Shan didn’t stop after slipping through the gaps of boulders. Instead, he moved as fast as he could. It would’ve been a pitch dark looming darkness inside the cavern; however, his snake eyes seemed to be better in this regard. He could make things out pretty clearly, though it was not the usual sight. It was still dark, but somehow he could make out.

He heard loud thumping behind him as he rushed out. The golden tailed eagle wouldn’t let it go so easily, however, it would take more than a couple of minutes to crush the boulders, and in that time, he would be deep enough into the subterranean tunnels like caverns to get out of its pursuit. Moreover, the eagle couldn’t fly inside, and unlikely, it would chase after him so deep against the disadvantages.

As Shan moved, he seemed to see no end of the cavern. He did check it out first before bathing, however, he wasn’t sure it was this deep. He thought it should be a long time, but never this extended. Perhaps he might find another way out, since the eagle would likely wait or charge at him foolhardy inside it. There should be some giant insect or reptile there, however, even crawling swiftly for five minutes he didn’t come across anything. Well, all his attention was on moving.

Shan’s body limped on the rocky ground as his eyes drifted around the cavern, peering to find anything nearby. Finding nothing, he rested in relief, his narrow body undulating uncomfortably. The brief encounter with the eagle forced him far more than he had assumed, after all, he was but a hatchling, only cracked out the egg a few hours ago. Even fleeing took considerable of his energy.

However, rather than just being fatigued, he felt more hungry. His bottomless stomach growled, as if it was starving for months.

'At this rate, I’ll be Ouroboros before anything else,’ he mused. Ouroboros—not on the part of infinity, but the devouring of its own tail part.

Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to reduce himself to bite his tail, as the food he saved up would last . . . at least today. Bringing out some purified meat out of the inventory, Shan devoured down without chewing or anything. The innate talent of his form would do the trick, moreover, he was thinking something important.

Four attributes: Spiritual, Mental, Physical, and Recovery. Physical strength was the least important attribute in the long run, though it could give him what he needed in the current situation. While Spiritual Strength was the most important, almost everything depended on it. It was the attribute that depicts the spiritual energy that could strengthen his physical body and do many other magical things.

However, in its core, it was just energy. Without a powerful mind to drive it, it would be nothing more than a bucket full of water. So, mental strength was equally needed. Moreover, if he had enough mental strength, he could manipulate waves with spiritual energy to converse.

That thought lifted his mood. Can he do it now? Manipulating waves to converse would certainly need a delicate hand, however, he was a gold ranker before; nobody can become a gold ranker if they’ve poor control.

Shan breathed in and narrowed his slit eyes, focusing with everything, trying to manipulate waves to create sound. It was far more difficult than he thought. The first few tries only came with a high pitch screech; however, slowly he became efficient in it.

“Hellooo.” The voice came out was still rather rough and high-pitched. “Testing . . . one . . . two . . . three. . . .”

It appeared he could only make one word at a time, and that was too limited to three syllables. Still, it was progress, nonetheless.

‘What if I have more points in mental strength?" he thought. Yes, that would get him more control of his abilities and he could converse liberally, however, who would he talk with? He sighed in resignation.

He still had no clue how the system would let him augment the desired attribute with just a command of his. The free attribute point was certainly an interesting and valuable feature. Yes, practitioners could train in a certain direction to get similar results, however, it wouldn’t be that efficient. This system thingy seemed to be breaking the natural laws. Perhaps, in the age of legend, this was a common thing.

Last came Recovery, which should depict all recovery ability—that means it was by no means unimportant. However, he needs to have the other three attributes, Body, Soul, and Mind, with sufficient numbers to fully utilise Recovery.

Each sub rank in Copper giving him single points in each attribute as well as a single free attribute point which can be freely invested in any attributes. Shan was sure the number would be the same in all sub-ranks of copper, but it would increase in the next ranks, cause the growth of practitioners was never uniform. In each rank, the strength of a ranker increases exponentially.

However, it also matters how skilful the ranker is to use that strength. And that's Shan's forte, 'cause he always chose smart work before hard work.

Now it was time to progress his sub ranks without holding back, and of course, to collect evolution points as much as he could.

The Cavern was longer than he thought it would be with a lot of channel ways, making him think it was no better than a maze. Fortunately, there were no traps. Or were there? It seemed unlikely, since he was moving insanely fast just a few minutes ago, only caring about his life. If there really were traps, he would’ve fallen into half a dozen of them.

Still, to be safe, Shan enabled his Golden eyes as a corona of faint, yellow-golden light sparkled around his slit pupil as his vision brightened even further. He could feel everything more clearly now, as clearly as it was almost impossible. He could make out the scars on the walls, which he couldn’t before. The scars, the marks around, proved his other assumptions were right as well. There really were spirit beasts inside the cavern. Well, it wouldn’t be weird if there wouldn’t be any.

Even Shan wouldn’t like to stay in such a large subterranean area free of everything. His eyes peered carefully at the scars on the walls, trying to figure out what kind of creatures were carved out of them. It is likely the leftover of battles between creatures. However, he couldn’t make out what kind of creatures they were.

They were likely some kind of insect, like the fire-breathing beetle he had met before. ‘Huh, where am I?’ he finally questioned himself.

Supposedly, it was a wilderness, however, what kind of wilderness. He died in the ruins of Ancestral Dragon Temple, with enormous debris above him, however, he hatched on lush green grass.

Yes, there was a wilderness around the ruins, dangerous enough that even gold rankers would join a team to venture, and even at that, their life wouldn’t be guaranteed. Moreover, he had no knowledge that there would be giant insects there. That was a kind of rarity in the Infernal Realm. Yes, there were some giant insect tribes, but—

Shan’s pondering stopped at once as he recalled the greeting message on hatching. His brain was too fuzzy back then to remember everything, but he did see something about the realm. ‘No, no, no, don’t tell me.’

Shan imagined the system again as the wall of transparent light appeared on his consciousness with the weird text he actually never learned, yet still could understand. Is there a way to check past logs? he thought deliberately, hoping it would show him the way again.

Actually, it did. Unlike the other times, it only responded to his aimless wandering.

[System log]

[. . .]

[Congratulations! on . . .]

[Welcome to the Shattered Twilight.]

Shan let out a breath. He was right, however, that didn’t make him feel better. It seemed he was long away from home. Home? He couldn’t help but shake his head at that lamentation. As if he had any homes left behind in the Infernal realm. 'Maybe this is a good thing?’ he wondered. He wouldn't be able to travel between dimensions until he reaches diamond rank, and even then it was a hazardous task.

Yes, it would be tens of times more difficult than Gold rank, but it was achievable with hard and smart work. However, this new life had brought him a new opportunity to think about what he would do with his new life. His master had forbidden him to go on the path of vengeance, but even if he didn’t go on that path, he would like to see some justice done. But now . . .

Nobody knew him in this realm, and he knew nobody of this realm – that thought bugged him a little, however, it brought him a new opportunity as well.

An opportunity for a fresh start.

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