Jace's POV

Through hell he had travelled, but one by one, he cut them down.

The blood centipedes lunged at Jace, yet he cleaved through them as a sythe cleaves wheat. First in silence, then in open combat. The extinct ancient beings of blood, it mattered little to his blade.

From both sides, barbed tails had flew towards him, yet Jace spun. His conjured blade shifted in his hand, twisting with the blue glow of ice mana, countering the first tail, before it flew along the form of a horizontal slash to run a second opponent through.

''Crrrr'' voices screeched, echoing through the hollow halls.

Jace ignored those screeches, as he moved through the bloodied floor, continued to cut down another centipede, letting the two halves of the body crash to the ground, one part still screeching in a violent notion, amidst the swirls of chaotic blood mana in the air.

His eyes were empty, hopeless, yet it was still there, a glint of fury.

More came at him, and more fell. Barbed tails, poisoned mandibles, hard slams, his blade cleaved them through. He felt the rush, flowing through his skull, engulfing his body, through his veins, deep within his chest.

[One With My Blade]

His sword moved, quicker, faster, stronger with every blow exchanged, until the massacre was over.

''CRRRRRRRRRRRR!'' The creaks were intensifying every second, even though Jace did not understand the words, he knew the sound of terror all too well.

"CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The last of the centipedes retreated, stepping back into the blood that puddled the castle floor. Blood coated, filthy tails moved in a serpentine motion.

As he charged, swinging his blade, Jace found his attack deflected, a dark barbed tail, lashing out at his side as it blocked, cutting shallow as Jace let his own follow through. He moved his sword in a vertical motion, leaving blue afterglows down his blade. The azure blade swung clean, resonating with a deep exhale from his lungs as his side burned as the blood trailed won down both of his blade and clothes.

It was done. Some of them escaped, some just laid there, torn in half, waiting for their inevitable demise, while step by step, Jace moved forward, freezing the blood soaked floor. His entire body was covered in shallow cuts, the pain in his side was throbbing worse with every push and pull of muscles and tendons, but his blade, his arms, they were still ready.

[Spirit Blade: The Eternal Frost]

Jace swung with a skill that surpassed all the rest he'd ever achieved, The highest tier he had achieved in swordsmanship. The greatest achievement of his lifetime, the Blade that was more than a Blade, an extension of himself. He felt it, his mana channels, circuiting their way through the blue blade he gave no pause before the blade passed through the crimson air in a horizontal sweep. The azure aura, released along the sweep made it's way through the blood hellscape, cleaving everything it's path. Escaping the true monstrosity, before the centipedes even made it to hallway, the azure aura cleaved them through, bisecting their metameric structures, revealing the gore inside before puddling the floor further.

"Don't think I'll let you escape that easily!" Jace heard his own words as they echoed down the empty hall. His knees gave away as he found himself leaning heavily on his blue blade while the chaotic blood mana shifted through the air. magic structures swam in the air around him, twisting and turning with the loud roar in the distant frontal hallway.

''GRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!''

Jace shifted his gaze, towards the source of the roar. The darkened hallway, echoing with the loud thumping footsteps.

Upon the massive carved archway in the front of the wide hall, the creature stood. Towards the center of the bloodied hall itself, a crystalline body of dark red that seemed to stare down at him. There was no anger in those eyes, they just stared down on him, like he was an insect that they could crush anytime.

Sanguis Drake Lv43

The crystal drake's gaze shifted as the magic structures in the air grew to a tempest, encircling the entire hallway. The chaotic blood mana, raged like a storm down the hall. The blood storm raged, the mana in the air danced, the blood that puddled the floor, now dancing along with it.

"Shame." Jace muttered, as he fell forward towards the waiting storm of crimson blood, vision fixed on the strange bloody sheen at the eye of the storm. "I could have done more to avenge them."

He closed his eyes, as he blood storm took a hold of him. Tears running down his face.

''At least, I will be able to meet them now.''

***

Alec's POV

Under the desk, down on the obsidian floor, Alec groaned as he opened his emerald eyes. His nerves still hammering against his skull. His body still felt numb, as he tried to stand over his shaking legs. What happened to me? To answer his question, a loud ding resonated down his head, shifting his gaze towards the waiting notifications over green screen.

Warning: You have used an amount of mana too high for your restricted level!

Lack of mana has temporarily degraded your physical stats!

Lack of mana has temporarily degraded your mental stats!

You have used up all your mana.

Instance [Mana Starvation] has been activated! Your consciousness will be forcefully forfeited to avoid further damage.

Alec groaned as he looked up to the notifications. How long have I been out? He shifted his sight as he scanned his surroundings for any potential threats, nothing crossed his gaze. Heaving a sigh of relief, he shifted his gaze towards broken chandelier.

What the hell?

The crushed chandelier was still there, yet, the victim was gone. Where the hell is that bloody thing? Alec pushed himself, calming his shaking legs, his guard still up, emerald eyes scanning the whole library.

As he reached the position of his first murder, he noticed a red gleam down the mutilated corona. A red crystal like stone was radiating in the place of the centipede. A thin layer of ash surrounded it.

Did that dude just... Disintegrate?

There was no other explanation. The chandelier's position was the same as before, when he blanked out. Half of the centipede's body was mangled down by it. Unless someone came, removed the chandelier, retrieved the dead centipede, sprinkled some nice ash, put the broken chandelier in the same position and left the sleeping beauty alone, this was the most reasonable explanation.

Keeping his guard up, he moved towards the shining crystal, under the chandelier. He stepped in then out, with a glimmering crimson crystal in his jaws. I don't mind being so small. Quietly, he eyed the green window appeared as he touched the crystal with his paws.

Blood Mana Essence(C)

Hoh! Was this the thing the quest was taking about? Will those insects just disintegrate, if I left them be? Perhaps, only the dead ones.

His head was calm now, as he jumped, reaching the smooth wooden desk and opened his status.

Alec Jones

Species: Puerulus Antitheus Feles

Race: Ancesant

Constellation: Inanis Praenuntius

Potential: [Perfect]

Status:

Level: 6

HP: 220/220

MP: 32/95

SP: 216/216

STRENGTH: 32

ENDURANCE: 11

VITALITY: 22

MIND: 50

WISDOM: 9

CLARITY: 10

AGILITY: 29

Available stat points: 20

Available Skill Points: 1

Species abilities:

Blood Claws lv1

Mana Bite lv1

Blood Bullet lv1

Space Step lv1

Racial attributes:

Dimensional space access lv1

Mystic lv1

Language comprehension lv Max

Stellar abilities:

System interference

Path of Stars [Exclusive]

Stigma generation:

S1:[Unavailable][Stellar essence detected] evoke? Y/N

S2:[Unavailable][Unlock s1 first]

S3:[Unavailable][Unlock s2 first]

S4:[Unavailable][Unlock s3 first]

S5:[Unavailable][Unlock s4 first]

S6:[Unavailable][Unlock s5 first]

It said I used up all my mana earlier. So, by the time I was out, I regenerated 32 points of mana. I don't know my exact mana regeneration speed or I would have been able to calculate the exact amount of time I spent unconscious. Even the time this dude took before turning into a speck of dust and a nice stone.

Dropping the blood essence from his jaws, he activated the dimensional space and stored his first loot. Neat.

Now, onto the main topic. So, apparently, my experiment worked. His theory of space mana maintaining the same properties as electromagnetic waves proved to be correct, resulting in teleportation from over the smooth wood to rough floor.

But can't these things come with a warning label? Like: Highly dangerous, Not For Infant Demon cats or something? How was someone like me, a dude who spent whole twenty one years of his past life not knowing the existence of mana, even supposed to know the consequences of overmana usage.

Oh! My wisdom also increased by one. It ain't much but it's honest work. He still had no idea how this stat worked.

The memory of his whole body agonizing in pain, like thounsands of spears pierced him through, was not something he would like to experience again.

If something like that happened to him before, he would have been traumatised for years. Yet, here he was, calm as a unrippled surface of a lake. The level of being sangfroid is so high that it's almost frightening.

He quickly dismissed his thoughts as he pulled up the skill information of space step.

[Space Step][Lv1(24.5/200)]:

Type: Status

Range: 2 meter(s)

MP cost: High

Cooldown: 10 minutes

User manipulates the space around itself to send space mana waves within the range. User can teleport anywhere within the given sphere.

[Maximum range increases with skill levels]

[Minimum cooldown time decreases with skill levels]

The description was still vague, it showed that this skill required high mana cost but not by exactly how much. Last time I had nearly 49 mana points, while I used the skill for nearly 6-8 seconds.

If he had to speculate, the skill's mechanism allowed it to channel a limited amount of mana per second and regarding the context of the previous attempt, the channeling speed is nearly 7mp/sec.

If he had activated the skill immediately after the sphere expanded, he would had been able to avoid his little brain meltdown. Not that it was my fault, I never knew how the skill worked in the first place.

He wanted to try again but decided to wait, till his mana replinshed. Can't let the incomplete descriptions get the better of me.

Man, I really wanted to check how the blood bullet works against those armoured insects. Blood claw was rather disappointing, but the blood bullet showed promise. Furthermore it could help him speculate if the magical defense was a thing.

A sudden ding interrupted his inner thoughts. He looked up to the screen and his eyes widened.

Sub Quest

Due to abundance of blood mana on the ground floor of fortress, blood beasts are spawning at an increased rate. Eliminate the spawned beasts.

Difficulty: SS

Reward: skill(Blood chains)

Objective: Eliminate the blood spawns 1/1

Clear condition: Collect every blood mana essence(s).

[Collected 1/1]

Quest cleared!

Claim the rewards? Y/N

What the fuck?