The mana density inside the room skyrocketed within a few seconds.

When the Vice Leader lunged towards Hide, the velocity of his movement created rush of air that made a lot of the bottes behind him shatter and spill the liquid.

The condensed blade of pressurized purple mana extending from his right forearm hissed. To an average observer, it was a flawless, instantaneous decapitation strike—a high-tier execution executed with the single-minded cruelty of an experienced killer.

Hide did not move or pivot under the swing, nor did he activate any of skills or call upon any object.

He stood exactly where he was, his hands loosely shoved into his jacket pockets, watching the incoming purple arc with cold, terrifying detachment.

Instead he anticipated where the blade would hit and asked the slime to create an opening.

SHHHHK.

The glowing mana blade bit deep into the left side of Hide’s shoulder, carving an angled, ragged furrow through fabric, flesh, and muscle tissue.

Bright, hot crimson blood immediately sprayed outward, splattering across the pristine surface of Director Raymond’s black-glass desk.

The force trailing behind the attack was so immense that it didn’t just cut; the air displacement blew outward in a devastating concussive shockwave.

The massive supports tore free from the flooring, and the panoramic floor-to-ceiling glass windows lining the entire western face of the monolith violently exploded outward into a million glittering shards.

Hide had only been cut a little before he activated the Abyssal Scale Carapace, the scales materialized and the slime covered them over. The Blade, no longer able to cut into flesh was stopped mid way but the Vice leaders didn’t stop applying pressure.

The continuous exertion from the vice leader and the inability of the blade to bit any deeper, carried both figures clean through the shattered frame. They plummeted out of the high-rise corporate stronghold, hurtling through the open air toward the sprawling marble plaza just outside the main entrance.

BOOM!

Hide hit the seamless concrete stones of the plaza first, his body cratering the polished masonry in a cloud of grey dust and pulverized stone.

The Vice Leader landed gracefully yards away, his boots sliding against the marble as his purple aura crackled furiously around his tailored trousers, his chest heaving with manic adrenaline.

"Rookie trash," the Vice Leader spat, wiping a speck of dust from his dark suit lapel as he glared toward the crater. "You thought because you broke a record in some 2 star dungeon you could look down on an active Commander? Die in the dirt where you belong."

From the center of the settling dust cloud, a low, rasping sound emerged.

It was a cold laugh, that looked as if it came from a maniac who had lost all sanity.

The dust cleared, revealing Hide slowly pushing himself upright. His blue jacket was torn open at the collar, heavily soaked in deep red blood.

The gash across his shoulder was horrific and deep even making the bone underneath visible.

Yet, Hide’s face was completely relaxed. With a smooth, calculated movement, he reached into his spatial inventory and called out the twin swords he had kept for himself after killing the assassin.

The twin steel blades materialized in his hands, catching the dim glare of the overcast sky.

Suddenly, deep green light flushed from the wound and the surrounding skin.

Fsssshh.

Under the Vice Leader’s widening eyes, the severed blood vessels violently reconnected, the torn muscle fibers knit themselves back together, and the scorched skin sealed shut seamlessly within three seconds, leaving absolutely nothing behind but a smear of drying crimson.

Hide tilted his neck from side to side and rotated his shoulder once, letting out a soft, satisfied click of his joints, before his lips split into a wide, completely unhinged madman’s grin.

By now, there were almost 5 guards surrounding them with their weapons propped up.

The Vice Leader took an involuntary half-step backward, the absolute confidence in his expression violently fracturing into an expression of disbelief. "How..."

his voice stammered, his knuckles trembling as his mana flow momentarily staggered. "How the hell can you use Healing?! Did... did you let yourself get cut on purpose?!"

"Yes, because if I didn’t," Hide murmured, his blue eyes locking onto his opponent with a terrifyingly steady focus, "your pathetic little swing would have bounced off my skin without giving me what I came for."

Right before Hide’s retinas, the familiar, ethereal translucent display was already pulsing in a rapid, cascading sequence.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

High-Density Condensed Mana Transformation.

Location: Shoulder.

Source: A-Rank Awakened Human.

Severity: negligible

System query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this damage type?

[Awaiting command.]

Hide laughed loudly looking at the screen. The system literally said negligible. It was not even a threat to him.

"Evolve," He commanded mentally.

[Adapting – 0%]

The truth was, it all went exactly as Hide had calculated.

The Universal Adaptation System required direct, biological exposure to specific hostile criteria to create a counter skill for him. If Hide had deployed his Abyssal Scale Carapace or allowed the rubbery, impact-absorbing layer of his Slime to coat his skin, the Vice Leader’s weapon would have never breached his defenses. The threat would have been categorized as none, completely halting his evolution parameters.

He had taken the hit entirely to harvest the man’s technique.

To Hide, this legendary A-Rank powerhouse was nothing more than a highly inefficient, glorified test dummy to gain a new skill.

The revelation highlighted a fundamental truth about this cruel world: not all talents and classes were created equal. The metrics used by the government and corporate boards were deeply flawed.

An Awakened individual could climb to a high national rank through continually fighting low tier beasts, resource hoarding, or simply by administrative leverage, yet still possess a weak combat foundation.

Furthermore, a talent’s star-rating only indicated its structural capacity, not its adaptability in a deathmatch. A person could awaken a five-star legendary talent, but if that ability was naturally hard-coded for agricultural logistics or regional scanning fields, it was completely useless when someone tried to kill them.

Hide was an absolute anomaly. The system dismantled those arbitrary boundaries entirely.

But even if he were to strip away the system interfaces, his baseline unique talent—Dark Liege—carried an ancient, sovereign-class authority. While Dark Liege wasn’t naturally engineered for direct, face-to-face combat like a traditional Warrior class, its absolute command over corrupted mana and autonomous phantom manifestations made it exceptionally versatile across any battlefield.

"Let’s see how fast you can shape that trash," Hide whispered, his posture dropping into a loose, low stance as he spun the twin blades effortlessly between his fingers.