Within seconds, he closed the distance.
She barely had time to glance back before his figure materialized behind her, his fist already mid-swing.
A sickening crack echoed as his punch connected with the back of her skull.
Her body collapsed, lifeless, into the undergrowth.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION] Target Eliminated: Unknown Female Combatant Experience Gained: 55 XP
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION] Congratulations! Attribute Acquired: Darkness Description: You have absorbed the remnant energy of your fallen opponent. You now possess innate control over the element of Darkness.
Sion exhaled calmly, brushing his hand against his pants.
"Running? That's boring," he muttered, his smile cold.
The forest fell silent once more.
But Sion's curiosity only burned brighter.
He was evolving.
And this world… was his playground.
His eyes slowly drifted upward, a thoughtful expression spreading across his face.
"Soul molecules…" he muttered, his scientific mind analyzing every detail. "This world's lifeforms emit soul energy, but… it behaves like a quantum particle—simultaneously existing and not, only collapsing into a measurable state upon interaction."
The realization sparked another string of deductions. "Their system calls it 'mana'… but the way it responds to stimuli… it's molecular. It has structure… density… probability fields…"
He inhaled deeply, the faint scent of ozone and biotic decay tickling his nose.
His modern biology and chemistry sense buzzed in the background, dissecting the environment at a molecular level.
The glowing fungi? A symbiotic bioluminescent reaction triggered by enzymatic proteins.
The Spirit Bees? Their ethereal bodies? Not spiritual—but subatomic energy wrapped in bio-plasmic shells.