Power of Runes

The air was foul, an unbearable stench clinging to every corner of the surroundings. Poison drifted through the atmosphere, heavy and suffocating, turning the land into a place where nothing natural could survive. Among that choking fog, hidden behind a cluster of jagged rocks, someone stirred from their uneasy sleep.

The figure shifted to the side, but the sudden jab of something sharp against his back made him wide awake.

I finally managed to fall asleep after putting in that much effort, and now this damned rock is forcing it all away like it means nothing…..

Ash sighed inwardly. Feeling the last traces of drowsiness leave him, he rubbed his eyes and slowly crawled out from the broken debris that had served as a makeshift shelter. Standing upright, he dusted his clothes with a few quick pats, pulled water from his space ring, and drank deeply before chewing down on a small portion of food.

The simple routine steadied his body and mind, after which he began to move once again, heading deeper into the poisonous fog.

For a while, the path remained strangely calm. No monsters attacked him, and that sudden realization made him pause.

Right….. I have to turn off my Absolute Concealment…..

The moment he willed the skill away, countless monsters turned in unison, their twisted growls rumbling through the thick haze as they fixed their eyes on him.

Ash cracked a faint smile, almost amused, and muttered quietly to himself.

"Yeah, that's much better…"

Without hesitation, he lunged forward, meeting their charge with the same savage ferocity that burned in their bloodthirsty cries.

It was already the third day since he had entered this place. Despite moving with full speed, never holding back, casting spells whenever the numbers grew overwhelming, and using his sword when they were fewer, he had only managed to reach the area where Alpha monsters, the Rank C beasts, roamed freely.

In the time since, he had already slain nearly 400 Savage monsters and around 100 Alpha monsters. Most had fallen instantly in the crossfire of his destructive spells, while the remainder had unwillingly served as training dummies for his relentless sword.

Now, as the ground trembled beneath the stampede of another hundred Alpha monsters, their crazed eyes glowing with hunger and madness, Ash did not falter. He steadied his breathing, focused on his glabella, and with sheer willpower sent a signal to his anchor, to the soul tree within him. In that split second, without the slightest hesitation, he muttered softly…

{Mini Spatial Vortex}

Unknown runic symbols bloomed to life around his hands, glowing faintly as they began to rotate in intricate patterns. At the same time, a vortex of spatial mana condensed between his palms, spinning violently until it resembled a miniature tornado, no larger than a man's head. Golden runes circled it in a bright halo, and with a swift motion, Ash hurled it straight into the oncoming horde of Alpha monsters.

It was a spell he had only recently developed, one that compressed and rotated spatial mana with terrifying intensity, warping the surrounding space. Anything drawn into it was shredded beyond recognition.

But the cost was steep. Using even this small version drained nearly one-fourth of his mana core, and if he dared to conjure a larger one, he knew his entire core could be exhausted in a single attempt.

The swirling vortex slammed into the first monster, and in an instant, blood exploded outward. The violent mana tore through its body as easily as bursting a balloon, and the spell surged forward without pause. The spinning mass carved a deep line across the ground, pulling in everything nearby with crushing suction.

Monsters that tried to escape were dragged screaming into its pull, shredded to pulp in moments.

By the time the vortex finally dissipated, only around thirty of the Alpha monsters remained standing. The rest had been reduced to unrecognizable heaps of blood and flesh.

The survivors froze, their snarls fading into trembling whimpers as fear spread among them. Their hunger was forgotten in the face of such overwhelming destruction, and one by one they turned away, fleeing desperately into the poisonous fog.

Not this time.....

Pointing Eclipse forward, he muttered...

{Levitation}

As soon as his spell finished, the sword lit up with runic symbols and rushed out of his hands, soaring into the air like a streak of light. It did not feel like a weapon leaving his grasp, but rather as if a part of his body had detached and taken flight.

As if it were the extension of his will;

He had already learned to spread his will outward, using it to sense the world around him, and to strengthen both his attacks and his control.

Now, by combining that same will with space mana, he was able to let Eclipse fly with surprising ease, as if the sword was obeying the very flow of his thoughts.

Just yesterday, after killing a large number of monsters, many had scattered and fled in fear, forcing him to waste most of his time chasing them down one by one. Even though his purpose here was to exterminate them all, he hated the idea of wasting time.

As he remembered the frustration of that endless hunt, he decided not to repeat the same mistake. This spell had been born from that thought, inspired by the flying ability of the God Slayer's sword.

Eclipse soared across the air, moving with a sharp and graceful rhythm. It pierced through monsters one after another, cutting them down effortlessly. It did not falter against distance, nor was it slowed by the restrictions of space.

Instead, it moved as though it had slipped free from the very rules of logic itself. Within half a minute, every fleeing monster was slain, and the sword curved back, returning swiftly into Ash's hand.

And just like that, Ash gained another hundred kills, the fastest harvest he had ever achieved.

Of course, it was not automatic. Every motion of Eclipse was guided by his will, and that constant control consumed his mental energy bit by bit. But since he had only just woken from sleep, his mind was fully recovered, and the drain was easy to bear.

It would be quite a good thing if there were a stat showing how much mental energy I have...

Indeed, it would be convenient, yet such a thing did not exist. He had never seen it, nor heard of it. Perhaps one day, if certain conditions were fulfilled, it might become possible, and then even his Will stat would receive the blessing from the Rune of Balance.

Wiping Eclipse clean, Ash pressed forward.

As he advanced, after walking a few kilometers and slaying more monsters, he felt the surroundings grow darker once again. The mist returned, curling around him in thin veils, but now it was heavier than before. The purplish green fog had deepened into a darker shade, one that seemed to sink into his skin and flare inside his body with a seething heat.

When will my skill evolve, at least then I will finally be free from this burning sensation.....

But there was still time before that.

Moving further into the deeper region, Ash realized he was very close to the center now. The entire environment around him had changed, as though he had stepped into a different dimension altogether.

Previously, there had been traces of a military base being built here, with signs of tents, scattered construction materials, and the remains of machinery. But now, none of those traces remained.

The ground was pitch black, covered in strange growths that looked like coral pulled straight from the ocean floor, their shapes jagged and alien.

The air was damp and heavy, carrying the faint smell of rot, and mushrooms of every kind crowded the land. Some were small and clustered together, others grew tall like trees, and a few were enormous, their caps glowing faintly in different colors, spreading a dim light through the gloom.

The sight was eerie, unsettling, and strangely beautiful at the same time.

Looks like I will be facing Apex monsters soon...

Ash was looking forward to it, after all, his stats were already around the beginning of the Master rank, even though he was still at the Beginning Adept Rank.

That meant this would finally give him a real battle, one that could truly put him in danger, a fight where struggle was not a possibility but almost certainty. The thought of it stretched his lips into a crazed smile as he poured strength into his legs and increased his speed.

He shot forward like a blur across the poisonous land, ignoring the burning sensation of toxins creeping into his body. His eyes gleamed when his sight caught his first prey.

With mana enhancing his vision, the figure became clear... a monster of enormous size. The poisonous dogs he had faced earlier would seem like mere children beside it.

Its body resembled that of a human, and its height reached as tall as a one-story house. Where a head should have been, there was instead a massive mushroom, its crown covered in countless tiny glowing blue orbs. The cap was a deep shade of red, vivid like fresh blood, while the rest of its body was bone white, with arms and legs shaped crudely like those of a person.

Clusters of smaller mushrooms sprouted from its shoulders, and from its back hung long, pale vines that swayed faintly as if they possessed a will of their own. It looked less like a creature of flesh and more like some eerie fusion of plant and monster.

The creature was moving somewhere else at first, but then its body halted. Slowly, it turned, and its head tilted ever so slightly toward Ash, as if it had felt the weight of his gaze.

An intelligent monster....??

Ash's heartbeat quickened. He knew well the meaning behind that old saying... if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you. The same was true for sentient monsters.

They were rare, but their danger was beyond measure. Unlike mindless beasts that acted only on instinct, these could think, they could plan, and they could strike with cunning precision.

Fighting a mindless monster was simple, but fighting one that carried true intelligence was not easy at all. In fact, it was one of the challenging things to do.

And now, without realizing it, Ash had drawn the gaze of one such monster.

****