(A/N: DefinitelyNotJormlung here! Just wanted to warn you people that I'll post chapters whenever I feel like it, so don't bother raging about me not posting. I'll try to post a good amount of chapters for now since I have quite the lead already, depend if my procrastinating self feel like it! KAHKAHKAHKAH! Another thing, Ultrabenosaurus is the main Proofreader of this story, so a big thank-you to him! Although I don't remember which he PRed and which he didn't anymore... Whatever... Also, sometime he just started to write some parts of some chapters on a whim, and I left those parts whenever I liked them, so you could say he helped write some rare parts of the story? Anyway that's it! Feel free to react however you want! Because I won't really care! Joke(?) apart, enjoy your read!)

Chapter 01 - The Day a New Demon was Born.

Hope Island, an artificial island the size of a small country in the middle of the indian ocean which was created 100 years ago, as a prototype for research on countermeasures against the rise of the ocean level. In a modern hospital on the island, inside a pure white room in which was another ‘room’ made of glass, was a bed and some workout machines such as a treadmill, weight-bench and the like.

This strange room was the one of a youngster currently lying on the bed. The youngster had a strange charm… Looking around 17 years old, with long ink-black hairs that were so long they reached the bottom part of his back, pale white skin, sharp hazel eyes, and a really thin body. The youngster was quite androgynous, and his sickly appearance just complemented this mysterious charm of his.

His name was Asmund Dreyri, an accursed young boy whose destiny was sealed from the time he was born…

Born with a rare disease which had an incredibly high number of symptoms such as a weak immune system or high sensitivity to UV, Asmund has grown up locked in this cell of glass.

His two parents being workaholics, they just left his care to the hospital without visiting him even once since his birth. You could say they saw him more as a burden than anything else but, having money, they decided to pay the hospital to ‘keep’ him until the day he’d die, which was closely approaching…

Asmund never had any chance to leave this cage of his, he was like a beast in a zoo, having nothing but the medical staff of the hospital for visitors. His only contact with the exterior was via the Internet, from which he learnt everything he knows about the world outside.

Raised in such conditions, Asmund's heart was filled with but one emotion when it comes to this world… ‘Hate’!

His hatred was so thick that it wouldn’t be surprising if it could be seen with the naked eyes.

He hated everything, especially the look that people had in their eyes when they looked at him, a gaze filled with ‘pity’. Although they probably meant nothing but good, those eyes stabbed Asmund's heart like a hot knife, because those pitying eyes kept reminding him of his position in society… An inferior being…

His life, unlike the rest, had absolutely no meaning; he was living only to die. He didn’t even have the slight possibility of changing his destiny, he could do nothing but wait… Wait for death to come.

In his bed, barely able to move for a week now, he knew… He knew that his long awaited death was coming at last.

At this point he didn’t fear it, his death was pretty much his life, he had been prepared to welcome it since he could think for himself.

His only regret was that he couldn’t bring destruction upon this damned world, and bring it along with him to hell!

Sighing, Asmund gazed at the very same ceiling he looked at for the last 17 years…

“What a boring life I had…”

Closing his eyes, he felt that he would probably never open them again…

But as he thought that the sweet embrace of lady death was here, something unexpected happened.

[Initiating Phase 3: starting procedure for ‘laws’ creation.]

A strange screen appeared behind his eyelids. Even as he opened his eyes in surprise, the screen didn’t disappear and instead seemed to follow his line of sight.

Confused, he tried to make sense of what was written on said screen, but couldn’t make heads nor tails of it… With his confusion growing more and more as time passed, another screen soon replaced it.

[Procedure completed: Phase 3’s laws have been created.]

This screen didn’t help him understand this situation either, but the one which followed right after did hint at something, and surprised him much more than the previous ones.

#

[ Name: Asmund Dreyri | Race: Human | Level: 1 ]

[ Class: None ]

[ Power: 4 ]

[ Agility: 3 ]

[ Constitution: 1 ]

[ Mind: 11 ]

[ Spirit: 5 ]

#

[ Skills ]

-

#

[ Credits: 0 ]

[ System’s Shop -> ]

#

Asmund don’t really have a ‘hobby’, but he does surf the Internet a lot and he also read a lot of web novels or played games on his computer. That's why, when he saw that character sheet-like screen which was clearly coming directly from his mind, it hinted him to two possibilities...

Either he was becoming crazy, or something was changing… Be it him or the world… Since he was alone in his room it was pretty hard to judge if he was the only one seeing those screens, but he could hear some shouts of confusion coming from outside.

“Damn… Something interesting is finally happening and yet I probably won’t be able to enjoy it, talk about luck…”

Feeling depressed that something like that would only happen as he was going to die, Asmund couldn’t help but frown bitterly.

[Congratulations Subject ‘510221421544105425414’! High level being ‘Elmyria’ took notice of your existence and registred you as her main subject of observation.]

“... Huh? What’s this about?”

Without having even the time to think about that new screen, yet another one appeared, with a content much more ominous than the previous ones.

[Launching final procedure of Phase 3: implementing Rank 2 to Rank 5 dangerous lifeforms.]

And that’s when things took a real turn for the worst, or best, depending who you ask. The sound of screams and roars of beasts could be heard everywhere, it didn’t take long before you could even hear the sound of explosions and gunshots from outside.

Pure chaos!

Listening to what was happening around as if he was currently the sole member of the audience to a world-renowned orchestra, a genuine smile appeared on Asmund’s lips as he realised this bitch of a boring world was being raped by anomalies. When voices of despair came from the hallway outside, he almost laughed out loud; he was in a really good mood at the time.

A good mood which soon turned sour…

[Phase 3 completed.]

*CRASH*

Right as what was quite possibly the last of those weird messages arrived, the door to Asmund’s room was blown to bits by the charge of a monstrous creature…

This creature was clearly not of this world, looking like a pitbull the size of a man but devoid of skin. The gory ‘monster’ scanned the room with its red blood eyes and showed two rows of disgusting yet fearsomely sharp fangs as he saw Asmund, growling while having what was probably a smug look on its face.

Seeing the bloody beast approaching his ‘cage’, Asmund's own expression turned into a scowl. He wasn't scared of dying, especially since he was going to die soon either way, but he was kinda angry that he will probably have to feel a lot of pain before kicking the bucket now…

“Oh well… I’m dead either way, let’s try doing some last stand shit or something…”

Not much convinced about what he just said himself, he still got up from his bed with some difficulty and stared at the monster, which resulted to his surprise in a small rectangular screen appearing above said monster’s head.

[ Death-Hound Level 2 ]

“What the hell?! You’re a total weakling!”

After noticing the monster’s level, Asmund couldn’t help but say that out loud, and as if the monster actually understood what he said it rammed its body against one of the walls of glass.

*BANG*

Making a loud slapping sound resound in the whole room as a result, in addition to cracks appearing on it to Asmund’s surprise. One must understand that those glass walls are actually quite thick, and even a bullet would barely damage it! Yet this monster who is only level 2 was able to make big cracks on its surface!

“Well damn… If a low level monster is this strong, I can’t imagine the amount of power the high level ones have…”

While muttering to himself and now knowing that he was far from being safe in his cage, Asmund searched for anything he could use to defend himself. The only thing he could even think of using as a weapon around him was dumbbells. It was something he used almost everyday in order to exercise… Until recently that is… Lately he became unable to exercise as his body became weaker and weaker, so although someone average could probably use those dumbbells as a weapon, it was clearly out of the question for his weak self.

“Shit… Is that really the only thing I can use?”

Grimacing, he grabbed the only possible ‘weapon’ for him in this room: his laptop. Under normal circumstance it was his most prized possession and he wouldn’t do anything that could possibly break it, but looking at the situation it was clear that he will not be able to use it from now on either way…

*BANG*

Once again the Death-Hound assaulted the glass wall, making the cracks expand in size.

“Looks like it won’t be able resist another strike… Fine… Bring it on, since I’m going to die anyway, let me pour some of my hatred on your ugly mug!”

Taking an awkward stance, Asmund stood ready to fight to the bitter end, not caring about the obvious ending of said fight.

*CRASH*

As expected, the third strike was also the last… As the thick glass broke into pieces, a rush of ‘tainted’ air came in contact with Asmund's face, which immediately paled as what little bacterias that were among the air were enough to make him feel even sicker than what he was already. Although it sounded quite extreme, it was proof of just how weakened Asmund’s body was as of late…

Ignoring the pain and ill feeling running through his body, Asmund faced the Death-Hound which looked quite pleased about the fact he was finally before his prey. Now in the cage of glass, the Death-Hound immediately leaped at his prey, not taking any precautions in this fight as it was clearly looking down at Asmund and didn’t even imagine the possibility that he could be a threat.

It was sadly right… Facing the mass of bloody muscle leaping at him, Asmund did try to attack using his miserable weapon while letting his body fall to the side, but the result was as you could expect… The Death-Hound whose head came in contact with the laptop wasn’t even as much as scratched or bruised by the attack, and with what little athletic ability Asmund had, his clumsy dodge was nowhere near enough to completely avoid the attack.

“Ahhhh! Fuck!”

Although he avoided any vitals being hit and wasn’t hit by the Death-Hound’s most fearsome weapon, that is to say his fangs, Asmund's side now had a gaping hole which was the result of its contact with the monster’s razor sharp claws.

Screaming in pain and anger, Asmund quickly stood back on his feet despite his sorry state. Quickly calculating what should be his next move, he immediately came to a conclusion. He was nowhere near strong enough or well armed to possibly wound the damn thing. Not only that, his wound was visibly fatal unless it was to be quickly taken care of because of blood loss.

He certainly wanted to make a last stand, but a last stand with absolutely 0% of success? What's the use? That’s why he gave up the prospect of fighting the monster and ran away while dragging his heavy body, moving by using nothing but his willpower at this point.

It was certainly also a useless endeavor, but at least the chance of succeeding wasn't absolutely void. To Asmund’s shock, he was even able to reach the hallway, which he never saw before; everything outside his room being alien to him to begin with.

The reason he was able to ‘run’ this far was simply because the Death-Hound was enjoying a game of cat and mouse, though…

He understood this, but Asmund kept running, for what small chance he would have to escape, or at the very least annoy the damn beast if anything.

In the hallways, corpses were littered everywhere, blood and guts painting the walls, but running as best as he could he completely ignored those piles of flesh. Fellow humans had no importance in his mind anyway.

Reaching the top of the stairs leading down, Asmund gasped for breath as what little strength he was able to gather from his willpower until now was running dry. The large amount of blood escaping from his body through his wound was not exactly helping the matter.

By the time the sound of the leisurely walking monster came dangerously close to him, a huge puddle of blood gathered at his feet and he did his last struggle by jumping down the stairs, avoiding by a hair's breadth the jaw which was targeting his neck.

His prey escaping him like that, when he was sure to get it, truly annoyed the monster to the point it would have clicked its tongue if it was capable of that. Now deciding to finish this pointless game, it jumped after the falling Asmund… And that’s when the most unexpected event of the day happened.

The percentage of such an event happening through pure luck and probability should be as close to null as is possible, yet at this moment it happened…

As the huge monster was leaping, its rear limbs supporting its heavy weight literally slipped on the puddle of blood that Asmund left at the top of the stairs while he was gasping for air.

Who could have expected something as comical as that to happen? Propulsed by its inertia but without a stable launchpad, the Death-Hound’s body flew through the air spinning at an impressive speed, and concluded with the Death-Hound crushing its own head against the edge of a stair…

His eyes wide open as he was hugging his aching body, Asmund stared at the scene without being able to believe it wasn’t an hallucination created by his exhausted mind…

But contrary to his expectation, a bundle of screens followed one after another to prove him wrong.

[ Congratulations! You gained a level! ]

[ Received 4 Credits. ]

[ Congratulations! Due to your achievement of being the first human being to kill a monster with the use of nothing but your own blood, you successfully unlocked the unique Emperor Rank Class: ‘Blood Overlord’!’ ]

[ Blood Overlord / Unique / Emperor Rank Class ]

[ Growth Bonus: Pow/Con/Spi+ ]

[ Skills ]

[ Heart Of Magic Blood ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

[ Blood Manipulation ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Blood Siphon ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Do you wish to acquire the class ‘Blood Overlord’? After acquiring a class, be warned that you will not be able to change unless you buy a ‘Class Reset’ through the System’s Store! ]

Still in a stupor, Asmund just gazed at the screen, not sure of what he should do. But as his life was coming to an end at an alarming rate, he received another ‘message'…

[ Fufufu~, this is the first and last help you will receive from me. So from now on you’re on your own! Do your best to survive and entertain me now, will ya’? Oh also, you should hurry and accept that OP class if you want to survive. Using the Growth bonus, spending the free points you opened by leveling into your Constitution, using your ‘Heart Of Magic Blood’ and ‘Blood Manipulation’ skill, you should barely be able to live despite your condition! That’s it! See yaaa~! ]

...

Getting some of the answers to his confusion thanks to this message and understanding that the sender was probably the mysterious ‘Elmyria’ who was mentioned earlier, and probably also the reason why such a miracle-like thing occurred on the stairs, Asmund didn’t think more than that and immediately put his/her advice into practice; he accepted the ‘Blood Overlord’ class and putting his 3 free points into his Constitution stat.

#

[ Name: Asmund Dreyri | Race: Human | Level: 2 ]

[ Class: Blood Overlord ]

[ Power: 5 ]

[ Agility: 3 ]

[ Constitution: 5 ]

[ Mind: 11 ]

[ Spirit: 7 ]

#

[ Skills ]

[ Heart Of Magic Blood ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

[ Blood Manipulation ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Blood Siphon ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

#

[ Credits: 4 ]

[ System’s Shop -> ]

#

As soon as he did he felt some of his strength coming back, and even though blood was still flowing at a crazy pace from his wound he strangely felt his body regaining warmth. Getting his hopes up and starting to feel excited about all this, he tried to use the active skill the message mentioned earlier, ‘Blood Manipulation’, out of instinct and was startled to see that he was actually able to do so smoothly.

To be more precise, as soon as he wished to use the skill, he immediately understood how to do so and what the effect of the skill was. Just like its name implies, it let someone manipulate blood to some extent, but there’s apparently some limit. At the very least, in his current situation, it was a life saving skill as he was able to solidify a layer of blood on his wound, sealing it completely in the process.

Although he could feel something escaping his body at a really slow pace, slower than it was coming into his body, and which is probably the source of energy needed to use the ‘skill’ or even magic. Like just mentioned, the pace at which he was expending that energy to keep that thin layer of solid blood in place was slower than the pace of it flowing into his body.

To make it simpler, the energy that we could call ‘mana’ was regenerating at a faster rate that he was using it.

Sighing in relief, he noticed the beast's body move out the corner of his eye. Panicking that it might get up and attack again he focused on it, only for his jaw to drop to the floor. Far from getting up, the monster's entire body was squirming - like a combination of it melting and having an army of maggots already inside eating it at a ridiculous pace. Soon, almost like it grew out of the creature, a round grey capsule, like the ones you find in gacha machines, appeared on the floor next to the unexpectedly still intact corpse.

Almost in a trance, Asmund picked up the grey capsule, but was shocked back into consciousness as he remembered his current predicament.

After putting the mysterious capsule into his pocket, he quickly moved away from where he was as he was still far from being safe. The heavy sound of stampeding beasts and the screams of horror in his surroundings being the best hint…

Walking downstairs, he walked into the closest women’s bathroom hoping to use the peculiar smell of perfume and cosmetics emanating from it to hide his own body odor from the keen sense of smell of the beasts, closing himself into the furthest closet from the entrance.

Sitting on the toilet, he finally awarded himself with a long sigh of exhaustion as he relaxed his body, now ‘slightly’ in a better situation than before.

Now then… Let’s try to better understand the situation and this new weird system…