Terror filled moyos’ mind as he lay still on the rocky ground amidst the rumbling and crushing of rocks coming from whatever those two creatures were that fought in the cavern. Blind, disabled, and purely at the mercy of the system, he breathed slowly. The pungent smell of what he thought to be blood wafted up into the area as squelching noises sounded, his imagination could only let him envision what he thought could be the action of one creature tearing into the flesh of the next. The fight probably lasted a few minutes but to him, it felt like a lifetime, eventually one of the creatures seized its noise, it seemed a victor had been decided.

The victor roared in a voice that shook the cave again, breath coming out slowly, he froze, knowing that any movement would make his broken bones shoot pain through his body and he couldn’t afford to make any sort of noise right now. Deciding to wait till the creature did whatever it wanted to its victim, his chest constricted as a flash of terror went through his body, locking him in place as his instincts screamed at him that something much more deadly had just passed by.

The monster squawked in a bird-like voice and a great gust of wind blew through the cavern as Moyo could feel it fleeing the area. As soon as the feeling came, it went, feeling his body release from the state of terror in which it had locked itself, Moyo still froze for the next few minutes, trying to ensure the creature was gone. A feeling of wetness pooled around his arm, it felt sticky to the touch and smelled like the same tangy, acidic taste in the air,

Absorb blood of a level 20 troll?

The notice appeared in his mind's eye, Moyo paused, a chill going down his spine. They were so close to him, so close that the thick blood of what seemed like a troll was able to flow down to him, and if he had to go by the nature of trolls he saw from mythology, he was in deep shit, because whatever could take down a troll was nothing to laugh at. Again, the nature of his weakness bit into him, and with a thought, he decided to understand the nature of the blood absorption skill.

Calling up the details,

Blood absorption(L): this skill enables you to absorb the very liquid lifeforce of your enemy, healing you and replenishing your vitality and life energy! also due to the skill being a legendary skill, you have a 50% chance of stealing a vital aspect of the creature. The road to immortality is slow and arduous, grow stronger by taking from those who would take from you!

Nodding in support of what the system said, he could feel a small smile forming on his lips, he activated the skill, he felt his very skin open tiny pores, it felt like the feeling of goosebumps around his skin,

Skill blood absorption(L) activated!

Immediately he felt the liquid near him begin to evaporate and enter his body, about to smile, but pain lanced through his body in a flash, notifications blazing in his mind eye but his mind was unable to focus through the pain, bones snapped back into place, shards of metal pushed out of his skin, eyes, and everywhere. He felt a searing light burn into his eyes,

His eyes, he could see!

Squinting in joy, he forced his eyes open, wiping away the blood and tears that muddled his face to see the cavern in which he was stuck on. Tears dropped down his eyes as he realized he could move again, all his bones were in place and the pain was receding far faster than what was normal for a person, perhaps son of agony?. That was a reminder to check his notifications and with a thought, they appeared in his front,

Blood absorption(L) activated!...blood of troll absorbed!

Notice!: skill blood absorption has taken a vital aspect of troll, this has translated into a new skill!

Skill physical regeneration(U) has been gotten!

Notice!: skill physical regeneration has been activated

Physical regeneration(U) level 2!

Physical regeneration(U) level 3!

Physical regeneration(U) level 4!

Physical regeneration(U) level 5!...

Physical regeneration(U) level 10!

Smiling to himself in a feral way, Moyo stared at that notification with glee. He had gotten the regenerative abilities of the troll, but what was that sign (u) at the end of two of his skills? ignoring it, for now, he continued with the notifications,

Son of agony(u) level 20!

Blood absorption(L) level 5!

He had gotten both his son of agony skill to level 20 and blood absorption to level 5, not bad for a start. Calling up his character screen, he stared at his progress,

Name: Moyosore

Path: none

Race: human

Level: 1

Stage: fledgling

Skills: son of agony(u) 20, blood absorption(L) 5, physical regeneration(u) 10.

Looking around his surroundings, he realized he was in some sort of cave, sunlight poured in through the entrance which he lay a few short distances from, and also the dried-up body of the troll lay at the entrance. Shuffling to his feet he felt stronger like his muscles had added some weight to them. Moving quietly across the cavern, he sneaked to the entrance and peered outside. The surrounding area looked like a forest, birds of some sort chirped in the air, and as he stared at them intently, a notice came up on their heads as some landed on the ground,

Avorian flesh-eater level 10

They were way past his level, for something too small, and if he were to go by their numbers, he couldn’t pick them out as they were in a flock, they’d rip him to shreds, faster than what his regeneration skill could make up for it. The ground rumbling caught him by surprise as something burst out of the ground and in one fell swoop swallowed more than half of the avorian birds in total. He could only stare in terror as the name of the creature appeared over what looked like its head

Subterranean terror level 40

Scrambling back into the cave in fear, Moyo knew instinctively that outside of the cave was a no-go area for now, at least until he got to his early 30s in levels. It seemed the only way through was deeper into the cave, and what was the asurity that he would survive that also? that there wasn’t some creature like that terror on a level overwhelmingly higher than his?.

Shaking his head, he moved forwards, he wouldn’t let such thoughts hold him back, not if he wanted to get stronger. With a determination of steel, he strode forwards, deeper into the cave…

The bushy beard man sat on a tree overseeing the cave Moyo just walked deeper into, raising an eyebrow at the determination of the kid to explore deeper into the caves,

“smart choice, also seems like we have a fighter” he mumbled to himself, totally ignoring the subterranean terror that was moving towards him. With a blast of tightly controlled power that focused on the creature, it stopped in its tracks, squealing in terror as its body began to fold up, crunching with the power of some unseen force and molding it into a ball of compressed gore and flesh. The rest of the avorian birds landed immediately and tore into the dead flesh of their former hunter, for such was the reality of the archailect, eat or be eaten.

With a flash of inspiration the man stood up on the tree and moved a step, space seemed to bend around him as he appeared immediately in front of the dead creature and the avorian birds who squawked in terror and flew away, for animal instincts told them that this being was not one they could face in a thousand lifetimes, he didn’t belong in this ecology, he was a predator of another dimension entirely. Drawing out his blade that was manacled to his hand, the thing warped into a long cold, black katana, and like a hot knife going through butter, it sliced a big portion of the flesh of the terror that was five times the size of the man.

With one hand he gripped the flesh and flung it through the air, drawing his katana down in a straight line above the meat as a tear in space appeared, swallowing the meat,

‘might as well keep part of the meat, just in case” he chuckled to himself,

The man had watched as the troll and the wyrm that had attacked it broke into the cave in their combat, normally head decided to watch the boy bleed to death, uncaring if he survived for the boy had not proved himself of any use to deserve saving, After all the deal had been for him to observe and if deemed worthy cultivate his power, but the boy had seemed like a weakling, and ajax death blade would not waste his time on a weakling,

It was not the way of the archailect…. Adapt or die, eat or be eaten,

Then the wyrm had slain the troll, quite obviously seeing the difference in their levels though, but what piqued his interest was the fact that the boy had lain still, despite the broken bones and roar of the creatures, ajax nodded to himself, this one was smart. As the wyrm began feasting on the troll, it raised its head, somehow sighting the kid that lay in a tightly covered corner a few steps away from it. Ajax frowned, that would not do, let it not be said that he didn’t give the kid a fighting chance and with a brief flex of his battle intent, just a tiny bit, he drove the wyrm into a frenzy as it ran away for its life, making a weird sound that was unlike one of the lesser dragon kind, ajax had chuckled to himself feeling like a bully.

Again glancing at the kid to see he had frozen up, obviously but had somehow remained quiet, despite the agony he might have been going through, ajax was sufficiently satisfied, and the next moment his eyebrow went up as the boy activated a skill and the thick blood of the troll flowed into his body in mists,

“blood absorption? now where did a tiny little fledgling like you get such a very valued skill?” he muttered to himself,

Could it have been that monster? nodding to himself, it was definitely that monster of a being that sent him, ajax felt a slight pang of pity for the kid for drawing the attention of such a being. He then watched as the kids’ bone snapped back in place, also with agonizing silence, noting also that the kid must have some sort of regenerative abilities, frowning at how once again he had gotten such a skill until he remembered that blood absorption at the legendary level allowed one to take a vital aspect of a slain creature and if he was to guess, he had taken the regenerative ability of the troll, probably at the uncommon level seeing as how slow the boy regenerated back,

“blood absorption and regeneration? what sort of monster do we have here?” ajax grinned evilly to himself,

The kid would make a fine disciple, one he could break and break till he molded into a monster so brutally strong ajax could wield to his use. Finally accepting the boy as a viable candidate then, he whistled to himself as he left the carcass of the terror, whistling softly to himself as he walked towards the cave, perhaps its time to introduce himself to his unknown disciple, see if he was worth training on the path of the reaping katana….