Zach stared at the system screen, his mouth slowly falling open in shock.
"What is this…?"
---
〔Status〕
Name: Lucien Thorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
Level: 3 (5%)
Health: 100%
Mana: 1,072
Bloodline: Cursed Bloodline
Affinity: ↳Blood → ↳Chaos → ↳Curse → ↳Death
Class: Phase Warden
---
⟢ STATS
Strength: 12 {+7}
Agility: 12 {+7}
Endurance: 13 {+7}
Vitality: 11 {+7}
Intelligence: 12 {+7}
Perception: 11 {+7}
Willpower: 1.1
⟣ Stat Points Available: 6
---
⟢ SKILLS
◈ Base Skill
— Shadow Remnant
Skill Type: Active
Lvl: 1
Cost: 120 Mana
Cooldown: 30 seconds
↳ Leave behind a Shadow Remnant — a snapshot of your current physical and mental state, frozen in time and space. For the next 10 seconds, you may recast this skill to instantly return to that exact moment, restoring your position, health, mana, body conditioning, skill cooldowns, and removing all damage, debuffs, and status effects received during the phase.
> Note: This does not affect the environment, physical objects, or enemy actions.
---
◈ Bloodline Skills
— BloodForge
Skill Type: Active
Lvl: 1
Cost: 10 > ∞ Mana
Cooldown: —
↳ Control and shape blood into weapons, armor, or constructs. Can utilize personal or ambient blood. The more complex or larger the form, the greater the mana cost.
---
— Sanguine Drain
Skill Type: Active
Lvl: 1
Cost: 5 Mana
Cooldown: —
↳ Absorb the blood of others to permanently increase physical stats. Effectiveness scales with the target's strength. Cannot be used repeatedly on the same blood source.
---
— Bloodburst Core
Skill Type: Active
Lvl: 1
Cost: 20 > ∞ Mana
Cooldown: —
↳ Condense blood into unstable explosive orbs. The more blood and mana infused, the greater the damage. Can be detonated manually or upon impact.
> Note: Infusing Blood Essence greatly amplifies destructive power.
Blood Essence: 10 / 10
---
◈ Magic Skills
— No magic skills acquired.
---
⟢ TALENT
Hyperfocus (Passive)
↳ Your mind sharpens under pressure. When faced with imminent danger, your perception heightens, allowing you to process threats in slowed detail. Attacks appear slower, evasion becomes easier, and your reaction time increases dramatically.
Effect: +25% Perception, +15% Agility
Duration: 4 seconds (scales with Willpower)
Cooldown: 20 seconds
---
⟢ TRAIT
Fracture (Passive)
↳ The world cast you aside—
So you tore it from your heart.
Your soul lies shattered,
And from those shards, rage blooms eternal.
❖ Ability: Carnage Form (Passive)
Condition: HP falls below 10%
Effect:
— Instantly gain 100% Rage
— Your body becomes sheathed in blood armor
— All stats ×2
— Enter a berserk state — damage output and durability surge
Duration: 1 minute (+2 seconds per level)
> Warning: Repeated or extensive use hastens soul corruption. What is lost may never be restored.
---
"What the hell is all this…" Zach muttered, eyes so wide it looked like they might fall out.
"Too OP… just too OP."
Everything in his status looked broken, like cheat codes. But none of it compared to his base skill. That one was insane. It was less like a skill and more like a tool for chaos and destruction.
In battle, most people use their strongest skills wisely—only when needed—so they don't waste energy. But for him? With Shadow Remnant, was that even a problem anymore?
Would he need to hold back? Would he care about damage or stamina?
With that skill, he could go all out with a deadly attack, then return to before it even happened—like it was nothing. He could erase all consequences.
That's not just powerful. That's dangerous.
He was like a ghost on the battlefield. A walking disaster. He could charge into death and simply return. What kind of ability was this? He could throw everything in a single hit and reset like it never happened.
A chill ran down Zach's spine. Wasn't he supposed to be the final calamity? Wasn't his fate tied to the destruction of this world? Then who gave him this kind of strength? What twisted being wanted someone like him to hold this power?
Could this world even survive him?
Still, Zach didn't get cocky. He knew the truth—he was still weak. There were monsters and beings out there that could crush him like an insect. Even with such skills, he had to be smart.
His arrival in this world wasn't normal. His destiny was twisted, and these powers might just be part of something far darker.
Power meant nothing if he ended up corrupted in the end. He couldn't let the strength blind him. He had to be careful. He didn't know what kind of nightmare he had been thrown into.
So with the excitement of the base skill dying down, Zach decided to focus on other aspects. All his stats had increased by seven points—five from his bloodline awakening and two from leveling up. That made sense.
His bloodline skills were also impressive. The Lucien Thorne he had fought as the final boss in the RPG Calamity's Crown had the ability to control blood, so it wasn't surprising that he had the same now, since he was in his body. His talent and trait also seemed useful, but compared to the excitement of his base skill, they felt a bit lacking.
After spending some time going through his status screen, he finally dismissed it and looked outside through the thick web of roots and ferns. The sun was still high, meaning not much time had passed since he began awakening his bloodline, though the painful process had made it feel like an eternity had passed. He couldn't help but wonder if the battle was still going on.
He was now far from the battlefield and couldn't hear anything, so whether the fight had ended or not, he had no way of knowing. Still, he didn't let it bother him too much. He knew there were only two possible outcomes by now—either the guards assumed he had been eaten by a beast, or that he had escaped. Either way, he didn't have to worry for now. What mattered was that his bloodline had awakened. He just had to hunt, get stronger, and test out his new powers in real combat—especially in case they decided to come looking for him.
---
Meanwhile, back at the battle site, the fight between the Dark Order guards and the beast horde had just ended. The air was still thick with the stench of blood and dust. About seven warriors stood among piles of dead beasts, their faces worn out, blood dripping from cuts on their bodies, armor dented, and weapons soaked in blood.
One of them, a man with a hard expression and clear authority, scanned the battlefield with cold eyes. His voice was sharp.
"Where are the prisoners?"
A guard clutching his wounded arm, jerked his chin toward a slope off the side of the road.
"The carriage went off the slope during the fight," he said. "Must've been hit in the chaos. The wreck is down there."
The leader's eyes narrowed. "And the prisoners?"
"Scattered around the crash," the guard answered. "Most didn't survive. The few that did are barely alive. When we counted the bodies, nearly all were there. Except one. Probably torn apart. Or dragged off by a beast."
The leader frowned. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again.
"No chances. Spread out and search the area. I want confirmation, not guesses."
Some of the others groaned.
"Seriously?" one muttered. "We just fought off a damn horde."
Another, older and more blunt, stepped forward. "Sir, we're nearly dead. Even if one escaped, they have no food, no water, no gear—and probably no strength to last the day. The nearest city is two days out. They'll be beast food before nightfall."
The leader looked at him, face unreadable. "Maybe. But we don't deal in 'probably'. If one of them survives and ends up in the hands of the Church or any of the others, it'll be a problem."
After the mana descent and the rise of awakened bloodlines, many groups had started aiming to create the perfect bloodline—one that surpassed all others. The Dark Order was just one of them. That's why even failed experiments had to be destroyed. If a subject got captured by rival factions, it could give them a huge advantage. That was why every failed experiment had to be incinerated—no exceptions.
The group fell quiet. They all knew he was right.
"Good," the leader said, seeing their silence as agreement. He turned to the slope. "One of you deal with the corpses. The rest, fan out and sweep the area. Check everything within a hundred meters. He couldn't have gotten far."
Reluctantly, weapons still in hand, the tired soldiers moved out.
The battle had ended, but the hunt was just beginning.