Looking at the four blue squares in front of him, Zach slowly raised his finger and tapped the second reward.
The moment Zach’s finger touched that reward, the faint blue interface before him turned into specks of light and scattered with the wind.
In the next instant, Zach’s body shook violently.
He raised his head and looked up at the sky.
“Boom!”
Under Zach’s gaze, a majestic golden energy descended from the heavens, shooting straight toward him.
This energy was scorching and mysterious, and the power contained within it seemed capable of melting everything in the world.
The golden energy completely swallowed Zach, and in the Shuriman desert, only the sound of airflow striking yellow sand remained.
After an unknown amount of time, the golden pillar of light gradually faded, and the bare-chested Zach slowly walked out from within it.
At this moment, under the sunlight, it seemed as if a deep starry sky existed within Zach’s eyes.
His muscular upper body was even and perfect, and beneath his sharp, short hair was an extraordinarily handsome face.
Zach spread his arms and carefully sensed the power contained within his body.
“So this is the Ascended power of the Shuriman Empire…”
Zach could almost be certain that his current combat strength was a hundred, perhaps even a thousand times greater than before.
Moreover, his perception, stamina, and every other aspect of his abilities had undergone a tremendous transformation.
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Shuriman Empire had relied solely on its thousands-strong Ascended Host to unify every land aside from Ionia, the First Lands, and the northern tundra, the Freljord.
Every Ascended who possessed Ascended power had the ability to fight an entire human army alone.
One could imagine just how powerful Ascended power truly was.
And now, although Zach had only obtained a portion of Aatrox’s Ascended power from before he fell, his combat strength had still increased enormously.
Zach had truly hesitated for a long time over these four rewards.
Originally, he had wanted to choose “World Ender,” Aatrox’s ultimate ability.
But after looking at the system’s description of “World Ender,” he ultimately chose to give it up.
[World Ender!
Squeeze out your own Darkin power and instantly erupt with strength several times greater than your own!
After activation, your power will rapidly decline.
Duration depends on your own strength!]
With the ordinary strength Zach had possessed before, World Ender probably would only have given him a single instant of explosive power.
After that instant of eruption, he probably would not even last three seconds.
As for Blood Magic…
For some reason, the moment Zach saw Blood Magic, the image of that vampire in a red robe, someone who strengthened himself by feeding on blood, appeared in his mind.
Perhaps that was the final form of an ordinary person who mastered Blood Magic.
Zach had no desire to become that kind of half-human, half-ghost thing.
So compared to the other three rewards, Ascended power was undoubtedly much more reliable and well-rounded.
Now, Zach was finally no longer that powerless weakling who could not even truss a chicken.
Looking around, Zach could not help turning his gaze toward the direction where Aatrox had just been.
Over there, the thick stench of blood surged into the sky, and severed limbs were scattered everywhere across the ground.
If an ordinary person faced this sight, they would probably vomit up everything they had eaten in their last life.
But when Zach looked over there, a flash of light suddenly flickered through his eyes.
He stepped onto the blood-red sand and walked toward a certain spot with a very clear goal.
There, beneath the sand, a section of a blade was exposed to the air, flashing with cold light beneath the sunlight.
As if guided by the Ascended power within his body, Zach spotted the short blade almost at a glance.
When he arrived, Zach brushed away the yellow sand covering it and held the dark-gold short blade in his hand.
“Buzz!”
In that instant, Zach felt as if the Ascended power inside his body had formed a connection with this short blade.
“This is… an Ascended’s weapon!?”
Zach had known in his previous life that countless ancient relics were buried within Shurima’s vast desert, and there were innumerable tombs and underground ruins.
Some of these tombs belonged to fallen Ascended, while others belonged to outer members of the ancient Shuriman Empire’s royal family.
But without exception, these ancient tombs always contained countless treasures.
This was also the main reason why, despite the Shuriman desert being extremely dangerous, there were still people from Piltover who came here to hunt for treasure.
If Zach had not guessed wrong, then the short blade in his hand should have been obtained by these sand raiders from some Ascended tomb.
Fortunately, it was only an Ascended’s weapon, not a fallen Darkin.
If it had been a Darkin, then these sand raiders probably never would have been able to walk out of that tomb, and the world would have gained another Darkin that had escaped from a weapon.
Zach weighed the short blade in his hand, and several traces of light could not help flashing through his eyes.
With this, his combat strength had received a massive increase in a very short time.
Now, what Zach needed to do was leave this barren desert as quickly as possible.
However, looking at the endless desert around him and the sun hanging directly overhead, he only felt lost.
Having just transmigrated here, Zach had no way to tell where he currently was in the Shuriman Empire.
He stomped hard into the yellow sand beneath him and shot straight into the sky.
Relying on Ascended power to temporarily hover in the air, Zach looked in every direction around him.
In the end, Zach reached a conclusion.
He was currently located at the border between the Shuriman Empire and a stretch of dark-purple scorched earth.
Not far to the east, the desert had already ended, replaced by dark-purple land.
Zach knew almost without thinking where that was.
Icathia!
A former vassal state of the Shuriman Empire.
Unwilling to accept Shurima’s rule, and in order to contend against the Ascended Host, Icathia had chosen to summon the Void’s descent.
But after the Void descended, countless Void creatures instantly turned that land into hell on earth.
The ancient Shuriman Empire had also paid an unimaginably painful price to suppress the Void in Icathia.
Countless Ascended died in battle, and the few Ascended who survived had the seeds of the Void planted in their hearts, laying the groundwork for the Darkin War hundreds of years later.
Now, even after several thousand years, that land still had not escaped the harm caused by the Void.
Looking at that vast scorched wasteland, Zach felt somewhat hesitant.
To the north and west was an endless desert that stretched for thousands of miles, and he had no idea when he would be able to get out of it.
To the south was the southernmost part of the Shuriman continent, and also the southernmost part of all Runeterra, the boundless Guardian’s Sea.
At this moment, Zach seemed to have only one choice, head east.
After all, although he might encounter Void creatures there, there were still surviving villages in that direction.
If he could find other humans, then his chances of leaving Shurima would be much higher.
After deciding on his goal, Zach did not hesitate any longer and rushed straight in that direction.
He becomes connected to Silco’s side, gains a Skin Master System, and uses League skin-based weapons, tech, armor, and abilities to change the fate of Zaun.
Instead of letting Arcane’s tragedies play out exactly the same way, Felix tries to protect the people around him, especially Powder/Jinx, and push Zaun toward open rebellion against Piltover.
The story starts with the Piltover-Zaun conflict, then expands into the wider Runeterra setting: Noxus’s invasion of Ionia, Demacia’s internal conflict, the Freljord, Shurima, the Void, and eventually the Ruination/Shadow Isles plotline.