Black blood rained all around and Waya was trapped. She found herself enclosed in a lightless room, each stinging droplet of rain made her want to howl in pain. She tried to run away from the falling projectiles of corruption without success, the incessant rain had nowhere to go, it started filling up the room. Waya felt a burning sensation that started from her paws, then began to rise above her ankles.

Before she knew it, the corruption had risen above her head. Her whole body was submerged under the black liquid. She desperately started paddling, her legs could no longer touch the floor. A storm brewed in the room, the corrupted liquid started bobbing, then waves of blood splashed over Waya.

She choked and huffed, the thick viscous blood was too difficult to swim in. A wave of onyx blood smashed down from above, dragging her under, pulling her into the depths.

No light could penetrate the sticky fluid, the pressure began increasing the deeper she sank into the abyss. She couldn’t howl or cry, she couldn’t call for help, no matter how hard she tried.

Thoughts of betrayal and abandonment flashed in her mind. Her brother wasn’t there for her, 'he promised father he would be there for me!'

Her father had left her, he was stupid enough to challenge the Alpha wolf to try and save them. What was he thinking? Her mother, she had never met her, her father refused to speak of it. The Dire pack, they threw her out. The hideless man, he had failed to save her in her moment of need.

In the depths of the ocean of blood, something grabbed her throat, it grasped tightly constricting her neck. Her willpower was slowly being eroded, she was finding it harder and harder to fight back against the constant assault on mind and body.

Blue glowing light could be seen in the distance, barely visible in the darkness.

Waya desperately struggled against the choking sensation around her neck, growling and shaking her body. She struggled with all her might, kicking her legs and dragging her paws through the thick substance.

The blue light grew brighter, angrier, struggling to reach her.

‘What is that? Help?! I’m coming!’

Using the last remnants of her willpower and strength, she thrashed around violently, kicking, clawing and biting. Everything and anything she could do to fight off the malevolence.

Finally, the choking sensation released from her neck, she started kicking towards the light. The only thing she could see in the darkness all around her, she could tell that the light would be her salvation.

Waya furiously kicked and paddled towards the blue light. She could make it!

A blue hand reached towards her, the hand emanated warmth and tranquillity. Her struggle was almost at an end, one final kick. The hand lightly touched her nose and the sea of darkness evaporated, bright light vanquished the malevolent force that had been trying to consume her.

Waya’s eye’s flickered, she felt warmth under her chin. A hand gently stroked her head, comforting words were whispered into her ears. “It’s going to be alright, It will be alright…”

The sound of a strong and steady heartbeat provided a comforting rhythmic sensation.

Waya’s body hunched in a fetal position, her eyelids relaxed until they closed. She allowed herself to fall into a more blissful sleep. This time it would be a more pleasant dream.

****

When Dante awoke, Waya’s head was still in his lap. She was breathing deeply, a calm steady cadence.

His wounds were mostly healed, he had the annoying notification that he was always thankful for.

[WARNING! - Body in critical condition]

[ 800 experience converted to 8 Ascension points]

[ 9 ascension points automatically spent for the preservation of life - only used outside of combat]

‘I must have come pretty close to death this time, I need to stop getting so fucked up in every encounter’ Dante vowed to improve his capabilities and also increase his constitution and vitality. He had to be less dependent on the life-preserving effects of the system, it was costing him a lot of ascension points. And in the near future he wouldn't have that crutch to help him. Points that could make him strong enough to prevent these events from spiralling out of his control.

He took account of his surroundings, the church interior was a bomb site. The explosion that tore through the doors had destroyed his barricade and caused wooden shrapnel to fly everywhere.

If he didn’t do anything about the doors and hole in the wall, it would be a poor place to defend if he tried to remain in the church.

Kobolds bodies were strewn everywhere, a vile smell permeated the air, their corrupted blood was splashed all over the place spreading corruption. Not to mention the enemies the mess caused by his attacks that had rent his enemies to pieces, their bowels spilling out of them. Flies and insects were already feasting upon the aftermath of the battle.

Dante gently lifted Waya’s head from his lap, he didn’t want to disturb her much needed rest. He looked at her pitiful state, she was covered in many small sharp pieces of wood, she looked ridiculous.

He moved over to the improvised ramp that he destroyed, salvaging some wood to turn into a makeshift gurney. He dragged it towards Waya, carefully lifting her onto it.

Picking up one end of the long piece of wood with Waya on it, he slowly made his way out of the church with Waya being pulled behind him.

Dante had moved Waya to a different building, earlier in the week he had marked it as an alternative potential hideout.

He thought back on the whole encounter with the Corrupted Kobolds and the malicious Leader, how they had caused his anger to explode allowing him to push himself way past his limits.

Recalling how his abilities were enhanced under the effects of his enraged state. His crystal claws had become gauntlets that covered his whole hands, when he attacked with them, they could project his slashing attacks a short distance.

He had also managed to construct his new ability, a mana bolt that had shot out as a blue beam of light that near blinded him. The power of it had exceeded his expectations and wildest dreams.

He was confident that he couldn’t easily replicate those feats without being in the same dangerous state of mind, recalling the stress it put his body under. How it had nearly killed him. The system was also not very helpful in providing any notifications or explanations for what had happened.

When it came to the colour shift of the mana, Dante had his suspicions that the power of his mana based abilities was reflected by the colour they had manifested into. He believed it aligned with the light spectrum. Starting at red for the weakest, moving along the spectrum orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet.

If this was true, then his rage-induced burst of power had caused him to jump several stages. He had gone from his peak of orange claws to mana at the blue wavelength, his ability appeared to temporarily ascend a tier resulting in his claws turning into gauntlets, his hands were encased in the crystalised mana and the claws increased in length.

The recollection of intoxicating power was overshadowed by the realisation that the system was trying to warn him, it became very apparent that the use of this power would kill him. He could recall how he felt his body had an incongruous feeling of power and degradation, the more powerful he was getting the more rapidly his body was breaking down. ‘I should be really careful in case this happens again in the future’

He wasn’t sure he could emulate that burst of power again, not anytime soon anyway. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to.

The circumstances of the past few days, the rage and helplessness he had felt since arriving into a world that he no longer recognised. His total inability to prevent the Kobold leader from carrying out its disgusting ritual on Waya. She was the first living being that he had started to make friends with within this messed up world, he didn’t think he could live with himself if he hadn’t done everything in his power to help.

All these things had been building up for days, in the end, it was all too much until it burst out of him in a torrent. He was fairly sure that he wouldn’t like to encounter a situation where he would be brought to that state of rage-induced power again.

He would have to spend some time meditating and reflecting upon those events, but he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted, he had too much to take care of his immediate needs.

It was time to take account of the battle and his status updates, he had been holding off since waking up.

[ Corrupted Kobold's level 3-4 killed (11 of 18)]

[Gained 845 Combat experience]

[Skills: Hand to hand combat - T1 - 15%]

[ Kobold Leader level 5 killed ]

[Gained 471 Combat experience]

‘Got the fucker good, the difference in experience obtained is a decent amount as well.’ Dante was very pleased with his new ranged ability, he managed to manifest it as the last crucial moment. Using it to save Waya from the fate of becoming corrupted by the Kobold leader.

He had checked the information regarding the ability he had managed to create earlier, the explanation was fairly similar in concept to the claws.

[Mana Bolt - Tier 1: Uses internal attuned mana reserves to create hardened mana projectile, mana imbued with kinetic energy is used to accelerate the projectile. Mana Cost: 2 - variable. Duration: Instant. Effective distance: 100m - variable]

The mana cost was somewhat restrictive, but thinking about how the ability worked, as a minimum 1 point for a projectile, another point to shoot it.

He needed to do some testing with this new ability, he suspected the ability broke down into two stages. How hard the projectile was and how much kinetic energy went into accelerating it.

All the variables need to be considered when the ability was used, he would have to spend some more time investigating this ability. The effective distance as a minimum made him very happy as well. In future, he could potentially snipe enemies and hunt animals with more efficiency than his first failed attempt.

He also recently acquired a new combat skill, earned when exercising his spear-throwing on the hulking kobold.

[Spear Mastery- Tier 1: You have begun your journey to master the art of the spear. This skill will improve your accuracy and the power of your strikes using the spear by the total combat modifier.

The modifier is also included when the weapon is thrown.

Spear Combat modifier: 2%]

It felt great to see that he had acquired recognition from the system when using his crafted weapon. He promised himself to continue practising the use of spears in the future.

Now the rewards, he rubbed his hands together to see what the trial rewards were.

[Trial completed: Kill The Corrupted Kobolds]

[Trial additional objective completed: Kill the Kobold Leader]

[Grade A-]

‘Finally a grade I can show my parents’ His smile flickered on his face before he thought about how he couldn’t remember anyone from his life before the wall of light.

[Reward 1: Title Gained: Man's best friend]

Looking at the first reward, it gave him a warm feeling seeing it. He focussed on the title to gain an understanding of potential benefits.

[ Title: Man's best friend - You have befriended and fought alongside a wild animal.

Grants 2 perception, 2 agility. 20% combat bonus to you and companions within 20 meters of you.]

The title was succinct and he appreciated the system's acknowledgement of his feats. The bonuses to the attributes started to take effect, feeling his perception evolving was wild. He felt like he understood more of his environment, could hear the smallest things happening from further away, his eyesight was taking in the tiniest details of everything around him. ‘This is great stuff.’

The combat bonus was the icing on the cake, the extra 20% combat bonus seemed to apply regardless of whether he was barehanded or not. Even better was the bonus given to companions, the possibility of enhancing allies combat efficiency by 20% was huge.

He would have to play around with the distance he kept from Waya and other people he might consider companions in the future. If it worked as an area-wide buff as he suspected, it was an incredible bonus.

His eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the second reward, ‘Are you fucking with me? Is this real?!’

[Reward 2: Spatial Storage Ring (Rare) - Redeem (Yes / No)]

It was the stuff of fantasy, spatial storage rings. He had to see if this was the real deal.

“Yes, Please! Now system!”

Similar to when his cloak was made, silver threads projected from his chest into the air. The threads wound and weaved into complex patterns until the skeleton of a ring floating in the air. Compared to the cape, there was a significant difference this time. Rotating rings of complex silver runic symbols glowed as they spun around the ring. The runic symbols began shrinking down until they touched the ring before disappearing from sight.

Dante snatched the ring from the air before it could fall to the floor. Rolling the ring between his fingers, he began to look incredibly possessive, hunching over the small yet valuable trinket, mumbling indistinct words.

The ring was matte black, if he didn't know any better he would have thought it was a normal ring. Excitedly he slipped the ring on his left index finger.

[Spatial ring (Epic): a ring that has access to a unique pocket of sub-pace allocated to the user.

Total capacity: 2 cubic metres.

Mana reservation required: 2.

Current remaining capacity: 99%

Stored items: medicine(Rare).

Rules of use:

Can store organic and inorganic matter. Organic matter cannot be alive/conscious. Anything stored is placed in stasis (Time does not pass in the subspace). Must be in contact with object being stored. Matter cannot have an attuned mana signature that does not match the user. Requires 1 reserved mana per cubic meter of space. Upgradable, requires ascension points, incremental cost.

Enjoy the ring, don't forget our deal. Regards F.]

Dante read through the item description. He nodded at each of them, tsked when he saw the reserved mana cost. Smiled when he saw it could be upgraded. Then froze when he saw the message left in the description by F.

'He hasn't forgotten about me then. I suppose I should be thankful for the item. I wonder if he had anything to do with the recent trials' He shuddered thinking about how F might still be keeping an eye on him. Thoughts of defiance ran through his head 'I won't be his chess piece in this universe, I'll only attempt to complete trials so long as it is right to do so.'

He was still ecstatic about receiving the ring, he also noted a generic description for a stored item. 'Medicine!' Dante projected the thought of the medicine leaving the ring. A steadily materialising growing weight appeared in his hand. Sat in the palm of his hand was a white clay pot. He brought the clay pot towards his face before lifting the lid, inside the pot appeared to be a transparent paste. He sniffed and it certainly smelled medicinal. It had a strong antiseptic odour as if he had just walked into a hospital.

He felt incredibly thankful for the medicine, it came at just the right time. With this, he might be able to help Waya recover from her injuries. He had no idea of the potency of the medicine but hoped for the best.

After he arrived at his new hideout, he had removed all the spikes of wood that were embedded inside Waya's skin. Fortunately, none of the spikes had pierced as deeply as the worst he had received during the explosion.

He placed down on a blanket of grass that was near the doorway of the hideout. He wanted to let her bask in the sun while he was taking account of his rewards.

Moving towards Waya, who remained at rest. A little snore escaped her nose every so often. He brought the pot of medicine with him, then generously applied it to the areas of her body that were worst affected. There was weeping blood from some of the wounds despite his attempt to clean her up.

Satisfied that he had done his best to help. He placed the pot of medicine back into the storage ring, which still had the paste was left inside.

Dante moved to his travel pack which contained all the useful equipment he had managed to salvage from the town. He placed his hand on it, picturing it being stored away. The pack seemed to dematerialise and shrink into his hand before disappearing.

Checking the capacity of the ring.

[Current remaining capacity: 95%, Stored items: Medicine(Rare), backpack (misc).]

'This is ring freaking cool, it's going to make life so much easier.' A huge smile spread from ear to ear.

Pleased with all his rewards, he couldn’t help but reflect on how dangerous the situation had been, it was a very close call. Dante was getting sick of always struggling since arriving in the Ascended Universe. It was time to make some upgrades. He checked his total remaining experience points.

[Combat experience: 1131]

Mentally checking over his current status, he observed some interesting changes.

‘My mastery has increased to 7! And the mana capacity has increased? Did my explosion of power improve my attributes dramatically?’ Looking over his remaining attributes, nothing else appears to have unnaturally increased.

He still didn’t understand exactly how it all worked, but it made some sense when he imagined how much mana he must have channelled recently. ‘I’m going to thoroughly look into my mana abilities soon, I can’t keep remaining ignorant’

He drummed his fingers on his thigh and scratched at his stubbly beard that was growing on his face.

What did he lack the most when encountering his enemies? he thought about how he didn’t have too much trouble killing them. He just kept getting injured, even with his vitality and constitution at 4 points each, which in old earth would have been impressive. It was not enough to deal with the dangers of this world.

‘I need to get stronger, but I need to be able to endure these encounters. My new title has greatly improved my agility and perception. I haven’t noticed how intelligence will help me, I can’t keep allowing myself to get so badly injured. I need the ability to endure!’

Dante using his purchased ascension points improved his strength by 2 points, his vitality by 2 and his constitution by 3.

[ You have reached system level 3]

[ You have reached system level 4]

‘Status’

[ Name: Dante]

[Species: Human]

[ System Level: 4]

[Title’s: Reject of Earth, First Kill, Natural Born Killer, Tree Dweller, Man's best friend]

[Mana: 5 / 8 (10 max)]

[Reserved Mana: Spatial ring (2)]

[Mana Mastery: 7] 3 → 7

[Strength: 6] 3 → 6

[Agility: 6] 4 → 6

[Intelligence: 4]

[Perception: 5 ] 3 → 5

[Vitality: 6 ] 4 → 6

[Constitution: 7] 4 → 7

[Total System Attributes: 41]

[Combat experience: 431]

[Ascension points: 0]

[Abilities: Mana claws - T1, Mana bolt - T1]

[Skills: Hand to hand combat - T1 - 15%, Spear Mastery - T1 - 2%]

[Production Skills: Crafting - T1 - 5%]

[100% bonus barehanded melee modifier]

[20% bonus combat]

‘Ok, now I'm ready to take on the challenges of this world… right?’ Dante hesitantly thought to himself.