Taking both cultivation techniques and Spirit Veins into account, Noah carefully made his selection and finally chose one of the Advancement Instances.

"Hmm?"

Just as he was about to enter the instance, a surge of memories suddenly flooded his mind. Within those memories, he had transformed into lightning, moving freely across the land.

"Thunder Shadow Step has finally reached max level."

Coming back to his senses, Noah could not hide his joy.

A Perfect level skill was extremely difficult to upgrade, especially at the final stage. After waiting for so long, it had finally reached its peak.

[Thunder Shadow Step Lv10+2]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Type: Active Skill]

[Transforms into lightning, allowing instant movement across vast distances, with speed increased by 220%]

Noah first examined the attributes of the max level Thunder Shadow Step. Earlier, after clearing the Nightmare Dungeon for the first time, he had obtained the Pioneer title.

Two identical titles had merged automatically, upgrading the Pioneer title’s effect to Skill Level +2, which further increased the upper limit of his skills.

"It seems the qualitative change at max level does not occur at the Perfect tier."

Noah shook his head, feeling a trace of regret.

In fact, when counting the title bonus, Thunder Shadow Step had already reached level 10 long ago. However, Noah believed that the qualitative change might require the skill’s base level to reach 10, so he did not rush to draw a conclusion.

Now that Thunder Shadow Step had truly reached max level, he finally had his answer.

He was not too disappointed. If a Perfect level skill was not enough, then an Epic level one definitely would be.

Although leveling an Epic level skill would take even longer, it did not necessarily have to reach level 10. Reaching level 8 might already be enough to trigger a qualitative change.

"Breakthrough."

As Noah focused his thoughts, the words "Thunder Shadow Step" on the attribute panel began to blur and shift continuously.

This breakthrough process was slower than before.

After a full hour, the transformation finally came to an end. The original name "Thunder Shadow Step" disappeared, replaced by a completely new skill name.

The moment the breakthrough was complete, countless memories flooded into Noah’s mind.

Within those memories, he seemed to have truly transformed into lightning, moving at an unimaginable speed and traversing tens of thousands of miles in an instant.

After a long time, Noah finally returned to his senses from that strange experience and slowly let out a deep breath.

He lowered his gaze to the attribute panel.

Thunder Shadow Step had disappeared, replaced by a new skill, Thunder Escape.

[Thunder Escape Lv0+2]

[Quality: Epic]

[Type: Active Skill]

[Body like thunder, traversing heaven and earth, speed increased by 300%]

"Speed increased by 300%."

Since Thunder Escape was only at level 0, the improvement was not significantly higher than that of the max level Thunder Shadow Step.

It did not seem like a major change at first glance, but Noah clearly understood where the true transformation lay.

No matter how fast Thunder Shadow Step had been, it was still limited to the ground. It could not allow Noah to fly, which was why he had later learned a separate flying skill.

Now that it had evolved into Thunder Escape, Noah was like true lightning.

And how could real lightning be confined to the ground?

From this moment on, when using Thunder Escape, Noah could travel freely through both sky and earth. The sky was no longer a restricted domain, and even the sea could be crossed without limitation. The scale of this improvement was obvious.

Moreover, the speed of Thunder Escape was tied to Agility, and Noah’s Agility was even higher than his Spirit, with strong bonuses. In fact, Thunder Shadow Step had always been faster than Dance in the Air. It was only because of the complexity of terrain that Noah relied on Dance in the Air for high speed movement.

Now that Thunder Shadow Step had transformed into Thunder Escape, it instantly became Noah’s fastest skill.

"As expected of an Epic level skill. The improvement is truly remarkable."

Noah could not help but sigh inwardly.

"Oh Dance in the Air, Dance in the Air... if there is no qualitative change even at the Epic level, then it really will be disappointing."

A new thought surfaced in Noah’s mind. Dance in the air was still useful.

Thunder Escape allowed him to fly, but it required constant activation and forced him to stay in motion. The consumption of an epic skill was not something to ignore. Even if this one was relatively efficient compared to other, it still could not be sustained forever.

If he only wanted to remain suspended in the air without moving, Dance in the Air was clearly better option. Its energy consumption was minimal, making it far more practical for long periods.

Noah felt his mood improve.

Before even entering the Advancement Instance, his skills had already broken through and reached the Epic Tier. That alone was excellent news. Thunder Shadow step was only the beginning. Several of his other skills had been stuck at level nine for a long time, and it was likely they would break through one after another in the coming days.

When that time came, with a full set of Epic skills at his command even without perfect grade equipment, his strength would not fall behind by inch.

Noah let out a quite breath, his eyes turning sharp.

It was time to enter the instance.

Because of the skill breakthrough, Noah had been delayed for quite some time. During that period, Rose and the other had already sent message to check on him.

After giving a brief reply, Noah reopened the instance list and quickly located the one they had chosen earlier.

[You have selected Advancement Instance: World of Demons]

[Number of participants: 1 to 10. Your team meets the requirements. Do you wish to enter]

[Warning: Death or voluntary exit within the Advancement Instance will be treated as failure]

[Warning: After failure, re-entry will be prohibited for ten days]

[Warning: Due to your team’s outstanding performance, the difficulty has been raised to Extremely Difficult. It will decrease to High Difficulty after twelve days and return to normal after twenty four days]