He was immediately surprised at the sudden change in temperature. He knew that the cave as going to be cold, but he thought that the change would be slow and gradual, but he was utterly mistaken. The temperature outside had been roughly 35 degrees, but the moment he stepped inside he felt it drop to at least -20. If not for his cultivation, he would barely be able to move, despite the cloak and fireball. He started making his way down the cave, noticing that the cave quickly expanded until the ceiling was over 100 meters above him and the walls 400 meters apart. After a minute of ‘Light Speed’ and aura-enhanced running, the cave started breaking down into a system with tunnels in the walls, floor and ceiling. It didn’t take long for him to encounter a magic beast after he entered the system. It was a level 1 Great Owl, which He decided would be a good dummy to try out his new skills.
Orion made a finger gun and activated ‘Light Ray’. A ball of pure light formed at the tip of his index, and out of it shot a ray of light that speared the bird’s heart. It fell to the ground, lifeless. If ‘Blinding Light’ could deal this kind of damage with nascent mastery, he was very excited to reach absorbed tier. He felt a surge of energy enter his body, and to his disappointment, it was about 2 3rds of that he got from a level 1 cultivator, so it was not even enough to push him to 3.6. He carried on down the cave system, picking tunnels at random, trusting his luck stat to pick the right tunnels.
He also realized that he was alone in these caves except for wild beasts, so he had no need to hide anything. With a deep breath, he unleashed his aura and activated ‘True Form’. First, his gear melted into him, replaced with golden fur that he instinctively felt was far more durable than his mask and katana combined. He then felt his hair grow longer and longer until it looked like a luscious lion’s mane, his face elongated and stretched out, turning into an eagle’s, granting him incredible hearing, smell and 360 vision. Next, he felt mighty wings sprout from his back, covered in the same armor-fur. Finally, his hands turned into paws and his legs grew into mighty trunks, while a huge, muscular tail sprouted out of this tailbone. He had also expanded to about 10 meters in height and 25 meters in length, with his wingspan reaching about 90 meters. He still felt that he could use all his skills and was in perfect control of his body, and his durability, strength, agility and magic wielding had improved by leaps and bounds. His aura had also evolved, now giving out equal pressure to a level 4 fighter. He let out a mighty cry and continued down the cave.
Being in this form felt so natural and pure that he wished he could remain like this forever. Soon, he came across group of 3 level 3 Hellhounds. Normal Orion would have to use every trick at his disposal to survive a fight like this, and he would still barely be able to do so. However, in this form, he felt absolutely confident in his abilities. He had one last skill to try out for the first time: ‘Stone Skin’. He approached the hounds, his every step carrying absolute might. The bravest Hellhound lunged at him, its maw hanging open, revealing a set of fiercely sharp teeth. Orion waited until the beast had almost bit him and activated his skill. His feathers transformed into a super-durable rock, which the hound realized too late. Its powerful jaws closed around a stone front leg, shattering all of its teeth, causing it to retreat with soul-rending cries. The other two hounds snarled and flames appeared around them.
Scoffing at this pathetic display, Orion cast his own fireball, which thanks to ‘True Form’ had grown to a sphere of 2 meters in diameter, and shot it towards the left hound. The fireball connected with a giant boom, hurling the dog backwards, almost killing it in one shot. The fire had also spread across its skin, slowly burning it alive. Defeated, the three hounds tried to retreat, but Orion trapped them in place with ‘Telekinesis’. He sauntered over, and out of nowhere, instinct forced him to…eat the hounds! As he did, he felt their cultivation and abilities leaking into him. A familiar ding sounded in his head as the system avatar appeared.
[New skill acquired by natural acquisition: ‘Devour’. Skill permits user to consume enemies, wholly absorbing their physiques, skills, and aspects. Can only be used when both user and target are still.]
Orion’s beak dropped. This skill was incredible: his cultivation speed from killing would skyrocket, and he would quickly acquire many new skills, physiques and aspects.
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[Holy shit. Your luck thing is insane. The chances of getting a skill through natural acquisition are incredibly low. And what’s more, this skill is OP as shit.]
If Orion still had his mouth, he would have broken into a smile so wide it would have torn his skin. He quickly activated his skill and absorbed the hounds. This brought tremendous benefits: he received tremendous cultivation energy, bringing him to level 3.9. More importantly, he got his first aspect: hellfire. It had the same mechanics as fire, but it was more powerful, so it was a higher aspect. Of course, he only had nascent insight, but this greatly improved his battle power. He doubted that an average level 4.9 fighter could defeat him in an all out battle, even without ‘True Form’, which was a wild leap in power. In all of Rane, very few individuals had higher battle power than the current Orion, perhaps even none. “Wait, how do people get skills normally?”
[When a skill is created, it is embedded into the code of the universe, causing its mnemonics to appear in random places around the world. The more powerful a skill, the rarer the mnemonic. When someone encounters such a mnemonic, they simply push their power into it and it is absorbed into them, disappearing. Some people sell mnemonics at auctions for pretty good money.]
“So these things are pretty rare?”
[Yeah, but I guess not for you.]
Orion chuckled and kept moving down the tunnel. Suddenly, he felt a small tremor in the ground that slowly started getting more and more powerful until the ground beneath his feet shook violently. For a second, the tremors stopped. Orion was ready for a difficult battle and had already charged up light ray and crouched into a fighting position. Just as he was about to dismiss this as an earthquake and move on, a huge mole-like monster at level 5 erupted from the ground 10 meters in front of him. The monster was at least 150 meters in length, which was, of course, enough to make even powerful cultivators shit themselves of fear, but what was truly terrifying was that instead of having a sniffer on its face like a normal mole, the monstrosity had a gaping hole in its face lined with rows of glinting teeth that looked like they could shred griffin Orion pretty easily if he got too close.
For the first time in this world, Orion truly feared for his life. Although monsters weren’t as powerful as cultivators of the same level, a level 5 monster was still incredibly dangerous. Orion shot out his ‘Light Ray’ and it hit the creature in its side, which only seemed to anger the creature instead of really hurt it. It turned around and rushed at him with surprising speed given its gargantuan size. Thanks to his ‘Light Speed’, he was able to avoid the attack, but realized the creature was faster than him as well as stronger and more durable. It seemed that his only advantage would be magic. As if prompted by this thought, a massive stalactite shot out of the ground, attempting to spear Orion, which he hurriedly evaded. He used ‘All-Seeing Eyes’ and saw that the creature possessed the ‘Great Golem’ physique, giving it access to stone-related powers, and what’s more, it possessed the stone aspect at controlled level, massively magnifying the physique’s power. This meant that Orion was outmatched in both physical abilities and magic.
His only hope was to prolong the fight, hoping that his luck would save him. He activated flight and rose to 80 meters, then summoned a hellfire-enchanced ‘Fireball’ and shot it towards the beast. It connected, causing the beast to be pushed back a tiny bit and be envelopped in the nasty Hellfire. Aspects really were powerful. Unfortunately, this creature was no weakling, and summoned a blanket of stone around itself to smother out the fire. Although hellfire was significantly hotter and more persistent, it still eventually died out. The only attack Orion hadn’t tried yet was Telekinesis, since the creature was so massive there was no way he could really use telekinesis. He attempted reaching towards the creature’s internal organs to crush them, but was blocked by its superior cultivation.
Orion considered escaping, but the monster had created thick stone walls behind him, blocking his getaway. Now, there were only 2 ways to win this fight. Either a few weak monsters would stumble into this area of the cave by accident and Orion would use them to break through to level 4, or else one of his clansmen initiated someone with some powerful abilities. Since both of those things basically just required luck right now, he thought that his chances weren’t actually all that bad. Another stalactite shot towards him, but he obliterated it with his telekinesis. They were now at a stalemate: the creature was only able to attack Orion in the air by sending out stone attacks which he crushed very easily, and Orion had no way to damage the beast.