John meditated while lying down on his bed. He was mapping out a system of runes in his mind. He planned to inscribe the runes like a tattoo on his body.

But there was a problem. They would become undone when he died. Perhaps it could become a skill itself. But if that wasn't the case...

He planned on mastering it to such a level that he could carve the tattoo's in an instant using aura.

That way, when he respawned. He could recreate the runes in an instant. This also meant he didn't have to settle for one build and could adjust the runes based on his needs for that round.

He thought about connecting to his concept to use the endless processing power. But his brain would literally explode. His soul as well would go poof.

His 'will' could handle it though. But he wasn't in a rush. He had time to slowly learn how to inscribe these runes on his body.

A normal person. If they tried to do what he planned on doing. A single mistake or bad combination could make their runes useless or bring harm to their body.

Millions of microscopic cuts appeared on his skin. It then started to spread like an infection on the back of his hand. It looked like someone precisely cut a ritual on the back of his hand.

The cuts shifted and formed a magic circle.

He then guided the aura through this circle. He had no idea what sort of effect this would trigger. The aura actually started to brighten as it ran down the lines.

The cuts began to heal. But John felt something a bit weird.

He felt his concept reach out towards him. A blue light flickered in his eyes briefly. But the connection was cut before it even formed.

A blue ball of energy was forming in his hand. Something different was happening. This entire time he had been using external aura. The aura in his dantian was never used.

But he felt it draining from his dantian and filling up the blue ball of energy.

He couldn't stop it! He held out both his hands and aimed it away from the other rooms, pointing the plasma at the ground. A blast of light flashed and plasma shot out in the direction he had aimed at. This cut through reinforced materials like butter.

A meter wide hole that was about 10 meters down was in his room.

"How interesting..."

Stolen novel; please report.

The loud noises attracted his neighbors. Those also in the scouting team.

"How the hell did you create a hole?"

"Just a bit of energy manipulation."

"Is that your catchphrase or something?"

"..."

The rest of the scouting team hadn't even been able to manipulate aura yet. This woke them up and made them work far harder then they had previously.

Another week went by and results were finally seen. Half of the members were able to manipulate an extremely small portion of aura.

These people were quite depressed that there was such a difference in the amount of aura they could control versus the amount John could control.

"Don't worry about it. Comparing yourself to others isn't good for cultivation."

"With time, you will reach my level."

Another week went by. The entire team was able to manipulate aura.

The team was slowly able to manipulate more and more aura. But they weren't able to do anything insane like use the internal aura that was their cultivation.

Animus was quite happy with the progress.

He had them meet in a special room.

"It is time for the first operation."

"What is the mission?"

A power point appeared.

A weird mass of flesh was projected on the wall.

"Do you guys know what this is?"

John recognized this slightly. He had seen it as a concept. When the inhabitants of the calamity realm had made their own universes.

This should be a base of a small eldritch entity. Hidden existences normally had quite 'special' bodies. They normally had the appearance that one couldn't put into words. Merely seeing one can cause one to go insane and mutate.

Although John knew what this was. He didn't answer. It would be weird for him to have such information.

"We believe this is a base that houses one of the creatures that have invaded our reality. On this mission, there are three things you should focus on."

"The first is to collect as many of these crystals as possible"

A crystal was displayed on the wall.

"Crystals?"

"Yes. They are in the brain of those who have mutated."

"The second is to bring back the flesh from that base."

"The third. Record the situation inside of that base."

Soon... the entire team was stocked with supplies and body cameras. They had been given guns just in case. Although they were told that they likely wouldn't be useful.

There were two cargo trucks that they would be driving to the destination. These things were similar to tanks, but far faster. They had been modified to be quiet to avoid attracting mutants.

The flesh base was about 25 kilometers away. During the trip they had ran into a decent amount of mutants.

These mutants had been evolving for nearly two months now. The guns they used were like toys when dealing with these mutants.

So, they decided to conserve their bullets and handle them themselves. They had all awakened and their physique was multiple times stronger then normal humans.

But the mutants were no joke. If it wasn't for them using aura to redistribute the force of the mutant attacks and enhance their own attacks. They wouldn't have been able to survive.

John was satisfied with their performance.

He ran into a crowd of mutants and used aura to obliterate their heads.

His team watched him in awe as they saw him weaving through crowds of mutants and reaping lives like a god of death.

After a few hours and a lot of work. They had a few hundred crystals in the cargo truck.

They had also reached the flesh base.

They stopped at the outside of it. They then used the tools they had prepared to collect flesh from it. Filling up the cargo truck.

What they didn't know was that this base was a massive organism in itself.

There was already enemies on the way to their location.