God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

He wasn't grasping at straws. Hunter's abilities allowed him to summon strange creatures from the aether realm.

Susan shot him a puzzled look, "But that should be impossible, right? Aren't we in the Aether realm? Although I had some doubts, I don't think that is enough to dispel the probability that we might be in the Aether realm."

Cain shook his head, "Yes, and No. This place is dangerously close to the Aether realm. Because of their proximity, it is also able to harness the Aether that leaks out of it from time to time. However, they aren't the same."

Ignis spoke up with a fallen expression,

"Then what is this place?"

"This place..." Cain paused for dramatic effect.

"... Is a Prison realm."

Susan's eyebrows shot up. However, they relaxed a second later...

"That would explain a lot." She said under her breath.

Cain nodded, "Indeed. The sealed Primordial Devils, the strange disappearance of creatures from time to time... All these things point towards sentient control. I doubt the Aether realm is something that can be controlled by a sentient being."

"What gave it away the most, we're the sealed Primordial Devils..."

Hearing this, all four girls narrowed their eyes as they paid attention to what Cain had to say,

"If my guess is right, they were sealed here not only because they were impossible to kill, but also because the one who sealed them had other plans for them."

"Other plans? You don't mean..."

Cain nodded his head with a grim look on his face,

"That person intended on turning these Primordial Devils to his summons. He would have been able to use their powers at his whim if he had succeeded."

Ignis shivered as the realization dawned on her,

"That is quite the scary line of reasoning... However, I have no reason to doubt it. But what sort of evil mastermind would think to do something like this? The devils are known for their evil and twisted ways. Seeing it be reversed on them is both eye-opening and scary."

Cain couldn't help but agree with her. His face hardened when he realized he would have to face this mastermind at one point or the other in the future.

Cain continued, "And for all we know, there could be plenty of other powerful creatures here as well, sealed until they are needed."

If this was true, then Tian most likely had a very powerful army at his beck and call. Of course, no one would want to offend such a terrifying entity known for his tyranny.

"Okay. You've made your point. Do we go over there, or so we ignore him..."

Cain gritted his teeth, "Of course we go! We've finally found them after all this time!"

Shrugging, Evangeline nodded, "Then we should hurry. That howl sounded a bit urgent."

Without Cain wasting another word, all four girls burst into action. Cain felt his body rise above the ground in a split second. That was when he realized that his body had been lying on a makeshift stretcher.

'No wonder I wasn't comfortable.' Cain grumbled internally.

"Tch! Why do I always have to be the one carrying this invalid?!"

Cain gritted his teeth, "Invalid?!"

Without sparing him a glance, all four girls rushed forward. Ignis and Susan were left to carry the stretcher, as Jenny acted as the scout and dashed ahead of the entire group. Meanwhile, Evangeline once again showed her utter lack of sympathy as she dived into the shadows.

Seeing that he had been left with the callous Cherufe Spawn, Cain resigned himself to fate and kept his mouth shut.

Closing his eyes to concentrate, he dove into his mind and opened his status window. With a resigned sigh, he saw that indeed, all his stats had been greatly reduced. They were so pitiful, that even a stray wind would be able to kill him.

Cain took another look at his status window, going through all his skills and spells, thinking of a solution that would help with his most immediate problems.

'The problem is that my body still isn't strong enough to bear the burden of {Golden Body}. The key lies in {Draconic Transfiguration}, and the {Dragon's Gate Ki Plundering Technique}.'

His brows furrowed as he opened up the information about his Ki Plundering Technique...

***

{Dragon's Gate Ki plundering technique}:

Rank: Celestial

Tier: 2. (180,790/1,000,000) Ki points to the next Tier.

Description: An ancient magic has been discovered by the system within your soul, and has been forced out into the light. Use this magic to devour the essence of heaven and earth, and turn it into world-destroying fleshy might. When in use, 200 Ki points are plundered per hour.

Requirements: Can only be used when the host is not in battle mode and in a state of deep concentration. 500+ points in Magic, Strength, and Agility stats.

***

'To put things into perspective... Ten points of strength for me is equivalent to being able to lift my entire body weight. By having a thousand strength points, I will be able to lift something that is a hundred times my body weight.'

Although it was a rough comparison, it was more or less accurate...

'However, the same could also be said about other creatures.'

The reason Cain couldn't compete in strength with an Aether or Mutant Beast with the exact same strength stat as him boiled down to this same principle. Ten points of strength enabled the creature to do the exact same. The only problem here was that some of the time, these creatures weighed many times more than Cain.

Take the {Bog Serpent Wyrm} for example...

This creature's weight was equivalent to two or three elephants. Although Cain's weight had increased greatly after he had begun to absorb Ki and even more so when he had acquired {Draconic Transfiguration}, he would have to weigh fifty times more to be compared to a single elephant.

This means that the {Bog Serpent Wyrm's} weight was about a hundred times greater than his. If this was the case, then the {Bog Serpent Wyrm} should have had no problems absolutely crushing him.

That is where the different active and passive skills that boosted strength and agility came into place. If not for Cain having all these skills in place, he would have been killed many times over during his battle with these tremendously powerful creatures.

This was the unfair disadvantage that humans had in relation to every other race. Their physiques were simply at the bottom of the barrel.

It was also his poor physique that created limitations for him when he activated {Golden Body}. With this rule established, Cain realized he urgently had to increase the strength of his physique.

He currently knew of only two ways to do this...

The first was to continue absorbing Ki. By absorbing this vital energy of the heavens and the earth, his body's natural physique would become more and more impressive as time went by. The second, and slightly less pleasant one would be to increase the {Scales of Antiquity} in his possession.

These scales increased the more trauma he put on his body. To put it simply, he was conditioning his body. With every increase in one, it was more difficult to create another one of the scales, either by doing strenuous exercises or pushing his body to the absolute limits during battle. However, the increase in his physique was far more apparent with every additional scale he managed to acquire.

He currently only had ten {Scales of Antiquity}. However, because of this, his body weight was far greater than that of a regular human. If he and a regular human with the same strength stats were to clash, that person would undoubtedly be overpowered...

However, in his current state, he would have to settle for simply absorbing Ki. Luckily, this came as almost second nature to him, and he didn't need to concentrate for too long to do this...

With his eyes still closed, he willed countless invincible strands of energy to burrow into his body at a moderate speed. His body relaxed as the strands of energy soothed and nourished his injuries. The energy seeped deep into his being, penetrating his flesh, bones, and marrow, healing him right from the source.

In this fashion, Cain continued to desperately absorb Ki. Although he couldn't influence the energy in his body, he could still absorb energy from outside sources. As his body was being soothed, his mind wasn't idle as well. Cain's study of magic and magic theory was neverending. There was always something new to learn...

He had been greatly impacted by the magic used by Og-solath. What exactly was soul magic, and how could one use it? Those hands that had rendered him completely powerless...

He had always thought that magic followed a strict set of basic rules. However, his eyes had been opened,

If you were strong enough, you could create your own rules...

As such, Cain kept his mind and body busy as they continued forward, without saying much. About an hour later, they ran into their very first road bump.

This was also Cain's opportunity to witness the growth of Jenny, Susan, and Ignis without being able to intervene...