Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Is This What Being Strong Feels Like? (1/3)

My eyes opened after what felt like an eternity of the best quality sleep one could ask for. A cool breeze slipped past my face, causing my long white hair to flap about and stick to my face against the wind. My tongue felt dry, yet my stomach felt full and my mind felt absolutely refreshed as if I had achieved serenity within myself. 

“[Inventory],” I heard the familiar ‘Ding!’ sound in front of me. Sticking my hand into the inventory hologram before me, I watched how my hand disappeared as space warped around it and rippled once more when my hand took a pouch of cold water out. I swiped left and the hologram disappeared.

The cold water felt like an oasis against the desert that was my tongue. After a long chug of water, I threw my water pouch back into the Inventory and attempted to stretch but before I could hear any of my bones crack, I first heard something crinkling like glass, then I noticed a slight brightness from below my thighs. 

I looked down. I saw how there were two dimly glowing inner cores, the cores I had completely absorbed but what fascinated me was how I could see everything so. . .clearly. I could see the fake glimmering of energy inside the monster cores, the completely dead, microscopic veins encompassing the cores signifying that I had definitely absorbed all the energy inside them. 

“Urgh,” I let out a little groan since I wasn’t used to my new improved sight. I also felt my bodily senses return slowly to my brain but a quick scan of myself and I knew I had definitely grown stronger. Looks like I had successfully ascended to the seventh circle and turns out I was right. This circle of mortal power did provide you with superhuman levels of strength. Honestly, my legs were tingling with power as if telling me I could jump an entire tree’s worth of vertical length. And my arms? A little squeeze and I bet I could crush iron into powder. 

A bigger question then arose. “All this at only the seventh circle?” Then, I realized my mistake. Shit, not again!

DING!

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