Renly sat on the soft, moss-covered ground, his gaze drifted into the distance, thoughtful and distant. Beside him lay the massive, lifeless form of the goblin general he had just defeated. Its monstrous green body sprawled across the grass, motionless, with a gaping wound splitting its forehead and extending to the edges of its fractured skull.
"That was intense," he muttered with rasping breath.
Renly exhaled deeply, attempting to steady his racing nerves. The battle with the goblin general had been grueling, far from an easy victory. At the start, he had been completely outmatched in strength, skill, and number. It wasn't until he managed to claim the abilities of both the goblin general and the bloodhound that the scales began to tip in his favor.
Even so, defeating such a formidable foe required more than raw power; it demanded a carefully calculated strategy.
Now, as his breathing steadied, his expression remained contemplative.
"This… why does it feel like something has changed within me?"
He glanced down at his body, inspecting himself with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.
"There have been a lot of changes lately, but this feels... different. Did I advance?"
The thought lingered as he closed his eyes, attuning himself to the subtle yet unmistakable shift within. His aura felt thicker, more concentrated, and it churned within him with newfound potency. He had noticed this transformation the moment the goblin general had drawn its final breath.
Raising his hand, Renly focused on his fingertips, channeling his aura. A faint glow began to gather at the tip, swirling with energy. "It seems so... I suppose this means I've officially reached the second stage."
As he observed the aura flickering in his grasp, a shadowy tendril curled around it, dark, menacing, and undeniably present. The sight made him pause. The energy felt different, foreign yet eerily familiar.
"Come to think of it," he mused aloud, "these new abilities I gained... the power of absolute perception... it's truly incredible."
Of course, it was. Nothing less could be expected from a power owned by a god. But this wasn't just any god, it was a deity who had devoured another that was worshipped across the lands and hailed as mighty. The abilities Renly now wielded carried the weight of that divinity, a power that was as breathtaking as it was daunting.
The very notion thrilled and unsettled him. The ability to seize and absorb the powers of other creatures, what did that mean for his future? If this pattern continued, what sort of being would he eventually become? A hero? A monster?
The unsettling question hung in his mind as he reached into his robe and retrieved the small book within. Flipping quickly through its pages, his fingers stopped on a section near the back, one he had consulted countless times before.
"...?"
To his astonishment, Renly noticed that the words he had written on this page just a day ago had changed—or rather, new words had been added. His pulse quickened as he leaned closer, scanning the text with growing unease.
The original entry remained, but now it had expanded:
[Renly Ashwood, a boy who survived the catastrophic battle between the Supreme Dragon God of Annihilation and the Sun's Flame High God, participated in the annual assessment to join the Crimson Moon Sect. During the assessment, in a moment of deadly crisis, he mysteriously gained the power of Absolute Perception, once wielded by the Supreme Dragon God of Annihilation.]
Renly's breath hitched. That part had already been there. But now, there was more, new information added without his knowledge:
[Due to the condition Renly had declared, this power will only activate in moments of life-threatening crisis and cannot be summoned at will.]
[The power of Absolute Perception operates on the principle that 'all things are connected, born from a single origin, and thus, all things may be acquired.']
[This ability, an innate force tied to the transformation of the Supreme Dragon God of Annihilation into an almighty existence, does not draw its strength from nothing. It is akin to forging a contract with the very essence of life itself. When activated, it temporarily grants the wielder the ability of an opponent. Should the bearer emerge victorious and kill the opponent, the borrowed ability becomes permanent. However, failure to prevail, being slain instead, results in a far grimmer fate: the opponent will evolve into a vastly more powerful entity, and the soul of the bearer will be cast into the deepest abyss, eternally lost.]
Renly's eyes widened as he finished reading. A cold dread crawled up his spine, sending a shiver through his body. His fingers trembled slightly as he set the book down on his lap.
"This is worse than making a deal with the devil..." he whispered hoarsely. "No, far worse."
The price of failure wasn't merely death; it was annihilation of the soul, a fate that sounded unimaginably horrifying. He didn't fully understand what this 'abyss' was, but something in his gut told him it was a place of despair so profound that no living being would willingly risk it.
The more he pondered, the more the magnitude of his predicament sank in. He couldn't back out now, he was already ensnared. He had activated this dreadful power the moment he inscribed the text in the book using his own blood. The very act had bound him irrevocably.
Just thinking about it made Renly feel a splitting headache coming on, accompanied by a wave of helplessness that threatened to overwhelm him. But he forced himself to steady his mind, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly to calm the storm within.
"This is the path I chose," he murmured, his voice firm despite the turmoil in his chest. "Even if I didn't know about these conditions at first, there's no going back now."
What mattered now was the present, his situation, his goals. If this power could make him strong enough to change his sister's fate, to rescue her from the torment she was enduring, then it was worth it. Even if his soul were condemned to the abyss in the end, he would make that trade. Her freedom was worth any cost.
Resolve hardened in his chest as these thoughts solidified. Gritting his teeth, Renly stilled his emotions,
pushing away the unease clawing at him. His gaze shifted to the magical device strapped to his wrist.
"The points went up by fifty after defeating just one goblin general..." he muttered, studying the glowing display.
The current reading showed 69 points, and his ranking had surged from 137th to 82nd. Such a massive leap, achieved through a single victory, was incomparable to the meager points he had earned from slaying ordinary goblin warriors.
"How much more could I gain if I took down a few more of them?" he wondered, excitement now stirring within him. His anticipation grew, fueled by the surge of energy coursing through his newly advanced body. Now that he had reached the second stage, he was eager to test his limits and see how he measured up against the goblin generals.
With that thought, Renly tucked the book back into his robe and rose to his feet. He lifted his long spear, resting it confidently over his shoulder, and let his newly enhanced senses expand outward.
The change was staggering. Whereas before, his perception had barely reached a radius of ten meters, now it stretched over a hundred meters, painting a vivid mental map of the terrain around him. Through this extended awareness, he detected the presence of another goblin general in the far distance, towards the direction from which he had fled earlier.
A sharp glint flashed in his eyes. That was where he would go.
Before departing, he cast a glance at his battered shield lying discarded on the ground nearby. Although it was quite a low-level shield, It had served him well during his earlier struggles, but now it seemed unnecessary. His strength and abilities had grown beyond reliance on such weak defense.
"I guess I won't need that anymore."
Without another look, he shot forward, his movements fluid and swift. The power in his legs propelled him with breathtaking speed, leaving a trail of wind in his wake. The air howled around him as he moved, rustling his crimson hair like flames flickering in the breeze.
In a fleeting instant, Renly arrived at the location of the goblin general he had sensed. The creature, perched atop its hulking bloodhound, turned sharply to face him, its fiery eyes narrowing at the sudden arrival. It had been preparing to head in another direction, but Renly's presence quickly shifted its focus.
Beside the goblin general lay a mangled corpse, crushed and smeared across the ground, a grim testament to the brute's strength and savagery. The spiked mace in its grasp was smeared with blood, the clear instrument of the carnage.
The goblin general wasted no time. With a guttural snarl, it spurred its bloodhound into motion, galloping toward Renly with deadly intent. The massive mace arched high above its head, poised for a crushing blow, promising the same gruesome fate as its previous victim.
The ground trembled under the thunderous approach. As the goblin general reached Renly, the spiked mace swung downward in a ferocious arc, its speed blinding. But Renly didn't flinch. He remained motionless, his gaze fixed on the incoming strike, waiting.
Not until the mace was mere inches from his head did he finally move.
'I'm pretty sure they weren't this slow before,' he thought, a contemplative look tugging at his face. "It seems I've gotten much faster since advancing..."
To him, the attack felt almost sluggish, the world around him slowing to a crawl. As the mace closed the distance, Renly shifted in an instant, his figure a blur of motion. The weapon struck nothing but empty air.
The goblin general snarled in confusion, its attack thwarted, but it had no time to recover. In the same instant, Renly's spear shot forward, a blur of steel aimed with deadly precision. The goblin general couldn't react before the spear tore through its torso, the force of the strike lifting its massive body off the bloodhound. Blue blood sprayed into the air, staining the ground in its wake.
With a fluid motion, Renly shifted aside, narrowly evading the bloodhound's claws as it lunged for him. He slammed the goblin general's impaled body into the ground with a bone-rattling impact, the earth cracking slightly beneath it.
The creature let out a shrill cry, writhing in agony, but its suffering was short-lived. Renly's foot came down with brutal force, crushing its skull and silencing it forever.
Without missing a beat, he rotated his spear in a tight arc, its blade glinting ominously. With one swift, decisive swing, he cleaved the bloodhound's head clean off, the strike so precise that its body remained upright for a moment before crumpling to the ground in a lifeless heap.
As the dust settled, Renly exhaled softly, his breath steady, his crimson hair swaying faintly in the breeze. His sharp gaze lifted, scanning the horizon with a detached calm.
"Another down, who's next?"