Chapter 46: More To It

Special talents were never just abilities slapped onto a person and left at that. They came with added benefits.

Every special talent reshaped its wielder from the inside out, altering the body at a molecular level so it could safely wield the power it granted.

Muscle fibers were reinforced, bones subtly strengthened, neural pathways refined. Endurance increased. Mental faculties sharpened. Without these changes, the power itself would be lethal.

Take Rapid E.

It gave Adam explosive speed, but without a body capable of enduring that acceleration, he would have liquefied long ago, bones shattered, organs ruptured, flesh torn apart by its own momentum. Poison F worked the same way. Resistance wasn’t an afterthought; it was built into the transformation itself.

And if, by some divine fluke, a person survived using a special talent without their body being altered, the result would be pitiful.

Their ceiling would collapse. A star power meant to sit at fourteen plus could plunge all the way down to three. That was how critical the alteration was.

That was also why Adam could resist the Siren’s Lullaby G.

It wasn’t immunity born from arrogance or brute force. His mind had simply been honed too far. The combined effects of his special talents had elevated his mental faculty to a level the Siren couldn’t easily breach. It had only worked once because it caught him off guard.

It won’t happen again.

Adam was certain of that.

With that resolve, he left the area, his figure melting into the terrain as he moved on to find the next hunting ground.

Adam moved through the swamp unhindered.

The terrain that would have slowed most players to a crawl meant nothing to him, mud sucking at his boots, twisted roots clawing at his path, stagnant water exhaling rot with every step.

None of it mattered. What did matter was time.

Three hours.

That was all he had before the system forcibly ejected him. If he’d known it would take this long to locate the Sirens, he would have persisted and requested more. But the request had already been made. Three hours locked in stone.

I need to find them fast.

As he moved, a stray thought surfaced.

If I sing… would that draw them out?

The idea vanished as quickly as it came, it was an intrusive thought, nothing more. Adam pushed forward, scanning the swamp with sharpened senses. Still, with how long it was taking, an uneasy suspicion crept in.

Is this game rigged?

Then he stepped between two lakes of stagnant water.

A narrow stretch of mud lay between them, dark and slick, untouched for who knew how long.

Adam walked through it calmly, without a shred of caution. Above him, thick leaves trapped moisture until gravity won, forming droplets that swelled, and fell, plopping softly into the murky water on either side.

Ripples spreading.

The realism was absurdly precise. Every sound, every reaction of the environment, it all felt too real.

Then the final drop fell.

The moment it struck the surface of both lakes, Adam stopped.

The water didn’t ripple gently this time.

It exploded.

The stagnant swamp lakes on both sides churned violently as multiple figures burst free from the depths. Pale blue skinned bodies arced through the air, claws extended, eyes locked onto him with predatory hunger.

Sirens.

Time seemed to slow.

Mud clung to Adam’s boots as shadows loomed overhead, claws poised to rip him apart mid-leap.

So this is where you were hiding.

Adam’s gaze sharpened as the Sirens descended.

Adam didn’t waste time.

The instant the Sirens revealed themselves, Rapid E flared to life. The world lurched, and then slowed. Bodies that had been mid-lunge now drifted through the air like insects trapped in amber, claws inching forward far too slowly to matter.

He didn’t have his conduit. No common knife.

But he still had his hands.

Poison F activated, a faint green sheen crawling over his knuckles and fingers, invisible but lethal.

Adam shifted his stance smoothly, weight settling, timing precise.

The closest Siren reached him first, as his fist drove forward from beneath.

The punch landed squarely right below its eye, and at the moment of impact, Adam extended his middle finger, spearing deep into the eyesocket of the siren to give Poison F the perfect entry point.

The effect was immediate.

The Siren was launched backward, its body folding in on itself before it slammed into another that had been lunging from behind. Both forms collided, and the first exploded into white motes of light.

Adam was already moving.

He flowed into the next target, fists snapping out in brutal succession. Every strike was laced with poison. Some Sirens dropped instantly, a single clean blow enough to end them. Others staggered, forcing Adam to follow up, with two hits, sometimes three, before their bodies finally destabilized and shattered into motes of light.

Either way, they died.

This time, their Lullaby G did nothing.

Dozens of mouths opened, the silence stretching, and crawling through the air like mist. Adam felt it brush against his mind like a fleeting haze. There was a dull pressure, but he shrugged it off.

He was prepared. Focused. Unaffected.

Still, he adjusted his priorities. His gaze locked onto the Sirens that sang first, the ones whose mouths opened wide as they tried to disrupt him.

Whenever he struck without dealing with them, that familiar dazed sensation crept in, it was fleeting, yet it was enough to throw off his aim and make him miss vital spots.

So he hunted the singers first.

Those using their special talent fell immediately, their cooldowns rendering the rest harmless moments later.

Once the lullabies stopped, the remaining Sirens were nothing more than targets waiting their turn.

Adam carved through them methodically, fists rising and falling, executions clean and efficient.

One by one, the swamp filled with fading light.

When it was over, no Siren remained in the area, only drifting motes dissolving into the humid air and the quiet ripple of stagnant water settling once more.

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