Huff!
Gray took deep, rapid breaths, trying to calm his pounding heart, which felt like it might burst out of his chest. His chest heaved violently with each breath as he leaned on his sword for support.
"Damn," he muttered under his breath, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. His entire body was drenched, muscles screaming from the exertion.
The Phantom Tiger lay a few meters away, its massive body twitching faintly, thick blood pooling beneath it. Gray's sharp blue eyes stayed locked on the creature, his grip tightening around his sword. He dared not let his guard down, knowing how resilient these beasts could be.
Moreover, he hadn't received the notification of Killing the beast.
Just as he raised his blade to deliver another strike, a notification appeared before his eyes.
[Unranked Phantom Tiger killed]
[+1.5 Origin Essence Gained]
Gray's tensed shoulders immediately relaxed—the beast was definitely dead.
However, he didn't feel happy but surveyed his surroundings. After being sure there was no one around, he immediately made a mad dash towards the guard post on the wall, intending to rest for a bit.
The earlier battle had taken all of his energy. He wanted to rest for some time and also examine the gains he had made.
.....
Leaving the corpse of the Phantom Tiger behind, Gray moved and quickly arrived back at the outpost; only then did he feel safe.
Thankfully, there was no one here—most people seemed to be on the main battlefield some distance ahead, from time to time, he could hear blood+curling cries echoing in the surrounding.
After sitting down, Gray summoned his status screen with a happy smile.
After the battle, he had managed to accumulate enough Origin Essence to unlock his first skill.
[Name - Gray Peace-loving]
[Race - Corrupted Human]
[Title - Ultimate Defier+ (SSS - Grade, currently unusable)]
[Spiritual Force - 0 (Unawakened)
Strength - 1.1
Agility - 0.4
Health - 0.75
Stamina - 0.75]
[Origin Essence - 12]
[Acquired Skills]
[Cooking - Level 1]
[Potion Making - Level 1]
[Manipulation - Level 1]
[Origin Essence needed to awaken first skill - 10]
The incomplete numbers seemed to greatly annoy him.
He shook his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and focus on important things—it was time to unlock his first skill.
Gray felt like he was back on Earth, buying his first lottery ticket with eager anticipation in his heart.
Just as he was wondering how the unlocking would work, the system seemed to understand his thoughts, and a new prompt appeared before him.
[Would you like to use ten Origin Essences to unlock your first skill?]
[Warning! This action is irreversible]
[Yes/No]
Hesitating for a moment, Gray took a deep breath and chose Yes.
Immediately, Gray felt a sense of emptiness in his body, and a strange weakness that almost caused him to fall to the ground.
Almost all the Origin Essences that he had accumulated seemed to have suddenly disappeared from his body.
Gray could actually see a ball of light leaving him and slowly floating before him like a firefly, the ball slowly started to transform.
Under his disbelieving gaze, a golden spinning wheel appeared. Countless runes filled with endless mysteries appeared and disappeared one after another. Slowly, the wheel started to spin; at first, the speed was slow, but within seconds, it reached insane levels.
A loud Kaching! echoed, and the wheel stopped abruptly.
For a moment, a figure of a gigantic, grotesque monster with thousands of arms appeared on the wheel. Around the monster were tens of small orange balls that looked similar to the fiery purple suns in the sky. The monster's gigantic arms seemed to wrap around the suns as if it was playing with these heavenly bodies.
The image left Gray mind-boggled; the impact was too great. For a moment, Gray forgot to breathe. The scene was incomprehensible—the sheer size of the monstrosity was beyond his comprehension.
Gray knew just how large the sun really was, and this monster seemed to be playing with it, treating the sun like an ordinary ball.
He wanted to deny the scene before him; his rational mind told him such a scene couldn't be real, but deep down, he felt it was definitely true.
Before Gray could react, the golden wheel suddenly shattered like glass, breaking into thousands of fragments. In the next moment, all these fragments rushed towards Gray and merged with his body.
Gray grimaced and prepared himself for the change.
The pain he was expecting didn't come; instead, another window appeared before him.
[Absolute Control Level 1]
[Experience points - 0/1000]
[Grade - ???]
[You can control and adjust all of your stats points according to your wish. At level 1, You can only transfer ten percent of your stat points from one to another.]
Absolute Control? Gray was confused but then his doubts seemed to have cleared and he instantly understood how the new skill worked.
Gray immediately tried to shift 0.1 from strength attribute to agility.
Instantly the number under agility changed from 0.4 to 0.5.
In real time, Gray could feel his body body becoming slightly agile.
[Absolute Control experience +1]
Gray heard another notification but he ignored it for the time being.
[Spiritual Force - 0 (Unawakened)
Strength - 1
Agility - 0.5
Health - 0.75
Stamina - 0.75]
Indeed his stat points really had hanged.
The skill was too broken! No wonder the monster was able to hold the sun in its hand like merbles.
He was now absolutely sure of the fact that the skill belonged to the monstrous being whose image had appeared on the wheel before it had cracked.
Now that he was clear of the skills origin, Gray summoned his status to take a look at the changes.
[Name - Gray Peace-loving]
[Race - Corrupted Human]
[Title - Ultimate Defier+ (SSS - Grade, currently unusable)]
[Spiritual Force - 0 (Unawakened)
Strength - 1
Agility - 0.5
Health - 0.75
Stamina - 0.75]
[Origin Essence - 2]
[Acquired Skills]
[Absolute Control Level 1]
[Cooking - Level 1]
[Potion Making - Level 1]
[Manipulation - Level 1]
[Origin Essence needed to awaken Next skill - 20]
The Origin Essences needed to unlock the next skill had doubled, Gray was expecting such a thing, so he wasn't surprised.
Now, it was time to understand, what the '+' sign behind his title represented?
.