Caden made his way towards the decapitated phoenix laying on the ground, hoping it dropped something, and surely enough, a crystalline orb was bury within its remains. Moreover, it was the skill that summoned the two stars from the phoenix's wings.
"Oh, I actually got the skill. Man, if only the phoenix was a bit stronger, I would actually have a use for this skill. Shame it's only at the demiurge realm." Caden said with a sigh. However, he absorbed it anyway. 'Who knows, maybe it'll make a nice party trick.'
After learning the skill however, Caden was very pleasantly surprised.
「Skill: Star Channeling Strikes
「A multi-step scripture that only a Phoenix, or one that's bless by essence, is able to use. The user channels the power of stars to strike down on their opponent. The power of this skill varies based on the power of the user.」
'Hey wait, isn't this...really good?'
The skill was particularly interesting Caden because it's his first time seeing a skill that gets stronger depending on the user's power.
Just as he was about to activate this new skill and test it out, he got a signal back from one of the drones he sent to search for the chained being.
"Perfect!" he yelled as he rushed toward the signal with a grin on his face. 'I can't believe I already got the opportunity to test my new skill!'
----------------------
In an area draped with dark fog so thick, no one could see anything, a chained being laid in rest.
'D*mn gods, what are they doing? I can feel their power growing weaker and weaker! How could they possibly defend against the coming calamity with their weak power?!?' It thought, infuriated. However, the being was far too weak to muster much strength.
Suddenly, it flinched in pain. 'And d*mn this sealing array. If I was still able to act, we wouldn't be in such a situation! Not only are the gods so weak that they won't be able to withstand the upcoming calamity, THEY ALSO DON'T EVEN KNOW IT'S COMING! HOW FUNNY IS THAT?!?'
The being erupted into a fit of laughter. 'AND HERE I AM, LAUGHING ABOUT MY OWN THOUGHTS! Well, maybe the gods finally understood something from the many hints I sent them. I really hope they did, for both my sake and theirs.'
A bunch of transparent, blue screens appeared in front of it. After looking at the screens for a few minutes, the being just stood there, giggling crazily, a tinge of deep sadness imprinted in it.
----------------------
'This should be the area, right? So where is it?' Caden, who's eyesight was limited by the fog, was currently looking around in hopes of finding the being while using his crafting skill to try to create something that could block out the fog.
All of a sudden, he heard strange sound, sounding very similar to metalworking.
"What in the worl..." he muttered, as he made his way towards the sound. 'Even if it isn't the chained being, it might drop a skill orb, so there's no downside to checking it out.'
Caden was confident, as the system told him that the chained being was the strongest thing on the planet, and it was at the demiurge realm. 'There shouldn't be any issues, right?'
However, as he was slowly following the sound, he had a thought. 'If this planet's strongest creature is in the demiurge realm, why would this place be a planet that not even gods could survive in? Unless...' An excited look appeared on Caden's face.
However, he realized this a bit too late as a sword grazed past his cheek. Thankfully, his animal instincts skill allowed him to dodge the strike, or else he would've taken a sword straight to his face.
"Impressive, you actually managed to dodge that!" an energetic voice sounded out. Following that, a young man appeared from the fog. However, that wasn't what was most impressive. As the young man entered, a black cloud of swords followed behind him. Even Caden found it a sight to behold.
"Well of course, how could I not dodge such a weak strike?" Caden replied, clearly wanting to infuriate his opponent. However, forget not working, it had the opposite effect, as the young man started laughing.
"Come on kid, you could do better than that!" he said in between bouts of laughter. Clearly, he thought he had the upper hand, seeing that the opponent was trying to use underhanded methods to try and mess with this young man's mental state.
Even more than that, this "young" man was actually an old monster who happened to chance upon a rejuvenation art and regain his youth. In reality, he was actually a battle hardened master who's faced many different kinds of enemies and always coming out alive.
Compared to that, what could a greenhorn such as this do to the great him?
After hearing that, Caden just sighed. "Man, you could've at least played along. At least you would've lived a little longer. Some people just want to die I guess."
Before the young man could comprehend what Caden had just said, a bright, blinding spiral shot at him, instantly tearing through his body. Needless to say, he died instantly, without even having the opportunity to use any of the multitude of swords that he came with.
"Man, I actually thought that that guy was really strong for a second, but he turned out to be boring too. Maybe I should hold back on the grinding a bit so I can give my enemies time to catch up to my power..." he muttered before realizing he doesn't have any enemies.
"Oh right, I should get more enemies first shouldn't I?" He sighed before continuing. "I guess I'm just too nice, huh? I should try to be a bit more mean, or else I'll always be treated as a saint!"
After deciding this, Caden went to check for loot and to pick up the swords. After all, he didn't really have to worry about space due to the system's inventory, so why waste so many good swords?
As he walked by the corpse, he observed it and was pleasantly surprised. 'Indeed, compressing the sun's power into a smaller point is definitely the way to go. I wonder how much better star channeling strikes will be as I keep getting stronger...'
As he picked up all the swords, he got a new system pop-up:
「User has picked up over a 1000 swords and unlocked an additional trait of Stick of ???: Basic Sword Transformation」