Alec sat on the wooden desk, silently eyeing through the updated quest screen. This isn't right. He remembered the first time when he speculated that they might be hunting among each other or something else was hunting them. There were 67 initial centipedes. Till the time I hunted one of them, the quest updated to show that only 53 remained.

Quest never said they were centipedes, the notion it used was ''blood spawns". They might be weaker or even stronger than the centipedes.

By the time he was out, something hunted all 53 of them. Did a different monster appear?

His mind raced, looking for the possibilities of the future scenario. Those centipedes were sure as hell not easy targets. Perhaps for his own size, those armoured insects were no less than a monstrosity. If something or someone, was hunting them, eliminating multiple of those blood centipedes at once, there was no point in greeting them. Damn it! I was happy that someone else was hunting them in my place but who knew it was a tiger in wolf's hide. Not that I can take the wolf either. Whatever, that's not my current concern! Focus!

In essence, he needed to be more cautious. There were so many unknown factors in this equation. Every variable was like a blazing sword to his butter like survival.

He did not know how the quests were triggered. There might just be the nightmare waiting for him after he accepted the reward.

His initial plan was to invest rest of his free points to agility and mind, track them down, get a high ground, snipe one down, activate mystic, run, recover and repeat until he got rid of all of them.

The base of his strategy was obviously his mind stat and blood bullet. If his assumption of it being the base factor of magical intensity in attacks, it would nearly double the power of magic attacks.

The blood claw had the base power of 40. It broke through the outer defenses but blocked by the inner ones.

Whereas blood bullet has double the base power of blood claws, furthermore his mind stat was nearly double of his strength stat. Calculating in accordance to the base value, the blood bullet should have done 400% of damage the blood claws did. That would have been enough to severe the inner defenses.

Even if it was not, the secondary effect of blood bullet, further multiplied the intensity of explosion by twice, reaching a grand total of 800% blood damage. There was no way in the hell that those centipedes could have survived that.

Well, I just can't wait here and expect everything to pass without doing anything.

Emerald eyes glinting towards the surface of crushed floor, he pulled up the quest screen.

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

[Eliminated 1/1]

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

[Collected 1/1]

Quest cleared!

Claim the rewards? Y/N

Yes!

Alec felt it, as the sudden surge of chilling energy rushed towards his head, the faint feeling of knowledge itself engraving his mind. Goosebumps went down his spine, just like the first time he had accepted a quest.

I'll never get used to this.

Alright then! He scanned the surrounding area for a last time, before calling forth his rewarded skill information.

[Blood Chains][Lv1(0/400)]

Power: varies (20+)

Type: Ranged, Status, Conjuration

Mana cost: Moderate, varies

Maximum length of chains: 2m

Maximum range for chains: 1m

Maximum number of chains: 2

Cooldown: 1 hour

Allows user to conjure two blood chains.

The chains can absorb mana from surrounding areas and convert it into pure mana, can be absorbed by user, increasing base mana regeneration. User can manipulate the chains, can be used for attacking, defending or restraining.

[Effect increased by 300% for blood mana]

[Maximum length of chains increases with skill levels]

[Maximum range of chains increases with skill levels]

[Cooldown decreases with skill levels]

That's... Kinda good!

The skill allowed him to summon and manipulate two blood chains. That itself was neat but the skill further shined in terms of effects. The mana regeneration. His mana was recovering at a snail's pace. In last hour, his mana only recovered by 12 points. Making the base recovery speed of 0.003mp/s.

The skill, as usual was vague. It told him about the base regeneration but not by exactly how much. This meant, he couldn't just use it carelessly, penalties could be severe. The memory of unspeakable pain when he first suffered mana starvation was embedded inside his brain. While he wasn't affected by it anymore, he did not want to experience that horrible memory a second time.

First of all, he needed to calculate the increase in base mana regeneration and a proper cost for maintaining and manipulating the chains. He pulled up his status screen.

Alec Jones

Species: Puerulus Antitheus Feles

Race: Ancesant

Constellation: Inanis Praenuntius

Potential: [Perfect]

Status:

Level: 6

HP: 220/220

MP: 44/95

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

Blood Chains 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]

Nearly half of his mana tank was full. Alright then. He closed his eyes took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

[Blood Chains]

The moment he activated the skill, he felt his mana surged through his surroundings, emptying his mana tank. Without wasting any further time, he shifted his concentration towards two points in the surging mana circle, where he wanted to summon the chains.

The mana around him shifted, rushing towards the summoning points before the surge finally calmed down. The points ,no longer two random parts in space, drenched in a hue of crimson surged with chaotic swirls of blood mana before finally evoking the blood chains.

Two translucent bloodied chains now swam across his vision.

That's... Kinda flashy.

Focus! Before continuing, Alec checked his mana tank.

MP: 18/95

That took more than he had expected. Well, whatever, the thing I need to check if it costs additional mana for the time it is being maintained.

There were four options he could choose from and activate two of them simultaneously: Restrain, Attack, Defend and Absorb.

But first, he needed to know how much it's going to cost leaving this chain hanging around freely, so that he can build a base for his future calculations.

Alright then! Lets do it.

He waited for exactly a minute before checking his mana pool.

MP: 12/95

Whoa! It took 6 mp for just keeping these chains idle around me. This skill is too expansive. That means, mp cost per chain is 3mp/min or 0.05mp/sec. Which is even much higher than my base mana regeneration. I didn't even account for my base mana regeneration because it's basically negligible. And it complicates the calculations too, I'll pretend I don't have any mana regeneration.

Ok, now, it's turn for absorpti-

Before he could have finished his thought, a sudden earthquake snapped him out of it. Then it came.

GRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

A roar, loud enough to easily pierce through one's eardrums. Alec panicked. The origin of the loud roar seemed far away but such powerful intensity send a cold sweat down his neck.

What the hell was that. He quickly dismissed the blood chains.

Alec jumped off the desk and started scurring towards the opposite exit of library, away from the source of roar. I need to get as far away as I can from it.

I was right, there was another monster hunting those centipedes. And one thing was confirmed. This thing is much more monstrous than any of those insects.

Call it a natural instinct or a delusion of a being, but every prey knows how to identify a predator. Alec knew it too, there was no point in standing against it. No matter how clever the prey is, nothing stands in the way of pure power. He started sprinting down the empty hallways. Getting as far away from the source as possible.

This mental state was panicked, he ran, with all he can, without looking back. What the hell is happening here. I don't... I WON'T DIE HERE! I will escape from this hellhole!

Before he could take another turn inside the hallway, a sudden creak interrupted his rush. Two bloody eyes stared down at him through the darkened corridor.

''Crrrr''

Sounds of mandibles clacking together, now resonated across the hollow corridor.

Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me!

It appeared, with an armoured body of red the creature revealed itself.

Sanguis Scolopendra Lv12

Before Alec even had a chance to react, the centipede lunged at him bearing its scythed mandibles.