Boom!

A loud explosion rocked the cavern, generating minor tremors and jetting Lucas out of his cave high above with a cloud of dust. Thankfully, he was still conscious after the explosion and maneuvered himself safely to the ground using his tendrils.

Cracks and patches of missing flesh could be seen all over his form but his back had the worst of it. He was missing an eye and all his hair was burned way as well.

He was currently quite the sorry sight but a jubilant smile spread across his bloody lips as his wounds healed rapidly. In no time, he was back to normal. His blood soaked the ground around him as he stood up from his crouching position.

"That was awesome! Seems I was right about Life energy having different effects on runes. Too bad I couldn't figure out how to use the lightening Rune. I will just have to try again later."

Lucas said to himself as he recalled what just happened. In the dim light of the cavern, you could make out multiple Runes on his body. He had a Hardening Rune on each fist, a complete new three Sigil Rune on each of his four tendrils, a Strengthening Rune on his chest, and a significantly more complex rune on his back.

The Rune on his back sported six separate Sigils and each of them were linked together by a looped hexagon rather than a regular polygon. This gave the Rune a much more arcane look.

After all his experiments on it, he figured out its function was rather simple yet complex to execute—It made him much lighter.

Looking around at the mostly quiet cavern floor, Lucas thought for a moment before thinking out loud.

"That's enough Rune crafting for now. These past few days, I have already exhausted all my ideas. Let's go see what Domain cores are all about."

"Crash."

"Of course I just want to fight something. Not using my new abilities would be blasphemous."

Lucas said with a smirk as he shot away with a superhuman leap. Using his tendrils as swings, he made his way deeper into the cavern. Absolutely carefree yet more powerful than ever.

———

As Lucas swung through the cavern, he used the rising Spirit energy levels as a guide to the domain core. Though he was now more confident than ever, he still had his guard up as he frequently activated his [Spirit Sense] in short bursts.

As he travelled deeper, he noticed more and more life forms while the cavern grew brighter as well. In fact he noticed something quite strange. The Spirit energy would gather into small, vibrating clumps on the walls sporadically and spawn a new life form.

Lucas paused his journey just to take a better look at this process but couldn't make heads or tails of it. But it certainly gave him food for thought.

"Is this how every creature in the cavern is produced? Is this how I was created?"

Arriving at this juncture, Lucas didn't know how to feel about that.

"Even if I was, what does it matter? Existential musings can come later damn it."

He continued deeper into the cavern, a little frustrated at his own ignorance. After an hour or so, the cavern was filled with a chaotic orchestra of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. The strong scent of blood and ichor pervaded the air as the neon lights of the cavern wall illuminated the carnage below him.

Seeing this familiar sight once again, Lucas paused for a moment. He crouched on the wall and took in its odd beauty of the cavern.

"If I didn't know better, I would say this place is beginning to feel like home… the sounds, the ferocious struggles, the utter chaos. All of it feels so… Liberating. There's no time to think long term. Fight or die. Fight and die. The veil between life and death is truly ephemeral."

"Crash…?"

Raising an eyebrow, Lucas snapped back, somewhat annoyed.

"That explosion didn't scramble my brains you jackass. I just… felt like expressing my thoughts."

"ಠ_ಠ"

Even though Crash didn't reply, Lucas could feel it raising a metaphorical eyebrow at him. Lucas smiled at this and continued.

"I'm not just a meat head you know. I have a lot of things I used to think about. But I can't really do that now since it gets me nowhere."

He paused once more, looking down at the cavern floor to see a swarm of bugs overwhelming a snake creature only for their battle to end in a gruesome stalemate. Before either side could claim victory, they were crushed by a charging beetle as it shot towards a clueless slime.

"Yep, still the same old cavern. Let's move ahead Crash, I feel like we are closing in on the domain core."

"(￣ω￣)"

Crash just hummed once and fell into silence. Lucas shot through the air with his tendrils whipping energetically. With a small amount of his Spirit energy, his top right tendril grew and stabbed into the cavern wall like a grappling hook. Using this as a pivot, he comfortably swung away with a lazy backflip before shooting out the next tendril as he transitioned faster and faster.

After a few minutes of casual swinging, Lucas' [Spirit Sense] picked up something interesting—Tree men. They were heading directly to his position with confident strides from a tunnel about twenty five meters away.

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Keeping his [Spirit Sense] on them, Lucas sensed a rather weak but calm aura from them. But beneath that tranquil aura he sensed something strange. While their individual auras were subtly different, their Spirit energies were indistinguishable from one another. He had never noticed this detail before in anything he had seen so far.

"Hmm… I wonder what that means? Are they just… the same? Like clones of each other? Or is there something I'm missing…"

"¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out later. I plan to pay them a visit after all."

After just a few seconds of surveying them, the leading tree man uttered a command and the rest stopped. They all calmly drew their weapons while the leader began channeling its Spirit energy.

Less than a second later, a black Rune appeared on the leader's forehead emitting a warped black light that gave Lucas an ominous feeling.

"Crash!"

Hearing the tension in Crash's voice, Lucas immediately sent his perception to his core. On it, he saw the same black Rune. Lucas' heart sank.

'When did I get this?'

There was no time to examine this new discovery as the humanoids rushed towards his position. Lucas calmly jumped to the floor using the wall's outcroppings as skipping points. He crashed to the fall with a muted bang then stood to his feet cracking his neck and fingers. He spoke with a small smirk.

"I wanted to test my Runes in the first place. It's pretty nice of them to offer themselves up, don't you think, Crash?"

"Crash! (ง •̀_•́)ง"

Crash buzzed with excitement and Lucas immediately felt a change in his Spirit energy. If before it was a normal river now it was a raging rapid. He felt it race throughout his body multiple times a second with its unique pattern as he powered up his Runes.

Taking a sprinter's starting position, two Hardening Runes could be found on the soles of his clawed feet. He pierced his two lower tendrils into the floor a few meters ahead of him with the ease of a sword going through mud.

Building tension in all his limbs, the Rune on his back glowed with a strange shadowless hue. His form was like a notched arrow, ready to unleash devastation on whatever dared to stop his charge. With the incoming tree humanoids clear in his perception, he began a steady countdown. His pupils grew larger and burned fervently.

'5… 4… 3… 2… 1—GO!'

BANG!

With a massive burst of power, Lucas shot horizontally across the cavern floor. Leaving behind a huge crater as he headed for the leading tree man. His arms morphed into blades mid-flight as he lunged at his foe.

The moment the leader stepped out of the tunnel, it was impaled by a black streak formerly known as Lucas Maverick. Its torso and weapon exploded in a hail of greenish transparent ichor and wooden flesh.

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, its four comrades failed to react in time as Lucas adjusted himself and struck at his next victim. This time, he cleaved at it using his newly transformed scythe-tendril. The tendril's usual pristine white edge now possessed a razor thin silver glow as it bisected the humanoid diagonally.

'Nice!'

Though jubilant in his mind, Lucas tendrils quickly used [Leech] on the two injured humanoids—immediately disintegrating them into black dust. He couldn't take any chances with these guys.

Turning his attention to the remaining three, they still wore their usual detached look as they stabbed their weapons to the floor. Lucas sensed something wrong and immediately tried to intervene but it was already too late. In their alien language, they said a single phrase.

<Essence of nature: The weak empower the strong.>

The moment those words were uttered, two of the three dropped to the floor lifeless. Their emerald eyes dimmed to an absolute black as all their Spirit energy was sucked away into the only standing humanoid. Lucas paid no attention to any of this given the transformations the third humanoid underwent.

The Spirit energy around it writhed and weaved intricate patterns as its originally emerald pupils morphed into a complex tapestry of runes and fractals. It grew considerably taller and bulkier, sprouting a few green tendrils on its back.

To top this all off, its Spirit energy and aura immediately tripled! Clenching its spear with its massive hands, it held it horizontally in a very basic stance.

Lucas' pupils immediately contracted as his instincts screamed of imminent danger from his transformed opponent. With a steely gaze, Lucas hastily widened his stance. His tendrils flared as he prepared for the upcoming battle.

BOOM!

In the blink of an eye, the humanoid pierced out with its primitive spear. The air around the tip of the spear exploded with a bone shattering boom due to the abrupt acceleration. Lucas immediately hacked at the spear with his right bladed arm.

The collision was instantly against Lucas as he was knocked back more than two meters before skidding to a stop. The tree humanoid didn't let up as it dashed forward with another thrust, its spear's runes glowing with a thick dark green light that spread throughout the spear.

'Alright asshole, try this on for size!'

With gritted teeth, Lucas revolved his stored Life energy and powered the Strengthening Rune on his chest. The Rune instantly took on an ominous crimson glow and his heart rate spiked dramatically.

His heartbeat and blood circulation became audible as Lucas shot towards the tree monster like a bolt of black and red lightning.

He lashed out with his bladed arms, the first hack on the spear was a stalemate while the second hack cleaved at its neck, leaving a deep gash that spilled sweet smelling ichor. The tree humanoid stumbled back trying to protect its neck but it was still within reach of his tendrils.

SLASHSLASHSLASHSLASHSLASHSLASHSLASHSLASH!

In the blink of an eye, Lucas' tendrils slashed out almost ten times. His first attack sliced through its arm, disarming it. While each follow up attack left behind a deep cut into the tree humanoid's tough bark and forced it away from its weapon. It stoically tried to guard its head and torso as it was quickly getting overwhelmed.

Exploiting a slight opening in its crossed arm, Lucas lunged forward with his right arm forward. It had now morphed into a slender, white pike. This new weapon was painted with glowing Runes which absorbed the Life energy in the air as it pierced forward.

THRUST!

With that powerful thrust, Lucas ran his makeshift spear into the humanoid's chest and began absorbing its Life energy with [Leech]. The tree humanoid struggled and roared frantically, clawing and thrashing against Lucas with all its might.

Though it left some cuts and bruises on Lucas, it all seemed futile. The level 5 [Leech] was absolutely devastating, the fact that it struggled so hard surprised Lucas instead.

"Stop struggling!!"

BANG!

Annoyed and somewhat flustered, Lucas disengaged from the tree monster and smashed it to the floor. He then used his tendrils to impale its torso in four different spots before using [Leech] once more.

<Grahh…!>

After a few desperate attempts at freeing itself, the tree humanoid finally fell silent. The corpse swiftly turned black and brittle before Lucas disengaged. He felt a massive amount of Life energy flowing into his core and immediately turned off his Strengthening Rune.

He could still hear his own heartbeat thundering throughout the cavern and his blood heating up within his veins. Clouds of vapor rose from his head and torso, indicating just how far he was pushing his body. Exhaling a deep breath, a cloud of steam was expelled from his lungs as he said rhetorically.

"Phew, good thing I ended that quickly. Don't want my heart to explode on me… Hmm, why didn't I level up?"

Lucas frowned at the thought.

"Did I not absorb enough energy? Or is there an extra requirement I'm unaware of?"

"Crash! (✧o✧)"

Crash cut in with childlike enthusiasm. Lucas smiled as he felt a swell of pride from Crash's words. As he spoke out, his previous thoughts went to the back of his mind.

"Thanks, Crash. Let's head in deeper. Maybe we can figure out where these tree humanoids are coming from and end this once and for all."

Crash buzzed excitedly as Lucas leaped into the sky before shooting out his tendril. He could feel his power surging and he would make use of it. He wouldn't just be surviving in this cavern, he would be striving. Whether he could level up or not didn't matter, he would make use of everything the world had given him so far.

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