The Deceitful One

'Congratulations Bryan!!' In the real world, Bryan was greeted by Benny's cheerful voice the moment he opened his eyes.

He smiled warmly and patted Benny's head as he asked, "How long did it take for me to advance?"

'A little less than two hours.' Benny replied as he licked one of his front paws. All of a sudden he stopped in his actions and stared at Bryan deeply.

"What is it?" Bryan tilted his head as he asked. However, Benny didn't reply. Instead, he circled around Bryan a few times and carefully scrutinized the latter.

He then walked and sat down in front of Bryan as he asked excitedly, 'Bryan! Bryan! What innate abilities did you get? Tell me! Tell me!'

Bryan began to chuckle looking at Benny's childlike behavior, "Let's check it out together, shall we?"

He then got off the bed and stretched his arms and legs for a few moments. His joints felt stiff after sitting in the same position for such a long time.

Although only less than two hours had passed in the real world, inside the soul space, Bryan felt as if months had passed. Hence, he was a little exhausted.

He then looked at Benny and said, "The first is the boost that I received to my physical attributes, mainly speed, and agility."

Bryan then slightly bent his knees and the next moment, he disappeared from the spot! With Benny's acute eyesight, he was able to see that Bryan was running around inside the apartment at extremely high speed.

To a regular human, Bryan would be completely invisible. All they would be able to feel was a gust of wind blowing past them. To a Rank 1 Transcendent, however, Bryan would simply appear as a shadowy blur.

Bryan had a wide smile on his face as he sprint from one corner of the apartment to the other. He jumped over the chairs and tables, ran across the walls and ceiling, and agilely changed directions at impossible angles.

"Hahaha! Amazing!" Bryan laughed excitedly as he increased his speed even more. However, due to abruptly increasing his speed, he was about to crash into the table in the dining room.

But at the last moment, he utilized his enhanced spiritual sense observation and narrowly dodged the table by a hair's length by twisting his body at a weird angle.

Bryan landed on his feet across from the table and looked at Benny with a wide grin, "The second ability I received is enhanced spiritual sense observation!"

After forming the sea of consciousness and officially advancing to a Transcendent, Bryan was now able to use his spiritual sense.

And this wasn't like the embryonic form of spiritual sense that he was able to use when he was an Apprentice, but something much more potent!

Moreover, due to his innate ability, Bryan's spiritual sense was much stronger than Transcendents of the same rank!

Bryan extended out his spiritual sense and at once it covered the entire apartment building! He was able to see what all the residents were doing, all at once. Some were fast asleep, some were making love, and some were quarreling.

However, a few minutes later, Bryan started to feel his head start to ache. After all, he wasn't used to receiving and observing so much information all at once.

For that, he would require constant practice until he got used to it. Hence, he reduced the range of his spiritual sense and restricted it to his apartment only.

Once the area covered by his spiritual sense became smaller, his observation increased to the next level! Bryan's eyes shone brightly as he was now able to see even the tiniest particles of dust within the room.

Looking at Bryan's expression, Benny started to jump around excitedly as he mentally transmitted, 'Bryan, what is it!? What do you see?'

Bryan turned his head to look at Benny with his spiritual sense. And the moment he did, an extremely terrifying sense of dread washed over him!

He felt a severe chill run up his spine as he inadvertently canceled his spiritual sense. He then rubbed his temple as he asked Benny with a lingering sense of fear, "Benny, why is it that I feel so terrified when I observe you with my spiritual sense?"

Benny tilted his head in confusion as he thought about it for a few seconds. He then proudly raised his chin and replied with a smug look,

'Heh, isn't it obvious? It is because I, the great Benjamin Lombardi, am the honored one! Mortals aren't capable of directly looking at my greatness! Nyahaha!'

The corner of Bryan's lips couldn't help but twitch as he tried to grab Benny and knuckle him on the head, "You little… Honored one, my ass! Come here."

However, Benny nimbly dodged Bryan as he continued to giggle and run around the apartment. Even with Bryan's boost in speed after becoming a Transcendent, he still couldn't catch Benny.

After a few minutes, Bryan gave up and shook his head, "Forget it, let's check out my next ability."

He then turned off the gas supply for all the lamps in the room. However, the room didn't turn dark! No, to be more precise, the room had turned dark but Bryan's eyes had instantaneously adapted to the environment and activated night vision!

Looking around the apartment that now appeared to be even brighter than before, Bryan marveled in amazement, "Whoa! This night vision is even better than my normal vision!"

He then switched the lights back on and his eyesight adjusted automatically as he wondered, 'Looks like this ability is passive. And it barely uses any spiritual force.'

That was the thing with a Transcendent's innate abilities that they received from potions. They used almost no spiritual force at all.

The spells from their own Paths and other compatible Paths used slightly more spiritual force than one's innate abilities. Whereas, the spells from non-compatible Paths used the most spiritual force.

However, Transcendents rarely used spells from non-compatible Paths. As it meant a quicker expenditure of their spiritual force reserves.