Chapter 84: Fragile Ant
The minutes passed silently, with Priam completely frozen in place, feeling something so painful he had never imagined it could exist.
Priam swallowed hard and tried to calm himself several times. He could not accept such a terrible fate. When he focused his senses on his own soul, beside the Nexus Seed at the center of his chest, there was a new small, rounded core.
’Whose fault was it?’
The demon clan of this planet did not even know that this race was hiding there. Those idiots who bought the information from the Alu-fiend clan were already dead.
If he could blame someone, it would be that merchant demon clan. But the problem of the Pristine Wild-Spirit race was much bigger than them.
’I have to become strong... I have to be strong enough to change something,’ he murmured mentally.
Certainly, one day he would take revenge on that merchant clan. But now, he was only a fragile ant with no ability at all.
Taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists.
A minimal remnant of Ether that had naturally recovered in his body moved toward the Pristine Core. Then...
He opened his hand, and a radiant emerald-green light appeared. This was extremely high-level nature power, typical of the Pristine Wild-Spirits.
Priam sighed deeply, without the slightest bit of happiness. Besides that...
He focused on the green window in front of him.
[System Assimilation Level: 02 (UP)]
He had fully raised everything that was missing without even realizing it. After he read the information, another window appeared.
[New innate ability acquired!]
[Manifestation of Heaven’s Will:]
[When activated, your Transcendental Anima and Wheel of Fate will temporarily lose their seal. All your innate abilities will be drastically enhanced. However, this power has a high cost and will leave you unconscious after using it to the maximum.]
[Note: This Manifestation should not exist in this world. Therefore, use it with care and wisdom.]
Priam read everything and sighed. It was not a power to use in a real battle, even if it fully unlocked his Anima and that, in theory, was good in a fight.
For a very short time, and then leaving him unconscious afterward, it would only be viable to use in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Even so, it was still useful to amplify his abilities that came from the system.
Maybe synthesize something strange that he normally could not? Or control a strange energy? Maybe the curse of the branch could be used for something with this?
Anyway, he would only test this when he was safe. Or... that warning from the system seemed worrying. Maybe using it just to test could be dangerous.
’Well... whatever...’
He soon set that aside, focusing on the nature power he could now use freely.
When he received the nature-control Magic Arts that existed among the Pristine Wild-Spirits, he had been warned that many of them were impossible even for his mother’s race to use.
They were extremely high-level things, and few races in the world would have any chance of using them. That was because the energy they could control and use was very subtle.
But now... this Primordial Pristine Core gave him something truly pure and terrifying...
Of course, he was not perfect; after all, he was not a Pristine Wild-Spirit. But... he had the system’s energy control.
In other words, he had even greater potential than a Primordial Pristine Wild-Spirit.
"Fuck it... there’s no way I can feel any joy from this..."
Priam murmured, feeling like the worst piece of trash for now having this core inside him.
"..."
It took Priam a long time to calm the emotions in his heart before turning to leave.
Fortunately, the people of the Dark Peak clan still did not know about this place.
He had also fled the city very abruptly, and his speed had been absurdly high. Since the most powerful Mages were not in the city, but in the clan somewhere else, he was certain he had not been followed.
But it would not take long for someone to start investigating the deaths of those two, who seemed to be important people, and then finally find this hiding place.
Priam left the place and quickly headed to where he had fought those two.
...
...
...
He could only walk with his own legs, so it took almost half an hour.
When he arrived, he carefully searched through the scattered remains of the two.
After a few minutes, he finally found their spatial rings.
Without wasting any more time, Priam took everything valuable and stored it in his spatial ring. He did not dare take their rings, or anything he did not know what it was.
Then he turned and ran toward a river that existed a few kilometers away from there.
He washed himself, removing all the blood and changing clothes.
Fortunately, he always carried extra clothes, as well as food and other things. His mother had taught him to always be prepared to stay several days away from everything.
***
Five days later, Priam calmly walked toward the main city of this planet.
He had kept himself away from everything and everyone on the planet until the dust settled.
During those days, he saw countless demons searching for something. But a planet was something very large, and at the level of the Mages of this planet, they did not have the senses to investigate such a vast area.
At most, they could use their numbers to search. But there were always flaws in this type of search. Even so... in the mortal plane, there should not exist a Mage capable of identifying this and hiding for very long.
When a Mage used their senses around them, a trace of their Ether spread out.
Unfortunately for them, when Priam focused using his system’s domain over the air, it enhanced his senses in an abnormal way. He could perfectly notice the regions free from the demons’ senses, and moved while escaping perfectly.
Priam became certain. If he loved killing and assassinating people, with the help of the system, he had the potential to become the greatest Mage assassin who had ever existed.
Fortunately or not, just thinking about that already made Priam feel immense disgust.
If it was necessary to act in the shadows and kill some people, he would certainly do it. But actively seeking to do that was impossible for him.
Returning to the present.
In the city, everything was as before. Countless demons from the clan were still monitoring the teleportation inscription. In other words, he still could not go back.
He entered an inn and stayed silently in a room.
