Chương 4: B1 | Chapter 4

Aidan A new System Message appears in my vision. With this one being a lot longer than the previous ones and without those lines on the sides. ◊ Mission Received ◊ Tutorial: Tower – Floor One Objectives: Find the exit to the floor and slay at least one hundred cave dwellers. Reward: 1000 Tutorial Points + 1 Tutorial Point per additional monster slain. My mind kind of freezes up as I read the mission. Specifically the part about slaying a hundred cave dwellers. Whatever those are. Right.

So, while I have also learned martial arts, I don't know how smart it is to use my fists against unknown monsters. Plus, the idea of beating something to death is… I purse my lips for a moment before scouring my pockets and bag for anything I could possibly use as a weapon. But there isn't anything. Except some pens and pencils. Something tells me those won't likely work very well. Not as well as my own claws would. It's too bad I don't carry something like scissors in my laptop bag.

Then again, who would carry scissors to computer science classes? Right. Wandering mind again. My new claws should work perfectly well as a weapon since I don't really have anything else to rely on. I look down with a frown as a dull ache begins to build across my body. Aaand my hunger is starting to come back. Great. The bright side is that my hunger is a great motivator for wanting to kill whatever these cave dwellers are.

Since I can just feed on the source mana contained in the cave dwellers' corpses after I kill them. My thoughts come to a halt at that thought before I pull out one of those stones I've always found to slightly lessen my hunger. And the moment I see it, text floats above the thing in my vision. [Fractured Iron Tier Mana Core – A fragment of the core from a weak Iron Tier creature that may be used as a power source for certain items.] Oh. So that's why these stones have been helping me calm my hunger.

Albeit barely. That's nice. Kind of curious why there were mana cores on Earth before the System though, even if they're just fragments. Anyway, I search around the cavern I'm in for a few seconds before putting the core back into my pocket and entering the only tunnel connected to it. Then I continue making my way through the tunnel until I arrive in another cavern. But I still don't see anything. Not a single creature, monster or otherwise. Where are these deep dwellers?

I feel my hunger growing stronger at a rapid pace for some reason. And that's not all, because for some reason, I can… sense something. Almost like a smell but not at the same time. What is this feeling? I frown and wrinkle my nose as I also begin to smell something on top of that strange sensation that's making me even hungrier. Then a thought crosses my mind. What creatures might live in caves and be difficult to spot from the ground… I slowly lift my gaze towards the ceiling high above where I'm standing.

And there, clinging upside down to the ceiling, are the very creatures I'm looking for. A System message appears in my vision as I stare at the one-and-a-half-foot-tall bats sleeping on the ceiling. Stolen story; please report. ◊ Congratulations! You have met your first monster! Inputting knowledge of the skill known as 'Identify' into your mind! ◊ I feel a headache assaulting me before I just know how to use this thing called a skill. Meanwhile a description of the skill fills my vision.

[Identify – This is a skill used to identify living creatures. It is necessary in order to pierce through the natural defense an Awakened being has to any sort of scrying. Beware, for it may notify the creature being identified of the act should they be perceptive enough.] Right. The Guide did mention skills a couple times. First with the Class and Profession specific skills, and then with the basic skills later on. He never specified what skills were, though. That Guide should be fired.

Or at least not get his bonus. I frown at that thought while slowly stepping back towards the tunnel. Trying as hard as I can to not wake up the swarm of large bats on the ceiling. Right as I'm about to get out of the cavern though, one of the bats suddenly opens its pitch black eyes. And it only takes a moment for it to notice me. The bat lets out a screech before dislodging from the ceiling and flying straight at me.

So I immediately run into the tunnel, hoping to at least not attract any other bats that might have been woken up by this one's screech. And fortunately for me, that plan actually works, as the only bat to follow me into the tunnel is the first one. Okay, I just need to kill this thing, then I'm good. I feel my hunger growing stronger by the second as I run away from the monster in the direction of the cavern. But the thing is faster than me, so it soon catches up to me.

Making me jump into a roll before turning around and reaching for the bat that was just trying to sink its two rather long fangs into my back. And I try that identifying thing while I'm at it. What I find sends a chill down my spine as the bat easily breaks out of my grip and bites down on my wrist, making me cry out in pain. [Level 5 Cave Dweller] I push through the pain as the bat tries to suck my blood before reaching with my other hand's claws and stabbing said claws into the bat's eyes.

Instantly causing the bat to rip its fangs out while screeching. Splashing a lot of my surprisingly black blood all over it before said blood completely stops flowing from my wound. Then I push the smaller creature down beneath me while shoving my claws even deeper into its eyes. Straight into its skull. Killing the thing according to a message the System gives me. [Level 5 Cave Dweller has been slain. Appropriate source mana has been allocated.] I grit my teeth as I feel pain in my left wrist.

With my hand itself having gone limp. But an invigorating feeling floods my body from my right hand that is still inside of the monster's skull. Where I feel something entering my body from the physical contact I'm making with the creature. Source mana. My Bloodline is draining it. I feel my hunger rapidly abating as the bat's source mana is drained. Which, interestingly enough, weakens the monster so much that its face pretty much turns to mush just from me trying to pull my hand out.

Almost like whatever was strengthening the creature was ripped out by my Bloodline. Then again, that's probably exactly what happened, considering that source mana is the EXP that levels things up and makes things stronger. The pain in my wrist surprisingly begins to fade at a rapid pace before blood starts to pour out of my wound. That same black blood as earlier. I can't help but frown. Why is the pain going away when my blood is beginning to leave the wound? Is this some kind of poison?

Or maybe it's something to do with my new species' biology? There are a few possibilities for it that I can think of. Either some sort of venom, the blood of a Void Crowne doesn't coagulate like human blood does, or Void Crowne's bodies generate blood a lot faster than human bodies do. It could even be a mixture of them. Void Crowne blood may not coagulate and it may be generated a lot faster for all I know. In fact, it could even be a case of Void Crowne's not really needing blood as much as humans.

I am a void creature after all. Whatever that is. When I move to stand up, I find something… unusual. My blood isn't soaking into my clothes. Or into the tunnel floor. It isn't soaking into anything, or even drying. Definitely different from human blood. And the fact that it's not drying and is staying as a liquid even after spilling onto the cave floor implies the thing about it not coagulating is probably true.

I'm just guessing my body either generates blood faster or doesn't need blood as much for why I'm not really feeling much pain. Probably the former, considering that the blood only started flowing after the pain started fading. Almost like the pain was from the lack of blood and it faded when my body replaced that blood. Right as I begin making my way over towards the cavern again, I notice something else strange. Specifically about my blood on the ground. It's starting to turn into a black mist before vanishing.

That's… weird. But so is everything else here, I guess. So that's nothing new. I sigh before continuing to make my way towards the cavern with the bats. Because there might be one way to solve any problem with my injury, if there is one. Whether it's venom or whatever. And that's to level up and grow stronger. There's nothing else I can do right now anyway, so I might as well. Plus it felt really nice to drain that thing of source mana. I am a little surprised that I didn't gain any levels from that though.

Considering that it was three levels above me and I drained it of its source mana. Moreso because it makes me wonder how others are planning on reaching level 25 when it's apparently this hard to level up. I grimace a little as worry about my family emerges in the back of my mind again, but I shove it away when I arrive at the cavern with the bats again. At which point I find said bats all flying around the cavern instead of sleeping. Looks like the first one really did wake them up.