Lief had a splitting headache and his hair was fluttering all over the place, cracks started to appear on his skin as his entire vision blackened out.
When he was unconscious he felt as if he was getting liberated and was getting free from the chains that tied him down. He felt as if he was removing the heavy clothes that were weighing on him and felt limitless freedom with various emotions such as satisfaction.
After an unknown period of time, he woke up as if he was in some kind of daze.
He mumbled to himself," So this is the 'metamorphosis' stage or the stage when one sheds their mortal body and become something greater but what was that projection? If I am not wrong it must be the legendary 'hell' but why was it empty?"
But he quickly shook it off and said, "Whatever! However, I shall practice that strange incantation that was shown in the incantation "
He sat down and focused his mental energy into the path mark in his mental space which after reaching the 'metamorphosis' stage had transformed into a trident of dark red color.
After an entire day had passed Lief entered the 'first' ring of Metamorphosis stage. The Metamorphosis stage consisted of 'nine' rings and after completing the nine rings you can completely shed off your mortal body.
But the process was extremely difficult and passing every ring was a life and death challenge.
Leif was currently in the first ring stage but what he didn't know was that if the mysterious entity hadn't helped him he would not have taken the step so easily.
There were billions of beings across the vast universe that couldn't take this single step and thereby remaining mortal throughout their life. Only after collecting all the rings could one be considered not a mortal.
After stabilizing himself he suddenly stood up and released his enhanced senses and released his mental energy to scan the entire town to see if there is any 'martial artist' around.
Yes, this world also had its own path. The path of martial arts where one would purify their body with path energy to advance but they were ultimately still a branch of the world's will.
It was an extremely crude and primitive method when compared to other paths.
Suddenly Leif frowned when he discovered an unfamiliar 'path' energy. It was of a first ring martial artist. Martial artists were also divided into ten rings.
As Leif followed his own path of advancement, he couldn't be discovered by low-level martial artists. Even high-grade martial artists would not be able to know what is wrong with Leif unless they looked very carefully.
But if he was against a being who had surpassed the metamorphosis level like the people who attacked his house he would be unable to hide his secret.
Beings that surpassed the metamorphosis stage were extremely powerful and were capable of changing the weather and transform the terrain but such a stage was very far away for the current him.
"*Sigh* I am still so helpless and can only wait patiently until I am strong enough to find out the truth," Leif said with a look of sorrow on his face.
He slowly walked out of the room and his attention focused on the strange markings on the door.
"Path energy!" he exclaimed after seeing the markings in the door.
"Humph, let me see I can find out anything more on that martial artist in this town," he said in an odd tone as he sneaked out of the building.
Currently after advancing the power of his senses were multiplied, his physical strength and reflexes were also raised to a frightening degree.
He was gifted in speed when he was younger and now he advanced the most in speed after he broke through.
He could also form a layer of path energy around him and could also insert them onto weapons.
But currently, he was only in the first ring and this function was extremely hard to do as he could only store a limited amount of path energy inside of him.
As one advanced their ability to store 'path' energy also increased gradually.
Now he was closing in on a dimly lit building in a desolate part of town where the martial artist lived.