Like a chilly nightmare, the recent massacre shook everyone's souls to the core.

When something goes wrong, people tend to complain to the higher-ups, but nobody complained about the lack of security this time.

The streets instantly turned busy. You could see people selling their properties at a dirt-cheap price, but...nobody was buying it. Everybody was evacuating, everybody was migrating, everybody wanted to escape from this city of horrors, that it turned in a single day.

Thousands of people dying soundlessly, bloodlessly, who could explain that? This was the story of ghosts and demons - utterly unexplainable. This crumbled the common knowledge of the people.

There were stories of strong ones, heroes, demons, and people of unimaginable powers, but in the end, something so creepily mysterious needed no questions, because nobody could answer to them and that was horrifying.

The city lord didn't stop anyone. It was rumored he had also fled.

The crumbling of the city's internal structure marked the foil of Unlaughing gang's plans. They silently dispersed to relocate in the Flamestone city and remained low key as they could no longer oppose the city lord.

The city lord himself was summoned to explain and deal with the mess his city was in. The Rosewood became deserted in a matter of weeks. The grand Mashal of Salamander locked down the Rosewood in search for the culprits. Even some paladin envoys and emissaries were dispatched from the holy church, led by Apostle knight Rodrick.

Lorian himself managed to act in time.

After getting the gold coins, he stocked the healing potions, huge quantity of holy water of high concentration, some decent low-grade artifacts to enhance his battle strength and precious materials for practicing magic.

His ailments were gone, except for the limping leg, which wouldn't heal lest he ingested some miracle medicines.

Fishing in troubled waters wasn't hard either. Elaine avenged his grudges for him and assassinated his past offenders.

Following that, the duo also vanished from the dying city.

* * *

Lorian and Elaine sat in their cabins, feeling bored. It's already been about 3 weeks since their departure.

The ship sailed at snail pace. Nothing particular was going on.

Elaine would practice with her daggers while Lorian was focused on magic.

''What's the difference between 1st circle magic and higher tier ones? It all comes down to the magic particle and its activity.''

Lorian urged an ice particle to appear on the tip of his finger.

''The magic particle takes the form of the element the host is attuned with and gains sustenance from user's mana pool. The elemental density and magic volatility determines the potential power of the particle. However, it's hard to control this volatility, which can harm the host. This is especially the case for negative alignment magic, where the energy is so berserk, it sometimes consumes the host. Greater power comes with greater responsibility, that's for sure. To control the element, one needs affinity, attunement, and practice. There's no shortcut to rising precision. It needs constant repetition and study.''

Lorian sighed as he finished reading another book. He hesitated for a while, but in the end, decided to go along with it.

''The world is nothing, but the well-constructed system. It doesn't matter whether the god created it or nature is the god itself, but one thing is for sure, there's a pattern to anything. Take the sun for example. It has its own system and sustains its own existence. I don't believe I can't create the mini system of my own with the help of magic.''

If he succeeded in creating the mini system in his own body, he could always derive power from it, which would greatly boost his strength in dangerous situations.

Determined, Lorian decided to repeat the experiment that had previously cost him his health. It was safer now since he had a huge quantity of healing liquids and his comprehension was somewhat higher too.

Lorian sat in a meditative posture and cycled cold energy throughout his body. Cold strands of ice started accumulating in his own Dantian. His body experienced unprecedented coldness, but he grit his teeth to hang on.

''That's not right. To create a mini system, self-sustaining cycle needs to be created. The energy loss should be nill so the energy rotation ensures constant and permanency.''

He controlled the strands of ice to revolve around, which dropped his body temperature at an all-time low. His muscles felt rigid and his head felt dizzy. The amount of control required to sustain the cycle was terrifying. The energy the mini-core generated in his Dantian was destructive and berserk. It threatened to collapse like last time.

Lorian grit his teeth and tried to incorporate every single bit of knowledge he had to guide the particles in a way, they would remain stable, but the pattern was not so easily drawn out. It was easy to envision it, but to control and make it work was impossibly hard.

*Bang

Something exploded in his body as he collapsed and convulsed on the ground.

''I failed again.''

Lorian thought bitterly and forced himself awake and withdrew a potion from his inventory, which grew in size by about 70% after his spirit attribute rose to 1.2

Soon, he had recovered. He closed his eyes and dwelled on his mistakes. He tried to remember the feeling of disorder and searched for ways to correct them. However, his insight wasn't that great yet. He was still a novice, so he went back on his books and continued his research.

When the time came, he stopped his research and entered the Instances realm. In the last couple of days, he entered the new floors of the instances and cleared them one by one. After acquiring the high potency holy water and adding it to the picture along with his frostbite skill boosted by magic became incredibly destructive.

He was still halfway through becoming a First circle, 1-star mage, so the boost magic gave wasn't that great, but it was certainly not negligible either.

Being at the peak of the mortal realm, his physical power wasn't that great, only reaching up to roughly 250 pounds at all out punch. His deadliness didn't lie in his raw strength though, but his ice control.

After clearing the several floors in instances, he received many new, surprising rewards, which greatly boosted his strength directly or indirectly.

The nightmare mode of the first floor was pretty challenging and the hell mode, even more so.

However, holy water of high concentration as a catalyst created ice of much higher destructive and restrictive power. The boss of the hell mode was...

Frozen wolf sovereign Farax (Elite) Mortal (5000/10000) Skills: Frostbite, Chilling fury, Ice domain, Slash flurry, Freezing howl, Lockdown

Though its skills were less, their power was scary. If his ice resistance wasn't so high, he would have frozen to death way before he got the chance to fight.

Lorian's ice was even more dominant and deadly, so this elite boss died in his hands.

The rewards were astonishingly handsome.

Frozen wolf sovereign Farax (Elite) Card

Description: The monster card can be summoned for 1 hour a day. The card disappears if the monster dies. The host can also morph into the card monster for 5 minutes and can have access to said monster's skills. Host's power level remains unchanged in the morphed state.

Monster realm: Mortal (5000/10000)

Stats:

✠ 540

⚔ 27-33

Skills:

Frostbite (Open wounds get invaded by chilling coldness)

Chilling fury (+30% agility, strength, dexterity, reflex for 3 minutes)

Ice domain (Reduces movement speed and reaction speed of foes in the range of ice domain)

Slash flurry (Accelerates in speed 5x, locks on target and slashes the target from different directions)

Freezing howl (Directly attacks foe's mind, reducing his reaction speed and movement speed)

Lockdown (Pressures the foe with intimidating aura, decreasing chance to dodge or evade by 50%)

Lorian was over the moon due to receiving this great aide. He personally experienced the ferociousness of this wolf. Though it was a pity it had a single life...He could also morph into it, but unfortunately, he couldn't test it out now.

Other than the monster card, there was also a skill book - Chilling fury! Although it was a nerfed version, increasing physical abilities by only 12% for 1 minute. It could also be leveled up, so it would get stronger over time!

And this was only the first floor. Lorian finally had the ability to sweep through the 2nd floor too and he did it.

The ghost on the second floor wasn't invisible, but half-transparent, which made things much easier. Holy water had enchanted effect on it, so this floor was the easiest pass overall.

Sentiment ghost ??? Skills: Invade, Shriek, confusion, ghostly glide

For some reason, the power level wasn't shown. Lorian was really confused about it but didn't mind since it was an easy kill.

In easy mode he was awarded x3 yin pearls, making 4 in total in his possession. He still had no idea as to how to use it.

Normal mode was rewarded with purification talismans x3

Hard mode - Minion ghost card x3. These ghosts didn't have morphing option. Lorian guessed only sub-elites or elite cards had such availability.

Nightmare mode - Low-grade artifact: Invisibility Cloak. Unfortunately, he could only go invisible for 5 seconds a day, so it wasn't enough to peep in women's bath...

...

The hell mode took horror at another level. The disgusting and terrifying ghost he had to face would give kids nightmares for years. It also used mind attacks, but in the end, it was a paper tiger and died just as easily due to vulnerability against holy water. The reward was skill: Ghostly glide and Elite ghost king Hosar card, which had a morphing option too.

The third floor was where the variant troll resided with its huge physical power, troublesome regenerative ability, and immense size. This is where Lorian had to tread carefully, especially when the trolls came in groups. Fortunately, they weren't bright creatures and their immense strength could be used against them. With force step, he was very slippery and made the trolls accidentally hit each other. Though it took a lot of time to hunt them down, they were easily exterminated until the nightmare mode.

He had beat the easy mode some time ago already.

The normal mode awarded 5x regeneration potions, which was very disappointing. After all, Lorian had a lot of healing potions stocked.

The hard mode - 3x physique strengthening potions, which he still hadn't consumed. The appraisal said it would permanently raise his physique, but the effect would be lower if he took the potions continuously.

This wasn't the only thing that dropped in the hard mode. Along with the strengthening potions, dropped a piece of yellow paper. When he appraised it, Lorian was astonished.

- What's this?

Page 36 of the book of sages

The world is vast and full of variabilities, but the great sages managed to orderly classify these variables with their wisdom.

The 'secret classification' of sages divides the organisms into 9 different stages started with existence, creature, entity...

Existences are the organisms of the lowest level. They are enormous in number, but their chance of survival is also abysmally low.

Creatures are born with bigger advantages. They are more gregarious in nature and follow the powerful of their species.

Humans are classified as entities. They commonly use star classification to describe the level of power of their kind. Powerful monsters are also considered entities.

Every organism has infinite growth potential.

Species of lower tier organisms, which break through constraints of their class and evolve, tend to become more frightening, then others at their level. For example, if a parasite, existence level organism evolves and reaches entity level, it is likely to overpower thousands of entities at the same level. The comparison can be made between 2 nobles. 1 - who gained the title through heritage and 2 - one who worked his way up to become one. If the two are compared, the 2nd one will definitely overpower the first one. The principle of evolution is the same.

After reading through this interesting piece of information, Lorian felt somewhat enlightened and he gained the system notification.

+0.1 vision

- Good stuff.

He was happy with the increase in the attribute. Unfortunately, there was nothing said about organisms at a level higher than an entity. He was feeling quite curious now, but there was nothing he could do.

He guessed, he couldn't perceive the ghost's power level because it wasn't at the same level. It could be on the same level as a creature, which would apparently have another type of power level structure he wasn't aware of. It made sense now. The ghost was very weak in itself if not for its soul and mind type attacks, which was harder to defend against.

The nightmare mode of the third floor was much more troublesome. He had to fight a huge club-wielding troll for over an hour to slowly chip away its vitality. He gained (E) rank troll's bloodline.

After the auction, Lorian had some ideas about bloodline. According to the troll's nature, this drop of bloodline would definitely give a boost in physique and regeneration, but he was still reluctant to consume it as it was of low rank. His fighting style wasn't that much dependant on strength and regeneration wasn't that useful either since he had a lot of healing potions and holy water.

The hell mode was even more difficult. The huge troll gained a bunch of new AOE destructive skills, which were rather hard to defend against. The damage dealt was lower than healing power of the enemy too, which made the progress rather difficult. In the end, Lorian had to give up on it since he was just wasting his stock.

He entered the 4th floor's normal mode and acquired scroll: Scorpion's shell, which increased physical defense by the factor of 4 for 30 minutes.

The hard mode gave the 4 potions of toughness, which had the similar effect as the strengthening potions but was supposedly weaker in effect.

The nightmare mode was impossible to beat at his current stage as he couldn't pass through the scorpion's outer defense, so he similarly gave up on it.

The fifth floor was occupied by Oculus, but the nerfed version of it. He managed to take it down in easy mode by jumping through the air through force step and creating ice platforms in the air. He couldn't pull this trick more than twice consecutively and the platforms crumbled easily, but they were enough to reach the flying Oculus.

Through beating the easy mode he gained the rather useful Rune of Chaos, consumable item.

The normal mode also appeared beatable and obtained 1x spirit potion and the eye of illusion, a skill book. The rewards on this floor appeared more useful and extravagant.

Hard mode was rather troublesome, but he managed to beat it by luck and obtained stealth skill book.

Now, he reached the bottleneck. None of the monsters in the instances were at 1-star, but they were rather unique and troublesome to deal with. Lorian was sure he could currently overpower many 1-star warriors and even challenge 2-star ones, but he still couldn't beat these monsters.

Still, after clearing these floors, his status thoroughly changed for the better and his inventory was filled to the brim with luxurious items.

Lorian called for Elaine and gave her 2 skill books: Eye of illusion and stealth, as well as 1 strengthening potions and 1 potion of toughness. He received a same cute wordless glare from her as a response, which brought a smile to his face.

Lorian felt a bit guilty as he didn't have resources to develop this godly assassin who possessed formless intent and wonderful innate skill - Grey world.

He personally experienced her deadliness when she used her innate skill...

As for Lorian, he also sat down cross-legged and started consuming the potions, which strengthened physique.

After consuming the strengthening potion, which tasted like a vomit, he received notification.

+0.06 physique

It worked at least, so he consumed the last one too.

+0.03 physique

The effect lessened by half, but it was still a great deal. His physical abilities were boosted by about 10%. One had to know, physique attribute was hardest to raise by normal means, so it was a great deal of improvement.

Next, he consumed 3 potions of toughness consecutively.

''At least they taste better.'' Lorian mused.

+0.04 physique +0.02 physique +0.01 physique

He also consumed the sweet spirit potion.

+0.05 spirit

Lorian once again opened his status window to see the changes.

Lorian Ellins

Warrior (Level 0) (10000/10000)

Mage (Level 0) (4150/10000)

General Exp: 1105 Battle Exp: 3417

Titles: Returnee (+ 1 affinity with negative alignment, + 1 all resistance value, + 1 killing intent)

Maven of truth (+0.1 vision)

Innate trait: Anti-poison body (Level 2)

Skills: Basic sword mastery (Level 6) (3807/35000)

Basic dagger mastery (Level 1) (8620/10000)

Frostbite (Level 2)(0/400)

Force step (Level 2)(830/1500)

Chilling fury (Level 1)(0/500)

Ghostly glide (Level 1)(0/4000)

Spells: Ice thread: Cocoon (1st incomplete circle)

Ice block: Repel (1st incomplete circle)

Attributes:

Spirit: 1.25

Attunement: 1.1

Vision: 1.2

Faith: 1.0

Bloodline: 1.0

Physique: 1.16

Just as he was admiring his status, the cabin shook and yells could be heard from above.

Elaine quickly appeared behind him.

- Let's go out. I feel my bones are rusting.

Lorian grinned.

- You talk like an old man.

Elaine emotionlessly commented from behind.

- I feel I'll become one if I don't exercise a little, let's go.

She nodded her head and followed him like a ghost.

When the duo stepped out on the deck, they saw the panicking sailors dealing with a bunch of sea monsters.

- Sirens? Ah, they are troublesome...Elaine, you stay here and kill any sirens that drop on the deck. The sea isn't the safe terrain for you to fight.

Like always, she nodded her head and entered the stealth.

Lorian himself looked at the situation and contemplated whether to reveal his full strength or not. He thought it wasn't worth it, but it wouldn't hurt to help a little.