Chương 4: Blood Reaper

"Are you kidding me?" Gray threw his hands up, letting the iron axe clatter onto the floorboards.

"I got nothing for that kill?" Nabi gave a careless shrug and rested the long black shaft of her scythe across one shoulder.

"Nope. No shared experience mechanic here. Credit goes to whoever lands the final hit." Gray scowled at the Blood Reaper.

"What is wrong with you?"

"A lot of things, kid. But stealing a kill during a survival competition?" Nabi folded her arms, looking entirely unbothered.

"That falls well within the bounds of sanity."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Gray swatted a hand.

"Tell me, what are you even doing here in the first place?"

"I came to help, actually. Ava, my mentor, said you'd probably need it. Apparently, she's close with yours." He let out a long sigh, and the tension in his shoulders bled out.

"That explains why you asked if I was his disciple earlier. Then can you explain why my mentor hasn't been responding to me?" Nabi raised her arms in a shrug and hummed an unintelligible version of I don't know.

"That's why I'm here to help. I guess my mentor has a soft side like that."

"Okay… but how do you call swooping in at the last second and stealing my kill helping?" Gray jerked his chin toward the dead ogre. Nabi extended her free hand as though presenting a perfectly reasonable argument.

"I call it a collaborative effort. Look, to make it up to you, I'll let you keep the loot since I already pocketed the EXP and Contribution Points." She pointed past the ogre's sprawled corpse. A coin-sized tear split open in the air, then rapidly expanded until a circular portal the size of a car tire hovered above the floor. Its interior was nothing but churning blackness, accompanied by a low, hollow hum.

"Is the loot inside this portal thing?" Gray said, eyeing the swirling void. Nabi clicked her tongue, almost pitying him.

"I guess your mentor really isn't teaching you the basics." She gestured toward the rift.

"It's a loot portal. Stick your arm in and pull out your reward." Gray hesitated. Blindly reaching into a humming interdimensional void seemed like an objectively terrible idea. Nabi's overly enthusiastic demonstration of jamming an imaginary hand into the portal and yanking out an equally imaginary prize did little to inspire confidence. A blue System window appeared above the rift. Loot Portal The Ultimate Test of Courage! Warning: Your hand may be severed, or you may receive a life-changing boon!

Gray winced, his gaze shifting between the ominous message and the swirling black vortex. Nabi still has both her hands, he reasoned. The odds have to be in my favor. The System's probably just trying to scare me. Still, just to be on the safe side. He thrust his non-dominant hand into the rift. Cold instantly raced across his skin. It felt as though thousands of icy needles were piercing his arm, sinking deeper the farther he reached into the void.

Gray clenched his jaw against the burning sting and swept his hand through the pitch-black emptiness. Nothing. He reached farther, fingers grasping blindly until they finally brushed against something soft. Fabric. Gray seized a fistful of the material and yanked his arm back. The instant Gray's arm cleared the threshold, the rift collapsed in on itself with a sharp pop, vanishing as though it had never existed. He held up the bundled garment and let it unfurl between his hands.

His hopeful expression immediately fell flat.

"Seriously? A bathrobe?" He stared at the plain white fabric.

"What is this supposed to do for me?"

"Have you tried identifying it?" Nabi asked, arching a brow. Nimbus Robe [Common] [Evolution] Serves to protect the bonded.

"An Evolution item?" Gray murmured, his attention returning to the robe in his hands. Nabi's eyebrows lifted.

"Those are extremely rare. They bond to their owner, which means no one else can trigger their effects. Also, you can't upgrade the rarirty of regular equipment. But you can with Evolution items." She tapped the shaft of the scythe resting against her shoulder.

"My Scarlet-Blood Scythe is one as well." Gray's eyes widened. An upgradable item?

"That's actually pretty cool." He turned the robe over, inspecting it from different angles.

"I wonder how this thing works, though." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"how about you put it on?" Nabi suggested. Gray grunted. He slipped his arms through the sleeves, and the oversized garment practically swallowed him whole, hanging well past his hands while the cuffs flared wide enough to resemble a wizard's sleeve.

"I'm not sure how practical this'll be in an actual fight," he muttered, flapping his arms like a clumsy bird.

"These sleeves are huge. They're just going to get in the way—" Before he could finish, a soft glow spread across the fabric. The robe suddenly lifted away from his body and hovered a foot above his head. Then it gently descended, settling across his shoulders as the excess material shifted on its own. The sleeves folded back and flowed behind him, transforming the garment into something closer to a cape than a bathrobe. Curious, Gray spun on his heel and mimed a quick sword slash.

The fabric followed his movements perfectly, clinging securely to his shoulders without slipping or restricting his range of motion.

"This is awesome!" A grin spread across his face.

"It stays in place without clips or pins!"

"You look like a budget superhero," Nabi scoffed, folding her arms.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to look the part early." Gray shot back.

"Anyway, let's get out of here." Nabi glanced toward the iron axe lying beside the dead ogre.

"You taking that with you?" Gray shook his head.

"It's a little too heavy to lug around the city."

"Suit yourself." Nabi raised one hand, revealing a sleek silver ring around her index finger. The metal flashed with white light. A beat later, the discarded axe was enveloped in the same glow, compressed into a tight sphere of energy, and shot straight into the ring before vanishing completely. Gray blinked.

"Is that what I think it is?" Nabi nodded.

"A dimensional storage ring." She pointed toward the floor.

"Here. Since you're basically unarmed, take these." The ring flashed again. A pair of simple steel daggers materialized in midair and clattered onto the floorboards at Gray's feet. Gray bent to pick up the daggers and tested their balance in his palms.

"Thanks. Looks like you've been getting pretty lucky with the loot." Despite his gratitude, a faint edge of bitterness crept into his voice.

"I don't know if I'd call spawning directly into a mob of a hundred goblins right after being kidnapped from my home 'luck,'" Nabi replied casually, though her expression hardened.

"I'd say I'm being rewarded for surviving." Gray immediately swallowed his jealousy.

"Right. Fair enough." Nabi climbed the mound of debris blocking the archway and peered down the main street. An eager smile stretched across her face.

"Well, this is going to be fun." She rolled her shoulders and tilted her head from side to side, her neck cracking sharply. Gray scrambled up the rubble behind her and leaned around her silhouette for a better look. His breath caught. A horde of goblins was charging straight toward the boutique. There had to be at least fifty of the green-skinned creatures stampeding down the street. Half brandished rusted swords, while the others clutched jagged daggers still stained with blood.

Their snarls and shrieks swelled louder with every pounding step.

"My smoke might actually be useful here," Gray said, tightening his grip on the daggers.

"I think I can—" Nabi planted a firm hand on his shoulder, cutting him off.

"Your smoke works great for you, but it'll just get in the way for me." She stepped past him.

"Sit back and enjoy the show." Gray let out a bitter groan and relaxed his stance.

"Fine…" Nabi launched herself from the rubble, her polished dress shoes landing lightly on the cracked sidewalk below. She gripped her scythe with both hands and sprinted toward the charging horde. She closed the gap in seconds. Nabi pivoted into a full-body spin and swept the massive weapon horizontally through the front line. The scarlet blade sliced cleanly through five goblin necks in rapid succession.

Their severed heads spun through the air, forced to spectate their headless bodies staggering forward another few steps before collapsing onto the asphalt. Riding the momentum of the swing, Nabi launched herself upward. She twisted in midair and brought the crimson blade down in a vertical chop, cleaving the lead goblin cleanly in half from crown to groin. Yet not a single drop of blood struck the pavement. Thanks to Blood Mastery, any spilled blood within Nabi's immediate domain fell under her control.

Thin crimson streams poured from the goblins' wounds, twisting through the air in winding ribbons before being drawn directly into her chest. Once she siphoned enough, Nabi vaulted high above the street. For one moment, she seemed to defy gravity, suspended at the apex of her leap over the shrieking mob. She spread both arms wide as a ruby glow pulsed beneath her chest. Sanguine Rain The stolen blood shot out from her chest at a rhythmic cadence and hardened instantly into hundreds of razor-thin needles.

Then, they fanned outward in synchronized waves before halting in midair above the army. Even from the relative safety of the boutique, Gray caught the heavy metallic scent hanging in the air—coating the back of his throat with iron. The mass of suspended needles blotted out the sunlight, casting the goblins beneath them in shadow. One by one, they stopped and stared upward at the predator hovering above them, their yellow eyes widening in terror.

Nabi raised two fingers, and high above the street, the suspended blood needles began to hum. The razor-sharp projectiles, which had been hovering at scattered, chaotic angles, suddenly snapped into perfect formation. Every crimson tip pointed straight down at the horde below. She swiped. The goblins barely had time to react before the rain fell. A rapid series of wet impacts tore through the street as flesh was punctured hundreds of times within seconds. Nabi drifted gently back to the ground.

She stepped over the massacred goblins and made her way toward the storefront, her breathing perfectly even. Not a single bead of sweat marked her face.

"How…" Gray stammered, his grip loosening around his new daggers.

"How did you do all that?"

"Oh, that?" Nabi waved dismissively.

"Simple. Blood Mastery lets me control blood, and I suspended myself in the air by forcing the blood inside my veins to lift my body. It's a trick my mentor taught me." She rolled one shoulder.

"It takes a lot out of me right now, but with enough practice, I'll eventually be able to fly." She stopped beside the boutique and rested the blade of her scythe against the pavement." Sanguine Rain is the active skill I learned after consuming my Ability Shard. The only drawback is that I need to store enough external blood in my core before I can use it." Nabi gestured toward the ruined street littered with corpses.

"Put it all together, and you get that."

"Right. Simple," Gray muttered, still trying to process what he had witnessed.

"If you say so."

"Yes, simple," Nabi replied.

"The goblins in this Natural Selection tutorial are substantially weaker than the ones you'd encounter in the world outside. Physically, they're about as strong as an average pre-pubescent teen." She slowly scanned Gray's lanky frame up and down.

"So, basically right around your level." A smug grin tugged at the corner of her mouth. Gray was too stunned to take offense. The display had been a brutal wake-up call. Nabi was ranked 666th on the Ladder—nowhere near the Top 100—and yet she was already leagues ahead of him in raw power, control, and confidence. If Gray wanted any chance of surviving this competition, he needed to step up his game.