*Chapter 7 — First Blood*
The bear roared.
The sound shook leaves from the trees. Its enormous paw came crashing down, moving faster than something that size had any right to move.
Arin's eyes sharpened. Time seemed to slow for half a second.
He moved.
The paw missed his head by inches and slammed into the ground.
BOOM! Soil and grass exploded into the air in a dirty plume. The shockwave hit Arin in the chest and knocked him sideways. He rolled away, coming up on one knee, dirt in his hair and mouth.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears. It wasn't fear. Not entirely. The power from Bloodthirsty was coursing through his body, pushing his physical abilities far beyond what they had been moments ago. His muscles felt like steel cables. His vision was clearer. His reflexes were faster.
But there was a problem.
His mind was changing. The longer he maintained the technique, the stronger the urge to kill became. It wasn't just anger. It was hunger. A deep, primal need to rip, tear, and destroy.
The bear turned toward him, shaking dirt from its fur. It didn't look hurt. It looked annoyed.
Arin stared back. For a moment, the creature didn't look like an animal. It looked like prey. A big, dangerous piece of prey, but prey nonetheless.
Something inside him wanted to tear it apart. To feel its bones break under his hands. To taste the blood in the air.
Arin gritted his teeth. "Calm down." The words felt distant. Like someone else was saying them.
The bear charged. It didn't roar this time. It just came, a wall of muscle and fur and claws.
Arin rushed forward. He didn't dodge. He met it head on.
Their bodies collided.
BOOM!
The impact sent a ripple through the ground. Arin's fist struck the bear's chest, right over the heart. The force traveled up his arm and into his shoulder.
The bear barely moved. It grunted, staggered back half a step, then its paw swung toward his head in a blur.
Arin ducked. The claws passed over his hair close enough that he felt the wind. He could smell the beast. Musk and blood and something rotten.
He stepped inside its reach and punched again. Once. The blow landed on its jaw. Twice. On its ribs. Three times. Right in the sternum.
The bear finally staggered. It took a step back, shaking its head.
Arin's eyes narrowed. His knuckles were bleeding. Its body was far tougher than he had expected. "You're not just strong." He glanced at the bear's darkened fur. It had a faint sheen to it, like oil. "There must be a trait."
The bear roared. The sound was different this time. Deeper. Dark qi suddenly erupted from its body in black tendrils that sank into its skin.
Arin's expression changed. The creature's muscles bulged, growing even larger. Veins stood out under the fur, pulsing with that dark energy. Its already terrifying strength increased again.
The bear swung.
Arin raised his arms to block.
CRACK!
It was like getting hit by a truck. He was sent flying. He crashed through several bushes, branches snapping, before hitting the ground and rolling. Pain spread through his arms. Something in his left forearm felt wrong.
Arin slowly pushed himself up. His breathing was rough. His arms were trembling. "This is ridiculous." The bear was already charging again, dark qi trailing behind it like smoke.
Arin didn't run. Running would get him killed. He watched. Really watched.
The bear lowered its body. Its right leg moved first, pushing off the ground. Then its shoulder rolled forward. Then its paw came up.
Arin remembered the sensation he had experienced earlier when he first looked at his status. Beast Spirit hadn't unlocked yet, but something else was happening. His mind was cataloging patterns.
The creature's movements weren't random. Even beasts had patterns. Even monsters had tells.
The bear's weight shifted before every attack. It always led with the right.
Arin waited. Three steps. Two. One.
Now.
He moved sideways. The paw passed beside him close enough to cut the air. Arin grabbed the bear's arm with both hands. The fur was coarse and hot.
He pulled. Using the bear's momentum against it. The beast's weight carried it forward.
Arin twisted his body and slammed his shoulder into its side. He put everything he had into it.
BOOM! The bear stumbled. It caught itself before falling, but it was off balance.
Arin followed immediately. No hesitation. No mercy. His fist smashed into its ribs.
CRACK! He felt something give.
The bear roared in pain. Arin struck again. And again. Right in the same spot. Blood sprayed from the bear's mouth, dark and thick.
The beast swung wildly, desperate now. Arin ducked. Another claw passed over his head. He could feel it cutting the air.
He stepped behind it, using its blind spot. Then punched the back of its skull with everything he had.
The bear collapsed onto one knee. The ground shook.
Arin didn't give it time to recover. He grabbed its head with both hands, fingers digging into fur and skin.
"Stay down." His voice was low. Not his own voice.
He slammed it into the ground.
BOOM! The impact cracked the earth.
The bear struggled, legs kicking. Arin raised his fist. And brought it down. Once. The sound was wet and heavy. Twice. Again.
The ground beneath the bear's head cracked further. The creature's resistance weakened. Its breathing became ragged.
Arin continued. He didn't stop. Couldn't stop. The bloodlust was screaming at him to keep going. To make sure it was dead. To make sure it could never get up again.
Until finally— The bear stopped moving. Its body went limp. The dark qi faded from its fur.
Silence returned to the forest. Only the sound of Arin's breathing.
He remained over the corpse. His chest rose and fell. His entire body was covered in blood. His blood. The bear's blood. Dirt and grass stuck to his skin.
For several seconds, he simply stared at what he had done. At the broken skull. At the crater in the ground. At his own hands.
Then the crimson energy surrounding him flickered. Like a candle running out of oil. The killing intent inside his mind became weaker. The red tint left his vision.
Arin's eyes slowly returned to normal. The pupils shrank back. He took a deep breath. Then another. His hands were trembling.
"That..." He looked at his trembling hands. They didn't look like his hands. "...was dangerous."
Bloodthirsty had made him much stronger. Strong enough to kill a beast that outweighed him by 400 pounds. But it had also made him frighteningly aggressive. He couldn't remember deciding to hit it that last time. He just... had.
If he lost control completely, he wasn't sure what would happen. Would he even recognize himself?
Arin looked down at the dead bear. The fight was over. He had won.
A strange sensation suddenly spread through him. It started in his chest and moved outward. He could feel the blood inside the corpse. Not as clearly as he could feel his own. But he could sense it. All of it. Pooled and cooling.
Arin remembered the ability he had seen on his status panel. The last one.
Blood Devour.
He hesitated. This felt wrong. This felt like something a monster would do.
Then he reached toward the corpse. His hand hovered over the bear's chest.
The blood inside the bear began to move. It flowed upward through the wounds, through the broken skin, drawn by something invisible. Crimson energy flowed from the body in thin streams, like mist.
Arin felt something enter him. It wasn't taste. It wasn't touch. It was warmth spreading through his veins. Life. Energy.
His injuries began closing. The cut on his arm stopped bleeding. The pain in his ribs disappeared. The exhaustion in his muscles faded like he had slept for ten hours.
Arin stared. His eyes were wide. "So this is Blood Devour."
The bear's body slowly changed. Its flesh became dull. Its fur lost its luster, turning gray and brittle. The muscles shrank. Until eventually, what remained looked almost like a dried shell. A husk. Like something had sucked everything living out of it.
Arin stepped back. His stomach turned. He couldn't help but feel uneasy. That ability was terrifying. It was the kind of power that made people into villains in stories.
But it was also useful. It healed him. It made him stronger. And in this world, useful could mean the difference between living and dying.
He couldn't afford to be squeamish.
Arin summoned his status panel. The crimson screen appeared in front of him.
The numbers had changed.
*Name:* Arin
*Rank:* Awakened
*Strength:* 22
*Vitality:* 23
*Agility:* 15
*Spirit:* 16
His eyes widened. "My stats increased."
Strength +3. Vitality +1. Agility +1.
He stared at the numbers. So Blood Devour wasn't merely healing him. It was strengthening him. It was taking the essence of what he killed and making it part of him.
Arin looked at the dried corpse. "What I eat..." He paused. The words felt heavy. "...I become stronger."
A faint smile appeared on his face. It wasn't a happy smile. It was the smile of someone who had just found a way to survive.
Then something caught his attention. A glint of light from inside the bear's chest cavity. Something was buried there, beneath the ribs.
Arin crouched down and carefully reached in. His hand came out holding a small, pale-blue sphere. It rested in his palm, about the size of a marble.
It looked like a piece of crystal. But energy was flowing inside it, slow and steady like liquid light. He could feel it humming against his skin.
"A beast core?" The memories from the previous Arin immediately answered his question. Fragments of school lessons, of stories told around the village fire.
Beast cores. One of the most valuable resources in this world. Cultivators used them to replenish spiritual qi and assist their cultivation. Merchants paid fortunes for them.
Arin examined the core. It was warm.
Before he could do anything else— The necklace around his neck became warm. Not hot. Just warm.
The pale-blue core suddenly trembled in his hand.
"What?"
The core flew from his hand on its own. It stopped in front of the necklace, hovering in the air. A thin stream of shimmering energy emerged from it, like a thread of light.
The necklace absorbed it. The crystal drank it in.
The pale-blue core gradually became dimmer. The light inside it faded. Cracks spread across its surface.
Then— Crack! The core shattered into dust that fell to the ground.
Arin stared at the necklace. Nothing else happened. No glow. No sound.
Except for one tiny change. A faint message appeared on his status panel beneath the Artifact line.
*Artifact Repair Rate:* 0.00004%
Arin's expression became complicated. Shock. Then understanding. Then resignation.
"You're repairing yourself..." He touched the necklace. It was cool again. "So that's what the energy was for."
The percentage was almost meaningless. 0.00004%. He would need thousands of cores to fix it.
But at least he had discovered a way to repair it. Beast cores. Perhaps the necklace could absorb more than that. Perhaps it was the reason he was here.
Arin looked deeper into the forest. The shadows were getting longer. His expression became serious.
The bear had been strong. Much stronger than an ordinary human at the same rank. And this was only the edge of the wilderness. The tutorial zone.
What waited deeper inside? He didn't know. But he could guess. Bigger things. Smarter things. Things that wouldn't go down in three punches.
Standing still wasn't an option. If he stayed here, he would die. If he went forward, he might die. But at least forward gave him a chance.
Arin started walking. He kept his senses open. Sanguine Sense was active now, a faint ripple in the back of his mind.
Every rustle of leaves made him pause. Every unfamiliar sound made him scan the trees. His body hurt, but it was a good hurt. The hurt of being alive.
The forest gradually became darker. The canopy overhead thickened, blocking out the sky. The sun was beginning to sink, painting the clouds orange and red.
Arin looked toward the sky through a gap in the leaves. Night was approaching.
He needed shelter. He had no intention of discovering what hunted in this forest after dark. The history books were very clear about that.
He found a large tree with thick branches and climbed. His body was stronger now, so it was easy. He settled on a branch about 20 feet up, with a good view of the ground.
Then— His expression changed.
Something had entered his senses. Blood qi. A source. Moving around him in a circle below.
Arin slowly turned his head. His eyes narrowed.
A creature was circling the tree. Four legs. Low to the ground.
Wolf.
But not a normal wolf. This one was pale, almost white, with a strange green mist leaking from its body. It drifted from its fur and sank into the grass, killing it instantly.
Poison.
Arin could sense it immediately. The wolf was injured. Its left hind leg dragged slightly. Its movements were slightly weaker than they should be.
Arin watched them silently from above. The exotic hadn't noticed that he had detected them. It was still circling, sniffing the air.
He could attack first. He had the high ground. He had Bloodthirsty. He had the element of surprise.
His gaze settled on the injured wolf. It was weaker than the bear. Smaller.
A faint smile appeared on his face. It was cold. "Sorry."
The wolf continued circling, unaware.
Arin lowered his body slightly. His fingers curled into fists. The crimson energy started to stir again, just beneath the surface.
He focused his senses on the injured wolf. Felt its blood moving. Felt its weakness.
Then— He disappeared from the branch