With his hand placed on one of the Iron-ranked Armoured Quadrupeds, he looked at the blue notification panel in front of him.
.
(Ding! Congratulations to the host for defeating an Intermediate Iron-Rank Armoured Quadruped. Do you wish to devour its essence and merge with one of its attributes?)
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Damn right he did. Voicing “yes” mentally, another notification screen popped up before him.
Race: Beast Armoured Quadruped.)
Rank: Intermediate Iron.
Strength: 20
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 5
Charisma: 3
Endurance: 10
Luck: 2
Huh? Great. He skimmed through the attributes.This time, there was no thinking—he was going to pick the highest attribute and repeat the process with the others. It was going to be a long night, not that he minded. After all, looking at the ten or so Iron-ranked beasts, they were just attributes waiting to be farmed. Too bad some of their friends ran away.
That aside, he focused mentally on the strength attribute and made his choice—followed by a wondrous sight and a sensation he still couldn’t get used to.
"A blue orb emerged from the beast, radiating with strength that he could instinctively feel, before it spiraled toward him and inexplicably merged with his being."
"Crap! I thought we were past the pain... at this point, System!"
His body roared with pain as he felt it being tempered, each stat point flowing through his veins like lava. Yet to Auron, the pain was almost pleasurable, not that he was becoming a masochist or anything.
His thoughts were drowned out by images flashing before his eyes—vivid and lifelike. The armoured quadruped's life, its battles its instincts. Every ounce of everything that forged its strength was now unraveling and merging itself into his very soul.
His body continued to tremble as raw strength poured into him until the system's cold voice echoed in his mind— "Strength increased by 20 points.' And he felt every single one of them coursing through him."
If it was before, fatigue would have hit him hard, forcing him to wait longer, but not this time with his recently upgraded endurance, he was ready.
Ready to devour every single beast he killed even if it killed him, though he highly doubted it would, right?
Taking a deep breath he calmed himself, the earth around him buzzed slightly as the wind brushed his midnight black hair. He performed breathing exercises.
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He was adjusting to his new found strength. Given it wasn't that huge of an upgrade he estimated it wouldn't take that long. He closed his eyes trying to enhance his concentration, which resulted in something even more amazing he didn't know he could do.
Every cell in his body vibrated slightly, then born from instinct rather than some awareness, he took a step forward, this time no spider web-cracks appeared on the ground because of some sudden surge of strength, quite the opposite, it appeared more like a finely tuned calculation.
He could feel it, the pressure around him, the Gravity and forces related to the earth he couldn't yet bend to his will, but that wasn't the point, when faced with the problem of high strength gained unnaturally that would take some time to adjust to, a primal will resonated from the earth as he felt his body being guided, his movements measured no unnecessary movements and effort.
Unlike his Sphere of Detection—which allowed him to see every micro-detail but was limited to just that—this new discovery was not passive but active. He wasn’t being manipulated, but guided by what felt like the earth itself.
it was a wondrous feeling, but this new ability was somehow only limited to that.
Probably due to his low affinity.
Which gave way to another thought.
If his affinity leveled up to a high level did that mean every motion from him would be a fatal battle strike, revised and edited to bring out the maximum effect.
Now, if he added that to his Sphere of Detection, wouldn’t he become an unbeatable cockroach?
Hahahaha, this was exhilarating, he had unlocked a new ability. Had it always been there or part of his affinity he hadn’t yet explored, even after his tests?”
Whatever it was it was damn right cool and with an ability this helpful, it surely deserved a name.
Given its unique trait of guiding his motions, he called it 'Will of the Earth.'
It captured everything that it had far so revealed.
Surprised at his own coping ability, Auron moved on to the next beast.
Having survived everything, the reality altering concept of a system, this new ability didn't faze him that much.
However he felt the change brought about by his new ability.
His motion felt different, he could feel it, the earth guiding him through the best trajectory to reach his target whilst using the bare minimum energy yet accomplishing the task fairly easily.
Hell, he felt as if his motion was a dance.This was going to get some getting used to.
Hand on the armoured plate of another slain armoured quadruped, Auron looked at the notification screen which now displayed rows of unfamiliar text.
(Ding! Host’s mortal body cannot endure devouring again. Awaken your class to unlock more possibilities, or wait for system cooldown.)
Huh... wait...what?
What do you mean by this?
You can't do this to me!
Noooooooooooooo!
My attributes!!!!
I knew it was too good to be true.
So his devouring ability had a cooldown, but he roughly felt any strain in his body, damnit he was ready to devour another beast and the system hit him with this.
Why hadn't he found out about this earlier that his maximum slots per day amounted to two, and how was he still being termed weak, did his strength mean nothing to the system, after all, one thing he had learnt was it always gave him facts nothing short, nothing more.
Argh, damnit! If he’d known this, he would’ve started with the peak Iron-ranked beast. But at least now he knew.
Then the system had finally mentioned it, his class.
Now what in the Realm of Ignea was that supposed to mean, he tried using different contexts all resulting in weird thoughts that didn't quite make sense.
Wait, a subtle realisation struck him, he didn't follow the convectional beast taming path, that had been established right from the day he merged with his system, what if this class offered him the awakening of something different from beast taming?
A concept new to the realm of Ignea? He was already a devourer but was there more that he didn't know off? A different profession suited just for him?
Following that train of thought, he focused on his class panel, looking to see if he had missed anything, then he stared at it again, this time intently as if willing it to display more information, still nothing.
Damnit system! If I have to awaken my class, then at least drop some hints on how I’m supposed to do it!
Frustrated, Auron looked at the dead iron armoured Quadrupeds again. You damn right better give me a beast core, if i can't farm you for attributes....yet.
Rummaging through the corpses again, he was in a frenzy. Anything that contributed to his strength—even slightly—was greatly appreciated. He couldn’t afford to be picky.
A few moments later ...
Amidst a pile of mangled corpses a young man looked upon the work of his hands before a faint grin tugged at the edge of his lips.
Which broke into a full-blown, maniacal laugh that sounded almost unnatural.
"You gotta be kidding me right?
One beast core from ten beasts, this was just downright tough luck."
Still it was something.
He was learning something new about the system every day.
Today being, it was full of surprises.
But first, it was time he saw how much his stats had improved.
Willing it, he voiced out "system interface." Before a blue system panel flashed before his violet eyes.
SYSTEM INTERFACE
Name: Auron Raventor
Title: Peak Iron Rank Hunter
Race: ???
Class: None (Yet)
Beast Contracts: 0
Attributes:
Strength: 74.2
Agility: 44.6
Intelligence: 22.9
Charisma: 17.5
Endurance: 33.7
Luck:20
Toughness:10.3
Willpower: 10
Remark: ( Recalibrating)
Unallocated Attribute Points: (70)
Skills: None (yet)
Affinities: Earth
[ Affinity progression 0.1]
[Do you wish to absorb the skill from the bronze rank armoured quadruped beast crystal?]
Damn. His attributes were rising faster than expected, especially strength—not that he was complaining.
Great.
The panel then faded, leaving behind silence and possibility.
His eyes locked onto the crimson beast core still glowing faintly beneath the moonlight.
One last thing he had yet to do.
See what sort of skill he was about to gain next.
Closing his eyes he muttered softly.
“Show me something cool.”