Chapter 1081 - 515: Eye of the Raven

"Current Commander Points: 102."

In addition to his previously reviewed stats, his Commander Points had accumulated to 102 through his hard work over the past few days. The rewards for his total compendium kills and species variety might not manifest quickly, but at the very least, Gauss could advance one of his Racial Talents again. Moreover, his "Wish" ability had long since finished its cooldown and would come in handy right now.

He glanced at the blue-quality Racial Talents currently available for advancement. [Intermediate Dragon Speech] and [Death Outline] could both be upgraded using points. The remaining two—[Weaver’s Seal] and [Flight Instinct]—came from the Maze Warrior trial and total kill milestone rewards respectively, making them ineligible for point-based advancement.

After a brief moment of thought, he ultimately chose [Death Outline].

Mainly, he had been acquiring Commander Points quite rapidly lately, so there was no need to overthink it. He would always be able to meet the advancement criteria eventually; it just meant making life miserable for the Commander Level monster bosses out in the wild.

Gauss focused his mind on the advancement option for [Death Outline].

"Conditions for quality advancement met. Proceed with advancing the blue-quality Racial Talent, [Death Outline]?"

"Yes."

Upon making his selection, he simultaneously used Wish to bless the outcome of the advancement. A cool, refreshing aura enveloped his entire body.

Commander Points: 102 → 29.

This advancement cost 73 Commander Points, slightly more than his previous upgrade of [Mass Link] to [Heartstring]. This slightly raised Gauss’s expectations.

After a brief wait, the color of the [Death Outline] entry gradually deepened, turning from blue to a deep purple. At the same time, Gauss felt a distinct change beginning to take place within his body.

His whole body itched. His eyeballs, in particular, throbbed with a constant, slight, needle-like stinging. It wasn’t unbearable, of course, but considering the durability of his eyes was far beyond that of ordinary creatures, this "slight pain" would likely cause horrific consequences for any other living being. He realized once again that a powerful Talent required physical fortitude to support it; otherwise, it might just become a curse to the creature possessing it. Gauss was only able to harness so many Racial Talents thanks to his superhuman physique.

Sitting in his chair in the command room, Gauss calmly gazed at the plains outside the window, his attention entirely focused on the changes occurring within him. About a few minutes later, the physical modification concluded.

Gauss exhaled a breath of stale air.

"Blue-quality Racial Talent [Death Outline] successfully advanced to purple-quality Racial Talent [Eye of the Raven]."

He carefully tested his Perception for a moment and quickly understood the specific effects of [Eye of the Raven]. A look of joy immediately surfaced on his face.

First, just like his other Talent advancements, [Death Outline] retained its previous abilities even after becoming [Eye of the Raven]. Namely, he could still perceive the locations of corpses and project an image of death energy around them, revealing a frozen scene from right before the entity’s death. Furthermore, his special Perception toward death energy had slightly improved.

In addition to this, the new [Eye of the Raven] added two new abilities.

The first was Life and Death Vision. Upon activating this ability, the world in Gauss’s eyes would be composed of the flowing currents of vitality and death energy. Gauss could see the halos of "vitality" radiating from living organisms. The dimmer the vitality, the closer the target was to death; conversely, the brighter the glow, the more abundant their Life Force.

Of course, this was mainly based on a lifeform’s inherent vigor. Generally speaking, among humans of a similar Profession level, the vitality of the young would burn brighter than that of the elderly, and the vitality of the healthy would eclipse that of those plagued by hidden injuries.

Aside from vitality, Gauss could also see death energy.

This was somewhat akin to the concept of "misfortune." When a person was cursed or plagued by bad luck, a layer of ominous black energy would coil around them. The thicker the black energy, the higher the probability they would encounter disaster in the future. Once it exceeded a certain threshold, it would trigger a crisis of certain death. This new ability alone was enough to make Gauss a natural-born prophet.

Beyond the visual layer, the second ability was Death Energy Manipulation.

Gauss could proactively intervene with free-floating death energy to a certain extent. He could mobilize the death energy drifting in the environment and condense it into Death Crows. These Death Crows were essentially extensions of his own will. The piercing shrieks they let out could strike the souls of living creatures, inflicting fear or immobilization. Furthermore, Gauss could actively detonate these Death Crows to deal Area-of-Effect corrosive damage.

The only pity was that, currently at the purple-quality stage, [Eye of the Raven] seemed unable to mobilize the death energy contained *within* living bodies. He could only manipulate the energy wandering freely in the environment. Otherwise, he wouldn’t just be a prophet; through Death Energy Manipulation, he could rewrite someone’s fate directly at the karmic level, all without needing to make a physical intervention in reality.

However, Gauss felt no regrets. At the very least, the current [Eye of the Raven] already displayed extraordinary potential. Although its full power had yet to be unveiled, he could already catch a glimpse of the grand prize hidden within.

Wanting to test it out, Gauss activated the power of [Eye of the Raven].

In an incredibly brief moment, the air around him seemed to undergo a subtle shift. Soon after, his gaze became ethereal, and his original emerald irises gradually transformed into two swirling currents of black and white energy.