Before he could notice, the world became bright.

……morning already…? Yuuya questioned as he could feel cold breeze accompanied by warm sunlight. The light itself was so dazzling that one had to squint the eyes to get used to the intensity.

After several seconds, Yuuya adapted to the place he was in. He could hazily remember everything that transpired before the blackout but he was never aware of it happening. In fact, did he even survive?

As he looked around, the Voyager found himself sitting under a tree which was located near a clearing. There were the sounds of birds chirping and he could see some… antelopes weeding out the grasses for breakfast. Among the odd numbers of wildlife, the man found himself…

Displeased of the sight. No, rather than that… he was hungry.

“…Ugh. For some reasons, why do I feel thirsty as well? …whatever. I’ll just hunt some of these—hm?”

When he tried to stand up, Yuuya felt light. Not because of his thin figure, it was because his body was as light as a feather. He jumped on place a few times and he was not even tired. In fact, he jumped for almost a meter despite putting no additional strength into his legs.

“What the hell……? What happened to me?” –analyzing the situation, Yuuya carefully looked around.

There, he found an antelope staring at him. For once, it was showing a mystified expression and it was rather… curious that it approached the black haired Voyager.

“……is it hostile? A monster…?”

The Noob sheepishly backed down. But as the distance grew shorter, he tried to activate his skill as a last resort before fleeing.

“Identify—“

And he gasped. Right when the name of the animal hovered on a floating window, there was the mechanism which allowed Yuuya to recognize its level depending on the gap between his level and the target. If his was near, equal or higher to it, he could grasp the exact level but if he was ten level below the target, there would be less descriptions and even the name would stay hidden as a result.

That was why… when Yuuya faced the antelope—

( ‘??? Rusca’…! And it’s even at the level of ‘?2’!! What kind of harmless monster is this!?)

It’s not that he could not understand. It was more to why would Yuuya be here and why would an ultra-high-level mob appearing nearby the town. He wondered if it’s because he selected the option ‘Random’ as one of the criteria for his destination, but a level gap of two digits were unfair for sure.

Was it an error? No, as if there could be one. It was already stated that BWO had perfect security and professional debuggers which could shame the pentagon. Though it was probably bullshit, but there was the truth proven by the skill capable of identifying items and enemies as long as there was high proficiency.

In fact, if it had a part of its name and level hidden, that would just mean this monster was twenty… if not forty levels higher than Yuuya. That was his estimation due to him spending times in the library like a scholar. Though Rusca was typically harmless antelopes. This one too. Maybe.

Still—Yuuya backed away for one step and the animal came closer to him.

Sweats flowed down, he took another step… and the Rusca approached him again. Again, he took a step back… and the Rusca moved forward. This process repeated until Yuuya did the legendary moonlight walk until he was cornered between the Rusca and a large tree.

“W-wait a minute…… I haven’t done anything like killing and looting your species!! I’m innocent!”—the useless man cried out but as expected, his words fell into deaf ears.

How cowardly, indeed. Even after he received exposure to so much malice and violent horror, he was hardly experienced in battles. As if he could fight an unknown-level threat all by himself when he had no weapon……

No, if I remember correctly… I have arms right? As if mocking at his dumb brain, Yuuya formed knuckles and glared at the Rusca.

He wasn’t sure if it was the correct decision. In fact, he believed that this was for sure, the wrong thing. Even so, Yuuya raised his fist.

(I must fight back. I must kill it before it kills me. It doesn’t matter how… just hit it!!)

He closed his eyes out of reflex. His cowardice nature taken over him fully and yet he still swung down the fist. Like a fool, he would definitely receive a counter attack. Like a Noob he was, Yuuya would instead, receive a sound beating.

And yet—

*CRUSH!!*

…………Yuuya’s fist… destroyed the head of the Rusca in one strike.

“……Huh?”

Blood splattered. Gray substances showered the ground. His arm was stained red and some scattered flesh as well as other stuffs which could not be described well became stuck at it. Also, the eyeballs were dangling like fish hooks with the jaws dropping teeth and tongue…

If there was one thing that anyone could point out—it was for sure the sense of disgust and horrible comments would strike Yuuya at the heart. Especially when a nature conservator saw a scene where a human pummeled the head of a harmless herbivore without proper reasons……

But forget that all! What the hell have I done!!?

“U-uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!?”

That morning traumatized Yuuya in a magnitude that could never be expected. Even the psychotic Devil would be surprised that a light tap could kill after he woke up. Perhaps.

-

-

-

-

“…fuck, that was horrible.” –tiredly, Yuuya cleaned his hands in a river nearby the clearing.

It was rather fortunate that he found a source of water to satiate his thirst. After the sudden slaughter like from B-Class Horror Movie, Yuuya’s fear of blood reawakened in an instance.

But unexpectedly, I didn’t faint so I guess it’s much better now. He finished washing his blood stained body and wore only the under pants. As the clothes were totally soaked in blood, he was sure he needed a replacement but where could he get one inside thick forest with no way out?

In the end, out of misery, he simply decided to wash the bloodied tunic and pants and let them dry above the bonfire. New equipment should wait until I can get proper clothing. Even more pressing matter was this extraordinary strength he had and he quickly checked his status as much as he shouted like a freak he was.

Status WindowName:YuuyaAlignment:ChaoticLevel:25Class:??Race:??/HumanGender:MaleTitlesThe Despaired One, Criminal, Blood Smeared DevilFame:-200Infamy:500--Strenght:260Agility:260Vitality:480Intelligence:700Wisdom:689Leadership:0Luck:0

…as expected, the fact he unleashed the Devil within him must have caused his stats to rise in leaps and bounds. More like, Yuuya recalled ALL the thing he did last night but rather not remember it any further. It would surely cause him to go anxious and he didn’t want to let his revenge wane just because of some fear to his own power.

Not when a bunch of humans and sentient beings needed torturous deaths for better AND for worse. Badly. But all meandering thoughts vanished as he noticed an oddity.

“Huh…? What’s this…?” –Yuuya widened his eyes and clearly, he saw a dot of crimson at the center of the pupils reflected by the water surface. It was kind of vague but the dot was… deformed. Like a cross.

“…since when did I even edited this avatar? …must be my imagination.”

He turned around as he sniffed the delicious aroma of a roasted meat. It seemed that the Rusca was done being grilled. With Yuuya’s capability as a mage, he clearly held immense advantage in surviving without expending much resource.

Though mana was quite hard to replenish, magic was considered an open formula for anyone to use. One could build his or her own magic and one could craft the ‘Only Magic’ unique to the individual’s taste. Just like how all mages did in legends and stories.

Meanwhile, Yuuya was a beginner mage who could utilize Rune and Aria. Two out of the Trinity. A Voyager who was still Classless and yet capable enough to fill the missing formulas so that he could expend a Rune at the cost of 1/10 of his total mana. And a Blood Magic which was very classy, low-costed and destructive enough to make a person explode from inside-out.

Normally speaking, this feat was considered as extraordinary, and very ground breaking for a single letter of Rune was supposed to burn out at least a third of the mage’s mana reserves no matter which Rank it came from. Still, the ignorant Yuuya cared not a damn thing even if the world ended one hour from now.

As he sat down in front of the bonfire, he picked the skewered and grilled Rusca’s meat. His stomach growled like a hungry beast after hibernation. Thanked to the satiety/stamina gauge being left empty (he imagined it so). Therefore—Yuuya wolfed down the food at once, abiding the instinct of a living being.

“……delicious.” –that was the first thing he said.

To think that he would be swayed by food was one thing. But it’s also because he had never bothered with luxury and eating instant ramen or fast food was within the limits of his wallet. Yuuya slightly regretted for not trying to indulge at the very least inside the vast array of cuisine but he knew all too well that nobody would pay for him.

“The meat is a bit… hard to chew, but it’s juicy. Heck, I’m not even sure ordinary restaurants can cook a high-class meat. This is definitely beyond the league of rare breed.”

Yuuya devoured the meat like a beast. Before he knew it, the food vanished and he was still hungry. Then, as he gazed up at the blue sky above, a single line filled his head so much he blurted out.

“…darn, this is so good I want more.”

-

-

-

-

And so Yuuya went out his way to hunt the Rusca. Though they were totally above his level, Yuuya's body had absorbed the blood of his fallen enemies. Granting him a big boost of vitality and regeneration rate rivaling high level Diablo.

In fact, no matter which blood type he absorbed, the Avatar Body was basically immune to any foreign blood injected into it. Well, if it wasn't like that then Yuuya would have received common illnesses like fever or infection or blood rejection.

As expected of the OP, even without appropriate level and stats and mastery, they could go over the boundary of death as much as necessary. I'm pretty sure Siegfried became immortal by bathing in the blood of the slain dragon too.

But as BWO was a game, a few elements such as poisons, curses, stun, etc was outside the help of immunity of the body. It does seem that Status Debuffs have variations so he better watch out or he would die in vain for sure.

Also, his new skills were surprisingly very wide in range. Starting from elemental magic to extensions of runes to sub skills of the blood magic, Yuuya has a full arsenal enough to be customized, branched and combined for his own uses.

Though saying that, all would be maxed at Beginner X so he must find a Class suitable for his ability before then.

Not to mention—

"...it seems that blood supply is very necessary to cast higher level blood magic."

He wondered as he chewed a roasted Rusca for the nth time today.

Whether it was fortunate or not, his blood magic was very convenient to use that he could go trigger happy about it. He made a wound, then splat! The monster died out of blood loss like a mummy.

If Yuuya was wounded, then slash! The blood transfigured into a flying sword or arrow or anything that could kill the enemy. He even tried to imitate UBW and he proved himself for it.

Though, stretching that Noble Phantasm was too much as he also lost nearly a third of his blood. Which meant... he was on the verge of dying in human standard.

There were other stuffs but now Yuuya was capable of manipulating his blood for a long period of time with minimalistic drawbacks.

One thing for sure was Blood Magic needed a load of concentration. He must control the magic as precise as machine else the magic would fail for a great time. There was also a penalty if he failed to cast Blood Magic, which, in this case, would drain half to almost ALL of his mana.

"...well, OP skill isn't OP without OP weakness to exploit. Guess I shouldn't rely on this skill too much if I want to destroy the world."

The Avenger said the moment he finished the last meat of the Rusca he had hunted painstakingly for the day. He immediately got up and decided to train further to strengthen his overall strength in case of emergencies.

"Well, now I'm Level 36... let's just find a good monster to extract some blood from. I wonder if there's something strong like that damned Ra'zac. Also, I need a container for blood supply."

He frivolously spoke out loud. The only thing Yuuya did not know was that he settled in the nest of Rusca (spawn point), and that in the area, it was the most harmless and strongest for their ferocity the moment they were aggro-ed.

If they were hurt and still alive after the first strike of course. So Yuuya's impression of being weak was simply him underestimating his powers in addition to his lack of proficiency thanked to his Classless status.

He also did not even realise that he was becoming more and more like a vampire who enjoyed high quality blood as if treating it as luxury.

But when he took a stride, he instantly stopped.

“Wait a moment… why am I still in the forest?”

Now that he thought about it, it was odd for him to be here of all places. Sure, he didn’t want to go back but he had failed his quest. Obviously he would be forced to teleport back to the hateful town and well… hell would break out for sure if it happened.

Still, he was here. In this nameless forest which he had no clue about. A thick forest full of mystical beings and plants. A foreign place that bewitched him with dangers and beauties.

Yuuya stared up at the forest’s canopy. The sea of green was above him and he had no answer to find within his intellectual mind. But, a small doubt arose in his heart, causing him to scowl.

“……either I’m trapped in a Dungeon looking like a forest, or maybe the AI wants to toy with me.”

The first possibility was more likely to happen. After all, there were types of Dungeons which allowed no exit until those wandering in it slayed the Boss. Other gimmicks such as riddles, magic procedure or even secret passages were also very possible to appear for such Dungeon.

However—it was the sense of foreboding that Yuuya inclined to the latter option. Especially abut Veenia who said something suspicious. Whichever, he had no option but to explore the unknown and unravel the truth of this maze of trees.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way… hah. I feel like laughing now. As if the world could be so kind to make wishes come true with just wishing.”

The Voyager picked his path. He intended to head to the deeper part of the forest. He had no guidance and he also had no idea which way he ought to go to. Even so—there’s nothing better to do except finding a safe spot before logging out.

Because several things needed to be investigated to prove his hunch within the Real World Yuuya detested.