*Drip* *Drop*

A drop of water fell on Jake, waking him up. He opened his eyes, feeling the warm ray of sunshine on his skin.

The scenery was beautiful. He could hear birds chirping, leaves singing, the occasional rustles of small bushes, and the rhythm of the raindrops.

'Perfection!' Jake commented, after the battle with the ape, he never felt so whole, like he had been sleeping all his life only to have just awoken.

His thoughts were interrupted by a mild headache lingering in his head since the battle.

Looking at the warm sun, Jake discerned that it was a day after his fight with the ape. He was still in the exact position he killed the beast, on the skull.

Touching his skin, he realized it was dry with blood and though his injuries have not been fully healed, they have at least closed.

'Hmm, I need to get a bath, or else I would start to smell,' Jake thought.

He stood up from the carcass of the beast, took off his stinky clothes, and offered himself to the rain.

The rain was a blessing to him. Most people would die from taking a nap in the forest and Jake straight up slept for more than five hours.

This was only possible due to the rain. As most beasts relied on their sense of smell to hunt, they would be terribly hindered amidst a rainfall….The rain protected him.

Jake smiled as he was washed afresh by the rain. After that, he washed his clothes, as he wouldn't want to walk out of the forest naked.

Putting on his clothes, Jake felt the headache again.

Ever since he woke up, he had been feeling a splitting headache and he felt more drained mentally than physically.

'It must have been the ability I used to defeat the ape. It drained my mind of juice, now I feel lucid and dreamy,' Jake solved the mystery.

Whatever ability the eye--the Akashic eye had, it was clearly too soon for him to use it.

To be honest, the appearance of the eye left him confused, as the eye had not been with him before his rebirth, but Jake didn't dwell on the topic as now was not the right time for that.

He looked at himself through a clear puddle of water on the ground.

'As expected, I'm still perfect,' Jake said clearly impressed by what he saw.

With short jet black hair and a delicate face, Jake's beauty would stand out anywhere he went.

'Hmm?'

Jake noticed something different about his appearance. His eyes were now heterochromatic. His previously right blue eyes had changed to a purple one, while the left blue one remained the same.

'This is the Akashic eye,' said a stunned Jake.

Before, he had previously thought that the eyeball was within his body, but now, he was convinced that the eyeball was his right eye, except for some reason, the appearance was too different from what he saw.

Thinking at a fast speed, Jake surmised that the purple eye was the semi awakened form of the Akashic eye.

He put the matter to rest for the meantime as he saw the rain was about to stop.

With great difficulty, Jake dug his hand into the ape and pushed out three spikes from its back. They would serve as replacements for his bone swords.

After making sure he was ready, Jake began to run to the entrance of the Dark Forest. Now that he had killed the ape, he was in more danger.

His speed was faster than ever as he blitzed past trees like a cheetah.

…..Sure enough, after five minutes of running, the sounds of raindrops stopped and the clouds cleared the path for the beautiful radiance of the sun.

…..but that was far from what was on Jake's mind. He was thinking of how screwed he was.

He realized he could see some hidden eyes from the bushes, watching his every move. He picked out his pace as he tried to throw off his watchers.

*Roar!!*

Jake heard a terrifying roar that echoed throughout the forest. It was what he had been worried about all this while.

Ever since he encountered the curved spike ape, he knew this would happen. While beasts were known to be cruel, that didn't stop them from being vengeful. Now that he had killed the child of the King of the outer forest, he reckoned he would be chased from every corner of the forest.

...To top it off, the father of the ape he killed, the king of the forest, was known to be intelligent and commanded beasts far stronger than it, that was its true strength, the reason it ruled this part of the forest!

'What is this feeling,' Jake thought.

His eyes were not at the back of his neck, but he could feel some beast chasing him.

It was surreal. Suddenly, he felt the looming spin of death on him.

'Duck!'

He ducked as a sharp stone flew past his head's previous location. He understood what had just happened. He had sensed something fast enter his proximity and reacted to it.

It was the ability of sixth sense, and it most likely came from the Akashic eye. Before his rebirth, he had also possessed a sixth sense of mighty power. He could sense an attack 10 feet away from him, he could effortlessly dodge barrages of bullets. He had achieved many feats with just the sixth sense.

So, with his experience, Jake began to use his sixth sense more fluid. He started to move faster as he avoided most of the obstacles in his path.

….Out of nowhere, a panther jumped at Jake. The panther was black and had two tails.

Of course, Jake had sensed it but there was nothing much he could do other than dodging, as it was too fast.

Other creatures popped up from nowhere to take a shot at the grand prize, Jake.

'How are they finding me? Wait, the smell of blood, the rain only washed the blood away, it didn't wash away the smell. Shit!'

While he was running, Jake took out his spike sword as he stabbed at a beast lunging at him….without even looking.

It didn't matter to him how many beasts attacked, they would all suffer the same outcome, Death!

With his sixth sense, he could sense which one was a threat and thereby killed it before it had any chance.

With great momentum, Jake jumped on a tree branch and began to run on trees. At first, it was hard to keep his balance, but gradually his movements became smooth and fluid like a baby bird taking its first flight.

'What is that?' Jake mentally cried.

Behind him, he saw multiple shadows rushing at him with full speed. They were immensely faster than Jake. Jake reckoned they would catch up to him in no time.

'It seems like there's no escaping this,' Jake bitterly smiled.

Pausing his footsteps, Jake threw his spare spike sword at one of the shadows. Judging by the shape of the creature, which was like a lion, Jake threw it at its chest, aiming for the heart. The spikes were gotten from the curved spiked ape; it was deadly and sharp.

Thus, the spike failed to disappoint as it killed the beast instantly.

Jake firmly grabbed the remaining two spikes with his hands. He was preparing for the upcoming battle. Taking a deep breath, he dashed at the group of beasts.

All of them were feral demonic beasts. They were stronger than him physically, but with the spikes in his hand, he was confident in killing them.

As a previous prince, Jake had trained with some of the best combat masters his foster parent's kingdom had. While they were not cultivators, they had fully understood the concept of combat, perhaps even more than some cultivators.

He had also trained with M, with who he couldn't see the depths of his power.

So, presently, when in danger, he managed to activate his battle talent, which he called Ares. It was not a talent at all, but something that he developed when being taught combat class by M. It was a skill only wielded by the best of the best. He called it a talent as while other geniuses possessed strong battle instincts, Jake's was of first-class and unrivaled. It was even praised by M, who has seen a lot of geniuses.

Dashing at the beasts, Jake stabbed a lunging snake at both sides of the head.

He looked straight at the group of beasts….then he saw it.

At the center of the group was a curved spiked ape, quite similar to the one he killed. It was astonishingly huge, taller than a tree, and its hide was filled with terrifying spikes. Looking at it, Jake remembered the pain its child gave him and trembled. If his child could mess him up that bad, what about the father?

'Shit! I thought I could handle them, but I didn't think the ape would be among them,' Jake lamented.

Previously he had used his sixth sense to measure their strengths; they were feral beast, but the ape was a feral beast that could battle Graded Demonic beast.

Jake was despairing, he could feel his hesitation.

'What do I do? What can I do?'

He could see the ape's furious eyes peering deep at him, demanding vengeance.

Five feet apart. That was the limit of his sense. That was also the accurate distance between him and the ape.

The ape had stopped upon seeing Jake, waiting for him to take the first move. It waited for him patiently like a hunter watching its prey. The other beasts also stopped upon seeing their king stop.

'I am foolish.'

Jake began to berate himself as he thought too much of himself. He thought he was still a god when in truth he was very far from that. He thought he was safe after escaping his fate. He acted like he is above all when he is vulnerable and mortal.

All these truths bit back at Jake, as he feels he is about to die. Even though he was very used to the feeling of death, Jake felt an intense amount of chaos in his head. If before, he was always confident that he would survive, now he was absolutely not SURE.

He was like a boat in the sea. Unsure of whether it would ever see land again.

This made Jake realize one of the side effects of his rebirth. His mentality changed. As one always says, the minds of Gods are different from the mind of men. Along with his godly status, his god's mentality and psyche were also gone.

This leads to a second realization that he would need to temper his mind from the start again. As he is now vulnerable to most mental ailments like despair and fear.

…...and it was exactly despair that he was feeling right now

'Snap out of it,' he mentally slapped himself.

Still shaking in his bones at the sight of death, Jake summoned an unstoppable amount of courage and faced his fear. He faced the group of beasts calmly and coldly, unlike a berserker, without worrying about his body.

"AHH!," he shouted as he took the first move….

He rushed at the first beast he could see, a panther. While the beast clawed him, tearing his skin, Jake pierced its heart...He moved on to the next beast, a wolf.

The wolf had known he would be coming for it, so it lunged its jaws at the human. Jake side rolled, dodging it, but he was bitten by a snake, who sneaked upon him.

Focusing on the fight, he stabbed the skull of the snake.

Immediately he did a backflip, as the wolf attacked him from behind. He grabbed hold of the wolf's tail and stabbed it through its ass.

After the attack, Jake started to brutally stab the wolf's body. After an intense stabbing, he left the wolf, not bothering to check if it was dead.

Jake turned behind just before a bear could tear him apart, but he didn't dodge even though he sensed it. He traded his body for a chance to stab the beast….and he didn't waste it!

Like that, another beast fell.

Under the ecstatic feeling of blood, Jake did not notice when he broke through to the next stage, [Stage 3 Physique Modeling].

He continued slaughtering beasts one after the other until it was only him and the ape left.

The ape had watched as Jake fought, it didn't interfere with his fight.

A spike retracted from its skin as he grabbed it and threw it at Jake.

Jake was caught off guard, but he still managed to dodge the attack, even though it grazed his left arm.

The ape didn't waste any time; it jumped at Jake, punching him far away, but Jake was not the same as he was before. He used the force of the attack, redirecting him to a safe distance between him and the ape.

He had noticed that behind the ape was still another group of beasts.

Also while he was killing, he had felt something in him. It was not like the feeling of breakthrough, It was different. If a breakthrough felt like a build-up of energy, this feeling felt like something was being broken in his body.

After organizing his thoughts, Jake went back to battle. He tried to avoid the ape as he killed the new group of beast

Jake felt a crack open up in him like he was in an eggshell and about to come out, which is ironic considering he had already done that once.

He was like a bird breaking out of its cage. He started to feel a surging emotion in his body as if he was getting excited. His body started burning hot and red.

All of a sudden, a purple light grew out of his body. It unleashed a strange whirlpool that absorbed grey lights coming out from some dead beast bodies.

The purple whirlpool was nefarious, It made the beasts feel like they were looking at their natural predators. The purple whirlpool began to furiously spin, its attraction force was not immense, which was strange.

It kept spinning to no avail. It seemed more like it wasn't interested in what it saw. The whirlpool's spinning increased to the peak, dawning a new purplish devilish color.

After the emergence of the glow, strange grey lights came out of the dead bodies. It went into the whirlpool. Some of them tried to resist, but they all suffered the same fate, sucked into the purple abyss domineeringly.

Every time, it sucked a grey light, Jake would feel energized and filled with boundless energy to the brim, but that was not the case as he still felt weak. He then wondered where the energy went and what was it for, if he couldn't even sense or use it.

Taking advantage of the phenomenon, Jake killed more beasts with the purple whirlpool behind him, sucking out grey lights.

He appeared behind the ape.

The ape, still stunned by the presence of the whirlpool, was stabbed in the heart by Jake. It was anti-climatic. The ape which was supposed to be Jake's toughest opponent died…. Easily.

The whirlpool continued absorbing grey lights from the surrounding. Its purple glow became more intense, so intense that it blinded Jake.

The purple glow then dimmed. Immediately, it unleashed a burst of light that swept a wave throughout the whole forest. Everyone in the Kingdom could see it.

Jake felt something different about the new purple light. After an investigation, he suddenly understood, the purple light had silver-grey dots in it.

The purple whirlpool then went back into Jake's body, hiding.