Damian kept his one-eye spell active, in case it was required for him to keep at least one enhancement going while killing the monsters. He didn’t mess around with other spells. Who knew what side effects there would be from using too many. He had enough liquid mana to take care of all seven beasts.
Not waiting for the morning, Damian got to work. The first monster was a massive direwolf running around the forest—right now, he was resting, wrapped around a tree near the lake. Damian simply used a wormhole to get near—the wolf woke up, sensing him suddenly. Damian sent a flurry of giant fire arrows at the guy with very flammable dark fur, then followed with hundreds of black vines holding the wolf in place as Damian used a giant sharp water blade to decapitate the thing in seconds. It had just started to open its mouth to launch some air-based spell; the green runic circle shattered, though, as its head fell off.
The timer changed from 0/7 to 1/7. Just as he had thought.
There was a giant crab monster next, then a giant snake followed by a massive troll, a flying wyvern-like thing, and at last a couple of golems made of solid rocks—runes covering the golem, and the stone was surprisingly the same as the altar. Made by the people of this civilization, perhaps?
The golems did not have any unique spells. Simple fire streams and rock bullets. Damian used multiple high-pressure water runes to effectively cut off their limbs. They were the easiest to kill.
Once again, a white entrance came as he finished them, and Damian simply walked inside. That was all it needed to become a Runebound Monarch.
Well, without his liquid mana—it would not have been easy at all. With just the spells carved on his body, the fight would indeed take more than an entire day, and he only had ten. Not to mention he wasn’t even qualified for this job, not having as much mana as the system thought he did. On his mana pool alone, Damian wouldn’t even be able to power the altar fully and would have failed before even starting.
Damian’s surroundings returned back to his room in Pigmen Castle. Barely a few seconds had gone by. His body already felt powerful, and he could indeed feel the difference of having two jobs as a second-ranker compared to just one. But all that he didn’t care about. Damian immediately grabbed his status tool and activated it.
It was there.
…[Ascension Rank 3.0 (Temporary)]…
Damian skimmed over his new job skills. It was exactly as he thought it would be—an ability to get any five runic spells on his body for quick use. There was another like a berserk; when activated, he could double his strength, defense, and agility. Both centered around making him a more powerful and better individual warrior. It was nice, but compared to his Archscript Sovereign, it was barely anything.
That job was special though—it perfectly aligned with what his strengths were. Along with the runic knowledge, it had proved to be much more powerful than it had any right to be.
Damian did not think at all and immediately activated the Ascension Rank 3.0 skill. However, a window similar to the status popped up:
—
Ascension 3.0 Requirement : (Fulfill any one of the following.)
Create a Supreme-ranked Runic Item and gather enough experience points to reach Level 225.
Kill a Legendary-class Monster and gather enough experience points to reach Level 225.
—
A small white circle was spinning beside both options. It looked like those cursor waiting icons. After a few seconds, both circles stopped and were replaced by a white double tick. Guess his past experience counted in the requirement, and he wouldn’t have to do the two things again.
Was this specific to him? Or did everyone have to fulfill some requirements according to their jobs? The enlightenment the gods gave to their followers.. Was it this?
So even without the gods helping, a person could become a third-ranker if he or she fulfilled these conditions. Each must have different ones—otherwise, this would have been figured out long ago. The gods.. Just hid this pop-up window, so no one would know what exactly it was that was required of them.
Fucking hell.. Those bastards truly are the most despicable.
They think they can control who will get the power and who will not. Even though each person had his own way of ascending and did not rely on any external help. The gods were hiding the thing that should be available to everyone anyway and then acted like they were doing a great favor when they let their followers see what it was that was there all along.
Damian wondered what the world would do if he revealed this info? But for that, he would have to give proof.. Showing his own status. That was not so nice.
Ah.. Damian decided to stop with all the overthinking and activated the skill again—this time the pop-up did not come, and he was once again back in his astral world. He was about to open the computer again when, from the side of his eyes, he noticed something was different. Damian turned back.. There was indeed something different.
The glass window of his dorm room usually showed a dark outer space with twinkling stars. However, now there was a small planet there. It was right outside his dorm room, some 2–3 kilometers away. It felt like.. No, the dorm room really was circling around the planet like one of its little moons. On instincts alone, Damian walked up to the window and hesitatingly opened it. It wasn’t real space—he knew that—and yet for some reason, he had never tried to come out here.
He sat in the open window, and after taking in the mesmerizing view for a few seconds—jumped out of it, toward the planet. He was.. Flying. Well, more like falling toward the large, greenery-filled planet.
