The air shattered.
Dozens of Crystalvores surged like a tidal wave of jagged obsidian and gleaming diamond, their limbs cracking with every lurch forward. The cavern was alive—walls glowing faintly with residual essence, the crystalline formations overhead reflecting chaos in a thousand mirrored shards. Every surface caught the light from their glowing cores, twisting it into dancing blades of color.
Denwen's heart pounded, not in fear, but in thrill.
"Let's see what this new power can do."
He slammed his palm to the ground, essence flaring in his veins.
Lvl 2 Crystal Manifestation: Active.
A shimmer swept over his skin. Translucent armor crept along his arms like fast-growing ice, covering his chest and shoulders with jagged plates of crystallized essence. His forearms thickened, hardening into gauntlets that gleamed with reflected light. Across his back, curved fragments rose like crystal wings—useless for flight, but beautiful in their brutal elegance.
The first Rank 1 leapt—mouth yawning open in a circular split, multiple crystal fangs lining the edges. Denwen ducked under its lunge and drove a fist into its jaw. The crystal gauntlet cracked the creature's lower face like a hammer through glass, sending it spinning backward, fragments scattering across the floor.
Another came from behind—he pivoted, slamming his elbow into its throat. A third rushed from the side. He ducked, swept low, and rose in a spin, his crystal gauntlet trailing sharp edges that slashed its abdomen open.
They shattered like fragile constructs beneath his blows.
And Denwen laughed.
It started as a chuckle—a whisper of madness—but grew into a full-throated, euphoric roar.
"You call yourselves disasters? This—this is a feast!"
Around him, the Rank 1s screeched and swarmed, coming in twos, threes, even fives. He moved like a predator among wolves, slamming one to the wall, grabbing another by the neck and smashing its glowing core against a boulder. With every motion, more crystal grew across his body, his armor thickening with his will.
But then—the air shifted.
Behind the swarm, a Rank 2 Crystalvore raised its arms.
Its chest split open like a blooming crystal flower, and dozens of gleaming shards hovered into the air. With a screech, it fired. The shards accelerated like bullets—blinding, brilliant, and lethal.
Denwen barely saw them coming.
Instinct screamed. He dove behind a jagged pillar as the shards slammed into the cavern wall where he'd stood seconds before, sending shards of stone and crystal everywhere.
A few struck his shoulder and back—pinging off his armor with high-pitched rings. Others cut through the edges of his arm plating, drawing blood.
"Hah... Not invincible," he muttered, grinning through gritted teeth as he emerged.
"Let's see how long your aim holds, ugly."
He zig-zagged through the battlefield, the ground slick with glowing dust and shattered limbs. Crystalvores fell around him—Rank 1s crushed under his fists and boots, turned into shattered monuments with every strike. Yet they kept coming, crawling from cracks in the walls, from fissures beneath the floor.
And always the Rank 2s watched. Five of them now, rotating slowly, firing Prism Shard Volleys at alternating intervals. Their bodies pulsed in rhythm—an execution machine.
A bolt of crystal light grazed his side, burning through crystal and flesh. He hissed but kept moving, weaving through blasts with footwork honed under Vorden's brutal drills.
He wasn't winning.
But he wasn't losing either.
And deep inside, under the pain, the blood, and the wild grin.
"Those rank 2 probably holds another unique skill that you might get if you absorb its core. I'd also not go near them carelessly" Riven's voice resounded in his head.
"Yeah, I know" he replied as he thought back to Riven's words about a potential new skill.
"Riven, would I be getting new skill each time I assimilate a core or a new law" he asked ducking under an attack smashing his fist through the face of one before using another as a body shield to block an oncoming projectile.
"Skills are always present in every awakened being; some lie dormant all through their life spans while some bloom. Every skill is made up of several laws and I am able to assimilate laws, so yes, each time you assimilate the laws from cores you gain their skills, and in due time when I level up as well you would be able to do more" Riven responded as a wide grin spread across his face.
BOOM
The crystal pillar he landed behind exploded as it was hit by a barrage of crystal projectiles causing him to move swiftly.
He remembered how difficult it was for other people to go into dungeons only for skills to be dropped rarely. Varek even told him about his 20th birthday when Sen died because they tried to go after a Wyvern with a possibility of a skill.
Skills where important weapons in a warrior's or mage's arsenal as it can be a real game changer, some skills directly counter innate abilities making them priceless, but they were rare and difficult to come by, but here he was able to get various skills just by placing his hands on dead disasters.
"Watch out" Riven suddenly shouted while he was still in his thoughts a rank 2 Crystalvore suddenly flickered as its body began to glow and moved, it's speed so fast the rank 1 Crystalvores in its path were instantly shredded to pieces arriving in front of Denwen with its arm transformed into a sharp point pulled back for a devasting blow.
Instinctively, Denwen put up his hands as a crystal shield began to form blocking the hit but the impact sending him flying back a cloud of dust rising.
PING
[System Notification]
Event: Your proficiency has risen. You can do more than just coat your arms with crystals, you can now create constructs and weapons that you can wield. Congratulations.
Result: ➤ Lvl 2 Crystal Manifestation
A notification sound buzzed in his ears as Denwen smiled, he felt his connection with his skill become deeper as he could do more with Crystal Manifestation now than just using it to coat his body with crystal and increase his defense.
"Hahahahah, now this is getting exhilarating" he laughed out loud as the glimmer on his body became brighter, he felt excited and with all the excitement he surge of endless energy surged within him as he needed a weapon to be his conduit to pass this energy through.
He racked through his brain as he remembered a unique looking weapon, one he had grown fond off back home as slowly an crystal axe began to form, one end blunt like a hammer and the other end sharper than steel.
"Come, your rocks, come be my loot" he said spinning the axe between his fingers as his essence surged channeling it swiftly breaking through the rank 2 Crystalvore before it could move.