The Deceitful One

Bryan went over this information in his head that he had just received from the potion and grew all the more excited. He then increased his speed and swam through the benthic zone with great joy.

Just when he thought that he was going to surpass his current speed, his vision abruptly changed once again and he found himself in another underwater region. However, this place was much shallow compared to the previous one.

He looked to observe his body and noticed that a pitch-black sturdy shell had covered the entirety of his body!

There was a black trigonal crystal located in his stomach region. Moreover, he had five pairs of legs! Eight of them were for walking and the front two had pincers, most likely for attacking.

Bryan's eyes lit up as he thought, 'The Dusk Crab!'

He now knew exactly what to do and tried to get accustomed to this new body as he moved around and checked to see what more innate abilities he might get.

The Dusk Crab was considerably slower than the Sea Kolag and Bryan started to become disappointed and his expectations turned dimmer.

Unknowingly, he had reached an underwater area that was full of rocks and stone pillars. It looked like a ruin. Bryan didn't know how he had reached here but he had a feeling that it was because of his intuition, or more precisely, the Dusk Crab's intuition!

He now started to pay more attention to his surroundings. Soon he found that his path ahead had been obstructed by a wall formed of rocks of different sizes.

There was only a slight gap at the bottom of the wall. However, that small crack would surely not be able to fit Bryan's entire crab body. The size of the crack in the wall was a mere tenth of Bryan's boy, maybe even less.

However, his intuition kept telling him to approach the tiny gap. And Bryan did so without hesitation. Since he was young, he had always chosen to blindly believe in his intuition.

As soon as Bryan neared the small gap in the wall, his entire body turned incorporeal and completely blended in with the shadow within the crack!

And the next moment, Bryan appeared on the other side of the rock wall, completely flabbergasted, 'Did I just...fucking teleport!?'

As he was reveling in his fantasy, another piece of information entered his brain!

'Blend in with the shadows... Slip into tight spaces.'

Bryan thought inwardly, 'So that's what it was! It wasn't teleportation. My body simply turned incorporeal and became one with the shadow for a split moment!'

His eyes shone brightly as he then thought of something else, 'A thief must be a master in the art of escaping without leaving behind any evidence! I will be undetectable as long as I'm in the shadows... As expected of the Theft Path!'

Bryan calmed down his excitement and continued to move forward as he was guided by his intuition. A few minutes later, he appeared in front of a bright multicolored coral reef.

The reef had two entrances and Bryan randomly took the one on his left. But right as he was about to enter the passage, his intuition flared up and sent him severe warnings that if he were to enter, he would be only met by death!

Bryan stopped in his tracks as all ten of his limbs began to tremble. Without hesitation, he turned around and entered the other passage to his right.

This time his intuition didn't send him a warning. Instead, he felt that whatever was there at the end of this passage, would be extremely beneficial for him.

As he walked along the beautiful coral passage, he wondered, 'Isn't this the same intuitive feeling that I get in real life when I encounter danger? The only difference is that the intuition I have right now is exponentially stronger!'

A few minutes later, Bryan arrived at the end of the passage and his eyes widened. He saw a decayed carapace of a dead Dusk Crab that was even larger than Bryan!

His eyes then fell on the large black trigonal crystal of the crab that was floating right above its corpse.

Bryan was greatly astonished! He suddenly remembered a specific excerpt that he had read in one of the books in the Silver Owl's HQ's underground library.

It was that the Dusk Crabs advance to the next rank by consuming the black trigonal crystal of other Dusk Crabs! This species of Transcendent creatures truly lived and died by the code: survival of the fittest!

All of a sudden, another piece of information flooded Bryan's brain!

'Increased spiritual sense observation and heightened senses... Strong intuition for dangers and opportunities!'

Now, everything began to make sense to Bryan. He finally understood what the intuition that he had all his life, the very same intuition that helped him navigate the dangers in the slums and also point him in the direction of valuable opportunities was.

It was nothing but a watered-down version of one of the innate abilities of a Rank 1 Transcendent of the theft Path!

'I see...' Bryan contemplated deeply, 'Me being able to tap into his innate ability even as a regular human was most likely because of my bloodline. After all, my ancestors were all thieves!'

As soon as Bryan fully comprehended the fourth and final innate ability granted to him by the potion, his vision changed once again!

He opened his eyes and found himself floating in a pure white space. He looked down to check himself and found that he was back in his own body now and was completely naked.

Bryan then looked around in wonder and confusion as he thought, 'What is this place?'

He raised his head and looked up and his eyes widened. He saw the 54 mind runes that he had carved before, were now hovering right above him as they glowed with a purple light!

"If these are my mind runes, then does that mean..." He looked around the white space and mumbled, "That's right! This must be my soul!"

He looked around in wonder as this was the first time he was getting to witness what his soul really looked like.

The concept of the soul was extremely elusive. It was completely undetectable from the outside even if one used their spiritual sense. The only way to witness it was from within!