My internal struggle ended with my victory accompanied with exhaustion, both physically and mentally. For a detailed understanding of the changes that occurred, I used my sixth sense.

As my external vision expanded, and with tremendous speed due to the ascension, I witnessed my whole body, which was in an almost unrecognizable state. I was even doubting my own sixth sense so I opened my eyes and looked down. The view was unbelievable; I transformed into a work of art! My muscles stretched across evenly, my skin was as smooth as ice. I looked like I was shaped in the image of a perfect organism. It was all that was needed to get my heart pumped up and ready for action without even checking my developed soul.

I jumped up with ease and stretched my limbs wide. Surprisingly, there wasn't any crackling noise. Usually, when I woke up and stretched, my arms or legs cracked quite a few times. I jogged a few rings around the room, jumped up and down, did a bit of ghost boxing. I had much more freedom in moving than I did before and my stamina didn't run out, even without the use of mana.

I was already feeling excited, but the moment I used my sixth sense again, it was chaotic. Ignoring the physical presence, I was overwhelming with power. Even though I haven't absorbed mana yet, my soul form had vast amounts of spectral energy in it. The external mana around me was much easier to grasp aswell; More quantity, more reach and more control.

Although it was all impressive, I tossed it aside for now to concentrate on my mana absorption using the hole I carved in the centre of my soul. Even when I was cultivating, I was precise with my drilling and didn't risk damaging any other important parts, but as I thought... When I thought about absorbing mana, something started to respond to my will. It was a faint feeling, but it was more noticeable than before. I was able to determine the approximate form of that 'something': it looked like tubes and acted like ones, taking in the mana in the cave room through the hole. I placed my bets on them being threads that act as circuits for the mana in the soul, a vein to be more precise.

Energy started filling me at a fast pace, tremendously fast when compared to the absorption rate of the spirits banded together. The power rush got to my head and I was feeling ecstatic; never have I ever felt this strong before. I used my sixth sense in its maximum potential and scouted my surroundings. The mana sources that looked like blurry dots from before had significant forms to them. I was able to see the size and the build of the carrier as far as kilometers away. More and more sources popped up on my radar, but the farther they were, the blurrier they got.

The tunnel that lead to the forest and forward after that had no mana sources, except for one. It was small and it was located in the forest, even though I supposedly had killed every significant organism with a soul in there. It was just too small for me to take any action, moreover, I was itching for some action to test my new powers.

I saw some larger signals that were getting closer further ahead the tunnel that led forward. As they got closer, I could read their forms: humanoid. Immediately thoughts of humans popped up in my mind and I was getting anxious. I slowly jogged towards the dark tunnel in hopes of uncovering the truth. When I passed the forest tunnel, it got even darker and I wasn't able even able to see my legs. I slowed down my pace and started crouching instead of running. I wasn't quite ready to be the confident man that I wanted to be.

The ground got more unstable as I walked forward in caution. The floor got rockier, pebbles started sticking to my feet and finally the air pressure changed as I reached the end of the tunnel and entered a larger area. While it was as dark as ever, when I got close to the humanoid looking mana sources, I was puzzled. There were 8 different sources with the exact same amount of mana and then there was one behind them with a way larger amount. I determined that to be the elite of the group.

Suddenly, the elite raised it's hand and a surge of mana exited out of there. My eyes were blinded the next moment and I closed them right before utilizing my sixth sense for vision instead. A light source appeared out of the elite's hand and illuminated the whole place. We were in a cavern that was approximately the size of a football field. I didn't have time to react before the ball of light flew into the centre of the cavern, but I wasn't going to dilly-dally around. My eyes quickly adapted and I jumped behind a pillar to take cover. Using my wide-area sixth sense I saw the light was actually a ball of fire and the moment it hit something in the centre, it exploded.

'H-Holy...' I thought. It was the first time I had seen mana being used that way.

I peeked from behind the stone pillar to get a better view of what I was dealing with, but what I saw shocked me more than the fireball. Skeletons walking around with rusted swords and behind the skeletons, a slightly larger bone construct that was covered in tattered cloth. Now that I was this close to them, I felt an unpleasant mana coming from them. It was making me uncomfortable like a foul reek that struck the nostrils of my soul.

'I've always thought that commanding an army of undead was badass, but this is just...'

I didn't have the words for it. It was not something that was morally wrong, it was the mana that was disgusting. It felt broken and weak, like a spoiled child that broke his toy on purpose and demanded a new one.

In the center of the cavern, there was an octangular foundation with half-walls on three sides, all built from an unfamiliar dark green stone. Between the half-walls and in the middle of the foundation there was a crackling pitfire that materialized from the elite skeleton's fireball. I definitely did not expect craftsmanship from this cavern, so it intrigued me what connection did these skeletons have with the place.

6 of the 8 skeletons surrounded the foundation while the rest began scouting the area with their boney hands clutched tightly around their swords and slowly walking. The elite walked around the firepit before coming to a stop and crouching, the next moment it took out a stone tablet that was stored in one of the walls. It stood up and started inspecting it carefully before putting it back in. Afterwards, it took out another tablet, put it back in and then pulled out another. The cycle continued as I quietly observed from around the pillar. There were some inscriptions carved into each of the tablets, all with different structures. I wanted to take a closer look, but I was unable to without the help of my sixth sense. I got greedy and focused my might trying to look at one of the tablets, and sure enough the elite skeleton took notice of it and quickly turned its head.

'Shit!'

I quickly retracted both my head and my sixth sense from peeking. Even though I knew that my new sense essentially requires mana to be in the distance where I'm viewing and that the more I focus the more concentration of mana would appear, I still did it like a fool. I expanded my sixth sense to wide-area and saw the two skeletons scuttling towards my direction. I cursed at myself for attracting danger like an idiot, but it was kind of exciting since it was going to be the first battle since my ascension.

'Although the skeleton warriors don't seem much of a threat with their low mana source, the elite one has sorcery on its side which I need to watch out for.' I thought as I went over my battle strategy. I predicted that I wouldn't be immune to fire even after obtaining so much power, being cautious was always a good idea.

The assaulting 2 skeletons came from both sides of the pillar, but they were far enough for me to shoot them with something. I picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground and utilized every part of my instincts before jumping out from behind the pillar and shooting at one of the skeletons with a force of my mana behind it. Not only did I enhance the rock with mana, I also enhanced my own arm for the extra attack power. The thrown rock flew accurately towards the skeleton and shattered its head into pieces. The rest of the skeletal fell apart and the sword fell onto the ground with a clang.

I swiftly hopped back behind the pillar and searched for another rock the same size, but I was unable to find anything, only small pebbles that couldn't hurt a beetle. I abandoned the throwing strategy and quickly turned around into a guarding position with both my arms infront of my face. It actually wasn't foolish for me to do that against a sword, since its purpose was to intimidate and trick the opponent, although the opponent was reanimated bones. The other skeleton quickly reached my standpoint and swung its sword at me from high up. With my enhanced physical abilities, I was able to dodge the attack in a split second. I did a spin to gain momentum before charging my elbow towards the skeleton's head.

'Strength of the ogre!'

The head shattered and the skeletal fell apart just like its fallen comrade did. I didn't feel even the slightest pain when using my elbow to attack, since my hand was still modified by the effects of the mana.

I was feeling accomplished. My strength was superhuman, being able to easily shatter bones and not having any drawbacks to it. But my victory was short-lived as I turned my head around towards the elite skeleton while a reflection of light started to envelop on my right cheek.

A fireball flew towards me.