∼ Day 51 ∼

Glancing over my status, the smile that had blossomed from seeing my new body only grew ever wider. My power had increased by leaps and bounds, and I've truly become someone powerful.

While it was very daunting to find out that some 'higher being' had spied upon me, there wasn't really much I could do about it. This higher being had apparently also given me a new name, although I wasn't all that sure how I felt about it.

I definitely liked the name, but suddenly being named something else after having borne the name of Micheal for all my life stirred some emotions up that had been buried deep.

But slowly, I realized that I actually hadn't even once used this name ever since coming here. The more I thought about it, I understood what it meant for me as a person. It was truly like I had finally been fully born anew in this world, discarding my previous life and embracing this one.

I was no longer Micheal the insignificant human, I was something greater, I was;

Xavier the Sanguine Lord.

Refocusing my gaze back to my status, I combed over the gains and took note of the more significant changes. In both vitality and magic power, I had grown massively. The vitality could clearly be seen reflected in my new giant health pool of 855 health points. But really, I knew that wasn't all that vitality did for me as that certain attribute had many various effects on my body as a whole.

Extending a slender finger out before me, I noticed that while I had lost my insanely sharp claws, I knew that on an instinctual level that I hadn't truly lost them. Tapping on the specific instinct with my mind, the immaculate nail on my finger suddenly elongated and turned pointy. It didn't go out far, and its reach was only slightly longer than when I was an Azde due to my now longer finger, but with only a glance I knew that their lethality and sharpness were even greater.

[You have taken 8 damage!]

With one swift motion, I tore a centimeter deep wound that ran across my forearm. However, blood barely even managed to escape before the wound visibly started closing. Before I knew it, the wound had completely closed up and left only unblemished skin as if it had never even happened. It took less than two seconds before the wound healed, and each point of health had been restored.

While I knew the regeneration wasn't infinite, and that it actually had a cost, I now honestly pitied any who'd try to kill me. Vitality didn't only increase my health pool, but it also affected my resistance to poison and foreign substances, my regeneration, and much more. How vitality affected a person could be wildly different.

As for someone like Rangore, vitality would bring him an insane amount of health due to things like his humungous size. However, for someone like me, who had a much smaller body and specialized in things like blood potency and regeneration, vitality would obviously lean towards that side of effects.

Actually, if you thought about, with the type of magic I wield, vitality would also directly empower my own magic. The more potent and powerful that my blood was, the even greater things I would be able to accomplish with Blood Magic and other related skills. All this just truly showed how perfect this evolution was for me.

Done appreciating my new status, I went on to the prompts that had been waiting for me. The first line of text talked about how Siphon had apparently had a 'qualitative' transformation, so I quickly pulled the trait up to inspect if anything had changed.

-Siphon!-

Traits Name -Siphon- A natural ability of monster-type mosquitoes. Consuming blood provides the user with EXP and attribute points. The stats that are added by Siphon are the two highest attributes of the selected creature. A higher difference in power will either garner fewer or additional stat points to the user depending on which way the difference swings. Drinking the blood of rare creatures or drinking the blood of the same creature a great number of times with a similar power level or higher to that of the user will provide a very small chance of acquiring a compatible skill to the user from said creature.

Hmm, nothing really changed...

While I didn't know what this qualitative change meant for my skill, but I supposed it must've simply become more effective or improved in some other regard. It might even have something to do with the fact that I had noticed how Siphon was slowly becoming less and less effective the stronger I got, and now Siphon had changed to accommodate my new evolution and power?

Since the last line of the Strigoi evolution description talked about how they used the vitality and vigor of other creatures to refine into themselves and making them more powerful. Since Siphon had just been a trait natural to mosquito-type monsters, it probably wouldn't have been as useful to stronger beings, but instead, the Strigoi had a similar trait which had now just fused with Siphon.

Stopping myself before I dove even further into the intricacies of this world and its odd system, I skipped over the prompt of my new name as I had already read it, and moved onto the last prompt.

The first thing I realized was that Lesser Mana-Infused Exoskeleton had apparently been changed. However, it wasn't hard to realize that it was due to the fact I no longer had an exoskeleton, instead, I had skin now. I was quite happy that I simply didn't lose the skill or that it became useless, but when I moved onto how my new skills had been locked a frown creased my brow.

It would seem that my skill list wasn't limitless and my trait limit breaker was completely infallible. However, it would seem that I had actually gotten a workaround instead; Synergize.

Quickly pulling it up, I scanned it with narrowed eyes.

-Synergize!-

Skill list Name Tier LVL -Synergize- NEW 1 1/1 Fuse two or more skills to create a new skill. The skills chosen can create a greater whole than the sum of their parts, or the skills fused can have a negative impact on the final product. Compatability between skills vary, and finding the skills that synergize well with each other will yearn a greater effect. Using Synergize costs skill points.

Reading the skill description, my eyes go wide in astonishment. This skill was truly like no other, even its level cap was capped at level one, meaning you couldn't improve it. But was told in the description was what really shocked me.

It costed skill points... my precious skill points...

After a moment of wallowing in the despair of suddenly having gotten a new money sink for skill points, I began looking at the skill with a more pragmatic outlook. But when I realized that this skill could possibly prove extremely useful and powerful to me in the long run, I quelled the begrudging greed in my heart.

With that, I went onto the other two skills that I had gotten but unfortunately was locked for now.

-Shadow Manifestation, Stygian Transformation!-

Skill list Name Tier LVL -Shadow Manifestation- LOCKED 3 1/15 Dominate and coalesce the very shadows of your surroundings at your beckoning. -Stygian Transformation- LOCKED 3 1/15 Tap into your lineage and transform your body.

Both of the skills' descriptions were very brief, and while I didn't exactly know what to expect from Stygian Transformation, I had a very strong inkling of what Shadow Manifestation was and would do.

If my guess wasn't way off the mark, then Shadow Manifestation should definitely be the counterpart skill to Blood Shaping that I got from my elite variant. My variant hadn't changed or evolved, but due to my newly fused Shadow Core, this skill was definitely a result of my variant.

Noting that I needed to make some more room in my skill list so I could test out these two new skills, I moved on to the last part of my evolution.

-Advancement Path!-

[ALERT - You have reached the milestone of 100 in an attribute and can now choose an advancement path!]

[Advancement Paths available - Vitality]

[WARNING - You can choose a combination advancement path with a maximum of two attributes, and choosing only one attribute will permanently lock you into the chosen advancement path. Choices are permanent..]

[NOTE - While choosing a combination path gives other opportunities, it vastly increase the effort needed and can potentially restrain you in reaching further heights, and choosing one advancement path will make you more specialized and allow an easier path to power.]

[Do you want to take the Advancement Path - Vitality?]

[Yes/No]

Slightly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information, I had to sit down and comb over the text displayed in my mind. I still had no idea just what this 'Advancement Path' was or did, but I supposed it had something to do with what direction my attributes would gravitate to or something in that caliber.

While the warning about how two advancement path was a lot harder, I didn't have to think twice before I knew that was the way for me. I definitely wasn't going to back down simply because it said that it was harder than the easy path to power. It wasn't hard for me to simply decline the prompt, and seeing as the milestone for the attributes was only 100, I should be able to get my magic power attribute to that level before long.

Only then would I agree to the prompt.