Of the seven immortal wonders of the upper Heaven, Globe of Takun takes first place. Within it resides a reality completely separate from our own, composed of different laws and Dao. It is a great treasure, one that is vital on the immortal path for numerous reasons.

  –Excerpt from ‘The wonders of Heaven’, by immortal Zin Lio.

  -Trait upgraded: Sharp claws (0) → Sharp claws (1)

  -Please select an upgrade option:

  -Sharp and deadly (1): Draw upon your Venom Glands to coat your claws in venom.

  -Rend (1): Your claws rend matter 15% better.

  -Serrated (1): Coat your claws in microscopic serrated structures, increasing lethality.

  Harry was torn between all three; all of them sounded good, but he could only pick one. The first to be eliminated was rend. While it was good, Harry didn’t need more sharpness at the moment; what he needed was lethality and versatility.

  Next was serrated, it was a good upgrade option, but it couldn’t beat sharp and deadly accounting to Harry’s seemingly all-powerful intuition, so he selected it.

  A mild amount of otherworldly power flowed up from an unseen part within Harry and fused with his venom glands, which were apparently next to his lungs, of all places. Then, they formed flesh pathways from there that led to his claws, granting Harry the ability to inject whatever he sliced with them with copious amounts of venom.

  Pleased, Harry shifted his gaze to one of the newly acquired traits, specifically [Venom Glands].

  He figured since he’d be basing his entire fighting style off them, at least partially, he might as well upgrade it and see what came of it.

  -Trait upgraded: Venom Glands (0) → Venom Glands (1)

  -Please select an upgrade option:

  -Neurotoxin (0): Imbue your venom with trace amounts of neurotoxin.

  -Hot and picy (0): Imbue your venom with properties that cause an inflated sense of pain.

  -Ultimate combo (0): imbue your venom with properties that cause an inflated sense of pain, cold, and heat.

  Harry blinked repeatedly, impressed by the upgrade options. He instantly selected the ultimate combo upgrade, not even bothering to think too deeply about the rest. Neurotoxin was a great option, but Harry didn’t feel bad for not selecting it; he was sure he’d see it again.

  The rat’s power flared, and Harry found himself being besieged by alternating waves of heat, cold, and pain. It only lasted for a second, though, then the upgrade was complete.

  Next, Harry shifted his mind to the [Adrenal Burst] and instantly sent in the 300 units of biomass it needed.

  -Trait upgraded: Adrenal Burst (2) → Adrenal Burst (3)

  -Please select an upgrade option:

  -Fight or Flight (1): Gain the ability to shift the boost to the [WIS] stat.

  -Last stand (2): Gain the ability to trigger a third, extreme boost to any given stat once [STAM] has reached 0 and the [HP] function has been triggered. The boost will last for exactly 60 seconds, after which a state of [Extreme exhaustion] will be applied for 5 hours.

  -Limitless (5): Remove trait cooldown, cost, and restrictions, at the cost of losing 50% of your total IQ permanently each time you use it.

  Harry gazed at the two bottom upgrade options incredulously, especially the last one; he’d never pick something like that, even if it meant death, it was clearly a joke option as no sane being would pick something like that.

  He was initially excited when he saw the fight or flight option, but scowled when he saw that it was a boost for the [WIS] stat. Harry had an idea of what that stat did, but it wasn’t useful to him in combat at all.

  His only real option was the last stand upgrade; it had actual combat use, the only thing that Harry didn’t like were the restrictions ,but they weren’t too bad.

  Next on Harry’s list was the [Fast clotting] trait, the rat was hoping to evolve this trait into something that could heal him or provide something akin to that.

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  -Trait upgraded: Fast clotting (0)→Fast clotting (1)

  -Please select an upgrade option:

  -Speed (1): Improve clot speed by 20%

  -Selective clotting (1): The trait gains the ability to distinguish between lethal and non-lethal wounds.

  -Speed (0): Improve clot speed by 5%

  The rat’s eyes glamed; a good upgrade option on the first try? Perhaps his luck wasn’t so bad after all. Harry selected selective clotting and moved on to the next tasks on his list: improving his attributes.

  He wanted to bring all of them to 20; that was his goal.

  Starting from the bottom, the rat instantly dumped 50 units into the [DEF] stat, blinking in surprise when that brought it to 20.

  Popping sounds echoed within Harry’s mind as his bones broke, reformed, then broke again, growing thicker each time. This cycle continued for a full minute before finally ceasing, leaving Harry drenched in sweat that leaked from tiny pores underneath his wooden plates.

  The process was painless, but it still wasn’t exactly pleasant; the sensation was….hard to conceptualize. Next was the [WIS] stat, 100 units went into it, causing it to surge until it reached 21.

  Harry felt as if a door had swung open, back in the deepest and darkest parts of his mind. From it came whispers, maddening and twisted whispers, ones that caused [Wall] to flare up crazily as it devoured and suppressed them.

  Harry and the world around him seemed to shudder, then everything went back to normal as the door closed.

  The rat trembled with fear; his mind felt raw, like a fried nerve. If it wasn’t for the protection of [Wall], Harry knew that the ‘wisdom’ that was seeping from the door would’ve consumed him, in both mind and body.

  The rat’s mind felt numb; he’d just escaped a fate worse than death. Harry instantly skipped over the [INT] stat; Harry vowed to never upgrade it and [WIS] ever again. The rat never expected dangers to be hidden even in simple things such as these, it was insidious beyond measure.

  Another hundred units of biomass vanished, funneled into the [STR] stat, raising it to 20 as well.

  Heat and incredible itching exploded all over Harry’s body as it expanded, compressed, then expanded again, each cycle bringing new levels of strength and, surprisingly, durability. Harry’s size more than doubled as well.

  The once spacious burrow now felt slightly cramped; movement was still possible, but with less freedom.

  Still, the now tashcan-sized rat didn’t mind; he was only staying here temporarily, Harry had no plans of making this his permanent residence.

  In fact, he wasn’t sure he’d make anywhere his permanent residence. In such a dark and wicked world? The idea alone was laughable.

  Perhaps one day, when he reached the zenith of strength within this world and held absolute dominion over all aspects of it.

  Harry sighed and refocused; there was one last thing he wanted to try before returning to the forest, and that was upgrading his stamina.

  He wasn’t sure if it was possible, but it was worth a shot at the very least.

  He sent his will into the interface and blinked when a thousand points of biomass up and vanished in an instant, then his stamina indicator changed as another hundred units of stamina popped up.

  He felt his power flare, but no major physical changes accompanied it other than mild itching. Harry could feel the difference, though; he felt as if he could run for longer and activate traits more.

  A part of his mind wanted to spend the remaining 300 units of biomass, but he held off and crawled out of the burrow and into the dense field of thick grass. Once, it used to be taller than him, but with Harry’s new height, he knew that if he stood on his hind legs, he’d tower over them easily.

  A childish part of him wanted to, but Harry ruthlessly swatted it out of existence; the snake’s burrow was located near one of the main roads that led to the city, and was extremely busy during the day. If he poked out his head unnecessarily and attracted the attention of something he shouldn’t, how would he handle that?

  The more the rat thought about it, the more likely such a scenario seemed; moving during the day didn’t seem like a good idea anymore. It was fine when he still looked like a normal rat, but he was well beyond that point now.

  The logical thing to do now was to return to the burrow and sleep, which was exactly what he did.

  ∞

  Harry’s blood-soked crystal whip crackled across the back of yet another cultist, immediately causing him to wail out in pain and strangely….pleasure. The naked cultist fell to the ground, convulsing as blood leaked from all his pores.

  “MOVE, SCUM!” he spat, barely controlling the murderous urge boiling within him as he kicked him.

  He knew this tactic all too well; though the man seemed to be dying, he was actually healing, just in a more twisted and dark way.

  Seeing that the cultist wasn’t willing, Harry’s eyes grew cold, and his whip vanished with a thought, and a glowing red crystal sword embedded with gems and precious metals appeared, glowing with a twisted yet somehow holy white light.

  The bleeding cultist seemed to sober up the instant the blade made its presence known, at least that’s what Harry thought until he drew near. Surprise flicked in his eyes as the cultist’s head spun around to meet his gaze.

  Fear instantly swelled within Harry as he met the man’s gaze; his eyes seemed deep, vast, and unfathomable, it was if they were no longer eyes but windows for some vast unseen entity to gaze through.

  A wail tore itself from the man’s throat as he rose from the ground. His legs twisted and bent wrongly, protruding from his flesh painfully in all the wrong places as some unseen force worked away at his body.

  Then his flesh fell off, revealing a compressed and pristine human skeleton haphazardly crushed together to form a pentagon. Suddenly, black flames roared to life within the eye sockets of the cursed skeleton, and its mouth twisted open as its gaze landed on a terrified Harry.

  ‘FOUND YOU, MY LOVE’

  ∞

  Harry perched atop a thick branch capable of supporting his weight as he gazed off into the thick darkness, his gaze shining with an invincible light that seemed to slice through the thick veil of the moonless night.

  As it turned out, the trait [Thermal vision] was pretty useful; it allowed him to view a hidden part of this world, the world of heat and how it flowed within the creatures of this world. Harry ended up loving the trait so much that he upgraded it and managed to secure a nice level one upgrade called clarity, which increased his vision range and heat signature visibility by 20%

  It took a while to get used to, but once the rat got the hang of it, he didn’t want to turn it off; it was just too useful.

  He was now skimming the forest outskirts for Rat kin, following his connection with them to his current position. In yet another clearing, a few meters ahead of the,m were four of them, sleeping soundly while disguised as useless rotten logs.

  Such a trick wouldn’t work on Harry anymore, though; he could see their heat signatures and true shape, at least part of it.

  Half of their bodies were submerged while the other half was above ground, disguised as a piece of rotten wood.

  He knew he couldn’t eliminate all five, but Harry was confident in taking out at least three if he pushed himself to the limit. His advantage lay in the fact that they were sleeping and it was pitch black, that, coupled with his improved traits and attributes, made him a terrifying ambush predator.