“You are fucked!” Val said in a low, husky voice.
The loss of his hand had seemed to thoroughly anger him!
Channeling his rage into power, Val sacrificed as much as needed from his Blood Bar to form several colossal tendrils of blood.
“Apprehend it.”
With a thought, he commanded these bloody appendages to constrict the Green Devil. 𝓞𝒱𝓛xt.𝗇𝓔t
Guhaakk!
Caught in the ensnaring tendrils, the Devil roared in fury, its massive body straining against the blood-formed bonds, but the grip on it only intensified as it struggled, the crimson appendages coiling tighter around its limbs, neck, and midsection, leaving it thoroughly immobilized.
As he watched his opponent thrash helplessly, a wicked grin split Val’s face. His foe was at his mercy, with no room to dodge what was coming next.
“Rage, Aquarius!” Val’s voice echoed through the clearing, and the sword in his remaining hand vibrated in response, a tangible aura of power surging from it.
Holding the sword above his head, he watched as the blade gleamed, bathing in a vibrant crimson hue. Then, after a moment of bated breath, he brought the sword down in a decisive, powerful arc.
Whoosh!
A high-pressure arc of blood immediately erupted from the blade, slicing through the air with ruthless efficiency.
This blood guillotine cut through the Green Devil as easily as a heated blade passing through a slab of butter.
As it passed through the Green Devil, drawing a bright red line across the monster’s body.
There was a moment of silence, then, with a sickening squelch, the Green Devil’s body split into two, its left half parting from its right.
A spray of blood erupted from the division as the two halves collapsed onto the forest floor.
The dull thuds of their fall resounded in the clearing, marking the end of the gruesome duel.
[Ding! You’ve defeated a level 1.10 dungeon monster. +8 EXP.]
With this, his EXP had reached a whopping 94 points. He was only 6 points away from levelling up!
Immediately after that, Val activated his Blood Absorption ability, drawing upon the blood of the Green Devil to heal himself. The blood from the monster flowed towards him like a crimson river, sinking into his severed arm. Slowly but surely, his missing limb began to regenerate, each drop of the monster’s blood feeding the growing flesh, muscle, and bone.
All of its blood was used to heal himself.
After that, Val approached the severed half of the monster. His eyes fell upon its heart. The heart was as small as a pebble but radiated intense heat. It was surprisingly small given the creature’s massive size.
He extracted it.
[Ding! Congratulation, Host. You have obtained the Green Devil’s Heart!]
A wave of anticipation coursed through Val as he held the heart of the Green Devil in his hands.
“This is all I need to awaken my Whitemore bloodline.”
However, the excitement was tempered by a harsh reality: the Whitemore Bloodline Suppressing Poison that was coursing through his veins. The scenario he told to his father was something he had fabricated. It had not actually happened.
The poison that the priest used to poison him was still suppressing his innate bloodline, and unless it was purged from his system, attempting to awaken his Whitemore Bloodline would only be a futile act.
He wasn’t the best student in his school for nothing. He had studied harder than others. He was well aware of the risks associated with consuming the heart of the Green Devil under such conditions.
The combination could potentially exacerbate the effects of the poison, and there was also a chance his body might reject the Evolutionary Material entirely.
Basically, before absorbing it to awaken his innate bloodline, he needed an antidote that could clean his system of the Whitemore Bloodline Suppressing Poison.
Thus, he could only put it aside for now. He stowed it away in the pocket of his windbreaker, where it continued to emanate a comfortable warmth.
Val then turned his attention to the dungeon core.
It was located in the creature’s brain, housed within the skull’s protective casing. The core was a crystalline sphere, the size of a small apple, glinting with a deep emerald light.
He gingerly extracted it.
Then, without further ado, he applied some force and crushed it!
Suddenly, a new notification popped up in Val’s vision.
[Ding! Host, your commendable feat of conquering the Level 1 dungeon has not gone unnoticed. The World’s Will has acknowledged your efforts and shall bestow upon you a well-earned reward after computing the contributions you’ve made in completing the dungeon.]
This abrupt system prompt momentarily stunned Val, catching him off guard.
The implication was indeed astonishing, something that vehemently contested his prior understanding of Eldritch.
The reality, as Val had come to understand, was that the world was a sentient entity. It had a spirit, a conscience, and it didn’t like getting invaded, which happens when dungeon breaks occur.
In a bid to motivate its inhabitants to confront more dungeons, thereby preventing otherworldly forces from invading its soil, it would reward those who successfully pacified a dungeon.
This truth, however, was closely guarded, its knowledge intentionally shrouded from the eyes and ears of the average individuals – the normies. Even if you were a bloodline user, unless you had directly encountered the World’s Will, this secret would not be told to you.
It was such a well kept secret that Val, despite his academic prowess and numerous interactions with bloodline users who had completed dungeons, had never stumbled upon this truth.
It was only now that he was finding out about the world being alive and having a soul.
The revelation was earth-shattering for him, but it only shocked him slightly.
First of all, because of his emotional impairment trait, he could hardly feel intense emotions.
Secondly, there were dungeons, devils, and even mutated beasts in this world, so it wasn’t hard to digest that the world had a soul of its own and was alive.