Adam finally reached his cave after minutes of stalking through the forest and he hurried to rush inside.

Adam settled the carcass down in front of the cave before he readied himself to test his class ability. He kneeled down and reach with his right hand towards the carcass and thought Devour!

In an instant the carcass started to rapidly decay in front of Adam's eyes and than what remained turned to ashes before he felt essence surge through him.

From the moment he activated his ability to the carcass turning to ash, it had taken less than a second.

That was amazing. Devour just fucking vaporised the corpse and left nothing but ashes and even the blood stains that stained the grass weren’t spared. With this I wont have to worry about corpses attracting predators when I hunt. Adam was surprised but happy with how fast his ability worked. As soon as his ability finished vaporising the carcass he felt a strong influx of essence enter his body. And then he felt it.

The feeling of fullness and with it came a sense of surging power and strength. The essence inside of him had reached a saturation point and that in turn caused him to level up. His physical and metaphysical being felt like they were being stretched to accommodate the essence that threatened to burst. His body was being changed in real time at a fundamental level to adapt and handle even more essence at a speed that bordered on miraculous. And just as soon had the feeling come, it left all too soon, leaving behind a level 2 Adam.

So, this is what a level up feels like. I could get addicted to this. What a rush!

He was marveling at and basking in the feeling of his level up when he received a notification. He decided to open the previous notification he had received after killing the Horned Hare before he got around to opening the new one.

User has killed Horned Hare (6).

Congratulations!

User has managed to kill a creature 5 levels above himself. Essence gain increased.

User has managed to kill a creature 5 levels above himself without taking damage. Title earned.

Title : A title earned by killing a foe of higher level without taking any damage in the process. It is meant for the cunning of mind and heart and for those able to overpower their foes without coming into harms way. A task most difficult indeed, a truth many can attest to among the cosmos.

The first strike launched by user ignores 20% of the target’s defenses and resistances.

Slightly increased ability to hit and evade attacks.

Not enough essence gained from the kill to level up but I’m glad that absorbing the creature gave me enough to give me the push needed to level. Adam was slightly disappointed even though he was happy with the title he had earned. Is it that the creature provided less essence or maybe it’s the effect of my class? It did say that the essence needed to level up had significantly increased. It might even be because last time I had killed a monster and monsters give more essence? Maybe it could be all of these factors together. Either way its going to take a while before I get strong enough to shatter mountains, but that title is going to be useful down the line. Adam humorously thought as he brought up his next notification.

User has Devoured Horned Hare (6) corpse.

Due to level difference user has gained increased essence.

User has learned skill Bolster*(R)

User has learned skill Penetrate*(Un)

User has gained +1 reaction and +1 speed

User has recovered some health, stamina and mana.

User has leveled up!

User is now level 2.

User has gained 10 free attributes and 1 free trinity stat.

That rabbit gave me 2 attribute points and 2 skills. I expected to get a skill and its awesome that I gained 2 of those but whats shocking to me is that I gained 2 attribute points! I knew devour had a chance to absorb attributes but this is crazy. I didn't break a sweat killing that rabbit and it earned me 2 attributes.This is broken as hell; I could exploit the fuck out of it. With this skill I’ll be able to farm attributes.

Slow down Adam! It can’t be that easy right? Think about. There’s got to be some sort of catch. Probably going to have diminishing returns in some way. NO way the system would leave something so broken without limitations. The attribute gain had been a shock to Adam and the idea of being able to gain easy attributes excited him but he still forced himself to calm down and think about the possible downsides of the ability.

If I really think about it, the requirement for a level difference is going to be inconvenient, though I’m sure I could find prey with higher levels. But suppose I do find higher level prey, at some point my attributes are going to be higher than or almost equal to what I hunt. Then what? Would I still gain any attributes from them? The only reason I got those attributes from the rabbit was because it had a much higher reaction and speed stat than me. Probably. That’s why I gained those specific attributes and not strength or vitality…Fuck. Logic had put a damper to Adam’s dreams.

Its not all bad Adam. Think about it. with this skill I won’t have to touch my free stat points. Instead I could save them up till I really need them. Which is going to be extremely useful down the line. In fact I shouldn’t touch my free stat points at all unless I have no other choice. This way I should be able to exploit devour for a long time. It would make gaining attributes much easier. I’m sure of it.

Adam was contemplating the gain in attributes and thinking of ways to farm more points when he realized that he had forgotten about the 2 skills he had learned from the rabbit.

Bolster and penetrate. The bolster is rare grade and penetrate is uncommon but both have that asterisk in their name. Is it because I learned the skills from a monster? Or are they special skills in some that I can't see? I could use a goddam guide!...atleast give me a wiki... Guess it’ll have to remain a mystery till I learn more. For now lets check out what the skills do.

Bolster*(R): A mana manipulation skill user Adam had devoured from a Horned Hare. Like the Horned Hare this skill is an active skill which boosts user’s physical attributes. The skill’s output can be adjusted from 10% to 30% boost to base attributes in BODY with cost in mana ranging from 1% of Total mana to 10% of total mana per second. The cost of the skill decreases with proficiency. The maximum boost increases with proficiency and may unlock other effects.

Penetrate*(Un): A skill which like its name sake is used to penetrate targets. The Horned Hare manipulates mana to coat it around its horn and strengthen its hardness and sharpness. There isn’t much complexity involved in the skill other than the fact that Unattuned mana is used to harden and sharpen at the same time. User can apply the skill to his hands. Open palms with fingers close together is recommended when using the skill in order to effectively use it. Penetrate ignores 20% of targets defenses and costs 30 mana to use. % of defenses ignored and mana cost increases with proficiency. Applies Hemorrhage status to target.

He had learned a skill to boost his physical stats and a skill that let him use his hands to tear through foes and cause bleeding. This is going to be extremely useful. I need to test them out and see just what they can do before I go for a field test.

Adam couldn’t contain his excitement and immediately activated the bolster skill, although at the lowest setting. Bolster! He felt something move out of his core and divide itself into hundreds of strings before heading through what he realized was hundreds of pathways connecting his core to the rest of his body before they completed a circuit throught heir path and headed back to his core.

Are these some sort of channels? Are these Mana channels? He could feel the glacially slow movement of mana in his channels increase in speed and volume and he felt stronger. The skill caused the mana in his core to flow through the pathways in his body at increased speeds and volume and the increase in mana activity improved his physical stats. It was simple and yet extremely complex in the way the skill divided mana from his core and directed it flow through the hundreds of pathways connecting his body to the core and how the mana interacted with individual muscles.

Probably the skill at work, moderating and controlling the reaction so that I don’t end up with one single muscle overloaded with mana and explode. That’s a scary thought. Still this skill is amazing. Adam turned up the skill to the max and it felt like someone had poured Gatorade, redbull and cocaine into his veins. His muscles expanded noticeably, his veins bulged and he was barely holding himself back from running around and jumping up and down. He felt like he could jump up and reach the sky, he could punch a hole through a tree or maybe even wrestle that bear he had seen before.

He felt powerful. Goddamn that’s a rush!! And then he started to crash. His mana was reaching dangerously low levels and he was forced to turn off the skill. He used the skill at max for maybe 5 seconds and he was left at less than 20% of his mana. Got to remember that fact. The skill eats mana like there’s no tomorrow! I should probably only use it at max when I’m going for a killing blow. And should practice with adjusting the output..

Adam went back to the cave and drank some of the Mana attuned water to boost his mana regen before waiting till his mana went above 50% and then he went back out to try out his second skill. Penetrate.

The skill moved from his core and along the pathways connecting to his right hand before it manifested. The bones and muscles got harder and impossibly stiff and he felt his fingers straighten out together to form the shape of a blade and finally mana started to coat on the surface of his hand very much like how a razer blade has plastic coated around the edge to act as the cutting portion of the razer.

The mana behaved in very much a similar manner to that, strengthening his hand and coating the surface in sharp unattuned mana and it all took less than a second.

He found a suitable looking sapling nearby and then he thrust his hand towards the trunk, fingers close together making a knife hand. He felt some resistance as his fingers came in contact with the trunk before his hand went through and would have kept going through and out the other side if he hadn’t stopped.

Holy fuck! The description was basic but god damn! With this skill I don’t even need a weapon! Adam was well and truly excited. His strength had multiplied over a few hours and now he wasn’t prey, he had grown claws and become a predator. The thought brought a grin to his face.

Adam looked up at the sky and checked the time. It was still late afternoon, his jaunt back through the forest to his cave and his subsequent experiments hadn’t taken up much time. He had plenty of light to hunt. But before that he wanted to go through the interface.