Ethan noticed the shift in his own mindset long before he consciously acknowledged it. Even before activating his soul sense, before confirming danger or weighing consequences, he had already decided to kill. There had been no hesitation, no lingering thought about mercy or letting them walk away if possible. The decision came clean and absolute, as natural as breathing. When his soul sense expanded outward moments later, it felt less like a choice and more like instinct catching up with what his heart had already settled.

Then he moved.

In less than a blink, Ethan returned to where he had been standing moments earlier, as if nothing had happened at all. The seven men remained frozen in place, their pupils wide, expressions locked somewhere between confusion and terror. For several seconds, nothing changed. The air felt strangely still, almost peaceful.

Ten seconds passed.

CRASH.

The short man fell first. His body collapsed forward while his head separated cleanly, rolling several feet across the ground before coming to a stop. One after another, the others followed, knees buckling as if invisible strings had been cut. Each body dropped in sequence, heads tumbling away from lifeless shoulders. Only then did the faint blade of condensed energy in Ethan’s hand dissolve, breaking apart into drifting motes of light that faded into nothingness.

Against opponents like these, he had not needed real effort. A casual flick of his wrist had been enough.

And after killing them, Ethan felt nothing.

No surge of emotion. No guilt. Not even relief. His mind remained calm and undisturbed, like still water untouched by a stone. In the past, he had only killed energy users, enemies who understood the risks of that world. Ordinary people, whenever possible, he had allowed to leave alive. Yet something inside him had undeniably changed. It was not bloodlust. He did not crave violence. Rather, the reverence he once held toward life had quietly eroded, replaced by a colder practicality.

With another wave of his hand, the headless bodies and severed heads vanished. He did not send them into his soul space. Instead, he stored them inside a spatial pouch he carried on his person. The moment everything was contained, Ethan crushed the pouch without hesitation.

The internal space shattered instantly. Whatever existed inside would be expelled into the chaotic void between dimensions, scattered beyond recovery. Disposal this clean required both rare resources and precise control. In the entire energy user world, there were probably very few people capable of doing it so casually.

A spatial pouch alone was already an extremely precious item.

These men had crossed paths with Leo in Ethan’s previous life. Back then, Leo had beaten them badly, but they had caused endless trouble afterward. Ethan vaguely remembered that the short man was related to a commissioner by marriage and had relied heavily on those connections to retaliate. Unfortunately for them, this time they had met Ethan instead of Leo.

After finishing everything, Ethan behaved as if nothing unusual had occurred. He turned around, walked back into the metal shack, and lay down inside the VR capsule once more.

The world of reality faded.

Ethereal welcomed him back. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The moment Ethan logged in, a notification appeared beside his avatar. Since Morzan had been controlling the avatar earlier, the message could only be from him. Ethan opened it and discovered a recorded voice message.

Morzan’s familiar voice played, calm and unhurried.

"Kid, there’s something in the avatar’s inventory. A surprise. A gift from me."

The tone carried an odd finality, almost like a farewell.

A faint unease settled in Ethan’s chest. Still, he quickly dismissed the feeling. Morzan was absurdly powerful. On Earth, who could possibly threaten someone like him? Shaking away the thought, Ethan summoned the avatar interface and opened the inventory.

Inside were piles of top-tier ores and forging materials, each one valuable enough to make ordinary players lose their minds. Yet in the bottom right corner sat a single scroll-like item, deliberately isolated from everything else. Morzan had clearly placed it there on purpose.

Ethan focused on it.

A description window appeared.

[Forging Schematic: Ayr’s Embrace Set (Divine Tier)]

Description: Teaches the forging method for the Ayr’s Embrace armor set.

"Holly... damn."

His hand trembled slightly.

He recognized the name immediately. Ethan had once seen this set showcased on Ethereal’s official website as legendary promotional material, something players admired but never realistically expected to obtain. He never imagined Morzan would simply hand it to him.

A complete Divine-tier set.

The excitement hit first, sharp and intoxicating.

Then reality followed.

Ethan glanced at the more than two million gold coins sitting in his inventory and frowned. Forging Divine-tier equipment required staggering quantities of materials, all of them at the highest quality. That translated into an equally staggering amount of money. Two million suddenly felt far less impressive.

Still, hesitation lasted only a moment. Ethan slapped his hands together and chose to learn the schematic.

[Ding... System Notice: Ayr’s Embrace Set (Divine-Tier Forging) learned successfully!]

He immediately opened the Divine-tier Forging panel and selected Ayr’s Embrace. A long equipment list unfolded before him.

Ayr’s Embrace Helm.

Ayr’s Embrace Pauldrons.

Ayr’s Embrace Chestguard.

Ayr’s Embrace Leggings.

Ayr’s Embrace Bracers.

Ayr’s Embrace Gloves.

Ayr’s Embrace Belt.

Ayr’s Embrace Ring, Necklace, Trinket.

Piece after piece filled the screen until Ethan’s eyes nearly spun trying to process everything. The stats alone were outrageous. There was no level requirement, and every attribute scaled directly with the player’s level. The gear was restricted to Druids and boosted all four primary attributes simultaneously.

Stat increase: eighteen times the player’s level.

"That’s completely broken... no wonder it’s Divine-tier."

Ethan leaned closer to the screen, practically drooling. At level 124, each individual piece would grant him 2,232 points to every stat. The word "overpowered" barely covered it.

And then he read the set bonuses.

Ayr’s Embrace Set Bonuses

• 2 Pieces: Druids may use all skills without requiring skill books.

• 4 Pieces: All Druid damage and healing increased by 100%.

• 6 Pieces: All Druid skill ranks +4.

• 8 Pieces: Upon death, you remain active for ten seconds and gain Ancient Elf’s Blessing. Movement speed increases by 1000%.

• 10 Pieces: Immune to the first instance of any damage, control effect, curse, or negative status. Recharges every 280 seconds.

Ethan clutched his chest dramatically. "My heart can’t handle this."

His thoughts immediately drifted beyond the game. Would these bonuses function in the real world too? If they did, he would become nearly impossible to kill. An automatic immunity every 280 seconds meant ambushes would lose their greatest advantage. Even though any minor hit could trigger the effect, Ethan trusted his own reaction speed. One blocked attack was more than enough to reverse a deadly situation.

It was not just damage immunity either. Control effects and curses were included.

From this moment forward, rogues would become his favorite prey. Anyone attempting a surprise attack would only be handing him an opportunity. Even in reality, the fear of hidden snipers or sudden assassination attempts would practically disappear.

Ethan burst into manic laughter.

"Hahaha, this is insane, I’m unstop, urk!"

His voice abruptly choked off when his eyes shifted to the crafting requirements.

He nearly swallowed his tongue.

Forget the secondary materials. The very first requirement stopped him cold.

Primary Material: Any Helm (Artifact-tier).

Note: The Artifact-tier helm serves as the base item and transfers its special properties to Ayr’s Embrace Helm.

Ethan’s eyelid twitched violently.

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

An Artifact-tier item was required just to begin forging a single piece.

He had heard of inheritance mechanics before. In his previous life, a few lucky players had discovered set schematics, and the crafted gear retained the base item’s properties. That was precisely what made set equipment so powerful. Not only did players gain overwhelming set bonuses, they also preserved the stats and effects of whatever item served as the foundation.

Even a Bronze-tier set could outperform scattered Gold-tier equipment because of that synergy.

Late game, complete sets were every player’s ultimate goal.

But Ethan had never imagined a requirement this absurd.

He quickly checked the rest of the list.

Primary Material: Any Pauldrons (Artifact-tier).

Primary Material: Any Chestguard (Artifact-tier).

And so on.

"Where the hell am I supposed to find ten Artifact-tier pieces, let alone ones with stats I actually want?"

His head spun.

Originally, Ethan had planned to upgrade his existing gear by raising its level. Level upgrades were simple enough if you had money. Tier upgrades were another matter entirely. Advancement depended heavily on luck, and failure could reduce an item’s tier. Once equipment reached Gold-tier, attempting to advance to Dark Gold risked complete destruction. If it broke, the item vanished permanently.

Because of that risk, Ethan had never seriously pursued tier upgrades before.

Even if he ignored the problem of ideal stat inheritance, locating ten Artifact-tier items alone seemed impossible.

He opened the global leaderboard and navigated to Equipment Rankings. His eyes locked onto the top ten entries.

Only four items were Artifact-tier.

All player names were hidden.

That meant across the entire Dragonspire server, only four Artifact-tier pieces existed.

Ethan stared in disbelief. "You have to be joking. Even if I robbed every one of them, I still couldn’t complete the set. And two of those are bracers."

For the first time since receiving the schematic, he genuinely felt like crying.

The blazing excitement that had filled his chest moments earlier vanished instantly, as if someone had dumped freezing water over a roaring fire. He leaned back, breathing heavily while trying to steady himself. Killing seven people earlier had not affected him nearly as much as this emotional whiplash.

After a moment, he exhaled slowly and muttered under his breath, "Old man. This is your surprise? You’re messing with me."

Grumbling, Ethan closed the Divine-tier Forging panel.

But just as the interface disappeared, a thought struck him.

His avatar had successfully learned a Divine-tier schematic.

Ethan froze.

"...Wait."

Hope reignited in his eyes.

His avatar’s forging ability was not ordinary crafting. It was Divine Forging, inherited from the Wishbound Relic, the legacy left behind by Master Blacksmith Ryan. It combined three professions into one discipline: Forging, Mining, and Smelting, unified at the highest level.

If Divine Forging could learn Divine-tier schematics so easily...

Then perhaps the real question was not how to obtain Artifact-tier equipment.

Perhaps his avatar already possessed the ability to create it.