As Lucius stepped forward awkwardly, he happened to catch sight of his missing sword; it was piercing a pile of stones on the path ahead of him. As he reached his newly clawed hand forward, the sword disappeared from the rocks and materialized in his grasp a moment later. As he walked forward, he quickly became accustomed to his new attributes. In fact, it seemed to him that he was able to adapt far more quickly than should normally be possible, leading him to believe that his Intelligence and Creativity might also have been enhanced by the mythification. As Lucius increased his pace, dashing ahead to meet his foe, he casually summoned his attribute panel to better understand his current condition.

Strength 29 Vitality 13 Dexterity 35 Intelligence 10 Creativity 11 Luck 5 Stamina 21 Magic Power 20 Magic Resist 10 ... ... Free Attribute 14

A smile spread across his face, exposing his sharpened fangs, as he clenched his fist tightly and continued to look at his attribute panel. He used his boosted intelligence to do some quick math in his mind, hastily calculating the extent of the changes.

"Looks like it's +5 to everything except Magic Power, which got a massive +20, and Vitality, which stayed the same."

It made sense that Vitality would not change from the mythification. Just as Whisper had explained, the two shared a constant connection in that aspect, and Lucius' Vitality would increase as Whisper grew stronger. Basically, the boost to his health was always active.

Next, Lucius glanced at his list of talents, hoping the system would explain exactly what he was capable of now. Below the list of his usual talents, there was an additional line that read mythification, but the description box contained only a row of question marks.

"That's not helpful..."

He attempted to scratch his chin as he stared at the list, but when he saw the sharp blades at the ends of his fingers moving toward his face, he decided against it.

"Pay attention, Father! The creature approaches!"

Lucius clenched his hand tighter around the grip of Matriarch's Fury as he lifted his head to gaze down the long, round tunnel. The path twisted to the right about twenty meters away, and around the bend, he saw a pair of massive pincers emerge as the centipede finally came into view. The creature's body took up most of the space, and Lucius wondered if it would be capable of turning around in the tunnel. He decided to put the question to the test to draw the monster further away from Maryanne. The dirt beneath his feet scattered as he increased the strength in each step. He could feel the air pulling at him as he raced forward, like hanging out the window of a moving car.

Lucius couldn't help but notice that he felt incredibly calm, despite dashing directly toward the deadly centipede. He had made his peace with the fact that battle and death were part of his new reality, but that didn't change the fact that fighting to the death with evil creatures from another dimension was terrifying. Now, however, those natural feelings of anxiety were conspicuously missing. He narrowed his eyes as he started to consider the possible side effects of the transformation, before pulling himself back to reality. Shaking his head slightly, without taking his eyes off his enemy, he cleared all unnecessary thoughts from his mind. Now was not the time to ponder—now was the time to place a bet with his own life as the prize.

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The creature was clearly aware of his presence because it clacked its mandibles together angrily and increased its pace the moment Lucius began to charge. It opened its pincers wide and lowered its head to meet him, but the moment Lucius was about to enter the space between the deadly jagged mouth, he pressed off the ground with all his might, suddenly disappearing from place as he launched himself into the air. Even with his incredible speed, he was too slow, and he had to pull his legs to his chest to prevent his feet from being torn off as a powerful crack shook the air around him.

The creature reacted much faster than it had in the forest and seemed instantly aware of Lucius' movements. It arched its neck backward to catch him before he could move out of its reach, but a shadow in the shape of a small bat flew into its face, surprising and distracting the creature long enough for him to pass by it. The moment he reached the ceiling, he kicked off again, launching himself toward the centipede's exposed back, and held Matriarch's Fury out before him like a lance. Upon reaching the moving wall of black armor that was the creature's back, he tested the blade's piercing power against the enemy's defenses. The tip of the magical weapon hit the black armor with a loud crack, as though a nail gun had fired, as the two opposing forces fought for dominance.

Lucius thought the blade might fail him at first, but a red radiance spread from the blade to the surface of the carapace at the moment of impact, weakening the armor just enough to allow the weapon to sink into the monster's flesh.

SCREEE

An offensive screeching noise erupted from the centipede as it felt the sword's pierce. The noise was painfully loud, but Lucius was too busy enjoying the pleasant warmth of his enemy's life force flowing into his body through the blade. The aching bruises from his feet to his chest tingled as the healing power spread over them, and he couldn't help but let out a breath of relief. He didn't have time to enjoy the moment, however. As the centipede lifted its head off the ground to turn toward him, Lucius watched as its head passed directly through the wall of earth that should have blocked its massive body. The dirt rippled like the surface of a liquid as the pair of giant pincers came flying back out first, leading the rest of the creature's body toward Lucius.

He was forced to retrieve Matriarch's Fury, running away across the dark armor as it moved in the opposite direction like a treadmill. Small bats and tendrils of shadow continued to harass the centipede. Whisper attempted to disrupt it by wrapping shadows around its legs, creating vibrations to confuse its senses, and pulling on the creature's antennae. It wasn't clear how effective those efforts were, but they were at least splitting the monster's attention and forcing it to concentrate on many things at once. Lucius stabbed and sliced as he ran. Even if he didn't break through the armor, he was still building stacks of Assassinate. Unfortunately, it appeared that attacking with the shadows did not activate the talent. It was a pity; if he had been able to boost the damage of the shadows remotely, he could have easily killed the creature without ever endangering himself.

Once he reached the end of the long body, Lucius leapt off and continued down the rocky tunnel as the centipede rapidly pursued him. As he ran, he had an idea. Without turning around, he used his incredible strength and perception to throw his sword at the creature over his shoulder. The creature ignored the flying sword as the weapon bounced off its armored face, leaving only a slight scratch in the armor before disappearing from the air just before hitting the ground. Lucius was already moving his arm before the sword rematerialized, and as he swung, the sword appeared again an instant before he completed the throw. It flew through the air and cracked against the black carapace once again. This time the throw left a slightly deeper scratch than before—it was barely visible, but Lucius' enhanced perception easily discerned the difference. As he threw the sword for a third time, a wide grin spread across his face as he discovered that Assassinate worked with throwing weapons, and that he could use his storage ring to throw his sword as many times as he wanted.

Latent talent detected

You have unlocked the talent Dimensional Manipulation

Dimensional Manipulation - Level 1

Your unique use of dimensional storage has led to the development of a talent: +20% item retrieval distance, +20% retrieval speed.