Jonathan’s body began to smoke as his golden Divinity poured into him, and his body started to light up with power. His hands twitched, and then he reached out, grabbing onto the monster’s throat. It gurgled, and Jonathan pushed himself off the creature’s blade, landing in front of it with a heavy thud.

He drew his fist back, packing as much of his remaining power into it as he could, and then surged forwards, whipping it around in a tight arc, leaving an afterimage in the air. His fists slammed into the already existing hole in the monster’s body, and the flesh ruptured, blasting chunks out of its midsection. The undead fell over backwards, its body unable to support its weight anymore. Jonathan was running out of time, as the other undead were racing towards him, but he had enough time to finish this.

The undead lying on the ground grimaced, and then began to chant something under its breath, as Jonathan approached. He drew back his fist, and struck, just as the undead finished off its spell. A thread of dark light reached out from its hand towards Jonathan, and sunk into his flesh. He was suddenly beset with a terrifying feeling of weakness, but he still completed his attack, pulping the monster's head against the ground. A wave of dark energy rushed out of its body, and into the other undead, causing them to fall to the ground, lifeless husks once more. Essence surged out of the corpses, and into Jonathan’s body, propelling him upwards in level, more than he had been expecting. He gained three entire levels from that fight, and he smiled as the power filled his body, healing him fully.

He looked down at the shriveled corpse in front of him, all that remained of the powerful being that had almost killed him. The undead had been quite powerful, and Jonathan had almost died there. If not for his sudden discovery of a new talent within himself, he would have died. To reward this, he was met with many notifications, all pertaining to his advancement in the field of runecrafting. The first one was a set of notifications that told him that he had advanced in his pathway skills.

Runecrafting has reached Student 9!

Truesight has reached Student 7!

Finding the ability to edit the runes within his skills had pushed him upwards rapidly, granting him great bonuses in both fields. He sensed that he was getting close to a breakthrough with both of the skills, and he was looking forward to what he would find in doing so. In addition, he had gained a new skill prompted by his on the fly altering of his Impact skill.

You have gained a new skill!

Sense the Weave:Legendary

You may look into the depths of your skills, and directly change the runes that are located there. Doing so will take a great toll on your body, increasing exponentially with every rune that you alter. Be sure that you do not push past your limits, as only death awaits there. While active, this skill can increase the output of your skills in a way that is relative to which rune you have empowered. To empower a rune, you must have knowledge of its concept and enough basic understanding to know its form.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

It was a great skill, and one that he would certainly be experimenting with over the coming days. He knew that this was the gateway to greater power that he had been waiting for with his unique situation, and he would have to leverage it to greater heights. The cost in pain and damage was annoying, and quite concerning too given how deadly it could be in battle, but it was worth it in the end. He had utterly transformed as a fighter while under the influence of that skill, and it was undeniably powerful. However, he would have to regulate its usage, similarly to Smite. There would come a day when both skills were too weak to even bother using, but for now, they were last resort options, only to be utilized when all else failed.

Jonathan sighed, and exited his interface, deciding to wait until later to check on his status screen. There were no large changes to it in any case, so there was nothing to bother looking at.

Jonathan made his way out of the cathedral, keeping his eyes away from the resting bodies of the undead. It almost felt perverse to be standing in there with them now, after they had met their final ends. It was like he was trespassing on the resting place of an entire civilization, and as far as he knew, he was. There clearly had been more to this place than met the eye, considering what the undead had told him.

Jonathan decided to stay here a little while longer, both to practice his abilities in peace and to find out more about the legacy of this city. From what he could tell, they had not been under the thumb of Granath, which was surprising. Given that the undead leader had spoken about the people of the Ash Heaps, as being something other to itself, told Jonathan that there had once been two rival civilizations within this world. Of course, all that was left now was this city, but there were certainly secrets hidden within this place.

A few hours later, Jonathan found himself standing in front of what looked to be an open burial pit, that stretched down into the darkness of the earth. A spiraling passageway extended down into the darkness, and there was a faint presence lurking in the place, almost as if some being dwelled within there. That being was either severely weakened, or long gone, but its trace remained.

Jonathan summoned a ball of mana to his hand, in preparation for the pitch darkness, and took a wary step down onto the staircase. There was a resounding crack, and he leaped backwards just in time as the stone shattered into pieces, showering down towards the bottom of the pit. Something hissed down there, and Jonathan grimaced. There was certainly some monster down there, even if it was not the owner of the presence that Jonathan had felt. From what he had heard, the pit was about a hundred feet deep. It was surrounded by a few of the ash covered ruins that dotted this area, and seemed to be a part of their structure, given the way that they were placed around it. It clearly had been some sort of important feature within the city, given its prominence.

Jonathan leaned over the edge, and then decided to go down into it. He lowered himself over the side with his hands, and then began to scale the side of the wall, heading down into the pit. The sides were smooth, but he was able to create handholds for himself with his mana, making small spherical depressions in the wall in order to hold himself up with. He could hold himself up quite easily at this point, meaning that he didn't have to make the holes with any sort of grace. Jonathan clambered down this way, and reached the bottom a minute later, leaving a trail of small holes lining the wall of the pit. He leaped off at the last stretch, and landed securely on the ground, which was a mix of loose ash and what looked to be powdered bone.