opponent.


    Not breaking eye contact, I mmed my foot into the ground and shot toward the deer once again, a fire of determination flickering within my eyes, and an arrogant smile stered on my face the entire time.


    This, while having confused the deer at first, still didn''t affect its reaction time. Without skipping a beat, the deer once again appeared several meters away, but instead of being as far away as possible from me, it was more than ever before.


    Its eyes widened to an unnatural level as my hand grew closer to its neck by the second, death standing on its doorstep, the key to the door being the boulder-crushing power within my grip.

 Chapter 54 I Choose Vengeance

    [Thank you WitchOfAgony for the Castle. Here are the two extra chapters.]


    The moment the deer had disappeared the first time, I saw a strange sh of mana and light through my blood eyes skill. However, I didn''t have much time to think about what was happening since only a secondte,r I found myself growing closer to the ground and getting ever so closer to a facent.


    However, the second time I had shot toward the deer, I saw the same sh of light, causing a smile to grow from the corner of my mouth and reach from ear to ear.


    [Pinpoint]


    Without hesitation, I used the pinpoint skill and immediately found where it was going to appear again.


    While normally, the pinpoint skill would be used to find the weakness in your opponent, I had found a way to use it in this context, since technically the deer''snding spot was its weakness.


    Within the instant where the light would sh and the deer would appear again, I had shut my eyes and shot to where it would appear once again before opening my eyes and extending my hand towards its throat.


    Its eyes widened momentarily, making me believe that I had gotten it and was about to kill it. My dreams were, however, suddenly crushed after the look within its iris went from being one of shock, to one of acknowledgment.


    ''Crap.''


    *Boom*


    I felt a blunt yet extremely painful sensation spread out from my stomach and into my chest area while simultaneously, several cracks could be heard resonating out from my body.


    Afterward, all that I could feel was the wind blowing against me as my body crashed, bounced, and smashed right through several trees and eventually catapulting me into the mud face first.


    *Boom*


    Therge puddle of mud reaching almost 3 meters deep and 10 meters in diameter, immediately shot out and exploded, causing a wave of mud to go in each direction.


    Out of it came my wounded body covered from head to toe in mud that was slowly falling off me. While at first, I might have seemed fine, standing tall with a straight back and looking at the deer with killing intent exuding out of my body, that visage was shattered when a knelt forward to puke out 3 mouthfuls of blood.


    ''Damnit...'' I gritted my teeth through the pain and stood up. I knew that fighting this creature without the help of the snake would have been slightly stupid, but relying on the snake would have been detrimental in the long run.


    What was I supposed to do in a year when the snake leaves me behind? Fall to my fears and regress to fighting things weaker than me, never growing in the process? No! I was still scared of death, something evident when looking at my shivering hand, but I was not willing to fall in front of something I had a chance of killing.


    No longer was I going to submit to my fate. No longer would I kneel in front of the strong and only prey on the weak. With that mentality, I would never get my revenge on the elven people who destroyed my and killed my people.


    My fists were now clenched as I knelt forward and shot toward the deer with all the power that I could muster within my legs. My eyes were ring with rage. I was not as angry as I was when I had met the T-rex for the second time, but I was still feeling enough emotion to make the red energy leave my body in the form of killing intent.


    I still didn''t know how to manipte my mana like the echidna that I had seen earlier, but I had learned what to do to a certain extent.


    Controlling a minute part of the red energy that I had renamed the ''Blood energy'', I pushed it into my arm and at that very moment felt like my muscles were about to explode.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Feeling the immense pain and energy radiating within my right arm, I cocked it back, ready to release it onto the deer at a second''s notice.


    The deer''s eyes narrowed at me, following me with its piercing gaze and ready to attack whenever I got too close.


    My figure blurred and appeared in front of the deer, yet not close enough that its horns would have blocked me from leaving from my right or left.


    However, before I could take another step, I saw that the gems within the branch-like horns began to glow with the color of the respective gem.


    The glow was bright and piercing, yet due to me having my blood eyes on, it did not affect me to the extent that it would have affected anyone else on my level.


    Yet, when the dread fell onto my mind with the weight of a mountain. Every cell in my body told me to run away and hide as far away as possible from the attack that was about to form, yet I kept moving forward to execute the n I created in that split second.


    It was not that I didn''t trust the dread to tell me when I was in danger, I was trusting it with my life right now.


    After having entered the area where I could not directly move right or left, I closed my eyes and perked up my senses. Everything from the wind that was moving along my skin to the mana around me or even the sound of the wooshing winds. I used every sense I had and added my dread to it before I finally felt something.


    ''I will never die to the likes of you.'' My eyes opened wide, this time seeing the face of the elf that had killed my parents instead of the head of a deer.


    In a split second, my entire bodyy on the ground and slid under the deer who by now had shot a huge white beam of light with so much power that it incinerated almost everything in front of it.


    Even though I had dodged the radius of the attack at thest second, I could still feel the scorching heat hit my skin and make me grimace in pain, but that was the least of my worries.


    Twisting on the floor as I slid below the deer, I now found myself facing it whilepletely ignoring the pain that was radiating from my face as well as the blood that trickled down my forehead and into my head.


    Standing up at thest second, I pivoted and twirled off my right foot before directing the power of my fist to the side of the deer who hadn''t even realized what had happened in the split second where he had let out his attack.


    *Swoosh*


    "I''ll kill all of you." I muttered breathlessly as my fist got closer to its target.


    "I''ll avange my family." Another st of blood energy left my body, this time covering my arm like an ethereal gauntlet before it-


    *BOOM*


    *CRASH*


    The deer''s body went flying and crashed into several trees, destroying them in the process and leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

 Chapter 55 Awaken, And You Shall Never Truly Die Again.

    The deer''s body went flying and crashed into several trees, destroying them in the process and leaving a path of destruction in its wake.


    Without skipping a beat, I mmed my foot on the floor causing cracks to cobweb around my foot. In the next second, I had disappeared with the only indication of me having stood there being the small dust cloud that I had left behind.


    Appearing in front of the deer that had been slowing down due to constantly mming against different trees, I raised my foot into the air and got ready to smash my leg down on it and perform an ax kick.


    *BOOM*


    A dust cloud was kicked up due to the power behind my attack, yet even then I was far from done. I could still see that the deer while being damaged, was still breathing fine even though its breaths were heavy.


    ''Pinpoint''


    [Pinpoint activated]


    [Hp: 92/120]


    [Mana: 8/35]


    As if on instinct, my foot shot in the direction of the glowing red area and kicked it in its side, smashing my foot into a broken rib and causing it to howl in pain before being catapulted away.


    "That should be enough..." I muttered under my breath as another drip of blood trickled out of my mouth. However, since I didn''t want it to dry onto my face, I quickly wiped it off and began walking towards the deer, my blood eyes still active but my pinpoint now off.


    Strolling my way to the deer''s body with a slight limp, I looked at its unconscious body as well as its ragged breathing. It was only then that I finally crouched down and touched its body while muttering-


    "Life Drain..."


    The rune within the void world that I had enteredst time began to shine with a crimson light. While therger red rune seemed to be connected to two other smaller runes, only one of them shone and began to shine brighter.


    The other red rune seemed to have already been shining with its bright crimson light, being connected to another rune this time even smaller than it. That other rune, however, was still dull and did not activate at all.


    The life drain rune shone and transferred its crimson radiance into the blood energy that traveled out of the void world, into my body and down my arm, and finally imnting itself into the body of the deer.


    I could see all my nerves, veins and arteries light up as the energy within the deer was sucked into my body, but after around 20 seconds of waiting, I finally saw the screen that I had been waiting for all this time.


    [Life Drainplete]


    [You have killed a Crystal Deer]


    [You have gained +750 EXP]


    [You have leveled up]


    [Level 10]


    [Progress: 0/51 200


    [You have absorbed 1 soul core from an Elemental Crystal Deer]


    [Calcting difference in strength]


    [Calcting amount of life absorbed]


    [Hp: 113/120]


    [Mana: 7/10]


    [Stats-


    HP:24


    Strength: 31


    Agility: 30 (+1)


    Intelligence: 27 (+1)


    Vitality: 33


    Mana: 8 (+1)


    Defence: 0 ]


    The moment my agility hit 30 points, I felt an overwhelming sense of lightness that made me feel like I could move as fast as sound with the grace of a butterfly. I could feel that the energy within my body was increasing at the same time, but the difference wasn''t asrge as the one I was feeling due to my agility.


    However, my gaze moved to something else, making me narrow my eyes in confusion.


    ''Elemental crystal deer?'' I thought while scratching my cheek, but something else immediately right after, as if trying to answer my question.


    [Several affinities can be sensed within the soul core of the Elemental Crystal Deer]


    ''Hm?''


    [Picking out affinity]


    [Your understanding of the space element is too low]


    [Your understanding of the air element is too low]


    [You can choose to gain an affinity to one of the following:<novelnext></novelnext>


    ~~Common~~


    -Fire


    Understanding: Intermediate (due to your low understanding of the air element)


    -Earth


    Understanding: Superior


    -Water


    Understanding: Intermediate


    -Air


    Understanding: Basic [Locked]


    ~~Unique~~


    -Space


    Understanding: Below Basic [Locked] ]


    My eyes widened a little before narrowing back down after reading the rest of the words that shone on the red screen before me.


    Slowly, I stood up from my crouched position and began to think about all the elements, and what I would do with each of them. I also thought about which one I needed more at that moment.


    While it might seem stupid to not think about the future and other long-term ns, I had to think about my current self first rather than choosing something that would only help meter in life.


    ''What is the point of making long term ns if I won''t live up to them? I could choose fire and build it up from scratch while trying my hardest to not die in the process. At the same time, I could try and go for the easy option and survive instead. I have 4 lives, not infinite lives. Even I can die permanently if I don''t take proper care.''


    And with that thought in my mind, I once again took one more look over the screen and finally chose using my brain rather than instinctually choosing what an anime character with plot armor would have chosen.


    A wry smile stretched out from the corner of my lips while my eyes glimmered, waiting for the system message to appear in front of me once again.


    [You have chosen ''earth'' as your element]


    [The earth element is coursing through your veins]


    [The world''s elemental energies are blessing you with the power of mana]


    [Your body is already ustomed to mana]


    [Blood energy is running rampant]


    My eyes widened immediately as the feeling of something waiting to explode caused my heart to drop.


    Unbeknownst to me, that very thing had already exploded outwards and had devoured the blessing of mana, making it go from a light blue harmonious energy to a crimson sinister one.


    The sinister mana left anything within a distance of 100 meters frozen, before finally.


    [Mana awakening has failed]


    [System intervention needed]


    [Blood energy is intervening in the awakening process.


    I felt surges of mana forcibly move to the will of the blood energy as well as the system. However, even though the blood energy was intervening, I could not feel any of my mana leave my body at that moment, meaning that it was getting its energy from somewhere else entirely... Something that wasn''t mine...


    [117.9 billion souls are ¡ê$(*&(¡ê!"]


    [System malfunction]


    Fear was beginning to seep into my body


    What was happening?!


    Why was this happening?


    What the hell did I do to make this ur?


    What does it mean by 117.9 billion souls?!


    How the hell can the system malfunction!?


    I wanted to pull my hair out, but due to the amount of pressure that had fallen upon me the moment I saw the word awakening on my screen, I couldn''t move a single muscle.


    It was only then that a voice entered my mind, a voice that I would never forget.


    A familiar set of words that send shivers down my spine to this day.


    "Awaken, and you shall never truly die again."


    [End Of Volume 1 - The Birth Of The First Immortal]

 Chapter 56 Humanitys Inheritance

    "Awaken, and you shall never truly die again."


    *BOOOM*


    The winds instantly picked up again. The mana in the air became visible due to the increase in its concentration, creating a dazzling yet destructive cyclone of mana.


    I could hear the winds howl around me loud enough to cause blood to trickle out of my ears.


    The mana in the air was so thick that it made breathing hard and the air felt like a dense gas entering my lungs and weighing me down.


    It felt like my lungs were made out of the densest metal on earth, barely expanding and contracting when I tried to breathe.


    ''Ah... Crap... I can''t... Breath.'' I struggled to even think was the cyclone slowly ripped the air out of my lungs and forcibly contracted them.


    Unbeknownst to me, my heart had red up with blood energy and slowly burned the mana around me, turning it red in the process. This only increased in speed as the blood energy expanded further, before finally, the blood energy had its grasp on every particle of mana that entered the cyclone.


    From a distance, one would only see an enormous tempest rising from the ground, and going up to the clouds and sky, uprooting dozens if not hundreds of trees in the process.


    Every creature that saw this disy began to run in the other direction. However, there was only one creature that recognized the energy, making them look towards the area with widened eyes.


    nca, the white snake was looking in the direction of the cyclone while shivering in fear. It knew the energy it was feeling and could remember it ever since her first encounter with what she considered to be a "Complete monster."


    To this day, she still got nightmares of the things she saw when she had looked into my eyes.


    A crimson sky filled to the brim with red objects that seemed to peer into her very soul.


    Shrill screams resounded for thousands of meters while faces appeared within the cyclone, each one screaming in what seemed like pain, anguish, and suffering.


    In the center, I felt my consciousness start to fade while my feet slowly lifted off the ground, rising up and eventually reaching the center in height.


    The clouds thundered with crimson lightning bolts shooting down from the skies, obliterating everything and anything in its wake.


    It looked like the start of an apocalypse. An apocalypse that would awaken from the depths of the earth and incinerate everything within its path.


    [Energy insufficient]


    [Large-scale system intervention required]


    [117.9 billion souls have chosen to assist the immortal''s awakening]


    [1 Immortality token sacrificed]


    Barely opening my eyes, I watched as countless hands pushed through the red cyclone and pointed their palms towards me.


    Some of their palms shone with a dim light barely brighter than the blood cyclone around me, while others shone with enough light to blond the sun itself.


    I couldn''t understand what was happening or why it was happening. Wasn''t this kind of random? Wasn''t this kind of over the top? My bloodline had already changed from a lesser human to an awakened human, so why did I have to awaken again?


    Those were all the questions that ran through my mind, yet not one of them was answered. Instead, I could only help but raise more and more questions until finally.


    [Body reconstruction]


    I felt my muscles and organs tear apart, my tissues being torn and destroyed while my cells were ripped into smaller insignificant segments of what they used to be.<novelnext></novelnext>


    My vision had already turned red but just a secondter, I watched as everything turned ck and the familiar void once again consumed me.


    I once again felt light, as if I could move anywhere and everywhere at the same time within this void.


    It was a space filled with billions of red stars that I could see in the distance, yet while I tried and even felt capable of moving to them to see them up close, I would never get past a certain point, as if the stars themselves were running away.


    I sat within this void for countless... I didn''t even know how long I had been there. It was as if time was moving quickly, yet at the same time extremely slow.


    It was a sensation that made me feel old and young at the same time, something I was almost certain no other human being has ever felt in their lifetime.


    Eventually, the lights in the distance began to dim one by one, burning out and disappearing before my very eyes. I watched them leave and I watched them re up for what seemed like thest time...


    This was the case for all but one of these stars.


    That star only grew brighter. Its light pierced through the void and lightening up like a supernova.


    It was only then that my eyes widened, as two things appeared before me and caused my nonexistent heart to quicken and beat loudly in my ears.


    It was a part ofrge crimson hands that appeared before me, the pressure they emanated more menacing than anything I had ever felt before. More menacing than the pressure I felt from that blood elf I had met before my first death.


    "Long ago, use humans lost the ability to use magic..."


    I was left dumbstruck.


    This thing appeared out of nowhere just to tell me a story!?


    "However, you shall not suffer the same fate as those who went astray. Those who chose their measly technology over infinite power..." The ''hands'' continued


    I didn''t know where the sound of its voice wasing from, but for now, I didn''t have the leisure to question it.


    "As humanity''sst, you shall be given an advantage above all."


    ''Could have sworn being immortal was quite the advantage, but I''m not here toin.''


    Contemting its words for a few seconds, I did not waver and continued to watch the suspended hands.


    After a moment of silence, I felt my patience run low. Fortunately, the hands began to speak again from god knows where the sound came from. I was just hoping that it wouldn''t be from where I was imagining it toe from, otherwise, it would be slightly awkward.


    "I hope we meet again someday, so don''t die on us... You are ourst hope after all." A faint chuckle could be heard in its voice causing me to widen my eyes a little.


    "Our?" I asked, confused by the wording, yet before I could get my answer, I loud and mind-rattling ''ding'' entered my mind, causing me to wince in pain and look at the screen that had appeared in front of me.


    [Your actions and existence have been recognized]


    [You have been deemed a worthy sessor]


    [Would you like to receive the Human race''s inheritance?]


    [Yes] [No]

 Chapter 57 The Immortal Sovereigns Inheritance

    [Massive thank you to Renni92 for the spacecraft. Here is the first of the 4 chapters]


    ---------------------------------------------------------------


    [You have been deemed a worthy sessor]


    [Would you like to receive the Human race''s inheritance?]


    [Yes] [No]


    "Yes yes yes yes yes!" I shouted aloud on ident, yet it did not seem to gain a reaction from the pair of hands in front of me.


    "Good luck in your path. It will be filled with blood and destruction, but with this inheritance, you shall stand at the top no matter what. As long as you strive for something, the universe shall grant it. That is the fate of an endling. That is the fate of the first immortal."


    As those words resounded within my ears, I could not help but feel a strange sense of patriotism. It wasn''t patriotism for a country or empire, nor was it a patriotism for Earth and everything it stood for.


    This patriotism that grew in me represented my humanity. A feeling that would make me feel like I would fight against the universe for my people. The people who had deemed me worthy and had chosen me to be their final anchor in this world.


    "I won''t let you down." A re of determination lit up within my eyes as I looked forward with a clenched fist, vowing to myself that I would never break that promise.


    ''And I hope that I meet you guys again... Mom, Dad, Emily, Alex... And you too, Crystal.''


    I closed my eyes and finally found myself entering a world of pain.


    The sounds of the howling winds finally entered my ears while the mana and energy from the palms slowly reconstructed my body, alongside the power of the immortality token that I could only begrudgingly ept being taken away from me.


    However, before I could think any further and fall into the cycle of grief and pain over remembering all the things that I had lost once again, I felt the pain intensify as the remaining bones, tendons and tissues reconstructed, leaving my body to look almost brand new.


    [You have epted Humanity''s inheritance]


    [This is a unique inheritance]


    [The system has recognized your achievement]


    [You have automatically epted and gained the ''Immortal Sovereign''s Inheritance'']


    [This is a unique inheritance]


    "Looks like I didn''t even have a choi-the..." identally biting down on my tongue, I felt as if this ''new'' body would be a curse for quite a while, or at least for as long as it would take me to learn how to use it properly again.


    ''Hey, appraisal?'' I asked,plying to only using my thoughts tomunicate with the system rather than speaking aloud.


    ''What is a unique inheritance?'' I asked


    [Unique tier: This tier''s definition is broad. It could mean that you are the only person with this power or item in history. it could mean that no one can have this item or power at the same time as you, making you the sole owner, or it could mean that this is a special ability that has been created by you or solely for you, passable to only those you desire to bless with this skill, technique, item or power.]


    "Hmm?" I scratched my chin in contemtion.


    ''So then, are my inheritances solely mine, passed on from someone or-'' Before I could finish my question, I was interrupted by the sudden appearance of another screen with a few words on it.


    [Humanity''s Inheritance: An Inheritance created by humanity and passed on to bless its final anchor.]


    [Immortal Sovereign''s Inheritance: An Inheritance created by the system solely for the use of the entity Ezra -----. This inheritance can only be passed on to other possibly existing immortals, or to direct blood-rted rtives]


    ''Why is my surname nked out? It should say... It should say...'' I paused with an agape and shocked expression as my eyes started forwards at the red screen with white letters.


    It was only then that I felt my feet touch the ground, before seemingly losing my bnce almost immediately and nearly falling face-first into the ground below. Surprisingly, however, I found myself regaining my bnce and staying upright, refusing to fall and leaving myself slightly wobbly.


    However, while that might have been one of my concerns at that moment, it was far from my primary concern.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Why can''t I remember my name?!'' I inwardly screamed in panic.


    I was so panicked at that moment in time that I hadn''t realized that the crimson cyclone was beginning to slow down, as well as the thick dark clouds that had formed for the sole purpose of raining down a dark red liquid while shooting crimson lightning bolts now and then.


    ''Appraisal! Surname!''


    [You do not have a surname]


    ''Why!?''


    [You have not assigned yourself one]


    ''Alright, then why the hell can''t I remember what my surname was?!''


    [The system had intervened and had seen it more beneficial if you leave your mortal name behind.]


    ''Why!?''


    [That is for you to find out]


    ''Wha... What!?''


    [Some things are better unsaid]


    ''That''s not how you use the quote...'' Taking in a deep breath, I massaged the bridge of my nose in annoyance while my eyebrows and corner of my mouth could be seen twitching every few seconds as if they were trying to hold back something from being released.


    It was only then that I realized that the mana around me was bing thinner by the second, while at the same time the blood energy within me as well as the earth mana began to be more and more enriched with energy.


    I could feel an enormous amount of power circte through my body, making every single muscle feel robust and brand new, which it technically was.


    ''I feel so powerful. Is that what awakening is? The power to wield mana? But I was able to wield mana before so what''s the difference?''


    [You have sessfully awakened your mana]


    [Humanity''s inheritance had caused an imbnce]


    [Immortality inheritance had caused an imbnce]


    [Due to the use of an immortality token, your evolver trait has activated]


    [Human bloodline awakened...]


    [You have evolved into a True Human]


    [You have evolved into a True Awakened human]


    [Dormant bloodline is trembling within you]


    [The dormant Abomination bloodline is threatening to awaken]


    [The abomination bloodline has been consumed by the True Awakened Human bloodline]


    [Congrattions!]


    [You havepleted the achievement:


    -Awaken a Primordial Bloodline-]

 Chapter 58 Blancas New Form

    [You havepleted the achievement:


    -Awaken a Primordial Bloodline-]


    I looked at my screen with a neutral gaze now. I already had way too many surprises for one day and so far, I didn''t even know what I had suddenly awakened. The only thing I could think of was the fact that I had gained an element, and how that could have been the overarching reason for this awakening.


    Eventually, however, I was forced to sigh in exasperation and throw the rest of the inquiries to the back of my mind since right in front of me, there was a term that I could not understand.


    ''Appraisal Primordial bloodline''


    [Unable to appraise]


    "DAMNIT!" My eyes darted around to0 find something to kick, but I quickly realized that there was nothing around in at least a few hundred meters. Not a single tree stood tall nor did a rock somehow stay put. Everything was uprooted and flung away, and all that was due to my awakening.


    Since 90% of the cyclone had already dissipated, I could see right through the thinning mana and into the distance. Quickly activating my blood eyes skill, I narrowed my eyes and found myself looking at a shivering white snake, looking at me from the distance with fear and reverence within its eyes.


    "That feels pretty far... Wait, why can I even see that-" The question died within my throat as my energy to remain speaking ran out. This wasn''t physical exhaustion but rather mental exhaustion.


    Not trying to question anything anymore, I wore a tired expression and tried to walk out of the cyclone.


    While I felt a tinge of resistance, I found myself capable of leaving without much of a problem. However, while I might have not felt anything, the cyclone seemed to shatter while the remaining energy in the air suspended mid-air and shot in my direction.


    [You have created an earth elemental seed]


    ''Oh? Seems like the elements be seeds inside you... Cool''


    After walking for almost half an hour, I finally found myself bumping into something sturdy andrge, forcing me to look forward and instinctually move into a defensive stance. Theck of dread was not something that I recognized due to my fatigue, causing me to immediately get into a position where I would have attacked instantly if I had not looked up in time.


    In front of me stood a being with pristine crystalline white scales with a few bright red runic patterns on almost all its scales.


    "nca?" I asked while looking up to lock with the eyes of the snake that were looking at me with wariness, yet because the contract hadn''t been broken yet, the wariness was only on a surface level and had not gone any deeper.


    "Seems like you awakened?" She replied in a nonchnt tone of voice.


    ''Uncaring? That wasn''t what I saw when you were shuddering earlier.'' I thought with a tinge of annoyance and slightly narrowed eyes.


    "Give me a ride will you?" I tried to chuckle but it came out dry and croaky.


    "Oh... Sorry." nca quickly lowered her head and allowed me to mount her andy down on the top of her head since she was now in her full form rather than being in her miniature that she had been using for thest week.


    The moment I felt my head touch the surface of its skin, I felt an overwhelming sense of drowsiness ovee me, immediately throwing me into a deep yetforting slumber...


    ***<novelnext></novelnext>


    Fluttering my eyelids open, I was forced to squint as a piercing light hit my eyes and made my pupils shrink.


    Even though my awakening had been slightly rough on me due to the light shining in my eyes as well as the rough ground I could feel under my head, I still felt exceptionally good after having woken up.


    It felt as if my body had been satiated and filled with a vigor that I had been yearning to have for thest 6 weeks.


    Pushing myself off the ground, my eyes could not help but analyze my body for a few seconds before my mind came up with a valid conclusion after having recalled everything that had happened previous to my sleep.


    I could see that my muscles had be toned, all of them bulging and visible to the naked eyes.


    Everything from my calves to my shoulders felt and looked like they had been carved out of stone and made into the body of a Greek god.


    Looking at my arms, I realized that they had be exceptionally bigger than before. While at first I might have been considered a good tones athlete mainly focused on running, no I could probably enter a bodybuildingpetition and win on the definition of my muscles alone.


    "You''ve slept for a while, haven''t you?" A familiar feminine voice entered my ears and made me look to my right where I saw something that almost made me scream out like a little girl.


    A few meters to my side sat the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Everything from her long ck hair to her jade-like skin had an almost divine radiance, but who was I to decide what looked divine and what didn''t?


    ? All I could say was that she was outstanding in every way shape or form, to a point where it had almost made me overlook the red runic symbol, moreplex than anything I had seen if I were to not count the runic pattern in the void world.


    "Holy mother of..." My mouth was left agape.


    "Mother of?" She turned her head to the side, cutely while blinking her eyes rapidly in confusion.


    "How!?" I asked


    "I have the morphing ability. You would have known if you actually listened to anything I said when we talked. Instead, you look in the air as if it was more interesting than me. That is why I analyzed you and all the images of the elves and dwarves I could find to create something simr and more eye-catching than anything you can imagine! Hahaha!" Sheughed victoriously and pointed at my expression which had been frozen into one of shock for thest 30 seconds.


    ''Try to look away from me now! I must look like everything any man could desire!'' She thought to herself almost childishly.


    ''Her character seems a bit unstable... Maybe morphing all the time changes someones personality?'' I thought to myself almost mockingly.


    Looking at her from top to bottom, I could not help but praise her choice of clothing.


    She was wearing a white Chinese dress that reached from top to bottom and barely showed her skin, yet that still did not leave much to the imagination. Just like most of the west in my era, she wore extremely tight clothes that would outline her figure to an extent that would make Asmodeus proud.


    However, after taking my first nce I did not dare take a second, focusing my gaze on the red rune on her forehead before moving my eyes back towards the entrance of the cave.


    While this might have made nca speechless, I instead focused on something else...


    ''Show me my stat screen. Both of them''

 Chapter 59 Level-Up Mission

    From analyzing my body alone, I was able to conclude that this dramatic change must havee with a stat change.


    An example of this is extensive exercise.


    After ''breaking my limits,'' or in other words, simply building muscle, stamina, or agility, I would gain a stat point in the respective category.


    This was the case with stat points too. If I gained a stat point and happened to put it in a category, my body would change at a fundamental level, changing its structure building up from the cells to muscle and organ tissues, and finally refining the organs and muscles themselves to function more efficiently.


    ''If my theories about stat points are true, then I should see quite the change when ites to my stats.''


    [Status


    Name: Ezra ----


    Age: 19


    Sex: Male


    Level: 10


    Immortality Tokens: 3


    Affinities: Earth (Lvl 1)


    Bloodline(s): True Awakened Human


    Unique Trait: Evolver, Humanity''s Inheritance, Immortal Sovereign''s Inheritance


    Title(s): Craftsmith (Lvl 1), Warrior (Lvl 1), Seeker of Death (Lvl 1), Lumberjack (Lvl 1), Humanity''s Endling(Null), Transgressor of Time(Null)


    Skill(s): Appraisal (Lvl 1)


    Blessing(s): Chrono''s Blessing ]


    [Stats-


    HP: 30


    Strength: 40


    Agility: 40


    Intelligence: 40


    Vitality: 40


    Mana: 10


    Defence: 0 ]


    I was left shocked once again. I couldn''t even count how many times I had been left shocked due to this awakening, all I knew was that the number was beginning to reach the dozens.


    ''Isn''t this kind of op!? And when the hell did I reach level 10?'' I inwardly shouted, unaware of the gaze that lingered on me for a prolonged amount of time.


    ''What the hell is he looking at?'' thought nca with crossed arms and puffed out chest.


    On my side, however, I was caught off guard by another thing that appeared on the screen.


    [You cannot add any additional points to strength]


    [You cannot add any additional points to agility]


    [You cannot add any additional points to intelligence]


    [You cannot add any additional points to vitality]


    ''So the max is 40?''


    [You must reach level 11 to increase stat points]


    My eyes immediately lit up as I slowly turned my head towards nca who was huffing and puffing at the fact that I refused to acknowledge her presence.


    Only when she felt my gaze did her eyes also light up like sparling stars while looking at me and asking "Are you ready to acknowledg-." She felt the question die in her throat when she felt an aura exuding out of me.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''A battle aura? No... That''s just battle intent.'' She thought to herself, now wearing a serious expression rather than her goofy yful, and childish one


    "nca... How about we go out for a hunt or two?" I asked her, making her immediately push herself off the ground and stand up straight with her arms still crossed. This time, however, she let out a malicious grin, an act that solidified my previous theory on how her mentality would change every time she would morph into a different size, shape, or entity.


    Usually, nca in her natural form would be a cold yet almost natural kind of person. Everything about her seemed authentic, but it did feel like she held a lot back.


    Her smaller form on the other hand usually caused her to be more arrogant and boasting, making it annoying to be around but at the same time, less of a nuisance since she wasn''t so big anymore.


    Her human form seems to be the most bipr out of all of them. From the moment my eyesnded on her, I could feel the trickery in her eyes, the outgoing aura, and even the dangerous amount of lust she was exuding.


    "Right now?" She asked with a hint of excitement.


    ''Looks like she is a battle maniac too in this form.'' I snickered to myself,pletely unaware of the fact that I was acting the exact same way as her.


    "Of course. But first tell me where we are and how long I had been out for."


    "About a week and a half. Also, we went around the deeper areas of the forest so we are technically on the other side of the forest." She replied almost as if she was waving off the question so she could hear what we were about to do.


    "Ah, I see... Alright, we should get going."


    "Where?!" She shouted impatiently


    "To find the dungeon of reverence." I grinned and also pushed myself off the ground.


    "The dungeon of reverence? I''ve never heard of such a ce in my life..." nca raised a brow, yet her excitement did not diminish. Instead, I only watched her fighting spirit soar, a reaction that made me almost forget who she was and why she was even following me.


    "You shall see." I replied with an even bigger grin than before.


    After our little exchange, we both left the forest with smiles on our faces. We both knew that this dungeon that I was talking about would be spectacr, but it seemed like one of us knew more than the other.


    "So uhm... Where are we going?" nca asked while skipping alongside me.


    I on the other hand seemed to have problems cing my foot in areas that wouldn''t trip me over, yet over time I was slowly getting the hang of it.


    However, seeing nca''s quick mastery of her bipedal body, I could not help but grit my teeth and close my eyes for a second, remembering why I disliked her so much and who she truly was.


    "Don''t worry, I know where we are going..."


    "Yeah, but I''d still like to know where we are going. It would be quite a shame if I were to be thrown into a trap by the man I trust so much.~"


    My brows instantly furrowed while I let out a simple sigh. What was I supposed to do if this bi-... Anyway, after hearing what she had said I felt an annoying itch in my fists, something that only increased when I saw her appear a few meters in front of me and begin to stretch casually even though I knew that the intention of this action was.


    Closing my eyes, I could only think of one thing as the scent of her hair wafted into my nose.


    ''The Lord is testing me. Whether he is testing my patience, my anger, or my self-restraint is another question all in itself... System-level up mission please''


    [Level-Up Mission Received]


    [Level-Up Mission: Enter and defeat 25 dungeons]


    [Conditions:


    -You are given a map to locate all nearby dungeons


    -You have lost the ability to level up


    -You cannot have more than 40 points on any stat until the mission isplete]


    [Information: Enter 25 dungeons of which at least 15 had been created by Gaia, theary spirit of Earth. In these pocket dimensions, time can move slower or much faster than the outside world. Dungeons are made to help those within the by giving them recourses, battles, and experiences that one cannot get on the itself. You shall temporarily be given a dungeon radar.]


    [Reward:


    -1 Immortality token


    -10 000 Immortality points (Shop)


    -Any items you gain from the dungeons


    -Permenant Dungeon Radar]

 Chapter 60 Dungeon Of Reverence

    Looking at my radar, I could see that there was a dungeon 30 miles away from me. While at first, that might seem like a lot, I was aware that the forest I was in was much bigger than just 30 miles and was probably iparable to the size of the Brazilian Amazon forest.


    ''It mightpare to the tundra in size.'' I concluded while looking around me.


    After walking for a while, we both began to run at full speeds or to be urate, I ran at full speeds while nca wasn''t even breaking a sweat.


    She seemed to be enjoying the run more than I was, trying to run in front of me and show herself off to catch me off guard, yet I persisted in not looking at her at all during this journey.


    One useful thing I did get out of this run was my analysis of my running speed, but not my strength. After finally learning how to walk without tripping, I increased my speed to a light jog, then a brisk, then a run, and finally an all-out sprint.


    I felt the wind push against my face, yet due to my intelligence stat having been increased to 40, as well as my vitality stat that increased my stamina, I found myself easily running the whole distance without tiring or identally hitting anything.


    My intelligence stat, while seeming like a simple one that only increased my overall intelligence, did much more than it seemed on the surface of things.


    My reaction speed had increased dramatically, making me see everything in slow-motion at times when I would be forced to make a split-second decision. I could also sense that my calction speed had skyrocketed, while my reaction speed also did the same thing.


    However, when it came to fights it is always better to rely on my instincts rather than calcting every single thing that happened. Sure, my intelligence is high and therefore I won''t get mentally exhausted as fast as before, but if I move instinctually, I wouldn''t have to rely on my mental stamina and would rather just focus on the fight as well as the battle tactics that I might apply.


    After having moved through the forest for a little more than 2 hours, we finally found ourselves in front of a tunnel or cave that seemed to have been carved out extremely well, to where it could sustain itself for probably hundreds of years without falling apart.


    Taking a step forward, I felt a hand grip my arm, making me look back at nca''s serious expression, followed by a slight shake of the head.


    While I would have normally felt surprised by seeing the sudden mood switch from a goofy, lustful, and even teasing aura to a more refined and cold one, I simply nodded for her to carry on saying what she wanted to say. Making a joke or saying anything else would put me on her level, and I would never want that for myself.


    ''She is more annoying in her humanoid form, but at least she is easier to be around now... Before she felt distant, cold, annoying, and uncaring, but now she feels a lot more... Human?''


    "I don''t think we should go in." She said with a visible frown creasing her forehead.


    "Why?" I asked with a raised brow.


    "Can''t you feel the aura that it is releasing?" She asked, this time a tinge of desperation shining within her eyes.


    "Yes, but it ain''t that bad." I shrugged and waited for her to tell me what the real problem was.


    "Isn''t that bad?! The feeling I am getting from that cave is strong enough to make every single beast in the area flee without looking back. It was almost ominous in nature. I feel like I am suffocating by standing in front of it!" She cried out, making me frown in return.


    My eyes darted towards the cave and with a single word, a screen appeared in front of my eyes.


    ''Appraisal''


    [Appraising...]


    [Appraisal Complete]


    [Dungeon of Reverence]


    [Powerlevel: Mid-Mortal]


    [Information: This is a dungeon that can be challenged as a party with a maximum of 5 people. Beasts are highly repelled by the aura of this dungeon and are severely weakened when inside. The dungeon of reverence is a tunnel-like pocket dimension.


    [Threat Level: Low - Dying is close to impossible]<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Ah, don''t worry about it." I replied before grabbing the hand that was holding onto my arm and dragging her along with me.


    Her eyes widened in surprise after she felt the amount of power within my grip, but she quickly freed herself when she sensed that the sensation gripping around her throat was bing denser and even more powerful than before.


    "I''m not going... Please... I don''t want to go in." She almost pleaded.


    My eyes flickered for a second when I saw her pitiful state. I could not help but clench my teeth while the visage of someone I used to know appeared in the ce of her figure.


    Yet unlike the woman in front of me, she didn''t plead. In fact, the woman I knew was strong. She didn''t let anyone stand in her way and always chose to do things on her own, barely epting help from anyone else, including me.


    Compared to her, I was living in luxury. Yet every day she would refuse my help even though I was the person closest to her. I was the man she was going to get married to and therefore, I could not simply forget who she was.


    She was the love of my life, but those elves took her. And today I saw her once again, yet in the face of someone that was not her.


    ''No... They are nothing alike.'' I thought with a slightly cold expression.


    nca recognized this and immediately shuddered, trying her best to not look into my eyes so she wouldn''t have to see those nightmarish scenes anymore.


    "Then stay here..." I replied with a monotone voice and narrowed cold ck eyes with a crimson ring encapsting my pupil.


    [Requirments met]


    [Activating Blood eyes]


    [Author''s note: 1 more chapter to go. Again, thank you very much for the spacecraft Renni92]


    --------------------Rewards--------------------


    Golden Tickets (Per month):


    -Top 200 = 1 Extra Chapter


    ? -Top 100 = 5 Extra Chapters


    -Top 50 = 10 Extra Chapters


    -------------------------------------------------


    Gifts:


    -Castle = 2 Extra Chapter


    -Spacecraft = 4 Extra Chapters


    -Golden Gachapon = 6 Extra Chapters


    -------------------------------------------------

 Chapter 61 Goblin?

    "Then stay here..." I replied with a monotone voice and narrowed cold ck eyes with a crimson ring encapsting my pupil.


    [Requirments met]


    [Activating Blood eyes]


    Walking into the cave without saying a word, I finally arrived at the ce where I felt waves of energy.


    I looked into the depth of the shifting and distorted space, my eyes narrowing slightly. Every hair on my body had begun to stand, but it was not due to fear. The reason was quite simple actually...


    My body was reacting to the mana.


    Every single cell in my body seemed to yearn and scream with the desire of swallowing the mana and keeping it locked within them. They were reacting with the excitement of a lion that hadn''t seen food for weeks.


    "This should be easy..." I tried to pump myself up and get my mind out of the stupor that I had thrown myself into after talking with nca.


    I didn''t feel guilty for the way I talked to her. In my eyes, she was simply useless in every way possible.


    From the day that I had met her, she hadn''t done a single wholly good and useful thing for me, and to make matters worse, she would spend her time doing other things such as trying to make a human body or even trying to seduce me.


    In spite of me asking her to make some armor and weapons for days now, she still hadn''t begun making either after two weeks, one when I was awake and the other when I was asleep. This was one of the main reasons why I had to go out in the first ce a week and a half ago. How was I supposed to get anything done without a weapon? Using a dagger art without daggers, how was I supposed to do that?


    Sighing in contempt once again, I stepped into what seemed like a rapture in space-time, allowing my body to be engulfed in the spacial distortions until finally, I was teleported into a dark ce.


    Unlike most people, however, I had my blood eyes to help me in a situation like this, allowing me to see almost everything as clearly as I would have seen it during the day. If that was not enough bragging, I could see through a lot of the walls to a certain extent, something that helped in this situation since there seemed to only be a void between each wall of the tunnels.


    Despite having this advantage, however, I quickly realized that it would be much harder to conquer a dungeon-like this. While looking through walls helped me to a certain extent, I could not see very far anyway, which is limited to around 3 tunnels.


    No matter which choice I made, there was always a challenge behind it. Even if I were to get past one of them, there was still a two in three chance that I went down the wrong tunnel, and therefore, I would have to go back up and take a gamble.


    ''Looks like I''m going to have to trust my dread tingle again.'' I snickered to myself, unable to contain myughter after hearing the name that I had made up for it.


    Not trying to waste any more time, I moved forward and left the entry tunnel, and found myself in a in area with a single monster in front of me.


    I say that it was a monster, but in reality, it wasn''t different from what I was. It walked with two legs and had clothes on. The only difference was its smaller size and green skin. I could see that it was holding a club in its right hand as it stood in front of the three tunnels, almost as if it was trying to guard them the best way it knew how.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Poor little thing." I said with a small pitying smile.


    Crouching down, I extended my hand and motioned for it toe closer, yet all it did was growl at me from a distance, ready to bolt towards me with the speed of a bullet if it needed to.


    "Hmm? You don''t want toe? Its fine then, I''lle to you." I spoke aloud even though I was certain that it could not understand me.


    Skipping toward the creature at my own leisure, I finally looked at it properly and thought of the word ''Appraise''.


    [Goblin]


    [Information: Agile and small, making it one of the best agility-type creatures in the lower levels.]


    Seeing the word goblin, it was as if a lightbulb had switched on above my head as realization hit me. Memories of my months of ying sh of royals and sh of sectss shed before my eyes, making me remember everything from the annoying goblin barrels to the weak goblin troops who were only good for stealing money and would die after the first attack.


    ''While I understand the green skin thing, they look nothing like their game counterparts.'' I thought and scratched my chin, the intense stare not breaking for a second as I analyzed the creature from top to bottom.


    Unable to take the pressure anymore, the goblin ran towards me at full speed, yet instead of attacking it straight away, I crouched back down and opened my arms wide.


    "Look! I knew you were just shy." I eximed, closing my eyes as if I was waiting for it to enter my hug.


    The goblin however had different ns. Its feet mmed into the ground harder than before and in an instant, I watched the gobline turn into a blur and reach within the hug radius of my arms.


    "Should have stayed back..." A cold bloody voice entered the ears of the goblin the moment it entered the radius, before finally...


    *Pitue*


    It looked down in horror, unable to believe that it had happened.


    A hand seemed to have impaled through its chest and had destroyed its heart in the process. This caused the goblin to spit out a mouthful of blue blood onto my arm, making me squint my eyes in disgust yet choose to not react to what just happened.


    With no hesitation, I ripped the goblin''s arm off at the elbow and ripped away from the bat it held, then grabbed the wooden bat and smashed it on the goblin with all my strength, turning him into a mushy paste and leaving the bat in an unrepairable state.

 Chapter 62 Hounds

    Looking down, I didn''t know how to feel. I was looking at what remained of a humanoid bipedal creature. Yes, it might have been shorter than a dwarf with green skin and a head the size of mine, yet that still did not take away from the experience of killing something that I deemed to be so like me.


    "Technically the first humanoid I''ve ever met." I let out a sigh and walked over to the blue and green mushy liquid.


    After doing so, my eyes scanned the three different tunnels. Seeing nothing in particr that might indicate what direction I should go, I closed my eyes and began walking forwards, trying to ignore the pungent smell that was trying to enter my nose.


    When my foot stepped into one of the tunnels, felt 3 different dreade toward me. While the one on the right was the most powerful, the one on the middle and left had dull amounts of dreading from them, the middle one being the weakest.


    ''I see...'' I opened my eyes immediately and walked towards the right tunnel before strolling inside with the calmness and nonchnce of a man walking his dog in a park.


    After walking to the end of the tunnel, I saw a creature, yet this time unlike the goblin that I met earlier, this one did not walk on two legs nor did it hold any weapons.


    [Hound]


    [Information: Agile and stealthy, making it one of the best agility-type creatures in the lower levels.]


    ''Seems like this dungeon is about agility.'' I thought to myself while not pausing for a second to analyze the hound properly since I knew what it was already.


    It had orange fur andrge ring teeth that would rip the arms of a normal person off with a single bite. Of course, I was far from being a normal person.


    Finding myself 5 meters away, I took a step forward and finally saw the reaction that I was hoping for.


    Seeing a jolt within the hound''s muscles, I knew that it was about to attack, making me take another step forward before appearing right in front of it with a wound back kick ready to explode at a moment''s notice.


    *Boom*


    I watched as the rock-hard floor shattered with cobweb-like cracks, spreading out and making the wolf lose footing, a timing that I would not dare miss.


    Without a second''s notice, my foot mmed into its face with enough power that the connection had sent a shockwave in all directions.


    In the next second, my eyes slightly widened in surprise, as if seeing something that I could not understand or had not expected ur before my very eyes.


    *Splurge*


    Its blue blood and its purple guts turned into paste, staining the walls of the tunnel and turning them blue in the process.


    My horror only increased when I saw a powerful air current pass through above the ground and decimate the floor with it, leaving random gashes and holes as before entering the next open area.


    *BOOM*


    *ROAR*


    A sweat drop trickled down my forehead.


    ''How the hell did I do that? I know I have almost 40 strength now, but isn''t this too much?'' I asked myself in surprise.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Earlier, I had realized that this was the tunnel because it was releasing the most dread out of all the tunnels, yet my blood eyes only showed me that there was only 1 creature at the end of each tunnel. Due to the increase in dread, it was highly probable that there would be something beyond the creature at the end of the tunnel, but even then it seemed like I might have miscalcted my approach.


    ''While I doubt that this is like a game with easter eggs littered around the map, there is a chance that this Gaia person might have done so. I have no idea who she is but from what I know about her so far, I don''t think she is bad. While she seems to be at the top of this world''s food chain, she also seems to care about those beneath her. Why would someone create entire dungeons all over the world for the lower existences, if they themselves did not sympathize or care for those existences?''


    My eyes narrowed after a while, realizing that I was talking to myself again and forgetting about my surroundings.


    ''Maybe being around more intelligent creatures is affecting me. I wouldn''t really call nca an intelligent creature. She likes to tell me she is one but never seems to show me anything that would prove that she was more than a crappy snake that was riding alongside me for the joy of it.


    "Useless." I spat to the side and flickered away, however, I didn''t go forward this time but instead had moved backward.


    While on the one hand, I am technically wasting an extensive amount of time going back and going after the two other creatures, I didn''t really lose much other than time. I had more than enough power to kill every creature that stood in my way, and I would use it if necessary.


    Moving to the other two tunnels, I quickly got over and done with the other two hounds before beginning a search where I would find nothing other than rocks and some feces here and there.


    I quickly returned to my path from earlier and found myself in the open area once again, standing in front of a wounded hound, at least 4 or 5 timesrger than the ones that I had fought in the individual tunnels.


    "What the hell happened to you?" I asked mockingly, well aware of what the air current my kick from earlier might have caused.


    "Did the cat bite your tongue?" Asked again before letting out a smile that stretched from ear to ear.


    *ROAR*


    Its roar caused several rocks to shake while the tunnel ceiling seemed to drop a bit of dust and even a rock fragment or two.


    ''Seems like I''ll have to end it quick. I don''t know how strong the tunnel is and I still highly doubt that it would copse, but the chance is still there and I am unwilling to die because of some crappy tunnel.'' I frowned and immediately disappeared from where I stood.


    Appearing once again, I wielded a rock in my right hand from almost 14 meters away.


    Winding my arm back, I held the rock firmly within my grip, to the point where I watched several pieces of the rock fall off and crumble into ashes when hitting the floor.


    "Catch!" I yelled, making it widen its eyes and try to dodge as fast as it could, yet even after trying its hardest, it was simply not fast enough.


    *Bang!*


    I watched as the rock left my hand, creating a thunderous p and appearing on the other side of the open space before mming and deeply imbedding itself into one of the walls.


    The hound''s eyes slowly dulled before its body fell limp onto the ground with a hole extending from its face all the way to its back side, splurging out several liters of blood and staining the cave once again


    [Author''s note: Sorry about today''ste release. Exams are beginning to take a toll on me making it a bit hard to write. My exams finish on the 22nd of June though and I should have stock all the way up to the 23rd. This means that I will most likely begin writing 2 chapters a day on the 24th or 25th so stay tuned for that. One additional note, I won''t be able to write any extra chapters until the 23rd, so if I do get any gifts I am sorry but you are going to have to wait a day or two for extra chapters.


    Besides that, please vote using your power stones and golden tickets. They are very helpful and I will be shouting out the top 3 individuals who''ve given me my golden tickets at the end of the month.]

 Chapter 63 Complacent

    I watched as the hound went limp and dropped to the floor after its legs buckled under it. Its eyes had already be dull, indicating that it was already dead.


    ''There is no point in using life drain on it now is there... It lost most of its power after my first attack and now has less than 10% of its life energy left. If that wasn''t enough, I am certain that I will not get anything out of absorbing its soul core since I had already maxed out all the stats that it might give me...'' Sighing in annoyance, I still moved towards the corpse and put my hand on it before quickly activating the life drain by lighting up the smaller red rune within the void world.


    I had done this because of two reasons. One, I am extremely paranoid and will think about this corpse for the hours toe, asking myself the question "What if it gave me something?"


    My second reason was that absorbing life energy not only improved the power of my life drain skill, but also refine my blood energy, making it stronger, and refining the enormous red rune, resulting in a moreplicated line of text, despite the fact that the change was too small to see with the naked eye.


    Thankfully, my naked eyes were far different from the naked eye of another human who could barely see a few hundred meters away, let alone thousands.


    However, while I was moving my consciousness towards the life drain rune to activate it, I saw a light from the corner of my eyes, making me look to both my right end left yet not see anything.


    The light continued to shine in the corner of my eye, yet even though for some reason no matter how hard I tried I could not find where the light wasing from.


    The light was a light brown in color with a few earthen features. This realization made me widen my eyes as I was reminded of something else.


    ''The earth element seed!'' I thought to myself and tried to retract my consciousness to find where that seed would have been stored.


    The moment I tried to pull out, I felt an immense viscosity that made moving into eh void space extremely hard. Even after trying to move for almost a minute straight, I found myself incapable of doing anything. I was stuck and there was nothing I could do about it.


    Panic began to overwhelm me for a moment.


    ''What is the point of being immortal if I can''t escape my own mind?!''


    I hadn''t known it before but it was only now that I realized that I had a sense of invulnerability ever since my second death. Yes, death was bad, painful, and extremely scary to the point where it could create some serious trauma, but I wasn''t really dying.


    Everything during my death felt almost superficial as if it was never happening. Everything felt like a game to me. A game where I would die and respawn with nothing big urring other than the temporary psychological torture. Yet it was just that. Temporary.


    Death was the opposite of temporary for anyone else, yet to me, it felt like just another thing that happened in life. Like a grieving one would feel after losing someone, or the pain of someone getting a terminal illness for a few months before returning to their top shapes after a few months.


    This was the first time that I had begun to feel scared. A time when I actually felt like I could die for real and there would be no way to save me.


    What is the point of an indestructible body if someone can just attack the mind?


    My panic slowly began to recede after a while, however. I knew that panicking wouldn''t do me any good so I closed my eyes and tried to take some imaginary breaths in and out through my consciousness.


    After a while, I opened my eyes once again and searched every single bit of the void with my eyes, making sure to not skip over a single thing no matter what it was.


    [Congrattions on locating your earth seed]


    The notification almost made me fall back, but since I didn''t have a body the only thing I felt was a small shock traveling through my body.


    Looking around once again I finally felt the suppression and viscosity drop when my eyes fell upon a set of new runes.


    Being able to move normally again, I quickly left the void world and looked around with my real body to make sure that I could still do it. After the small fright of not being able to move inside the void world, I felt myself bing a little paranoid, but after a few minutes of trying to calm myself, down, I went into the void world and looked at the new rune once again.


    ''It''s almost as big as the big red one over there...'' I thought to myself while pointing in the direction of the other rune. My eyes quickly froze and looked down after a few seconds of shock, looking at my now clearly visible arms and body.


    ''If I think about it, the first time I entered this ce I also had a body.'' I scratched my chin before throwing the concept to the back of my mind since there were things that were much more important for the time being.


    Looking at the brown earth rune once again, I narrowed my eyes and looked to both my right and left, just to see 4 different smaller runes attached to therger one by a brown glowing line that connected them.


    After hesitating for a few seconds, I finally stretched out my hand and touched the rune, making me get flung back into reality.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Immediately, I felt that something was different. I was not sure if it was me or the area around me, but I felt oddly more sensitive to everything.


    I didn''t even have to look at the corpse to know it was there. I could feel its warmth slowly leaving its body and dissipating into the ground. I could feel the blood that was continuously seeping out of the corpse slowly begin to dry up and be a stain on the ground.


    I could feel the slight vibrations that my footsteps created, traveling through the rocks and bouncing on several rocks, a corpse, and the tunnels ahead before dissipating beyond salvation.


    "Holy crap this is amazing!" I shouted in joy.


    "With this, I have the ability to locate any of my enemies without looking at them. Granted, this wouldn''t work on any flying enemies as well as any enemies that are faster than the vibrations, but it should do for the mean time. Other than that, I still have 4 spells to try-" The sentence died in my throat as a screen appeared in front of me.


    [Trial period for the skill Earth Sense has ended]


    [Earth Sense]


    [Information: Allows the user to locate anything that touches the ground within a 5-meter radius for 1 minute. Doesn''t work on anything that flies or levitates off the ground]


    [Cost of activation: 5 mana]


    "Bruh... It''s fine I guess. I wanted to try out my other skills anyway." I shrugged and looked away. Looking towards the remaining tunnels, I narrowed my eyes and dashed towards the one with the lowest amount of dread.


    When I reached the end of the cave, I saw another creature in front of me. This one looked a lot more vicious than the hounds from earlier, or the goblin from the beginning.


    [Hobgoblin]


    [Information: An evolved version of the goblin, While it does not have the agility of a goblin, it makes up for that with its explosive strength and improved intelligence, allowing them to tame less intelligent beasts such as hounds, wolfs, etc.]


    My eyes narrowed while looking at it, but that was it.


    After a few seconds of staring each other down, my eyes darted towards the weapon it was holding.


    ''Another bat?'' I asked myself.


    While this bat looked almost identical to the one that the goblin held, there were two fundamental differences between the two.


    The bat that the hobgoblin held was muchrger while also having red runes burnt into the wood. I could understand the size since a hobgoblin was much bigger than a normal goblin, reaching almost 2 meters tall, but the red runes were something I could not understand.


    ''I still don''t know the fundementals when ites to runes...'' I gritted my teeth and balled my hands into fists, clenching them tightly too.


    It was only then that I finally realized my biggest problem. I had be toocent. While I had the drive to fight against the elves, I was too used to having a peaceful lifestyle. A lifestyle where everything was fine and I could live my remaining dayspleting easy tasks and creating new hobbies.


    Yes, nca was useless to a certain extent, but I myself had be a person azy person. In the 4 weeks that I stayed in my skull house, I hadn''t worked out once. All I did was search for beasts, kill them and scavenge their bones and meat. Everything was easy and so I chose to not move further.


    ''Sometimes being given everything on a silver tter can be a curse rather than a blessing.'' I sighed, happy and relieved that I had caught myself early.


    While from a certain point of view it might seem that everything I had gotten to strengthen me was things made to make up for all the sacrifices I had made and all the people I had lost, I knew that the world didn''t work like that.


    The world would steal everything from you with a single wave of its hand. Everything you knew and loved could disappear with a flutter of its eysh, and that was just how the world worked.


    I had to go through hard times to strengthen my will, hard fights to strengthen my body, and painful losses to remind myself how it felt to lose everything I had.


    That day, I had made a decision. A decision that would change the course of fate, and the universe itself within its wake.

 Chapter 64 Earth Spike

    When I finally grew aware of my surrounding, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. I felt the wind being pushed in my direction more violently by the second, while arge presence stood to my side releasing the intent to kill.


    However, in the same second my eyes grew cold enough to turn a desert into an arctic wastnd. Every bit of my body radiated killing intent many times stronger than the hobgoblin that had attacked me while I was thinking.


    ''I really shouldn''t stop to a thing whenever I''m in the middle of a fight.'' I thought while ducking down andpletely evading the bat that was aiming to smash my head like a watermelon.


    The moment I had released my killing intent, the hobgoblin froze in fear, unable to move a single muscle and therefore halting the attack prematurely. Its eyes looked at me in terror while cold sweat drenched its back as if knowing that this moment would be itsst.


    To its surprise, however, it watched as I jumped back and out of its range, my eyes never leaving it for a moment as if threatening it. Through natural instincts, it could feel that if it had attacked at the moment, it would have died almost immediately, therefore it chose to not attack.


    Thoughts of fleeing shed within its mind, but once again, after taking another look into my eyes, it concluded that it might not be the best thing to do.


    I on the other hand was thinking of ways to be stronger, and right now the only way to do so was to strengthen my mana as well as learn how to control it better.


    So far, the only experience I had when it came to controlling mana was the red energy that I would exude when feeling an intense emotion or drive. While I might have been feeling an intense drive at this current moment, it didn''t seem to meet the blood energy''s requirements to activate.


    ''Maybe I should just...'' I closed my eyes yet still kept releasing my killing to ward the hobgoblin off from attacking me. Entering the void world again, I felt a slight sense of fear shake me for a moment, yet after steeling my nerves and pushing forward, I didn''t feel anything like it again.


    Moving my consciousness toward the brown rune, I looked around and found four other smaller brown runes attached to it. I couldn''t read anything that the runic patterns said, but for some reason, I could feel what each one of them meant and did.


    Stretching out the hand that had formed out of the blue, I touched one of the smaller brown runes and grasped it even though it was a 2-dimensional thing.


    Information immediately shot into my mind before unknown energy, that I could only guess was the system, reached into my sr plexus and gripped onto something, forcing it to release an earthy-yellow mana.


    I felt the earthy-yellow mana travel down my arm in a circuit-like pattern before finally, it had reached the tips of my fingers.


    ''This sensation.'' I opened my eyes and looked at my hand just to realize that it looked the same as before.


    [Blood eyes activated]


    [Hp: 150/150]


    [Mana: 45/50]


    As I looked at my fingertips once again, I couldn''t help but gasp and feel shocked, to the point where my killing intent wavered and vanished in the same second, allowing the hobgoblin to shoot forward with its fastest speed while swinging down its bat like a hammer.


    I looked at the runic matters that had appeared on the tips of my fingers, yet before I could even appreciate them, I felt a slight feeling of dread, not one that would make me worried but one that lingered in my head like the constant buzzing of a fly.


    Seeing that a bat was descending on me, I tried to swat it with the back of my hand but instead, something strange happened. For reasons I could not understand, it felt like my hand was pulling weight behind it as it flew up, and before I knew it, a rock spike left the ground and pierced the hobgoblin in the stomach, leaving it unable to move and weakened to the point where its attack had be harmless to me.


    "You''re kinda weak," I spoke matter-of-factly.


    The hobgoblin''s face contorted in rage as if it could understand what I saw saying, yet any movement that it would have made would only injure it more.


    I looked at it with a mixture of pity and awe. I had an idea of what I had done I had done, but I didn''t know exactly how I had done it. It felt like a natural movement had turned into a lethal weapon in a split second, and I wanted to know more.


    "Hmm... Let me see." Striking a pose, I pointed my hand at the hobgoblin and shouted-


    "EARTH SPIKE!"<novelnext></novelnext>


    ...


    ...


    ...


    "Nothing!?" I eximed a little let down by the fact that nothing had happened.


    Once again, I pointed my hand towards it yet struck a different pose this time while shouting the name of the attack, yet even then nothing had happened.


    I tried to do this for another 30 seconds, something that only angered the bleeding-out hobgoblin even more than earlier, yet it knew that moving would mark the end of its life.


    After another 15 seconds passed, I sat down cross-legged on the floor, my hand on my chin while my eyes looked at the hobgoblin from top to bottom.


    "What was the difference between the first time I used it and now? I even tried swatting upwards again but it didn''t work..." Feeling a little bummed out, I let out a sigh for the umpteenth time.


    *ROOOOAAAAAR*


    My back straightened instantly before my gazended on the enraged hobgoblin that was now running toward me. A questioning look appeared on my face but after a second of analyzing, I could easily infer what it had done to get to this point.


    "I see..."


    I watched the hobgoblin grow closer by the second, its enormous feet mming onto the ground and causing it to crack in the process. Blood gushed out of its open wound at every step, yet it did not seem like it was affected by it.


    "A suicidal attack? Let''s see about that." I let out a wry smile and pulled my arm back, winding up for a punch that would dye the room with its blood and organs. However, the moment I winded back my punch I felt like there was something different.


    It once again felt like I was pulling something, something heavy to the point where my arms felt like they were moving through a viscous liquid.


    My eyes widened while my body shuddered after remembering what had happened in the void world, but after a second of this feeling, it all finally clicked in my mind.


    ''This is feeling. This is earth!'' I roared inside my mind, excitement taking over all my other senses.


    With another movement, I clenched my fist tightly and swung it as if I was pulling something alongside it.


    *Rumble*


    *Swoosh*


    *Pitue*


    An earthen spike shot out of the ground behind me and swooshed past my ear, missing it by a hairsbreadth. However, while it might have missed me, I was not the target.


    Due to the momentum held by the hobgoblin as the spike approached, it could not stop in time to dodge.


    In one swift movement, the earthen spike entered the hobgoblin''s head through the nose, destroyed its brain, and decapitated it before sttering its remains all over the walls and floor of the cave.

 Chapter 65 Berserk Hobgoblin & Hell Mode

    After having killed the hobgoblin, I chose to blitz through the rest of the dungeon with one restriction that I was forcing myself to not break. I was going to get through the entire dungeon without using anything other than the rock ''spells''/ attacks.


    While at first, this was slightly hard since I was just getting used to using earth ''magic'' as some would call it, another problem quickly arose when I had gotten the hang of it.


    "Crap... I''m low on mana." I cursed before running to a corner of the cave and sitting down cross-legged.


    While using life drain was a nice way of gaining back health and vitality, it did not give me back the mana I used after every spell, ability, or skill. An example of this is the situation that I have been put in, where even though I was filled with vitality, I still felt emptied of my mana.


    [Hp: 150/150]


    [Mana: 10/50]


    ''I don''t have enough mana to waste on these monsters.'' I thought to myself with a frown, referring to the goblins as monsters rather than beings or creatures like I had done.


    The reason for this was mainly because I didn''t want to recognize them as beings that were simr to me. I wanted to dehumanize them as much as possible so that killing them would not affect me.


    This seemed to work temporarily but I knew that it would only hinder me in the long run because in the end, my goal was to end the elves no matter what, and while they might all look like monsters in my eyes, deep down I doubted that everyone in their race would be like that especially now that I had traveled 300 million years back in time.


    After taking a short rest, I moved through thest tunnel passing by the decapitated head of a hobgoblin. When I had left the tunnel, my eyes didn''t even flicker to look at it because there was something much more debilitating in front of me.


    Looking at the thing in front of me, I could not help but think back to the hobgoblins that were only 2 meters tall, yet unlike those monsters that were about the same size as me, the one in front of mepletely towered over me, leaving me nowhere to run.


    It seemed like the dungeon ceiling had been modified for this creature too, being around 10 meters away from the ground rather than the normal 5 meters it was before.


    The thing had green skin just like the other goblins, being more on the olive green side rather than being fully green. It had bulging muscles and stood almost 4 meters tall with a mace in its hand.


    The dread I felt from it alone told me how strong it was, but the killing intent mixed in with battle intent that it seemed to naturally release only made it more intimidating.


    After having rested, I had around 15 mana left within me, meaning I could either use earth spike 5 times or try using blood eyesbined with pinpoint for around 9 minutes. However, I knew that I had 2 more earth abilities that I hadn''t used yet, making me enter the void world before immediately touching one of the runes.


    A powerful surge of mana went through my arm and reached my fingertips, yet by the time that I activated my skill, I felt a dangerous presence some closer by the second, wielding its mace and ready to hack me down at a moment''s notice.


    The dread quickly informed me of its trajectory and allowed me to move out of its area of attack.


    Sliding to the right, I swiped up with my right hand before quickly activating blood eyes.


    Since this is the first time I have used the skill, it meant that it would not have any mana cost and would also have a 100% chance of activation, just like thest skill I had used.


    However, I did not need the 100% chance of activation since I already knew the technique for activating and manipting an earth spell to my desire.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Pinpoint activated]


    ''Earth pir!'' I thought, causing a cylinder of earth around 1 meter in diameter to shoot out of the ground and throw the hobgoblin into the air before smashing it onto the ceiling.


    I felt a total of 6 mana points drain out of me because of manual activation of my blood eyes and pinpoint skill.


    The hobgoblin fell to the ground once again before puking blood, but what concerned me at that moment was the ceiling that appeared to be crumbling, as evidenced by dust that constantly fell along with some rock fragments.


    My eyes narrowed but I didn''t say anything. Shooting both of my arms forward, I activated one of the runes, but before I could even shoot out my attack, I watched the hobgoblin get up and disappear at a frightening speed.


    [Your opponent has entered the berserk state]


    [Dungeon of reverence is entering hell mode]


    [All creatures of the dungeon will have their stats boosted 3 times]


    ''Crap!'' I shouted inwardly.


    In an instant, I had been forced to drop to the ground as a de cleaved through the air and swiped right past me.


    I felt the wind in my hair, yet that was the least of my problems.


    Swiftly dashing to the side and rolling, I evaded a stomp from the hobgoblin that had the potential to crush me on the spot, yet the dread told me that the attack was not done there.


    The moment my eyes hadnded on the hobgoblin, I saw it turn into a blur and shoot towards me once again, this time with its de ready to cut me down wherever I tried to move.


    Seeing this, I chose to take advantage of its movement and used one of my skills to counter its attack and finally stomped onto the ground with all the power I could muster.


    In the next moment, an enormous pir 1.5 meters in diameter shot out of the ground under my feet, appearing in front of the hobgoblin with enough speed that evading the attack had be close to impossible.


    I watched as the pir mmed into the center of the hobgoblin''s chest but I knew better than hoping it would be enough.


    Without hesitation, I swiped both my hands in opposite directions, creating two earth spikes that shot from either side and stabbed into the weak points located with my pinpoint skill.


    When the two spikes prated the hobgoblin''s calves, I didn''t hesitate to shoot forward with all the power I had within my legs, making myself appear above the kneeling hobgoblin, before plugging an earth spike through its head with one swift motion.

 Chapter 66 The Pinnacle Of The Food Chain

    [Author''s note:


    I just wanted to inform those of you who don''t know, that longer chapters cost more coins and us writers do not control how much chapters cost. The only time we have control is in the tiered privileged chapters (not the 2 chapters privileged).


    If you have any questions you can ask me in thements and I''ll try to answer them as well as I can.]


    After piercing the head of the hobgoblin with the earth spike I had created on the ceiling, I quickly dropped to the ground, misstepped, rolled on myself, and slid to a dusty and painful stop.


    Letting out a pained grunt, I stood up and quickly dusted myself off, yet I could not help but feel a little weak at the end of it. This was not due to the oue of the fight but instead, because I hadpletely drained myself of mana.


    I walked over to the corpse with a slight limp that seemed to onlyst for a couple of seconds before being able to walk semi-properly again.


    Touching the body of the hobgoblin, I activated the life-drain rune within me and quickly healed myself up to full health before absorbing the soul core to no avail.


    "Seems like I won''t get much out of this dungeon after all." A let out a disappointed sigh and walked over to the head of the hobgoblin before stabbing my hand into its hand and using life drain again.


    I didn''t know why this was the case, but stabbing people and absorbing their life energy from inside was always faster than doing it from the outside, and therefore Iplied with this unwritten rule and did as implied by the system to get much faster rewards.


    Absorbing the remaining life energy, I used it to refine my blood energy as well as I could and quickly left the area without saying another word.


    There was no point in taking the de that the hobgoblin held since it was too big, and even if I wanted to take it back to nca, I doubted that she would give me or tell me anything useful about the runes engraved in it.


    When going through the tunnels once again, I went through the same routine as before but instead of directly attacking the creatures with magic attacks, I used my fists and legs instead since I had run out of mana.


    Thest thing those creatures, that were just hobgoblins with armor, saw was me throwing a fist at them before everything turned ck. Not even their armor could protect them from the power of my overwhelming physical ability.


    While I could have taken their armor since they were the same size as me, I chose not to due to how weak the armor was. Rather than protect me, I was certain that it would only hinder my movements instead making it an unworthy gamble for a superficial security.


    None of them seemed to hold anything but bats either, so I simply chose to not use anything that they had instead of painstakingly trying to learn how to use a new weapon that I wasn''t proficient at.


    Killing thest one, I left the tunnel and entered a wide room with a red carpet going from the exit of the tunnel to the end of the area where a huge golden throne was ced.


    I narrowed my eyes but when I tried to look into it more, I realized that I didn''t have enough mana to manually activate blood eyes anymore. This caused my expression to turn slightly ugly, but that was it.


    I was confident that I could kill whatever sat on the throne no matter what it was, and even though every monster within this dungeon had a boost of 300% due to the sudden change to hell mode that I still could not fully understand, I still felt like they were no match for me.


    A wry smile stretched from the corner of my lips as I slowly walked towards the throne, one step at a time with an aura as a m as the waters of ake on a sunny dry day.


    This was going to be my first real battle ever since my fight with the T-rex, and even if I was certain that it had no chance against a full power me, I wasn''t at my full power right now.


    The monster sitting on the throne opened one of its eyes slightly and stared at me for a second. When I saw this, I chose to stare back but at that same moment, I felt an enormous pressure press down on my will and body.


    The pressure was nothing like the one that I felt against the T-Rex or nca the first time I met her, but it was certainly powerful enough to have made the old me before the beast horde, buckle my legs in fright.


    However, now that I saw that it was not taking me seriously, a bigger smile appeared on my face as I walked closer and closer to the throne until finally.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Rugh." The monster on the throne let out a gurgled grunt and pointed at me, making the two armors that I had believed to be disy armors, move in synchronicity, stepping forwards, and drawing their des.


    Excitement shone within my eyes before a glint of greed overtook my senses.


    ''FINALLY! AT LAST... A weapon!'' I almost cried out in joy.


    The two armors didn''t seem to care about what I was thinking as they immediately dashed forward at the same time as each other the moment I took another step.


    Without a hint of hesitation, I released my unfiltered killing intent and caused the air in the room to shift. Little did I know that something much deeper was happening at that moment. Something that would eventually create one of the most powerful abilities in the universe...


    The armors seemed to not flinch, as if they didn''t have a soul and were only created to serve their master''s will no matter what. Their master on the other hand had widened eyes and an almost agape mouth, but they seemed to have realized I was looking at them and quickly regained theirposure after a few seconds of breathing in and out rhythmically.


    *Swoosh*


    *Woosh*


    The des shed at me at the same time, yet while one seemed to aim to slice me in half horizontally, the other aimed to cut me in half vertically.


    My killing intent once again exploded outwards with its full might and within the same second, I disappeared from both of their visions.


    In the next second, one of the armored creatures felt something painful enter its body from behind, causing it to look back just to see that my arm had shot through its chest and had appeared on the other side of its body.


    Before I could react, however, I felt a powerful attacke my way, one that I could not dodge in time, but one that I could certainly block.


    Activating life drain, I quickly absorbed the remaining life energy and soul core before pointing the body that I was holding towards the iing attack, causing the attacked to cleave his friend''s lower body away from his upper body in a single instant.


    I did not waste any more time and quickly threw the body into the air, yet before I could shoot forward and kill the other armored create the same way I had killed itsrade, I felt an intense dreade my way and immediately dashed back.


    *Swoosh*


    *BOOM*


    A spear tore through the air and appeared where I had stood just a few seconds ago before hitting the ground and kicking up a giant dust cloud in the process.


    The shockwave made me brace myself even though I was almost 6 meters away, yet the fact that I had to brace myself at all made my blood pump quickly while a rush of adrenaline shot through my veins and energized every fight or flight muscle in my body.


    As the dust cloud disappeared, my eyesnded upon a green-skinned man standing menacingly in the middle of a crater he had made with his own attack. Every cell in his body screamed with robust power, while explosive strength and battle intent left his body and made the air blow outwards with enough power to cause my hair to flutter back.


    I felt like I was looking at a pinnacle predator. Something that would make the predators his prey, and someone who would stand at the top of the food chain.


    It was the exact opponent I needed to be stronger!

 Chapter 67 Ezra Vs Goblin Chief

    Clenching my fists tightly, I could feel an insurmountable amount of excitement boil deep within me. Every fiber of my being was telling me to fight with all I had. My muscles were aching and finally...


    [Requirments met]


    [Blood Eyes activated]


    [Blood Energy Unleashed]


    *BOOM*


    An enormous amount of energy left my body in a powerful and chaotic wave that sent the armored hobgoblin beside me flying towards the wall of the throne room. However, unlike the dead hobgoblin and the alive one a few meters away, the spear-wielding creature stood still, a glint of amusement within its eyes.


    The creature had green skin, yet unlike the hobgoblins that had olive green skin, the spear-wielding creature seemed to have skin that shone like emerald crystals, reflecting the light of the room and giving it an aura worthy of a king.


    [Goblin chief]


    [Information: The chief andmander of a goblin tribe. A goblin chief takes care of a tribe and makes sure that everyone lives in an orderly sustainable manner. There can be several goblin chiefs in a single area, but they do notpare to the goblin lords or goblin kings is neither physical nor political power.]


    Seeing this, I could not help but get even more excited. It felt weird for me to be so excited over something so simple, but I still remember feeling this same sensation when I had fought again the beast horde as well as many other beasts in the forest before and after my second death.


    Every time I fought, it was as if a void within my chest was being filled up, yet when the fight ended, it was like the area was beginning to leak until eventually, it became empty once again.


    Before the goblin chief could attack me, it looked back at its minion with a stern gaze, yet even though it had only looked back for a second, I quickly took advantage of the situation and flickered away.


    In the next second, the minion saw me appear before itsrade''s corpse before snatching one of the swords for myself and getting into a fighting position.


    Honestly, I knew that I was not the best when it came to handling swords. I had never touched one before nor had I tried to swing and kill another living being with it. However, when I had touched the hilt of the sword and finally held it firmly within my hand, it felt like the holt had always belonged there.


    A sense of familiarity washed over me and I took a stance almost on instinct. It was only then that I remembered what had happened again the T-rex and what I had dreamed about before.


    ''117 billion souls... A memory of a situation that I had never experienced. Familiarity with weapons that I had never held in all my lives...'' My eyes narrowed down but I still held my ground.


    I was not stupid. I knew that there was a chance that my theory was correct and that somehow, I was essing the memories of the souls that I had gathered when I had died. The real question is why?<novelnext></novelnext>


    From what I knew, the souls should have been absorbed by the system to gain enough energy, yet for some reason they had been watching over me this whole time, assisting me whenever I needed assistance, and giving me opportunities and power beyond myprehension when I needed it most. One example of this would be the inheritance that they had bestowed upon me.


    The goblin chief on the other hand didn''t seem to care about my inner monologue as it shot toward me without any hesitation.


    I watched it blur past its minion and appear 2 meters in front of me with its spear thrust forward ready to stab through my heart if I did not move in time.


    Seeing this, I swiftly side-stepped and turned on my heel, spinning around and evading the spear by a hairsbreadth.


    With the goblin chief saw this, its brows furrowed while it twisted its flexible lean muscr body, only covered by nts that it seemed to use as underwear just like all the other goblins and hobgoblins.


    Its white hair fluttered in the air while its spear only grew closer as the goblin chief once again thrusted it in my direction. However, before it could gain the full momentum of the thrust, I used pinpoint and lowed my mana by one point and held my sword vertically before swinging in front of me and to the side.


    With the same ease as breathing, my hands just performed a move that normally takes people several years to master. While I couldn''t use most of the techniques and information that I had gained from the Arsis Dagger Art, I still found a way to use the knowledge of parrying while using a sword rather than a dagger or short sword.


    Granted, the parry wasn''t perfect, but it was more than enough for it to allow me to diver the attack and now be on the offensive.


    Without a hint of hesitation, I swing my sword horizontally towards its torso, yet in thest second, I watched it let go of the spear and jump back a few centimeters, barely evading my attack.


    As itnded, it once again looked at me but not with the same amusement as before. I could feel that it had gotten serious and was no longer going to y around.


    "A bit toote for that-." The sentence halted in my throat before I was forced to roll to the side, unable to believe what happened before my very eyes.


    Right before I was about to mock the goblin chief for letting go of its spear, I felt an enormous amount of dread hit me with the amount that immediately told me that my life would be in danger if I didn''t dodge immediately.


    My fear of death quickly rose while thoughts appeared in my head of how my contract with nca would cease to exist the moment I were to die.


    Furrowing my brows, I used all the power I could musted within my left leg and dashed to the right before rolling on the ground and eventually reaching a sliding stop.


    I watched as the spear that hadnded behind me flew towards the hand of the goblin chief before he turned to me with a cold re that I tried to ignore.


    I quickly stood up once again, but just like before, I felt a dreade from behind me. This one was a lot less intense than thest one and I could already conclude who was attacking me.

 Chapter 68 Gaias Rage

    I quickly stood up once again, but just like before, I felt a dreade from behind me. This one was a lot less intense than thest one and I could already conclude who was attacking me.


    Twirling on my back heel, I moved my sword majestically before red energy enveloped it. The speed of my sword only increased and due to my blood eyes still being activated, I easily found the most suitable way to deal with the attacker.


    In one fell swoop, my sword cut through the air almost silently before it shed with the de of the hobgoblin that I tried to kill me with a stealth attack.


    I could feel that the goblin chief was moving as fast as it could, meaning I had to quickly finish off the creature in front of me as fast as possible, or else this could get real ugly in the blink of an eye.


    Putting more force into my sword swing inbination with the red energy that surrounded it as well as the 40 points of strength that I had put into it, I cleaved right through the sword of the opponent and finally sliced him diagonally in half.


    Not wanting to waste any more time, I turned around with the intent to kill, something that further boosted my blood energy and caused a crimson de hue to be released from my body.


    I could see that the blood energy was intertwining with the sword as if it was corrupting it, but after seeing that the sword would not be capable of handling the energy that was being stored within it, I changed my grip over the de and shot it like a javelin with all the power I could muster within my right arm.


    The sword tore through the air and shot towards the head of the goblin chief at an unbelievable speed, making it quickly use the momentum it had gained to point its spear toward the sword and thrust with everything it had.


    *Crack*


    *BOOM*


    An explosion sent out a small shockwave that made me take a step back, yet the goblin chief was not as lucky as I was since it was in the middle of the explosion. I watched its body leave the dust cloud and begin to roll on the floor before eventually hitting the wall at the end of the throne room with a heavy thud.


    A victorious smile crept up the corner of my lips but I was more than certain that the explosion would have not killed it since it had countered it with its spear.


    I turned into a blur once again as I sped past the corpse behind me, grabbing its sword andnding on the wall that the throne leaned on.


    With onest push, I used the strength within my legs to catapult myself through the air and towards the goblin chief at breakneck speeds, yet it seemed like the fight was not entirely over.


    ***


    Unknown Dimension<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Damnit!" A woman with emerald green hair and eyes mmed the armrest of her throne while gnashing her teeth.


    Her beauty was beyond imcable, yet no one was around for millions of miles to appreciate it.


    Her throne and she were ced in solitude in the middle of a white void, yet while that would have caused any normal intelligent being to go mad with loneliness andck of contact, the woman seemed to bepletely fine even after seemingly being here for millions of years.


    It was a wonder how someone like her could still be this beautiful even after not having moved for millions of years, but that was beside the point.


    Right now anger could be seen within her eyes while an uncontrolled rage burned inside her, and in her eyes, her rage was understandable.


    It had been weeks now since she had been trying to kill the human that had infiltrated her territory, but he had not only been asleep for most of that time but was also being guarded by a beautiful white snake that had taken the form of a human.


    As if that was not problematic enough, the white snake had enough power to kill an abomination in the high mid-grade of the mortal realm. Granted, she had taken several minutes to poison and wound it, but in the end, it only took one final energy attack to end its lifepletely.


    After seeing that the snake was helping the human, she had given up all hopes of killing them as long as they stayed in the middle region of the forest. However, if they were to move into the inner regions, she would immediately send some beasts after them if not kill them herself.


    However, after the human had woken up, she had seen that he was walking in a specific direction as if he knew something was there. Eventually, he found himself in front of a dungeon that she had created, something that surprised her but also made her happy at the same time.


    When he had entered, she waited to see how strong he was but was only left shocked after he blitzed past every stage of the dungeon without an injury. At one point, she saw him use earth magic, something that she hadn''t seen him use before and could only guess hade from the awakening that urred a few weeks back.


    Seeing that everything was bing easy, she activated hell-mode to end it once and for all and allowed the giant hobgoblin to enter a berserk state.


    Yet even then she was shocked to see that he had killed the hobgoblin with his earth magic alone, making her almost reach the verge of tears in anger.


    "I''ll kill him myself." She roared and caused the white void to shake. In the same instance, she stood up from her chair and stretched her hand forward, but before she could create an avatar to end it there and then, she felt a strong grip tighten around he wrist while a powerful aura pressed her down and forced her to submit.


    "What are you doing, Gaia?" A cold, calm, and wise voice spoke out, making Gaia look to the side and stare into the golden-emerald eyes of a monster in mortal skin.


    "Chronos..." She muttered under her breath, a shudder going down her spine when she finally understood the situation that she was in.

 Chapter 69 Make Your Life Hell...

    "Chronos..." She muttered under her breath, a shudder going down her spine when she finally understood the situation that she was in.


    The white-haired man allowed the white hood to fall off his head, revealing his handsome face and his piercing golden eyes.


    His hair draped down his shoulders, glistening like white silky threads that had been attacked by the most beautiful doll. Everything about him didn''t seem real, from his mesmerizing eyes to the aura he let out unconsciously, it was as if he was a fragment of a dream that had formed in the real world for the sole purpose of making everything around it seem ugly inparison.


    The man, whom Gaia referred to as Chronos, narrowed his eyes at the woman before closing them and letting out a soft chuckle. Simultaneously, he let go of Gaia''s wrist and made her let out a sigh of relief.


    However, the moment the sigh left her mouth she tried to inhale once again just to find that she couldn''t. A sudden sharp and excruciating pain spread out from her stomach before she suddenly found herself shooting through the air at unimaginable speeds.


    In the distance, she could see Chronos slowly cing his left foot on the while looking at her with a cold and overpowering expression. Everything from the way he stood to the way he moved radiated with confidence and thousands of years of experience.


    "It''s Lord Chronos to you..." While his voice might have been low, the power behind them alone caused the white void to shake. The sound of cracking and rumbling resounded throughout the entire Gaia''s realm, making her widen her eyes in disbelief before finally extending her legs to the ground andnding gracefully despite her earlier condition.


    However, while hernding might have been ssified as graceful, the illusion broke the moment a trickle of blood ran down her mouth before she was forced to puke out a mouthful of blood.


    "L-Lord Chronos..." She spoke out with a stutter, pain evident in her voice.


    "What brings you here?" She asked and tried to look up.


    In the distance, she saw the man take a step forward just for the space in front of him to seemingly warp before he disappeared and reappeared in the blink of an eye. It was a speed not even Gaia could track, as all she saw was him teleporting in front of her.


    "I saw that you were about to leave the realm and kill the boy with your own hands..." Chronos paused as if waiting for Gaia to say something in return for his words.


    Immediately breaking under the pressure of his gaze, Gaia nodded like an obedient dog, not daring to stand up from the kneeling position that she had been forced into after puking the mouthful of blood out.


    "What happened to not breaking that rule?" Chronos spoke, purposely using vague words as if he knew that someone was listening.


    Hearing his words, Gaia grew enraged, making her look up with fiery eyes and finally stand up in front of him with enough speed that he had to dodge her head as it elevated to his position.


    "That is a human! A human! You know exactly why I will never allow any one of them to live in my world. This Isn''t a ce for those disgusting things to scour and conquer, this is a ce for the other races to live in harmony." She roared but it didn''t seem to affect Chronos since his expression seemed as indifferent as always.


    "Don''t kill the human." He ordered tly.


    "Why? So he can do what the rest of the humans are doing all over the universe? Kill, rape, conquer and survive? They are nothing but barbarians who think they own everything in the universe, and now I have one of my! How am I supposed to keep the peace and harmony between the races if there is a human around?!" She roared once again, enraged to almost her boiling point. It seemed like one word could set her off on a rampage.


    "I wasn''t asking..." Chronos replied, however unlike all the other times, his eyes had narrowed down to the point where his golden eyes were exuding an enormous pressure down of Gaia. She couldn''t move a single muscle from the neck down, yet that did not stop her.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I don''t care. I''ve taken over this world and built it up from scratch after itsst mass extinction. I will not watch it fall again just because I spared one human." Her voice sounded cold and serious


    "I am not asking you to spare him." Chronos chuckled under his breath and continued- "I am asking you to not kill him directly. Not with your own hands. If you want to kill him that badly, you can try manipting some of the beast''s emotions, making dungeons harder, and even making his enemies go berserk. But do not kill him directly or else the human will be the least of your worries." Chronos spoke before smiling coldly and taking a step back.


    Immediately after doing so, he disappeared, leaving Gaia in the room alone toment her injuries.


    "That bastard..." She gritted her teeth and went silent for several seconds before finally getting up and reaching her throne.


    Since she had been sitting on her throne when she received Chrono''s kick, she found herself grimacing at the fact that there was only half a throne left now, one that was ufortable to sit on.


    "I''ll make the boy''s life hell..."


    ***


    An enormous feeling of dread seemed to smash into me like a bullet train. My thoughts had sped up significantly while ways to escape the current situation ran through my mind at an unimaginable speed.


    After ncing forward, I realized that the best thing to do was a retreat, so I did exactly that,pletely missing my chance of killing the goblin chief once and for all.


    My regret turned into relief in the blink of an eye, however, this time letting out a sigh and took another jump back to get as far away as possible.


    In front of the goblin chief stood a hound, one that was twice asrge as thest goblin hound that I saw while somehow looking more ferocious. It had armor scatted on different limbs and body parts, while at the same time there were several letters and runes engraved and painted onto its fur.


    [Alpha Hound]


    [Information: The strongest one of the pack and the leader of the pack. Usually, Alpha hounds are around 2-3 timesrger than the second strongest hound and have the strength to rival many of the peak intermediate mortal beasts. If tamed, it gains the ability to draw strength from its master to be abnormally strong for its minor realm.]


    ''Damnit...'' I cursed to myself, but as if my curses were somehow levers that would force something cursed upon me, another notification caught my eyes.


    [The Goblin Chief has entered the berserk state]


    [The Alpha Hound has entered the berserk state]


    ''...''

 Chapter 70 End Of The Battle

    [The Goblin Chief has entered the berserk state]


    [The Alpha Hound has entered the berserk state]


    ''...''


    I cleared my mind and did not allow any dangerous thoughts to linger within. I knew that thinking about me somehow being cursed would worsen the situation, but even after having remained silent for a couple of seconds, I could not help but look at the mana I had left and grimace.


    ''I''m 100% sure I''m going to die!'' I inwardly cried but still stood a few meters away from the pair of master and servant, a cold auraing out of me.


    A slight frown appeared on my face at the same time, however, but instead of it being one of worry, it seemed to be one of someone who had gathered their resolve for battle and was ready to attack the enemies with everything I had.


    I clenched onto the hilt of the de I held as tightly as I could. The red aura wasing out of my body at a rate that I could have only been able to imagine before the awakening that urred after I gained my element, but the amount didn''t matter right now since I couldn''t control my red energy the way I wanted.


    ''Gotta remember to ask nca how to control my magic when I get back out.'' I tried to think positively, yet after thinking of nca, the only thing that lingered within my mind was the hatred I had for her mixed with the amount of disdain I held towards her uselessness.


    ''If only I was strong enough...''


    At that moment, I felt my resolve shoot through the roof.


    Today I was going to be stronger, and while this usually would have meant a lot to me since it would mean that I was one step closer to ending the elves and their society, I was not thinking of everything I could do with that much power.


    ''I wouldn''t be pushed around by people like nca... Those who are so much stronger than me. I would have freedom from the very first time in what feels like forever.''


    With resolve filling me to the brim as well as hatred towards the elves and nca making me release and an enormous amount of killing intent, Iunched forward and tore through the air appearing in front of the hound with the speed of a blurring shadow.


    However, before I could even do anything to harm the hound...


    *BOOM*


    I was flung across the throne room and immediately smashed into the wall behind the throne.


    It felt like the world was spinning around me, but I did not have time toment as another enormous surge of dread hit me once again.


    Without skipping a beat, I rolled the right and heard another loud crashing sound before the creature seemed to turn towards me with a grunt.


    At the same moment, I felt another surge of dread and power head towards me, making my expression turn ugly before my eyes shed with coldness and my sword swung at it with all the power I could muster.


    Having still had the red energy intertwined with the de, it had corroded a little but the effects weren''t too much, however, the moment the de shed with the spear of the chief goblin, I heard a crack enter my ears and forced myself to jump away.


    *Grunt*


    Feeling the dread and hearing the grunt, I opened my eyes once again, and even though it still felt like the world was spinning around me, it was worth it since I could now see exactly how and what was attacking me.


    Looking down, I saw that the hound was extending its ws towards me as I moved through the air after having jumped away from the goblin chief.


    Gritting my teeth once again, I held the sword with both my hands and used the weight it had gained after absorbing my blood energy to spin mid-air.


    *Swoosh*


    I felt the wind brush past my face as an enormous paw moved past me, barely missing me and hitting thin air.


    ''I can do this...''


    I stressed the muscles in my arm and flicked my sword upright. I felt a burst of wind hit me in the face, yet even then I forced myself to keep them wide open.


    ''I can do this.''


    *Swoosh*


    I felt the wind parting from my right, urging me to turn around and look at the spear that was tearing through the air and moving at a terrifying speed towards my heart.


    ''I can do this.''


    My eyes darted to the left, where the paw had missed me and had still not been retracted. A small but confident smile curled up the corner of my lips and one of my feet mmed into the paw of the hound making it tilt backward and allowing me to use it as leverage.


    In the same instant, I blurred through the air and narrowly dodged the iing spear, ducking under it and appearing in front of the shocked goblin chief unscathed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Let''s see how you deal with this!''


    Extending my hands, I gripped onto the wrist of the goblin chief. I felt it instinctually try to break out of my grip, yet before it could do so, it suddenly froze when it felt something happening.


    [Life Drain Activated]


    A numbing pain traveled up to its shoulder and shook its bones. The feeling within its arm had vanished in that split second, and panic took over its mind.


    While life drain in reality only took 1hp per second, it did not mean that the robbing of someone''s hp would be painless. Based on what I have seen so far, it is simr to being slowly cooked from the inside out while losing your senses one by one.


    Before the hound or goblin chief could react, I thrust my de between their eyes. Blood gushed out of the other side while an ear-piercing screech of terror left its mouth. Not wanting to hear any more of it, I withdrew my de and slit its throat just deep enough to cut its vocal cords or at least make its screams inaudible due to the blood that it had begun to drown in.


    *Thud*


    *thud*


    The goblin chief''s bodynded heavily on the ground while my fall was graceful, almost inaudible to those who did not have good hearing.


    *ng*


    Looking back, I realized that the goblin chief''s spear had fallen too, making me widen my eyes in realization.


    ''Loot!? Finally! I have been blessed!''


    *ROAR*


    The entire cavern seemed to shake under the bellowing roar of the hound. My eyes narrowed slightly while my body once again became a blur in the same second. Since I still had the blood energy running rampage within my body and giving me an enormous boost in power, I was able to move at speeds iparable to before, yet even that seemed to be inconsequentialpared to the speed of the hound.


    Within the blink of an eye, I was forced to defend my right side by shing my now blood-red sword in that direction. Cracks were already visibly increasing in quantity, but I still chose to attack the fearsome ws of the beast with the weapon.


    *sh*


    *Crack*


    *Shatter*


    My eyes widened, not in surprise but in terror.


    I had already expected the sword to shatter after taking this hit, yet not only did it meet my expectations, it seemed to go beyond it.


    After shattering, the blood energy burst out in the direction of the paw, yet one secondte and I already felt the dangere closer once again.


    A furless paw with 3 ws missing struck out at me with what seemed like lightning speed. I could only watch as it came closer and closer, my fate almost being sealed immediately.


    However, I was not weak... I would never allow myself to die in such a way. I had every chance to survive. I could think of a thousand ways that I could have optimized a better situation, yet here I stood waiting for my death.


    No matter how many lives I had, I would never let something like this happen.


    How would I fight against the elves if I was so willing to die to a measly dog?


    Stretching my arm back, I felt it grow in power and get filled to the brim with blood energy, to the point where a single incorrect movement might have caused my entire arm to blow up like a water balloon.


    [Conditions met]


    [Pinpoint activated]


    Seeing the red outlines of all its weak spots, the halo within my eyes lit up with a bright crimson color while the veins within my arm started to glow.


    Finally, my arm exploded out with power and energy, shooting forward and unbelievable speeds, and descended upon the w of the tiger.


    *BOOM*


    The sound of bones shattering into a thousand pieces resounded within the cavern before two audible thuds echoed once again before silence descended and the battle for the veryst time.

 Chapter 71 Rewards And Loot

    Pushing the rubble away from me, I used the walls to pick myself up and off the ground. I could see a giant crater that had formed on the wall after I shed with the hound, and while it might have had a 3x boost in strength and doubled strength from the berserk state, it still seemed to have ended with a draw.


    Well, that was what I thought until I looked into the other side of the throne room at the copsed hound that was taking in shallow and pained breaths. It looked like every breath it took made it feel like its lungs were catching on fire, yet it did not stop breathing and decided it would rather go through hell than die to me.


    ''Good thing I had enough mana to do that though...'' My eyes fell upon the towering earth spire that seemed to go from the ground to the roof of the throne room as if it was a vital pir that kept this room from copsing.


    Lifting its paw and mming it into the ground with all its power, it tried to get up but after its forelegs shuddered and shook for a bit, the hound eventually fell to the ground and spat out another mouthful of blood.


    Looking to its right, I could see a blood stter double the size of the current one and I could only guess that it hade from its mouth rather than its body since it did not have any visible wounds.


    However, while the body of a hound that almost killed me would have been something cool to stare at until it died a slow and painful death, I decided that the best course of action was to end its misery and reap more rewards while doing so.


    [Life Drain Activated]


    The moment I activated life drain, I could feel my blood eyes waver while pinpoint had already disappeared since I didn''t need it anymore and it would only drain me of more mana by the minute if I were to keep it on.


    After waiting for almost half a minute, I finally heard a ding within my mind, a sound that caused me to look at the subsequent notification that made me smile from ear to ear.


    [You absorbed the soul core of an Alpha Hound]


    [Learnable skill has been detected]


    [Would you like to learn the skill ''quick w'']


    [Yes] [No]


    ''To think I could even gain skills from soul cores... How useful this ability hase to be. I wonder if anyone else has it or if it''s just something that I have.'' I quickly shook my head and looked at the options with a bright expression.


    My smile did not waver for a second as I unhesitatingly chose-


    [Yes]


    A surge of information shot into my mind and unloaded itself into my brain, yet even though the information was a lot for me to handle, it was not as bad as the amount that had been unloaded on me when I had first learned both Arsis and The Art of Wind...


    ''Or I think that''s what it is called.''


    Eventually, I stood up and walked towards the goblin chief thaty dormant, a horrified expression on its face that had been frozen in both horror and fear.


    ''Should probably take your weapon first...'' I thought while shifting my body to the left and looking at the spear it once held. The spear let out the same vicious energy that it had before, but this time instead of it being directed towards me, I could feel that it was dormant and not being used in any way.


    Grabbing the spear, I inspected it while walking back to the corpse before putting it in the weapon section of my inventory. While I wanted Za sword or maybe a pair of daggers, it seemed fate was against that decision and instead gave me a spear.


    "Seems like I''ll have to get used to using a spear again, not that it had been long since I stopped using one..." I chuckled to myself and looked at the corpse once again before kneeling.


    Touching the corpse with my hand, I went back to the void world and moved my consciousness through the void, and towards therge red rune, I spotted something.


    ''A third? What''s this about?'' I asked myself, and as if the system could hear my thoughts, I heard a soft ring before a screen appeared in front of me.


    [Unable to learn quick w]


    [Blood energy has reacted to the skill]


    [Skill evolution shall nowmence]


    [Skill evolutionplete]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [New Skill: Blood ws (Lvl 1)]


    [Information: Create ws out of blood energy that have the hardness and sharpness of an enchanted diamond, allowing them to cut through almost anything not infused with mana.]


    "Holy crap, that is amazing." I eximed aloud, before tiring to supress the excited smile that took over my facial expressions.


    However, after analyzing it for a bit, I forced myself to look away and finally activate my other skill.


    I watched as my veins began to glow crimson while different runes traveled down my arm and imprinted themselves onto the body of the goblin chief.


    After a few seconds of watching my hp rise once again, I let out a sigh and turned my head to the right, expecting a new notification to show up. However, my expectation of just a kill message shattered before my eyes, and somethingpletely unexpected shed through my eyes.


    [.....]


    [Your achievements are extraordinary]


    [You have absorbed the soul core of a goblin chief]


    [You have conquered the dungeon of reverence]


    [Blood energy is on the verge of evolution]


    ''W-wait wha-.'' I was instantly cut off by another notification.


    [Sovereign of time - Lord Chronos is pleased with your improvement]


    [You shall be ejected out of the dungeon in 3 minutes]


    [Dungeonpletion rewards:


    -300 Immortality Points


    -The Goblin King''s Spear


    Hell-mode rewards: -


    -3000 Immortality Points


    -Book of Runes (Basic)


    -Book of Affinities (Basic)


    Berserk Rewards: -


    -Alpha hound''s fur coat


    -Complete rejuvenation ]


    [You have received one gift from Lord Chronos]


    [Reward: A guide to earth - By Gaia]

 Chapter 72 Resurface

    [You have received one gift from Lord Chronos]


    [Reward: A guide to earth - By Gaia]


    ''Gaia? Hey, isn''t that the person who control this world and the one who created this dungeon... And isn''t this Chronos guy the same guy who took over the system and sent me back in time? Wait no, if I remember correctly, he gave me a time crystal that shattered and sent me here... I think? I don''t remember!'' I inwardly shouted and gripped onto my hair before beginning to pul. However, after a few seconds of this, I calmed down and looked back at the rewards that I had gained.


    ''Book of runes and book of affinities huh... While they might be in the basic grade, they are a lot more beneficial than having nca around. She is kind of useless after all.'' I let out an audible sigh before another thought entered my mind.


    ''How the hell am I supposed to take these things out with me? It''s not like I have a ba-''


    *Thund*


    Before I knew it, 2 pouches made out of cloth appeared in front of me, one that held 2 books while the other held one book that was much bigger than the other two.


    Before I could react to the sudden appearance of two pouches, I felt and saw a bright light form around my body before a fur coat appeared out of thin air and wrapped itself in me.


    ''Oh?'' I thought in delight, happy that I would not have to skin the wolf and make the fur coat on my own.


    After analyzing everything that had appeared, I quickly grabbed both pouches and stood up before walking toward the exit with a satisfied smile.


    Having be stronger once again, not only did I get rewards that I would never have expected to get from a mid-mortal dungeon, but I also seem to have gotten things that would let me avoid bingcent in the future.


    ''Wait... It said I would be ejected in a few minutes so I might as well just stay in this throne room.''


    Nodding, I walked back to the corpses before walking past them, eventually standing in front of a throne as a desire to sit down spread within me.


    ''I mean... What is the worst that can happen? I saw that goblin chief sit on it earlier, which was the main reason to why I thought the goblin might have a goblin king, so it can''t be that bad to sit on it, right?''


    As the thoughts ran through my mind, I finally close my eyes before letting out a heavy sigh. At the same moment, I turned around as fast as I could andnded myself on the seat of the throne.


    ''See! That wasn''t so bad now was it?'' I asked myself with a smirk on my face as if I had one-upped someone in an argument. Unfortunately, however, the only person that I one-upped had been myself, making me look like a fool in the perspective of anyone other than myself.


    After having sat down for half a minute, I looked at one of the pouches with narrowed eyes before my curiosity and desire to get stronger as quickly as possible overtook my self-control.


    Taking out one of the books, I read-


    "Book of Runes. It might be basic for now but I could probably try and pry the rest of the information out of nca... Man, I wonder how good my life would have been if I hadn''t chosen to go with her and sign the contract.


    Of course, there was the threat of her killing me the moment I refused, but now I doubt that she would have done that. Plus, I thought that she would actually be useful but so far I had gained more out of this dungeon than I had gained out of her." I let out another sigh, one filled with bitter annoyance as well as fatigue.


    "I haven''t eaten for a long time too... Matter of fact, it''s been more than 2 weeks since thest time I had properly eaten."


    Letting out a sigh for the umpteenth time, I threw those thoughts to the back of my mind and began reading the book of runes.


    While at first, I was slightly bored, I found myself being almost entranced by theplicated runes that I saw in the book as illustrations, as well as thebinations of the runes that left me almost mesmerized.


    [Dungeon is closing]


    [You shall be transported out in 30 seconds]


    Being kicked out of my trance, I furrowed my brows but still simply closed my book and stood up from the throne while throwing onest nce toward the two corpses thaty lifeless in front of me.


    [You will now be transported]


    The familiar feeling of space warping around youbined with the images of the world being stretched entered my eyes. It was a familiar scene not because I had seen it when I had entered the dungeon, no. It was because I had felt it before my first death. I felt it when I had been teleported to the top of the golden spaceship before being dropped onto the floor to watch the absolute destruction that they had showered my city with.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I remembered the vast wastnd that seemed to crumble more and more by the second, images of what it used to look likepared to its final moments flickering within my mind like a broken tv screen.


    I closed my eyes tightly, not wanting to remember any of those memories yet that still intruded into my mind.


    ''Damni!''


    I had built up my resolve for so long and had crawled out of my state of wallowing in pity long ago. Yet, even after so much time had passed, I''d still see images of that day sh within my mind.


    The feeling of agony and sorrow were not as powerful as they were back in the first week ofnding in this world, but the feeling wasn''t far off.


    Eventually, however, it seemed like my mind was forced to give in, finally allowing one of the memories of myst day to resurface.


    ***


    I was sitting down on one of the seats of the dinner table poking my food while looking at it as if in a trance.


    "-rother? Brother!? Are you deaf or dead?" A familiar voice spoke from my left. A Blonde-haired girl with beautiful blue round eyes looked at me with worry as her they glimmered with naivety and youth.


    This was my little sister Emily who was currently trying tomunicate with me over the dinner table.


    "Dear? You have been zoning out a lottely. I something the matter?" A mature woman asked me from one side of the dinner table.


    "Nothing to worry about, mom. It is just that I haven''t been sleeping much cuz'' of the uing finals" I ruffled my hair and smiled warmly however, it froze for a second, yet that was all it took for my father to realize there was something wrong.


    "What is it son?" He narrowed his eyes in worry.


    Looking at him with a nk expression, I opened my mouth and spoke hesitantly "Just a little bit of De Javu. Nothing to worry about." beforeughing.


    ''Something is wrong...''


    "Are you sure son?" He narrowed his eyes further


    ''Something is re-really wrong...''


    My hands had begun to shake.


    My shivering breath was now audible.


    My fear was now apparent.


    ''What is this?'' I asked myself


    Snapping out of it for a second, I tried to think of a reply but...


    Something stopped me.


    The moment I looked at my father''s face, it was as if I could see right through his skin and muscle. All that appeared to me was the shape of his skull.


    A skull filled with vegetation and moss as if it had been there for months if not years.


    Before I could even scream, his face had returned to normal, making me rub my eyes as my hands shook uncontrobly.


    ***

 Chapter 73 Not So Useless Afterall

    *ZZZZZINNNNG*


    I found myself taking a step out of what looked and felt like a portal.


    Taking a step out, I ce my right foot on the ground below before cing my left foot beside it, allowing me to fully leave the portal and no longer be submerged within its spatial distortions.


    While I knew that it was very unlikely that the portal of the being that rules this world would suddenly copse onto itself, I knew that the chances weren''t zero so I always felt a tinge of anxiety whenever I moved through them.


    It was as if something was watching me from the deep stretching space around me as I moved through the portal, making it feel as if a single blink from it would cause the entire spacial tunnel to shake to the point of shattering into a million pieces.


    Having left the spacial tunnel, I could not help but let out a sigh of relief as I finally felt the ground under my feet once again.


    After a few seconds of seemingly recalibrating my body to work once again, I stepped forward and strolled to the exit of the cave, too fatigued to try and hide my presence and make it a surprise when I left.


    ''The system said that I would get aplete rejuvination, yet that only seems to have meant physical rejuvination rather than mental. My psyche had taken a toll after fighting one life or death fight... How pathetic! I could have went 3 or 4 times before, yet now I am feeling this tired just because of one life or death battle?'' I gritted my teeth but I knew I could do nothing.


    The best way to strengthen someone''s will was to fight more and more life or death battles, and even though I had fought in one today, I was unsatisfied with my current stamina.


    With these thoughts running through my mind at unimaginable speeds, I finally took a step into the outside world and lifted my head with gritted teeth, trying my best not to spit on the floor with anger.


    However, the moment I lifted my head, my eyes naturallynded upon a mountain of corpses that consisted of almost everything from insects, and dog-like beasts as well as several felines. If that was not enough, I could see two other beastsying on the ground with lifeless white eyes as they released an aura that was only something one would see in beings within the high mortal realm.


    ''What would the elves and the other settlements on this call these realms? I know that nca called them that too, but I doubt those were the real terms. Wait... What am I thinking? There is a mountain of corpses here, some that were most likely in the higher mortal realm, yet the first thing I think about are grades of power?!'' Shaking my head fiercely, I tried to get the thoughts out of my mind and think of what was truly important at that moment.


    *Schhttttshhhh*


    Suddenly, I saw a white beam of light shoot through the forest andpletely incinerate everything with its path from the trees to the ground the beam hadnded on.


    The power being released by the two titans that had begun to fight was enormous, I could feel my arms instinctually shaking in the presence of these creatures, but not in fear.


    My arms, legs, and almost every muscle that could be used to fight with screamed at me to go and fight those creatures all by myself, yet while this bestial desire seemed proper and reasonable in my eyes, I was not stupid.


    I knew that fighting them would almost immediately indicate death, but watching did not have the same implication.<novelnext></novelnext>


    With excitement and adrenaline running through my veins, I felt my body crash against the winds and appear on a tree far above them in altitude before crouching down and staring at the fight that was ensuing below.


    From what I could see, there was a bipedal figure that seemed to be a little shorter than me in height moving around and dodging the attacks of a brown-furred gori that was kicking up dust in the wake of their attacks.


    However, while the power of the gori might have seemed formidable to someone like me, I could see that the bipedal being below was moving around with leisure, evading and dodging with the grace of a butterfly.


    Eventually, however, a cold and calcting aura shot out of the bipedal who I had finally identified as a nca.


    The aura was suppressive to the point where it almost felt like a physical wind, making several trees around it begin to blow back due to the intensity of the winds.


    Within the blink of an eye, nca moved across several dozen meters and appeared in front of the gori, bloodlust now being released out of her body while her eyes seemingly pierced through the very soul of her enemy.


    *BOOM*


    The gori was catapulted back as it destroyed several trees in its path, every single one of them toppling over the other in a demonstration of destruction.


    ''It''s not dead.'' I thought to myself, my eyes narrowing towards the gori that was still tumbling heads over heels.


    After a few seconds, however, the gori seemed to have stabilized itself, stopping its momentum and forcing itself to look up at the creature that had attacked it. In the distance, it could see a beautiful woman walking toward it with a sinister smile on her face. Every one of her movements indicated that she was rxed, yet the bloodlust that wasing out of her at that moment told a different story.


    To my surprise, the once prideful gori immediately turned around and began to flee, but right before it could do so-


    *Swoosh*


    *BOOM*


    A ck figure shot through the forest at speeds I could not follow without using blood eyes before appearing above the gori andnding a devastating blow that would have killed it 3 times over.


    As the body of the gori fell down into a puddle of its own brain matter and blood, nca finally looked back and nced in my direction with a seductive yet relieved smile.


    ''Well, at least she isn''t useless to the degree I thought she was.'' I let out a soft smile as well before jumping down the tree onto other branches, and eventually reaching the ground and creating a crater the moment I touched it.

 Chapter 74 The Next Year Will Be A Truly Painful One...

    Havingnded on the ground once again, I quickly turned to nca and looked at her directly, watching as she cat walked her way to me with a smile that could not hide her tinge of worry.


    ''She''s worried?''


    Ever since I had first met her, I had been certain that she did not care about me in the least and instead saw me as some kind ofb rat that she could learn from, however, her sudden disy of affections made me a little warier of her.


    Although I could see she was flirting with me, I never saw that as anything more than ying around and didn''t take her seriously, but after seeing the genuine worry she tried to mask behind her smile, I could not help but reevaluate my opinion of her.


    ''Ugh... There''s no way. She was probably just worried that herb rat might have gotten injured.'' I thought with a little annoyance before finally looking at her once again as she was only a few meters away from me now.


    While no one could deny that she was beautiful beyond belief, I did not direct my eyes at anything but her face, and by doing so I could easily conclude that she was the reason why there were mountains of corpses by the dungeon portal.


    "What happened to you?" I asked tly while raising a brow.


    Seeing that I was no longer analyzing her, she pouted and replied with a disappointed "Nothing, you?" At the same time, I could see her eyeing me from head to toe with a worried expression, but after a second of doing so her face went back to normal and a smile once again appeared on her face.


    "What do you mean ''nothing''?" I furrowed my brows and looked at her as if she was stupid.


    "You asked me what I''m doing and I said nothing. Take the hint. I''m inviting you." She winked


    My eyes narrowed once again while I let out a grunt followed by-


    "First off, I didn''t ask what you are doing. I asked what happened to you. Secondly, I''m not interested in snakes." I replied bluntly with a cold expression.


    "Wow, I see how it is!" She shouted and looked away with an audible harrumph.


    ''Does she think copying the characteristics of a tsundere would suddenly make her cuter?'' I was left perplexed by her acts.


    While I knew her personality kind of changed every time she morphed into something new, I never knew that the change would be to the point where many of her characteristics would be almost human-like.


    "Answer my question." Imanded bluntly, making her turn around with the same pout and stroll over to me like a scolded dog.


    "What happened?" I repeated.


    "Nothing really. Some beasts came and tried to enter the portal for reasons I could not understand. I could literally see them shivering as they got closer but it looked like they were resolved to get in. Anyway, I killed all of them-" She quickly took a nce at my face but didn''t see a change in my expression, so instead she scanned my whole body once again and let out another sigh before continuing-


    "and then the gori came so I had to kill it too. I got dirty with its blood so I might have to showerter. No peaking." She let out a fake smile and gave me a wink.


    ''Who is she trying to fool.'' I thought with a shake of my head before finally looking her up and down.


    While her dress was ck, I could still see that it had been stained with the blood of the beasts she had killed. In this state, even her pristine skin, which usually radiated with the light of the sun, now seemed tainted by the smell and color of blood, leaving her in a state that could only be described with the use of one word: bloodsoaked.


    "W-What about you?" She asked before taking the opportunity to take another nce at me.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "What do you mean what about me?" I asked, this time genuinely confused.


    "You''re covered in blood and grime." She said before taking the chance to touch my bare chest with her forefinger and trying to move it down, yet before she could do so I quickly grabbed her finger and twisted it until she cried- "Sorry!"


    Quickly letting go of her finger, I looked down to look at my body just to scrunch up my face in what seemed like disgust. In reality, I was just scrunching my face up because I didn''t know how to feel.


    I was drenched in blood from head to toe and most of it had dried up at that point. I could see my fur coat which in reality looked and felt like a fur vest due to its unique Viking look of having two openings on the side rather than sleeves, as well as an opening in the middle that I could not close without stitching it together.


    Due to myck of a shirt, I was topless under the vest, something that allowed me to see my bare chest alongside my chiseled abs that reached 8 in number.


    ''This was why she was taking so many nces?'' I thought with a mocking smile.


    "Hey! Why are you smiling like that! It isn''t funny okay. You could have gotten seriously injured. Even I felt an enormous amount of pressureing from that portal, but you still went in." She shouted in anger at myx expression.


    "At least you came out in once piece." She sighed before grunting in anger once again after remembering how much worry she felt when she saw me go in.


    ''Why do I even care about this bastard. He doesn''t even spare me a nce yet I felt ready to dive in any minute now if I hadn''t felt himing out.''


    "Well, now that I''ve conquered this dungeon, there isn''t another one nearby so we might as well go back to our ca-"


    "You conquered the dungeon?!" She cut me off, making my brow twitch in annoyance while a mysterious itch began to grow on the surface of my fist.


    ''I want to punch her so bad''


    "Yes, I did. Stop asking stupid questions and actually do something useful for once. We have a few things on the agenda. You will make me some armor using the abomination corpse pieces that we gathered, as well as potions, pills, and a good sword. After that, you will teach me all you can about runes and affinities. Is that understood?" I asked while looking at nca with crossed arms.


    "Yeah sure. But in return, you''re going to let me-"


    "There is no in return. The contract clearly states that I don''t have to do anything for you, but you have to help me whenever you can unless it threatens your life." I cut her off with a frown. I was well aware of what she was trying to ask and do, so I quickly cut her off and crushed her filthy imagination before it could run any further.


    "But-"


    "No buts. Now let''s go." I shut her up once again and did not skip a beat as I walked away from her and went in the direction of the corpse mountains from earlier.


    "Bring the gori with you."


    being shooed away with a second thought, she pursed her lips into a pout before turning around with regret evident in her eyes as she lost her chance to talk for the rest of the day. I on the other hand had a simr negative expression, yet instead of it being one filled with regret, it mixed it with both fatigue and anger.


    ''The next year will be a truly painful one...''

 Chapter 75 Anything To Satiate The Fire That Burned Me From Within.

    The rain poured down in gallons, creating rivers out of the slope of hills and rocks, while at the same time flooding any craters and creating smallkes in the process.


    On top of one of the cliffs, one could see a human standing by a cave while soaked in the rainwater. However, while this usually would have irritated anyone due to the amount of water that was pouring down on them, it did not irritate the human that simply stood there motionless as if challenging the skies to a battle of endurance.


    However, after a few seconds of him simply standing there, a powerful fist was thrust forward, exploding out with wind pressure and causing the rain drops around him to freeze for a split second before resuming their fall.


    It was as if ayer of ethereal armor had been formed around him for a moment, making all the raindrops freeze in ce for that one moment since they could not directly fall onto his skin, but that simply was not the case.


    The human, of course, was me.


    "You''ve been doing the same thing for hours. Come inside already!" nca shouted from within the cave yet I did not react to her words.


    Instead, I carried on punching and punching, every single one of my punches bing faster and more efficient than myst even if the change was too minute for even my blood eyes to distinguish.


    I was currently in a trance. Everything seemed to have be ck while the only thing I could see, feel or touch had be the ground right below me and rain that soaked me from head to toe


    The sound of the running rivers and the rain hitting the ground seemingly blended into the background as the only thing I heard from then on had be the muffled explosions of air pressure whenever I punched the air in front of me.


    I could almost feel the water separate in front of me, yet even then I chose to not pay it any attention since I had focused almost everything on my positioning, footwork, and power.


    "Being in the rain for so long isn''t good for you. You never know, you might get hypothermia." nca shouted, yet her shout blended into a chuckle since even she could not take her own words seriously due to the absurdity of how they sounded.


    It was a well-known fact that in this world, only creatures that had not embarked on the path of "Cultivation" would be sick, and in her eyes, I had passed the "embarkment" stage a long long time ago.


    After another few hours of this grueling tiresome task, I was finally kicked out of my trance by a wave of fatigue that almost made me copse to my feet the moment I felt it.


    ''Damnit... I might have gone too far this time.'' Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself off my feet and walked into the cavern with a tired and pained expression.


    "I told you to stop but you didn''t listen." nca harrumphed, but after a few seconds, she began to analyze me in worry before finally letting out a sigh of relief which was followed by a stern gaze, not a few seconds after.


    "You were too reckless." She spoke, this time her voice filled with scolding and anger as she stood up and away from the fire before walking towards me.


    I could see her stern expression and could not help but shudder to remember all the other times I had made her angry, yet instead of scolding me for endless minutes, she simply sat next to me and took a look at my feet.


    Before I could react, my feet were already within her grasp and she was analyzing them carefully, making sure to not miss a single detail, her eyes scanning over them like a detective trying to find a clue.


    "Look at this. You have calluses all over your feet! When are you going to stop! You asked me to teach you about runes and affinities, yet now you are just doing physical activities and ignoring me all the time. What is the point of me being around if you aren''t willing to use me." She scolded me with a stern expression, but unlike every other day for thest 3 weeks, she had stopped there.


    After having met up with nca for the first time since I had left the dungeon, I had strolled my way toward all the corpses and had absorbed their soul cores one by one.


    After doing so, I quickly moved towards the gori and did the same thing, yet just like I had expected, I got nothing in return as if the system was trying to scold me for not having killed all those creatures myself.


    After having done so, we both returned to the cave where we would spend the rest of the day doing nothing in particr. Seeing this, I took out both the book of affinities and the book of runes to quickly read over them, yet before I knew it, I had already read over the entire book.


    Of course, like most people, I couldn''t understand everything that I had read but I could confidently say that I at least knew what 50% of the book was trying to say, making me more confident when it came to the runic experience as well as the core principles of the basic elements that I hade across so far.<novelnext></novelnext>


    However, after having read the book of affinities and the book of runes, I quickly moved on to Gaia''s book, a guide to earth. While at first, I was confident in taking on this book without prior knowledge, the first page of the book had left mepletely stupified, yet even after not understanding 90% of the things said on the first page, there was still a 10% that I did understand.


    "The earth affinity is aplex one. Other affinities have different aspects to them, an example being the mixture of oxygen, heat, and fuel to create fire. Low temperature and concentration of water vapor in a single area would lead to the creation of liquid water." I read out loud before skipping a few texts since it simply told me how every element worked, something I did not need for the time being.


    However, after the exnation of how the earth element worked, there was one line that stuck with me for thest 3 weeks, and it was-


    "I do not rmend learning how to manipte earth before having already learned how to control your body to the extent you would need. While the earth element needs a certain level ofprehension, it can take a toll on both the mind and body while also being very exorbitant in the use of its mana. Learn how to fight with your body before learning how to fight with your elements."


    And so I did exactly that.


    For the next three weeks, I would go on to train my ass off, yet even then I was more certain that I wouldn''t suddenly get mastery in the use of my body overnight. However, rather than choosing the easy path ofcency, I had instead chosen to do everything I could to be stronger, faster, and more efficient than I once was.


    After thinking back at all the days that I had spent trying to be stronger, I finally left my trance and looked nca in the eyes for the first time in what seemed like weeks.


    Another reason why I had begun to train so much had been to avoid talking to nca and telling her any secrets. I was sure that the moment I sat down with her and began to talk she would find a way to excrete secrets from me, yet all I had seen for the past three weeks had been a genuine concern as she took care of me every single day.


    After looking into her eyes for a bit longer, I could see a slight blush creeping up her cheeks, a reaction that instantly made me smile with eyes that shone like stars.


    After a few seconds, an awkward atmosphere began to build between us yet I did not stop smiling, to the point where even I didn''t understand the reason why.


    ''This reminds me of something... A really good memory that I kind of doesn''t want to think of.'' I thought to myself with a sigh.


    "Hey, Ezra." I heard a voice call out to me, making me look up and once again peer into the yellow eyes of the woman in front of me.


    "Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked, yet instead of me spitting out non-existent coffee or blushing simr to some of the animes I used to watch, I could only feel a surge of emotions ovee my heart as if there was a dam that had broken. A dam that repressed all those emotions deep within my heart.


    I looked at nca once again, yet instead of wearing the teasing pure-hearted smile from earlier, this smile was filled with millions of emotions I could not describe. Yet, even within these millions of emotions, there was one emotion that stood stronger and more prominent than the others.


    "Yes... Yes, I do..." I replied before looking away from her andnding my gaze on the ceiling.


    "Well, at least I did..." I said again, causing nca to narrow her eyes but still stay silent as if waiting for something else toe after those words, yet nothing came.


    My heart was in turmoil as I once again remembered everything. It felt like a vivid dream, yet I knew it was real. Every single thing that happened. Every single thing that had ever been taken away from me. But even with eyes that were filled with gloom and sorrow, I did not allow a single tear to leave my eyes.


    Call it what you want, but I would not allow myself to fall back and wallow in self-pity. I would not allow myself to shed another tear until the day those elves knew my rage...


    Even if I was forced to burn this very to the ground, I would do it...


    Anything to satiate the fire that burned me from within.


    [Extra long chapter. Might feel a little stretched but I Just wanted to portray the mc''s emotions]

 Chapter 76 Life Of Normalcy

    It had been a month since I had left the dungeon and after arduous days of constant training and little rest, I had finally hit a bottleneck.


    "So you''ve finally given up and chose to confine on the wisdom of your master? Ho Ho Ho! Then I shall teach you, my little disciple! I shall teach you the ways of the white snake tribe!" nca let out an annoying and pridefulugh as she stood in front of me, her arms subtly crossed below her boasting and prideful puffed-up chest.


    ''I can almost smell the pride on her words.'' I thought white grimacing for a few moments as I sat on the ground in a seiza position while my handsy on my thighs.


    One could constantly see my brows twitching in annoyance as nca shouted more and more obscene things, but from what I could tell, she was enjoying every second of my torture.


    "To think you''d finallye to be after reaching your breaking point!" She boasted once again, her hands now on her hips while her chin pointed towards the ceiling of the cave as she let out another heartyugh.


    "I didn''t reach my breaking po-"


    "Silence junior! Do not speak unless, I, your master, permit you to!" She shouted into my face, causing droplets of saliva to taint my face that shone with the purity of gold itself!


    However, instead ofining I only furrowed my brows and cleaned my face using the cloth of my fur coat that had an automatic cleaning system that I had only identified after using my blood eyes. Not knowing that it was at first, I tried to use the help of the Book of Runes but even then, I was forced to ask nca to tell me the rune''s function, an action I hade to regret in the days toe.


    For the past month, I had not only been refining my martial arts, but I had also begun my journey of attempting to level up my skills ranging from blood eyes and pinpoint to life drain. I had also exposed my earth affinity to nca after seeing that I would need to also level those abilities up, something I would alsoe to regret after seeing her exaggerated cries of-


    "How could you not tell me about something so important!" and-


    "I thought we trusted one another with each other''s lives, but to think you couldn''t trust me with something as simple as letting me know your affinity!"


    When she finally had had enough of crying for what felt like hours, she clung to me with enough strength that I was unable to move her without having to once again endure her cries. So for the following few days, I was forced to deal with an adult cry baby whenever I attempted to rest after training.


    Speaking of training, I had also discovered something that helped me tremendously in the past two weeks, allowing my improvement to skyrocket in the past few days.


    After constantly using my muscles, I would need to rest and rebuild them, but with the use of my life drain ability, there was no longer a need for that. After all, a being with 15 hp could rejuvenate me to my peak, allowing me to carry on training without a hitch. The only problem was that while recuperating, I would not have the ability to hunt for my prey. Nevertheless, I always had nca do that job for me, something that she agreed to without a moment of hesitation and made me thoroughly confused in the process.


    While destroying and recreating my muscles didn''t give me any points in my strength, agility, and vitality stats like it usually would have done, I could feel something different happening instead.


    I was no longer destroying my muscles to make them stronger, but instead, I was destroying them to recreate them into something more efficient.


    Every time this cycle continued, I felt like my muscles were bing more robust, needing less energy to function, less oxygen, and overall less nutrition to sustain.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I could feel them slowly but surely bing the perfect killing weapons, allowing me to perform my earlier attacks much more easily than before, and since the first steps of the art of wind were simply used to create a solid foundation to creating a body used to moving with agility and the use ofrge amounts of momentum, this cycle of torture only showed to have further aided that path.


    However, without leveling up, I would forever be stuck at 40 points of strength, vitality, and agility, making my determination to be stronger only increase since I truly needed to create a body that was more suitable for fighting in dungeons.


    Anyway, now that I had hit my bottleneck, I was forced to ask for nca''s assistance, something she pounced at like a hungry lion that had been waiting weeks for its prey to finallye to it.


    "Call me master and I''ll think about teaching you!" She announced smugly, but instead of getting the pleading expression that she expected from me, she instead received a cold re as I finally began to get up to walk away and never ask her again.


    "Okay okay! You don''t have to call me master. Just don''tin about any of my teaching strategies." She harrumphed before walking away and sitting on a stool that she had carved out of a boulder she found.


    "What I really should beining about is the fact that you haven''t made my armor or weapon yet. Hell, even the potions you promised me haven''t been made." Iined with annoyance while pointing at the pile of materials at the other end of the room.


    "I didn''t find any time to do it." She smiled innocently.


    "Yeah, but that''s ''cause you''ve done nothing but eat for thest month. Look at you! You are gaining weight at this point!" I retorted.


    When she heard my retort, she went beet red but made sure to throw some final words in "Y-Y-You! You bastard! I''m not gaining weight! This amount of food is nothing to someone like me!"


    "Sure sure." I let out a mocking pitying smile and looked away, making her anger boil even more than before


    "Why you!" She immediately pounced on me like an aggravated cat before attacking me with the intent of getting revenge.


    For the next few hours, one could hear the shrill screams of a man leaving the cave and echoing through the vast forest, and while the beasts around were curious about what was happening, not a single one of them dared to move closer and identify the source of the sounds.


    After a series of hours of several beasts shuddering and running as far away as possible from the cave, the screams finally stopped and I once again found myself sitting on the ground in the seiza position, yet unlike thest time this happened, several scratch marks could be seen all over my skin while even arge bite mark shone with redness at the back of my neck.


    Sighing, nca sat down once again and finally began to speak once again, her voice entering my ears like a soft melody as if nothing had happened previous to this.


    "From what I can see, you cannot improve your strength anymore, or at least not to the scale of improvement you had before you entered the dungeon. In reality, you should be taking this time to refine your skills and abilities, but since I don''t really specialize in fighting, I can only help you with something else..." Hearing her words, I looked up with curiosity and waited for what she was going to say next


    "You wanted to learn about runes right? Then I shall teach you as much as I can before we have to part ways. How about it? Are you up to the challenge or will you scurry back to your life of normalcy?"

 Chapter 77 Runes

    "You wanted to learn about runes right? Then I shall teach you as much as I can before we have to part ways. How about it? Are you up to the challenge or will you scurry back to your life of normalcy?"


    Hearing her words made me frown. I knew that my life before she hade was far from what could be considered normal, making her words almost hurt my pride.


    I knew how much work I had put in to survive and even though I had becent afterward, my life was still not ''normal''. Yet even then, I could feel a part of my mind trying to defend my actions of not doing anything worthwhile for a whole week of my life, however, those thoughts did not grow anyrger.


    My rational mind told me that while her sentence might have not been correct in my case, it would have been correct if it was said to anyone else in this world.


    This world was not nice to those who cked off. It was a world where the strong ruled and the weak fought with everything they had to survive to the very end, yet not even their hard work and determination could save them from a towering dragon that could snuff them out with a sneeze.


    Seeing my light frown, nca beamed at the opportunity to tease me further, yet she was fated to be disappointed because the second before she could say anything, she heard my voice enter her ears.


    "Sure. You better not ck off the same you have been cking off with the armor and weapon project." I replied, slightly pissed off at her previous words since they only reminded me of howzy she was inparison to me.


    "Hey! I''m working on it!" She shouted back, yet her words weren''t very convincing since I could urately pinpoint the areas of her face that reddened at the mention of herziness.


    "h h h. Just get to your lesson already and stop stalling, or is it that the greate white snake, nca..." I paused for a second and looked at the ceiling of the cave with narrowed eyes before shrugging. "Whatever your surname is, has been bluffing about her knowledge this whole time." I continued with a smile on my face that portrayed innocence.


    "Hmph. If you only knew my standing in the white snake tribe. Once you find out, let me assure you that you will be licking the soles of my feet." She retorted but after seeing no reaction, an indication that I didn''t believe her, she could only sigh and get back to the topic.


    "Runes are split into different categories. You have battle runes, tactical runes and enchantment runes, each one of them requiring an insurmounsable scale of understand before even being able to use any of them. While my power might not be great whenpared to the standards off the elven and dwarven race, I am still a genius when ites to the artichtion of information, something that makes up for myck of speed when ites to cultivation." She exined<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Cultivation? I remember you saying something about it a few months ago. What is it?" I asked as my curiosity peaked.


    However, unlike what I had expected, I saw nca look at me with a serious expression rather than her goofy yful one. Now that she was taking this seriously, her aura had changed like the difference between day and night.


    "While I''m curious as to why you are so ignorant about things like this since I''m pretty sure youe from a powerful backing, I won''t ask you anything on the matter. Simply put, cultivation is the development of someones power to eventually reach a new ne." She exined, yet that only made me frown.


    Seeing my confusion, she stopped my question with a raise of her finger and continued-


    "While usually, cultivation would be the absorbance of ambient mana into the body to further enhance their mana core, the meaning can sometimes differ depending on the context. Cultivating a fire element means that one is improving upon theprehension of it as well as their control. They are trying to sprout something deep inside themselves to eventually be ''heavenly geniuses.''" She exined, but instead of rxing, my frown only deepened when the word ''heavenly'' was mentioned.


    ''Surely the word heavenly is just a metaphor for great. Maybe this world is running out of words in their vocabry to describe geniuses that have sprouted this seed she speaks of.'' I thought with mockery.


    Thought of bing the Shakespeare of this world, creating words out of thin air to forever influence thenguages across the shed through my mind, yet after almost bursting out with a peal of cynicalughter, I forced myself to calm down and listen to nca once again.


    "Anyway, runes!" nca suddenly eximed and began thinking of what she wanted to say again. Talks of cultivation filled her mind, and rightfully so. It seemed like the only way to grow within this world was to cultivate, where that would be the cultivation of affinities, rules of the universe, or one''s mana core. I on the other hand was not forced to use these methods to cultivate since I had the system that seemed to do everything automatically for me.


    However, while others would have been exhrated to see that they didn''t have to cultivate the normal way, I knew the limitations to this ability. While at first, it might seem like you are winning the game of life, it is secretly a curse in disguise.


    ''This while level limiter thing is a little worse than I thought. My increase in power would be fast in the short term, but depending on how long it takes me to level up, it can very well be a double edged sword. Let''s hope it doesn''t get to that level though.'' I let out an exasperated sigh.

 Chapter 78 Unique Body Constitution

    "While I think the runes are self-exnatory, I''ll exin them anyway," she said before looking up slightly and beginning-


    "Battle runes. While man arcane mages use this type of rune, it is in my opinion, the least important one." she exined, making me raise a brow in surprise.


    "Battle runes are mostly used to make traps, or for those who haven''t reached the astral ne or have weak cultivations, it can be used to make a spell without a chant which makes most people refer to them as arrays.


    Think of it as the written version of a chant if you''d like. However, there are a small number of well sought out mages out there who use battle runes as a way to make enormous spells that either expanded throughout an entire city or nation or had the power to wipe a city or nation out." She exined and stopped speaking for a while, trying to decipher my expression as I quickly thought of many ways this might have been used.


    ''Hmm. With that exnation, I can easily identify many ways runes might have been used. Yes, it can be used the same way one would use traps in the wild or secret areas, runes are much more than that. I can already imagine all the defensive formations that kingdoms and empires have, but at the same time, I can''t even imagine the scale of destruction that would be created in the wave of one of these runic spells.'' I thought inwardly as an image of a nuke dropping to the ground and decimating everything in site shed within my mind.


    "Tactical runes on the other hand, while capable of being used in traps, cannot make the trap itself. A battle rune uses the mana within it as well as the elements within it to create a trap and the mostmon one is usually an explosion trap." nca exined once again before continuing after seeing my nod of understanding.


    "Tactical runes can be thought of as rivers. While the energy might be stored somewhere else, tactical runes can be used to be a link between a source of energy and an absorber of energy. Many people use tactical runes to direct the flow of mana toward them so they can cultivate more efficiently since there is a higher density of mana around them. It can also be used to power objects such as those crossbows the elves use as well as those guns that the dwarves use."


    ''So like circuits of mana... or maybe just wires. From what I can tell, these tactical runes are probably just the mana version of electric wires that we used to use to power everything from phones to cities. While I''m sure they won''t work exactly the same, the core principle is almost identical to my Earth''s counterpart.'' I thought to myself while scratching my chin in interest.


    "Finally, enchantment runes are self-exnatory. With abination of runes, you can change the properties of the thing the runes are situated on, whether that is a body, a weapon, or a piece of armor, that is up to you. ]


    ? However, I must warn you that the act of inscribing runes onto one''s own body is considered taboo and is only permissible when the runes are naturally formed through the creation of a unique body constitution, whether that would be at birth or from a legendary artifact is up to luck." She shrugged and tried to move on, but I quickly stopped before looking at her forehead where the red symbol still shone as brightly as before.


    "So you have a unique body constitution?" I asked her with a raised brow.


    "Of course I do. I am one of the most unique prodigies of the white snake tribe after all." She let out a subtle smirk that almost caught me off guard, yet I did not waver as I simply looked at the symbol on her head.


    "So what does it do?" I asked with a tinge of curiosity.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Well, since I''ve only unlocked half of mine, not much so far. It just increases my intelligence and gives me the ability to morph into any race while retaining the ability to use my body just as well as I would have if I was in my snake form. Due to this unique body constitution of mine, I also became exceedingly beautiful no matter what race I chose to show up as." She grinned with pride emanating out of her, gushing and flooding out of her like a volcano.


    "Is that it?" I asked, raising a brow once again.


    "Well, that''s the overview of everything. Of course, there are ranks to runes as well as differentnguages one might use to make runes. Also, while the majority of runes are universal, there are ones that arepletely unique to certain elements but that isn''t something you should know about now." She exined before causing me to nod slightly.


    I didn''t want to be too in over my head so I went and took the easiest path to learn about runes.


    ''I guess I''ll have to start off slow before beginning to speed up a little.'' I sighed and looked at nca once again.


    "So I''m guessing I first have to understand the book with the basics of all runes. Am I correct?" I asked


    "Yes, and I''ll help you learn anything you struggle with. In the meantime, since I don''t have anything else to do I''m just going to start making you the armor and weapons you asked for." She replied with a wave of her hand, but when she looked at my face she was left stunned.


    An ted expression hung on my face, indicating how much herst words meant to me.


    ''At longst! After suffering for weeks due to theck of any defense points, I am finally going to have armor again! No longer will I feel naked in front of a strong enemy! No longer shall I be forced to dodge at all costs!'' I inwardly shouted while the urge to hug the life out of nca began to rise within my chest.


    However, unlike my desires, I was not stupid and instinctual. I quickly killed that desire where it stood, but my gratitude towards her did not diminish even though I knew that she was only doing it because I had been asking for almost a month now.


    "Then let''s get started!" I shouted and snatched the book out of my storage and began reading it.


    And before I knew it, a month had passed.

 Chapter 79 Runesmith

    In the next month that had passed, I hadpleted several goals, and while it might have not been to the proficiency I would usually strive for when trying toplete things, I simply couldn''t rush something like this any further than I already had done.


    ording to nca, my speed of learning was something that prodigies all around the world could only dream to have, something that was only further proven by her grave expression whenever she would see me do something that would have taken her months to even learn.


    Her eyes continued to shine green with envy for a long time, but after she got used to my speed, she calmed herself down and only showed slight changes in her facial expressions rather than the faces ofplete disbelief that she kept showing earlier.


    I had learned everything I could about the basics of every rune category, yet I could still urately pinpoint which one I was better atpared to which one I had been significantly worse in.


    While I would have loved to have been a professional in battle runes, that simply was not the case since it also happened to be the category I was much worse atpared to the other three. I couldn''t understand why I was so much worse at using battle runespared to the other two, but if I were to guess, it would most probably be due to the fact that it was somethingpletely new to me.


    I hadn''t learned how to use my elements properly, so how could I expect any other oue?


    Coming second was the enchantment runes that I had not really found a way to use yet other than implementing them onto objects such as branches or leaves for training since there wasn''t really anything else to use them on.


    Learning enchantment runes had be a lot easier when I recognized the simple runes within the book and remembered how they had been used in the past, an example being the bats that the hobgoblins held. At a certain point, the regret of not having taken the bats out with me had begun to fill my heart, but I knew better than anyone else that there was no point mulling on the past.


    So in the ce of the bats, I chose to analyze my spear first and check if it had any runes that I could learn from or replicate. However, to my dismay, a single nce from nca caused her to frown before quickly telling me that the runes on the spear were tier 2 runes, something that I could not even think about replicating with my current power.


    ording to her, the spear''s runes were very versatile when it came to the use of mana since it would ept any element given to it without a hitch from its end. She did mention though that elements such as light or darkness might have been a slight problem from the spear, yet since I didn''t have any of those elements, it wasn''t a problem that I had to think about.


    However, I still could not help but wonder, what would have happened if I were to have gotten the time element and had tried to fuel the runes on the spear with it?


    Finally, tactical runes were the ones that I was most proficient in and this was mainly due to the fact that the ideas behind the tactical runes were quite simple. They transfer energy through any surface unless it is mana repellent. Mana-resistant materials on the other hand would simply slow down the speed of the mana transfers.


    "Hey, nca. I''ve been wondering, can someone have a body constitution without having visible runes on their body?" I asked while eyeing the runes that traveled from nca''s cor bone all the way to the calves. I could see some of them faintly shine under her ck clothes, but I did not pay much attention to them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Yes, why?" She asked, seemingly confused.


    "How can I check if I have one or not?" I asked


    I saw her lips curl up with a gentle smile, but behind it, I could feel the small sense of mockery that made me frown lightly.


    "Give me your hand." Shemanded, and even though I was still slightly wary of her, I knew that I could trust her as long as I had this pact of ours.


    While much of my wariness had dissipated over the past month, I still felt slightly uneasy trusting someone I had technically just met, especially with something so important as my life. However, while I might think this way, I knew telling her that I could not trust her fully would have upset her, and therefore I chose against it.


    A feeling arose within my chest every time I saw her, a feeling that would only amplify when she would get angry or upset with me. When I looked into her eyes I felt like a pair of eyes locked onto me too from the abyss of her shadow.


    Every time I would look at her, I would see the face of my little sister staring back with an expression I could not read, but fortunately, much of this seemed to have been some kind of illusion created by my mind to make up for the fact that I had lost someone so dear to me merely a few months ago.


    Anyway, after having given nca my hand, I stared into her eyes with an intense gaze of my own until she finally opener her eyes from her half-meditative state. Aplex light shone within her eyes, making me unable to tell if what she had been good or bad for me.


    "What is it?" I asked


    "Well, you don''t have a unique constitution..." She paused and thought of her next words carefully before saying them out loud.


    "If I here to put it simply, you don''t really have anything..."

 Chapter 80 Tier 1 Runes

    "I... Don''t have anything?" I asked, perplexed by her words.


    "Well, I scanned your body with my senses and tried to find if there were any runes on your body, ranging from cellr ones to maybe ones that you simply couldn''t see. However, after finally catching nothing, I realized something was weird so I scanned your whole body..." She paused, making a tiny bit of anger re within my eyes.


    I had note here to be constantly left on cliffhangers!


    "What is it?!" I asked impatiently.


    "I couldn''t really find your mana circuits, or channels, depends on what you want to call them." She scratched her cheek and thought for a few more seconds and continued-


    "Then I checked once more and realize that something was wrong with your mana core itself, so I went to check it out, and I''m not sure how this is possible but, I saw it in the center of your body, emanating mana and spreading it equally throughout your entire body. Honestly, I have no idea what it means to have that kind of mana core since I''ve never seen anything like it, but I truly doubt that there is nothing wrong with it." She firmly stated, a slight frown on her face and she thought back to the scene.


    What she had chosen to leave out however had been the blood-red drop in the middle of my mostly translucent mana core. It did not release any energy, but it still sent a shiver down nca''s spine the moment she looked at it.


    It felt like the blood-red drop had been encapsted within the mana core, like some kind of wild beast that would destroy anything within its path the moment it was released.


    As she looked at it for the second time, another chill ran down her spine, but this time it was not due to its sinister nature of the sensation one would get when looking directly at it, but rather because she remembered the aura.


    ''Those eyes...'' She thought to herself, still shuddering, something that I did not miss no matter how subtle it was.


    ''She''s not telling me something...'' I thought to myself but was forced to let the subject go. I would gain almost nothing from forcing nca to tell me, and it would only ruin the rtionship that we had built over thest few weeks.


    "Anyway, that doesn''t matter anymore. I''ve learned all about tier 0 runes, can you teach me about tier 1 runes?" I asked, causing her to sigh and also sit down next to me.


    While before she might have made sure that there was a significant area between the two of us, in thest few weeks we had grownfortable enough around one another to sit next to each without her trying to pull any extreme stunts or me bing ufortable.


    While I didn''t really know how she felt, I knew that I felt nothing more thanpanionship towards her, rather than thinking of her romantically, something she had clearly tried to bring up as a subject but eventually failed after seeing my disinterest.


    It was not that I didn''t think she was beautiful, it was just that I kept seeing my sister''s face whenever I looked at nca''s eyes, making me grimace as the same feeling of dread and anger filled my being to the brim every single time. I knew that I couldn''t stop it from happening, but I knew that it could only get easier every time it happened so I wasn''t too worried.


    "Tier 0 runes are the foundation runes. They are the fundamentals of runic formations. Individually they can be powerful weapons, enchantments, or tactical circuits used to link an energy source to an object that requires energy. However, when different tier zero runes are used together, they be something much stronger." She exined.


    For the next few hours, she exined the core principles underlying the difference between tier zero and tier one.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Yes, tier zero could be used to, for example, harden a leaf to be as strong as a te of ss, or sharpen a wooden stick to sh through a normal animal, but that is its limitation.


    Runes were anguage of their own a bit like maths. Bring several numbers together and through a bit of algebra, you could get a number with enough digits to make most look away in fear.


    Tier 0 runes are like trying to use a single word to describe something, while Tier 1 is where you make a sentence or describe the thing.


    And so, for the next few days, I tried my hardest to master the use of tier 1 runes, but it was obvious that such a thing would be close to impossible to do in such a small time frame. It had taken me a month to master the use of Tier 0 runes, and while it could be argued that myprehension should have sped up by now, I knew that it would take me another month or two topletely understand and have the capability to implement what I had learned.


    At the same time, I had been making sure to not ck off with my other training. We had been moving around a lot, and while I might have reached a bottleneck when ites to improving my martial arts, I still had other ways to strengthen my battle prowess without bing stronger through stats.


    ''Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.'' I mused to myself while thrusting my spear toward a hog that was trying to fight against me, but after feeling my overwhelming power, it stopped in its ce and immediately went on the defensive.


    "Tsk"


    After having seen it was trying to defend and run away even though it was the one to attack first, I controlled some of my mana and poured it into my spear, causing many of the runes on the spear to glow a before energy exploded out of it, shocking the hog frozen.


    Learning how to use runes also came with the control of mana. Every time I progressed in the use of runes, the control of my mana would skyrocket, making me finally capable of using the mana within me to fight. While this was not the same blood-red mana from before, it was still pretty powerful, my control rivaling many of the beasts in the forest while my power exceeded those who were considered realms above me, or minor realms as nca likes to say.


    Before the hog could even understand what had happened, a spear had pierced through it with enough force to decimate everything behind it, creating a whole that spanned several dozens of meters into the distance, piercing through almost every rock and tree.


    "Hmph." I sneered at the hog that dared to attack me so boldly, yet it could not hear anything I did since it was dead.


    However, at this moment something caught my attention as a feeling began to enter my heart as if trying to point me in a specific direction. It was a sensation that I had felt before, and after trying to pinpoint when, I remembered the golden fruit that I had eaten, followed by the killing of multiple reptiles, a treant, and a skinwalker.


    If I remembered correctly, skinwalkers with mythical witches who wore the skins of animals, but it seemed like the myths were right to a certain extent. I was more than certain that they would be able to turn into animals too in this world, so it would only mean that skinwalkers in this are more powerful than what humans tried to portray them as.


    Anyway, since this feeling was close to overwhelming by now, I chose to run back to nca and inform her of what I was feeling.


    No longer would I take risks that would risk my life for no real reason. Thest time I listened to this sensation I almost died, so this time I might as well bring some back-up just in case.

 Chapter 81 Leopard

    After calling nca out to help me, something she hesitantly did since she was about to go to sleep, we walked through the forest in the direction of the feeling I had sensed barely half an hour ago.


    As we walked, I could not help but nce at the groggy snake in a human form beside me. While I hated to admit it, nca''s scent was heavenly even without having any cologne in this world. In fact, I hadn''t seen her use any type of perfume or nt to make her smell better, leading me to one conclusion.


    ''This is her natural odor¡­'' I silently mused with a slight smile on my face that I quickly masked with another thought that scrunched my face up significantly.


    ''This must be her ploy!'' I inwardly roared, but even after my facial expressions changed every few seconds, I did not see nca''s expression change one, nor did I see her eyes nce at me.


    Instead, she was looking forward with the same groggy expression. Finally, her eyes lit up when she felt something in the distance that I could not sense with my current prowess. After a slight moment of her eyes lighting up, she knitted her brows as a small smile scrunched her forehead, making the rune on it also turn deformed.


    "What is it?" I asked with a raised brow


    "I can sense a strong beast in that direction. I am almost confident that I can beat it on my own, but with you around, it might try and target you, therefore forcing me to protect you. I suggest you go back to the cave for now-." Her words halted in her throat as she no longer felt me beside her.


    A look of horror shed within her eyes before they darted in a specific direction, trying her best to find where I was.


    "Crap!" She shouted out and flickered from her spot.


    I on the other hand stood almost two hundred meters on the top of a tree, analyzing everything below me with scrutinizing eyes.


    "I guess this is where the energy wasing from..." I mumbled under my breath as I looked at two things that caught my eye.


    Closer to where Iy a leopard, clearly sleeping on the ground yet at the same time, I could tell that it was guarding something, a conclusion that I made from the aura it released as well as the slight twitch in its ear whenever the wind would blow or a tree would rustle.


    I knew that it was at its peak defense even though on the outside, it was just another sleeping beast with an overwhelming aura.


    On the other hand, I could see something behind it, something that drew the urge to move forward and snatch it for myself. I knew that the thing over there would be immensely beneficial when it came to my rise in power, even though I didn''t know exactly how it would be beneficial.


    However, I was not stupid enough to not listen to my instincts, the very thing that had helped me survive until this point.<novelnext></novelnext>


    My eyes had narrowed further at the sight of the gleaming star behind the leopard. While most of the leopard''s body was outside a small cave created on a nearbyrge cliff, this was only because the gleaming star was right behind it, and as if it didn''t want to agitate or do anything to the star, the leopard did not move any further back.


    [Blood Eyes Activated]


    Eventually, I activated my blood eyes and clearly saw everything around me, even the things that I couldn''t see earlier. It was only then that I fully understood what nca was talking about when she said that the creature was far out of my league since now I could clearly see the power it emanated.


    ''Every single one of its muscles is brimming with mana. Of course, it is a far crypared to the power of nca, especially if I were topare it to what I had seen from her when she fought against the gori a month or two ago... But I can tell it''s way too powerful for me to fight against it alone.'' I thought in contemtion.


    After a few moments of my mind going silent, a resolved look appeared on my face while my eyes shone with brilliant confidence before I finally muttered.


    "But even though I can''t beat it, I am more than certain that I can evade death... It''s probably better if I let nca handle-" My words got stuck in my throat before being swallowed down in an audible gulp. Dread overcame me, one that I felt when having fought against the T-Rex for the first time, however, unlike that time, I was not intimidated by it and instead felt my battle intent soar.


    I knew that what I was about to do next would bepletely out of character for someone like me, however, I could not help but feel as if I was being challenged.


    No... To say that it was my own feeling would be inurate. It was a feeling that emerged from deep within me, as if the gaze of the leopard that was now looking at me, was a calling to it. A calling of war. A calling that was screaming at it and asking if it dared step back from a battle.


    However, instead of charging in without a n, my rational mind stopped the battle maniac side of me from exploding out in both power and rage after having been provoked so openly by a creature that I deemed to be lower in me.


    ''Lower than me? It''s clearly much stronger than me so why am I thinking of it as something...'' I paused for a second and narrowed my eyes.


    "Lower than me?" I asked, somewhat uncertain of the words that left my mouth, however, before I could do anything else I saw the leopard stand up and slowly stroll toward the tree I was situated at.


    "I see..." I muttered and jumped down the 50-meter tall tree, releasing an enormous boom as Inded on the ground and kicking up a dust cloud in the wake of mynding.


    "While I don''t know exactly when you woke up... Let''s just say that this won''t end too well for you."

 Chapter 82 Blanca & Ezra Vs Lightning Leopard

    "While I don''t know exactly when you woke up... Let''s just say this won''t end well for you." I spoke, my voice reverberating within the area even though I wasn''t directly raising my voice.


    The leopard growled in contempt after seeing me speak to it so arrogantly, even though it knew very well that I was much weaker than it.


    "Heh? Did I anger you, kitty?" I asked with a mocking tone, and as if it could understand me, it immediately exploded out in killing intent beforeunching itself at me with a blinding speed. However, unlike most people in my position, I was not scared in the slightest as an audible sigh entered my ears, making me smile brightly.


    "Earth pir."


    I spoke in a mocking yet dominant voice; I watched as a pir made of earth shot out of the ground and pierced into the sky as the leopard tried to get out of the way.


    While the leopard was fast, it was not fast enough for it to be a blur to my eyes which were now lit with a crimson halo that encapsted my pupils, nor was it fast enough for it to have the ability to change the direction of its momentum fast enough to evade the attack of my earth pir that took 3 points of my mana.


    While I could have used earth spike instead, I didn''t do so since my intention had never been to kill the leopard but rather to move it out of my way. And even if I had the intent to kill the leopard, my earth spike would prove useless in front of the leopard''s fur, probably shattering and bing useless in the process since it would no longer have the ability to move the beast upwards and out of the way.


    Seeing the leopard being catapulted up, I used some of my mana to energize all my leg muscles, allowing me to move at an explosive speed for as long as my legs had mana. Of course, such a thing would take a toll on my legs in the long run, but my art of wind martial art had given me a way to use my mana to boost my speed for a short while ever since reachingpetent mastery from my previous novice mastery.


    [Arts]


    [The Art of Wind-


    -Grade: Intermediate


    -Mastery: Competent]


    As my body blurred towards the ring light of the star within the cave, I felt a vicious gazend on me but immediately disappear in the next second as itnded on something else.


    My smile only widened when I felt a familiar energy step into the ne''s area and face the leopard it had just attacked as the leopard slowly descended to the ground andnded on its feet.


    *ROAR*


    A sky-shaking roar entered my eardrums, causing me to grimace for a moment but still move forward with one thing in mind.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Get the star and leave!'' I roared in my mind, pushing myself to the limit to not be a burden to nca.


    On the other hand, nca looked at the leopard with a frustrated expression. She had seen me pause on top of one of the trees for 3 seconds as if I was trying to calcte something within my head; however, right before she could reach me, her eyes widened as my figure fell and created an enormous boom at mynding.


    "Seems like I''m forced to fight you." She said with an enraged tone that I could not help but shudder at since I knew why she was angry. However, I could not let her fight the creature alone since I still wasn''t confident that I could trust nca to not snatch a treasure for herself when she saw it, so instead, I took matters into my own hands.


    Of course, this exnation only makes sense when you overlook that my battle-maniac side had taken over while my pride had almost been hurt due to how that lowly creature looked at me.


    After a few more seconds of running, I felt a sense of dread overwhelmed me while every cell in my body told me to dodge. Yet, before that dread could grow even more powerful, I felt nca''s aura appear behind me as she deflected an attack and shot forward with all her might.


    Right now, the leopard was covered in blue lightning that danced on its skin while hitting the ground sometimes and dancing on there every now and then.


    "Your battle is with me!" nca roared out as she stretched her arm and punched forward with all her might. While she might be in a more diminutive humanoid form right now, the morphing ability only changed her size and species and did not dedicate her appearance or weight.


    The power of her first shot forward with an intensity that would have destroyed me on the spot, but the leopard stood tall and immediately shot out a beam of lighting that shed with her fist, creating an enormous explosion.


    As the dust cloud reached its peak in height, nca shifted her weight to her foot and mmed down with all the power she could muster, causing the dust cloud to separate and for the eyes of the leopard to bulge out in terror.


    Its instincts at that moment told it to run as far as possible. Yet, even its beastly instincts were toote as nca blinked out of existence and appeared right next to the leopard, having used the power behind her leg m to catapult herself through the air as fast as possible, partitioning the dust cloud further.


    When she appeared at the leopard''s side, the only thing it could feel was death reaching her hand and trying to pull him into the afterlife. Still, with a quick movement, it let out an attack and catapulted itself away from nca, evading the strike about to m into its abdomen.


    Although the leopard may have evaded nca''s attack, nca was still much faster, stronger, and more experienced than the leopard.


    The moment she saw lighting striking her way, a sly slime stretched from the corners of her lips as she struck out with even more force, allowing her fist to collide with the lighting.


    The explosion that followed sent shockwaves for hundreds of meters, yet it did not end there. nca''s fist continued to push forward and wholly eradicated the lightning before it before using the remaining energy in her punch to release fist energy that pierced through the forest and consumed anything within 3 meters of its path.

 Chapter 83 Fallen Star

    As I got infinitely closer to the star, I felt an enormous shockwave hit me and catapult me in the direction of the lingering star, making me hit it directly rather than being able to put it within my inventory.


    While before, I might not have felt anything, now that I was within the cave and had reached extremely close distances from the star, I could feel it. It was a current of mana strong enough to make me struggle moving forward. It was as if the star was trying to siphon the energy from the outside and absorb it into itself.


    I had a feeling that the moment the star reached a certain point in its ''evolution,'' something spectacr would happen. This was one of the main reasons I had tried to absorb it into my inventory, but before I could do that, the shockwave mmed against me and shot me into the star.


    While I usually would have been injured due to the amount of mana concentrated in a single spot, I felt my vision fade and reappear. Yet, instead of me being within the cave, I was inside an abnormal realm where everything around me had be a grassy ne with nothing else to see for what seemed like miles.


    "What is this ce?" I asked myself while looking around warily, but after not feeling or seeing anything, I quickly rxed and dropped to the ground before crossing my legs.


    Memories of what happened before touching the star appeared within my mind before regret filled my chest.


    "Damnit!" I mmed my fist onto the ground, causing it to cobweb with cracks. "I should have used appraisal!" I shouted again, my voice spanning out into the distance, but not a single echo returned even after trying to hear one with my keep hearing.


    The only thing my ears could detect were the winds that blew on the grasnd and the churns of the des of grass now and then. My blood eyes also did not detect anything within the area except the grass des that seemed full of life.


    [You have entered an unknown pocket dimension]


    The ding of a notification rang out within my mind, causing me to look towards the bright sh of light from the screen that appeared before me.


    "Unknown?" I asked, slightly surprised by the words of the system.


    [Pocket dimension has been analyzed thoroughly]


    [Origins uncovered]


    [You have entered the trials of a fallen star]


    My eyes widened slightly, but my expression immediately turned grim.


    "Trials? Ugh... For god''s sake! Anyway, what''s a fallen star?" I asked aloud while willing to use appraisal on the words ''fallen star.''


    [Fallen star: A sporadic urrence that happens every few thousand years depending on the and its average prowess. A fallen star is created by the will of a nearby star and is used to test whoeveres upon it to see if they are worthy of its power.]


    As I read the system''s exnation, my face became grimmer. This fallen star thing was trying to find someone worthy of giving its power to, but I knew I was far from that. I was someone that was barely capable of surviving in this world alone, and even then, I was far from what could be considered a talent. Yes, when it came to runes, I seeded much quicker than nca, but that was mainly due to my modern way of thinkingpared to nca, who probably didn''t even know what atoms and electrons are, let alone how they worked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    In my eyes, mana was the same as electricity. Ites from infinitely small particles that create specific energies. Humans used materials with metallic bonds to wield lighting, while people in this world used mysterious runes that allowed them to use mana almost the same way we used electricity. However, unlike us humans who were limited by the rules of physics, mana and cultivation aren''t, allowing anyone who had mana within their body to wield elements in a way that no human would have been capable of.


    Anyway, now that I stood in the middle of nowhere, I simply waited for the uing trial. After seeing that it hadn''te for several minutes, I dropped to the ground again before crossing my legs and closing my eyes.


    "If I''m going to be stuck here for the remaining hours, I might as well try toprehend earth element further." said aloud, but to no one in particr. I was a man who liked his solitude. While I used to be outgoing before entering this world, istion for up to a month without hope of finding any other intelligent creature tomunicate with had automatically conditioned my mind to get used to solitude.


    I knew that my mind was using a self-mechanism that would make my solitude andck of contact with other humans easier, but even after learning so, I simply could not revert such a change. In a sense, it was like depression. I might know that I am depressed but does that change anything? Yes, it is reversible to a certain extent through things such as therapy, but it simply wasn''t something I could change on my own.


    I now liked to be alone no matter what, and social interaction would only serve to siphon me out of any social energy left within me.


    Trying to change that would only tire me further, regressing me into an even deeper anti-social state.


    Letting out a sigh, I quickly fell into a trance as my eyes became zed and my mind focused on one thing and one thing only.


    Earth...


    ***


    nca immediately felt her connection with me weak in the outside world, which only served to panic her further after seeing how much destruction she had caused by letting out such a powerful attack on ident.


    Of course, she did not mean to use so much force in her attack. Still, her battle fanatic side had taken over, causing her to use much more power than intended, destroying the lightning bolt and almost everything behind it for hundreds of meters.


    Her killing intent exploded out with tremendous power, causing almost every tree within a 30-meter radius to be uprooted and flung through the air. However, even with so much power behind her killing intent, the leopard stood firmly, not moving an inch even though it felt like death herself was peering into its very soul.


    However, its eyes almost bulged out of its sockets when it felt something appear in front of it at a speed that, even after infusing with the elements, could not rival.


    *BOOM*


    A tremendous power mmed into the head of the leopard, not only turning its body into smithereens but also creating a craterrge enough that one could fit an entire highway truck within without many problems.


    However, even afternding the final hit, an expression of worry still filled nca''s face as her eyes darted in the direction of the cave, and her body blurred out of sight, separating the dust cloud in the wake of her powerful step.

 Chapter 84 Earth Control Skill

    Sitting down in the middle of a grassy field with nothing else to see for miles, I slowly opened my eyes with delight as something I had not expected to aplish at any time in the near future had been sessfullypleted.


    ording to nca''s words, theprehension of elements had different levels and, therefore, additional hurdles. From what I could see, there were four hurdles one needed to get past, and thus four levels toprehension, even though I doubted that would be the case.


    Theprehension levels are as follows:


    Basic: Completely new with little to no understanding of the element, martial art, or battle art. These usually need help from instructors to learn anything about the element, martial art, or battle art. However, novice''s who create their own path while having a high probability of not seeding are those who rise above and beyond the rest.


    Intermediate: A medium understanding of the element, martial art, or battle art. This no longer needs direct guidance and instead requires someone to help them improve their skills further, allowing them to not only refine what they already knew but also learn something new.


    Advanced: To be well versed in their understanding andprehension of the element. This usually gives someone enough knowledge to the point where reaching the next realm of understanding is no longer impossible. Due to theirprehension, they can generally dominate anyone within their realm when ites to using the same element, martial art, or battle art.


    Expert: The ability to call themselves the absolute peak of the realm''sprehension. These individuals fall back on only the intermediate level whenever they ascend, allowing them to be stronger much faster than those who rushed to ascend after reaching the Experienced level.


    The reason I doubted that there were only four levels toprehension was simple. One''s understanding of something cannot cap out at a certain point. One can always learn and understand further because logically, they probably don''t know everything and anything when ites to the specific field. As nca pointed out,prehension technically resets to the intermediate stage following every ascension, implying that there is always another level of understanding, just that anyone below a specific ne cannot reach it without ascending.


    Right now, I have reached the experienced level of understanding. While that might seem high for someone as weak as me, it is pretty lowpared to what the system stated when talking about my understanding of the earth element since it had considered it to have been at the superior level due to my previous studies in geology. The only reason I had dropped to the intermediate level had been due to my horrible mana control, but now that it was steadily increasing back to its former glory!


    After having stood up, I slowly lifted my hand and repressed my urge to subconsciously activate my earth pir skill, something that I had been training myself to do for almost two months now without stop.


    Since I had been training my skills and abilities almost every day, every single one of them had at least ascended a single level.


    [Abilities and Skills-


    Blood Energy (Intermediate):


    -Blood Eyes (Lvl 3)


    >Pinpoint (Lvl 2)


    -Life Drain (Lvl 3)


    -Deathlock (Locked/Situational)


    Earth (Advanced):


    -Earth Sense (Lvl 2)


    -Earth Pir (Lvl 2)<novelnext></novelnext>


    -Earth Spike (Lvl 2)


    -Absolute Defence (Lvl 1)


    System (v1.0):


    -Appraisal (Lvl 1)


    -Storage (Lvl 1)


    -Minimap (Lvl 1) ]


    While I was capable of leveling up almost all of them, for some reason, I could not level up any of my system-rted skills, nor could I even sense that they were beginning to rise in power. Instead, they felt like they were at a stalemate, as if waiting for something...


    My only guess was that they would level up alongside the system itself. Therefore, I chose to leave it for now since wasting energy would be a waste of time.


    Other than those, I could not level up my absolute defense, a skill that I gained before entering the goblin dungeon but never used due to the situation and its enormous mana cost. The Deathlock skill also couldn''t be leveled up, not because it was situational but because it simply did not have a level. However, from what I had heard from nca, deathlock was almost like an absolute certainty. If it were to be activated, anything that stood in its path would be eradicated before they could even understand what hit them.


    Thinking of this skill made me shudder slightly. However, it still made me somewhat morefortable since I knew that depending on the situation I was in, I would always have something that would destroy anything and everything, not that I needed it too much since I was technically immortal.


    Anyway, after having risen my arm in the air, I called upon the earth element and tried my hardest to circte mana through my body and out of my hand.


    In the next second, my eyes widened as an enormous chunk of earth lifted itself out of the ground and into the air. However, before I could celebrate, I felt as if my energy was being sapped at an enormous rate, making me quickly let go of the chunk of earth that I lifted into the air before exhaling heavily.


    [Congrattion! You have learned the earth element skill; Earth Control]


    [Ding!]


    [Would you like to allow the skill Earth Control to devour the skills Earth Pir and Earth Spike? Notice: This does not sever your connection with the skills; it just adds them onto Earth Control and increases its level.]


    My eyes widened slightly, but my breaths remained ragged and unsteady. After a few more minutes, I finally let out a deep sigh and steadied my stance while looking at the new notification.


    After reading it thoroughly, arge smile stretched out of the corner of my lips, a smile that would have caused anyone to shudder to their core. Fortunately, no one was around to witness this scene.


    "I''ll take it... Anything to be stronger." I said with exhration, the smile never leaving my face for a second as I said those words.

 Chapter 85 Inheritance Hall

    [The skill Earth Control has devoured both skills Earth Spike and Earth Pir]


    [Earth Control has reached level 3]


    [You have reached the rmended threshold to peer into Humanity''s inheritance]


    As I read thosest words, my soul shook, and my vision blurred before turningpletely ck. In the next instance, I found myself in front of hundreds upon hundreds of chains, each interlinking while sending energy that resembled mana between each other.


    After regaining my cool, I looked around and realized I was no longer in front of chains but doors.


    I seemed to be in what looked like a pce hall with walls lined with doors that had been locked by several chains and an enormous padlock that stood in the middle of each door while releasing a menacing aura that would have made any man drop to their knees before it while groveling for it to stop.


    The power was impable, but even though I knew the natural reaction anyone would have in front of the padlock and chains, I did not feel a single part of me that desired to do such a thing.


    Looking around for a little longer, my eyes scanned over the symbols above the doors before widening in shock.


    ''Those are not symbols!'' I thought while taking a step back.


    When looking at the ''symbols'' above the doors, one wouldn''t see much, but aftering a little closer, it could be evident what those things were even though no one other than me could be capable of understanding how it worked.


    It felt like I was looking at a powerful object frozen in time and space before being shrunk down and stored above the wall for reasons that I could not fathom just yet. These objects all ranged from powerful weapons to simple materials. However, there was one thing that they had inmon, and that was the feeling of immense danger they gave me.


    I felt it be ingrained into my mind... It was as if I knew the power behind them; images of entire continents being wiped out with a single swipe of the weapons. Pictures of the materials being used to destroy entires shed within my mind constantly every time I looked at one of them.


    After having looked around for countless hours now, my eyes finallynded on something that sent out a familiar feeling while, at the same time, sent a sensation that pulled me closer to it.


    Taking a few steps forward, I found myself in front of the door that shone with a dim brown light that enveloped what seemed to be the entire hall. Cracks could be seen on the chains while the padlock seemed to be on the verge of breaking.


    As if it was my instinct, I stretched out my hand and grabbed onto the chain before yanking my hand back and shattering the chain and padlock in the process.


    The pieces fell onto the floor with audible nks, yet the sound they made was the least of my worries. Everything seemed to have turned an earthy yellow before an annoying ring entered my ears, forcing me to close them with my hands in hopes of stopping the sound from rattling my brain.


    Eventually, however, I opened my eyes and found myself in a mysterious room with brown walls, but what really caught my attention and made me raise a brow was the runes engraved in front of me in such a way that I could not help but feel like they resembled drawing rather than runes.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "What is this ce?" I asked aloud but did not get an answer back, not that I expected one in the first ce.


    Solitude really helps when ites to situations like these where I am forced to be alone for extended amounts of time. I don''t begin to panic or feel a sense of loneliness... I almost feel at peace.


    After looking forward one more time, I could not help but think back to when I had entered the room and what object had been above the door.


    My eyes suddenly widened before I quickly analyzed and concluded what had happened.


    ''Since the system said I had reached some kind of threshold for the earth element, I am guessing that this is the Humanity Inheritance. To think the humanity inheritance has so many paths, though... But at the same time, it makes sense. If I survive long enough, I had almost all of eternity to strengthen myself and be the strongest mortal to walk this universe.'' A wry smile stretched from the corners of my smile at that thought, but I quickly repressed my happiness and solemnized down.


    Looking forward once again, I narrowed my eyes and stepped forward and onto one of the runes on the ground.


    [You have stepped onto the path of the earth]


    [All knowledge of earth collected by humans for the past 300 million years had beenpiled into these rooms. Each room had created the best possible path for you to take, and while they might take slightly longer than the average person who cultivates the element of earth, your power, in the end, will far exceed anyone who had wielded this element before you.]


    Reading what the system had said, I furrowed my brows at certain words but still chose not to say anything before reading it all.


    ''The system isn''t considering my time jump for some reason. It talks about humans that don''t exist yet as if they are things of the past... It''s as if the timeline for the system is the same and hasn''t changed in the slightest... Maybe this is what people call fate? Maybe my fate had always been to be thest survivor and the endling of humanity...''


    I quickly shook my head at those thoughts. I was way too early to think about such things, so there was no point in me doing so. Thinking about things like this would only cloud my mind and slow my increase in power.


    [You shall receive your first insight]


    Reading this, I wanted to raise a brow, but before I could do so, I found myself in an enormous canyon that spanned hundreds of miles.


    ''Where the hell am I?'' I asked myself while looking around, but as if this world I was in could hear me, it answered my question with a loud explosion spread out from a distance.


    A dozen miles away, I could see a ck dot st into the air and create an enormous dust cloud in the wake of its jump. In the following seconds, I watched as the ck dot slowly but surely started to be more prominent, before finally, after watching for countless minutes, I felt panic overwhelm me.


    "That thing ising for me!"

 Chapter 86 Mysterious Man

    Feeling the energye closer and closer by the second, I shot out from where I was and sprinted in the other direction as fast as possible. I didn''t know this per se, but I had a feeling that if I were to be hit by that thing, my life shattering before my eyes would be the least of my worries.


    "Crap! Sh*t! Fu-."


    *BOOM*


    Before I could understand what was happening, an expansive explosion radiated from behind me, kicking up a dust cloud that expanded with the power of a sandstorm.


    Without thinking twice, I quickly used the earth pir below my feet and immediately catapulted myself through the air in another direction. I calcted the angle of my shot correctly to use the momentum as well as possible to get as far as possible from the monster hunting me down.


    Afterunching myself into the air, I quickly turned around and tried to activate my blood eyes, yet to my surprise, I found myself unable to do so.


    Remembering my earlier mistakes of not using my system to its full extent, I swiftly used appraisal, but just like what happened with my blood eyes, it failed to activate.


    I could feel suppressing energy that forced back my skills and abilities... All but one.


    "My earth abilities still work." I muttered while my expression became extremely grim. However, in protest, I quickly tried to activate all my skills again, ranging from blood w to my simple minimap, yet nothing happened.


    I could only watch as the dust cloud separated in the distance while the creature that had been hunting me down for the past 30 seconds bolted in my direction. While I could not tell how fast it wasing due to my perspective, I could still see the dot bingrger, indicating that the creature was faster than me.


    With a swipe of my fingers, I instantly created several earth spikes that protruded from the ground and shot toward the creature. Yet to my dismay, a few seconds passed, and the spikes finally hit the beast, but rather than slowing it down as I had expected, the creature simply shrugged the attacks off and ran through them as if their resistance was no different than the air that pushed against it.


    I could now clearly feel my momentum waning while my speed decreased; however, instead of falling into despair, my eyes were filled with an unwavering resolve as I mmed my feet onto the ground and attempted to stop my momentum.


    My body slid back for a couple of dozen meters, but all I needed my body to do was slow down for a minute.


    "Absolute Defense!" I roared out while the creature paused for a second, surprised by my sudden halt in movement.


    In the next second, the creature watched as earth slowly but surely began to envelop me into a cacoon, yet before it could do anything, it felt somethinge from its right, making it stretch out its hand in that direction.


    A spike shot out of the ground and pierced the air intending to destroy the creature, but instead of doing so, it met its hand and crumbled in its ce no matter how much more earth I tried to conjure to increase the length of the spike.


    As the spike turned into ashes after hitting the creature''s hand, its gaze once again fell onto me. Still, before it could do anything, it felt itself elevate into a highertitude while its vision of me disappeared.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Now that I had gained the earth control skill, I was finally capable of enhancing my previous skills like earth spike and earth pir, allowing me to pump them with mana and make them much stronger or muchrger.


    I had pumped a significant amount of mana within the earth pir that I rose from the ground and used to catapult the creature into the air. Still, my eyes significantly widened after realizing something.


    "This feeling... It feels like I have an infinite amount of mana!" I eximed in shock before finally remembering something.


    "It said it would give me insights on the earth element..." I muttered while continuing to pump the earth pir with mana. "Then this should be a way to increase my insights... To make me fight that monster." A shiver went down my spine, but I knew it had to be done even though I was unwilling.


    Scenes of everything that had happened before my first death made me narrow my eyes while the me of determination grew brighter within my eyes.


    If beating this creature was the path I would need to take to gain the ability to destroy the elven race, I would do it no matter how many times I had to die, get injured, and receive pain. I was certain I would not truly die within this realm, but that certainty wasn''tplete. I had an inkling that the inheritance would not be light on those who couldn''t endure pain, an inkling that forced me to steel my resolve and finally lower my absolute defense.


    Looking up, I met with the eyes of the creature... No. I met with the eyes of the person sitting on top of the pir rxedly. Their eyes seemed to peer into my soul, but I did not waver in front of its gaze and instead jumped a few dozen meters back as if telling it to jump down and confront me.


    A small smile perked up the lips of the man who sat on top of the pir as he immediately jumped down. A loud explosion echoed into the canyon and beyond, but I did not wave in front of his disy of power.


    Without skipping a beat, the man immediately rushed towards me, his steps parting the dust cloud and shattering the earth beneath him, sending out cracks that cobwebbed for several dozen meters.


    I could feel an enormous amount of mana behind his every move, but due to the massive influx, I could not pinpoint precisely where and when he would use his mana.


    ''If I had my blood eyes, I would have easily seen how he controls his mana... But I guess-'' My thoughts paused while my eyes widened.


    I felt the mana around him withdraw into his body before he released it again, yet instead of it being as overwhelming as it had been earlier, this time, I could feel that it was much weaker.


    ''I can drop my cultivation to your stage so we can have an even battle. However, I still exceed you when ites to using this body of mine, while at the same time my knowledge and experience also far exceeds yours.''


    nca''s words from almost a month ago echoed within my mind and made me smile wryly.


    "So this is how it is?" I asked with a smile before continuing- "Then don''t me me for being tough on you old man!" I roared out, my sinister smile not going unnoticed by the man as he also let out a simr smile, even though his one had been much more reserved than mine.

 Chapter 87 You Must Learn To Become Earth Itself

    I stood a few dozen meters in front of the middle-aged man. He was tall and bulky with muscles, and while his aura and power had been reduced to resemble the level of power shown by the lightning leopard, I knew he was much stronger than he showed.


    To be exact, I felt he had power beyond my scope ofprehension. The dread I felt from him alone told me how dangerous he was even though he had suppressed himself significantly. I could tell that even though his cultivation had dropped to about the same level as mine, he could probably rival the leopard''s strength, if not kill it outright.


    However, I was not scared of his disy of power. Our battle intents exploded out of our bodies and shed, and even though it immediately won out in the sh if there wasn''t a resistance in ce, I still shot forward with an earth pir and extended my fist out to punch the man in the face.


    *Boom*


    A muffled boom sounded, but nothing else happened.


    I stood there in shock at what I had just witnessed. The attack that I had put all my momentum and weight behind had dissipated like a puff of wind, bing no more as the power of my hit entered the arm of the man yet left him standing, not having flinched for a single second.


    Panic did not ovee me as I quickly searched my mind for ideas to get out of the mess I had thrown myself in. After a millisecond of thinking, I immediately used some of my mana to create five earth spikes that shot through the air and aimed to take the man''s life by piercing his throat.


    However, I felt a mighty dread ovee me before I could even release myself from his grasp. At the same time, an enormous amount of force hit the center of my chest, catapulting me into the distance while shooting me through countless rocks that happened to be in the way.


    On the other hand, the man had long stopped looking at me as his other hand raised itself into the air while his leg retracted back from its position after kicking me in the chest and flung me into the distance.


    As his hand rose, the earth spike stopped in their ce before crumbling into sand. He did not stop there, however, as he once again shot toward me at frightening speeds that would have caused any other person to shudder in terror.


    However, I could not see himing toward me since I was still tumbling and rolling, pain coursing throughout my body as if the pain was being transferred into my blood itself.


    Eventually, however, I was finally able to erect an earth pir that stopped me in my tracks; however, it still did not stop me from puking out a mouthful of blood before having to force myself to stand up and off the ground.


    My legs were visibly shaking, but I still stood up. While the pain was still there, I was confident that not a single scratch was on my body.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Looks like this realm immediately heals any wounds of mine.'' I mused as a fanatic smile stretched from the corner of my lips.


    "Damnit... The battle maniac side of me is being released." I muttered under my breath and tried to suppress it, but it was already toote.


    A powerful bloodlust shot out of my body once again in the form of a red aura imbued with enough killing intent to cause any creature weaker than me to fall unconscious. Of course, this is only if I speak of the creatures with average wills, as those with stronger wills might be able to neutralize the feeling and even fight back against it.


    The man paused for a second as he felt my bloodlust, but his eyes immediately glimmered with excitement as he shot himself into the air before bolting himself down right in front of me.


    The power behind hisnding shot me right through the earth pir behind me while simultaneously causing me to tumble back. Still, unlike thest time that this happened, I could gain my bnce much faster due to thebination of me having improved slightly and the hit being much weaker than thest.


    "Come on, you old man! Show me what you have. I''m not here to fight with our fists. I am here for a battle of the earth! A battle of elements!" I roared out, but the smile on the man''s face did not lower. In fact, I could tell that his smile had slightly widened, causing a feeling of unease to ovee my senses.


    "Lesson one!" His voice boomed and almost made me st back due to its power.


    ''He can speak?!'' I widened my eyes and took a step back to stabilize myself.


    "Earth is not an element that can be used individually. One needs to have the power to manipte earth and the battle IQ to back his element. One with weak bodies cannot be more powerful in the ways of earth. Earth allows us to strengthen our bodies, while our bodies allow us to strengthen our earth." The man spoke with a stern voice, but his words echoed within my mind nheless.


    "You must learn how to manipte earth." He stepped forward, and as if heeding his beck and call, the earth below my feet immediately swallowed my foot and forced me in ce.


    "You must learn how to use your body." The man spoke once again before disappearing from where he stood. An enormous surge do dread fell upon me from behind as I felt my life sh before my eyes.


    "You must learn to be earth itself!" The man roared while his fist drew closer and closer to my face by the second, and before I knew it, a fist had nted itself into my face, cracking my skull and instantlyunching my body dozens of miles into the distance.

 Chapter 88 One Hit

    I was wrong...


    Yes, horribly wrong... Everything that I had done up to this moment didn''t matter anymore. My mind was locked, and my vision had be nothing but a blur.


    It was true that the man had lowered his cultivation to my level, but he was different. His power and understanding of the earth element exceeded anything beyond my scope ofprehension.


    My superior understanding was something to scoff at in front of this man. A man who could probably kill nca with a wave of his hand even after reducing his power to the same level as mine. Hours felt like days, and days felt like weeks. Before I knew it, I had forgotten how long I had been in this world as the only thing that gued my mind was the intention tond it.


    Land at least one hit.


    One hit that could at least threaten the man slightly. That was all I desired.


    ''One hit...'' Those words echoed within my mind every time I would be hammered into the side of a mountain and beat half to death. While the pain was nothingpared to the amount I had to endure during my death, the amount I was feeling currently was something no other person my age would have been able to withstand.


    My mind had almost gone into a trance where everything the man did, from his mana cirction to his movements, was slowly being taken in and noted down.


    Without realizing it, my battle prowess had increased several times, while my mastery over the earth element only increased as I continued to be battered again and again without remorse.


    The man, on the other hand, was utterly shocked. He had never seen someone improve so quickly in his life and had expected me to at least take a few weeks to get used to the pain, yet here I was standing before him, improving further and further after hits continued tond on me one by one.


    "One hit..." I muttered out loud, causing the man to widen his eyes in surprise at what happened next. The earth around my feet warped and became somethingpletely different. Immediately after, I began circting earth energy the same way the man did. While I might not have had any mana circuits within my body, the seemingly empty mana area seemed to have another purpose rather than simply exist alongside my mana core.


    The energy circted in a way that mirrored the man''s cirction, almost creating ethereal mana veins of their own to enhance the body by leaps and bounds.


    The earth under me gave me even more momentum as it pivoted me forward. After doing so, I finally pumped mana into every muscle that was exerting some kind of force right now, allowing them to be even stronger while also increasing the amount of explosive energy I could release in one single moment.


    My zed eyes looked into his and made him shudder to his core. While it was true that he hadn''t been using even a quarter of his strength even with his suppressed cultivation, at that moment, he felt as if something that would threaten his very life was about to explode out at him, and the only way to counter it would be to use 100% of his power.


    Of course, this feeling only meant that it would have threatened his life if he had been in the cultivation stage to which he had suppressed himself. Because of his power beyond that level, his natural body defense was also at that level, meaning my attack wouldn''t have scratched him.


    "The feeling immediately disappeared, and the man rxed and allowed me to stretch my arm back before punching forward with a might beyond anything I had been capable of mustering before.


    The man watched my fist grow closer by the second with an amused smile before finally, he felt my fist touch his skin.


    *BOOM*


    The man slid back several dozen meters while surprise filled his face.


    "How?" He muttered under his breath but quickly shook his head. While the attack did not leave a single scratch on his skin due to the durability of his body that the earth element had refined, he had still limited his cultivation to my level. Therefore, an attack of such a might would have at least pushed him back.


    Before he could look up again, he felt several attacksing in his direction.


    Countless swords and spears created from earth rained down from the sky. The man subtly smirked before waving his hand and making the weapons turn into sand that he collected in the palm of his hand and began to point in my direction.


    His brows quickly furrowed when he saw that I was no longer in front of him before he released his mana sense and scanned the area around him to find me.


    One of his brows finally rose when he found me before his head turned toward me. Yet before turning his head, he felt hundreds of energies light up on the grounds, stunning him silent.


    "Battle runes?" He asked no one in particr, but his eyes were visibly glimmering when he saw this.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The entire canyon seemed to light up as the ambient mana seemingly disappeared for a split second. However, in the next instance, the man felt hundreds, if not thousands, of attacksing toward him ranging from earth spikes, spears, swords, boulders, and much more.


    ''This... This boy!'' The man inwardly shouted, his excited cry drowned out by the excited smile as he opened his arms wide and weed the attacks head-on.


    *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*


    An explosion sent shockwaves in every direction, turning almost everything into the sand while kicking up an enormous dust cloud that held the energy and speed of a sandstorm.


    The sand storm eventually subsided before the man finally stepped down with enough force to separate and dissipate the dust cloud.


    "Hahahahahahaha!" Hisughter boomed throughout the canyon and only served to further dissipate the dust that still lingered in the air.


    The man stood there without a shirt, his skin without a scratch, and his body that still radiated enough power to suppress anything in the mortal realm that might fight against him.


    "You are beyond impressive-" The man''s words died out in his throat before a warm smile shone onto his face as he looked at me. Iy on the ground with my limbs sprawled out after having copsed. My final attack had taken a toll on my mind, and after finally aplishing my goal of hitting him once, the rest of my mental energy drained out of my mind and immediately forced me into slumber.


    "You did well..." He smiled once again before a book appeared in his hand, cing it on my chest.


    The book immediately vanished and entered my inventory as the man slowly walked away.


    "Come back here when you have mastered the body refining technique I gave you. If youe back any earlier, I''ll pummel you half to death." The man spoke his parting words and also vanished alongside the rest of this world, leaving to float idly in the dark abyss once again.


    --------------------Rewards--------------------


    Golden Tickets (Per month):


    -Top 200 = 1 Extra Chapter


    -Top 100 = 5 Extra Chapters


    -Top 50 = 10 Extra Chapters


    -------------------------------------------------


    Gifts:


    -Castle = 5 Extra Chapter


    -Spacecraft = 10 Extra Chapters


    -Golden Gachapon = 15 Extra Chapters


    [Do take note that if you do give me a spacecraft or a golden gachapon, I might not be capable of giving you the chapters on the same day. However, a castle should be doable]


    -------------------------------------------------

 Chapter 89 Fallen Star II

    "Ugh!" I touched my head lightly while grimacing in pain as a headache assaulted my mind, rattling my brain and making me grunt in the process.


    "What the hell happened?" I muttered in pain before the headache intensified, and the memories of the ''insights'' I had gained shed within my mind and caused me to shudder in fear after remembering the amount of pain I felt.


    "One hit, huh... Look like I did it in the end." I mused with a smile on my face as I could not help but feel ted by my current increase in power. I didn''t know how long I had stayed in that realm, but I knew it was much longer than just a few days.


    *Rumble*


    *Rumble*


    As if hearing my thoughts, I looked up with a surprised expression as my eyes darted in random directions. There was not a single cloud in the sky, yet I could still hear the faint rumbling of what sounded like lightning or thunder crackling within the sky and getting ready to smite anything and everything down without a second thought.


    However, now that I could not see any clouds in the starry sky that was once bright with the sun before I had gone into my state ofprehension and learning, I knew that something I could not understand was happening, making waiting for my only option for the meantime.


    "Congrattions." The sky echoed with a booming voice, uprooting much of thend and tossing it into the air as I struggled to resist the voice. However, as if the voice had a consciousness of its own, I felt it evade me entirely, hitting everything around me and uprooting thend beneath my feet instead.


    "This power..." I narrowed my eyes but did not say anything. At the same time, I quickly used my control over the earth element to create tforms for my feet to stand upon, allowing me to float mid-air while looking down upon thend below me with a worried nce.


    My mastery over the earth element had reached a point where something like the tforms I created and controlled barely took any mana. I didn''t know exactly what stage my understanding of the earth element had reached, but since I had nothing else to do, I quickly checked my status screen that contained my elements.


    "You have passed the trial of patience!" The voice boomed again, destroying even more of thend and turning all the uprooted trees and earth into ashes in the process.


    My worries gaze still lingered on the ground below me as only one thing went through my mind at that moment.


    ''What power...''


    While its demonstration seemed to put fear in the mind of whoever saw it, I knew better than to believe it straight away. For all I knew, this might have been some kind of illusion or separate world that this creature hadplete control of. On the other hand, if the creature does happen to be this powerful in the real world, I should probably avoid antagonizing it or even trying to make it angry.


    I stood there with my arms crossed, and my eyes directly pointed to the sky with an unflinching aura and a determined gaze.


    ''Trial of patience? I wonder how long I''ve been in here.'' I thought to myself, and as if the creature in the sky could hear my thoughts, its voice boomed out again, destroying and turning the rest of the world into ashes.


    "You have stayed in my realm for 5 earth months."


    "5 months!" I eximed, yet all I got in response was a slight chuckle from the voice.


    "You have been meditating five months now and hadn''t moved a single muscle. Do not worry, child, as this realm''s time does not directly corrte to the time in the outside world." The thing in the sky exined, which made me calm down slightly.


    "So, how long would I have been out? I can tell that this isn''t my real body; instead, it is one fabricated by this realm with the only thing holding together being my consciousness." I asked without a semnce of fear in my voice.


    "You are quite impressive... anyone else in your ce would have been shivering in front of my disy of strength, yet you can stand here without a sign of fear. You are also intelligent, something I look forward to seeing in someone I can call my sessor."


    "Sessor?" I asked, confused by the term she used.


    I could tell she was a woman after hearing her speak for the third time. While at first, it might have seemed like she had a very deep and distant voice, yet after a while, her voice started to replicate that of a woman''s due to how soft and tranquil it began to be after every time she spoke.


    "Sessor?" I asked with a raised brow, causing her to chuckle once again, yet this time her voice had almost left me in a trance.


    "Yes, a sessor. I''ve been looking for a sessor for the longest time, and eventually, I gave up. However, after I grew old and died, I found a way to put my soul into one of the stars, and this one, while being rtively weak overall, it was the best one I could find. After putting my soul inside the star, I was kept there for a few thousand years before it finally chose to put me on this. Its been almost 80000 years on this and finally, after waiting for so long, I found someone who had passed the trial of patience." She exined, every single one of her words being etched into my brain.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Her voice was melodic and almost transcendent. I felt like I was being spoken to by a being far beyond anything I couldprehend.


    "But why was the fallen star still forming when I came in contact with it?" I asked before her chuckle entered my ears once again.


    "So you know the name of what I became. You are quite knowledgeable for someone of your age, however, I guess you muste from a prominent background for you to know so many things." She mused.


    "This realm closes every time someone fails to inherit its treasures, and so it has to reform in another location, which takes about 100 years to do." She exined, and I could not help but open my mouth, shocked by the revtion. However, right before I could ask anything else, I heard her voice once again, yet instead of it being melodic and warm like before, now it was filled with seriousness.


    "I cannot tell you anymore unless you pass the next trial." She states, and before I knew it, I felt my feet touch the ground as familiar constructions that resembled arenas erected out of thin air.


    "Your next trial, as well as your final trial, will be the trial of warriors. You must do one thing... Survive as long as you can." She ordered before her voice faded as it had never been there in the first ce.


    [The first wave shallmence in 5...]


    My eyes widened due to not having expected my own system to speak to me.


    I quickly rummaged through the four items in my inventory and took out the spear I had gotten from the goblin chief. In the next instant, I held it firmly within my hand with an iron-d grip while my eyes darted, wary of anything and everything around me.


    [4...]


    "She did say it''s the trial of warriors... So I''m guessing that the trial has something to do with battles. Now that the system is talking about a wave, I can conclude that just like those games I used to y in the past, a wave of enemies wille rushing at me and I have to kill every single one of them so the next wave canmence." I muttered to myself before narrowing my eyes as a crimson halo encapsted my pupil.


    [3...]


    Immediately, my vision became red, and almost everything became visible to my eyes. Everything from the mana currents that were slowly but surely concentrating in one area, to the runes that began to sh under the tiles I stood and while moving in a specific direction.


    ''Tactical runes?''


    [2...]


    [1...]


    [First Wave]


    There were several silhouettes of mana in the area where the mana had been concentrated, and eventually, a figure emerged.


    "I see..."


    *Roar*


    Five distinct roars entered my ears, and I quickly spotted all 5 of the creatures that stood around me.


    Around me stood five ck bears, yet instead of being tall,rge, and intimidating, they were slightly small with two razor-sharp ws and a somewhat reclined figure that would make anyone think they were looking at a gori if they were to squint their eyes.


    "Sloth bears?"


    [Author''s note: I know a lot of you don''t know him and many of you don''t care but I''m going to say it anyway. Most of you already know that technode had passed away recently. Honestly, I watched him a lot 6-5 years ago and he had been somewhat of an inspiration to me. He was always charismatic and I wanted to be like him when I was in my teenage years. He will always be a legend. Rest In Peace Technode (Alex)]

 Chapter 90 Sloth Bears

    As I looked at what looked like a mixture of sloths and bears, I quickly narrowed my eyes and rxed my posture.


    ''This has to be a joke...'' I mused to myself while looking down upon these sloth bears that immediately began to attack me without holding back.


    ***


    ''This might be hard on him, but I need a good sessor. Even if it takes another millennium to find a sessor, it is still better than having a bad sessor.'' The woman thought with a stern gaze.


    While she did not have a body in this realm, due to her previous mortality, she chose to create a vessel for herself that would bepletely invisible to me.


    As she looked at me with a stern gaze, she quickly snapped her fingers and animated the formation, causing them to light up and eventually concentrate in a single location before finally-


    *Roar*


    ''I hope you do not fail me like the others...'' She sighed; however, a trace of hope still lingered in her eyes. This was not a trial of absolute power but a trial of battle prowess and talent. She knew, or at least thought she knew, that if she were to put me against a creature in the middle mortal realm, I would die almost immediately.


    ''He is but a boy of a young age. From what I can tell, his cultivation journey barely began a few months ago, so it is only expected that he would still be in the early mortal realm. But to think someone of his age could have so much patience... Truly a prodigy'' She quickly nodded to herself in satisfaction before her gaze lingered on me, who stood in the middle of the arena with a spear in my hand.


    From her point of view, I seemed to be wary of everything and anything around me, but the moment he saw the sloth bears, I lowered my guard and began to look at the creatures before me with a strange expression.


    The woman began to frown subtly at this action, but she did not say anything for now.


    ***


    ''This has to be some kind of joke, right?'' I joked to myself as the scene before me wasughable at best.


    ''She thinks she can test me with these weak things? These things are barely stronger than those tiny goblins I fought a few weeks back.'' I mused as I watched them all charge at me simultaneously.


    ''This must be some kind of trick. Wait, no... My dread would have immediately kicked in if they were dangerous, so there is no way they are. This must be some kind of trap to make me look down on them now, butter on, they boom in strength and numbers, catching me off guard. Yes! That must be it!'' I concluded and quickly got into my battle position.


    This sight made the woman sigh in relief, yet her sigh got caught in her throat, and the next scene shed before she could even close her eyes.


    *BOOM*


    She could only watch unblinkingly as my spear shot right through one of the bears, decimating it and sttering the remains of its corpse all over the arena.


    The rest of the sloth bears stopped in their tracks and began to look at me warily, yet before they could decide what to do next, I had already disappeared from their vision.


    "Up here." I mocked as I appeared above one of the bears with my spear no longer in my hand while my arm stretched back, readying itself to release a power punch that would decimate thend it wouldnd on.


    *Roooa-*


    Itsst-ditch effort to release an intimidating roar had been cut short as a fist mmed into its head, piercing right through and smashing onto the ground under without losing a single newton of force.<novelnext></novelnext>


    *BOOM*


    The explosion rang out as several pieces of the bears shot out in different directions, leaving nothing but a blood-stained tile on the arena floor.


    *Tuck*


    Landing on the ground softly, I switched my attention to the final sloth bear that had started looking at me with eyes filled with fear as it retreated backward, its hands raised to its shoulders as if it was trying to surrender.


    "No surrendering today big guy." I looked at the bear and gave it a warm smile that shook it to the core of its soul.


    Without a care in the world, I took a step forward and still held the warm smile on my face, yet unbeknownst to me, this smile looked like the devil''s smile to anyone other than me.


    The bear tried to roar just the same way its fellow bredrin had done before their deaths, but after seeing that it didn''t work the way it usually did, it chose another method.


    It slowly began to open its maw wide, energy gathering within it while the mana flew into its maw-like winds.


    "An energy attack? Impressive." I chuckled to myself, knowing it could not understand anything I was saying.


    *ROAR*


    And with another roar, it let out a pale yellow beam of energy that shot towards me at what would usually be considered frightening speeds; however, in my eyes, it was nothing but a small ray of light.


    Instead of bracing myself for a powerful attack, I spread out my arms as if weing it. However, quickly my arms began to move at blurring speeds toward each other until finally-


    *CLAP*


    After the palms of my hands collided, a strong wind current blew out, destroying the beam of energy instantly and causing the sloth bear to m into the walls, bing a stain due to its momentum.


    ''Well... I guess I should wait a few seconds until the next wave starts. Hopefully, those are a little stronger than these... I don''t even know what to call them. They feel like creatures who haven''t even begun cultivating yet...''


    Clearly, I did not know that they were on the same cultivation level as me, but as someone who didn''t know their own cultivation level due to not being able to cultivate, I''d say it was forgivable at the time.


    On the other hand, the woman did not think the same way as I did, as the frown on her face only deepened, while the surprise shown by her agape mouth only made her look even more bbergasted by what she was seeing.


    For all she knew, this was a random with lower life forms than she was used to. Of course, during her lifetime, she had seen people fight above their cultivation; however, she did not expect to see someone do it so early in their cultivation path and alsoe from a weak such as earth.


    I felt her gaze over me increase in intensity, and even though I didn''t know exactly how, when, and why I could feel gazes, I knew that it was some kind of ability of mine now, and I was going to take full advantage of it.


    [Second Wave Shallmence in 5...]

 Chapter 91 End Of The Fallen Star Trials

    [The Second Wave Shall Now Commence]


    As the second wave began, I quickly looked around and realized that the only thing to change had been the number of slothbears attacking me, not the power of them.


    ''Still weak... I wonder how many rounds there are.'' I quickly thought to myself before shaking my head and looking straight ahead at one of the nearby slothbears.


    "If you aren''t going to be giving me a challenge any time soon, I might as well end these waves as quickly as possible." I muttered to myself but knew that the woman could hear me.


    Taking a step forward, my body immediately became a blur before my figure disappeared into thin air. For the next few minutes, the wails and roars of the slothbears rang out with enough volume and intensity that it would scare anyone who heard it senseless.


    At the end of it all, if one were to look at the arena, they would have difficulties finding a square inch of the tiles that hadn''t been dyed red with the color of the slothbear''s blood.


    [The Fifteenth Wave Shall Now Commence]


    My eyes narrowed after seeing the number, but I did not react to it much. I patiently waited with my arms crossed over my chest and my breathing steady as if everything I had just done had been a rxing moment rather than a life or death battle. Technically, the battle was only life or death for the slothbears and not me, so one could argue that I was rxing the whole time.


    However, when the 15th roundmenced, I could feel an enormous surge of mana begin to gather in one area, more mana than all of the other slothbears tookbined.


    ''No doubt, this one is a beastpared to the other animals I fought against. It''s nowhere as strong as the goblin chief, nor is it as strong as the t-rex... If I had topare it to something...'' I paused as I watched its body slowly construct itself from head to toe, eventually revealing itself as arger and much more ferocious slothbear.


    ''I''d say it is as strong as the treant I fought a few months ago...'' I thought to myself before quickly nodding.


    As for my inner monologue, it was cut off as the slothbear immediately attacked me as soon as it appeared. However, like all the others I had fought with before it, I did not draw my spear and just looked at it with my arms crossed.


    ''This one is also weak huh...'' I let out a repressed sigh before shaking my head with disappointment. I had been waiting to fight something that would challenge me, yet everything so far had been one disappointment after another.


    *ROOOAAAAAAR*


    In an instant, the slothbear gathered energy within its mouth before shooting a yellow beam of energy toward me. My eyes narrowed slightly as the beam moved at rapid speeds, yet I did not uncross my arms and simply looked at the creature before me with a bored gaze.


    "I''ll finish this quickly..." I muttered under my breath, and in the next instant, the slothbear could only watch my right hand be a blur as it shed downwards.


    *BOOM*<novelnext></novelnext>


    The yellow beam of light immediately tore in half and dissipated in the exact second, yet as if my hand had not been affected by the energy at all, it continued to sh down before finally-


    *Shing*


    Intense wind pressure in the form of an arch tore through the air between as and before the slothbear could react to the sudden attack; the wind arch had already appeared in front of it.


    In the next instant, the slothbear had been turned into two pieces, falling on either side and spattering blood on the ground, staining the already tainted tiles with its dark red blood.


    "Truly pathetic... Is this everything you can do, fallen star? Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" I asked, curiosity and contempt filling my voice and working side by side to create a powerful voice that the woman could not ignore.


    However, instead of hearing her voice again, I was met with nothing but silence. After a few seconds of waiting, I finally listened to her voice, but instead of her retorting to my previousment, I heard something else entirely¡ªsomething I did not expect.


    ? "You pass the trial. You shall be ejected from this realm in the following minutes..." She spoke, her voice filled with a tint of shame.


    "What? That''s it?!" I eximed, genuinely shocked by what I had just heard.


    "Yes." She spoke again, the shame even more evident in her voice, yet it felt like it had a charming quality for some reason.


    "Ugh... What a waste of time." I thought before quickly shaking my head after thinking of it again. While the realm itself might have been aplete waste of time, the things I did in the realm were much more prominent such as the inheritance hall I had found.


    ''I guess not all if it had been aplete and utter waste of time.'' I shook my head again, yet before I could look up at the sky and ask another question, I found myself being catapulted through a dark space before; finally, I was ejected out of the realm.


    "Ugh." A soft grunt left my mouth as I slowly opened my eyes, yet instead of seeing the ceiling of the cave that I had entered to find the fallen star, now I was looking at the starry night that shone upon the earth with its soft and beautiful radiance.


    However, my attention had been grabbed by the soft pillow-like object below my head. While usually, the feeling would have made me feel extremelyfortable, I instead felt a tinge of annoyance build up inside me.


    "Good morning." a soft feminine voice entered my ears, something that only verified my earlier theory.


    "nca... Why is my head on your thighs?"

 Chapter 92 Communicating With Stars

    "nca... Why is my head on your thighs?" I asked, annoyance tangible in my voice.


    "What? Do you not like it?" She asked, her soft smile entering my vision and making my knuckles itch to punch her in the face as hard as possible.


    "No..." I replied without hesitation.


    "So you would rathery cold and alone on the hard ground?" She raised a brow in amusement, but I could see hints of anger behind her expression of kindness.


    "Pretty much," I replied straightforwardly, making her frown, yet before I could follow up my words with an insult or a joke, I heard a sharp ring enter my mind before a crimson screen appeared.


    [You have received the blessing of stars]


    "Hu-" My surprised gasp was immediately cut off as my head bounced on the floor after its support disappeared into thin air.


    "If you don''t want it so much, then never ask me to do it again." nca harrumphed while standing almost 15 meters away; her face scrunched up into a frown.


    "I didn''t ask you though..." I retorted, seemingly confused by her words.


    She instantly deepened, but before I could continue, she turned around and harrumphed, "Idiot." Eventually, her figure disappeared from my sight, finally allowing me to look at the notification and use appraisal.


    [Appraisal level too low]


    ''Damnit... I forgot about that one.'' I let out a defeated sigh before lying on the ground motionless as if waiting for something to happen or someone toe to me.


    My eyes lingered on the star above, and I continued to gaze at them for an extended amount of time.


    "I wonder how long it will take... For me to find the elven settlements. I wonder how long it will take me to gain the strength to move to any of the territories on this." I thought, my eyes narrowing slightly, but my expression mainly stayed the same.


    Eventually, after a moment''s wait, my hands finally extended towards the stars above as if trying to reach them, yet after a while, I knew that such a thing would be pointless. Closing my eyes, I kept my hand up, pointing to the sky, and even though I had expected nothing to happen, a feelinging from the tips of my fingers caused me to widen my eyes in surprise and quickly look at them with a weird gaze.


    "What was that... Feeling..."


    I could feel my heart race while my breathing turned quick and short in excitement. My eyes lit up, too, while the smile on my face could not be wiped off even if I were to be put into a horrible situation at that moment.


    Pointing my hand towards the sky again, I closed my eyes and began concentrating on anything and everything I could feel. From the hard ground below me to the silent winds that made my hair stand up slightly, everything became visible to me even though my eyes were tightly shut.<novelnext></novelnext>


    And finally, after a few more minutes of me doing this, I felt a connection. A profound connection, more potent than anything I had ever felt before.


    And even after a notification rang out in my mind, I did not stray away from the connection I had created. My resolve had be firm while my will shone brightly as I continued to clutch tightly to this strand.


    [Congrattions. You havemunicated with the stars]


    [Many stars in the Milkyway gxy have taken note of you]


    [You have gained the title: Starborne]


    [You have gained the skill: Celestial Connection (Lvl 1)]


    Eventually, my hand closed into a fist, and I grasped onto something. Something profound and powerful. Something that had the power to topple worlds and destroy sr systems.


    Hundreds of powerful gazes locked onto me with stars of curiosity and shock. How long has it been since someone in their gxy had gained enough knowledge about the stars above them to create a connection finally? How long had it been since someone other than other stars had chosen to call out to them and try tomunicate with them?


    "Boy..." An ancient voice entered my mind, causing me to fling my eyelids open inplete shock. After an extended amount of time filled with silence, I began to feel like the voice might have been a product of my imagination, yet before I could make any more assumptions, I heard the ancient yet mighty voice speak to me once again.


    "I suggest you use this connection wisely. While you can use this connection to ask us to aid you, many creatures in the universe are created from the remnants of stars. They are more powerful than anything you canprehend, and while you might be exceptionally talented for someone from such a backwater, you are nothingpared to them. Heed my warnings and did not use this power once again, as your flimsy control easily alerted more than 100 of us. Stay safe. I hope to see you grow one day." The ancient voice echoed within my mind before the connection was forcefully severed by what I could only assume were the stars I created a connection with.


    My eyes remained wide open the entire time, but my attention was quickly grabbed by a low growling from my stomach, which immediately kicked me out of my entranced state and made me get up in a hurry.


    ***


    Somewhere in the Milkyway gxy floated a creature of immense strength. The creature seemed to have been created from the fabric of space itself as its body looked as if it was filled to the brim with stars and gxies, its body shining with the radiance of every star in its body. Yet, one could still see its figure as if it was a ckhole that ensured no light would obstruct its visibility.


    Its hair wildly floated while its aura emanated out of its body, creating a powerful neb of energy that spanned out for millions of miles.


    Suddenly, its head turned in a specific direction while its eyes narrowed in curiosity.


    In an instant, its aura was sucked into itself before its figure disappeared, moving through the infinite expanse of space like a shooting star while its vision locked onto a distant blue and green.

 Chapter 93 Bonding

    A few months passed in what seemed like a blink of an eye. While many things happened, from conquering several dungeons alongside nca to fighting off ferocious beasts, not much changed except the impending end of the contract between nca and me.


    At the beginning of our journey together, I hated her, but as time passed, my dislike for her slowly faded, and my annoyance began to dissipate. I would no longer shout at her whenever she did something stupid or flirtatious and instead simply roll my eyes or let out a disappointed sigh while looking at her like a father who just watched his daughter go down the wrong path in life.


    While I did not gain any romantic feelings for her at all, after our first talk about rtionships, nca seemed to have toned down her acts and began to act more and more like a decent human being, not that she was one, and neither was I. However, over time she began to use her snake form less and less by the day, sometimes even making me forget that she was a snake, not a human being that happened to tattoo their forehead with red ink.


    This fact only made us grow closer in thest couple of months, yet not once did we thoroughly speak about each other''s origins since both of us did not seem to befortable with the idea of learning about each other''s pasts. For all she knew, I was just another elf who had mutated at birth and chose to leave the elven settlement due to all the horrible things they did to me.


    While I did not tell her that I was emotionally hurt, she was wise enough to realize that my emotional scars wouldn''t allow me to speak about my past, and so she chose not to ask since she knew that pain herself.


    "Your cooking skills are improving. When we first met, your cooking was so bad that the food you made almost allowed me to gain a tolerance to poisonous foods." Imented while chuckling slightly, yet before I could take another bite out of the piece of meat that I was eating, I felt something hard and powerful m into the back of my head and fling me forwards, smashing me into the far wall of the cave we situated ourselves in for the meantime.


    "You better be thankful. I am considered a princess back in my n. I would never cook for anyone other than my parents, siblings, and maybe even a..." Her voice trailed off while her eyes slowly directed themselves at me, who continued to stay in the copsed position on the wall of the cave with a piece of one of meat in my hand held high.


    A slight blush broke out on her face, but she quickly turned and spoke again with a timid voice- "A-And maybe even a husband if I were to get married."


    My brows raised slightly, but I quickly shook my head and took a bite out of the meat I held in my hand before beginning to savor every chew as more and more of the meat''s juices flooded my mouth, making me almost tear up due to the blissful sensations that filled my taste receptors.


    nca nced at me from the corner of her eyes, yet after she saw me chew with tears of joy streaming out of my eyes, she almost spat out a mouthful of blood due to the annoyance and anger she felt at that moment.


    "Moron." She muttered under her breath, and even though my ears were powerful enough for me to have the ability to hear them even though I was a few meters away from her, I still did not react to her words due to having beenpletely subdued to the power of food.


    ''Maybe I can make hime with me if I tell him I''ll make him infinite food... No, I probably shouldn''t do that. He is still...'' Her eyes narrowed slightly before a sad smile appeared on her face.


    ''He is still hurt afterall.''


    After finishing up our food and cleaning up, I finally looked at nca with an excited and warm gaze.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I think I might be able to break through to the gaseous realm after a few dungeons."


    "Really?" A smile extended on her pretty face before she turned her head and began to look into the distance, a sad smile on her face, but in an instant, a determined one reced it.


    "It''s terrifying to think that you wield so much power even though you''re mana core is still ethereal." She chuckled, making me look at her with a raised brow before asking-


    "Is that not normal?" I asked, a slight shiver going down my spine as I was reminded of the power, strength, and control of the man I fought against in the inheritance realm.


    ''And to think that man had his cultivation reduced the whole time... How terrifying.'' I thought.


    "Of course not!" nca retorted, her voice booming in every direction and scaring any of the nearby smaller animals who could not withstand the strength of her voice.


    "Even when I was your age, my power was nothing like yours. 19-year-old white snakes are considered infants by the likes of my father, who have lived for thousands of years, yet even though my cultivation was higher than yours at that time due to me having been firmly in the liquidous realm, I still feel like we would have been equal or I would have lost." She exined, making me widen my eyes in realization.


    It must be understood that the mortal realm is split into five stages, each representing the state in which one''s mana core is when one reaches that cultivation level. Every stage would increase the power of the cultivator dramatically, yet due to my system, I could not cultivate the usual way but instead, had to use levels to move up in cultivation, and from what I could understand, every 10 levels meant that my cultivation would advance by one stage.


    ''These system limitations might be more of a blessing than a curse...'' I mused


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 Chapter 94 As Gloomy As A Starless Night

    The mortal realm is split into five smaller realms, each representing the state in which the mana core is in. Firstes the ethereal mana core, which is the first state the mana core forms in after one begins to cultivate. Once they have gathered enough ambient mana, they will finally break into the gaseous realm, where their mana pool will essentially multiply based on their talents, making it so that not everyone in the same minor realm is equal in strength while also creating a disparity in power between each minor realm.


    After the gaseous realmes the liquidous realm, which is achieved after concentrating all the gaseous mana from the mana core in a single spot, creating a mana drop within their mana core that has just as much mana as all their gaseous manabined. This only works to further the gap between each realm, making it much harder for anyone in the gaseous realm to even stand a chance against someone in the liquidous realm.


    After the liquidous realmes the solidus realm; after further concentrating the liquid mana, it eventually bes a solid much smaller mana core that has three times the capacity of its liquid counterpart. Further increasing the size of the solid mana core will only make it more powerful while also allowing the user to store more mana inside it.


    There is one more minor realm, yet even nca didn''t know of it since she told me that her father refused to tell her about the realm until she reached the peak of the solidus minor realm. Even though she is in the solidus minor realm right now, she isn''t at its peak since there are still many creatures in the same realm that could kill her with the swipe of their ws.


    ''My level cap must be a blessing in disguise... It allows me to reach the top of my current cultivation and makes me a force to be reckoned with... And to think I am as strong as nca when she was in the liquidous realm. Granted, she meant the beginning of the liquidous realm, but my point still stands...'' I thought while ignoring nca''s longing gaze as she turned her head towards me and looked me in the face.


    I could see a slight smile crawl up the corners of her lips from my peripheral vision, a reaction that made me turn to her with a raised brow before asking-


    "What''s got you so happy?"


    "What, can''t I choose to be happy?" She asked, her warm smile still on her face while her gaze lingered on me.


    "Hmm? I didn''t say that." I retorted with an eye roll.


    "Hmm... I just wanted to say that you are very expressive with your eyes. Looking into your eyes and seeing how you move them instantly tells me how you feel or what you''re thinking of. You narrow your eyes when you feel any negative emotion and rarely frown. You are calm most of the time, but there are a few things in the world that make your eyes light up in excitement, allowing you to forget yourself and almost revert to your childish self." She let out a chuckle that she covered with her hand.


    "You use other facial expressions, but overall, your eyes tell me everything. I just wanted to tell you that you can tell me anything, and in return, I am willing to tell you anything. I can see the pain in your eyes whenever we speak of your family or origins, so if you ever feel like you can trust me either today or in the future, you can speak to me. I will listen to anything you tell me without judging you or asking any question about it afterward." She spoke, her voice, for some reason, melodic to my ears and soft to my heart.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Why, though? We barely know each other and don''t have to in a few months. We will eventually part ways, too, so... What''s the point?" I looked back at nca, who had stopped walking before me. My eyes narrowed at her, but I did not say anything.


    "We will eventually have to take different paths so isn''t it better if we don''t know anything about each other?" I asked.


    A sad smile appeared on her face, yet her previous warm one did not disappear and instead seemed to have blended into each other to create an expression that made me feel a sharp pain in my heart.


    "Who said we have to go on different paths?" She asked, her voice cracking slightly in the process.


    "We can continue going on these wild adventures together, you know. We can venture through the world, both of us bing famous for being of the most powerful people in the world. We can conquer dungeons just like we are now. Maybe you can meet my family, and I can finally meet yours."


    Instantly, a pained look appeared in my eyes, but I quickly closed them and looked away, yet this did not go unnoticed by nca. She was now staring at me with aplicated gaze that no man on this Earth would have the capability of deciphering.


    "You can''t stay alone forever, Ezra... You have to move forward at some point. We still have the 2-year agreement, so even if you don''t trust me, you know I can''t intentionally hurt you without your permission." She continued.


    "I''ll think about it." I finally spoke out with the same deep, menacing voice I used to speak with her back when we first met. It wasn''t that I didn''t care about her; it was just that I didn''t want my voice to portray any of my feelings on ident.


    Without skipping a beat, I began to walk forwards, my strides long, yet the air around me as gloomy as a starless night.


    ''nca... Our goals are not the same, and I doubt you would support mine even if you knew them... You are just that kind of person. Immature and unaware... Sometimes it''s better if one stays that way for the rest of their lives since... Ignorance sometimes truly is a bliss''

 Chapter 95 Gaias Confrontation

    "Ugh. My muscles are sore all over." I grunted as I walked out of the dungeon d in ck scaly armor.


    "That''s because you''re weak." nca retorted, her mood still slightly sour from ourst talk.


    "Well, I have to give it to you. While it doesn''t make up for the wait, the armor is still pretty good. It supports mobility and is exceptionally durable. I don''t have a single scratch on me even though I received attacks from creatures in the liquidous rank and above." I quickly praised her as I felt as if her mood would have turned for the worst if I didn''t do so.


    "Of course! What do you expect from someone as talented as a prodigy like me? You should have expected nothing but the best from my craftmanship!" She eximed with her head held high, and her chest puffed out in pride.


    "Yes, yes. Of course, princess." I quickly waved her off with a wry smile


    "Ho ho ho! Yes, yes! Praise me more." She began to shout while I stood there with a wry smile and a warm gaze.


    ''Maybe it wouldn''t be so bad if we didn''t split up after the year passes. You never know. This friendship might sprout into something more significant in the future... A lifelong partnership. It wouldn''t benefit me, someone who has achieved immortality, but it would definitely benefit her.''


    "You haven''t finished my weapon, though." I interrupted her selfpliment parade and reminded her of what she had to do next.


    "Do you even need that weapon? Your mana recently has gone through the roof, to the point where I''m pretty sure that you can just form over 200 earth spikes with the mana capacity. And to think you are only in the ethereal realm" She sighed with jealousy.


    "Hey! Don''t try and change the subject now. You know very well that-" My sentence got stuck in my throat as an immense feeling of dread overcame me. It was an amount of dread that I had never felt before. While nca seemed to not feel it at all, to me, it felt like I was being crushed under a mountain as I could do nothing but stand still and hope the predator didn''t see me. It was a dread that would have made the old me curl up into a ball and rock myself forwards and backward until my death approached.


    It was an amount of dread that would have snapped the minds of anyone who had not felt the sensation of death.


    [Your affinity towards death grows stronger]


    "Ezra, huh... You seem to have taken quite a liking to my..." A melodic voice entered my ears, yet due to already having heard a few melodic voices before today, I could snap myself out of my entranced state before looking directly towards the source of this voice.


    "You... You pathetic bug." A woman with green skin and hair as green as the nts found in the amazon forest.


    "Youe to my and do nothing but destroy everything in your path." The woman''s voice started to be fierce as every word she spoke felt like it had beenced with an amount of rage I could not fathom.


    "Youe to my andy waste to everything you f*cking touch." The woman took another step forward, the sound of her footstep booming through the forest and causing every creature, including nca, to shudder in utter fear. The gem embedded into her head reflected the sun''s rays, yet their true beauty came from their bright emerald green color.


    Activating my blood eyes, I could see that she looked and seemed just like an ordinary being, but there was just one difference.


    "A nt? No... A treant?" I asked aloud while slowly beginning to shield nca, who currently couldn''t move an inch from where she stood due to the pressure emitted by the creature before us.


    "You seem to be able to move, but that is only expected from someone of your kind." The woman spat in disgust before continuing-


    "And no, to satiate that little curiosity of yours, your little red eyes are wrong. I might be a nt, but I am entirely sentient. Your kind might think of any creature without rational thought as but a tool for them to use, but I and everyone on this think differently.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I use the nts to create an avatar from myself. I do not control them, but I speak to them and ask them to help me, unlike you creatures of chaos who choose to cut down everything and anything that may stand in your path. You do not make treaties with anything you deem lower than yourselves. You kill and destroy for the sake of it, no matter how many lives you eradicate in your path to conquest." She spat out again, her voice bing even more fueled with the rage that burned deep within her eyes.


    I could feel her rage...


    I could feel her unrelenting thirst for my blood and my blood only.


    "I don''t understand what you are trying to say." I retorted in the only way I knew how. Fake it till you make it, and in this case, I was faking it even though I didn''t honestly know the whole story and instead had just picked and analyzed everything I had so far.


    ''The elves clearly had enmity with us from their announcement alone, and while they could have concluded that we humans were enemies right off the bat, I doubt that the warriors would have had so much burning energy in them as they ughtered humanity. I didn''t know what it was before, but now that I look back at it, I can see it in their eyes. They were angry... No. They were rageful maniacs who wanted nothing but to kill every human in sight.


    The fact that there are multiple types of human races also rang an rm in my head ever since I had got the true awakened human evolution and its definition that describes it to have been one of the most versatile versions of the human race since they. With all this information, I can easily conclude that there was most likely another human race out there in the universe, one which was much more powerful than the human race we had during my era.''


    My eyes narrowed down at the woman who stood in her spot unflinchingly. I could see a whirlpool of mana surrounding her and entering her so-called ''avatar.''


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 Chapter 96 Betrayal

    My eyes narrowed down at the woman who stood in her spot unflinchingly. I could see a whirlpool of mana surrounding her and entering her so-called ''avatar.''


    "What I am trying to say is that ever since you entered my, I''ve been having one problem after the other, and this is especially the case after you revived yourself!" She sneered, her anger audible in her voice.


    By this time, nca had regained her cool-headedness, and instead of shivering on the ground like a coward, she had finally stood, her eyes no longer locked onto the figure of the woman before her but instead onto me.


    "Revived? This world? What is she talking about?" nca asked, her voice still shaking due to the after-effects of her fear.


    "I''ll tell youter..." I replied, my words left open-ended.


    "No! You keep saying things l-like that, but you still don''t tell me anything about you!" nka shouted and tried to say her words with intimidation, yet the crack in her voice and the slight stutter in her words broke the visage, showing her true colors of being a scared child who knew no better.


    ''A child, huh... She really does remind me of my little sister even though she is several times older than me.'' I let out a soft sigh and looked back at nca, yet a realization hit me before I could say anything.


    My head turned towards the woman again before asking the question that lingered in my mind.


    "Wait... You''re Gaia?" I asked.


    Her eyes slightly narrowed at the question while her eyebrow twitched in anger.


    "Wow. Well done. Now you know the face of the person who''s territory you have invaded." She snarled before a mischievous smile appeared on her face as her head turned towards nca.


    ''I wouldn''t usually do this, but having a human on my is a dangerous path to tread on. This is the least I can do... At least for the inhabitants of my...''


    Sensing her intentions, I instantly released all my killing intent before shielding nca, and in the same instant, I created ethereal ws made out of my blood energy.


    "Do not worry, child, I would never hurt a true inhabitant of my world, especially when they did nothing wrong other than beingpletely ignorant to the truth." She spoke, her voice now soft as her gaze lingered on nca.


    "You may not understand your mistake now, but I''ll inform you anyway. The boy who is currently shielding you is a human..." She said, her voice booming through the silent forest even though she did not raise her voice.


    "A human?" nca asked, even more confused.


    "Yes. The human race. Well, technically, he is a true human, one of the most adaptable races in the universe, and the one that happened to terrorize your species and many other species before and after it. It is the reason why the white snake species even lives on my and is also the reason why I allowed your Cosmic realm patriarch to live on this, of course, with certain restrictions." She informed nca, who could not help but leave her mouth wide open in surprise.


    "That race... The monsters?" nca asked while taking a step away from me, an action that surprised me to my core yet simultaneously made my heart squeeze in pain.


    "Yes, those monsters. There isn''t a better word to describe them. A race that destroys everything they touch." She looked at me again, her warm gaze disappearing and being reced by one of contempt.


    "And one of them dared tread on my... Ever since he entered this, he treated the animals with no sympathy, ughtering them as if they were nothing but food and training dummies to the likes of him." She sneered.


    "Dared? You think I chose toe to this-" Yet before I could finish my sentence, I heard a sentence that would send pains through my heart for years toe.


    "Then why didn''t you kill him?" A feminine voice asked one that sounded very simr to nca''s, yet I did not want to believe such a thing. nca wouldn''t betray me, right? She wouldn''t indirectly ask for my death, right?


    My eyes eventually trailed off the woman in front of me as they looked behind me, shock evident within my eyes as I still could not understand what was happening.


    Yet to my dismay, the eyes I met as I turned around were not those of a random stranger that happened to walk into the area we were in, and instead were the contempt-filled eyes of the person I trusted most in this world¡ªthe one person who I had spent most of my time in this era with. The one person I saw eventually growing closer with in the future and even continuing our current adventures with.


    "nca?" I asked as if uncertain of who was speaking.


    "Why you ask? Because I can''t... But you can. You can rid this world of this filth. You can eliminate this burden from the face of Earth and allow this to prosper." Gaia spoke nonchntly before continuing-


    "You can get rid of him and finally get revenge for your parents. Didn''t they fight and die in the war after fighting a person of his race? Didn''t your father fight to make sure you and your mother got out of the, and even then, due to your mother''s injuries, she had to choose between giving birth to you and surviving herself. And to think your mother and father would have been alive if it weren''t for the likes of him..." Gaia said, her voice filled with pity, yet even within her voice, I could sense a tinge of uncaringness.


    Yet even after both of us heard what Gaia said, none of us moved. It was as if the simple act of moving a muscle was forbidden...


    ''She wouldn''t... Betray me... Right?'' I asked myself, my expression still as nk as ever.


    "If you aren''t doing anything because of the contract, no where does it state that you cannot kill him during your contracted period. The only time you can''t-" Gaia''s voice halted as her eyes slightly widened in shock.


    A horrible dread overcame me, but due to the direction and speed it hade from, I did not have enough time to react.


    At that exact moment, I felt something in my chest... No. To be exact, it wasn''t just a feeling. It was...


    ''Pain?'' I said inwardly and phrased it as a question even though my voice was monotone and emotionless. I could not understand what was happening, yet I could link this feeling to one of my earlier memories. A memory of this world, yet not one from the same era as the one we lived in today.


    "Please, Julia. I loved you! Why are you doing this?!"


    Those words echoed in my mind as I slowly understood what was happening.


    "I wonder..." I finally spoke out, a trickle of blood leaving my mouth and moving down my chin before dripping from its end.


    "I wonder if this is how he felt when she betrayed him?" I asked myself, a week chuckle leaving my mouth.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Turning slightly, I could see a familiar woman extending her hand out, an energy de forming at its end and prating right through my heart.


    The woman stood there, an expression of betrayal as tears soaked her face.


    "You didn''t hesitate?" Gaia asked, still slightly shocked by the resolve that had been shown in front of her.


    "I-I... I''m... I don''t. Why did I? I don''t understand. Why?" She instantly retracted her energy de before falling to the ground and sobbing her heart. After Gaia saw this, she could not help but sigh and walk over to the girl before crouching down and beginning to caress her hair with a gentle smile.


    "Do not worry. The monster boy will no longer live. The monster boy has died by your hands, and therefore I shall reward both you and your n." Gaia said, her voice encouraging.


    Standing right behind them with a gaping hole where my heart was supposed to be, I could not help but look down at them with regret. Yet, besides my regret, another feeling was boiling deep inside my soul. A feeling that would permanently engrave itself into my very soul.


    "Haha... Hahahahahahahaha..." Iughed, a tinge of self-mockery in my voice as it echoed through the silent forest, causing the two of them to look at me, one seeingly sobbing while the other visibly irritated.


    "I understand now. No matter how much you love someone and how much time you spend with them, one will always choose their race and species before choosing their lover or best friend. Blood beats these flimsy rtionships after-" *Cough*.


    Spitting out a mouthful of blood, I looked at Gaia and nca with a grim smile, my teeth bloodied due to my wound.


    "End him..." Gaia turned to nca with an annoyed gaze.


    "B-But... I can''t... I don''t want to hurt him anymore. I don''t even know why I did it... It wasn''t his fault that-" However before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off by Gaia''s voice.


    "So you want him to die a slow and painful death? I understand you built a rtionship with him in the past half a year, but you must understand that this will only prolong his pending death." She said, her voice emotionless as she helped nca up, supporting her due to nca''s shaking legs.


    "Also, look at him. He is a monster." She spoke again, the disdain in her eyes only increasing after every word.


    "He is the same monster that killed your parents. Will you allow your parent''s revenge to end in someone dying of blood loss, or will you end it yourself?" Gaia asked, causing the hesitation on nca''s face to lighten.


    "I''m doing this for him... And my parents, right?"


    "Of course." Gaia gave nca a warm and assuring smile.


    ''How naive...'' I thought, blood filling my mouth while my grim smile remained on my face, yet instead of falling to my knees as most people would have due to the amount of blood lost, I did not allow my knees to shudder for even a second.


    "So I''m the viin here, right?" I asked, but before anyone could even try answering my question, the grim smile on my face only grew more prominent.


    ''Buy 10 mana stat points.''


    "Then if I''m going to die anyway, why not just fit the role?" I asked again.


    Gaia''s eyes widened but not in surprise at my actions, but instead in surprise at the mana fluctuations she felt exploding out of me so suddenly.


    With a flick of her wrist, she moved nca over 500 meters away in an instant before thrusting her hand towards me, trying to end it all before it even began.


    *Thud*


    She widened her eyes as her arm suddenly fell to the ground, but before she couldprehend what had happened, a powerful surge of mana exploded out of me once more, but this time in the form of a skill, or what they knew as spells.


    [You have experienced your first real betrayal]


    [Your rage shall be quenched]


    [Blood energy is beginning to run rampant within you]


    [You have created a temporarybination of your skills]


    [Weak Blood Energy Maniption + Earth Control]


    [You have created and can use the skill Crimson Earth Spear for 30 seconds]


    Gaia could have sworn she had seen a crimson shadow as well as a hundred eyes flicker behind me, but that feeling was quickly overshadowed by the powerful earthen crimson light that radiated from the spear I held within my hand.


    The spear bolted towards her in an instant while shattering several sound barriers. Gaia understood what was happening, but due to her only using an avatar and also concentrating on a million other things around the globe simultaneously, she could not react in time to my sudden attack.


    *BOOM*


    The forest shook violently while everything before me had be nothing but ashes and destruction. There I stood, my eyes listless as the blood kept pouring out of my wound uncontrobly, yet unlike before, I was not breathing, thinking, or moving...


    I stood there, my eyes bing increasingly grey by the second while my skin began to crack and crumble.


    I was dead.

 Chapter 97 [You Have Died]

    I slowly lost consciousness after my final attack, the final wisp of life in my body dissipating. The only evidence of my second life was the corpse that stood with its hand stretched out, not daring to fall even in death.


    [You have died]


    [Construction of a new body will take one week]


    [Seeker of Death title has reached level 2]


    [Evolver trait is beginning to activate]


    [Your instincts have been amplified]


    [You havepleted one secret mission]


    [Secret Mission: Meet the Spirit]


    [Informtation: Meet Gaia, Earth''s first spirit. A spirit is a being that forms after a gains sentience and has the power to control almost all non-sentient forms of matter on the]


    [Reward: -


    -10 000 Immortality tokens


    -1 Free item from the system shop]


    Appearing in the dark space once again, I could not help but smile. In the middle of an infinite void, the familiar sensation of drifting had be strangely soothing, as if all my troubles were slowly being sucked out of me. At the same time, my body began to rx minute by minute.


    My gazended on the screen in front of me, yet I looked at it coldly instead of smiling while killing intent slowly seeped out of me in waves.


    ''That b*tch... This is all her fault!'' I inwardly roared because I could not speak in this void. It was like an instinct, but I knew I couldn''t.


    ''That f*cking little sh*t! That little bastard! That insignificant b*tch.'' My cursing rampage continued for several minutes as I did nothing but release all my fits of anger and frustrations. I was not a man who cursed regrly, but there was always a good reason for it when I did.


    My anger lost momentum after a few hours, but it quickly surged again in a wave of bloodlust when I thought of nca.


    While I disliked when I first met her, my difort around her and my animosity towards her had begun to dissipate over thest few months... Hell, we even lived together for a little more than half a year, and our bond had grown so sturdy that the average person would have thought we were best friends, if not a couple.


    ''Yet she betrayed me... Just like that and without a single speck of remorse. Even that b*tch Gaia was shocked by it. That snake didn''t even hesitate. She just shot a beam right through me and acted like she was the victim!'' I roared, my rage clear for anyone to feel as my bloodlust grew to new heights.


    ''She believed her words so easily! She didn''t even let me exin!'' I cried out, the pain in my non-existent heart increasing by manifolds as I remembered her face. Her face that indicated anguish, as if she was somehow the victim in this situation.


    It was that day that something snapped within me, something that would forever determine my way forward. The pain I felt that day would remind me of how cruel someone can be, and no matter how strong I am, I learned never to open my heart to anyone.


    The light within my eyes had significantly dimmed while what remained of my innocence disappeared as if it had never existed.


    This was the mindset of a human warrior. A race that cared about nothing but themselves and what they could gain from every action they performed. A race that would not hesitate to destroy entires if it meant that they would grow closer to their goals.


    Indeed, a race of chaos.


    My eyes slowly closed by themselves before a manual appeared in my mind as I quickly re-read its contents.


    Without having realized it, my body had appeared in a white pce hall with endless doors, yet instead of entering any one of them, I stayed sitting on the hard ground and began to circte mana through my body. This would have been usually impossible due to me not having any mana circuits in my body, but after having been trained and beaten to a pulp by the man behind the earth inheritance, I learned how to circte mana my own way.<novelnext></novelnext>


    My mana simply existed within my body and ran rampant without pause, all I needed to do was direct the mana and its properties, and now that I was using the earth manual I had been given by the middle ages man, I was using my earth seed as well as the elemental rune within me to circte earth mana around my body and into various muscles to reinforce them with the properties of earth.


    ? I had used the manual more than once before today, yet it was only today that I found it extremely easy toplete the exercise multiple times due to not feeling an ounce of fatigue in this strange world.


    Unbeknownst to me, several eyes were watching me from afar as their gazes of surprise, interest, and curiosity lingered on me as I slowly but surely reinforced my body.


    ***


    Slowly, out of the ground sprouted a nt that slowly began to grow before morphing into the shape of a humanoid. Vines and roots enveloped this creature and created a cacoon, and after a few more seconds, the cacoon gradually began to open.


    Once the cacoon had finally opened, the figure of a beautiful woman draped from shoulder to knees with a tight-fitted green dress that allowed the breeze of the wind to hit her legs from the knees and under.


    She was bare feet, yet his expression did not show any difort as she stepped onto the ground created from a mixture of rock and mud.


    "I can''t believe he killed me... Just like that." Gaia spoke in disbelief. While the power of her avatar was nothingpared to the power of her real body, she still could not believe that a human boy with a cultivation at thete-ethereal stage could kill her avatar in a single hit, especially not with an element that she was highly versed in using.


    Before, when Gaia had watched me use the earth element, she felt like she could have easily taken control of the earth I was using. The only reason Gaia didn''t do so was because she knew that she would be punished for directly attacking me, yet now when she had seen me use the earth element, she felt as if the earth itself had lost its connection with her even though it was a part of her.


    "It must have been that red energy of his. Itpletely revoked my power over the earth he was using, and when hebined both energies together..." Her avatar slightly shuddered after remembering the power of the attack I released.


    While she usually didn''t feel direct pain from attacks that her avatar would receive, this time, she felt as if the red energy itself was beginning to pour into the life energy she put in the avatar. When that happened, an extremely high amount of pain coursed through the life energy and began to move towards the thread that linked Gaia to the avatar. Yet, even before she could react, the connection was cut entirely before she quickly destroyed what remained of the thread that linked her to the avatar, fearing the red energy would use it to integrate itself into her.


    She realizedter that energy of such low potency could have done nothing to her real body, but she still sighed in relief before beginning to create another avatar.


    Sighing again after recalling all that happened, Gaia, or to be precise, Gaia''s avatar, began to move in the direction she felt nca''s energy.


    She now knew that I was dead, but she checked on me anyway, yet instead of finding a corpse, she could a pile of ashes and a hand that was beginning to crumble.


    After seeing the sight before her, she threw a fireball of intense heat toward the remaining ashes before instantly disappearing.


    In the next second, she appeared again, but now she stood in front of a kneeling woman who was crying her heart out.


    "You didn''t hesitate to kill him, yet you still choose to cry as if I was the one who killed him," Gaia muttered with a cold voice that sent shivers down nca''s spine and forced her to look up with tear-filled eyes.


    "I didn''t mean it. I swear! I don''t know what came over me! Believe me!" nca pleaded.


    Gaia''s eyes narrowed slightly and began to peer into her soul, but after a quick inspection, she let out a sigh of annoyance and looked in a particr direction.


    "I''m going to have to speak to your grandfather about this." She stated, her hair beginning to float wildly while her piercing eyesnded on an enormous white snake sleeping with its entire body wrapped around a mountain.


    The creature''s eyes opened slightly and made eye contact with Gaia''s avatar, but it quickly shut its eyes as it knew that it could do nothing but wait.


    "Your grandfather is a few thousand miles away, but I should be able to move both of us there in a few hours of travel. Let''s go." Gaia stated and stretched her hand towards nca and opened her palms to receive hers. Still, as her hand grew closer, it suddenly stopped before Gaia''s eyes darted upwards and met the golden eyes of a white-robed figure standing above them on thin air.


    "You are going nowhere until you answer my questions." A primordial voice boomed out and sent shockwaves across the forest and, at the same time, forced Gaia''s avatar to kneel before the figure.

 Chapter 98 Chronos

    "You are going nowhere until you answer my questions." A primordial voice boomed out and sent shockwaves across the forest and, at the same time, forced Gaia''s avatar to kneel before the figure.


    Simultaneously, nca began to shiver in her spot as she could feel nothing but fear as the man stood before the two of them.


    "L-Lord Chronos?" Gaia asked with a stutter.


    "Did I not warn you? Did I not specifically ask you not directly to harm the human boy?" Chronos asked as the frown on his face became more profound.


    "I didn''t hurt him! I didn''t even touch him-"


    "But you were going to. If I didn''t cut off your avatar''s hand, you would have killed him on the spot." Chronos cut her off before narrowing his eyes at the woman besides Gaia.


    "Why does it matter? He is already dead! Not even you can bring people back to life with your time powers. You''re not a god!" Gaiained, yet all she in reply was a slight smirk from Chronos''s side before his expression returned to being stoic.


    "Gaia... Heed my words; this is your final warning. The next time I see you trying to directly harm the human boy, I will not hesitate to penalize you on the spot no matter the oue of the penalization on your ne-." Chronos paused mid-word while a slight frown formed on his face while his brows furrowed in annoyance.


    His eyes immediately darted upwards before his eyes narrowed towards a figure shooting towards earth at a speed that could only be described as light-speed.


    "There seems to be something I have to deal with. Remember my warnings, or do not me me for what I do if you break the one rule I''ve given you." Chronos took onest nce at Gaia and nca before space began to warp around him and eventually disappeared into thin air.


    ***


    "What do you think you are doing?" Chronos'' voice boomed through the infinite void, shaking the very foundation of space and finally reaching the ears of the creature flying through space.


    The creature suddenly halted its movement and looked to its right, where it could see a figure draped in a white and gold robe that fluttered in space despite theck of air.


    A golden aura emanated out of Chronos while his piercing gaze looked at the cosmic figure with narrowed eyes, analyzing every fiber of its being.


    "Who are you?" The cosmic figure asked, not daring to move an inch in front of a being so much stronger than it.


    Chronos'' brows furrowed once again, but after a few moments, he chose to answer the question.


    "My name is Chronos... But that does not matter. Answer my question or do not me me for bing violent."


    The cosmic figure shook a little when it heard Chronos'' voice, but after a moment of hesitation, it was capable of regaining its wits and finally looking at Chronos the same way it would look at an equal.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Chronos'' brow raised in amusement, but before he could say anything, the creature proudly stated- "I''ve never heard of you. Bow down or get as far away as you can from me." Which only made Chronos'' amusement rise.


    "Pfft..." Chronos could not stifle hisughter before his eyes darted around and saw nothing for hundreds of light-years.


    "You act as if you have an army supporting you." Chronos stated, his amusement still eminent in his voice as he slowly raised a finger and pointed it towards the head of the cosmic figure.


    "Hah! You would not darey a finger on a star spirit! Our monarch would decimate you where you stand, and your head would be his to decorate his trophy hall with. You might be strong, but you are nothingpared to him." The Star spirit boasted while letting out a mockingugh, yet after hearing Chronos'' following words, his expression turned severely grim.


    "Child, you do not know who you stand before due to your ignorance. I will as one more time, and if you do not answer, not even that monarch of yours will be able to save you."


    In the same instant, Chronos released a speck of his aura that would bepared to a drop of water in the vast sea that was his real strength, yet to someone as weak as the star spirit, he found himself unable to move an inch as his life began to sh before his eyes.


    "I-I felt a mortal trying to cmunicate with the stars, and when I felt it, I remembered our orders and left to end its life... I-I''m sorry for my d-disrespect. P-Please forgive me." The star spirit pleaded while not daring to look up and into the eyes of the man that stood before him like an unmovable entity.


    "I see... Now leave the other way, and if I ever feel youing close to this part of space again, I will not hesitate to exterminate you where you stand." Chronos warned and disappeared the same way he appeared.


    When the star spirit finally felt Chronos leave, it breathed a sigh of relief before a vicious expression appeared on its face.


    "Do not worry... If I doe back, I will make sure toe with an army. I will decimate this portion of space and you will not have ability to stop me!" the star spirit roared and immediately shot back towards where it came from with its vow echoing through space.


    Unbeknownst to it, a pair of golden eyes watched it leave while a wry smile broke out on the figure''s expression as a few words left its mouth.


    "Ezra... I hope when the time doese, you will have to power to fight back against this enemy because if you do not, it simply means that Earth''s fate has been sealed from the get-go." Chronos spoke out as he sat idly on one of Saturn''s moons before finally, he disappeared once again with no sign of his presence being left behind.


    ***


    [The passive skill Earth Elemental Body has reached level 5]


    [Earth Elemental Body: Increases the user''s affinity with the earth element, increases elemental defense against earth attacks, and creates a body that is "As sturdy and resistant as earth."]


    My eyes slowly opened before darting around and narrowing down after seeing my surroundings.

 Chapter 99 Revival & Unique Mission

    My eyes slowly opened before darting around and narrowing down after seeing my surroundings.


    "The inheritance hall? When did I enter this ce... Wait, no, how did I enter this ce?" I asked myself with a frown but quickly shook my afterward as the ''when'' didn''t matter.


    Looking around for a few more seconds, my eyes finallynded on the door I had enteredst time. However, instead of entering it, a memory that I should not even possess shed before my eyes, reminding me of why I shouldn''t enter. At the same time, however, the memory of what happened before I had been killed shed before my eyes, causing me to frown while immediately ruining the upbeat mood I was in due to my Earth Elemental body leveling up.


    Breathing out an irritated sigh, I stomped around the hall, my anger increasing at every step, but eventually, I was able to calm down by opening up my system and reading through it once again.


    [Status


    Name: Ezra ----


    Age: 20


    Sex: Male


    Level: 10


    Immortality Tokens: 2


    Affinities: Earth


    Bloodline(s): True Awakened Human


    Unique Trait: Evolver, Humanity''s Inheritance, Immortal Sovereign''s Inheritance


    Title(s): Craftsmith (Lvl 4), Warrior (Lvl 8), Mage (Lvl 4), Seeker of Death (Lvl 2), Lumberjack (Lvl 1), Humanity''s Endling, Starborne, Transgressor of Time


    Blessing(s): Chrono''s Blessing ]


    [Stats-


    HP: 30


    Strength: 40


    Agility: 40


    Intelligence: 40


    Vitality: 40


    Mana: 20


    Defence: 0 ]


    "I have 20 mana now, huh..." I mused out loud.


    "Maybe I should check the shop? My armor is probably-" My eyes moved away from the screen in front of me and darted to the one on the right to check my inventory.


    "Hm? I''m certain my armor got destroyed when nca shot a beam through me." I scratched my chin in annoyance and curiosity. I felt annoyed because of the memory, but my curiosity took control and forced me to use appraisal. Yet, instead of getting an answer, I got a garbage response that did nothing but annoy me further.


    [Ding]


    [Your body has sessfully been constructed]


    [Earth Elemental Body has been considered a unique body constitution]


    [The passive skill has been constructed and ingrained into the cells of your new body]


    [1 Week has passed]


    [Humanity''s inheritance hall is reacting to your new unique body constitution]


    [Earth Elemental Body Level 10 required to enter the Earth Inheritance]


    The notifications paused, which made me think that it was the end of them, but when I was about to finish reading all of them, something else appeared from the corner of my eyes.


    [Your soul shall be transferred into the new body in 5...]


    My consciousness was immediately kicked out of the inheritance hall, allowing me to open my eyes again and find myself in the middle of the infinite void, but rather than it beingpletely ck, I could see that the voice had dyed with a tinge of red as several red lines shone in the distance and lit up as if they were neurons.


    The countdown went on for a few more seconds until finally, the number reached-


    [1...]


    My consciousness vanished, and everything turned ck once again.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ***


    *Rumble*


    *Rumble*


    The clouds began to churn as they gathered in one ce while red lightning shot between each cloud, lighting up the forest under it with a shade of crimson.


    The trees danced as the howling winds blew against them as if the sky had be angered.


    A power that had never been felt before radiated for hundreds of miles as if trying to warn the world of what was about to descend upon it. A person... No. A king that stood above every creature in this world. A being that, while not having the power to destroy the world at the moment of his descent, still emanated an aura that would make emperors fall to their knees.


    *Rumble*


    70 Miles away sat a man on his throne as he slowly sipped away at his cup of wine. Hundreds of servants could kneel before him as he continued to sip his drink without a care in the world. His eyes were dimmed with boredom, but they shone after every sip as if the wine satiated his need for excitement in his life.


    Suddenly, the man shot out of his throne, which caused all the servants to stand up, startled by their king''s sudden movement.


    A servant with clothing much more luxurious than all the other servants walked forwards and knelt before the man, his forearm on his knee while his head and gaze remained on the ground unflinchingly, nor daring to move a muscle in front of his king.


    "Your majesty, is something that matter?" The keeling man asked with a sincere and humble tone.


    After a moment of silence, an excited smile appeared on the face of the king as he slowly put his golden crown on properly before his eyes darted towards the kneeling servant.


    "Razior! Take a team of scouts and go south-east until you read the Enchanted forest. Once you reach it, take a few weeks to a month to check most of the area and return with the information you have gained." The king grinned.


    "Understood, your majesty. Is there something you are specifically looking for?" The servant asked in a humble tone.


    "Hmm. I''ve felt a substantial disturbance of mana from the direction. I want you to find out what it was." The kingmanded and caused the rest of the subjects to nod in understanding.


    The kneeling man slowly stood up and finally looked at his king in the eyes with a look of determination.


    "It shall be done. In honor of the beast-kin, I shallplete this task without contingencies." The man boldly stated and vanished from where he stood alongside 20 other servants, an action that caused a strong wind to ruffle the hairs of the remaining servants in the throne room.


    ***


    A powerful beam of crimson light shot to the ground, several red lightning bolts shooting out of it and destroying everything they touched.


    *RUMBLE*


    This time it was not only the sky rumbling but also the ground itself as it could not fully absorb the power behind the red light beam.


    *RUMBLE*


    [1 Immortality token has been sacrificed]


    [Immortality Tokens Remaining: 2]


    The red beam dissipated in the next instant before the clouds exploded in every direction, reaching the vast edges of the sky while leaving the area above me barren and allowing the light of the noon sun to shine down upon the area.


    A figure slowly got onto its feet, not struggling for a moment despite being d in heavy dark ck armor, yet at a second nce, one could quickly tell that the armor was made out of extremely high-quality leather.


    As the figure opened its eyes, they shone with a hint of crimson before dimming to their original dark brown.


    "Gaia..." I finally spoke, a roar leaving my mouth and spreading into the area around me.


    While the void might have soothed me, I was no longer in the void, which allowed my rage to ir out again, this time more violently than it had ever before.


    [Life Drain has been activated]


    [You have met the conditions to unleash your blood energy]


    [You have met the conditions to activate Blood Eyes]


    Blood energy seeped out of my body before enveloping me and expanding rapidly. I watched as several nts around me began to wilt as their life energy slowly seeped out of them and was absorbed into my air.


    "I swear to you, I''ll get my revenge, and when I do, I''ll destroy everything you hold dear!" I bellowed out, my eyes now containing a crimson halo.


    "And after that, I''ll get my revenge on the backstabbing b*tch! I''ll burn down her n right before her eyes and leave her to live with the guilt for the rest of her life!" My expression turned grim while my eyes shed with enough coldness that it could have turned the entirety of the enchanted forest into a frozen tundra.


    [The Immortality system hears your desires]


    [Unique Mission Recieved]


    [Unique mission: Kill earth''s spirit, Gaia]

 Chapter 100 Beastkin

    A few days passed in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, I had already found shelter, a good source of water nearby, and a sustainable amount of animals and beasts nearby that I could kill and eat.


    However, after a few more days of this, I finally chose to create a hut out of wood that I chopped down with my blood ws. While the cuts were not the best, they still did the job, and that''s what mattered.


    I quickly created a bit of furniture with things like a small table, a simple chair, and a futon mattress since those were easier to make than an actual full-blown mattress.


    [Craftsmith has reached level 5


    Sitting down and rxing for what seemed like the first time in a week, I opened my system again before quickly taking a look at the shop


    [Points: 65 395]


    [Stats]


    [Items]


    [Skills]


    [Techniques]


    [Other]


    "Items


    [Items:


    -Reaper des (Psuedo-Astral)(10 000P


    -Phantom me Bow (Peak-Mortal)(5000P


    -Ne of the Dead (Peak-Mortal)(5000P


    -Lightning Staff of Obliteration (High-Mortal)(2500


    -...]


    I continued to read through the contents of the shop, my surprise increasing more and more as I got down to the Mid-Mortal items that only cost about 1250 points, a fraction of the 10000 which the reaper des cost.


    "If only I could convert these points into immortality tokens. It wouldn''t be beneficial whenpleting the three-part mission, but it would have been instrumental in the future. Plus, whyin when I have a couple of extra lives?" I chuckled before finally turning away from the item page and opening another one


    I would go on to spend the remainder of the day trying to find something that suited me, and eventually, I made a few eligible purchases that threw me down a few tens of thousands in points, yet in my opinion, they were more than worth it.


    [You have selected the item; Reaper des]


    [-10 000P]


    [You have selected 10 HP


    [-1000]


    [You have selected 5 MP


    [-500]


    [You have selected item; forcefield


    [-2500]


    [You have selected the passive skill; Spearmanship


    [-5000]


    [You have selected the active skill; sh Step]


    [-1000]


    [You have selected the passive skill; Dagger mastery


    [-5000]


    [You have selected the active skill; Blood sh]


    [-2500]


    [You have selected the active skill; Blood Swipe


    [-1000]


    [Blood ws have reached Level 2]<novelnext></novelnext>


    While I could have chosen to go for a few more items, techniques, skills, or even some of the ''other'' avable things, I still chose not to since I knew that overspending was never a good idea, even if my life would be threatened.


    I continued how I was as the rest of the week vanished before in the blink of an eye. After a week, I chose to take on several other dungeons that all immediately turned into hell-mode dungeons when I entered them, which only served to verify the theory that Gaia was watching my every move.


    Quickly conquering the dungeon, I left within 30 minutes of entering and began to run around the forest in hopes of finding another dungeon, but after a while, my search did not bore any fruit, so I went back to my hut and fell asleep.


    **


    Five days after myst dungeon, I finally saw something light up on my map with a red dot, an indication that there was a dungeon nearby, and by looking at the map, I quickly found the fastest path toward the dungeon


    *Swoosh


    *Thud


    My silhouette appeared before the dungeon portal with a stoic expression on my face. While I had be used to speaking to someone every day without a care in the world, this became my weakness in the past few weeks as I had no one to speak to other than myself.


    This had taken a significant toll on my mental health, and before I knew it, I had regressed back to the person I was before having met nca.


    Sighing after being reminded of the memories between nca and me, I walked into the dungeon and looked around for a few moments before realization hit me.


    "So this is my secondst dungeon..." A cold smirk stretched out from the corners of my lips before a solemn expression remained on my face as I did nothing but look forward and cover myself in mana


    Snow shot from the sky and pierced the winds as if every snowke had been a dagger in disguise. For the moment where my mana hadn''t been covering me, I felt light stings all over my body despite having an elemental earth body that would have made something as insignificant as snowkes, not even itch when hitting my body.


    I had chosen against wearing my armor since I wanted to train myself to dodge, but I still had the armor on standby if I were to enter a situation where I was forced to equip it.


    From my tests so far, my body alone was capable of taking a fully powered hit from an early liquidous stage without receiving a scratch. If I were to have my armor on, I could only imagine what point my defense would reach


    I held my two new reaper des firmly while a wave of killing intent exploded out of me and covered arge portion of the area around me


    "Well, that''s not normal..." I narrowed my eyes as I looked into the distance. Several corpses with blood and guts sttered all over the groundy a few hundred meters away. The blood had begun to fade due to the snow covering it, allowing me to conclude quickly that the corpses were fresh and had died about 10 to 20 minutes ago


    "Someone has been here... And they haven''t gotten very far yet.


    *Snap


    My body disappeared before a snap thundered through the air while the snowkes around me vaporized on the spot


    When I appeared again, steam could be seening off me, but that was the least of my problems


    My eyes narrowed as I looked down at the corpses below me. I could see several gash marks and cuts all over the bodies of the creatures below me, and while I usually would think that my real problem would have been the boss and the people that entered the dungeon, a slight frown appeared on my face as I looked at the creatures they killed


    "Pr bears... Well, pr bears with mana, and these are at least a few times bigger than average pr bearsThe mana crystal in the center of their chest releases mana at the same scale as that lightning leopard. While. While I am more than sure that I can take them on even if there were 3 of them attacking me at the same time, the mini-bosses and the main bosses are on another level on their own." I paused and activated my blood eyes. Instantaneously, red footprints appeared before my eyes as each lit up with different vibrancy. While the older ones were under the snow and were dimmer while the newer ones shone brightly, allowing me to see them even though some trailed for hundreds of meters


    "Human footprints... Or at least footprints that look slightly human." I frowned again, but something became apparent at a second nce


    "ws... Beast-kin huh... Well that exins why hell mode hasn''t activated yet." A sly smile appeared on my face before my body flickered again, steam exploding from where I had been standing before my figure disappeared into the distance.


    **


    "R! We can''t do this anymore! The Blizzard bears are getting to vicious and their nunbers are continuously increasing. If we don''t run-" A man with silver and ck hair pleaded, his cat ears folded back as several wounds gushed out with blood that soaked his coat


    His words got stuck in his throat as he received a re from the woman he was talking to


    "I know, but if we don''t show our worth soon, our life might as well be over!" R hissed back while shing down with her magi-steel de


    "That''s not true!" Another boy shouted as he struggled to stab a spear through the beast before him


    As the beast saw the spear that had stabbed halfway inside its body, it let out a sky-shaking roar that caused all the snow in the area to dissipate for a moment.


    A giant ball of ice mana began to form within the maw of the blizzard bear and in the next second, a silver-blue beam of mana shot towards the boy who had been frozen on the spot.


    "Zyder!" R roared out before she levered on her foot and shot towards Zyder at blurring speeds.


    "Don''t worry..." A voice rang out and before they could understand what had happened, a muscr man with ck hair and a pair of furry cat ears appeared before the beam of ice mana.


    *Boom*


    The man mmed the back of his hand into the beam of ice mana and shot it into the distance.


    "Klive! You''re here?" R asked, causing the man to turn back to her with a smile on his face.


    Klive looked back and took a nce at R with a warm smile.


    "I would never allow you guys to go out and get yourselves killed." Klive replied.

 Chapter 101 Blizzard Bears Encounter

    Klive''s hand flickered, and in the next instant, they all watched as all three bears fell to the ground with holes in their chests where the ice mana crystals would have been.


    "How did you find us?" Asked Zyder, the boy Klive just helped save.


    "Well, it''s pretty easy when following a group of kids who don''t cover up their tracks adequately." Klive scolded, causing all the people around him to lower their gazes.


    After Klive saw this, his expression changed into a weing smile, and he quickly continued, "But you guys are barely 18. It''s okay for you guys to make mistakes because if you make them now, you won''t make them when you''re older. Also, this mistake saved your life, so don''t be too down about it."


    Their expressions immediately lit back up to their original glimmers of excitement.


    One of the other boys, Flemiz, walked up to Klive sternly as he slowly stretched out his hands and spoke with a loud yet shaking voice.


    "Big brother Kilve... Will you help usplete the rest of the dungeon?" The boy asked, causing Klive to switch his attention to the boy before him with an inquisitive gaze.


    After thinking, he scratched his chin and finally said, "No."


    R and Zyder''s expressions dimmed while the boy''s expression lit up.


    "I will only help you guys if your lives are in danger." He continued and immediately made their expression shift for the umpteenth time.


    Fires of determination could be seen within their eyes, gazes that Klive knew well.


    "Then what are we waiting for? Let''s go!" R thrust her first into the air and led her team deeper into the snowyndscape. Seeing this, Kilve could not help but breathe a sigh and simply follow them, but a few secondster, he stopped his movement.


    *Swoosh*


    They all heard the sound of a de cutting through the air, yet when they looked back, they were surprised to see Klive standing still with his de drawn with his back to them.


    "Klive? Is something wrong? Is there another one?" R asked, a slight frown distorting her face.


    A few secondster, Klive finally let his guard down before sheathing his de.


    "Must have been my imagination..." he sighed and turned around before meeting the girl''s gaze.


    "Ow!" R cried out in pain before falling to the ground and holding her forehead with tears in her eyes.


    "Why did you do that?!" She asked, her voice on the brink of breaking.


    "Don''t frown like that. You''ll get wrinkles." Klive replied with his index finger extended and a slight chuckle leaving his mouth.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Meanie!" She cried out, but herints fell on deaf ears as the rest ignored her while choosing to move forward.


    Unbeknownst to them, a pair of ck and crimson eyes were staring at them from a distance with a solemn gaze.


    "Must be fun to have a group of friends like that..." I chuckled to myself in mockery, yet I did not think about it any further. While I could be an a$$hole sometimes, I was not the kind of man who would destroy someone else''s happiness so they could live in the same misery as me. In fact, I would not wish for anyone to live the same life as me, not even on the likes of nca, as doing so would be beyond cruel. However, there are a few exceptions... Exceptions that deserve nothing but cmity in their lives.


    ***


    I continued to watch as the 18-year-old beastkins fought with their lives on the line, and whenever they would brush with death, their knight in shining armor would appear out of thin air and block all the attacks that came at them while killing all the creatures in the way.


    Eventually, however, the three were finally wholly overwhelmed by the sheer power of the mini-boss, a blizzard bear that stood 10 meters in height while weighing above 7 tonnes.


    Due to the disparity in power, the three could do nothing as death approached them, yet before they knew it, their visions blurred, and they had been ced over 300 meters away from the battlefield.


    "Don''t worry about this one. I''ll fight these beasts, and you guys can rx. You''ve all done exceptionally well, and I am proud of you." Klive patted R''s head and nodded at the other two before disappearing again and appearing in front of the Blizzard Bear mini-boss; his fist charged back before being released as a devastating punch.


    *BOOM*


    The punchnded squarely on the bear''s stomach, yet instead of it being flung back like Klive had expected it to, it simply slid back a few meters before beginning to look at the man before it with fierce eyes.


    "Wha-" Klive couldn''t utter a single word and was instantly forced to dodge as a small Blizzard bear attacked him from his right.


    His eyes widened in surprise while a small grunt left his mouth.


    Three long gashes could be seen on Klive''s back as another bear had appeared out of nowhere and attempted to reap his life by shing his back with its ws coated with one of the Blizzard bear''s main techniques.


    "Ice ws... Damnit." Klive grunted and tried to escape the entrapment, but his eyes widened once again, and his body stopped in its ce. Dozens... No. Hundreds of Blizzard bears began to appear out of the snow storm that blocked everyone''s vision, yet one thing was visible to everyone in the snowy ce.


    "T-Their leader... Why is it here? It isn''t supposed to leave itsir! How is this possible!" Klive could not help but cry out, fear and dread seeping into his mind as images of the other kids being caught up in this mess shed.


    Gritting his teeth, he slowly tried to retreat but quickly found out that there were bears behind him too, growling at him as saliva trickled out of their maws.


    They looked at him as if he was nothing but a piece of meat for them to consume, which he indeed was from their point of view.


    "You''ve gotten yourself in quite the situation haven''t you?" Klive''s ears perked up at the voice of an unknown figure. The voice rang out over the snowy nes and reached the ears of almost every creature in a mile radius despite it sounding as if the person hadn''t raised their voice at all.

 Chapter 102 Domination

    "You''ve gotten yourself in quite the situation haven''t you?" Klive''s ears perked up at the voice of an unknown figure. The voice rang out over the snowy nes and reached the ears of almost every creature in a mile radius despite it sounding as if the person hadn''t raised their voice at all.


    The Blizzard bears also paused where they stood and looked towards the direction the voice hade from, yet their eyes only widened in surprise after they looked at the figure.


    I stood tall before all of them, a bloodthirsty aura constantly emanating out of my body, but in reality, what shook them to their core had been my cultivation level of a peak ethereal being.


    "What are you doing! Run and get help! I can hold them off for a bit, you take the other kids along with you and call for back up!" Klive roared out, a semnce of hope flickering in his eyes as he said those words.


    "Run?" I asked coldly, not even trying to pull an expression of mockery or anger at his words. It all seemed a little... below me.


    "Quick!" Klive roared again and began to concentrate mana between his fingers.


    Surges of mana formed between both of his index fingers, and in the next second, lightning began to crackle between them.


    ''A lightning affinity?'' I mused but still chose not to move from where I stood. I wanted to watch this from start to finish, but something told me it wouldn''t go on for very long.


    ''ording to our cultivations, those kids over there are stronger than me by an entire stage, yet he still chose to ask me to help them. Maybe he can detect my power? No, what am I thinking? If that was the case, he would have already realized...'' My eyes narrowed towards the beastkin that stood in the middle of a horde of beasts.


    In the next instant, I watched as silver lightning shot out of him in every direction, immediately burning down several corpses and leaving nothing but their ashes as remains. Simultaneously, Klive quickly used thest of his lightning and directed it towards the mini-boss, yet to his dismay, the mini-boss was already ready to counter-attack.


    Releasing an enormous beam of silverish-cyan mana, Klive could only watch as the beam of ice mana swallowed his lightning attack whole while destroying everything in its path and closing the distance between them in a matter of seconds.


    "You''re telling me to run while you can barely handle this little bear by yourself." Imented while stepping forward.


    [You have activated sh-step]


    My body vanished; before anyone could realize it, I was already in front of the beam of ice mana with blood ws coating my hands.


    "Blood swipe." I muttered under my breath.


    Swiping up, give distinct lines of blood energy appeared in front of me and instantly ripped through the ice beam before-


    *Shing*


    Klive watched in shock as the mini-boss he struggled against fell and turned into five different pieces, each one cleanly cut as blood gushed out of them and stained the snow below.


    "Now... Which one of you wants to y?" I asked before turning my head to the sky with a devilish grin.


    "What, have you lost your wits. Gaia the almighty doesn''t dare intervene in mortal matters?" I chuckled.


    [Outside intervention detected]


    [Hell-Mode has been activated]


    A grin stretched up from the corner of my lips.


    The sky was immediately dyed with a tinge of red while the snow slowly but surely started to be pink in color. Everyone realized what had just happened, and all those who could form proper thoughts looked at me as if I were a monster.


    ''This means I''ll get more points. I don''t have a shortage of immortality points, but I am confident that I will need them in the future.''<novelnext></novelnext>


    Taking out my reaper des, I brandished my des and pointed one of them at the main boss.


    "Are you not going to go berserk, or is Gaia waiting for the right moment again?" I asked with an innocent smile.


    *ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAR*


    [Peak Liquidous stage Blizzard bear has gone berserk]


    My grin widened and became slightly more vicious. At the same time, I watched as hundreds of bears lunged toward Klive and me at blurring speeds, yet to my blood eyes, their speeds wereparable to an ant''s.


    [Earth control activated]


    [-50 mana]


    A cyclone of mana appeared around me, but in the next instant, everything seemed to pause.


    The word itself became silent while every movement would have boomed through the air and would have been heard by everyone


    *Rumble*


    As if marking the calm before the storm, the silence disappeared as rumbles of great magnitude shook the very earth we stood on. Without pause, hundreds of spikes shot out of the ground and pierced through the bears'' bodies, yet as if that was not enough destruction for one attack, an earth spear formed in front of the de that I was using to point at the main boss.


    *p*


    The wind snapped and pped onto itself, shooting through the air and appearing in front of the boss in less than a second.


    Seeing this, the boss opened its maw and let out a frightening beam of ice mana that destroyed the spear in one go, yet that was all a part of my n from the start.


    That attack was nothing but a diversion.


    The main boss''s ears twitched, and its head immediately moved and looked to the right.


    "Over here..." I whispered, yet before the bear reacted to my sudden ambush, it felt pain surge from its left side.


    *ROAR*


    I did not let it recover and instantly used sh step to appear at its left. shing down, arge arch created out of blood energy shot out and pierced through the air. The moment the arch touched it, another roar resounded in the area, yet even then, I did not choose to slow down my attacks.


    [Pinpoint has been activated]


    Using sh step, I appeared in front of it, my two des held high as I shed down for the final time.


    *SSHHHhhhhhiiiing*


    My two des cut diagonally, and before the bear could understand what hit it, it already had two arches of blood energy carved through it, killing it on the spot and simultaneously absorbing the rest of its life energy through my life drain ability.

 Chapter 103 The Lesson

    [You have killed the dungeon boss]


    [Dungeonpletion rewards:


    -200 Immortality Points


    -King Blizzard Bear''s heart


    ? Hell-mode rewards: -


    -2000 Immortality Points


    Berserk Rewards: -


    -200 Immortality points]


    Looking at the screen in front of me, I could not help but frown slightly while scratching my chin.


    Stretching out my hand, I opened my palm and waited, and a few secondster, I watched as something fell onto it.


    I was slightly surprised that the heart didn''t stain my hand with blood, but after thinking back to how strong the system was and everything it could do, I could not help but sigh and use appraisal.


    [King Blizzard Bear''s heart: The heart of a King Blizzard Bear has a 33% chance of giving the consumer an ice affinity. The chance increased to 66% if the consumer has a water affinity.]


    "I see..."


    However, before I could try and consume it right off the bat, I heard a shaky voice enter my ears from behind me.


    "W-Who are you! Are you an Elf?"


    Rage shed in my face for a split second, but I quickly neutralized my expression and looked back with a gaze much colder than our environment.


    "Do I look like an elf?" I asked, my could voice echoing in the snowyndscape. However, to my surprise, the man in front of me did not look fazed in the least and instead stood in his ce with a dark expression and killing intent seeping out of his body.


    "It doesn''t matter what you-"


    "Didn''t you see me just save you? And this is how a member of the beast kin race repays me... How sad." I cut him off, yet unlike my words which indicated that I was disappointed by his actions, my voice and gaze gave a whole new meaning to my words.


    Indirectly, I was telling him to retract his aura and leave before I would kill him, and Klive knew that too.


    "How can I make sure that you won''t attack us?" Asked Klive.


    Yet, before I could answer, I felt three individuals dash towards me from the side while one of their voices rang out in both Klive and my ears.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Don''t touch my big brother Klive!" One of them shouted and dashed towards me with a spear held tightly in his grip as he thrust it forward.


    "Zyder, don''t!" Klive roared out, but it was toote.


    Zyder''s spear was right next to my neck, and with the snap of my wrist, it was obliterated instantly.


    Zyder could only look at the splinters of his spear as they flew into the air, yet before he could attempt to stop his momentum, he saw a hand reach toward his face with a malicious red aura surrounding it.


    "NOOOOOO!" Klive roared and tried to lung forward in time, but before he could get a fraction closer, my hand had already appeared in front of the boy''s face. At the same time, my ws were spread out wide so they could encapste the boy''s head within them, making it very easy for me to close my hand into a fist and snuff the life out of him.


    Zyder slowly shut his eyelids and waited for his end. Memories of his life shed before his eyes, yet all he could do now was regret his decisions, but the sharp pain he was waiting for never came.


    "Don''t be stupid." My voice entered his ears, making him hesitantly open his eyes, hoping that his head was still intact with the rest of his body.


    "If I wanted to kill you, nothing would have stopped me, not even your big brother, who was shaking in his boots." I pointed at Klive, who was on the verge of crying; his knees had buckled under the sudden relief he felt when Zyder''s head hadn''t exploded into a million pieces.


    "Your two as well, while you might not be as stupid as this one-" I retracted my crimson ethereal ws back into my skin and pointed at Zyder.


    "-You two should have started to run already, as only then would you have had a chance at surviving in hopes that I can''t see through the snow storm." I exined, causing her tear-filled face of R to look down at the snow-filled ground while the other red at me with contempt.


    [You have activated sh-step]


    Appearing in front of the boy looking at me with contempt-filled eyes, I watched him retreat in fear before his back finally hit the wall of the crevis that Klive had put them in.


    "I-I''m sorry." The boy apologized while his legs began to shake. I could see the fear in his eyes, yet instead of saying anything else, I disappeared once more before appearing in front of Klive.


    "How hurt are you?" I asked him, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise. It wasn''t that there hadn''t been people of other races helping beastkin out or that there was some kind of hatred between each race; it was just that he didn''t expect someone who released such an aura to help him so casually.


    "Not too injured-" Klive tried to stand up, but his knees buckled again and caused him to fall to the ground while grimacing in pain.


    "You were saying?" I asked, my cold expression not fading in the least.


    "Okay, I''ll need a little bit of help..." He replied, his face now a shade of red due to the embarrassment he felt after trying to act tough in front of his ''little siblings.''


    I knew from a single nce that they weren''t rted, and for some reason, I felt my blood eyes tell me the same thing as if I would somehow know who was rted and who was not by taking a single nce at them.


    Ignoring this weird feeling, I got up and stretched out a hand for Klive to grab and use as support, and after a few moments of hesitation that I also chose to ignore, he grabbed onto my hand and pulled himself up with an expression filled with pain.


    [You shall be ejected out of the dungeon in 3 minutes...]

 Chapter 104 The Offer

    [You shall be ejected out of the dungeon in 3 minutes...]


    "You three!" Klive called out, causing them to snap toward him in worry.


    "Quickly take all the corpses. The dungeon will close soon, so make it quick!" He shouted, making them widen their eyes before they began to panic while running around and grabbing everything on their way. I could see slight spacial distortion when they touched the corpses of the bears, and my eyes widened a second after I watched the bears turn into particles before entering the ring on their fingers.


    "A spacial ring?" I asked aloud by ident, unaware I had spoken loud enough to catch Klive''s attention.


    "Yes, do you not have one?" He asked with a raised eyes brow.


    Hearing his question, I narrowed my eyes before making the most logical answer within my mind. A secondter, I replied with-


    "Well, sort of..." And a secondter, I appeared in front of the mini-boss and the main boss before touching their forehead and absorbing them into my inventory. I still had only 4 spots in my inventory, but my spear and Reaper des only took the ''Main weapon'' and ''Secondary weapon'' spots, therefore making it, so they didn''t take any of my precious four inventory spots.


    Klive raised a brow after seeing that I didn''t have a spacial ring, but after a second nce, he shrugged and assumed I had another item that worked the same way as a spacial ring, unlike nca, who had assumed I had a spacial affinity the first time I met her.


    A few minutes passed, and I stood there silently, pondering on 6 things simultaneously while making several calctions that depended on my knowledge of this world.


    While a part of my mind was wondering if I had identally left the firece burning, another part was wondering how long it would take to move from the dungeon portal to my home. However, the other 4/6 of my brain was thinking about my recent encounter.


    Recently, I had seen a lot of movement in the forest, something I could discern from all the beasts and wild animals running away from the center of the forest at their highest speed. I didn''t think much of it at first, but now that I thought back on the encounters, one thing started to make sense.


    ''I''m at the end of the forest since it takes me about 2 to 3 days to reach the areas where the beasts reach the average strength of a liquidous rank and above. it would only make sense for a civilization to be created in or near a forest since they would have the ability to capitalize on the natural recoursed of the forest right next to them.''


    After a minute of everyone trying to make small talk with me, they all gave up. All I would do was reply with one-word answers, and while they might have thought that I didn''t like talking to them, in reality, I just found it a little hard to talk to them. These were people who talked to others of their age every day for thest few years of their lives, and to someone like me who hasn''t spoken openly to anyone but nca in thest 8 months, I could not help but struggle.


    The struggle became more apparent after I felt my hesitance when trying to speak to them. My voice would have be cold and uncaring if notced with hatred. Speaking to them reminded me of the betrayal I had suffered and made my blood boil, but even if I wanted tosh out because of my anger, I chose not to for one simple reason.


    No matter how much I suffered, I didn''t want others who had done nothing wrong to suffer with me.


    [You shall be ejected in 30 seconds]


    Looking down at the girl who was happily conversing with the other three boys, Klive included, I could not help but raise a brow. I couldn''t understand the reason, but I felt like she was special and was, for some odd reason, hiding her true capabilities.


    When she had seen Zyder almost die, all she did was look down and cover her eyes while sobbing endlessly, something that only made me more suspicious of the feeling I got from her.


    It wasn''t a feeling of threat, no... I knew that I could easily kill her if I wanted, and due to having lived around only beasts for the majority of thest year, my senses had been honed to the degree that not even nca would have the capability of rivaling.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Countless theories flowed in and out of my mind, but one of them stood out more than the rest.


    ''She has a hidden bloodline... nca-'' My thoughts paused for a moment before I inhaled a deep breath and continued- ''would have been capable of making a rune formation to find out what the hidden bloodline was. She tried it on me once, but all she saw was the trace of the abomination bloodline that I had absorbed from the abomination she defeated.''


    ''The thing is, I will need to learn how to use tier 4 runes, and now that I don''t have anyone to help me learn runic formations, I''m still struggling to try to learn tier 3 runes, let alone actually constructing a formation out of them.''


    [You are being ejected]


    As we all felt the spacial pull, the 4 beastkin held each other tightly for reasons I could not understand, but a few secondster, my vision shifted into a colorful blur before I had once again appeared in front of a now fluctuating portal.


    [You have left the Blizzard dungeon]


    A few secondster, I saw a group of four appear beside me, making me shift my faze towards them with a raised eyebrow.


    *Ching*


    The portal became unstable and finally shattered into a million pieces.


    As they stood up, they looked at me with shocked yet grateful smiles that I could understand from a mile away.


    "You seem to be well." Klive smiled.


    "Yeah, why?" I asked, perplexed by their shocked expression.


    "Well, it''s not every day that you see someone capable of entering a spacial tunnel without feeling unwell. You must be quite used to the feeling." Heughed.


    "Oh that?" I raised a brow and quickly lost interest.


    "Hey, how about this." Klive waved at me toe closer, but instead of doing so, I looked at him with a side nce causing him to sigh in defeat.


    "While the other three aren''t well known, I am one of the best up-anding assassins in the city. I don''t assassinate, but my abilities all point towards me being an agile warrior who could kill people with a single attack which makes me very sought after when conquering dungeons." He exined, but I could not help but feel like he was gloating.


    "So, I have the permission to bring anyone into the city with me no matter what race they are from, and since you have saved our lives today, I''d like to ask you one question. Would you like toe with us and stay in our city with us for a few weeks?" He asked, causing the other two to open their mouths in shock.

 Chapter 105 Monster

    Seeing his hand extending toward me, I slightly widened my eyes. It was not that I didn''t expect the offer; it was just that his words before had surprised me slightly.


    ''So they don''t have many assassins... Seems like I''ll fit in quite well.'' A sinister smile threatened to break out from the corner of my lips.


    "I ept." I replied after a few seconds of ''pondering.''


    "Good, then let''s get going." Klive waved for me to follow him, and after a few seconds of looking at him unflinchingly, I smiled and followed him.


    The rest of the ''children'' were still in their shocked states. I didn''t know why I kept thinking of them as children, yet in my eyes, they were nothing but that. Newbies who were green to the world''s infinite cruelty.


    We walked through the forest inplete silence. While the children didn''t dare talk to me, Klive attempted to speak to me numerous times, yet all he got in return for his endeavors were slight nods and short one-word answers. He didn''t take it personally, however, as he could understand that I wasn''t being cold on purpose but, in reality, was just feeling extremely awkward to the point where answering with short answers was the best thing I could.


    At the same time, I felt as if talking to him was a waste of both our time, something that only furthered the tension between our group and made our long walk even quieter.


    After 20 minutes of walking, I suddenly stopped and looked in a specific direction while stretching out my arm and stopping the rest from moving forward.


    "What is it?" Klive asked, yet despite his whisper, he looked rxed, and so did the children.


    I rose an eyebrow at this scene but did notment. Everyone had their secrets, so I did not find it strange for beastkin to not be afraid of beasts. For all I knew, they might even have the ability to talk to beasts.


    "I can feel someone watching us..." I muttered and activated blood eyes.


    In the next instant, my eyes darted towards the trees around us, and from what I could see, we were surrounded by a pack of wind wolves, all at the gaseous stage while their alpha was in the liquidous stage.


    "We should be fine. It''s just a pack of wind wolves." I shrugged while the others looked at each other with strange gazes.


    Taking a step forward, I felt a hand hold onto my shoulder, making me look back with a curious gaze. I saw the worried eyes of Klive and the strange gazes I got from the children, but I quickly chose to ignore them while waiting for Klive to say something.


    "I can try to calm them down. There is no need for you to kill them." He stated and walked in front of me. I didn''t really care since I couldn''t get any exp from the wolves, but if I could, I would have 100% killed them all before Klive, and the others could react.


    Klive moved forward and started to talk to them. I was shocked not because I didn''t expect it but because I was thinking about that being his ability from the start.


    A strange expression appeared on Klive''s face as he heard what the wind wolves were saying, while the rest of the wolves growled at me while showing off their sharp teeth.


    After a while of discussing, one of them finally lost control and dashed towards the children and me, yet before it could get any closer, its eyes met mine.


    *DOOM*


    It could feel death looming over it. It could feel a dread that no sane being would be capable of withstanding. It whimpered back in fear, its eyes shaking while its body constantly shuddered as if it was having a seizure.


    There was a natural difference in strength in the wild, and it was not one of strength but of race and bloodline. No matter how strong those of a lower bloodline were, they would never be able to beat someone of a higher bloodline without breaking their limits, and this was especially the case when it came to their natural predators.


    However, one thing was different about me. I was not a wild animal; I was a human... A race that had the capability of fighting against anything and everything and still finding a way to survive. A race so durable that despite its previous weak physiques, it had the power to rise to the top of the food chain and even create weapons with the ability to wipe out all life on Earth.


    This was the power of humanity, and at that moment, a human that has been ssified as a true awakened human stood in front of the wind wolf. This was no longer a battle of strength but a battle of bloodlines and predators, and since humanity was the natural predator of every species that lived on Earth back in my era, there was no way the wind wolf would have the ability to fight against me.


    A pressure descended upon the wind wolf, the pressure of a killing intent carved and constructed out of all of the lives I took to get to where I was.


    Before the wind wolf could understand what hit it, its head fell to the ground, and its eyes became lifeless.


    Standing beside it with my reaper des drawn, I quickly absorbed its life energy while destroying its head under my foot.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Anyone else?" I asked, my eyes cutting through the air andnding upon the gaze of the alpha wind wolf.


    I could see it shudder under my gaze, yet due to its subordinates standing right behind it, it forced itself to stand up tall and prideful, yet it chose to not move forward no matter what since it knew doing so would mean instant death.


    "Let''s go..." My cold voice shot the children and Klive out of their stupor, and immediately, we began to walk in the other direction.


    Looking into the eyes of the children, I could see traces of fear within them despite technically having just saved their lives. However, I did not care for their gazes, as those were the least of my worries.


    I was trying to think of what I should say when asked the question of the race Ie from. I could say I''m an elf, but those who have seen elves would instantly recognize me as not being one of them.


    Elves were a race of primarily slim people. While some were ripped, they were always on the lean side of the scale. From the information I gathered from nca, while the elves might have been slim and tall, the dwarves were the opposite.


    Dwarves had human-like ears, but what truly differentiated them from the human race was that they would have been considered extremely short, most of them sitting around the 4ft 10 to 5ft 2 range, if not lower. Of course, there were still those who stood over 5 and a half feet tall, but they were a small number of people, the king of the dwarven empire being one of them.


    However, even if I were to say that I was a dwarf, they would not believe me either. I had slightly slimmed down after being killed for the third time, but I still did not lose any of my strength. I could only guess that the slimming down was brought about due to my evolver trait that made my body more and more suitable for my battle style every time I died.


    After dying, I could feel that my martial arts had be a lot more fluid while the muscles responsible for the actions had be firmer and tighter to the skin.


    The thing was that despite that, I was not tanned enough to casually state that I was a dwarf. Dwarves were known for their tanned skin, strong muscles, and short stature, yet I seemed to only have the robust muscles part of their physiques.


    Finally, an idea hit me, but I was not too sure of it.


    ''If horses and donkeys can reproduce, why can''t elves and dwarves. They are basically from the same family line. Hell, even tigers and lions can reproduce; why wouldn''t elves and dwarves have to ability to do so?''


    With that thought in mind, I created a n far from wless but sufficient enough for me to live in the beastkin civilization for a while.


    I could see several beastkin running around a few miles away with my blood eyes. It was at the limit of my blood eyes sight, but it was more than sufficient for what I was currently doing. Also, my range of sight and mana usage increased due to my blood eyes having been upgraded.


    With such a thing under my sleeve, I could see for almost several miles if I were to strain my eyes a little.


    "There are a few people up ahead." I stated nonchntly, but Klvie raised a brow at this. No matter what race I came from or how powerful I was, beastkin were known for their sensory abilities and capabilities of feeling everything around them, some of their most potent capable of feeling everything within several dozen miles without a hitch.


    I walked with the rest of them for several minutes, some of the children taking nces at Klive as if trying to verify my words. After a few more minutes, Klive frowned and said-


    "I don''t feel any-" He paused and widened his eyes in shock.


    "Impossible... How!" He looked at me withplete shock as I simply walked in front of them without a care in the world.


    Someone had just entered his detection range, and they were far over a mile away. In fact, the only reason Klive could even feel them was that they were iling their aura wildly without care, allowing him to feel them from much further away than he would generally be capable of doing.


    Looking at me, he only had one question running through his mind.


    ''What kind of monster did I bring with me?'' He asked himself, a trace of worry in his eyes as he remembered a scene in the blizzard dungeon.


    The scene of him shing with his de after feeling something behind him, but after finding out he had shed nothing while there was no one in sight, he retracted his de and sheathed it again.


    ''Was that him? Oh no... What have I done?''

 Chapter 106 Meeting With The King Of The Beastkin

    Seeing one of the beastkine closer and eventually, he felt our auras and came closer. Eventually, hended right in front of us, causing the rest of the beastkin to widen their eyes, halt their steps, and salute with resolute expressions.


    The man looked at us coldly, yet his gaze grew colder when itnded on me.


    "Sir!" They all shouted from behind me, causing me to look back with a tinge of surprise.


    "Sir?" I asked, my eyes narrowed down on the man in front of us.


    "Salute. He is a general from the army." Klive whispered, making me crack a smile in amusement.


    ''I wonder how strong he is. I can''t really specify precisely how strong he is from my blood eyes alone, but I can understand that he is a little stronger than me and much stronger than Klive. However, maybe with my experience with life and death fights, I will have the capabilities to fight back against this monster.''


    "Do you have no respect? Salute!" The man sneered his teeth, but I continued to look at him with amusement.


    "You first." I retorted an action that caused his expression to be grimmer.


    "What did you just-" The man paused as suddenly, a man appeared behind him, and a figure held him back.


    Seeing this figure, I knew I would have no chance against it. It was far too fast for my vision, and I could do nothing but watch as he appeared behind him.


    The man looked back with a surprised expression, but his expression instantly turned into terror when he was the smiling face of a well-known man.


    "Head general... What are you doing here?" He asked with a shaky voice.


    "Its better if you leave for now." He nodded and quickly nced at me.


    I could feel a mighty pressure fall on me, yet since it was not followed by dread, I did not move a muscle and knew he wouldn''t attack me.


    "That boy, he might not seem like it because of his low cultivation, but he is much stronger than you." The man whispered with a voice I could not hear from where I stood.


    The man looked at the head general with shock but did not dare question his words. In an instant, he disappeared from seeing everyone but the head general and me.


    My eyes followed him for a few seconds before I eventually lost interest and looked at the head general again. My disinterested gaze was not missed by the head general, causing him to crack a small smile as he looked into my eyes, the pressure he released increasing my manifolds by the second, yet despite that, my posture did not falter.


    It was nothingpared to the dread I felt standing in front of that elf. It was nothingpared to the dread I felt when standing in front of Gaia too.


    "You may enter our city. I will not ask for your origins, but our king wants to meet you..." The head general stated, instantly making my eyes narrow with skepticism. Catching the king''s attention was never a good thing, and when it came to this situation, it could have been considered the worst possible oue.


    "Why does he want to meet me?" I asked while not trying to hide my skepticism and distrust.


    "Well, he felt you enter the forest, so he wanted to meet the person who created such amotion. And now that I can see that you are nearly unaffected by my aura, I can only guess that you are the reason.


    "Alright sure..." I shrugged nonchntly and followed the man without care for my safety. Of course, I was making sure to keep my guard up. Dying right now would be detrimental not only to my life but also to my mission. Dying would mean I was one step closer to death, and something like that would mean I would not be able to get my revenge.


    My two des were left unsheathed, and my gaze remained on the person''s back. Klive and the other three also chose to follow us since it was the safest route, especially since there was a head general with them now, meaning no beast would dare and attack one of them because it would mean instant death, not that it didn''t mean instant death when I was around.<novelnext></novelnext>


    We walked for several minutes, and when the walk started reaching the half-hour threshold, we finally stooped in front of a towering wall that reached the skies. I could barely see the end from the angle we stood at, and since there were several trees in the way before, I couldn''t see it without using blood.


    Since blood eyes would take a lot of mana to activate repeatedly, I chose to not activate it for something as simple as looking at a wall and satisfying my curiosity.


    Walking past the wall, the head general shed a badge at the men who guarded the gates and didn''t even take a nce at them. I walked right past, and even though it seemed they wanted to stop me, the head general released his aura and froze them on the spot, allowing me to walk past without verbal interaction.


    We kept walking, my eyes scanning everything around me with a curious gaze.


    Houses, while not looking as modern as any of the human buildings as skyscrapers, they still looked efficient.


    None of them were made out of brick, and none looked like they needed to be renewed, meaning they mainly looked intact and not like they were about to fall apart.


    People looked happy as familiesughed with their children and grandparents. Everyone had smiles on their faces, and none of them looked downcast.


    I could not see a single ''poor'' person or a single beggar on the street. While this might have meant that the government was sweeping them out of them off the streets, I doubted that this was the case. Even we humans had a problem with homelessness, poverty, and the gap between the low and high ss only grew over the years while the political spectrum became wider and wider. Yet here, all I could see were happy people who lived every second of their lives to the fullest.


    ''This is how life should be lived.'' I smiled and looked at some of the children ying a game that involved shing stones together by throwing one from a distance to trying to hit one on the ground.


    These children were beastkin, and even though it shouldn''t have been much of a surprise, I still found it slightly weird for children younger than my sister used to be to throw rocks and hit something over 50 meters away.


    I looked away after a few seconds, and my gazended on two children sparring with wooden swords, determined gazes shing as a little girl, less than 9 years old yet slightly older than the two of them, looked at the battle with flushed cheeks. I could already understand what was happening since I saw a scene like this back on Earth, but I still could not help but smile at their antics.


    The head general saw my smile and gazed at what I was looking at before widening his eyes in surprise.


    "Do you have siblings?" He asked, talking to me properly for the first time since I met him.


    An expression of pain washed over my face, something that did not go unnoticed by the analyzing gaze of the head general. He immediately concluded what that expression meant, and his eyes dropped onto the floor as pity filled his eyes.


    "I did..." I replied with a warm smile, and my gaze pointed towards the sky.


    "Sorry..." He replied with a solemn atmosphere looming over his head.


    "I also lost my little brother when I was just a child. I know the pain you are feeling, but you are taking it much better than I did when I was your age." He exined, making me look at him with a raised brow.


    "I doubt that..." I replied, rage flickering within my eyes for a split second while a killing intent was on the brink of washing over everyone in the area.


    "I see... revenge isn''t always the right choice." They exined, but at that point, I had stopped listening. My resolve had already been steeled, and my mind had been morphed towards only thinking of one oue. It was either my death or the massacring of every elf on this, if not in the universe.


    After a few more moments, I felt a nudge from Klive, making me look back with an inquisitive gaze.


    "what is it?" I asked.


    "We are going to go home. When you finish your talk with the..." He paused, and his hand shook slightly- "With the king... Come to the Flexter household and tell them that I invited you." He smiled wryly and quickly left without waiting for my answer.


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