Chapter 63: Night (2)

Leon sank into the water, submerging himself up to his chin. He let out a long, shuddering groan of pure bliss. The heat immediately soaked into his hyper dense muscles, the rich ambient mana of the water actively massaging the phantom aches of his twelve-hour slaughter through Sector 4. For the first time in days, the tension coiled tightly along his spine finally began to unwind.

He rested his head back against a smooth stone, staring up at the steam rising toward the wooden ceiling.

"System," Leon whispered. "Panel."

The familiar blue interface materialized in the air above the water, its soft glow rippling faintly against the surface.

[Current Cycle: Day 24]

[Time Remaining: 76 Days]

Twenty four days. It felt like a lifetime had passed since he woke up in the grass outside Novice Village #0048. He shifted his gaze to his newly updated status sheet.

[Status]

Name: Leon Wes

Role: Support

Level: 57 (120,000 / 350,000 EXP)

Rank: Adept

Title: The Vanguard of Humanity (Mythic)

Title: Lord of All Dragons (Mythic)

[Attributes]

STR: 145

AGI: 150

CON: 165

INT: 195

Stat Points: 0

[Role Talent]

Aura of the Undying (SS)

[Active Skills]

Arcane Requiem (Lvl. 57, Gold), Verlimon’s Judgment (Lvl. 57, Platinum), Wraith-Step (Lvl. 57, Platinum), Aegis of the Void (Lvl. 57, Diamond), Sovereign’s Eclipse (Lvl. 57, Transcendent)

[Acquired Talents]

Hellfire Howl (A), Sovereign’s Edict (A), Obsidian Carapace (B - Kinetic Resonance), Gorgon’s Decree (B), Domain of the Dead (B), Storm-Strider (B), Quillcore Projectile (D)

[Inventory & Equipment]

Blade of the Dragon God (Mythic), The Sovereign’s Mantle (Platinum - Light Refraction), Pendant of the Undying Ember (Artifact), Band of Deflection, Flawless Sapphire Dragon Scale (Mythic Material), Aether-Lightning Core, Spatial Disruptor Core, Abyssal Blueprint (Mythic), Millions of Eternal Coins

[Extra]

Evolution Points: 50

Stored Fragments: Lingering Curse (5), Storm-Bringer (15)

[Bonded Beast]

Name: Auris, the Glacial Sovereign

Rank: Adept

Level: 57

Talents: Absolute Zero Breath (S), Glacial Aegis (A), Void-Piercer Wings (A)

Having an Adept-tier High-Dragon tethered to his very soul was an overwhelming tactical advantage. Auris wasn’t just a mount; he was a sentient weapon of mass destruction that scaled perfectly with Leon’s own absurd leveling speed. He let the thought settle for a moment, still faintly amazed by how quickly his circumstances had transformed.

Leon swiped his wet hand through the air, shifting the interface to the final tab. The extra tab.

[Transmigrator Privilege: SSS-Rank Talents]

Infinite Growth

Supreme Comprehension

Eternal Mana

Absolute Adaptation

Skill Evolution

Talent Devourer

Perfect Body

Lucky Fate

Monarch’s Will

Origin Eyes

Leon stared at the ten lines of text.

He didn’t take them for granted. Every single one of those talents had saved his life. Eternal Mana allowed him to lay waste to entire swarms without exhausting himself. Absolute Adaptation kept him from being melted, frozen, or poisoned. Talent Devourer had allowed him to cannibalize the most terrifying abilities of the monsters he killed, building an impenetrable arsenal. Skill Evolution had turned even his weakest early spells into weapons capable of leveling city blocks.

Without them, he never would have made it this far, this quickly.

His icy blue and glowing gold eyes darkened.

His thoughts drifted back to the sterile white hospital room on Earth. He remembered the suffocating smell of bleach. The rhythmic, maddening beep of the heart monitor. The feeling of being trapped inside a decaying shell of flesh that refused to obey his commands. He remembered the absolute, crushing helplessness of waiting for a death he could not fight, of counting ceiling tiles because it was the only thing left within his power to do.

He had spent years as a prisoner to his own frailty.

The water in the hot spring began to ripple, reacting to the sudden, suffocating spike in his emotional state, small waves lapping restlessly against the smooth stone edges of the basin.

"Never again," Leon whispered to the empty room, his voice barely more than a rasp, yet carrying a weight that seemed to drop the temperature of the air itself.

He clenched his fist beneath the water.

"I don’t care what the system throws at me. I don’t care if it’s Void Beasts, High-Dragons, or the God of Transmigration himself. I will break every ceiling. I will devour every obstacle. I will climb to the absolute apex of this world, and I will slaughter anything that tries to put me back in a grave."

A chilling, predatory intent bled into the room, so dense it caused the glowing blue water to violently shudder. For a fleeting moment, Leon Wes did not look like a human being. He looked like an apex predator, a force of nature driven by a hunger for strength that defied the very laws of the universe. The steam itself seemed to recoil from him, thinning briefly around his shoulders before curling back in.

He held that terrifying focus for a long moment before slowly unclenching his hand.

The water settled. The oppressive aura faded, returning the room to a serene, peaceful silence.

Leon exhaled, closing his eyes and letting the heat finish melting away the tension in his bones, the last traces of that cold, predatory edge receding back beneath the surface of the calm, tired young man soaking quietly in the dark.

He stayed in the bath until his thoughts were entirely clear, completely cleansed of the past. He stepped out, dried off, and wrapped himself in a soft, silken robe left for him by the Elder, the fabric warm and impossibly soft against skin still flushed from the heat.

He walked into the adjoining bedchamber, laying back on a massive, incredibly soft bed of spun-silk, the mattress seeming to fold gently around him as though it had been shaped specifically for his weary body.

He needed to rest. When the afternoon sun reached its zenith, he and Auris were flying into the Shattered Crags. The Void Mist was waiting, and Leon was going to tear it apart.

He closed his eyes, and within seconds, he was asleep.

....

A/N: Give me golden tickets!!