Chapter 41: Soul Realm

With a determined expression, Aaron pushed through the lingering pain in his ribs and continued rushing across the seemingly endless stretch of rocky terrain.

His feet pounded against the uneven surface as he hurriedly climbed the shorter hills and leaped over clusters of jagged stones. Their sharp, protruding edges threatened to tear into his flesh, but he skillfully maneuvered around them, never once allowing himself to slow down.

He continued running and climbing for over five minutes before abruptly coming to a halt.

There were no more hills or jagged stones ahead of him.

He had successfully navigated his way through them, but what awaited him beyond was far worse.

Nothing.

Aaron stared into the seemingly endless darkness before him.

It was an incredibly thick darkness, so dense that his eyes couldn’t penetrate even the slightest distance into it.

But that wasn’t all.

Beyond the darkness was an enormous empty space, stretching so far that he couldn’t make out where it ended.

For a moment, it almost seemed as though he had arrived at the edge of a towering cliff.

’No.’

His brows furrowed.

That wasn’t right.

Aaron slowly turned around, his expression growing increasingly focused as he examined his surroundings.

He wasn’t standing on a cliff.

He was standing on the head of a colossal, unmoving giant!

The hills and jagged stones he had been running across weren’t hills at all. They were the enormous, spiky hairs covering the head of a gigantic stone colossus!

Aaron stared for a moment before releasing a tired sigh.

He finally understood where he was.

’Why the hell would the Sorcery drop me here?’

If he weren’t a reincarnate, this would have been an instant death sentence.

He had somehow skipped several floors and ended up on the very last one. Worse still, he couldn’t simply proceed with the dungeon without going through the previous floors.

It was like playing a game and somehow skipping all the introductory stages, only to find yourself standing directly in front of the final boss without having completed a single side quest or defeated any of its minions.

Winning such a game was practically impossible.

Aaron lazily scratched his cheek.

Standing at the edge of the Stone Giant’s head, he lowered his gaze and peered into the bottomless darkness beneath its enormous nose.

The sheer size of the Colossus was daunting.

He could barely make out its head and the upper portion of its nose. Everything beyond that disappeared into the impenetrable darkness below.

He was currently on the fifth floor.

The final floor.

Beyond it was supposed to be the safe zone, signifying the completion of the dungeon.

He was supposed to begin his journey from the first floor, gradually making his way through each subsequent level until he reached the fifth.

Instead, the dungeon had thrown him straight into the final stage.

It was diabolical.

Almost too diabolical to be a coincidence.

In fact, if he weren’t a reincarnate with prior knowledge of the dungeon, he would probably have already been dead.

There was a very good chance that his movements would accidentally awaken the sleeping Colossus beneath him. And once that happened, the enormous stone giant would probably crush him like an insignificant bug.

It would be a swift death, one he wouldn’t even have time to anticipate.

’What a wonderful place to start.’

With another exhausted sigh, Aaron lowered himself onto one knee and squinted into the darkness, desperately trying to make out what lay beneath him.

There was only one way to return to the first floor and progress through the dungeon in the proper order.

It was an alternative he had never imagined he would find himself considering, but he had little choice.

He had to jump.

He needed to leap off the towering Colossus and descend into the darkness, somehow finding his way to the first floor.

The problem was that he had absolutely no assurance of surviving the fall.

His body instinctively shuddered.

’How the hell am I supposed to survive a fall like that?’

Aaron remained silent for a moment before finally releasing a resigned sigh.

Perhaps it was time to check his actual abilities.

He summoned his system, expecting a familiar transparent screen to appear before him. More importantly, he was hoping to discover an ability that could grant him flight or, at the very least, levitation.

However, something unexpected happened.

No screen appeared.

Instead, he felt his consciousness being drawn inward, as though an invisible force had suddenly reached into his very soul.

Before he could react, his surroundings blurred.

And in less than two seconds, he found himself standing in an entirely different space.

’Huh?’

A warm, familiar voice suddenly whispered into his ears.

[Congratulations, Aaron. You have met the requirements to become an Awakened Being.]

Aaron blinked.

That was the voice of the system.

The voice of Zagadat’s Sorcery.

Before he could properly process what was happening, the familiar voice continued.

[Your Nature is one coveted by Gods.]

Aaron chuckled quietly to himself and glanced around.

He was standing in the middle of an incredibly vast, tranquil sea.

Strangely, despite standing directly on its surface, his feet weren’t sinking. The calm waters stretched endlessly in every direction, reflecting a gentle golden radiance that illuminated the surrounding space.

The entire scenery was strangely beautiful.

It almost felt magical.

Beginning to piece things together, Aaron raised an eyebrow.

’I hope having something the Gods covet is a good thing. I really don’t want a bunch of Gods coming after me.’

He lifted his head.

Above him was an enormous, dark sky adorned with thousands, perhaps even millions, of tiny golden stars. They shimmered faintly against the darkness, creating a breathtaking contrast with the golden sea beneath his feet.

Aaron instinctively understood where he was.

His Soul Realm.

Ordinarily, he shouldn’t have been able to enter this place until he had completed the dungeon.

He hadn’t accumulated nearly enough kill counts to gain access to his soul, yet somehow, the sheer level of his supposedly extraordinary Nature had allowed him to bypass that restriction.

’So, this is what my Soul Realm looks like.’

At that moment, Zagadat’s familiar voice whispered once again.

[You are bound to be all powerful, as long as you avoid the children of chaos]

Aaron’s eyebrows shot up.

’Children of Chaos?’