1% Lifesteal

Taking a turn down a path he usually avoided, he started his journey. He was passed by a group of three people wearing the shiniest equipment he had seen in a while. They thoroughly ignored him, and judging by the fact that he couldn't even detect their power, it was likely that they were peak two-stars.

He hadn't seen them around anywhere before, but either way, they were of no interest to him.

It took him quite a while to reach his destination. He kept a brisk, hurried walking pace without breaking into a run, mostly to ensure he stayed as quiet and unnoticeable as possible. He only ran into one guard gorel that he swiftly dispatched with a kick to the head. Just to be polite, he threw the corpse over the wall and into the woods to ensure that a squad of gorels didn't gather there.

It could prove to be a minor inconvenience to the type of people heading where he was going.

After around an hour of travel, he finally reached it—the border of the realm. Tall, jagged cliffs surrounded the outer perimeter, and right at the end of the path, there was a metal door embedded into the wall.

Behind it was another passage, one leading into a far more dangerous area. To both sides of the entrance, two guards stood at ease, eyeing him cautiously. He waved at them and turned left instead.

As was the case with the first passage, the surrounding area of this one was desolate. That was because all of the gorel hives had been manually collapsed, and any attempt to build a new one would be stopped immediately.

There was still the risk of a stray deviant wandering around these parts, but he wasn't particularly afraid of that happening. In the same way most people avoided passages like the plague, monsters, too, instinctively knew that nothing good would come from lurking around the entrance to a dangerous area.

After around five minutes of jogging, he reached where he wanted to go. It was a clearing right beside the cliffside. Nothing interesting or unique about it. But to him, it was invaluable.

Because it was a patch of pure wilderness.

It wasn't a perfect solution to his lack of access to a forest. For starters, plants were few and far between here, and it wasn't like he was the only arch that needed some privacy.

But it would do for the time being.

First things first—he found a nearby stone, sat on it, then pulled out a notebook. He could just barely see the writing in the darkness of the night, courtesy of his two-star eyesight and the perception-boosting pill, so he refrained from attracting attention by using his flashlight.

There, written on the notebook's first page, was his new habit.

He had started more carefully tracking his progress; that way, he could tell how he was growing and where he was lagging behind. It also worked to give him a better idea of what he had access to.

He squinted his eyes as he read his writing.

GATHERING:

Second star—112% essence capacity

TALENT:

1% Lifesteal: Dynamic-quality healing

SOUL CONSTRUCT:

Scythe: Essence Extraction

TEMPERING TECHNIQUES:

Blood affinity:

Pool of Blood: Stage 1—3% Progress

Crimson Mercury: Stage 0—2% Progress

Water affinity:

Adaptive Water Body: Stage 1—Complete

Thousand Wet Hells: Stage 1—1% Progress

Abyssal Depths: Stage 1—9% Progress

ACTIVE ABILITIES:

Blood affinity:

None

Water affinity:

Flowing Strike: Stage 1—15% Progress

Hydraulic Flex: Stage 0—Ready to upgrade

Create Water: Stage 1—20% Progress

Pressure Jet: Unfinished ether shell

Perished water affinity:

Perished Water: Stage ?—? Progress

That Other Ability: No idea

UNIQUE (?) ABILITIES (No clue what these are exactly):

Blood Sacrifice: Stage ?

Leviathan's Fury: Stage ?

UNIQUE CURSED ITEMS:

Blood Ring: -3% essence cost, +2% power for blood-affinity abilities. Can be used to release Bloodshed.

CURSED ITEMS:

Dagger of Bleeding: Melee attacks cause extra bleeding

The first thing that stood out was the lack of active blood abilities. That was the main reason he was there on that day. But it wasn't the only thing of note. He also hadn't upgraded his Hydraulic Flex yet. Although it would take a while to find the exact vestige he needed, he knew exactly what he would do with it.

Other than that, there was also the gap in knowledge regarding his perished water affinity and the tentatively named "Unique Abilities." No matter how hard he looked, he found no mention of anyone ever doing what he had done with Bloodshed and Leviathan.

His ring also hadn't grown in power yet, despite the gorel slaughter he had committed. Thus, he had no idea what to expect. Maybe it would take ages to see a notable increase; maybe he would get a massive power boost from it soon enough. Time would tell.

Returning the notebook to his Storage Ring, he focused. It was time to begin the development of his newest ability. It took him a literal second to notice a major problem: his gloves didn't allow blood to flow freely through them. That… Yeah, that would have to change.

Taking his gloves off made his hands feel vulnerable in a way he couldn't describe. He wore those things everywhere since he didn't want anyone to see his rings. Unfortunately, he needed his hands free if he wanted to use the ability he had decided on.

Weapons weren't his thing. For him, his body was the weapon. And with the ability he was about to create, that wouldn't change much.

Blood pooled around his knuckles, pouring out of the skin around his fingers on his right hand. As he balled his hand into a fist, the surface along his fingers between his knuckles was eventually fully covered in blood, turning into a sort of thick red plating. Focusing on his essence control and taking it slowly, he made the blood slowly form tiny spikes along the surface.

It was quite damn difficult. Making one or two spikes was relatively easy, but the blood was still liquid—he had to manually maintain its shape until it was ready to coagulate. Three small, or, hell, even three large spikes, was easy. But he wasn't going to settle for that.

Gradually, as he got more comfortable with manipulating blood outside his body, the spikes grew in number. They were quite jagged and nasty, but thankfully, that wasn't at all detrimental to the ability he was trying to form.

Eventually, his right fist was covered by around two dozen spikes, thick enough to not break easily and nasty enough to cause severe damage. With that achievement, the ether shell was complete enough to crystallize into his new ability—Gore Knuckles.

As far as Crimson Mercury abilities went, this one was pretty rare. There were many better, less bizarre options to pick from. But this suited him perfectly. He barely had to change his style, and such a brutal appendage was perfect for maximizing the effect of 1% Lifesteal.

He shed the blood he had formed on his right hand and flexed his fingers. Then he used his new ability. Immediately, finger-length spikes of coagulated blood formed on his right-hand knuckles. A massive smile spread on his face. The essence expenditure had been minimal—so small he barely even felt it leave a dent in his reserves. This was another advantage of this ability.

Not only did it use little blood, but it also cost minimal essence due to the low volume.

His predatory gaze sought the nearest tree. He got up and approached, taking a swing at it. Immediately, all the spikes crumbled into bloody slush upon impact. As was to be expected. It was stage zero, an entirely new ability.

It was only natural that it would suck.

And his Crimson Mercury still did close to nothing, meaning that his blood was mostly just ordinary. Still, he was quite satisfied. Speaking of Crimson Mercury, while the night still lasted, he decided to spend some more time working on the tempering technique.

Out of habit, he entered the Netherecho to do some gathering and to replenish his essence—

"Jesus—" he screamed as he dodged the attack of a rocky remnant and rushed back into his body.

"Oh yeah," he spluttered, breathing heavily after that jumpscare. "Kind of forgot that I'm in a passage realm."

Not a major problem, however.

He had access to something of a bodyguard.

"Greetings, Master," Bloodshed said, saluting him as soon as it appeared before him.

"Bloodshed!" he greeted enthusiastically. "So nice to see you outside again!"

It cut to the chase. "Do you need me for anything, Master?"

"Yeah," he said, a massive grin appearing on his face. "Can you clear the surrounding Netherecho for me? Oh, and please gather the wisps around my body so I can collect them more easily."

"As you wish," it said as it vanished from reality.

He soon followed it into the Netherecho, just in time to witness it punch the rocky remnant's head off.

"You go, Bloodshed!" he cheered it on. "Oh, and by the way. Just in case you find a vestige of fluidity, don't kill it and bring it back to me in one piece, okay?"

It nodded and returned to its slaughter.

There were no above-ground sources of water in this realm, but there was a slight possibility that it could encounter a fluidity vestige somewhere on the surface.

With that, for the next few hours, he spent his time merrily growing his new tempering technique and basking in a flood of wisps. Slowly but surely, his Crimson Mercury skyrocketed from a measly 2% to 39% progress. By that point, he felt quite uncomfortable, almost as if his blood was burning the inside of his body. That was because his blood cells were primed to take on more iron, but there just wasn't any iron to take on.

Not a problem, however. He had accounted for this earlier that day. He shuffled around his rucksack and fished out a small bottle of iron supplements. Then he downed the entire bottle. Problem solved! In a way that was considerably easier to consume than a massive pile of beef liver.

Just as he was about to continue working on his tempering technique, the world blinked into white, and the pitch darkness was replaced by warm sunlight.

He got off the ground and suddenly realized that he sensed Bloodshed's presence quite far from where he was. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen the skeleton for a while already. Moving with a hint of panic, he rushed in the spirit's general direction, and a few minutes later, he reached it.

Entering the Netherecho, he found the bloody skeleton pulling a frightened vestige by its leg. The creature it was pulling was a genie-esque floaty mass of transparent, shifting gas.

"Hello, Master," Bloodshed greeted him. "I have caught the vestige of fluidity as you ordered."

"Fluidity?" he asked, turning to face the erratic vestige. "Huh…"

Well… air was a fluid, he supposed. It wasn't what he expected to see, but for all intents and purposes, it would do just fine.

"Excellent job, Bloodshed!" he said. Then he rushed forward and assaulted the poor vestige. "Keep that thing restrained," he commanded.

A few seconds later, the helpless ether construct was on the verge of dissipating. Just as it started unraveling, the ether shell for Hydraulic Flex shot out of his soul and trapped it, pulling it back inside.

Indeed, this was the best choice for his first Hydraulic Flex upgrade. There was the possibility of using hydraulic pressure, but that would have simply repeated the mistake he had made with Flowing Strike and Abyssal Depths.

When one thought of viscosity, one didn't think of water. They thought of honey, syrup, oil, soap, or some other thick liquid. But that didn't change the fact that there were things more fluid than water. Air was one example.

Using the concept of fluidity on Hydraulic Flex lowered backlash, increased speed, and reduced the essence expenditure. There was no increase in power, but that was perfectly fine. Power came at a cost. And for him, he was already paying a bloody price for Flowing Strike.

If he continued down the route of ridiculously expensive Flowing Strikes, other abilities would need to be as cost-efficient as possible.

As he left the Netherecho, he gave his newly upgraded ability a test run. The change was immediately apparent. It used to have an awkward lag to it that made him stiffen up. Now, that was a thing of the past. In fact, he could keep the ability active at all times, and it felt perfectly natural as a passive improvement to muscle performance.

Obviously, that was a no-go if he wanted to keep his essence reserves from evaporating into thin air. Keeping it active while moving consumed around 0.5% essence per second on average. This meant he only had a few minutes total before running out of juice.

Using it felt damn good. It didn't strain his muscles as much, either, leaving him feeling almost like he had a nice stretch after using it.

So this is the power of not being a dumbass? he thought jokingly while staring at his hand in awe.

Still, it really put things into perspective. No wonder this ability had the reputation it did.

He finished his little training session by topping off his essence reserves. Then he headed into another hunt.

***

His third day of hunting went far better than his first two, finishing the count at 14,429 dollars. It was less money than the day before, but it was earned with fewer complications. He had kept his energy drink consumption to a minimum this time and tried a bit harder to maintain his stamina. No longer did he run across the quarries or sprint back to the lobby to sell his goods.

He did climb trees, though, keeping a meticulous track of all that was happening in the nearby area. Rather than sprinting back and forth repeatedly, he took his time to properly bag the corpses and carried up to ten at a time instead.

On that day, he saw two deviants—white and orange, likely light and fire affinity.

He stayed a respectful distance from both. The white one could possibly use Blinding Flash, which was a nasty thing to get hit by, and the fire one could use… fire. And he had no clue what their talents were. Either way, fighting them wasn't a good idea.

His upgraded Hydraulic Flex was a joy to use in combat, and Gore Knuckles, while still pretty useless, were becoming less and less fragile every time he used the ability. And it grew rapidly, making 52% progress in a single day of fighting. Most stage zero abilities grew swiftly when used by a two-star, and given how far he was pushing himself, the progress came as no surprise.

After dragging his final load, he walked over to the nearest bench and sagged. He was damn tired. Mentally more than physically. It had been a hard day of work, and he had no intent to exercise or study.

He reached into his bag and then pulled out his notebook. In reality, he pulled it out of his Storage Ring. He was just trying to make it seem like it had been in his backpack.

Just as he was about to write down his progress for the day, a person approached him. It was an average-height part-Asian man. At first glance, he appeared somewhat nerdy with his neat hair combed to the sides and bulky armor. At second glance, it became evident that this man was powerful.

His equipment was in excellent condition, but it didn't look new. There were many signs of repair, but they were subtle, clearly high-quality work. A lot of work, too. He wore a thick black jacket with a puffy vest over it, dark pants partially covered in scales, and boots that Freddy knew had to have cost at least a hundred thousand dollars. There was also a helmet hanging off his back.

He returned the notebook back into his bag and cautiously greeted the man, "Hello. How can I help you?"

"I apologize if this is a rude question," the man started in a clear, well-spoken voice, "but were you the man found unconscious outside the realm yesterday?"

"Why does that concern you?" he asked with a slight edge to his voice.

"Please, take no offense," the man insisted. "I'm simply here to ask about the woman who brought you inside."

His eyes narrowed. "What woman?"

"Excuse me?" the man asked. "Ah, you don't know?"

"The clerks told me that the person wanted to remain anonymous," he responded.

"That's a bummer," the man said, sighing.

"Can you at least tell me what she looks like?" He still had no clue who the man was talking about.

"Oh, right, sorry. It should be easy to recognize her—her skin is flaking off, and she looks swollen. Other than that, she is blonde and has purple eyes."

His eyes widened beneath the helmet as he nearly choked.

That's who brought me in!? That crazy bitch!?

He immediately feared that she might have done something to him, but… well, all of his limbs were still there. And he hadn't felt anything alarming.

The man talking to him suddenly turned around and shouted, "Hey! Miss!"

Freddy raised his head and spotted the woman they had been talking about. She looked considerably worse than she had when he'd seen her the day before and been in the middle of walking into the passage.

The man rushed after her, and she stopped, turning to face him. They were quite far from where Freddy was, so he had to strain his ears to hear the conversation. Without the perception-boosting pill, he probably wouldn't have understood anything.

The two of them had a quick conversation. The man introduced himself as Phillip Parker and told the woman to stop delving into the passage. She wasn't being banned necessarily—well, not yet. Apparently, she hadn't been bringing the corpses of the monsters she was killing back to the lobby. It wasn't forbidden to leave some bodies behind, per se, but she hadn't brought back a single one.

It wouldn't have been a big deal if she was giving the corpses to other delvers, either, but apparently, whatever she was doing to them made them rapidly rot away and decay in a matter of hours.

This was basically vandalism. Access to this realm was free because the hunting fee covered the price. Her style of hunting wasn't allowed.

She apologized profusely, saying that she would start bringing corpses back. The man gave her a stern but polite warning and walked away, advising her to take care of herself and telling her to treat whatever condition she had before it got worse. What a nice guy.

The woman sagged as she started turning around. Her eyes flickered in his direction for a moment, but she merely sighed and turned around, walking through the passage.

Freddy's fists clenched. What the hell was her deal? Had she not helped him to ask for whatever she needed in return?

A fury bubbled in his chest. This wasn't his problem, he told himself. She was incredibly suspicious, he argued. But his anger only grew. Because despite all the effort he put into stopping himself, his legs stood him up and carried him forward.

Moments later, he grabbed the woman by the arm. She turned around with a start, surprised at his appearance.

"Tell me," he barked. "What the hell do you want?"