Byron was regretting his idea of burrowing into the tree until he found the other side, only now did he realize how stupid his thought process was.

He had been burrowing for at least three hours now, and it was only getting harder and harder to breathe.

He felt weak, Byron wasn’t sure why he felt this way, but he knew having fresh air would be better for him.

The lack of oxygen was taking a toll on his body.

‘I refuse to die like this because of my stupidity!’

Byron knew he had about three hours left before it was game over. He wasn’t going to let that happen, even if it meant burning more of his life force.

He knew he could still burn his life force or infuse it into things, even though he didn’t have the skill anymore. Byron knew his new race was the cause.

His body glowed bright green as he started ripping the dry wood around him to pieces with renewed strength.

Two hours passed like this, despair was brewing in his heart, as no matter how fast he burrowed it was still the same seemingly endless amount of wood.

Byron’s hands broke through another layer of dry wood and fresh air and light flooded his dark tunnel, joy almost overwhelmed him, he wanted to scream but held himself back.

That would only attract unnecessary attention, Byron peered down below, wanting to get a better look at where he ended up, but thick clouds obscured his vision.

‘Dammit! just how tall is this tree?’

Deciding that he had enough, Byron jumped, his long green hair fluttering in the wind as he fell.

He passed through the clouds and was finally able to see where he was clearly, a massive lake with crystal clear water, strange crystal-like creatures floated above its surface.

Massive trees with equally massive fruits could be seen in the distance.

‘Paradise! finally!’

Byron was happy, he finally found water and food he could easily remake his home, he coated his fingers with drain life and dug them into the tree’s truck to slow his fall.

Byron landed at the base of the tree safely he quickly got to work and created a new home in just an hour, he then made his way over to the lake he saw to investigate if the water was drinkable or not.

Upon reaching the lake, Byron saw his reflection and was shocked at how much had changed over such a short period, his dark hair was now light green, his blue eyes were now piercing emerald green, and his already bulky figure grew even bulkier.

All this happened and byron didn’t even feel a thing, the system was truly magical, such a drastic change before the system was unheard of and if it did happen, it wouldn’t be instantaneous.

It defied the natural laws set by the gods, Byron had heard tales of men defying the gods and going against the world thousands of years ago but he dismissed them as myths and fake stories told by drunken men at the bar.

But the system had shown him time and time again that it could ignore all laws and even rewrite and make new ones easily, was the system and its creator such a person? A person who could spit in the face of the gods casually and get away with it.

Byron couldn’t help but wonder about the nature of such a being, the gods were in trouble if that were the case. The clash of the system and the gods was inevitable.

The system was expanding, rapidly changing everything the gods had set in place, breaking the power scale and balance.

The gods would take notice of such an abrupt change, Byron couldn’t imagine what a fight between such godly entities would look like, but he knew the world wouldn’t survive it.

According to the church of mana, the five gods had ruled over the world for billions of years, helping humanity when in need and fighting off the creatures of the void.

Byron had a hard time imagining what it must’ve felt like to be alive for billions of years, he wondered how they hadn’t succumbed to boredom and gone mad, but he guessed only mortals had such petty worries.

Gods were Gods because they could live forever and would never feel bored, even if they tried to feel it, trying to understand such beings gave him headaches.

Byron wouldn’t call himself a scholar, but he often wondered about the nature of the world and what exactly was the void, many had tried to peer past the clouds and see what was beyond but would be hunted by the church.

Each when caught and executed on the spot, those who did see into the void went crazy in a few weeks. They refused to speak about what they saw, saying it was for the greater good.

They would lock themselves in and research endlessly about what they saw and would die from exhaustion, he wondered if one day that would happen to him too if his curiosity got the best of him.

The church of mana always called scholar heretics and hunted them down, somehow they would always know when someone peered into the void or even tried to ask about it.

He suspected the only reason he was safe now was that the system had disabled whatever made that possible for all its users, it was somehow hiding them from the gods.

That was supposed to be impossible as the gods were omnipotent and all-knowing yet it did it anyway.

Byron took a sip of the crystal clear water and his world exploded with color.

Ding!

[Spirit water consumed]

[+10 Vit]

[Your soul has been enhanced]

[+10 Mp]

[+10 int]

[You have consumed spirit water without permission of the lake spirit]

[The lake spirit is upset]

[The lake spirit is watching you]

[The lake spirit demands an apology]

[The lake spirit is manifesting]