38 Chapter 38: Transcendence III

But as a Transcendent, it had the intelligence to figure out what Herbert intend to do, the moment it looked back, it rushed towards herbert from a different angle.

Bang!

Even though Herbert had perfectly released it at the right time, the position of his target had changed. This resulted in his arrow narrowly missing by an extremely small margin. The White-Horned Snake only suffered a scratch which wasn't worth mentioning. But regardless of it, the mere fact that he was hurt by a mere human who has yet to reach the Transcendent rank was humiliating.

Not wasting the opportunity, it then charged at Herbert to neutralize the highest threat. It had recognized that the only one that could harm and even potentially kill it was the human who had spoken earlier.

Herbert's heart almost skipped a beat. Fortunately, he was able to quickly materialize new feathers to form his wings to escape. After outmaneuvering the Transcendent monster in front of him, Herbert started to feel his blood boil.

"This- am I ranking up?"

As an awakened, there are three main ways to gain more power. The first is through the accumulation of constant practice of their bloodline powers, this was the slowest but most stable way to achieve a higher rank. The second is to use Monster Cores as a supplement to aid their strength to increase their rank, however, this was expensive and exhausts the potential of its user as it dilutes the bloodline power that is accumulated inside the body. Only those without talent would use this method as real geniuses would never choose to deduct their future capabilities for temporary gain. The third and last main way to gain power was to enter a life-and-death battle with a monster of a higher rank, this was something that the Sword Saint had discovered before his death and reincarnation. According to him, facing the pressure of someone from a higher rank in a do-or-die scenario can stimulate the bloodline to enter a chaotic state which could help promote someone's rank. This method has a slim chance of making someone rank up and it was also the most extreme and dangerous out of the three, only those who are confident in their strength could pull it off and are willing to try it.

Being a son of the Ravenmoon family, the original Herbert had experienced this type of battle before. And to completely become his replacement, Albert had also been forced to experience this type of advancement so he was fairly confident in his strength. At that time, he had successfully killed his opponent but he did not manage to rank up. This time, he intends to use this as an opportunity to do so along the way.

Because he was still being chased around by the Transcendent White-Horned Snake, Herbert could feel that this was the necessary pressure that he needed. If he continued, he would enter a dangerous state where he should not be disturbed.

To make sure that he could successfully become a Transecnedent, Herbert gathered all the air in his lungs and shouted so that all his guards could hear.

"Phase 3!"

After saying that, his guards were pleasantly surprised. Since they were part of this, they knew that this was one of the goals that Herbert has set as his mission objective.

They could not let him waste this opportunity to become a Transcendent, so they quickly entered an offensive mode. Previously, their goal was just to become a sidetrack to temporarily grab the attention of the White-Horned Snake so that Herbert could deliver his finishing blow. If Herbert did not trigger the right amount of stimulation that his bloodline needs to rank up to become Transcendent then this would have been the end of it.

However, since the conditions are all met, what Herbert needed this time was to completely Transcend and reach another tier of strength. To accomplish this, Herbert needed to enter a peaceful and meditative state.

Knowing this, his guards quickly replaced him in fighting the White-Horned Snake that allowed him to retreat to a safe distance.

He then sat down on the ground and once again dispelled the black feathers surrounding his body. With his eyes closed, Herbert calmed his breathing. He could already feel his body emitting a higher temperature than usual. The pressure that the Transcendent monster in front of him emitted was a great catalyst in helping him promote to become a Transcendent himself. However, he has yet to perfectly grasp the chance to do so, which meant that it was still up to him whether or not he could succeed.

As he clutched his chest, he started gathering the power of his bloodline on his forehead. He then took in a deep breath and began to concentrate. In his head, he imagined the image of a bird. This bird was black and had its wings spread out as it flew across the night sky.

"No, this is wrong. The book says that my bloodline should have originated from the Argent Moon Raven."

After he muttered this, Herbert changed the image in his mind. Soon the black raven that was flying across the sky flew closer to the bright full moon. As if it had become blessed by the moon's light, its black feathers started to change into a lighter shade. Eventually, it completely turned into the same silver color as the moon. It turned from being the death god's ominous messenger into an ethereal divine beast that glistened with holy light. The bird had transformed and gained extra pairs of wings. As it flew into the sky, it spread its four pairs of wings, its eyes were as blue as the deep sea, while its feathers were as white as pure snow.

"This should be the one."

Although he had never seen it before, he had a powerful imagination that he had managed to deduce its appearance just by using the descriptors that were used when he was still reading the book.

With that as a base, he began to circulate the energy around his body. Similar to what he had told Ingrid during her awakening, Herbert focused all of the energy that he could muster and directed it on a point in his forehead. He could feel his veins pulsing out from his body. Although it wasn't something that he couldn't handle, there was still traces of pain that erupted from his body now and then.

The current energy on his body was in a liquid-like state where it was free to flow wherever Herbert needs it, however, to reach the Transcendent level, this liquid-like state should be changed and converted into a solid-like state in the area around his forehead.