The Villain Rising: Ascension of Arcane Trickster.-Chapter 216: Breaking through three ranks at once.

[Rael's POV]

"The gaze is gone." Ra's voice echoed in the domain as I looked at him. "I guess Hel did listen to you. From how quickly the gaze retreated, she must have withdrawn before it even arrived."

I smirked. "Good thing. Who knows what might have happened to my peacefully sleeping, handsome body if those two decided to have some kind of spiritual death match."

And honestly… that really was the only reason I warned her. If my body hadn't been involved, I wouldn't have cared even if she fought the Gaze spiritually, sacrificed her avatar or pulled out some god-level nonsense.

Hell, I would have even enjoyed the show with some popcorn.

"I'll go back then." I nodded toward Ra.

For the first time since I had met him, his face didn't carry sarcasm or annoyance, all I could see was exhaustion… and relief.

When I first encountered this little guy, I had been skeptical but even I couldn't deny the fact that I wouldn't have survived the Mind Harvester without him.

So I looked at him seriously.

"Thanks for everything, Ra."

A good master should appreciate and praise his sla—

…ahem, his subordinates when it's actually due

Ra gave me a knowing smirk. "Nice to see you getting humble once in a while but don't go jumping into another mess immediately. I have already exhausted most of my power now and can't drag your ass out of trouble for a while anymore."

He paused, his form flickering slightly.

"Even staying awake is becoming difficult so I will be entering my dormant state for a while."

I nodded as his body began to glow, slowly shifting into a grand book. The same form I had first met him in. The book floated silently toward one corner of the domain and settled there, motionless.

I looked at it one last time before leaving the domain without hesitation. He deserved his rest and I had no intention of disturbing him anytime soon.

The moment I returned to my physical body, pain exploded through me. My heart started pounding violently and I could feel the small terminals spread across my body cracking one after another.

I understood it instantly.

The suppression from the Mind Harvester was gone and all the energy I had been accumulating slowly through the loops was now crashing into my body at once.

"Fuck…"

I needed to break through immediately.

My eyes swept across the space and I noticed a massive tentacle of the now dead Mind Harvester twitching slightly even after its death a bit farther away.

It looked massive enough to store tens of me vertically and horizontally and aside from that, the entire hall was completely open for attack with smaller tentacles spread all around.

Perfect.

I walked toward it and sliced it open using my card, then stepped inside without hesitation.

Disgusting yellow liquid stuck to my body and clothes but I didn't care as I sat cross-legged within it.

No one in their right mind would ever bother checking the inside of a dead Eldritch creature's organ and honestly, that made it the safest place possible.

Immediately, I could feel the energy running wildly throughout my body.

I need to get it under control.

Unlike minor breakthroughs that could happen almost unconsciously, breaking through a major rank required full focus and intent.

But there was one slight problem.

After my evolution, my core had shattered and my Arcane Human race had turned my entire body into a core instead.

So, technically… I didn't even know how to break through anymore.

Still, as the mana kept circulating through me, something clicked instinctively.

I understood what I had to do.

Instead of reforging a single core, I had to reforge my entire body itself.

So, I followed the process. Instead of filling a single core to the brim by channeling mana into it again and again like how normal people do, I did it to my entire body.

I circulated the energy through my mana pathways repeatedly, forcing every drop of excess to be absorbed by my muscles, my flesh and my bones again and again until each pathway felt like it would burst, until every muscle was saturated with mana.

Only then did I redirect all the remaining energy toward my draconic heart.

Thump.

The golden heart pulsed once as it swallowed the torrent of mana.

Thump.

Another beat echoed… and then—

Crack.

My entire body began to split apart. My bones shattered, muscles tore and flesh ruptured as if my body was being dismantled from the inside. I could even feel the blood in my body being replaced by a newly created one from the heart.

The pain was overwhelming but I didn't scream as my consciousness was locked in place as destruction and reconstruction happened simultaneously. Every broken fragment was reforged stronger, denser and purer than before.

Then—

A massive wave of energy exploded outward from my body, signifying my breakthrough to D-Rank but before I could even breathe, two more waves followed, smaller than the first but just as real, rippling through the space around me.

I hadn't merely broken into D-Rank, instead I had skipped everything in between and gone straight to the peak of D-Rank all because of the absurd amount of accumulated energy that had been waiting for a moment like this.

Heh… Looks like the time spent in the loop wasn't completely useless.

I released a warm breath as I opened my eyes.

The surroundings felt clearer and my senses were on a completely different level now. I clenched my fist lightly and could feel an immense amount of strength coursing through it, as if my body itself had become a weapon.

Two system windows floated in front of me.

[Congratulations, Nexus Exclusive Skill: Wound Shift Unlocked.]

[Description: Use mana to instantly swap the position of an existing wound to another part of your body. A fatal or vital injury becomes non-lethal but the damage still exists and still hurts.]

—

[Congratulations, Nexus Exclusive Skill: Arcane Spell Unlocked.]

[Description: Your mind has surpassed the limits of those of your rank as you don't need spells to control your affinity anymore. You can command your affinity with the same effectiveness as proper spells.]

—

Damn, this is cool.

I thought as I looked at the two new skills I had unlocked. I really wanted to test them immediately or at least think about how I could properly utilize their effects but before I could do any of that—

A disgusting stench assaulted my nose.

My brows twitched as I immediately looked around. I was still inside the inner flesh of that revolting tentacle, its walls dripping with yellowish liquid but that wasn't even the main problem.

The real cause was me.

A thick, dark-black sticky substance completely covered my body, clinging to my skin like tar.

"…Tch."

The impurities.

They had been forced out of my body during the breakthrough, all the filth and waste that had been buried deep within my flesh and blood. Mixed with the already disgusting environment, the smell was enough to make anyone gag.

Yeah… this was officially the worst place to have a breakthrough in.

I instinctively reached for my cloak, trying to pull out something to clean myself and change into fresh clothes, but yeah… that bastard was still missing.

Worse, I could feel that it was fine and even comfortably chilling somewhere and yet, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't summon it back to me.

Where the hell did that bastard go?

Tch. That traitorous piece of cloth.

My storage rings were missing so I didn't have anything else either except my mask, Eidolon's tears which somehow stayed with me even through this chaotic mess.

I dismissed the system window still floating before my eyes, deciding to check my status properly once I was out of danger. Then I slipped out of the tentacle and immediately tore off the clothes I was wearing.

The fabric was beyond saving.

I used the least filthy parts to wipe my skin as much as I could before tossing them away without a second thought as the stench was simply too unbearable.

Now I was standing there with nothing but my underwear preserving the final shred of my dignity and no, I wasn't parting with that until I found clean clothes.

"I need clothes."

The thought barely formed when my senses picked up a presence.

A man stood some distance away, his back to me, scanning the area cautiously. His posture was alert, clearly someone experienced. More importantly, I saw a ring on his hand with a red gem.

Storage ring.

"Oh… perfect."

My lips curved slightly.

He probably had clean clothes, maybe water and if I was lucky, even a cleaning artifact and best of all, he had no idea I was even here, standing behind a dead eldritch tentacle like a half-naked horror movie protagonist.

I slowly leaned forward, peeking past the edge of the fleshy mass, watching him carefully.

This was fate being kind for once.