Lumian invoked the runes of the sword.
Memory: [Sword of Terror]
Memory Rank:Transcendent
Memory Level:II
Type:Weapon
Description: [Since ancient times, beings feared the depths of the seas, they feared what lurked beneath the darkness. Their fear transformed into a terror of the depths.]
Lumian blinked in surprise at the description. It was undoubtedly quite good.
Of course, Transcendent memories were unparalleled, second only to Supreme memories. They were weapons used by Saints, allowing them to fight titans and horrors. Against weak monsters, a transcendent weapon was like a trick bar, able to pierce through any defense of enemies below the Demon level.
Lumian noticed there was a new rune section, one he was sure hadn't existed before.
"Could it be because of the divine ichor drop?"Lumian thought, observing the runes.
Memory Enchantment: [Terror]
Description:[This terrifying sword infects all enemies who look upon it, assaulting them with powerful mental attacks of fear. The more enemies who fear the sword, the greater the considerable increase in strength you receive.]
Lumian smiled, however, his Flaw instantly returned him to his initial indifferent demeanor.
"It's an aura enchantment,"he murmured.
The enchantment would have an area of effect; it didn't matter if they were humans or nightmare creatures, if they looked at the sword they would feel fear. And the greater the number who felt it, the greater Lumian's strength would become.
Not to mention it was Transcendent. If Lumian wanted to sell the memory, he would be stupidly rich. He was sure the Legacy clans would kill to obtain a memory like the one he had acquired.
And the best part was that he didn't even have to lift a finger, since his Cannibal Dolphin did all the work for him.
Lumian emerged from his Sea of Soul.
Upon emerging, he felt the warm morning breeze. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at Asael, who was asleep. Lumian took out the transcendent fragment and mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. Once he completed the thousand, he would receive his second core, a Monster one.
However, the pain was a dark memory; he remembered the agony he endured during the absorption of the divine ichor drop.
With no fear of success or anything in general, Lumian crushed the transcendent core and felt it.
[...Your core is overflowing with power.]
[Your body is changing.]
Pain invaded every inch of Lumian's body. His teeth clenched in a silent scream, his fingers dug into the hard rock leaving deep marks. His body convulsed horribly as he could hear his bones remodeling and changing continuously. Even his own soul was changing.
'Argh, damn it, it hurts!' Lumian thought, feeling the pain.
After several minutes of intense agony, the pain receded. Lumian breathed with difficulty, taking several heavy gasps of air. After a while, the pain faded and, in its place, a sensation of new strength and power flooded his body, making him feel capable of crushing mountains. He had become a Monster.
[Your body is complete]
Lumian sighed and activated his runes to see his changes.
Name: Lumian
True Name:King of the Monsters
Rank:Dreamer
Class:Monster
Monstrous Cores:[2/7]
Monster Fragments:[90/2000]
Memories:[Fisherman's Suit], [Assassin's Sword], [Igneous Rock], [Blood Lance], [Aquatic Pearl], [Dark Wing], [Blood Flower], [Sword of Terror]
Echoes:[Shell Demon], [Cannibal Dolphin]
Attributes:[Lesser Steel Body], [Spark of Divinity], [Lightning], [Darkness], [King's Mark]
Aspect:[Lord of the Monsters]
Aspect Rank:[Divine]
Aspect Skills:[Boost]
Aspect Skill Description:[The entire body receives a massive enhancement to its physical and mental abilities.]
Flaw:[Non-Human]
Flaw Description:[You lack what makes humans, human.]
---
Lumian didn't react. He had nothing to say, except that he'd been scammed. Sure, he was now a Monster, yet he hadn't gained a new skill or attribute. He didn't possess a strange shadow or the ability to walk among reflections. He had simply become a Monster.
For the second or third time, Lumian felt cheated.
Lumian's disappointment was instantly eliminated by his Flaw. Sighing, Lumian crushed the other five transcendent cores, managing to reach 175 fragments, now only needing one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five fragments to evolve into a Demon.
Relaxing, Lumian decided to get some sleep. He summoned his beast, giving it the order to guard them while he slept, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.
They still had a few days left until they reached their destination.
***
Lumian felt the world dissolve around him, replaced by a silent space that smelled of damp grass and soft light. The vision arrived without warning, like an ancient memory that didn't belong to him.
First, he saw a woman.
She was young, surprisingly young, no older than twenty-five. Her skin had a warm, luminous tone, almost as if the moonlight was caressing it. She had soft cheekbones, thin lips, and calm eyes that conveyed peace and fathomless sweetness. Her long hair fell effortlessly down her back, straight and dark like fresh ink.
In her arms, she held a baby, rocking it with slow, careful motions. Each sway seemed calculated to transmit calm. She hummed a soft melody, a lullaby that seemed to carry a lost story. The baby's crying diminished until it stopped completely, as if that woman's voice were home, refuge, and world all at once.
The atmosphere became so serene that Lumian felt a slight ache in his chest, as if he were remembering something he had once longed for.
The scenery changed.
Lumian was no longer human. He was a small monster pup, the size of a young dog, with four short arms ending in sharp claws, strong hind legs, and a long tail tipped with a hard, spear-like point. His skin was reddish-gray, rough to the touch, and his breath came in short, animal-like snorts.
He was sitting on a field of soft grass, watching the same woman, who now held a small child, barely three years old. The woman laughed as she pointed out butterflies, flowers, and stones, as if the world were a book she herself had written. Lumian watched the scene, feeling a mix of curiosity and tranquility that felt strangely familiar.
Then the vision changed again.
He now found himself in a wide courtyard illuminated by the moon. The same boy was sitting beside him, older now, perhaps ten years old. Lumian remained beside him in his monstrous form, motionless, as if he instinctively knew he was about to witness something important.
The woman stood a few meters ahead.
She now wore light clothing, a faint white that made her seem part of the moonlight itself. Her face remained as young as before, delicate yet strong at the same time. Her eyes had changed: they no longer showed only tenderness, but also a silent determination.
And then she began to move.
First, she took a slow step to the left, sliding her foot as if barely touching the ground. Her body turned with impossible fluidity, her arm rising as if calling to the breeze. Every movement seemed a blend of dance and breath, without a single harsh gesture. It was like watching moving water, or a leaf floating on the wind.
From her waist, she drew a sword.
The blade was thin and long, reflecting the moon with a soft gleam. She held it with one hand and raised the other, opening her fingers as if marking the rhythm of a silent dance.
And she began.
She shifted forward with a series of short steps, each so silent she seemed to float. Her wrist turned gently, tracing a silver line with the sword. Then she spun on her heel, her hair lifting in the air as the sword described a perfect arc. Every cut was elegant, every thrust had the precision of a needle threading an invisible strand. Her feet touched the ground with the delicacy of a feline, but the impact of each movement revealed contained power.
She pushed off into a brief upward leap, turned in the air, and descended, balancing on just a fingertip before rising again, thrusting her sword towards the moon. The air vibrated around the blade. It looked like a ceremonial dance, an expression of art and death mixed in perfect harmony.
Lumian couldn't look away.
There was something in those movements that felt unsettlingly familiar. The way she turned. The way she balanced softness and violence. The continuous, natural flow, as if the woman's body had been created for that sole purpose.
The boy watched his mother with absolute fascination.
And as the dance continued, Lumian felt a word rising from the depths of his mind, unspoken by anyone:
Sword Dance.
The vision began to fade. The courtyard, the woman, the boy, the moon… everything dissolved like ink in water.
But the sensation persisted.
It wasn't just someone else's memory. It wasn't a simple illusion; it was a Legacy from the past that he had witnessed with his own eyes.
---
"Sword Dance." Once Lumian woke up, he noticed the gray encyclopedia; apparently, he hadn't slept as long as he'd hoped since Asael was still asleep and the devil remained vigilant.
Lumian wanted to smile, but he couldn't.
His mind was still recalling what he had seen. The dance of that beautiful woman was impressive and enchanting. He was fascinated beyond what he had thought.
What he saw was more than a dance or a battle art; it was something deeper, something unknown to him.
Generally, he knew combat was divided into two types. The first was crude fighting, where there was no technique, only senseless violence.
Then there was the combat of true masters of battle. In essence, it was like a deadly dance, where everything flowed in a clear and fluid state of combat.
Lumian remembered the movements clearly and compared them to his own fighting style. He felt his style was an aberration compared to the woman's clean, unimaginably perfect style.
Lumian, with all the new information he had obtained, knew he could recreate those elegant movements.
He would succeed in doing so and make it his battle art. Of course, it wouldn't be easy. He would suffer a lot, learn, and fail. However, all of that was part of the learning process to master it.
'Sword Dance. I will master it,' Lumian thought with determination.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy: Sword Dance]
---
Lumian invoked the runes.
Aspect: [Lord of the Monsters]
Aspect Skills:[Boost]
Aspect Legacy:[Sword Dance]
Lumian watched as the runes formed, beginning the description.
Description of Sword Dance:
[An elegant dance,once served as a tribute to the Goddess of Beasts, the Moon, Carnal Passion, and Blood. It was taken and turned into a battle art. This mysterious style was created by the King of the Monsters after witnessing a warrior woman dancing under the moonlight. Who could have seen something so beautiful and turned it into a weapon of death and destruction?]
Lumian didn't try to think too much about it; he liked the description of his Aspect Legacy.
Sword Dance Mastery Level: [0/7]
First Relic:Not obtained.
Second Relic:Not obtained.
Third Relic:...
Lumian counted seven lines, each promising a Legacy Relic once he completed and mastered the required steps.
Lumian smiled. His smile never reached his eyes, of course. He felt satisfied; he had obtained something good and hadn't been scammed by the spell in the process.
---
After a while, as dusk approached, Lumian began to prepare the Scavenger meat that the Shell Devil had brought. After lighting a campfire, the meat began to cook.
While the meat cooked, Lumian examined his body. Until two months ago, his body was that of an ordinary human. However, after his arrival in this world, it changed. He was still slender, but powerful muscles were slowly forming on his body.
Not like those of a bodybuilder, but an athletic, well-formed physique with all muscles in their place.
When the meat was ready, Lumian began to eat. Due to the smell of the roasted meat, Asael had woken up.
"When did I pass out?"
"When we left the storm.You fell like a sack of potatoes, so I had to stand guard with Demonio, although he's not much of a conversationalist," Lumian explained.
Asael sat down across from the fire, letting out a loud yawn.
Lumian passed him the water pouch,which he began to drink from eagerly.
With a satisfied sigh, Asael took one of the pieces of meat and took a big bite.
"How did we survive all that?" Asael asked, still not believing everything that had happened the day before.
Lumian feigned a sad smile.
"With a lot of desperation,fear, and tenacity to survive," he replied, placing more pieces of meat to let the fire cook them.
The duo soon found themselves in silence, eating the monster meat as the colossus continued its journey south.