“Holy shit.”

I couldn’t even believe the difference between myself a day ago and now. I changed. I changed so much to be honest. I gained the ability to manipulate core energy; I am probably stronger than most people on Earth, I gleefully thought. I can probably beat most athletes on Earth whether it is in strength, stamina or razzle dazzle “mystical” shit.

“Hehehe” Laughter spewed between my teeth while an ever so slightly aura of creepiness sprung forth.

Having taken care of my rejuvenated ego, I smile. Different thoughts started coming forth in my mind and I realize that it was time I gave some of them some time. It wouldn’t do good to repress my thoughts and have hesitation start ruling over me. After all, that’s how most people developed some fucked up issues back on Earth.

‘Might be a good opportunity to test out my boosted mental cognition too.’

It had been three or four days since all this happened starting with Phoenix making an appearance to ditching my planet and now to killing weird goblizards and “eating” strange crap found lying in chests that fight back against a little thieving.

This was a surreal environment and I may have simply died but that wouldn’t follow the whole continuation of my life part in my opinion as death ushers a change but I doubt it would be this type of change where all my memories and personality remain intact especially with my current body so death is a no go.

The only real plausible explanation is that I actually did find a unique opportunity with absurd luck being involved where I “bought” Phoenix.

Now what?

I seemed rather acceptant of the whole situation as my surroundings kept a constant influx of reminders headed my way to prove that this was really happening.

‘I can’t predict the future but I am more or else certain that even though I am at the lowest point in this new adventure, I will probably face more dangers and meet stronger beings as I keep moving forward, especially with Phoenix probably nagging me to keep absorbing strange and high level crap from this new world.’

My mind felt clear as all these thoughts flowed by me and I found myself realizing I had to make a choice.

‘How do I move forward from this point on?’ I asked myself after my introspection.

Should I become strong and help others? Try and be a hero? Be evil as Hades himself? Plunder and loot all? Questions rang in my mind.

A couple minutes silently passed in contemplation before my thoughts took a turn towards a certain idea.

‘Hell no! Fuck all that bullshit about saving the world or justice and evil. I have a better idea. Hehehe.’ The word “Absolute” kept flashing by in my mind as I recount all the knowledge I had from Earth.

Everything seemed clear and my goal was probably just as overwhelming as the number of stars themselves. Again, the word “Absolute” echoed in my mind sounding as sweet as an angel’s serene voice of blessing or as desirable as the devils whispers of temptation.

If there is one thing that Earth had taught me above all else is that in this sort of situation where my own power would likely determine my so called fate, the word “Absolute” holds truer than any ideal, any justice, any evil, any tragedy and all obstacles! Nothing can change the course of one’s life nor protect that which one cherishes with complete certainty more than absolute power.

I may have been a lazy, unambitious and depressing guy to be around back on Earth but that was simply due to how incredibly and unsatisfyingly mundane Earth was. After having met Phoenix, Earth had simply become the well that, I, the frog was lying in the bottom of, festering in its damp and dark borders without any chance of growing beyond its boundaries. I was a prisoner.

But now… now I am, finally, a free man.

I will chase the pinnacle of this existence and reach absolute power and rule my destiny. I am the apex predator that the universe does not know of. The king that shall rise. I am…

Jupiter Ortus!

Almost as if in sync with my thoughts a wave of power rushed all over my body and beat along with my heart’s pumping. The energy flowed and I could feel its power. I could feel my confidence and the insane idea that was somehow sleeping within me push my newfound power slightly further as if the universe itself deemed me only right to believe so.

A few minutes had passed as I finally gathered all my thoughts that were repressed due to the shocking level of change my life had taken yet an almost ominous glow was shining brightly in my eyes as I had finally made my decision regardless of what is to come.

“Jupiter? You okay there? You’ve been laughing in a weird way the past few minutes…” Phoenix voiced its concerns, a little worried even; as there was nothing to explain the situation and even if Jupiter was weird even for Phoenix, he wasn’t crazy… or at least Phoenix believed him not to be.

“Hahaha! Worry not, Phoenix. I just had to think about a few things and couldn’t help but laugh a little. Come, let’s go get us some food.” I replied with a grin.

Seemingly not so worried anymore, Phoenix happily agreed and they soon prepared they’re things and went out to find some goblizards or whatever else this planet may have to offer.

Jupiter’s mental cognition having been boosted was clearly a great blessing as even Jupiter himself realized that his mind was ten times sharper than ever before and even though he understood he was having a bit of a power craze moment, he gladly welcomed it as opposed to regular people from Earth, he hated his old life. He knew that in this lifetime he could achieve all he wanted as long as he achieved those two words:” Absolute Power.”

Having set off, they walked around towards the south of their “Spawning point” ,which was where they fell to, to find some goblizards and maybe find a few extra goodies.

The walk itself should take a bit of time so Jupiter started chatting with Phoenix.

“Phoenix, I noticed you were reading the little notebook earlier. Can you understand the language a bit more now?”

“So-so, I only spent about two hours before you woke up to look through the notes and I did manage to learn a basic understanding of the native language here but if we could get our hands on someone from here, it would be even better!” Phoenix replied to my question with a hint of anticipation and what could only be described as a mental image of a slightly evil grin which kind of left me a little fearful.

Sure, I might have found a great new resolution towards this new life of mine but that didn’t mean I was batshit crazy like god slime over here.

Who in their right mind would go kidnap a fucking local on some next level planet filled with creatures that naturally ingest the world’s HIGHLY potent energy? They might all just be a bunch of battle crazy end game level existences. Like being thrown into a boss dungeon in a game when you are at level one, if that isn’t suicide, I really don’t know what is.

‘In anycase, let’s not feed Phoenixs kidnapping mentality until I get a better scope of the situation.’ I shivered at the thought of having a kidnap crazy god slime roaming the world.

As the little journey continued and we kept chatting, I started noticing little oddities about Phoenixs voice which bothered me a little as they started sounding like a small kid… more specifically… a small…girl.

The idea that Phoenix may choose its own sexe wasn’t too troublesome but having a childish little girl’s voice in my head was not…definitely not what I signed up for.

I chose to ignore it and hope for that to change as I didn’t really want to come in the way of Phoenix choosing its sexe as I have no clue on how social etiquette towards unisex god slime turning into a male or female will affect Phoenix and considering that freakishly powerful absorption ability. I did not choose to voice my concerns. A coward some may say, however, I would gladly accept that title as not offending god slime versus offending god slime. I will always choose the former 100% of the time as I do not want this new and exciting life to come to a sudden and extremely withered ending like those poor trees we met.

Brushing aside all these stray thoughts, Phoenix finally notified me of a goblizard that was behind a bush I was sneaking nearby to.

With all my focus having been reignited I only had one thought and that was some delicious goblizard meat. I warily snuck around the bush trying not to alert the goblizard which I, shocking to myself even, didn’t. My sneak skills are in no way top notch or even at the level of being considered to exist for that matter. I just happened to land near one that was sleeping and didn’t notice me invading its territory, probably due to being not that threatening at all. Considering the golden free meat, I didn’t really hesitate too much as I grabbed the dagger that the ex-cabin owner so graciously left me and just dived at sleeping lizard.

The danger sense of the little ugly thing wasn’t as superb as you would think. It opened its eyes literally the moment before I stabbed its head. I greatly overestimated these things though I was still glad the mighty Phoenix had enough sense to send us to some weak area like this taking my fitness at the time into account.

With that goblizard properly killed and drained of blood, we returned to our little slice of decrepit log cabin paradise of a home with some meat to cook as we both agreed that learning more from the notebook and me getting used to using the core energy was the biggest priority for the time being as everything was still too unknown and I might of whined a little, just a little bit about not wanting to venture or kill anything beyond a goblizard for the time being.

With the food crisis resolved. Training time.