White specks of light seeped out from the rats’ corpses. The light-formed threads swirled and weaved as they converged on the corpse of the burrow rat king.

‘Interesting….’

Zyrus knew what those threads represented; they were the souls that belonged to the rats slain by him. This was intriguing because this marked their ‘True’ death in the sanctuary.

ERerererkkkk

Unlike those faint shapes of white light, the vague figure a rat appeared on top of the burrow rat king. Not only did it have a distinct shape but it also had a will of its own.

It consumed the souls of its kind and slowly its shape became more and more clear. The wailing and crunching sounds made this a terrifying sight. Still, Zyrus was glad about his decision of keeping the burrow rats' corpses.

His happiness was short-lived though, as after feeding the soul of the rat king made a snarling face at him. Zyrus realized the positives and negatives of this incident.

Since he had used the rat's corpses along with their king, its soul had become strong. He assumed he’d gain a more powerful trait after this. On the downside, it would be difficult to deal with the empowered soul.

Despite his expertise on arcana, Zyrus’ knowledge was limited when it came to the workings of the soul. A startling change took place on the corpses which made him feel even more uneasy.

The rats’ bodies withered at a visible rate while bright red chains popped out from their hearts. A thicker and barbed chain popped out from the rat king's corpse as well.

KRiiiiii

The soul of the rat king howled as all of the chains pierced various parts of its body. Even Zyrus felt a chill down his spine at this sight.

It was extremely difficult to attack someone’s soul in the first two rings. Even he, a regressor, didn’t have a single counter against soul attacks in the first two rings.

Fortunately, he wasn’t on the receiving end of an S ranked talent.

[Blood Fusion initiated]

[Target: Burrow Rat king]

Traits:

Earth movement

Concealment

Note: The blood of Sylvarix is required to start the process.

 

A red screen popped up in front of Zyrus as he was observing the rat king's soul. Without hesitation, he took out his bloodspine spear and cut his palm.

‘Here goes nothing,’ Zyrus clenched his teeth in anticipation and held out his hand.

Blood dripped down from his palm but instead of falling down, it was consumed by the red chains. At the same time, he felt his mana and vitality drop at a rapid pace.

Zyrus was calm despite the sudden change. His attention was completely focused on the rat king’s soul.

Struck with a sudden inspiration, he also activated his Eye of Annihilation. He expected to see some traces of the rat king's source of origin, but to his disappointment, there was no such thing.

For a moment he even doubted his instincts. Just as he was getting impatient, an unexpected change took place once again.

TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Zyrus felt an immense suction force inside his head. It was as if a whirlpool had formed inside his brain. The pain he felt at this moment was beyond excruciating.

Then, just like what happened to the rats, his soul was also pushed out from his body. It was at this moment that Zyrus felt his intuition was right.

‘Eyes that can see the unseen…’

He realized many things at this moment. The Eye of Annihilation was now able to see a trace of the metaphysical realm. He didn’t know which direction this skill would evolve in, but one thing was for certain: The views seen by these eyes would forever change his perspective.

The separation of his soul wasn’t a first-time encounter for Zyrus. What surprised him, however, was the scene he saw with his eyes.

Tendrils of platinum energy covered the sky and the earth. Every piece of cloud and every blade of grass was connected to these threads. His own body and the rat king's soul were no exception.

Everything he saw was bound by these hair-like threads. In his thousand years of existence, it was the first time Zyrus had seen a majestic sight like this.

He was all too familiar with these platinum threads. Despite it being his first time seeing them, he knew what they were thanks to his keen intuition. The intricate workings of the sanctuary were revealed by Eye of Annihilation.

Time seemed to stop at this moment as Zyrus was lost in his thoughts. Of course, he knew that time wasn’t stopped in reality; it was his perception that had changed.

The threads that looked as feeble as cobwebs contained the power of space and time. They were made by the laws that even he, an archmage, was unable to understand.

The skill’s core function was to see and influence entities in the metaphysical realm, one of which was his source of origin.

Zyrus looked down and saw his crudely made source that contained his insights and life experience in the realm of Void. The insights he gained in this instance were just as valuable as the blood fusion. It was a pity that he couldn’t observe for long as he had to do one more thing before his mental energy ran out.

‘Welp, I would have raised my intelligence if I knew about this.’

Zyrus shrugged with lingering regret as he felt his dwindling energy. Without further ado, he did what he was supposed to do from the start.

He, or to be exact, his soul grabbed at the rat king’s soul. The latter struggled in his hand, but it was futile. How could a mere rat fight against his willpower?

Its soul was sucked inside his mouth along with its very existence. Just like it had devoured the other small rats, Zyrus did the same. The effect was much faster this time. For someone like him this was no different than a kid eating a candy.

His vision blurred as his soul merged with his body once again. The blood-red chains also disintegrated into bloody particles and seeped into his scales.

Zyrus’s depleted mana and vitality recovered within seconds, and this wasn’t all.

[Blood fusion Successful!]

[You have obtained the Trait: “Earth movement”]

[You have absorbed the bloodline of the burrow rats!]

[Vitality +10, Agility +3]

 

After the string of messages a surge of information flooded his brain. It was a direct transfer of memories and knowledge possessed by the burrow rats.

Zyrus knew how to travel underground as if he had done it his entire life. It seemed as natural as breathing and walking.

His physique also underwent subtle changes. His scales darkened in color while his claws became thin and sharp. His tail was also noticeably thinner as the scales around it became more compact and polished.

Hours went by as Zyrus slowly got used to the changes in his body. As the final reward he had obtained 10 vitality and 3 agility due to the racial evolution.

Compared to this though, Zyrus was more concerned about the use of his Eye of Annihilation. He was getting more and more confused as he learned new things about the sanctuary. Everything looked the same as it did before. The world he saw was the same one he knew before his regression, and yet, his vision had changed.

He felt like the sanctuary he knew in the past life was nothing but a mirage. Even with his remarkable willpower he was unable to calm down his raging emotions.

“Need some help?”

“Aurora… you noticed that too, huh.” Zyrus sighed as he looked at his good old friend. At this point he was no longer surprised by her sudden appearances.

“Moron.”

“What?”

“I didn’t just notice it, I was the one who gave you the opportunity in the first place.”

“Right. You intentionally made me break the balance by giving me bad luck, all so you could interfere in the name of ‘balancing things out’. Clever.”

“You’re only half right,” Aurora smirked as she fluttered around Zyrus.

“I won’t ask more questions if that’s what you’re waiting for.”

“Why?”

“I’m not in the mood to hear things like ‘Now’s not the time’ or ‘I’m not able to reveal that’. I’d rather get strong first and find the answers myself,”

“Tch.. how boring. I thought you’d beg me.”

“Dream on,”

“beh-”

Zyrus chuckled as Aurora stuck out her tongue in annoyance. However, their positions were swapped in the next instance.

“Let me guess, you want to level up and get stronger in the sanctuary with your past knowledge, all the while training with your source of origin on earth. And when the time comes to confront the Eternals, you’ll show them your hidden power and crush them. Sweet revenge, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah my foot. You think you have time for that?”

It was Zyrus’s turn to feel annoyed this time.

“1000 years are enough even if some things go wrong. I’ll definitely become strong enough in just a couple of centuries,”

“You barely have a tenth of that time,”

“…”

“Don’t give me that look. Your plans won’t work because of a very simple reason.”

“…”

“You, my dear friend, Fucked up.”

“Can I hit you?”

Zyrus really felt like flicking her forehead. When and where did he make a mistake?

“No.”

“Whatever. Spill the beans,” Zyrus grumbled at Aurora’s smug face. He wouldn’t have teased her if he knew that he’d need her help this soon.

“As much as I’d love to see your face like this, we can’t afford to fool around,” Aurora spoke in a serious tone as she sat beside Zyrus.

“You went into a dungeon, right?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t need me to continue then.”

“….Fuck.” Zyrus grimaced as he came up with the only logical conclusion. The answer was obvious whenever dungeons were involved. Just as Aurora had said, the plans he made were completely off the charts. Forget about getting stronger to get revenge and revealing hidden truths; his first priority from now on would be survival.

He didn’t know how or why, but the cruel reality was undeniable.

The dungeon on Earth had broken out, and he had to face it all alone.

 

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