God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain stared at the runes on his flesh with satisfaction in his eyes. He had completed the remaining Agility-based {Rune of Swiftness}, and the creation of the first regular runic array he had ever seen was unfolding right before his eyes.

The runes rearranged themselves by phasing across his skin as though it was the surface of an ocean. This was made possible because the changes occurring weren't completely physical, but had elements of the spiritual world working behind them.

A subtle heat unlike the pain that came with inscribing runes glided across his left leg. Eventually, the nine runes all inter lapped and formed a more solid rune that looked way more complex and outstanding than basic runes, immediately drawing Cain's eyes in.

***

{Congratulations to the host... You have successfully created a basic rune array...}

{Array of the Fast}: Type(Agility)...

Description: Grants a total of 100 extra stat points to the agility stat. The host will choose between two basic agility passive skills;

{Phantom Strike}: Allows the host to create after images when attacking or moving. This is a non-attack passive utility type skill.

{Gravity Defying}: The host gains the ability to be liberated from the pull of gravity by 50%, allowing smoother movements, higher jumps and dexterity. This skill is a non-attack passive utility type skill.

***

Cain stared at the runic array in shock while reading its description.

'Just a single array provides so many benefits? And a basic one at that?' Cain was a bit shocked but quickly calmed down and read through the skills he could choose from again.

'I'll be choosing {Gravity Defying}...'

As soon as he made his choice, the screen floating before him disappeared and he was left with a feeling of release he had never experienced in his life. His body felt lighter, almost like a set of chains had been removed from his neck.

For some, it might have been difficult to get used to the feeling, but for Cain, or was a piece of cake. Because of his high control and perception stats, he was able to grasp his newfound freedom perfectly and readjust his center of gravity appropriately.

Cain let out a sigh of relief as he took up from the ground. The pool of lava that had formed a week ago had solidified into the hard black ground, and green was slowly creeping into the area once again.

'Mana is truly mysterious...' The area should have been completely unfit for all life for years to come, but because of the strange energy called mana, life had begun to spread again only after a week. The {Broodmother} had drained the life away, but due to her death, the area could flourish once again.

If the devils had won, the place would have been further depleted, and the mana in the environment would be completely devoured by the devils and corrupted by devil essence until all life apart from devil life was eradicated.

His body creaked and groaned as he let out a sigh once again. He had sat in a single position for more than a week now without movement, so his bones and joints had gotten sore and needed a stretch.

Although he was now incredibly strong, his continuous use of mana and runecrafting, as well as his lack of rest had left him completely exhausted. After his battle with the {Flame Devil}, Forza, Cain didn't rest for even a single moment after he had regained consciousness.

And even now, he had no plans to get any rest...

His mind had been trained, but what about his body?

***

{Champion of Ashur}(locked): Inheritor of the legacy of the golden dragon, Ashur. Partially enabled. The power of a mysterious and powerful ancient celestial beast with incredible control over its immense fleshy power and extraordinary intelligence.

To activate the initial level of the legacy of the Golden Dragon, a total of one hundred scales of antiquity must be condensed. These scales can only be created through brutal mental and physical training by the host. Only when the host's body is at its peak potential would he be able to absorb even more power...

(Total Number of Antiquity scales generated): 0/100.

***

Cain was happy he realized that physical training and conditioning were beneficial for him so early on. Training increased his Ki levels, as well as granted him Antiquity scales. The ways he knew he could increase his power were by training his mind and increasing his mana and magic, or training his body and blade to increase his Ki capacity and proficiency with the blade technique had just learned.

There were many other ways, such as runes, weapons, and others, but the major ways were through magic or brute might. Now that he had the opportunity, he wasn't going to let it go to waste.

Cain stretched out his body before going through all the training sets he knew of in his mind.

'All these training methods will be useless if there isn't enough strain for my body to hold against. The only things of substantial weight I have are the {White Claw} and {Black Claw}, and I doubt they will be of much use as my strength has adjusted greatly to their weight.' Cain's mind ran through multiple scenarios before he settled on his best option for training his body.

'The only way I can think of putting my body through a lot of strain is activation {Golden Body}. Using the destructive effects of the skill, I will be able to condition my body to the skill, whilst I activate {Blood Regeneration} and {Dragon's Gate Ki Plundering Technique} to even out my loss of Ki and health points.

However, since I cannot activate {Blood Regeneration} whilst using {Golden Body}, I will have to create a magic array beforehand...

Cain instantly set out to work...

Using his newly found knowledge on the working of runic symbols and sigils, mana, and areas, he was able to replicate the effects of {Blood Regeneration} in the form of a basic, yet complex one-time activation array that allowed him to acquire the blood mana in the atmosphere passively.

With his Ki plundering technique and his {Blood Regeneration} skill, Cain figured he would be able to keep {Golden Body} active for much longer with these two skills activated.

Cain sucked in a huge gulp of air as he prepared himself mentally and physically for the maddening sensation that filled his body when he activated his ultimate physical skill...

"Golden Body..."

BOOM!

The skies above swirled in anticipation of the being that was being born into existence on the surface of the planet. A violent gale blew through as Cain's power rose drastically. However, unlike last time, he didn't explode violently with power.

Instead, the power was kept controlled, but with much effort on his part...

{Golden Blood} boosted all his physical stats, and amongst them, was the control stat, which was more of a physical stat than a magical one. Control was the stat responsible for calibrating his level of authority over his other physical stats.

And because {Golden Body} boosted his physical stats by 400%, his control stat had forcibly crossed a certain threshold. To an extent, he was now able to control his curator to the point where it didn't cause indiscriminate damage to his surroundings with just a slight movement on his part.

Cain had his eyes shut close in concentration while fighting the pain and exhaustion. One of the many effects of {Golden Body} was the fact that it caused his body to continuously break down when he used it. If he activated the skill for too long, it could even kill him.

However, with the aid of {Blood Regeneration}, the damage he suffered from the skill was being healed up fairly quickly, causing his HP to stabilize a bit. With the efficiency with which he absorbed the blood element from the atmosphere, he would be able to maintain {Golden Body} for more than fifty seconds before dying horrendously.

Cain slowly opened his eyes to reveal two sun-like orbs that emanated power and vitality on the edge of burning out, giving off their brightest flames just at the brink of its destruction, almost like the dying rays of a star.

Activating {Dragon's Gate Ki Plundering Technique}, Cain rapidly stole the vital energy of heaven and earth and siphoned it into his body, making it his own. Due to the other activities occurring within his body, not only was his Ki being depleted, but his life source was also burning up. Yet, at the same time, his Ki reserves were expanding rapidly.

The best way to plunder the vital energy known as Ki was to do so under extreme physical conditions, and {Golden Body} was as far as extreme could get.

Cain felt all these things happen at once...

He felt the terrible pain of his body breaking down together with the even more excruciating pain of it being rebuilt. He also experienced the surreal sensation of being filled with rich energy that crammed his bones and muscles with power.

At the same, as all this was happening, a strange change was also going on on the surface of his body. The very rich Ki flowed into his body like streams condensed on his skin and began to form a golden scale that was covered with various complex runic sigils and symbols.

Cain watched awestruck as three greyish-silver scales the size of a fingernail condensed in real time right before his very eyes. He could feel a very intimate connection forming with the three nails as they slowly turned less ethereal and more physical with every passing second.

As they increased in density, Cain could also feel an increase in the rate at which Ki flowed into his body. What this meant, was that his body now had to endure an even more grueling process of destruction and recreation. However, most of this Ki was sucked into the creation of the three scales...

At this point, it was no longer a physical, but a mental battle of attrition. Cain was forced to bear the painful sensations and at the same time, make sure the process never came to a halt.

This process continued for about thirty minutes before the three {Scales of Antiquity} finally condensed completely. They had the appearance of dull unpolished silver, but the amount of Ki within them was equivalent to Cain's entire Ki reserve.

Cain stared at the odd things that had formed on the back of his hands with a worried look in his eyes. The more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that every day, with every measure of power he gained, he lost a small piece of his old self.

His human nature was warping to something far more complicated and durable. However, this new body that was developing slowly didn't feel foreign to him. It still felt like his body but with slight almost unnoticeable changes.

He looked away from the scales and collapsed onto the ground, in a pool of his sweat, taking in hungry gulps of air.

'Damn... I need some rest.' Cain said as all the exhaustion more down heavily on his body and mind.

Just before he could let his mind slip into the sweet claws of unconsciousness, he felt a mana fluctuation that made him jolt alert instantly...