“Mmm…It’s slightly bitter.”

“Pi!”

Under the sea of blinking stars, where the moon was watching silently from the space above, a fire gracefully danced with the passing wind. The darkness around it illuminated by the light of the fire.

As the waves came crashing in, there on the centre of the island, one could see the figure of a young boy and a crab, both eating quite a large piece of fish.

Try, picture it. How does it look there in your head?

Weird? Ha! This is still the beginning!

Those two were obviously Alex and the little crab!

Going back an hour, after Alex’s and this little crab’s relationship had started splendidly under the glow of the setting sun, Alex got himself some logs and a stick with his trusty magic.

Seriously, this skill is broken.

Spinning the stick furiously on the log, a spark lit off, and a fire blazed gracefully. Blowing in some air to keep the fire lit, he added some more pieces of wood and, with a big blaze, his fire was ready!

Using his magic once more, he conjured some sticks and a large metal plate for his grill. Assembling it quickly with finesse, he put the fish on the plate and hanged it over the fire. Conjuring a small spatula, he turned and spun the fish around in boredom.

After his meal was ready, he tried asking the crab if it wanted to eat it cooked too, but it denied happily and started digging into its own piece of fish.

Looking at the cooked fish, his heart started to race slightly. After feeling the terrible experience of having countless drops of blood burst out from every pore of his body by eating meat from this ocean, he began to slightly fear eating anything.

Could you blame him? He almost died!

Slowly moving the fish closer, he closed in and took a small nibble at it. Tasting the fish for a couple of seconds, he was surprised to find that the fish wasn’t salty at all!

Only slightly bitter…

Anyone have soy sauce?

Looking to the side, he watched the crab happily eat away at the fish meat. From his sights, the crab seemed to be quite sloppy, getting many little chunks of fish out and about around itself.

He wanted to say that wasting food was bad, but this was a crab. Would it even understand?

“…Phew.”

As his mouth took the last bite to the fish, he let out a sigh of relief. He had survived! Quickly taking a look around his body, it doesn’t seem like there was any blood coming out. Success!

While waiting for the crab to finish up, he began to recall what had just happened to him. No, not his meeting with the crab, but about his hair turning red, that odd dream, and him coughing out mountains of blood. The last one was the one he feared the most, for obvious reasons.

“Let’s see…”

Status: Damian Alexander Lv 6

Health: 43/90 (+30)

Mana: 63/90

Strength: 25 (+5)

Intelligence: 39 (+8)

Resistance: 30 (+6)

Agility: 36 (+7) (+2)

Skills:

{Illustrator} Rank 1 (10%)

{Blood Borne} Rank 1 (%)

[Agility] Rank 1 (09%)

[Cleaving] Rank 1 (04%)

[Blood Hound] Rank 1 (05%)

Titles:

(Blood Borne)|

“Ah…”

Looking at his stats now, it’s become very clear that he had gone through many changes. From a simple glance, his stats had grown quite greatly. For the first time, he had gained a title! And a new skill too!

(Blood Borne)

“A man born out of blood, carrying the title of those awakened”

|Perk|: Any skills related to {Blood Borne} gains experience faster

{Blood Borne}

Rank 1

The User’s body had become more resistant to any diseases.

Skills gain experience slightly faster

User’s HP has been increased by 50% permanently.

User’s stats have been increased by 25% permanently.

% to Rank 2

“……”

As his eyes read further down the descriptions, his mind struggled to catch on. His mouth hanged wide open, and he rubbed his eyes instinctively to confirm the reality.

Ah! It’s still there?! So, it’s real?!

What the hell?! How did this happen?! How did it even appear?! Isn't this thing overpowered?!

His mind practically flipped the table and freaked out. He shouted in shock internally as his eyes swam around in confusion. All that was going in his mind, went something along the lines ‘What the hell?!’

“…Pi?”

“……”

“Pi!”

“Ha?!...Oh, it’s you.”

Looking to his left, he hadn’t realised that it had just finished eating. Crumbs of leftover fish meat sprayed out around the remaining bones.

He felt slightly sorry for the fish. It didn’t get eaten correctly…

“Well, I guess you’re going to…oi.”

“Ppp…”

Just as he was about to ask it something, it suddenly went to sleep! What the hell man?! Have some manners, would you?! He’s trying to ask something here!

“Oi.”

“Ppp…”

“Doesn’t seem like it’s getting up soon.”

After nudging the little thing a couple times, it didn’t seem to move at all, and kept on sleeping comfortably on the sandy bed.

Looking up, he noticed that the moon was starting to move along the sky. The night was moving on without him. Now, with the fire put out, the air grew silent, and cold.

“I guess I should head to sleep now.”

………………

As the hands of time moved along, the stars in the sky flew past the dark night. The shining night diamond slowly moved along the sky. The night breeze blowing in and out, the waves pulling onto land and back into water.

As time moved on, the night began to meet its closing. The moon began to dip back into the horizons, and the giant sun began rising. The dark black skies were coloured in a gradient of orange and yellow, clouds began reappearing once more.

The morning breeze followed soon after, blowing the leaves of the palm tree. Small waves came crawling onto the sandy shores.

Deep under the sea, countless different species of fish began to swim around, searching for food, or simply running away from the monsters that lurked within. The small kelps deep within danced along with the moving tides.

Deep in that oceans, the gleam of a pair of eyes lit in the sand, and deeper than that, a small shine was reflected off the bottom of the oceans.

Looking back above the waters, staring down from the skies high above, the hundreds of islands of this archipelago could be seen.

With the skies turning back to the blue colour of the morning skies, the waters down below reflected that colour, turning a beautiful ocean blue as a wave passed by.

With all that, a new day had arrived!

“…Morning already?”

With his eyes half-open, Alex stared up into the sky as the clouds slowly moved by. His mind quickly kicked into full gear. Slowly pushing himself up, he crossed his legs and sat down on the sandy bed.

Looking to the side, he got to see the crab still sleeping. It seems like this thing hadn’t run away from him. It truly casts him out as an odd one out.

But then, now that it was quiet enough, and that he had enough energy, he finally realised something was different about this little guy. Although it wasn’t very clear, there on the bottom part of its shell, he could somewhat see a cross marking carved under it.

Seeing that, it really makes him wonder about what had really happened to this little guy. Normally, this little crab should have left him by now, but it decided to stay.

Was this thing not scared of humans, or did something happen to it?

He wasn’t very sure, but if it wasn’t out for his blood, he would gladly accept any company.

He began feeling slightly lonely deep inside, but he convinced himself otherwise with his elaborate delusions of other people.

Having a good imagination helps sometimes for things not art related…

Was it healthy? No, probably not.

*Ahem*

Anyways, now that he was awake, he didn’t have anything to really do. Thinking about it, he really didn’t have too many options. He could try go to another island, but that’ll attract more monsters, but if he stays here he’ll rot in absolute boredom.

What to do?

“Hmm…”

After sitting on the sand with his hand on his chin for a while, he took out his simple gun model out of his backpack. Taking a small look at it, it was clear that this thing wasn’t the most efficient, or even the most comfortable thing to use in battle.

After inspecting it for a while, he thought that it was time for this thing to step down. It was time for a new gun to take over its place. But what model should it be?

“……”

Brainstorming about if for a while, he decided on a model he liked, and activated his magic. His finger lit a soft white light, and a soft warmth surged in his index finger.

He began carefully tracing a model in the air. There wasn’t any margin for error, he needed to do this in one fell swoop. Carefully tracing out the design, he started from the muzzle, slowly heading to the barrel of the gun, adding some little carvings on it, continuing onto the grip of the gun, and finally making a sleek design for the trigger and the guard.

“Phew…”

Letting out a deep breath, he finished the model off with the awfully long effect of [Shoots a bullet using MP by pulling the trigger], an effect he still couldn’t believe actually worked, and let go.

*Fwiishh*

Shining a brilliant light, the model of the gun began to materialise. The model exploded into light, and out of that light, came a sleek black gun, muzzle stuck into the sand.

His gun was a succe-

"GAAHH?!"

Just as his fantasy delusions were coming in, his head was suddenly struck by an awful headache. Clutching his head tightly, he dropped right onto the sand, his brand new gun landing close to him. Beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks as he struggled in agony.

He struggled like that for about 2 minutes...And the crab didn't even notice.

Having survived that painful ache, his status appeared suddenly.

"W-What..hah...h-happened...?"

Status: Damian Alexander Lv 6

Health: 23/90 (+30)

Mana: -11/90

Strength: 25 (+5)

Intelligence: 39 (+8)

Resistance: 30 (+6)

Agility: 36 (+7) (+2)

Skills:

{Illustrator} Rank 1 (10%)

{Blood Borne} Rank 1 (%)

[Agility] Rank 1 (09%)

[Cleaving] Rank 1 (04%)

[Blood Hound] Rank 1 (05%)

Titles:

(Blood Borne)|

"......"

Wait...Just...wait a minute.

Doesn't his MP count look slightly...odd?

Alright, what am I saying?...It's negative?!

What the hell?!

Wait, Did he also take damage?!

"C-Could...this be...hah...a...drawback...of...hah...using...long...effects..."

It was a possible explanation. After all, just using that long effect without any drawbacks would be kind of overpowered, don't you think?

Still, how did his MP go negative? Is that even a possible number to achieve?

Hah...Who knows...But putting that aside, he slowly moved his hand to his brand new gun. With a weak smile, he picked up the gun from the sand.

The model he picked for the gun was that of a desert eagle, a gun that nearly everyone and their grandmothers knew from its sheer fame.

The type of the desert eagle was that of the 44 magnum L6. Since it was the only design he knew, he was forced to pick that one.

Usually, this gun would have a bright silver white colour, but because of his effect limit, he couldn’t control the material and the colour of the gun. Luckily, he got quite a good looking one, completely made out of carbon steel!

But he didn't care right now, his mind felt like it would break if he thought any further.

If it hasn't already broke...

"I...should...let my...MP..."

Not bothering to finish his words, he laid his head back onto the sand. What a troublesome situation...

......

After his MP had recovered from his negative state. He looked back towards the gun in his hand.

Firstly, he needed a nice holster to put his gun into. This one was quite easy, with him completing it in only 5 minutes and finishing it off with the word ‘Leather’. With a flash, he picked up the leather holster and strapped it onto his right pocket. Thankfully, it seems the headache wasn't there.

Phew...He would rather be spared from feeling that ever again.

Cleanly and sleekly, he inserted the black desert eagle into leather holster. Having an actual desert eagle strapped onto his side made him want to shoot down some zombies, but there were no zombies here, so he had to refrain from being an idiot.

But next, is the testing phase! He swiftly got up and pulled out his brand new gun.

To test it out, he put his hand over the grip, and pulled out the gun in a single quick motion. Aiming the desert eagle, he shot a bullet into the air, disappearing into the clouds above.

Seems like this thing works just fine!

“Quaaack!”

“Huh?”

Turning around, he saw that a seagull was flying above him, it too looking down at him. Quickly, he realised that shooting that bullet into the sky was probably not a very good idea, not that shooting a gun in any occasion was good idea in general. Unless for self defence. Hey, even a grandpa can hold a shotgun, alright?

“Quack!”

Closing up its wings, the seagull dived down beak first towards him. Easily, he jumped to the side, letting the bird’s beak to get stuck in the sand. Aiming straight for its wings, he pulled the trigger.

“Quuuaaaackk!”

The bird screamed in pain as holes after holes blew open in its body, before Alex got tired of hearing the screams of the bird and shot it in the head. Soft smoke blew off the heated muzzle.

Heartless? What do you mean?

He’s just trying to survive, alright?

Letting the white orb to fly into him, he turned back around to the morning sea. Aiming his gun with one hand, he pointed his gun at various different locations, areas with an imaginary target he made up in his mind.

Once again, a nice benefit of having a large imagination!

*Bang!*

“Let’s see.”

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

He began firing off bullets in rapid succession, destroying the imaginary targets and moving onto the next one. His eyes swam around quickly to confirm where his next imaginary target was, and fired rapidly. Hopefully his MP doesn't run out instantly because of this.

Actually, doing this in general was probably a bad idea...

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

“…Pii…”

Once again, shooting a gun into the ocean wasn’t a very good idea. Disturbing the wildlife wasn’t a good act, you know?

“Piii!”

“…Eh?”

Out from the ocean, came out 3 SeaSurfer crabs, surfing on the waves in an attempt to get closer. Behind them, the figure of a dolphin slowly emerged onto the surface, its fins grazing along the waters.

As his eyes caught sight of the dolphin, his [Blood Hound] skill activated unconsciously as he pointed the gun at the moving torpedo. With blood red eyes, he continued to fire more shots. And then, one bullet out of the rest, penetrated right through its fin.

“Guua?!”

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

As the dolphin struggled to control itself, more shots were fired off. Smoke blew off as his MP was slowly getting chipped away. Under intense fire, the dolphin couldn’t hold out for long, and finally bled out, slowly getting slower before stopping completely.

“Pi?!”

The three crabs noticed that the dolphin had died without even touching anything, and they got scared as they looked over to the one who did that. They shivered in fear as a cold creeping chill creeped up their shell as his blood red eyes pierced their confidence.

“You never learn.”

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

Firing off some more bullets, the crabs fell over like flies. Not even a minute passed, and the bodies of a dead dolphin and three dead crabs floated on the moving sea, getting pulled under by the speeding waves.

Silently, he turned back around, and walked back to his sleeping friend. Slipping back his gun into his holster, his [Blood Hound] deactivated and his emotions returned once more.

However, little did he know,

Not far across from him, a large cloud passed over the sun, blocking off the incoming sunlight. Circling around the covered sun, the clouds began to form a vortex in the sky. Purple thunder began coming out.

A huge storm was brewing.