Alex woke up instantly, his mind clearing without any lingering morning grogginess. It was strangely exhausting for his brain to command a body that never tired. He walked out of the Temple of Ancient and felt an immediate sense of relief. Every second he had spent inside the structure felt like his body was constrained, longing to be free. The suppression on his senses and abilities lifted completely as he left the entrance podium.

  “I haven't even entered the main building, and I’m feeling this cornered,” he muttered. He walked into the ravaged tree city, observing the unsettling mix of vibrant greenery and black ash in the same place.

  The voice finally spoke in his head: “THE SKILL VOICE OF THE WORLD IS AVAILABLE AGAIN.”

  He activated his sight ability for the first time since reaching the city. His effective sight range increased tenfold. It was more than just sight; it was a sensory projection. While his physical eyes remained limited, the skill allowed him to sense things and perceive their colors, composition, and underlying energies. It felt as if he were imagining objects, and they instantly materialized in his awareness.

  The skill projected a sphere of perception with a radius of 100 kilometers in all directions, sensing everything above and below the ground.

  His interest was immediately snagged by two things: a faint golden light glowing directly beneath the temple structure and a strong, blazing golden light inside one of the massive tree houses.

  He moved toward the tree house first. It was immense, far larger than his grandfather’s mansion. It was a multi-story building, perhaps twenty-five floors high, with each floor the size of a four-bedroom apartment.

  “And it’s not even the largest,” Alex chuckled, recalling even bigger structures he'd spotted while entering the day before.

  The tree supporting the structure was gigantic, at least 250 feet broad at the base and kilometers high. Despite the fantasy setting, the building itself looked unnaturally modern. He could see severed wires that once housed an elevator, running from the top down to the fifth floor. Two of the building’s floors were burnt to crisps, while the remaining ones were either partially collapsed or overgrown with massive vines.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He reached the tree and tried to find a handhold. He was shocked when his hands simply nailed into the bark like soft wood. He sensed that the tree was hollow. When he tried to pull his hands out, he tore away a chunk of wood roughly twice his size. Having made a hole, he stepped inside.

  There was a single, round elevated platform in the center, about six feet in radius—tiny compared to the tree’s gigantic width. He stepped onto the platform. It was made of pure, tempered metal that the voice identified as Tempered Soloium.

  Suddenly, the platform began to ascend. Alex felt his body feeling tired for the first time since he gained the Omniarch form. The platform rose quickly, matching the speed of a roller coaster, yet the ride was perfectly stable; at times, Alex could barely sense the upward motion.

  As the platform slowed, a hole opened above him. Sunlight flooded the space, and a cold breeze scrambled his night clothes and hair. The platform moved up and fitted perfectly into the hole above.

  Alex was clearly surprised; he had reached the very top of the colossal tree.

  Then, the realization hit him. "The magic!" he shouted into the air.

  "As regular bodies use nutrients for energy and feel tired when they lack them, my new body uses ambient magic in the same way. Since I am in the middle of a Soul Domain, there is no shortage of ambient magic to fuel me." He finally had the answer to the most irritating question of his new existence.

  The building might not have been the largest, but its host tree was the largest in the immediate area. It towered kilometers higher than the other trees. Alex deployed his vision skill again, but even at its maximum range, he couldn't sense the ground through the sheer density of the forest. However, his natural vision thrived at this height. He could see the entire breadth of the tree city, spanning from the ruined entrance in the west to the Temple of Ancient in the east. He even spotted a mountain range far away in the direction of the temple.

  “It seems we got our next stop,” Alex sighed.

  The city, he estimated, was at least 500 kilometers in breadth, with trees over a kilometer in height serving as the foundation for the complex structures. It was a well-planned metropolis. He spotted clearings where trees were absent—parks, each possibly as large as Central Park in Manhattan—and various buildings resembling museums, libraries, corporate offices, and a large central government building.

  He used his vision skill one last time, this time closing his physical eyes to focus on his sensory projection. Within his sphere of capacity, the forest was colored silver, but there were two golden lights. One was right behind him, glowing like a miniature sun in his mind's perception. The other was a hint, a difficult-to-notice glimmer against the black background beneath the temple.

  Alex turned around, his face falling with utter disappointment as he saw the strong golden light source. His suppressed anger returned in a flash. He screamed into the gusting wind:

  “All of this for an EGG!”