Joo-Hee gracefully closed her eyes, and the moment they opened, both irises had once again inverted, now glowing with liquid gold and silver, pulsating with deformed crescent rings of black and white like destinies collapsing in on themselves.
As the thousands of goblins screamed and died one by one below, she saw the flow of countless otherworldly threads of each being. Each one a current of endless emotions, compact timelines, and choices of defiance.
Their Fate unraveled before her.
Before the threads could vanish, she moved with a fluid, deliberate grace as she shaped her palms into a circular motion. Both palms shimmered with gold, then unraveled into hundreds of radiant strings, each latching onto and devouring the fate threads dissipating in the air.
Like a weaving vortex claiming forgotten tapestries, she reached deep into the storm of death and pain, commanding her innate gift.
Fate Usurpation.
She would not waste this massacre. This was her moment to absorb over ten thousand strands of Fate Threads in a single ritual of bountiful death.
Her body cracked and splintered, reaching its limit under the pressure of devouring the fate of thousands. Veins pulsing, skin fracturing like porcelain under immense strain.
Yet, she didn't stop.
Not yet.
With a thought, the tree moved as its branch shed its violet verdant leaves, grabbing the scroll beside Joo-Hee toward her lips.
She bit into it and held it firm between her teeth, muffling a grunt of pain as searing agony met the instant bliss of healing. Warm, golden light burst into glowing particles, wrapping around her like an embrace.
Torn flesh stitched itself together. Bursting vessels sealed. Her body, yet fractured and trembling, stabilized, ready to endure another round of harvest.
Meanwhile, her system, [Arcana], worked without rest. As it devoured and purified the goblins' souls, a deluge of system notifications erupted across Joo-Hee's vision like an eternal blizzard.
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[You have killed a C Rank Goblin Mage.]
[You have killed an E Rank Goblin Warrior.]
[...]
[You have killed a C− Rank Goblin Shaman.]
[You have gained 64 experience.]
[...]
[You have gained 39 experience.]
[You have gained 54 experience.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[...]
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Ignoring all the notifications. Her mind remained fixed on the threads of this once-in-a-lifetime convergence of slaughter and fate.
Each death was a blessing. Each level-up was a rung up to the ladder of strength and authority.
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[Freedom of Goblin Macabre]
Total Goblins Killed: 1,895 / 10,000
...
...
Total Goblins Killed: 2,531 / 10,000
...
Total Goblins Killed: 4,159 / 10,000
Time Remaining: 4 hours 39 minutes 54 seconds
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And finally, when the death count surged past half of the requirement, Joo-Hee had gathered tens of thousands of threads—a woven mass of raw, primal power capable of defying not only what had already been written, but also what was still destined to be.
The system had also refined the countless goblin souls into purified energy, a shortcut to strength disguised as "leveling up," further strengthening her body and soul.
But with both varying surges of power integrated into her being, her body began to falter once again, showing early signs of crumble and decay, unable to keep pace with the relentless transformation taking place within.
She scoffed under her breath. "Well, well... I suppose this is the limit for now. I can't afford to destroy this body—not yet. I still have plans for it and... a promise to fulfill in another way."
Without hesitation, she summoned her system interface, navigating to her stat panel. She funneled a significant portion of her accumulated distributable points directly into [Vitality], the only stat intricately tied to her physique and constitution.
[Vitality: 56 → 100]
She made the adjustment decisively, hoping to stabilize her crumbling form and hold herself together for as long as necessary.
During her fleeting hours after the awakening, her appearance had shifted greatly already. Her bangs had overgrown, cascading down to obscure her eyes, while the rest of her hair had lengthened dramatically.
It was no longer orange and waist-length, but now flowing to the ground, gleaming like liquid gold of sunlight. Each strand shimmered as though kissed by a miniature sun, radiating warmth and divine brilliance, weaving in the air like threads of golden fate.
She sat on one of the thick branches of the purple tree and exhaled, voice steady despite her mental fatigue. "Arcana, continue what you're doing. Purify the souls and store all of them to mend yourself instead. I no longer have use of them. The quest scroll... it can't keep up with my body's degradation anymore."
[Arcana] responded with a quiet nod of acknowledgment.
With a hand signal, a thick branch of the tree extended and reached into her pouch. It pulled out a golden ticket—thin, radiant, and engraved with archaic markings and otherworldly aura.
It was the [Basic Stat Evolution Quest Exemption Ticket].
She plucked it from the bark gently and stared at it.
"I was planning to save this because it cost a lot of [Soul Fragments] to create. But... it seems I have no other choice now, I'll need to use this," she murmured.
She tore the ticket with some doubt, and the moment it split in half, the same phenomenon from the first Golden Ticket occurred.
An overwhelming whiteness engulfed the space, devouring the surrounding structure of the purple tree, and thousands of glowing green lines manifested like strands of an ancient web, illuminating the separated dimension.
However, unlike before, this time the connection was severed. She now had full control. Joo-Hee no longer shared dominion with the system as she had finally overtaken it.
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[Stat Threshold Evolution]
— Vitality [100/100]
— Magic Power [100/100]
— Intelligence [100/100]
— Wisdom [100/100]
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There were only four selections. Each of which has reached its end, unable to improve furtherly in common ways known to her.
Still, she selected her path with quiet certainty and chose to evolve it beyond the hundredfold threshold.
[Vitality].
Immediately, her consciousness was whisked away as if sucked away from her body. Not violently, but with the gentleness of a mother's breath. It was as though her soul was pulled into a place beyond all physical measure, a tranquil sanctuary that radiated warmth and calm.
Life resonated there—not in form, but in sensation. She could hear her life and essence echoing, each beat of her heart forming ripples and melody that traveled through the still, infinite expanse.
There, within the marrow-warm cradle of rebirth, a thought of truth spoke to her:
Path of the vitality is not the guardian of breath, but the breath before guardians were named. Run into what must be, and be what must you shall. For that is the essence by itself.
Each single word of truth transformed into glowing scripts of enlightenment, granting her the chance of absolute trance. She murmured slowly, still lost in a daze, her words drifting like petals in a daydream.
"Path of vitality... Essence of living... I see… to breathe is the presence of life in its finest..."
"And to seek life… is what bears the fruits to my existence."
"…"
She paused, her eyes unfocused, as if caught in the undertow of her own thoughts. Then, slowly, she opened her mouth once more to speak.
"How fascinating... So, this is what it feels like to be enlightened about a certain thing. It's beyond the definition of otherworldly to the point that it feels like I am reborn anew."
Her fragmented mind, shattered by the strain of soul defragmentation, began to settle. The inner chaos dulled. Disjointed thoughts gently aligned.
And within that stillness, peace slowly bloomed—soft and radiant, like a lotus unfolding in calm waters.
Yet just as she reached the cusp of complete understanding, the sanctuary shattered like glass under pressure.
Joo-Hee exhaled deeply as her awareness returned to her body.
The stat evolution was complete.
The cracks that had formed on her skin, evidence of her body fraying beneath the escalating power, had mended. Only faint fissures remained, shimmering faintly with residual energy.
She sat there silently on the branch of the ancient purple tree, eyes unfocused, her gaze drifting into the distance as if daydreaming. The feeling of having shattered a limit and touching the edge of a new reality lingered inside her, refusing to fade.
A new series of notifications soon blinked into her view:
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[You have used the Golden Ticket – Series 2]
[Vitality has reached the After-Mortal Realm]
[The threshold of the stat, Vitality, has risen to 200. Allocation of stat points is now possible.]
_________________
Without hesitation, she funneled her remaining 51 stat points directly into [Vitality]. Another surge of pure lifeforce coursed through her, this time smoother, no longer met with resistance.
The remaining cracks on her body sealed completely, her form stabilized, her power grounded. She let out a low groan—not of pain, but of overwhelming bliss—as thin wisps of green smoke drifted from her lips with each exhale.
Then, without delay, she crossed her legs into a meditative posture and activated [Basic Meditation], allowing herself to attune fully with the torrent of vitality coursing through her veins.
But before surrendering herself to the flow, she clasped her hands together with a resounding snap—an echo so sharp it sent tremors through the tree nodes, making them convulse violently as it sliced clean through the goblin screams rising to a fevered crescendo.
...
A few moments of seconds passed.
Joo-Hee opened her golden-silver eyes, now clearer and more vibrant than before, her breathing synchronized with the rhythm of her lifeforce, her mind anchored in the serenity she had reclaimed.
A smile curved her lips as countless thunderous cracks split the air outside the coven of the purple tree like the fabric of space had been forcibly torn.
She glanced upward, her gaze steady, and whispered with a bittersweet tone, "It's time to go home. It's a pity, but it seems I could no longer continue my hunt."
It was not because she was unwilling, but because the laws of this minor world had taken notice. Her presence, her actions, the death toll—it had reached the threshold, and now, the world itself began to reject her as its boundaries started to break once more.
A stream of system notifications soon followed:
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[You have killed 17,947 Goblins. You have gained 194,814 experience.]
[You have stored an additional 3,316 Soul Fragments from the soul purification.]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 33.]
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