"We're finally here. This place is remote as hell. That damn kid really can run."
On the jagged mountain path beneath Severed Domain Town, where the crags interlocked like crossed blades, a battered gnoll raised his head toward the clusters of rubble towers atop half of a ruined volcano. The tongue dangling from one side of his wolfish muzzle steamed continuously as he complained.
It was Li Weier, who had recently blasted Altinashi the Lady of Change's Egg Castle flat with a single shot, then successfully fled, making a name for himself across the Plain of Infinite Layers.
But in his current miserable state, he did not dare swagger about in Red Dragon form. If that lunatic Altinashi caught up to him, this alt account might really be GG ahead of schedule.
So he had once again put on an old disguise—Hogg, the Half-Dragon Gnoll.
And whether it was merely his imagination or not, ever since his battle with Altinashi, he had increasingly felt himself adapting to the Abyssal environment.
As time passed, he gradually realized that, yes, this definitely was not his imagination.
Feelings were intangible and somewhat mystical, but the mana particles gathered by his arcane energy core over a fixed period could be quantified.
Over the past half month, the efficiency of his mana aggregation had risen by at least thirty-seven percent compared to before, and it was still accelerating. It was as though the mana particles around him, once chaotic and unruly, had become much more obedient.
Through his own practical experience, he had thus confirmed his earlier conjecture: all existences, even constructs, could earn the 'favor of the Abyssal Will' so long as they gained a certain degree of fame and attention through battle in the Abyss.
The benefits of that favor were diverse and