Forever controlled by the darkness. The thought of being controlled by someone other than him made him uncomfortable. Most likely, if it wasn't for his weirdly strong connection with the darkness, his mind probably would have been taken over, the darkness using him instead of the opposite.

Now wasn't the time to be thinking about what would happen if he had failed, he needed to deal with the person right in front of him.

This time, instead of using Absolute Darkness to block Berthold's sight, he allowed him to see. He wanted him to be terrified. "What was that you said? Revive... ONCE... a day?"

Tai started laughing, and Berthold knew what he was implying. He had already used his revival ability that he had received from his trial, and it was now useless. Berthold knew that whatever he could do was useless. Not even begging for his life would save him from what was about to happen.

"Don't worry, I'll make it quick," Tai said, sounding like a serial killer as his armor started generating his naginata which he felt was now stronger, and sharper.

Swinging his naginata, he beheaded Berthold, his head falling to the ground. It was a weird feeling... killing someone. In fact, Tai was a bit worried as he had just committed murder without even batting an eye. This made him wonder if he was even human anymore, but when he thought of what would have happened if he had died, he knew that it was good.

Now finished with the battle, Tai calmed down and took a deep breath. The sleek black armor that had been covering him started to seemingly get absorbed into his skin and disappear, but he could feel it and knew that any time he wanted, he could bring it out.

Looking at the corpse, a piece of the armor had stuck on the corpse and had started multiplying until it covered the entirety of the corpse. The darkness then vanished, taking the corpse along with it.

Tai didn't know what just happened. Did the darkness just take the corpse?

"The abyssss takes what it wantssss. Your darknessss is unique to you, and itssss tasssstessss will change over time, but don't be naive to think that it cannot be controlled by someone stronger," the familiar voice informed him.

Tai had long figured it out, but he figured that the entity that spoke to him was some type of reptilian, possibly a snake.

He nodded and turned around. In a way, it was helpful as he didn't need to dispose of the body, not that he was planning to anyway.

Entering the city, he noticed the man whose face was covered was standing in front of him, most likely awaiting his master who was now dead.

Seeing the man, Tai couldn't help but laugh.

"W-Wha... How come you're still alive?" the man asked.

Tai disappeared from his position, appearing in front of the man, his eyes staring at the man's own eyes. "I should kill you right here for what you did... Your captain, Berthold, is dead, and if you mess with my family again, I'll personally destroy the UEE base in this city, robot, or not."

The man didn't even see Tai move. One minute he was standing by the entrance, the second, he was right in front of him. This was very much the work of Tai's new Enhanced Dexterity.

As the man heard that his captain was dead, and Tai's threats, his breathing staggered and he was breathing harder and harder. One thing was for sure, he, no matter what he was told, would no longer mess with Tai.

Tai, seeing that his threat had worked on the terrified man, turned and started walking. As he was walking, he thought about how the darkness was taking over his mind. He was lucky that he had a strong connection with the abyss, but what if someone or something else tried taking over his mind? How would he defend against it?

As he was thinking of possible defenses, he opened up his status, remembering that he was bombarded by at least a dozen notifications.

Level: 196 Health: 1500/1500 Mana: 130/130 Ki: 1145/1145 Chakra: 806/806 Strength: 100(+) Dexterity: 100(+) Endurance: 150(+) Intelligence: 13(+) Status Points: 27

Tai raised an eyebrow as he saw the number of points that he got. His combat stats were nice and pretty equal, and his intelligence was still very low.

As he looked at his intelligence, a realization came into his mind. 'That's it! Intelligence makes my brain stronger, so it would help me resist attacks aimed towards my mind.'

Tai went all in, spending his 27 status points on Intelligence, and bringing it up to 40.

The increase in his intelligence made Tai's head hurt a bit, but it went away after a few seconds. With his new intelligence, that was now far above what a normal human in the old world had, he was confident that he could do advanced mathematics easily. His memory also got better, and his comprehension also improved, which would allow him to learn stuff faster, and more efficiently use his skills to the best of their abilities.

To Tai's surprise, the increase in his intelligence also enhanced his senses, and reaction time, but not in the way that he could sense more stuff, and react faster, just that he could take in the senses easier, and know what they were and how to react to them the best.

The increase in intelligence also affected his mana, and chakra, but Tai didn't really care as he was completely devoted to ki, but who knows, maybe he would dabble in them a bit in the future.