God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Turning her head to him, Evangeline nodded,

"Yes. However, not for what you think." With those words, she fell silent again. Cain raised a brow, not fully understanding what she wanted to say. However, he let it be as he figured it was vital information she didn\'t want to share.

Turning his attention inward, he opened his status window and a smile appeared on his face.

***

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 94.

Strength: 2,476.

Agility: 2,877.

Stamina: 2,089/2,089.

Vitality: 2,227.

Defense: 1598.

Control: 106.2..

Perception: 101.4.

HP: 10,050/47,200.

MP: 17,000/55,800.

Magic: 3,512.

Ki: 150,280.

Spirit: 1,990.

Resistance: Poison- 90%. Fire- 50%.

Skills: Golden Body, Burning Spirit, Burst Step, Divine Essense of Metallurgy, Blood Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart, Intermediate Seal, Devil\'s eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance, Elemental Body, Abyssal Dragon Blade Mastery Tier 1, Spirit Sense, Gravity Defying, Nexus Tether, Draconic Transfiguration, Neophyte Mage.

Spells: Infernal Celestial Arts: {Flame Orbs, Imploding Star, Vampiric Star}, Infernal Wings, Wind Weaver, Sigil of Darkness, Blue Lightning, Spatial Jump, Golden Halo, 7 Golden Stars, Frozen Paths, Frost Temple, Poison Arrows, Flames of Darkness.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked), Sorcerer\'s Mind, Blessed by Mana, Pioneer, Devil Hunter, Loved by the Spirits.

Free attribute points: 92.

System points 4,051,009.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

***

Cain sucked in a deep breath...

\'So... So much?!\'

Cain was utterly shocked. What had he done to deserve so many system points from the system?

Then he thought about it a bit. Not only had he just freed an ancient being that would most definitely bring about great changes in the universe, but he had also broken a seal created by a literal deity. More accurately, he had merely manipulated it and it had broken itself. However, that didn\'t change the fact that he had done something extremely mind-boggling.

\'More than enough. It\'s more than enough...\'

Four million system points were more than I knew what to do with. A single grade 8 mana shard costs five thousand system points. Five hundred would cost over two million. If he handled getting all the mana shards, he would still be left with over one million system points for his use.

Just thinking about it made him excited...

"Hm? What\'s got you so excited?" Evangeline couldn\'t help but ask when she saw Cain grinning like an idiot.

"Hehe... Well, let\'s just say we have enough system points for you now." Cain said directly.

Evangeline smirked, "I guess so..."

Cain frowned. Although he found her response a bit suspicious, he decided not to inquire further.

Racing through the plains, they quietly began scaling the mountains again. They managed to avoid the eyes of the goblin sentries thanks to Evangeline, whose skills made her very frightening in darker terrains.

Soon, they got to the mountain peak where Cain had made his base and plopped on the hard ground, completely exhausted.

Cain then sprang to his feet immediately, slightly startling Evangeline...

\'Now isn\'t the time to rest!\' He wanted to get the show on the road. In his mind, he had already spent too much time here. There were too many people being put at risk thanks to the amount of detours he had been making lately.

The people he left behind on Urbus, Jenny, Ignis, and Susan whom he had left in the Garden of Self-Reflection, and Hunter, who for all intents and purposes, was most likely already dead. However, he still held a bit of hope. He knew for a fact that Hunter wasn\'t someone to go down without a fight.

Seeing the excited look on his face, Evangeline chuckled to herself.

"I guess better leave you alone, then..."

It was Cain\'s turn to grin at her mischievously,

"Well, before that..."

***

"And you called me crazy?!"

Evangeline stared at Cain with pure disbelief in her eyes.

Cain rolled his eyes, "Don\'t worry. I know what I\'m doing. Besides, as long as you keep your skill active, we are practically invincible, right?"

Right now, Cain and Evangeline, we\'re in the same cave the goblins and other Chaos creatures called home. However, they weren\'t in their usual hiding spot. Rather, they were on the walls.

Cain was using the special ability attached to the {Abhorent Devil Enchanted Gloves} that allowed him to adhere to any surface, which included cage walls.

The one strange thing about their circumstances was that Evangeline was straddled on Cain\'s back as he climbed further up. Although {Sigil of Darkness} was a powerful skill, it didn\'t work very well on single individuals and was more suitable for large-scale ambushes and sneak attacks.

However, Evangeline\'s shadow abilities made her the perfect assassin. Also, Cain was not displeased with having to carry her lithe and supple body. The smell coming from her was pleasant, and her warmth wasn\'t something he had experienced before. She also didn\'t seem bothered by his proposal one bit.

Shaking his head, he quickly calmed down,

Evangeline let out a sigh, "Mind telling me about your plan again? Or is this just a perverted trick of yours?"

Cain immediately got defensive, "What?! All I need from you is your ability and the extra pair of hands for what I want to do."

Seeing as she wasn\'t convinced, Cain explained further,

"See those shiny things over there?" Cain said, tilting his head to direct her gaze to a cluster of shiny objects protruding from the cave ceiling.

"What about them?" Evangeline asked.

Cain chuckled a bit, "They are a special type of metal called Black Tungsten."

Sensing that she was still confused, he continued,

"It is a metal native to the mountain, and it has a few magical abilities. I plan on using it during our flushing \'operation\'..." Cain said with a dark smile.

Evangeline raised an eyebrow but didn\'t say anything else.

Soon, they arrived at the spot with the largest cluster of shiny metallic ore.

\'For a metal with Black in its name, it is awfully shiny.\' Cain thought to himself.

Then, with a wave of his hand, a silvery pickaxe appeared. He had created the pickaxe using the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} skill, and it was as good as pickaxes could get. Possibly even better...

Cain continued climbing and eventually found a spot that was wide enough and strong enough to support other weights.

"Let\'s get to work..." Cain says excitedly.

Although Evangeline\'s skill obstructed the sight, it didn\'t tune the noise out, so they had to be incredibly quiet.

"Just be careful not to make too much of a ruckus." Saying that Evangeline turned around and began to observe the creatures scurrying around below.

Meanwhile, Cain got busy quickly. Mining the ores turned out to be a very low-effort job. With his strength stat, all he needed to do was dig around the shiny ores and wriggle them out.

Soon, he had harvested enough to fill up his inventory. However, to him, it was too little. Too little to carry out his plans anyway...

He carried on with vigor and transferred all the ore he had mined to Evangeline, then continued to fill his over again. He continued to do this until his inventory was filled to the brim.

Around two hours had passed, and his greed was a bit satisfied, so he signaled to Evangeline that they began making their retreat.

If the Goblins had looked up at that moment, they would have realized that a small chunk of the sky above their home was missing a few stars. However, this was just the start of more than a few bad omens for them...

***

Upon arriving back at the hideout, Cain summoned the {Draconic Blast Furnace}. Then, much to Evangeline\'s, he began transferring all the ores he had just mined into the interior of the large forge.

"Where the hell did you find this thing?" Evangeline was speechless.

Cain shrugged, "A demon gave it to me..."

Once he was done, he let out a sigh. Turning to Evangeline who was looking at him absentmindedly, he had a serious expression on his face,

"I\'ll be in here for seven days at most. If you need anything, don\'t hesitate to knock."

Then he moved closer and stretched his hand toward the ground. Evangeline was a bit surprised but became even more so when she saw the sheer volume of mana shares pouring out of his inventory. Once he emptied his inventory, he quickly used his precious system points to purchase the water elemental mana shards.

Once he was done emptying his inventory of five hundred mana shards, he felt lighter. Without waiting for Evangeline to respond, he turned on his heels and walked into the forge. Meanwhile, Evangeline simply stared at the pile of shimmering gems with a complicated look in her eyes.

Scratching her head, she plopped down to the ground and continued to stare. Eventually, she just let out a soft sigh,

"Looks like I can\'t let up even now. He\'ll surpass me if I do." A look of burning determination appeared in her eyes as she began absorbing the mana from each mana shard.