Chapter 39: Who are you?

Shing!

The purple mark started to glow and the blood mist started disappearing like a mirage.

‘The absorption is too fast.’

He noticed that the speed at which the blood-qi was being absorbed was way faster than before. When he looked at his status window, a progress bar was filling up like a loading screen.

His level was still the same, at the edge of baron. The blood-qi was not being absorbed from his level. That made him a little relaxed. He thought he would lose all of the blood-qi he absorbed today. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

‘What the fuck?’

He noticed a dip in his level, a slight drop in the decimals, but it was around ten blood essence. When he looked closer, the level started dropping like a crashing stock market.

“What the actual fuck? STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” Keith roared at the top of his lungs.

The system didn’t respond and started draining his blood-qi as well. He could feel his energy being sapped away by the mark that was in his head.

‘Fuck, what is it trying to do?’

Barely any word came out of his mouth as the blood-qi drained from his body. The eyes went dim and he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

…

‘Ahhh’

Raising his head, Keith saw a bluish-purple screen in front of him. He didn’t know for how long he had passed out, but the last thing he remembered was his level dropping below 1.

“You fucking piece of…”

[Your level has been restored]

[ The warrior frame has been upgraded to Viscount level.]

[ After the system upgrade, you can now absorb blood-qi more efficiently.]

[ The system can analyze skills and break them down, depending on the complexity.]

[ I am now always available for your queries.]

A female voice rang in his head.

“Shut the fuck up.”

[ I will show your current status now]

[ Keith Ennes ]

[ Blood Core: Baron ]

[ Body detected: Vampire ??? Hybrid ]

[ Level : 1.969 ]

[ Blood-qi: 4.4]

[ Blood Warrior Frame: Viscount ]

[ Physical Strength: 3.5 ]

[ Vitality: 4.2 ]

[ Agility : 2.9 ]

[ Path: Blood condense ]

[ Techniques : Blood warrior frame(Viscount), Unnamed Martial arts(Baron), Blood-qi Manipulation(Baron), Qi-Scanning(Viscount)]

“My warrior frame is upgraded!”

[Yes. I’ve absorbed all the blood-qi inside the cave and after upgrading myself, I used the rest to upgrade your warrior frame.]

“That doesn’t explain why you tried to kill me.”

[ I wasn’t killing you, I was merely borrowing the life essence from you. In the end, everything is sorted out.]

‘…’

Keith looked at the status screen with hatred and grunted as he stood up. After examining his body, a soft chuckle escaped his lips.

[ How is it? Do you like the new changes.]

Without answering, he looked around the cave. The red cocoons were gone and so were the runes covering the walls.

“What happened to the runes?” Keith asked.

[ I’ve absorbed all the life energy within the cavern, so there is no power source to activate the runes. ]

‘Yeah, a mosquito you are.’ Keith cursed the system in his head.

“So what now? I haven’t seen any new system skills you told me about.” Keith looked at his status and said angrily.

[ Obviously, that is not available in your status window. The skills are integrated into the system.]

[ System skills: Life essence conversion(Native lv2), Analysis(Native lv2), Precise Application(Native lv2)]

“You are just showing me the old skills. Where are the new skills you promised? As far as I can see, these are just the same skills I used before. I didn’t even know the levels of those skills. What the hell is native?”

[ Listen here sir, Can I call you sir?]

” Why are you asking me that?”

[I…]

“Wait, wait, wait. Call me master.”

Something clicked in Keith’s mind.

[ M… Master]

“So it’s true. You need my approval before doing anything.” Keith scratched his head.

[…]

“I get it now. I gave you approval for using the blood-qi but didn’t specify the limits. You cunning little B…Bampot.”

Cough!

” So you took advantage of my ignorance and almost killed me.”

[That’s not it. I would never kill you. You are my host after all. I was just borrowing the blood-qi.]

“Yeah sure. So I’m supposed to believe that.”

Keith looked at the blue screen in front of him.

” Did you gain your sentience just now or you were there the whole time?” Keith asked with a serious face.

[ I was there. I was there all along. I just couldn’t exercise my power after getting to that damned world. I was turned into a mere butterfly.]

“… So you brought me to this world.” Keith glared at the system with a fiery gaze.

[ I was supposed to kill you. Sacrifice your life essence to get back to this world. But, somehow you survived and came along with me. What’s worse is that I was bound to your soul and as a servant at that. Hateful.]

” Wow! The audacity. Aren’t you a loyal servant of mine? You are seriously saying that in front of my face.”

[ So what. You can’t kill me anyway. The only thing you can do is shut me up. Besides, We are bound to each other for all eternity now. I’m part of your soul. During the transmigration, our souls mixed together and you somehow got the long end of the stick.]

“Geez, can’t I get the silent system back? I am regretting upgrading the system now.”

[ Hey! You wouldn’t be here without me. I helped you absorb all the blood-qi. I helped you evolve faster. You should be grateful that I was with you every step of the way.]

“Oh yeah! If you didn’t kill me in the first place, I wouldn’t be here, sucking blood for power.”

[ You are not a mortal anymore. Thanks to me, you can enter the path of godhood. You are already an immortal, maybe not in the truest sense, but still better than your previously pathetic life.]

“Watch it! I was happy there. I’m not some sad kid who wanted to leave my world like those novels. You forcefully brought me here. I can’t even play my favorite games anymore. I have to always be on my edge here, it’s so uncomfortable.”

[But, you still persevere. Why is that? You didn’t give up.]

A sudden change of tone from the system cut off Keith’s rant.

‘Why?’

“Because I like to win. If you are in a place full of opportunity, wouldn’t you do your best to maximize your odds? Wouldn’t you work hard knowing that, if you slack off, someone stronger will crush you? More importantly, what choice do I have? I can only push forward. Unless you have a way to get me back to my world.”

[ Unfortunately, I don’t. I lost most of my memories about godhood, because of your interference. I don’t even remember who I was, except that I was almost killed by another god. Fortunately, my personality is still the same.]

“Still a rabid dog, I see.”

[ You! ]

” You might have been a god in the past, but you are just a wisp now, and my ser…”

Crack!

Before he could finish his line, cracks started to appear on the walls of the cave, instantly covering the ceiling like a spiderweb.