This was an unnamed place in the chaos, a desolate land where, for millions, even tens of millions of kilometers around, no other deities existed.
"Dark runes..."
Oliver focused his soul’s attention on the mass of dark breath within the gem space.
In fact, Oliver had previously obtained some dark runes from Tartarus.
But back then, the number of dark runes was relatively small compared to the death runes on its body, and Oliver’s focus of comprehension had been on the death runes.
Thus, Oliver had only mastered the death runes.
Now, it was time to fully master the dark runes.
At this moment, Oliver attempted to separate a portion of his soul and immerse it in that mass of dark breath.
In an instant, Oliver felt as though his soul had fallen into an endless abyss of darkness.
The perception of this soul fragment was completely blocked, and everything around it sank into a void of darkness.
Even more terrifyingly, the darkness was constantly devouring this soul fragment, like some kind of corrosive poison.
Oliver felt immense pain, and this soul fragment began to rapidly dissipate.
However, Oliver’s soul power was extraordinarily vast; through the soul link, he continued to channel soul power into this small fragment he had released, preventing it from being completely swallowed by the darkness.
During the process of this soul fragment being consumed, Oliver began to continuously sense the power of the dark runes.
"Darkness is the most primal state in chaos. Everything—deities, minerals, all matter with life or without—originates from darkness. Darkness is like the mother of all things..."
"But at the same time, darkness is cruel, merciless, and terrifying..."
Countless thoughts and insights flashed through Oliver’s mind.
Oliver grew increasingly familiar with the dark runes.
So much so that, at first, the soul fragment that had fallen into the dark breath was pure, shimmering with faint colorful light, but now its glow had dimmed, starting to blend almost perfectly with the surrounding darkness.
Adapt to the darkness, merge with the darkness, become the darkness!
Not only that separated soul fragment but even Oliver’s own complete soul began to emulate the state of darkness.
At this moment, if a deity were observing Oliver from the outside, they would notice that this massive, terrifying serpent’s body flickered in and out of visibility within the chaos, sometimes appearing as if it had completely vanished.
And so, after an unknown amount of time had passed, Oliver finally mastered the dark runes completely.
"My skill: Stealth... it seems to have gotten stronger."
Oliver opened his panel and saw: Skill: Stealth +3
It had directly jumped up by 3 levels!
In addition, the power of the dark runes had seeped into various parts of his body, enhancing the strength of his flesh.
This was reflected on his panel as an increase in all his basic stats!
Oliver Stark
Race: Deity
Deity Rating: 13
Attributes:
- Defense: 75,400
- Strength: 70,500
- Chaos Power: 74,500
- Soul Power: 77,000
All his basic stats had risen by roughly 5,000 to 10,000 points.
These numbers weren’t enough to level him up, but he had undoubtedly become stronger.
What intrigued Oliver the most, naturally, was the improvement in his Stealth skill. Without hesitation, he tried using it!
Stealth!
In an instant, Oliver felt his body transform into a void-like state, all traces of his presence vanishing as if he existed in another space, another dimension.
It was an incredibly wondrous state.
Oliver felt as though he were a being from a higher dimension. Even deities of the same level, or one or two levels above him, using detection skills, would surely be unable to sense his presence.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
His Stealth skill had already been powerful before, and now, having reached +3, it was, of course, utterly terrifying!
However, this skill wasn’t invincible. If a Level 16 deity used a detection skill—or if their detection skill was also enhanced to +3—they could still discover Oliver’s presence.
That said, even if they did detect him, it would take some time, which would be enough for Oliver to escape.
"Interesting."
Oliver marveled. The primal dark runes were indeed powerful. That Level 12 queen had only used these runes for attack and corrosion, without fully unlocking their potential!
Beyond being used for attack, darkness was naturally suited for stealth.
The primal dark runes could be considered the most fitting runes for an assassin.
Even though Oliver’s body was now incomparably massive—far exceeding that of typical deities, where a huge body intuitively seemed unfit for an assassin—
With mastery of these primal dark runes, Oliver could become a formidable and highly threatening assassin!
After lurking in the darkness and wandering through the chaos for a while to familiarize himself with his state, Oliver took out his newly acquired S-tier item, Bloodreaver, the Chaos Cleaver.
When not infused with blood and flesh sacrifices, the sword’s initial form was a blade of shimmering white light.
Yes, composed entirely of light, somewhat resembling the lightsabers from the Star Wars movies of Oliver’s past life.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Oliver swung the sword, slashing through the chaos.
Though he was now a giant serpent without arms, he could still manipulate the sword with his soul power—far more adeptly than he ever could with a club or stick as a human.
This was because Oliver’s soul power was simply too immense. With just a hint of it leaking out, he could perform any task with extraordinary precision and sensitivity.
And the power of this sword did not disappoint him.
"Even without sacrificing blood and flesh, this sword’s power is on par with an A-tier offensive item."
Oliver nodded, took a deep breath, and began attempting a sacrifice!
Boom!
In an instant, his terrifying body, stretching 1.6 million kilometers, started shrinking rapidly.
1.5 million, 1.4 million, 1.3 million… until it finally settled at 1 million kilometers.
In just one experiment, Oliver had reduced his body by 600,000 kilometers, causing his panel stats to drop by an average of about 10,000 points.
Sacrificing so much for a single test might seem hard to justify.
But in truth, Oliver knew full well that this sacrificial skill was critical. If he used it in a battle against another deity, it would mean going all out.
If he didn’t understand the true power of this sword in his hands and misjudged his combat strength, the consequences could be fatal.
So, even if the loss was significant now, he had to figure out exactly how much power this sword could unleash in his grasp.
At that moment, Bloodreaver, originally composed of white light, turned blood-red after absorbing Oliver’s flesh and blood. Faintly, one could even see blood flowing across it, as if it were still circulating.
Even more astonishingly, the sword transformed from its initial slender form into an enormous broadsword, its blade stretching an incredible 800,000 kilometers!
Yes, this was even larger than it had been in the queen’s hands!
This was because, even though the same length of flesh was sacrificed, the quality of Oliver’s flesh was clearly superior to that of the Level 12 queen.
This allowed the sword to unleash even more astonishing power.
"The 10,000 points of base stats I lost have been fully compensated for through it!"
Through his panel, Oliver was shocked to discover the sword’s stats had undergone a dramatic change.
[Item Name: Bloodreaver, the Chaos Cleaver]
Item Rating: S
Granted Skill: Blood Sacrifice
Blood Sacrifice: Sacrifice your blood and flesh to greatly increase the weapon’s damage, attack range, and attack speed.
Enhancement Level: +2 (Upgrade Potential)
Attack Power (All Attack Types): +138,400
Its enhancement level had actually reached +2?
Its attack power had skyrocketed from the original 30,000 points to 138,000—a direct increase of over 100,000 points?!