Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

Priam quickly moved through the smoking, twisted remains of the colossal worm. The upper half of the creature’s corpse remained almost intact. Without wasting any time, he drew a short blade and began cutting his way through the monster’s dense flesh toward its head.

After several minutes of hard work, his eyes found what he had been looking for: two barrel-sized gelatinous venom sacs, pulsing with a dark purple, poisonous glow.

Besides its nearly impenetrable glass-like armor, that Corrupted Beast’s true weapon was its venom. In territorial battles against other high-level monsters, the beast likely came out on top by infecting its victims with that corrosive substance. It was a terrifying combination of absolute defense and deadly toxicity.

Although Priam had spent many Yin and Yang crystals to kill it, he felt a hint of satisfaction. That venom was worth every crystal he had used.

After carefully sealing the sacs, he climbed out of the crater and walked toward a nearby rocky plateau.

That entire area of the desert had belonged to the worm’s territory. Since the other desert creatures feared that domain, it would take hours—maybe even days—before they realized the local ruler had been killed. Priam had a precious window of guaranteed safety.

Without wasting any time, he took a reinforced metal cauldron out of his spatial ring and poured all of the harvested venom into it.

The pure substance was dangerous, but it needed to be refined.

Moments like this reminded Priam just how invaluable his past was.

Following the alchemy teachings he had studied in the past while trying to follow in his father’s footsteps, along with the unorthodox, practical tricks his mother had taught him, he knew how to create traps and many other survival methods that formal Mages would never bother learning.

That briefly reminded him of his family. By now, his mother must already have a huge belly, getting closer and closer to giving birth to the twins.

’I have to go back and meet my siblings... I hope I get that chance soon.’

Priam shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside for now.

He took out a simple purification pill from the Mortal Plane and tossed it into the cauldron.

The instant the pill touched the substance, the purple venom began boiling violently. Thick, sticky bubbles burst across the surface, releasing dense gray smoke that carried a rotten stench.

The reaction was expelling the impurities while condensing the toxin’s essence. By the end of the process, a single drop of that refined extract would possess overwhelming destructive power.

It took nearly an hour before the reaction finally stopped. The smoke dispersed, revealing a thick black liquid, as dense as tar, at the bottom of the container.

A corrosive, suffocating smell immediately filled the air. Just from breathing the breeze that passed near the cauldron, Priam felt his airways burn slightly.

Covering his nose and mouth with a thick cloth, he lit a fire beneath the cauldron. Then he dumped over a hundred arrowheads directly into the viscous potion before quickly retreating several meters uphill, staying downwind.

He only took a deep breath again once he had reached a safe distance.

Since he had prepared slow-burning firewood beneath the cauldron, the fire would keep burning for hours. As the venom slowly boiled and evaporated, the arrowheads would absorb the toxin directly into the metal itself.

Now, he finally had a silent method of assassination to deal with the Corrupted Beasts in the next sector.

...

Four hours later, after the campfire’s fuel had been completely consumed and night had fallen over the desert, Priam returned to the makeshift campsite.

The venom had been completely absorbed and evaporated. All that remained were more than a hundred arrowheads stained pitch black, giving off a sinister metallic sheen.

His eyes shining with excitement, Priam coated his hands with a thin layer of Ether to handle and seal the poisoned arrowheads before safely storing them inside his spatial ring.

With his weapons ready and the prison planet’s cold stars filling the night sky, he set up his camouflaged tent and turned in to recover his strength for the following day.

...

The next day, at the break of dawn, Priam began his cautious march south.

While flying over the region before being exiled, he had memorized its geography. Beyond the barren desert stretched an ancient, dense forest. At the heart of that thick woodland stood the Inscription Pillar.

However, taking a straight path to the monument would be disguised suicide. A truly terrifying presence had claimed the exact center of that route as its territory.

He had been lucky. While flying overhead, he had caught a glimpse of that Corrupted Beast.

Under normal circumstances, Priam would’ve chosen a long detour around the forest—even if it cost him weeks of travel. But his victory against the colossal worm had changed his perspective.

The most legendary and untouched resources were hidden within the territories of the strongest Corrupted Beasts.

Since those creatures held absolute dominance over their regions, they defended their domains with their lives until they died of old age or were overthrown by something even more monstrous.

Unlike the outer regions, where the throne constantly changed hands and each new ruler devoured everything it found, the territories of these sovereigns remained stable for a very long time.

They didn’t need to devour everything because they were already powerful enough. Acting purely on beastly instinct, they simply let natural treasures grow freely until they became even better. If they ever needed them, the beasts would have something far more valuable in the long run.

As for Priam... he hadn’t come into this exile just to escape as quickly as possible. If he wanted to return stronger, he had to take risks and gather as many resources as he could.

Slowing down as he caught sight of the twisted, shadowy canopy of the first trees, he kept Divine Concealment active at its maximum level and entered the forest without making the slightest sound.

...

Half a day passed in a tense, silent march.

Finally, from atop a cluster of gray boulders, Priam spotted the threat.

The figure rested lazily beneath the sunlight. Its skin and fur blended so perfectly with the surrounding stone that the creature looked like a natural extension of the rocks themselves.

Its anatomy resembled that of a leopard, but it measured nearly ten meters in length and radiated a suffocating pressure that subtly distorted the air around it.

Priam steadied his breathing as he studied the terrain.

Right below the rocky hill was a narrow natural passage—a tight trail flanked by stone walls. It was the perfect bottleneck to set up a kill zone.

His experience told him that shooting arrows directly at the beast in open terrain would be useless. Its hide was absurdly tough, and its reflexes were beyond human.

However, unlike the giant worm, this leopard had no armor or burrowing ability to keep itself out of reach. It was a predator that relied on speed and raw offensive power.

Priam thought for a moment.

The ideal trap would require him to use himself as bait to lure the monster directly into the narrow passage.

Working with surgical precision, Priam secured six high-tension longbows inside hidden niches along the rocky walls, positioning them at crossing angles less than two meters apart.

Into each bow, he fitted one of the arrows coated with the concentrated black venom.

For the trigger mechanism, he wedged sharp daggers into the bowstrings to hold the tension, connecting them with nearly invisible wires stretched across the trail. A single touch on one of those tension lines would release the locks, firing all six bows simultaneously.

With the leopard’s massive body funneled into that narrow passage, dodging the simultaneous volley would be physically impossible. And all it would take was a single poisoned arrow piercing its flesh for the corrosive toxin to enter its bloodstream, giving Priam the opportunity to finish it off.

After inspecting every trigger one last time and making sure the mechanism was flawless, Priam circled around the trail and positioned himself at a strategic distance from the rocky summit.

The Corrupted Beast was still in the same place.

Taking a deep breath of the forest’s cool air, he deactivated Divine Concealment.

His spiritual presence burst into the surroundings like a flame in the darkness.

"!"

The leopard instantly raised its head. Within a radius of several kilometers, Priam was the only available source of living flesh.

*ROAAAR!!*

A deafening roar shook the leaves in the trees. Consumed by a murderous frenzy, the beast leaped from the rocky peak and charged straight at him.

Its speed was so overwhelming that its body tore through the air, leaving a trail of afterimages behind as it darted through the forest shadows like a starving phantom.

...

At the same time, hundreds of kilometers away...

At the summit of a mountain, a figure hidden within the shadows abruptly opened its eyes.

The individual turned toward the north, as if it had sensed a subtle yet unmistakable fluctuation in the fabric of Ether.

"A Mage... It’s him!" the figure muttered in a hoarse, icy voice, as a sinister smile twisted across its face.

Killing intent poured out from its body. Without hesitating for even a second, the figure stepped forward and simply sank into the void, crossing through space at incredible speed toward the north.