The cave was no different from a second home for Ray.
It's silence did not unsettle him.
The damp stone, the mineral scent in the air, the faint pulse of mana beneath the earth—none of it was unfamiliar.
It was comforting.
He walked deeper into the chamber where the miniature world shimmered within stone walls.
Streams flowed upward in defiance of gravity. Veins of moss pulsed faintly with life. The air trembled under a dense concentration of mana.
But Ray did not pause to admire it.
There it is.
His gaze shifted toward the far-left wall—a stretch of stone no different from the rest.
To anyone else, it was solid rock.
To him—
It was a door.
A faint smirk touched his lips.
Thousands of years…
I lived here for more than a hundred thousand years.
He stepped forward without hesitation and placed his palm against a specific stone—third from the bottom, slightly warmer than the rest. His fingers pressed inward.
Click.
A deep grinding rumble echoed through the chamber.
Dust fell in thin sheets as ancient mechanisms stirred awake. The stone surface split along nearly invisible seams before sliding aside, revealing a narrow, shadow-filled passage beyond.
Ray showed no surprise.
He had opened this door countless times—though not in this lifetime, but his previous one.
Without hesitation, he stepped inside.
The hidden chamber was smaller than the outer cave—but far more oppressive.
The air felt heavier.
Denser.
As though something terrifying still lingered within.
Ray took three steps forward—
And stopped.
At the center of the room lay a corpse.
Or rather—
What remained of one.
The flesh had long since decayed, leaving fragments of darkened sinew clinging to an immense exoskeleton. Even partially collapsed, its frame towered like a fallen monument.
Curved horns, broken at the tips.
Rib-like plates layered in overlapping armor.
Limbs thick as ancient tree trunks.
And even now—after thousands upon thousands of years—the skeleton emitted a suffocating aura.
Terrifying.
Dreadful.
Ancient.
The pressure rolled outward in silent waves, compressing the air itself.
Ray's breath stalled.
His body refused to take another step.
Even from a distance, his bones felt heavier. His blood slowed within his veins.
His experience from his previous life recognized it instantly—
This was not an ordinary demon.
Nor even a high-ranking one.
The aura was incomplete—eroded by time—but its core Authority remained intact with an aura of Divinity.
A lingering will.
A suppressed fragment of something far beyond mortal ranks.
Ray narrowed his eyes.
"A demigod…" he murmured.
A being that had surpassed the 9th Rank. One that had begun condensing Divinity to step toward the Realm of True Gods.
And yet—
It had fallen here.
Dead for ages.
Reduced to bone and hollow shell.
And still… he could not approach it.
The realization did not bring fear.
It brought certainty.
Yes.
This was the place.
This corpse… was the key.
The treasure.... or more like the thing which holds 'the treasure'.
Ray stood silently, calculating.
Even after endless decay, the pressure radiating from the skeleton still carried the weight of at least 7th… perhaps even 8th Grade authority.
And that was merely the remnant.
At its peak—
This existence had stood far beyond imagination.
"I can't touch the whole thing…"
His current body would shatter long before he reached the corpse directly. Extracting the entire preserved drop of essence blood would be suicide.
A full drop of demigod blood was not nourishment.
It was annihilation.
But he did not need all of it.
He only needed a fraction.
A fragment small enough to survive—
Yet pure enough to transform him.
"One percent…"
Even one percent of a single preserved drop would be more than enough to elevate his warrior path and physique and push it forward.
Anything more—
And uncontrolled divinity would tear him apart from within.
Ray slowly sat down and crossed his legs.
His breathing deepened.
Mana gathered around his hands, weaving into intricate spirals—precise, layered, interlocking with surgical refinement.
A Secret Blood Refining Technique.
Heavenfall God-Eater Blood Refinement Art.
A method he had paid an unimaginable price to learn in the primordial world—
A world where even gods were hunted or killed.
Ray's expression hardened.
Focus.
Threads of blood-red energy extended from his body, slithering across the chamber floor like living veins. They spread outward, probing every inch of the room.
Searching.
Deep within the demon's marrow—
There.
A single condensed drop of essence blood.
Dark crimson.
Dormant.
Yet incomparably dense.
The threads trembled the moment they sensed it.
But Ray did not attempt to seize it entirely.
Instead—
One thread coiled gently around the drop.
The others began isolating it, shaving away an infinitesimal fragment.
Separating.
Partitioning.
Extracting only a sliver no larger than a grain of sand.
One percent.
Suddenly–
The chamber trembled faintly.
As if sensing intrusion, the corpse's aura flared instinctively in resistance.
Ray's jaw tightened as sweat formed along his brow.
"Just one percent…"
Slowly—
A microscopic strand of crimson essence detached from the main drop.
It floated toward him.
Even that tiny fragment distorted the surrounding mana.
The cave dimmed.
The fragment reached him.
He did not hesitate.
He absorbed it.
The moment it entered his body—
Boom.
His heartbeat detonated like thunder.
Heat surged through his veins—not burning, but crushing.
His bones screamed.
His warrior energy recoiled violently, as if encountering something fundamentally superior.
Cracks spread across his skin.
Blood seeped from his pores.
His muscles convulsed uncontrollably.
The demigod fragment did not blend.
It resisted.
It expanded.
As though attempting to reassert dominance.
Ray activated the Heavenfall God-Eater Blood Refinement Art at full force, spiraling the fragment through his meridians, grinding it down layer by layer.
But even at one percent—
It was monstrously violent.
His ribs creaked.
His spine trembled.
Veins bulged dark beneath his skin.
His vision blurred.
Then—
The fragment surged again.
Not outward.
Not randomly.
It began searching.
Rushing through his meridians with terrifying intent—
As if seeking something.
His heart.
His dantian.
His very Soul.
Ray's pupils constricted.
He tried to suppress it—
But the fragment moved faster.
A deafening crack echoed within his chest.
And something deep inside his—
Soul
Snapped.