King gazed at the pool in which he spawned from with a frown. As with every entity that gained sentience without any guidance from peers or organisms similar to itself, he began to question the nature of his birth.
He knew why he had been born and who he was. What he had no clue about though, was how.
His memories began when he forced himself out of that seed. Before that, he had been running on autonomous instinct. He had emerged from this very pool, but all he could see was a clear lake.
There were no caves or holes he could see from here. He had been debating on whether to submerge himself and investigate, but he was unsure.
Just because he was aware, did not mean he was knowledgeable. All he knew was what was imprinted on him, as well as those few skills and instincts that he gained from the animals he consumed.
To submerge himself in water without any knowledge on swimming or staying afloat… wouldn't that be playing with death?
King walked around the bank of the small lake slowly, like a prospector taking in the sight of a property. His sharp eyes and budding intelligence analyzed the facts and the scenario in front of him with terrible speed and accuracy.
For that matter, King was only about the height and general visage of a teenager fresh into puberty, yet his brain could outpace some computers.
He folded his arms once he had made a slow lap around the pool, noticing that his patience was growing thin. Before gaining cognizance, he was an unthinking and unfeeling entity that lived solely on instinct.
Now however, he had logical reasoning and awareness. Still, with such boons came detriments, which were flaws and emotions. Despite being an Ultima Sunt, he could not escape this limitation.
King's greatest flaw was his race's in-built arrogance. They believed they were superior to all and that was somewhat true.
He knew that an Ultima Sunt was. They were a race of genetically engineered beings by the Gods that went beyond their expectations, so they had to be purged.
Ultima Sunts were the Ultimate Lifeforms. They could assimilate anything of every living thing and grow in power with no limit. Whatever cap existed for all living entities, they could surpass.
Since even the Gods counted as living entities, it could be understood why they purged this race as quickly as they could.
But here he was, alive and unpunished. King wasn't too knowledgeable about the world, but the thing with logic was that sometimes, not all the facts were needed to reach a conclusion.
Exceptionally clever people could read and understand various things because they could take a bunch of facts and merge them together to reach a conclusion that was accurate more often than not.
King realized that there was no way the Gods would allow him to exist. Since they had omnipotence and omniscience over the world - which was some of the little he could glean from his racial inheritance - they should easily be able to locate him and smite him.
But they hadn't.
That made King ponder and he pondered very hard.
His conclusion: The Gods are either dead, gone or my birth is special and allows me to escape the God's purview.
Even though he was accurate, he still had too many other less suitable conclusions in mind, but he was on the right track.
King bent over the pool and stared at his reflection. For some reason, his current look made him feel intrigued. Was this how all Ultima Sunts looked or was it his own personal visage?
King wanted more knowledge. His mind was burning with questions and he was dying for answers.
He turned to stare at the small forest where he had raised himself from a seedling to what he was now. The animals in there were not suitable for his growth. He had spent a few hours going through it and had only found small critters as well as boars.
At his current stage, he would need to eat hundreds of them to grow further.
Once an organism had been consumed for the first time, subsequent consumptions only gave King 0.1% of the mass he got the first time. He had no idea why this flaw existed, but it limited his ability to grow.
Maybe that was why he was unnoticed by the Gods?
He returned his sight to the pool and was surprised to see something in there. It was a peculiar animal that was oval in shape and swished its tail to propel itself forward.
That's right, King was looking at a fish. It wasn't a huge fish, but just a level 1 Carp.
King stared at it curiously for a bit, before kneeling down close to the shore of the lake. He couldn't enter the water to capture the animal, so he planned to wait for it to come closer to the shore.
Of course, he could tell that such an animal had evolved in a way to be able to breathe underwater. This was a trait he needed urgently, so he had to pull all the stops to capture it and acquire such a feature.
As he knelt there, King had a bizarre feeling. A human would describe it as an epiphany, but King had no idea what such a thing was.
He saw a hazy vision, in which a taller and much more defined Ultima Sunt stood before a humongous Earth Dragon. The Ultima Sunt looked very similar to himself, King noted, but his skin was much more vibrant and his orbs were deep blue instead of green.
The Ultima Sunt stared at the huge Dragon callously, even though the powerful serpent roared at him with anger. It leapt at the Ultima Sunt, but stopped just when its claw was about to rend him.
The Dragon stayed like that for a few seconds before lowering its claw and dropping onto its paunches. Its eyes were murky and seemed glazed over.
The Ultima Sunt finally moved, walking right up to the Dragon, plunging his hand into its neck and ripping out a bunch of muscles. After stuffing the meat down his throat, he continued to consume it in such a manner.
The terrifying part was that the Earth Dragon just lay there, not even reacting to itself being consumed.
King came out of his epiphany with a shake of his head. His mind felt clearer and his existence felt more… solid.
｢Congratulations on awakening: Bloodline Inheritance level 1
Reward:
Classification｣
Classification?
When King thought about that, a screen popped up before him.
｢Name: King - Rank 1 Ultima Sunt
Level: 1
Growth: 0%
MON Str: 50
MON Dex: 50
MON End: 50
MON Int: 50
MON Spr: 50
MON Cha: 50
MON Lck: 50
Abilities: Beckon
Traits: Evolution, Ultimate Stealth, Pinnacle Intelligence｣
｢Beckon – Ability
Effect: Lure any living organism to you. Organism must be within your Rank.｣
｢Evolution – Trait
Effect: Acquire any aspect of any living entity consumed.｣
｢Ultimate Stealth – Trait
Effect: Remain harmless in the eyes of any living entity until damage is dealt.｣
｢Pinnacle Intelligence – Trait
Effect: Possess a thinking and reasoning capacity three times your current limit.｣
When King saw this, he received a wealth of knowledge from the system. Of course, he wasn't aware that he was a digital entity born of code, but he was granted the basic knowledge that every NPC gained.
Once King settled down, he rose from his kneeling position. He stood up and faced the water beneath him with an inscrutable expression. He remained like that for a few minutes before raising his head to the sky and admiring the clouds.
Then, he laughed.
"Haha… hahaha…"
"Hahaha… Hahahahahaha!!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
It started out bland and forced, but soon became more and more passionate, even twisting his usually nonchalant expression into something eerie.
"Good! Good! GOOD!"
"This world! This world is perfect! It's beautiful!"
"The world of Boundless… unlimited resources, untamed lands, struggling races…"
"All of it is mine! I shall plunder, conquer and destroy as I please!"
"I shall consume, grow and flourish at the cost of everything else!"
"I shall rule this world that has lost its divine protection!"
After declaring his joy and goals, King clenched his fist with an expression of firm will. He would stomp on everything and anything that stood in his way to the top!
Nothing could stop him! The Gods were gone, having receded into heaven!
They could not touch him! He was left in a world where quite literally everything would make him stronger and stronger till he became too powerful for him to even imagine.
Being given a place where one could grow without limit and without fear of demise… how could King not laugh with joy?
King stared at the idle carp and his eyes gleamed.
"First, I shall start with you! You will lead me to my origins and be my first small stepping stone!" He declared with an arrogant tone.
He activated his only ability, Beckon, and watched as the Carp shivered a bit before swimming towards him slowly. He grabbed the fish from the water and even though it could not breathe, it did not thrash.
King opened his mouth wide and swallowed the fish in one gulp.
His neck shifted and swirled a bit before two lines appeared on each side of it. He had gained gills!
He dove into the water and further transformed. His legs merged together and formed a long tail with a fin at the end. If one were to look at him, he would look like a bizarre Merman!
He breathed as easily underwater as he would on land. This small lake was incomparably pure, so his eyesight was unhindered underwater.
He swished his tail slowly, propelling himself forward at insane speeds that even most aquatic species could not hope to match. This was him not even trying to move quickly and yet the result was stunning.
King dove to the bottom of the pool and began searching around diligently. He used both his eyes and hands to feel around the sand underneath the water.
He searched for a few minutes before finding something. There was a small hole in the center of the pool that looked like a tube. Out of that hole came bubbles of air, but King to see that the air only came in, but didn't go down.
He tried to peek down the tube, but his eyes could only see darkness.
Frowning, he pondered how to move forward from here. It was clear that his destination was underneath the earth, but how would he get there? He couldn't even see to the end of the tube, meaning that its end point could be miles underground.
King realized that he would need to gain the ability to change his size at will. If he wanted to fit into this tube, he would have to minimize himself as much as possible.
But how?
It was easier said than done.
King surfaced and transformed back into his natural form, climbing out of the pool with a scowl. He hated this feeling of being at a dead end. He had just been jubilant that the world would become his play thing and now, this silly hurdle appeared.
It was as if The Gods were mocking his naivety with a sneer.
In King's eyes, those were his true enemies. He feared and hated the Gods to the maximum, so he decided that he would destroy them all when he became peerless in the world.
Looking left and right, King began to trek on the plains of the Four Point Valley. His mind was powerful enough that he could map his location as he walked, meaning that he would be able to find his way back easily.
His current goal was simple.
He needed to find more organisms to consume until he could become strong enough to either change his size or pull the earth out with his bare hands and dig himself to his destination.
Surely, he was not the only living being in the Four Point Valley?