God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

A satisfied burp escaped from Vincent's mouth as he walked happily before the group. Hunter had a satisfied expression in his eyes as he used a fish bone to pick at his teeth. Dan and Old Man Ling had rushed back to grab a bite before they sped away once again to continue creating the ice road.

The speed at which the ice road was being created made it so that they would reach the other Island in six hours or more. Currently, they had just passed the three-hour mark of their journey. Now that they had eaten their fill, the entire group was full of spirit and their walking speed had even increased.

Not only was the mutant beast meat packed with nutrients and energy, the thick life essence within made it so that they were rejuvenated and their wounds were healed, albeit slowly...

Cain walked a little bit behind the entire group as he fumbled around with his status screen. He started at midlevel which had barely changed over the past few weeks with a frown. He realized that he hadn't been paying attention to his leveling speed. He was only ever concerned with how many mutants or devils he could kill and how powerful his skills were.

He forgot that levels were also a fundamental aspect of his power.

What triggered this realization, was the {Alabaster Behemoth} they had just come across. Cain realized that levels and tiers were a very good way to interpret a creature's strength. If he remained at the low level he was, he wouldn't be able to get far before he was killed by a higher leveled creature.

Although he had faced high leveled creatures in the past at a lower level, the difference wasn't too great. Despite that, all his battles with higher leveled creatures were near-death battles where he had nearly died in every one of them. If not for his ability to break limits when he was pushed against a wall, we would have died days ago...

'System, how many more exp points do I need to level up?'

{Replying to host: The host currently needs 98,540 exp points to reach the next level...}

'That much?!' Cain exclaimed in shock.

{Replying to host: To get from level 45 to 46, 100,000 exp points are needed. From levels 1 to 10, 1000 exp are needed for each consecutive level. From levels 11 to 20, 10,000 exp points are needed, from levels 21 to 30, 20,000 exp, from levels 31 to 40, 60,000 exp points, and from levels 41 to 50, 100,000 exp points are needed to level up for every level within this range}.

Cain let out a sigh when he saw this...

'Give me the range of exp points I can gain from each grade of mutant beast or devil...'

{Replying to host: The grade of a mutant beast is just a quantifier of its latent potential, not its true power or energy content, although it does influence it in some way. Exp is an aggregate of the amount of power a creature will give off when it dies. It is influenced strictly by the creature's level and Tier}.

'I see...' Cain said, finally understanding the way exp worked.

'In that case, tell me all I need to know about it...}

{Replying to host: For tier 1 creatures level 1 to 100, the level of a creature, Normal grade creatures usually give from 100 to 10,000 exp, with 10,000 exp as the maximum...}

Cain paid rapt attention to the details his system provided as he walked silently...

***

Dan felt a rush of cold wind blow against his face as his legs carried him forward at extreme speeds. Carrying Old Man Ling who was as light as a feather to him, he watched the Ice Bridge in front of his very eyes.

With the speed they were moving, it would take them at least six hours to get to the central region. Due to the latent invincibility trait of Dan's {Ice Assasin} form, he was able to stay invincible alongside the person he was carrying, making it seem as though the Ice Bridge was created out of the air.

"Tell me something, Old man..." Dan said loudly to make sure his voice got through to the old man despite the heavy wind.

"Y-yes?" The Old man responded shakily as he maintained his control over his skill. Since it was a continuous overtime skill, he was able to maintain his control over it despite keeping it activated for a long time, that is until he began to run out of mana.

"How did you acquire this spell?" Dan asked curiously.

Although what had happened had been explained by Stan, it wasn't a very detailed and in-depth explanation. Since he was missing a ton of information, Dan decided to ask right from the source.

"We were granted power by the sea god, Levron who specializes in the control of water and its different phases. Since he is a weather god, he can control water in all its forms to produce rain, tsunamis, and even hail... He is truly all-powerful." The Old man had a glorifying expression as he praised the Sea god with a strange look on his face.

'Powerful, huh...' Dan had an odd look as a peculiar thought flashed through his mind.

"Well, your skill is very powerful. How do you do it?" Dan's true intentions were to attempt to decipher the nature of the skill by trying to analyze the magic circles and runes. However, this proved to be very difficult as he couldn't recognize and understand a majority of the runes.

Hence, he decided to cut through a few steps and just ask the owner of the skill...

"Well, I don't know much about the skill except how to use it." Old Man Ling said with a frown.

"Hm?! That shouldn't be possible, right?" Dan understood enough about magic to know that this was supposed to be impossible. Any creature that had access to a skill, at the very least, should have a minor understanding of the working mechanisms behind the skill or spell.

"All I know is how to activate the skill, and what actions I should make to produce certain desired effects. For example, if I do this..." The Old man said, twisting his fingers and forming a hand sign. The ice in front of them seemed to thicken and double in size, making the ice bridge twice as large.

He immediately released the hand sign, causing the expansion of the ice bridge to stop and return to its normal size.

"The hand signs, allow me to manipulate the mana output on the skill. As for how I know how much mana I have, somehow, I just know it, sort of like when you know you are no longer hungry or thirsty when you have eaten a certain amount of food." The Old man judiciously explained.

Dan fell silent for a while...

'That is odd... Hey, system, how is this possible?'

Dan decided to just ask the system, as he couldn't understand it with his limited knowledge of magic.

{Replying to host: The host should learn to open his mind to the endless possibilities of magic. While there are a few basic limitations, magic can be used to do almost anything. Time, space, and the elements will all bend accordingly when they are influenced by magic and arcane energies. It is only natural that a dead celestial being can still influence a world such as this with its powers...}

Dan had a shocked look on his face, "You mean to tell me that the god that is controlling this magic is dead? Is there a way to influence our world from the other side?" Dan nearly tripped when he thought about the dead being able to influence the land of the living. Just the thought of ghosts made him want to attack something.

{Replying to host: This sort of power is different from dark magic like necromancy. It is much more profound and knowledge of this will cost the host more system points than the host currently has}.

'Tch!' Dan clicked his tongue...

'Is there a way for me to gain such a power?' Just like anyone else, Dan was eager to increase his power. The nature of his skills made it so that he was limited by the size of his mana pool and his magic control. He wanted to change that. While Ice magic was useful, after seeing what Old Man Ling could do, he realized there were a thousand and one more ways to use his powers.

Ice elemental magic was just a paraelemental of the water element. There were many more paraelementals that he knew were within his reach. He just needed to have the means to access them. Once he did, his power would soar to new heights. Dan had a resolute wrinkle between his brows once he sorted through these thoughts...

{Replying to host: There are only two ways for the host to gain such power, one of them is studying water elemental magic theory and concepts to formulate new spells, skills, and abilities over a long period, as there is no easy way to understand magic theory}.

'What is the other way?' Dan asked curiously.

{Replying to host: The other way is by locating the remnants of dead gods to inherit their legacies...}

***

Cain took a look through his stats and compared it to the information the system had supplied him with a dark expression...

***

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 45.

Strength: 1,000.

Agility: 1,072.

Stamina: 499/783.

Vitality: 721.

Defense: 762.

Control: 74.6.

Perception: 76.8.

HP: 10,050/22,700.

MP: 17,000/29,800.

Magic: 1,226.

Ki: 31,274.

Spirit: 884.

Resistance: Poison- 80%. Fire- 30%.

Skills: : Golden Body, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, Blood Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart, Seal, Hollow Judgement, Devil's eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance, Elemental Body, Abyssal Dragon Blade Mastery Tier 1, Abyssal Crimson Slash, Spirit Sense, Gravity Defying, *Charge, *Pure Energy Strike, *Evil Devouring.

Spells: Art of Fire: First form, Flame Orbs, Air Whip, Dark Cloak, Blue Lightning, Blink, Golden Halo, 7 Golden Stars, Frozen Paths, Frost Temple.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked), Sorcerer's Mind, Blessed by Mana, Pioneer, Devil Hunter.

Free attribute points: 43.

System points 150,709.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

***

'Damn! So weak!' Cain nearly spat out a mouthful of blood when he saw that his stats were incredibly trashy compared to potential enemies and threats he could face in the future. He could tell, as the difference in stats between him and the {Alabaster Leviathan} was not just a few thousand points.

At level 100, the creature had stats in the tens of thousands, while at nearly half that level, he was just breaking the thousand-point mark in a few of his skills. He was well aware that the {Alabaster Leviathan} wasn't even close to the strongest being he would come across in the future.

{It would do the host well to know that while leveling is a good way to gain stat points, the best way to increase them is still killing powerful creatures and doing activities that increase them other than leveling...}

'Levels are still important... Seems like the next thing I will need to do is gain some levels.' Cain reasoned.

Just as he was thinking of how to gain levels as fast as possible, a loud noise, then a yell drew his attention...