FREE USE in Primitive World

(Sponsored By Great Michael1989.

FYI: Chapters sponsored by others will be mentioned here from now on.)

Sol gasped, falling to his knees on the wooden floorboards as a massive, blinding surge of power violently flooded his entire body. It didn’t burn like the Sun Core. It felt like a wave of pure, heavy liquid mercury rushing through his veins.

The silver energy flooded through his whole body, and slammed straight into his solar plexus. It flooded into the roaring golden furnace of his Sun Core, acting like a hyper-accelerant. The golden essence flared blindingly bright, and the resulting shockwave shot directly into his dormant spiritual anchors.

Deep in his mind, the dormant Dreadwing suddenly roared to life. The faint, ghostly silhouette of the massive insects expanded, its wingspan doubling in size, the essence currents around it turning violent.

Simultaneously, the heavy, tectonic anchor of the Great Badger shifted. The dense, immovable earth-aspect condensed, growing infinitely heavier and more solid, vibrating with a deep, crushing resonance that echoed through Sol’s very bones.

In just a few chaotic, breathless moments, both of his beast spirits violently broke through their limits. They leveled up to the 2nd Layer.

The spiritual feedback hit Sol’s physical body.

Sol threw his head back, a silent scream tearing from his throat as his whole body was flooded with the massive increase in power.

He was leveling up too.

His muscles tore and instantly knitted back together, growing noticeably denser, tougher, and more elastic. His bones cracked and hardened, feeling like they were being reinforced with solid steel.

His senses exploded outward. He could hear the faint scuttling of insects under the floorboards; he could smell the exact difference between the woodsmoke from three different fires across the settlement.

But the biggest change wasn’t physical. It was mental.

His mind felt incredibly sharp, vast, and clear. He could feel the silver “Free Use” power settling down, completely tamed. He instinctively knew he could control it now with even better precision, without the wild, unpredictable surges he had experienced earlier.

And most importantly, his connection to the ambient essence of the world had drastically improved. The passive absorption rate of his Sun Core skyrocketed. He didn’t even need to actively meditate; he could feel the thick, heavy essence naturally seeping into his pores, constantly nurturing his newly evolved Layer 2 spirits.

The violent evolution process finished as quickly as it started.

Sol collapsed forward onto his hands, panting heavily, sweat dripping from his chin onto the floorboards.

He slowly pushed himself up. All the residual exhaustion, the lingering fatigue from the coma, and the heavy physical toll of his session with Zephyra were completely wiped away. He felt super energetic, practically vibrating with explosive, untamed power.

He needed to hit something. Hard. He needed to test the new limits of his Layer 2 power and get his newly evolved spirits fully synchronized with his body as soon as possible.

Sol didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his spear… ignoring the Dreadwing Blade for now, wanting to test his raw physical output… and slipped out of his room.

He avoided the main gates and the repair crews, scaling a relatively intact section of the rear palisade with a single, effortless leap. He landed silently in the thick mud outside the walls and sprinted straight into the dense, rotting darkness of the jungle.

His speed was terrifying. The Dreadwing’s Layer 2 enhancement made him feel completely weightless. He blurred through the thick undergrowth, moving faster than a shadow.

But the jungle was eerily quiet. The massive beast tide had pulled almost every living creature from the surrounding miles.

The area was sparse.

Sol hunted for almost an hour, venturing deeper than he had ever gone before, frustrated by the lack of targets.

Finally, deep in a ravine, he found one.

It was a Layer 3 Essence-Born beast… a massive, armored stone-Back Boar, easily the size of a transport truck, its tusks glowing with volatile earth essence. It must have been a straggler from the horde, recovering from its wounds.

The moment Sol stepped into the clearing, the massive boar locked its glowing red eyes on him and without any hesitation. It let out an earth-shattering squeal, lowered its heavily armored head, and charged, tearing up massive chunks of earth with its hooves.

A day ago, Sol would have had to use the Dreadwing’s speed to dodge, look for a weak point, and carefully kill the beast down.

Now? He felt that he didn’t even need to move.

He planted his boots in the mud, calling on the Layer 2 power in his body.

As the multi-ton beast closed the distance, aiming to gore him completely in half, he didn’t use the spear, he simply pulled his right fist back.

He channeled his roaring Sun Core, letting the golden essence coat his knuckles, an additonal benefit of leveling up.

When the boar was inches away, Sol punched straight forward.

BOOM.

The sound was like a cannon going off. Sol’s fist slammed directly into the thick, armored bone plating between the boar’s eyes.

The sheer, overwhelming kinetic force of Sol’s Layer 2 strength completely shattered its skull. The shockwave rippled through the beast’s massive body, instantly turning its brain to mush. The boar’s momentum carried it forward for a fraction of a second before it completely collapsed, sliding through the mud and stopping dead right at Sol’s feet.

Killed in a single, effortless punch.

Sol stood there, slowly lowering his fist, staring down at the massive corpse with a satisfied smirk.

The power increase wasn’t just a step up; it was a completely different realm of existence. He felt like a god among mortals.

Just as he was reeling in the sheer high of his newfound strength, a cold, smooth voice cut through the silence of the ravine.

“Well. That was certainly…imprssive.”

Since he had been completely focused on the beast and his power, he didn;t pay much attention to his surroundings, he didn’t expect someone to be here, but he didn’t dawdle and spun around instantly, his spear snapping up, the tip pointed directly at the source of the voice.