I snap my eyes open as the rumbling of the carriage comes to a sudden stop. I’ve been stuck for god knows how many days. All I do know is that I’m thirsty as fuck, and starving. Literally.

Nameless Lesser Gyaroraptor; Level 1

Status Effects : Starving; Water deprived [Decreased stats]

Unspent Skill Points : 0

Skills :

Identify: LVL 2

Night Vision: LVL 6

Heat Vision: LVL 3

Venom: LVL 6

Regeneration: LVL 6

Camouflage: LVL 3

Hemophilia(passive): LVL 1

Sense Vulnerability: LVL 1

Body Enhancement: LVL 9

Enhanced Hearing: LVL 4

Enhanced Olfactory: LVL 2

Earth Manipulation: LVL 8

Fire Manipulation: LVL 3

Magic Manipulation: LVL 3

Resistances :

Heat Resistance: LVL 2

Fear Resistance: LVL 2

Earth Resistance: LVL 5

Physical Resistance: LVL 3

Hunger Resistance: LVL 1

Thirst Resistance: LVL 2

Traits :

Bi-blooded

Small but Mighty

Heightened Stamina

Titles :

Reincarnated One

Reverse Slayer

Upholder of Morals

Ŵ̸̨͙͂̈́̇̀̽̑ư̶̩͇̼̩̹͚̰͜z̸̧̮͖̅͆̽͑ͅe̵̪̝͔̽ͅx̶̡̪̼̰̲̦̫̓̉͝ͅm̶̧̭͆̒̽͂͊̈̋̋k̴̗͘q̵͙̻͓̗̊̕d̵̢̧͖̬̀̐̓

Core Slayer

Novice Mage

They gave me food and water like once over the entire course of the trip… why couldn’t they have left some stuff here? At this point, I’m too tired to care. At least I got two skills out of this.

Hunger Resistance LVL 1:

Gives skill holder resistance to the pains of hunger.

Thirst Resistance LVL 2:

Gives skill holder resistance to the pains of thirst.

I just want to sleep…

The inside of the trunk was completely encased in steel, or something of that nature and had some sort of mana-draining effect added to it. I didn’t realize it at first, but after a few Body Enhanced attacks I noticed that my mana wasn’t regenerating. My mana was almost gone the next day when I woke up, making me feel sick the entire time.

Now that the carriage has stopped, I can pick up the sound of many people walking, running, talking, and the sound of hooves on cobble. My Enhanced Hearing had leveled up twice, mainly from me trying to catch anybody coming to check on me while I was fiddling with the chains. As you can see, nothing came of that, and I’m still chained up.

A loud click breaks me from idle thinking, and I look up. The sunlight blinds me as the door opens, and a large pair of hands wraps around my abdomen and hauls me out of the back compartment as I try to blink out the light’s afterimage.

In the time it took for me to clear out my vision, I was put inside another cage. This one looks a lot prettier than any of the ones I’ve been in in the past couple days I believe. Even though they are a lot thinner than usual, the ornate golden bars didn’t budge when I pulled at it, whether it be the material or my weakened body. I grumble. I’m too tired for this shit. After a few tries I give up and curl back into a ball. A man laid a piece of gold and purple colored cloth over the cage, leaving me in They still haven’t given me any food or water yet. Sigh.

A short while later, after ascending a plethora of staircases, I feel something change in the air. It feels a lot more… dense. I don’t know how to really explain it, it’s just that the air feels a lot muggier all of the sudden.

I hear the muffled sound of people talking above me. Is this drape noise absorbing or something? Or is it the air?

I lay my head back down and bathe myself in the mana, feeling it flow slowly into my body, to my heart. Ahhhhhhh… my headache is finally receding.

With a loud ‘clunk’, my cage is set down. A second later, two sets of hands lift up the blanket covering my cage, revealing an extremely large, well decorated room filled with gold, silver, jewels, and fine draperies. In front of me stood a large set of stairs, and on top of which sat the largest and most golden throne I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, this thing’s huge! At least two or three stories tall. Sitting on this oversized throne was a young lithe man with hair just as if not more golden than his throne or the over the top crown that laid on top of his head.

Did I get sold to become the pet of a king? I mean… this could go two ways. One, I’m kept as a pet and fed tons of good food and live a life of boring luxury. Or they’re gonna make me dogfi-

“Hmph! This creature seems deadly enough. Take it to the Arena and have it fight!”

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

* * *

For the fifth time in I don’t know how short of a time frame, I am thrown into a cage. This time, in a cell of sorts in the corner of some sort of dungeon. The four guards who brought me here had taken me out of my previous golden cage, unshackled me, and threw me into a (thankfully) much larger golden cage. At least they gave me jerky and water, as shit as it tastes.

I gobble up jerky and slurp down half of the water in my bowl before finally slumping down, gasping. What a great month, ain’t it? Escape one hell just to end up in another. Fucking hell. Welp, time to get to work, trying to find a way out!

I study the cage. The bars on this thing are a lot thinner than the bars on the cage I was in back in the storage room, and from the smell and sound of it there wasn’t anyone else around here, or at least in the near vicinity. Can’t say for sure what the grunts and cries coming from much further out are.

After taking a ten minute breather, Heaving myself up. Though my mana is only a third full, mostly thanks to the thick mana in the throne room, I activate Body Enhancement and start clawing at my cage. The bars rattle, but didn’t bend at all. Is iron or steel really this strong? I could’ve sworn I would’ve been able to at least pry open the bars with my enhanced strength, but this golden metal is many times stronger than that metal cage back in that storage room.

For fucks sake can something go my way?

I angrily ram myself into the bars, which sadly resulted in a very sore shoulder and an unaffected cage.

…

Fucking hell.

I sit back down and begin playing around with my claws. A sudden spark flies from my claws and I immediately use Fire Manipulation, enlarging the tiny speck of light into a small whisk of flame. I swirl the fire around the air a bit, and after a while the flame dissipated.

Fire Manipulation has leveled up to level 4.

Oh! I almost forgot about leveling my manipulations up!

I jump up and begin looking around my cage. The stone floor and walls seems to have some sort of preventative measure against Earth Manipulation, thus I couldn’t manipulate the cobblestone, but I the small pebbles and rocks scattered around are fair game.

After a good few minutes and most of my remaining mana, I had managed to gather a small pile of dirt, dust, and pebbles laying around my cage.

With my head throbbing, I curl up into a ball. I wasn’t really tired, to be honest, so I start circling my mana around inside of me, feeling the mana flow throughout my body as it begins to fill up faster. After I’ve filled back up, it’s gonna be training time!

- - - - -

I wake with a jolt as I hear the sound of loud footsteps and of metal clinking together. It’s been at least a day or two since I’ve been thrown down here and I’ve been practicing my manipulation abilities, as well as steeling my nerves for when I get sent into the arena. Making fire fly around hadn’t been all that hard, but making the stones float had been extremely mentally and mana taxing.

I tried to use the stones and fire to whittle down one of the cage’s golden bars, but alas they weren’t powerful enough even though I’ve managed to level Earth Manipulation to nine and Fire Manipulation to seven. Magic Manipulation and Enhanced Olfactory both leveled up once as well.

Nameless Lesser Gyaroraptor; Level 1

Status Effects : None [No effect]

Unspent Skill Points : 0

Skills :

Identify: LVL 2

Night Vision: LVL 6

Heat Vision: LVL 3

Venom: LVL 6

Regeneration: LVL 6

Camouflage: LVL 3

Hemophilia(passive): LVL 1

Sense Vulnerability: LVL 1

Body Enhancement: LVL 9

Enhanced Hearing: LVL 4

Enhanced Olfactory: LVL 3

Earth Manipulation: LVL 9

Fire Manipulation: LVL 7

Magic Manipulation: LVL 4

Resistances :

Heat Resistance: LVL 2

Fear Resistance: LVL 2

Earth Resistance: LVL 5

Physical Resistance: LVL 3

Hunger Resistance: LVL 1

Thirst Resistance: LVL 2

Traits :

Bi-blooded

Small but Mighty

Heightened Stamina

Titles :

Reincarnated One

Reverse Slayer

Upholder of Morals

Ŵ̸̨͙͂̈́̇̀̽̑ư̶̩͇̼̩̹͚̰͜z̸̧̮͖̅͆̽͑ͅe̵̪̝͔̽ͅx̶̡̪̼̰̲̦̫̓̉͝ͅm̶̧̭͆̒̽͂͊̈̋̋k̴̗͘q̵͙̻͓̗̊̕d̵̢̧͖̬̀̐̓

Core Slayer

Novice Mage

Soon enough, the origin of the sounds comes into view. A group of rough looking men walks into my section up to my cage. Two of them slide a long rod across the top of my cage and heft me up with their shoulders. The group, with me in tow, begins walking once more. I see many other groups of people hefting out cages containing a variety of creatures in the same way.

The men haul us deeper into the dungeon, with only the light from the torches the men had been carrying to light the way.

But then I hear it. A soft roaring sound that is increasing in volume as we are walking onwards. A-Are we gonna get thrown off a damn waterfall? Wait, no that’s not water… the Arena? Yes, it’s the sound of people cheering and shouting!

A shiver runs down my spine and I feel my hands grow cold. The men turn a bend and the sound grows louder. I can see a bright light in the distance becoming larger and larger as I feel the sounds shake my body more and more.

Frozen, the men carry my cage through the gates and into the Arena proper. The sunlight blinds me momentarily, causing me to flinch, but the earsplitting sound of thousands of people hollering snaps me out of my trance. Alright, it wasn’t that loud, just Enhanced Hearing fucking my ears up. I deactivate Enhanced Hearing and shake my head as the ringing in my ears slowly die down.

A large gladiatorial arena greets me after I blink away the spots in my eyes. A very bloody one at that, with a bunch of men dressed in rags picking up the pieces of past combatants out of its sandy grounds while more armored men carried in caged beasts from other gates.

Ah fuck, I can’t believe this. A battle royale.

The men carrying me place me down a few meters from another cage. Another set of armored men place another cage a few meters away from me, and soon the entire extremity of this humongous arena has been lined by cages containing creatures.

Seriously, how many fucking animals had they captured for this one event?

I pace around my cage as the crowd’s cheering and shouting dies down. A-A battle royale death match! How the hell am I gonna survive?! The thought is finally sinking in, and I feel my nerves become more and more unsettled.

Shitshitshitshitshitshit-

I ram myself against the cage, but as expected all it did is rattle. I shouldn’t have been playing around too much, who gives a shit about leveling up manipulation when I could have been trying to find a way out!? Am I gonna die? What are the chances of me winning this without getting completely wrecked? Ahhhh-

Deep breaths. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. I can’t go and spazz out like this. I need to calm down and focus.

I cast Identify on the two beasts on either side of me. On my left was a dog-like creature the size of a german shepherd with fins protruding out of its back and had webbed feet ending in claws, and the other was a green anaconda-sized snake.

Freshwater Seahound --- LVL 13

Titanic Boa --- LVL 7

…I think I’ll take the seahound fight thank you very much. I’d rather not get strangled to death. Actually, not fighting at all seems like a much safer choice.

I should probably stay back for the first half of this, and pounce on creatures that have been hurt. I’m pretty confident I can out run most creatures with my Body Enhancement and Heightened Stamina. So-

*clunk*

*creeeak*

As I was planning out my next moves, the cage door opens.

I stand there, staring at the cage door, then sprint out while cursing myself for my brain’s slowness.

I look to my right and see the giant boa had just slithed out of its cage. Good, it’s not going for me yet. I turn to the lef- ah fuck there’s a claw.

I duck to the left and cry out in pain as the claws thankfully misses my head but catches and slices my back. Tumbling down into the dirt, I had but a second to regain my senses before I spot another claw coming down at me. The second attack, luckily enough, misses my snout by mere millimeters. With Body Enhancement cranked up, I jump a few meters back to gain some space while I empower my Regeneration with extra mana to stop the bleeding.

It was the fucking seahound that attacked me straight away. Damn thing has extendable claws it seem, and it looks pretty damn angry that it didn’t manage to kill me with that attack.

The seahound growls at me, raising its hackles while slowly pacing around me. I lower my stance down and match its pacing as well, wincing at the slash. The wound isn’t too deep, but it’ll still take a while for it to heal fully. I need to land a bite and inject it with Venom, then my victory will be guaranteed. But the problem right now is getting my teeth in contact with the damn mutt.

Mmm… I have an idea. I can probably make a bunch of the sand fly into the seahound’s face and blind, then I can lunge in and bite it while it’s distracted. But it’s gonna be pretty mana-heavy.

I only have one shot at this, and if I miss I doubt I can hit it on the next shot. Plus, I don’t want to waste that much more mana this early on.

As I continue to ready myself, the seahound lowers its body and propels itself straight at me at a shockingly high speed given its stature, giving me little to no time to react. Here goes nothing!

I feel a large chunk of mana leave my body and spread into the sand underneath my feet, and a split second later a mini reverse avalanche of sand more or less exploded upwards, swallowing up the seahound and causing a strange wet-sounding ‘yip!’ to come out of the beast’s mouth. I lunge forward myself and sink my teeth into its chest, pumping as much venom.

A paw suddenly comes out of the dust cloud and claws me across my face. I cry out in pain once more and throw the seahound as hard as I can to the side.

I collapse to my knees, the wounds on my face stinging as my vision starts blurring at the edges. I look over to the seahound and find it writhing on the ground with foam coming out of its mouth.

With the rest of my strength, I begin running towards the downed mutt and jump, landing on its defenseless bowels with claws outstretched and ready to cut. My claws easily sink into the beast’s flesh as my mind goes into autopilot and begins to mutilate its body.

Blood and chunks of flesh flies everywhere as I put my all into this attack.

You have slain Freshwater Seahound LVL 13.

You have gained enough experience points to level up. You are now level 2. You have received 5 skill points.

Venom has leveled up to level 7.

The sudden appearance of the pop-ups snaps me out of my mindless rage.

Oh thank god…

I let my body slump down, shaking, as I start trying to regulate my breathing back to normal.

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have spent that much mana on Venom.

I groan as I feel me body beg me for a break. Shit! I can’t relax yet! I’m in the middle of a fucking free-for-all, I’ve gotta keep alert! Also what the fuck was that? Why did I go full mental all of the sudden?

I look at the bloody mess I’ve made and my stomach grumbles loudly. An immense pang of pain shoots through my abdomen, making me almost cramp up. I know haven’t eaten much at all. The jerky I’ve had so far was barely able to suppress my hunger, but I’ve never been this hungry.

I grit my teeth and push myself back up on my shaking legs and look around. Thankfully, the area I’m at seems to not have all that much traffic, and thus is relatively safe.

I steal a glance at the splattered body of the seahound. My stomach grumbles again.

…

Food.

A small voice in the back of my begins speaking.

Food.

Eat.

Food.

Eat the food.

I approach the still warm corpse and sniff it, almost retching at the smell of the carnage. I-I can’t. The voice, though, only grows louder.

Eat.

Food.

A sudden smell catches my attention. It smells… amazing.

Blood.

Eat.

BLOOD.

EAT.

FOOD.

The sweet fragrance flows its way into my nose, becoming stronger and stronger as I begin salivating. I stare at the bloody mess in the sand as though it’s a plate of gourmet food. How I want to sink my teeth into its delectable flesh and drink its sweet blood…

W-Wait, what the hell am I doing? I shouldn’t be thinking of eating right now. I-

EAT.

EAT.

My mind blanks as the urge’s strength multiply tenfold.

I open my maw and lunge at its stomach…

EAT.

And eat I do.

…

……

………

Requirements for skill “Bloodlust” have been met. You have gained skill Bloodlust. Because of title Ŵ̸̨͙͂̈́̇̀̽̑ư̶̩͇̼̩̹͚̰͜z̸̧̮͖̅͆̽͑ͅe̵̪̝͔̽ͅx̶̡̪̼̰̲̦̫̓̉͝ͅm̶̧̭͆̒̽͂͊̈̋̋k̴̗͘q̵͙̻͓̗̊̕d̵̢̧͖̬̀̐̓ , Bloodlust gains the following additional effect:

User will gain an extra 2 times the stats provided by Bloodlust while it is active at the cost of losing control of a larger amount of free will for the duration of the spell. Spell duration increases for each creature slain directly, depending on the slain creature’s level and rank.