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Licht had thought that the most painful feeling he had gotten was when he was bitten and slashed again and again by the Undead Rodent, but he now truly knew what was harder.

To get healed by healing potion!

They were a menace. When applied, they gave a soothing sensation at the start. Just like the coolness that came after eating mint but it turned worse when the wounds started to heal rapidly.

'It was irritating as hell, just like... Ants gnawing at my flesh…' Licht shuddered under that thought while shaking his head.

He was currently focusing on recuperating from his training. He hadn't moved from the same space for more than a week. Training again and again, following the manual to the last point.

Licht had a pretty good grasp of how to 'use' a sword now. Not at the level of being a master at it, but at a level of how to properly use it.

'The sword is one of the most fundamental weapons. Just like how a blacksmith repeatedly hammers a sword to make it stronger and sharper, I too have to make myself faster, my attacks more accurate with it.'

'Despite being a newbie in this field... 'thought Licht, grimacing at the fact that he was a newbie.

Whatever he did, he couldn't change the fact that he was stuck in this completely unknown place, left to fight for his life. In order to live up to his newfound desires and achieve his goal, he had to survive and become something greater than he ever was before.

But a familiar blue screen gave him some hope for the first. Instead of the harrowing missions, it finally showed something good.

--Ding!

››

[1 percent of Undead Rodent's stats can be integrated into the host.]

[Warning: The process of integration is harmful and exhausting for oneself. In one in a quadrillion, there is also a chance of corruption.]

››

[Note: It can only be done once per species, meaning, if the host kills one member of a new species, they will get 1 percent of its stats.]

[Only happens once for a species. No further subsequent integrations can be done after killing more of the same species.]

››

This single thing had made Licht elated. It was hard for him to even move from his current power level. In the last week, only three of the stats increased and even the increase in them was minor.

››

They increased by decimal values, but there wasn't anything he could do about that, so he trained in peace until he saw a small bell icon on his status screen. It housed all the messages sent to him by the system.

He removed his t-shirt and tucked it in his mouth. The system exclusively stated that the process was gonna be painful and painful in Licht's mind meant screaming. He couldn't take the chance to scream out so loud that other creatures could find him here.

Without any more waiting, Licht called out loud, "Start the integration!"

Ripples of air started flowing in the dimly lit sewers, converging on his body and then vanishing as if they were just an illusion of nature.

After the now gone air current, an indescribable pain ran through Licht as he let out a scream through the piece of cloth in his mouth.

"GHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He felt his chest shatter as he convulsed, as to try to run away from the pain inside him. A part of him wanted to stop it, but he couldn't. His mind was faltering, yet not enough to let go of his concentration.

A new sensation was taking place in his heart, as if energy was always a part of him and he was a part of it.

It now resided within the heart, but Licht's mind couldn't focus on that.

The process kept going, and he couldn't do anything other than grit his own teeth. His jaw felt as if it would fall off.

And as if to dissuade him more from this gruesome process, another unbearable bout of pain washed over his body.

This time, Licht felt as if someone was using a hammer to keep on smashing his already shattered chest. His heartbeat was beating a mile.

Even while screaming and convulsing, Licht kept repeating the same simple sentence in his mind.

'ENDURE IT! ENDURE IT! ENDURE IT!'

His entire focus was on staying conscious. He didn't know what would happen if he suddenly blacked out.

Traces of dripping blood started to appear on the side of his mouth. His body convulsed on the ground as he kept on screaming without end.

He entered a frenzied state where he could not understand if he was thinking something or yelling it. Yet, the sentence in his mind was still the same.

'ENDURE IT!'

After this week of isolated training, Licht had thought of many things. And one of them was that it wasn't just him who had these opportunities, others also had it.

If in the future he had to fight or compete with them, then he had to become better. Just stopping once will free him from this torture and die down.

Why push yourself so hard?

Was there really a need to be so hard on himself?

Constantly pushing himself to just get this torture and vague hope.

But he just didn't want to stop

Just one thought of mediocrity was all it took.

It started with a single thought, just that one thought would drown him back down. Down to the abyss that he wanted to leave so much!

He will always fight for it. Even if it took an enormous amount of time and pain.

'I won't die!'

And at last, the process finally ended.

Near the end, the pain didn't increase, but a weird feeling dawned on him.

'Ah, death. An unfamiliar yet so familiar feeling…'

Through all the pain and the feeling of his body dying, Licht finally felt the presence of death going away.

His body slowly relaxed on the ground. His whole figure was dripping with sweat and sewage remains he had gotten upon himself from all the rolling.

Licht's mind was fatigued, but his body was brimming with a new kind of power. He didn't know what the power was, but it felt grand.

Taking it easy for some time only one statement rang through his mind: 'I don't ever wanna do it again.'

Directly being just a step away from death wasn't certainly a happy and beautiful feeling. He was scared of all the 'ifs' that could have happened.

After a while of deep breathing, he opened the system panel to look at his gains from this integration process….

But what he saw left him baffled.

'WHAT THE HELL!!?? I WENT THROUGH SO MUCH JUST FOR THIS?'

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[Host Attributes]

[Name]: Licht Vanrir

[Race]: Human

[Spiritual energy]: 1

[Martial Arts]:

[Monster]: Aspect of Devil

____

[Strength]: 2.3

[Endurance]: 2.5

[Agility]: 1.7

[Stamina]: 2

[Mentality]: 5.2

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[Calamity Soul]: 0

(Still so weak…but that mentality is impressive!)

'Why does this damn thing have to give remarks every time...' thought Licht while giving the system a perplexed look.

'Ugh'

The smell of the sewer made his mood more sour, it wasn't like a rotting smell. Instead, it was a weird smell.

It changed every time Licht breathed in, constantly renewing the ways to torture his nostrils.

Dreading his life for a solid one minute, Licht just had to let go of taking the easy way out. "If I really think about it, one percent of that Rat's stats shouldn't be that high. It was around my level in most aspects. So what could be the reason…." he murmured, thinking of what could be the reason for this sudden spike in stats when he noticed something.

There was also spiritual energy! 'Mr. Flare had said that it was the real cause of awakening monsters. If it can awaken monsters, then it can also fundamentally change the human body!'

Another thought crossed Licht's mind, 'If my guess is correct then spiritual energy can do much more than I thought!'

Opening the shop panel, he browsed through the columns once again. Not missing any kind of detail and after a minute of scrolling, he found it.

[Saint Dorax's basic spiritual energy training method: 4000 Calamity souls]