Ch 155 – A Glance at Apotheosis

In a room illuminated by a soft blue glow, a man can be seen sitting inside it in a lotus position. His hair was long and raven black, and his eyes were abysmal and hold endless depth, yet they also shone brightly in this softly illuminated room.

The walls of the room gleamed with dark silver glint along with being draped in a blue hue due to the floating ball of blue light situated in the middle of the room right along the flat ceiling. Like veins, blue lines stemmed from the blue ball of light like it was the heart and they all descend along the walls down to the floor and formed a ginormous blue magic circle.

Sitting in the middle of the gigantic magic circle that covers the entirety of the floor of the massive room, Isaac breathed calmly and inspected his mellow white soul.

'It seems like my soul faced some serious repercussions trying to revive Gal Ryuk. Falling from the lower stages of D Rank back to E Rank, the system also shows my Spirit is Level 2.' Isaac calmly assessed his current situation and remained calm. Even after regressing his current soul rank, Isaac didn't feel regret or anger but remained calm and rational.

'Even if I were to regress back to Level 1, just having an A Rank Hunter, and a summoner at that, as my pawn is a great investment.' Isaac grins without regret.

An A Rank Hunter is essentially a pillar that can now support Isaac fully in his current state. An A Rank Hunter holds huge power, both politically and personally. They can amass a huge amount of wealth, build businesses, and will give Isaac a lot more presence on the chessboard of Korea and the entire world.

Not only that, just the sheer financial power he gained from getting Gal Ryuk, a famous businessman, as his pawn was huge. With his thousand years of experience, he can pretty much turn Gal Ryuk's millions of dollars into tens of millions, potentially even hundreds of millions without much effort. And with Gal Ryuk becoming his loyal pawn that would obey his every command, he can more easily execute his plans without worrying for a backstab or something similar.

Political power, economical power, and personal power; Gal Ryuk essentially means Isaac is a pseudo A Rank Hunter as of now. He stands on the shoulder of a loyal giant. It would have been even better if Gal Ryuk was an S Rank Hunter, but Isaac was more than satisfied by Gal Ryuk being an A Rank Hunter.

'Braun, to think you would have so many arrangements in store for me so early on. Qian Feng has his family's famous dojo which can mean I'll have a source of trained hunters in the future, then there is also Yokota Makoto's father who would be a great pawn to eventually have Treasure Heaven under my control and be a source of greater wealth.' Isaac's eyes shone with a glint at his future plans before taking a deep breath and putting his focus elsewhere.

'Finally, I have a personal cultivation room where I constructed a magic circle that can regulate the amount of mana being transferred to me. Now I don't have to worry about regulating electricity to mana conversion and the overabsorption of mana. Though this is unfeasible for battle as any experienced mage can just destroy the magic circle.' Isaac glances at the magic circle he inscribed for a few minutes straight below him with a nod and takes another deep breath, filling his lungs with air.

Straightening his back and pointing his head straight in front of him, he closed his eyes and the dim blue lines all around the room started to shine brightly as electricity was poured into them like a torrential river. Instantly, the magic circle below him glowed brightly and illuminated the entire room with piercing blue light, and the mana density in the air started to turn denser and denser.

Inside Isaac's soul, he felt a continuous river of mana entering and disappearing from his soul as he used it to nourish his damaged soul. Slowly, his dim white soul was nourished by the endless stream of mana and regained back its pure white glow.

Letting out a breath of turbid air, Isaac felt his soul foundation stabilizing and took another deep breath. Removing any unnecessary thoughts from his mind, he puts his entire focus on the stream of mana pouring into his soul and wills it to further nourish his soul.

As his body stood still like a statue, the density of mana in the air around him continued to become denser incessantly without stopping. If one were to cast a basic spell and inspect the mana with their eyes, they would see the mana in the room has turned a dark blue hue and continued to get darker due to how dense the mana was.

Boom!

A burst of mana erupted from Isaac as the epicenter and he felt his soul returning back to Level 3 or D Rank, the elevation in strength made him halt his focus for a sec and let his soul adapt before continuing his onslaught of mana.

Endless mana and a transcendent understanding of magic were combined into one being who exerted both variables to the fullest. The flood of mana pouring into his soul was continuously used to nourish his soul, and the flood of mana never run out with mana.

Like a hungry beast, his soul absorbed the downpour of mana and it glowed brightly under his gazing inner eyes. A burst of mana, and a small grin formed on Isaac's face as he felt the rapid increase in strength.

From Level 2 to Level 4 in less than an hour gave a feeling of gratification to Isaac. Throughout his entire thousand years of experience, he has only seen this kind of rapid rise in only a few times, and such events were made through miracles and immense luck and fortune. But this is something he has done and achieve himself without much luck needed, a product born through his understanding of science and magic!

'C Rank, to think I'd reach this level in only a week after regaining my memories.' Isaac clenched his fist and lets out a breath of turbid air he has been keeping inside his lungs for tens of minutes straight.

Standing up after inspecting his soul, Isaac deactivates the nuclear reactor, the blue glow illuminating the room receding and draping the room in pitch darkness. Grabbing it, he stored it inside his body and watch it disassemble into a swarm of metallic dust in the pitch darkness.

Opening the door, a bright white light flooded the darkness and he walks up the stairs with a calm face and arrives at his living room that has been renovated these past few days. From dry walls with holes, and a floor that was uneven and full of imperfections, to now a luxurious living room with a clean and sleek design.

Dark silver walls and dark silver floors, a ball of light hangs on the ceiling created through a simple magic spell, comfortable couches, and metallic tables, a high-end TV situated on the wall, a collection of books located inside a bookshelf, plants stored on pots, and other changes that make the past and present look like hell and heaven.

Walking up to his black couch, his body plops down upon it and sinks due to how soft and plump it was. Waving his arm, a series of nanites stored in his brain activated and manipulated his perspective. Multiple windows started popping up in front of them like an illusion and he looked at one of them.

One of them showed a fierce young teen with bulging muscles and a fearsome body fighting a training bot. His long red hair akin to a river of blood swayed in the air from the strong gusts of wind the training bot threw, while he responded with his own fists that pierced through the air like a blade of wind.

A loud bang and his fist caved in the head of the training bot in front of him, slamming it down to the ground and caving in the metallic floor.

'Increase the strength of the training bot to Level 38, and have it adapt faster to Gal Jum's fighting style to increase the pressure on him and activate more of his latent potential.' Isaac ordered and Gal Jum watches the training robot stand up and the settings shown on its torso changed.

"Level 38, huh?" Gal Jum's eyes shone with crazed joy but also remained calm and rational, his muscle tensed up and he prepared for the increased difficulty.

He need not fear pain nor death, for he was already part dead. He only needs to train to his very best endlessly if the time allows for it to increase his own combat experience and strength! Endless stamina, immortality, and a fearsome talent for combat, coupled with Isaac's guidance and equipment, Gal Jum hastily grew with such speed akin to a rocket.

Turning his attention to another screen, he saw Gal Ryuk hard at work arranging Isaac's orders for the rapid changes in his business and what Isaac plans.

Another screen then showed a young teen with long black hair and shining black eyes facing against a training bot at Level 39. He wielded a metallic sword Isaac himself forged with his nanites, and he watches the two fight with fearsome skills with the sword.

Qian Feng adapted to the onslaught of attacks the training bot in front of him threw with his fearsome intellect and talent. He counterattacked whenever it was the perfect moment, defended when he needed to, dodge attacks at mere inches away from his body, and read the movements of his opponent like he already fought against them countless times.

'Qian Feng is the closest to attaining a Level 6 skill, it just shows his genius with the sword.' Isaac nodded his head in satisfaction before changing his attention to a young boy with golden hair and golden eyes.

The young teen stayed in a luxurious bedroom with the most expensive furniture and stuff one can find on Earth, yet his eyes shone with focus as he willed his mana to move in the air with such proficiency it would shock anyone out of their wits. At such a young age, his mana control is already nearing Level 6!

'Good, good, Yokota Makoto is nearing Level 6 in Mana Control! With such foundation, his mastery over alchemy would surely be like a shooting star!' Isaac grinned and dismissed the windows in front of him after inspecting them further for a while.

What grabbed his attention next was a weird black box situated on the metallic table in front of him, his eyes glowed with curiosity as he opened the box and was greeted by a conspicuous white egg. Observing the egg, he wondered inside his mind: 'No matter where I look in my memories, I have never seen this egg before.'

Even after living for more than a thousand years, accumulating a wealth of knowledge very few can hope to attain, Isaac was actually seeing something he wasn't familiar with!

His eyes then shone with green light, his vision piercing through the shell of the egg, and saw the black, gooey organism within that swished as if noticing that somebody was looking at it.

Inspecting it further for a long while, he decided to finally relent and blinked his eyes for a split moment and found himself standing in an endless library once more. Like it was his own home, he moved through it, his body teleporting from one place to another and he looked through countless books in countless sections before finally finding something that made his eyes widen in sheer shock and dumbfounded from what he saw.

'In the universe, there exists a fearsome God called Apotheosis, a being who has wrought destruction to an uncountable number of planets. Their reputation is well known to the Gods of multiple planets and its offspring are as mighty as their progenitor. They are called Devourers, beings who devour, evolve, and grow. They gather data from countless sources and give them back to their creator, allowing it to continue endlessly loving! It's already almost a Level 10 existence! A God amongst Gods!' Isaac stared dumbfounded from the surge of information entering his brain.

To think he would get the offspring of such a mighty God! A Level 9 existence! A level far above his previous peak! Slowly, his whole body trembled with cold sweat as he couldn't believe how far Braun's schemes were.

'I… I really didn't choose wrong by picking his side!' He opened his eyes in the real world where less than a second passed and he looks at the egg in front of him with gleaming eyes. To finally know of its divine origin made Isaac feel newfound awe for Braun, to even have his tentacles around such a powerful God, it makes one shudder thinking what Braun's true strength was!

Slowly, swarms of nanites surrounded the egg and Isaac grinned, killing intent surging from his body that formed a thick black miasma around him. As if sensing its perilous state, the black gooey entity inside the egg moved around desperately, but to no avail, for Isaac was simply too powerful for an infant Devourer.

AN: This chapter has 2262 words.

Augh, I love foreshadowing future characters.

(September 22, 2022 – 302nd day of writing)