Eik dove through the fracture head first, falling flat on his face, tearing a small groove through the soft soil with his nose and chin much like he had done several time before. Despite being A-rank—and an exceptionally powerful one at that—the hurry with which he had jumped through had turned his sense of balance totally off.

As his body was warped and pulled through the dimensional mesh, he heard, distant and muddled, the sound of his crystal dome being struck by something swift and heavy. The sound of the breaking was like a mixture of shattering glass and a massive church bell struck by a steel-tipped rocket.

Utilizing the same strategy that he had when he had last jumped through a fracture to escape the cult, Eik immediately conjured fifty javelins of solid toxin, hanging languidly in the air, ready to fly at any moment like high-powered bolts.

For several tense seconds he waited, eyes glued to the swirling mass that would soon spit out someone. Someone who would hopefully be wearing a shining armor of gold, be named Andihar, and most importantly not be thirsting for a good ol' Earthling decapitation.

If not for the fact that Eik already knew that this place was but the first of several sequential worlds on the way back to Earth, he might have been fooled into believing that it was a nice little clearing somewhere in a Danish forest.

A crawling vine so large that it extended its appendages like a spider web above his head would soon have disabused him of that notion, however.

Some kind of bioluminescent bulbs on the underside of the fleshy leaves produced an eerie facsimile of the night sky. A purple, pollen-like substance was continuously released from the bulbs, raining softly down into Eik's hair. The grass already seemed to be perpetually covered in the stuff like ash after a volcanic eruption.

Their camp from the night before was further from the fracture, but their footprints leading up to the portal had already been covered by the ash-like powder.

But there was no time to appreciate the beauty of nature right now.

A quick glance down at his arm and a squeeze of aura expanded the script, allowing it to appear on not just the underside of his forearm where it usually did, but down his wrist and onto the palm and the back of the hand, on his other arm as well as any time where his bare skin was visible.

As it turns out, a fully aware and hostile S-ranker didn't hold back at all on awarding experience upon death.

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 111]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 112]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 11…]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 127]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 128]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 83]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 84]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 8…]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 104]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 105]

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Apocalypse Canvas]

[Choose one]

[Apocalypse Canvas — Diverse Palette]

[Apocalypse Canvas — Autonomous Wanderer]

New trait for Apocalypse Canvas, huh? Nice. This was something he had been waiting for for a good while now. Whether it was because it was an ability that was derived from a powerful ability and had been powerful on its own from level one, or for some other reason, it had not offered skill evolutions nearly as frequently as most other abilities.

Diverse Palette sounded… odd. Something to do with color. A palette was one of those thin, oval wooden board painters used to keep all of their colors available on their hand, no? The one that often had a hole for the thumb.

It was definitely plausible that it had something to do with his three different types of Profound Toxin. The turquoise blue of the standard mode, the swirling purple of the maddening Visage of Death, and the soothing green of Panacean Quintessence. Those three could most certainly be the colors of a palette. Right?

What was that thing called that had to do with the sense of taste? Was that palette? Or was it pallette? Or palate? Or palatte? Dang it…

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

And what about the other trait called Autonomous Wanderer? Was that supposed to be some kind of poetic metaphor or was it really just that? Would the sea of Profound Toxin that Apocalypse Canvas was learn to move or something?

No no no, there was no time for crap like thinking right now! It was too important to decide quickly, so he would have to select the trait later.

He moved on to the next messages, dismissing the evolution of Apocalypse Canvas for now.

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 146]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 147]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 14…]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 173]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 174]

Twenty nine levels was just ridiculous! There were no evolutions there and Profound Toxin had just evolved the Profound Unity trait so there was not much to expect there either. The levels were amazing though, and even without evolutions, the levels alone boosted the strength of each ability greatly.

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 201]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 202]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 20…]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 223]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 224]

Holy shit! Viva la dead S-rankers! His primary ability had just levled up twenty four glorious times from a single fight! Thank you Mr. System!

And finally, Living Manifestation.

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 125]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 126]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 12…]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 137]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 138]

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Living Manifestation]

[Choose one]

[Living Manifestation — Original Life]

There was only one choice. Had that ever happened before? Original Life?

Wait… This almost felt a little bit… forbidden? Unless he had completely overlooked something then, judging by the name alone, and considering that the skill that was evolving was Living Manifestation which created little blue guys, Original Life would allow him to do something that bordered on godhood.

The existential concern that inevitably accompanied such a possibility swirled around in Eik's head and made his mind do back flips to comprehend it.

Was this okay? To what degree would this ability actually create life? How sophisticated would it be? Like a slightly smarter version of the current summons, capable of following a string of orders independently like ants running on auto pilot for the hive? Or would it be like creating a new, sentient life form with the potential to grow into a fully functioning being like a human adult?

Existential responsibility weighed heavily on him but he didn't get much time to contemplate the issue as external events weren't willing to wait for him to resolve his crisis.

Quickly as he could, he accepted the evolutionary trait, knowing full well that he would be too curious not to test it later anyway.

[Evolved skill Living Manifestation. Skill acquired trait Original Life]

The first thing that peeked through the blue surface was the wicked tip of that god damned flying spear. Hissing through clenched teeth, Eik prepared to launch his toxic javelins the moment the head emerged, the projectiles spinning rapidly on their own axes like drill bits.

Only a complete, panicked flex of his entire body allowed him to stop the javelins before they turned Andihar's skull into an upside down bowl of tomato soup.

The man was struggling to haul a very unruly spear through the portal when he looked up and found himself face to face with almost a dozen deadly blade tips. Another handful of centimeters and he could have bid farewell to one or both eyeballs.

"Nuiyaaargh!" the muscled elf yelped in a fashion very unlike anything Eik had ever seen an S-ranker do before, nearly letting the spear rip itself free of his grip as he stumbled all the way out of the fracture.

"Sorry," Eik said and willed the floating javelins back into formation where they once more hung in the air around him. "It's just that I saw that spear come through first and though—"

"You do not have to apologize to me, young man," Andihar chuckled as he got the struggling spear under control. Whatever compelled the spear to return must be more than a simple recall, otherwise Eik doubted it would have continued to act up like this even after coming through the dimensional gate. "It's frantic and we're all on edge here. No harm done."

"What are you going to do with the spear?"

The elf shrugged and hurled the spear into the earth, burying it up to the butt of the shaft and put an armored boot on top of it. "Not sure. I just figured it would be disadvantageous for him to miss his spear, even if only for a few seconds. As far as I could tell, both Bobopahn and Oru, whom you were fighting, were holding back somewhat within the city. Their reverence for the place is something else. Expect Bobopahn to be a tougher opponent."

"But if it's the two of us against him, then we'll be fine, right?"

Andihar tilted his head from side to side, dried blood sticking to his forehead and hair making the normally pristine golden locks clump up stickily. His helmet seemed to appear and disappear at a mental command from him. "Probably, but one can never really know."

Eik contemplated that. "Can I see the spear real quick?"

Andihar nodded and pulled it back out again. The weapon seemed to have calmed down somewhat, only clattering slightly against the man's gloves. "Be quick. He's going to be here very soon. He's not going to let us leave after we attacked his home, destroyed their precious Arch Temple, and even stole his weapon."

"Well…" Eik muttered as he took the spear carefully, keeping it in a firm grip. "He's probably going to recall this thing the moment he comes through, right?"

Andihar nodded, watching Eik.

"In that case, I'm just going to… try this idea a had. Give me a second" Eik mumbled as he reached inward and activated Profound Unity again, what was left of its duration more than enough to do what he wanted.

With his new ability, even the hyper toxin made through the process opened up by Concentration, which had also been absorbed by Profound Toxin soon after he had acquired it, came to him easily and almost instantly.

In the blink of an eye a smooth layer of toxin coated the blade of the spear, the surface of it taking the exact shape of the edge, even going as far as to imitate the intricately patterned decorations carved into it down to the most minute detail. Then, as he had realized he was now capable of, the color diluted until it was completely transparent, making it rather difficult to see it.

It wasn't actually invisible, but it was as close as he could get it right now.

Meanwhile, Andihar was setting up his own ambush. He held up his giant blade and a golden copy rose into the air and settled into suspension immediately above the fracture. From a bag of holding on his hip, he pulled a shield even bigger than the one Heath had used during his time as an active fighter—this one golden, naturally.

The shield strapped itself to his forearm. It matched the rest of his outfit perfectly. "You work better with a tank, as you call it, don't you?" he asked with a grin.

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