Back to Noan.

After falling into this darkness, he immediately used his 'Hellfire' skill to illuminate the surroundings.

"This place is…" Noan muttered in surprise as he looked around.

The area was filled with countless skeletons—not only human, but from other races as well, though the majority belonged to insects.

That's right, the bones of giant insects were scattered everywhere.

"What the hell?" Noan's eyes widened as he looked ahead and saw a massive cocoon.

Fortunately, the cocoon had long since withered, likely dead for ages.

It was enormous, like a house suspended in midair by countless strands of white silk.

But now, it was dried out, its shell cracked open, exposing the hollow inside as if whatever had been within had already left this place.

Noan suddenly frowned, for he noticed something that caught his attention.

A symbol.

It was the same magical symbol Noan had seen on the head of the dragon at the entrance.

"The symbol of Almighty Fusion…" Noan muttered. The strange thing was… why was that symbol here? Right inside this shriveled cocoon?

The system had once said his talent was unique, that no one else could possess the same gift as him.

But…

Noan took a deep breath, feeling his mind begin to grow a bit chaotic.

Still, he forced himself to stay calm and examined the symbol closely once more.

"Could it be that, in the past, there was someone who possessed the same talent as me?"

"And that person… helped the Insect Kingdom?"

Noan had countless questions, but of course, there was no one to answer them.

Crack!

Suddenly, Noan heard a sound from behind him. However, he didn't turn around or react to it.

Instead, he stood still, waiting as whatever was behind him slowly approached.

Whoosh!

The flame—the only source of light in this space—vanished, plunging everything back into darkness.

Whoong!

At that moment, a blinding crimson sword light appeared, slashing downward.

KRIT!!!

No matter how strong Lepi was, it still had to rely on light to see.

In the instant the light disappeared, it couldn't dodge in time and was struck by Noan's sword light.

KENG!

Fortunately, Lepi was still quick enough to react. Its six arms crossed before it, forming a magical barrier to block Noan's strike.

"You thought I'd use the same trick again?"

Suddenly, Noan's voice sounded from behind. Lepi spun around in shock, but behind it was only the skull of some unknown human.

Krit!

In that brief instant, Lepi realized it had been deceived.

Whoosh!

A slender, hair-thin beam of light flashed out—yet carried terrifying piercing power.

It shot straight through Lepi's head, continuing on into the distance.

Lepi stood frozen for a long moment, then… collapsed to the ground, its body relaxing as if all strength had left it.

Noan frowned, unwilling to take any risks, and raised his sword once more.

Whoong!

A slash of sword light erupted—a red blade carrying terrifying heat struck downward.

BAM!

A thunderous explosion rang out as the sword light collided with Lepi.

The impact was devastating, blasting all the skeletons scattered on the ground outwards, creating a shockwave that swept everything away.

That shockwave carried an intense heat, incinerating all bones within a fifty-meter radius to ash.

It even became a wild gale that swept through the surroundings.

The space shuddered violently for a full minute before finally quieting down.

At this point, Noan no longer needed to use 'Hellfire' for illumination—the flames still burning on the ground were enough to light up the space around him.

Noan looked toward the center of the explosion. Lepi's body had been blown into countless fragments, and in the middle there was a stone radiating a brilliant golden light.

🔔 [Congratulations! You have successfully slain the Mutant Monster—Lepi. You have received a special item: Lepi's Wings. The reward has been placed in your 'Storage Space'.]

"Wings?" Noan was a little surprised. He opened his 'Storage Space' and indeed, there was a pair of wings stored inside.

No, it was two pairs of wings like those of a bee, with radiant golden veins running through them.

...

Name: Lepi's Wings

Rank: B

Description: This is a special item—its effects remain active even when placed in your 'Storage Space'.

When used, it allows you to expend energy to fly, with no limit to height or distance.

If destroyed, it will enter a Cooldown state to recover.

...

Just a few lines of basic description.

Although this item was useless to Noan—since he already possessed the 'Space' talent—for others, it was truly a miraculous item.

In this world, the ability to fly offered a tremendous advantage, not just in combat, but also for scouting and exploring new areas.

Just imagining Noan soaring to heights far beyond normal vision, then launching attacks from above...

Even if the enemy knew they were being attacked, they couldn't retaliate, nor could they find him.

"Ah!" Noan suddenly remembered something and muttered, "System, can I use these wings as fusion material?"

🔔 [Yes, you can. If you use these wings as the Core, you'll need to collect 9 other pairs of Rank C wings and 1,000 Rank C energy crystals as fusion materials.]

"Ah!" Noan nodded slightly, scanning the system notifications and finding two key pieces of information.

First, he could use these wings as the Core to fuse and create a new set of wings with more powerful functions.

Second, he could keep collecting even more pairs of wings.

Noan frowned, imagining how terrifying it would be to have an aerial army led by Drakhan.

He smiled, then selected: "Use!"

🔔 [Activating the item 'Lepi's Wings'.]

Immediately, a pair of wings appeared on his back.

"Ah!" Noan was a little startled, but found he could control the wings as if they were part of his own body.

He tried flying, and was even more surprised: "The energy consumption is really minimal. With my current reserves, I could fly for over a thousand miles without any trouble."

"In a sealed space like this, where I can't use my 'Space' talent, these wings are truly a powerful ally."

Noan said happily.

That's right—the space here was sealed, and Noan couldn't use his strongest talent, 'Space'.

Otherwise, with the buff from the 'Extreme Challenge Medal' and his 'Space' talent, he would have finished Lepi instantly instead of such a drawn-out fight.

Noan happily flew over to Lepi's remains.

He was a bit surprised, muttering, "I didn't expect that after such an explosion, its body is still almost completely intact."

That's right—Lepi's body seemed to have been split in two, but the other parts were barely damaged at all.

In fact, many sections hadn't suffered any harm whatsoever.

Noan thought for a moment, then decided to place Lepi's remains into his 'Storage Space'. After that, he gazed off into the distance.

Thanks to the light from when he killed Lepi, he could sense just how vast this space was.

Noan began to ascend, flying straight into the distance, with sparks of fire flickering ahead to light his path.

He didn't know how long he'd been flying, but wherever he went, he saw nothing but endless skeletons.

The number of bones here might even surpass the population of the real world.

Not just human remains, but also those of insects and countless other races.

Occasionally, he even spotted skeletons that resembled dragons.

Naturally, he wouldn't miss out on such valuable materials.

Everyone knew that every part of a dragon's body was a treasure—even their bones were extremely precious.

Fortunately, Noan's 'Storage Space' was now quite empty, so he could collect as much as he liked—he didn't leave anything behind.

The bones of every high-level creature he saw, he collected. If his 'Storage Space' were unlimited, he'd have taken all the skeletons here.

"Ah! That's…" At that moment, Noan's attention was drawn to something glimmering in the distance, half-buried in the pile of bones.

"A weapon?!"