NOVEL NEXT Hard luck (189)
To be honest, Kai wasn't really understanding what was going on properly, he was in too much pain to do so.
As his mind started fading away, his mind flashed to all the pain that he had experienced from the beginning of the tutorial until now.
And why the hell was there so much of it?
Getting beat up by Noelle, standing under the cursed moon, getting stabbed by Sleepy, nearly drowning, looking in the soul that The Ever-changing had shown him, nearly getting drowned again by that damn Depth Dweller, fighting that wendigo abomination and having to let his body get cut up just to see it, forming his Soul Core, having an abomination with a bomb attached to it land on his face and blow up, crashing into the ground after creating a very nice fireworks show with his body, looking at the Corruption, being subjected to the Aura of the Demon, having his soul literally fall apart while the person who was possessing him was getting mutilated at the same time, having a literal chunk of the moon land on him, getting beat up by Ezekial, getting his eardrums ruined by some unknown blizzard beast, turning half of his body to ice and being unable to move.
And the newest addition, getting the Bloodline of a damn Ghoul injected into him.
It was... a lot.
And sadly, that list wouldn't be slowing down any time soon.
The pain was brutal. Normally, Kai would be able to squirm and thrash around, making it a little more bearable, but he couldn't this time, making it ten times worse.
And yet, he couldn't help but be confused at what was going on.
Awakened Bloodline is attempting to devour injected Bloodline.
User should attempt to resist.
Kai did not resist, in fact, he welcomed it. And it was a good thing that he did.
Kaiser of Souls: 21%
Kaiser of Souls: 22%
The number kept slowly increasing, while the pain Kai was feeling was slowly decreasing. He stopped screaming, and his veins started returning to their normal colour.
The ice cell was silent, that silence only broken by the sound of Kai's laboured breathing.
"So, Pet, are you ready to come back to me?"
A smile slowly started making its way onto Kai's face, making Anastasia smile in return. She was pleased, she would finally have her Pet bac-
"You're still a bitch"
Kai laughed as the lower half of his stomach turned to ice, he started laughing even more when he saw Anastasia's face drop and her eyes widen.
Scowling, Kai saw her fingers tighten their grip on her arm as she turned around.
"Tsk, it seems that one dose won't be enough. Don't worry, I'll be sure to return and give you another, bigger dose. I'll make sure to punish you accordingly."
She didn't even give Kai the chance to respond before she left, making him a little upset, he wanted to get the last say.
Both of the guards then retreated, walking through the bars of unbreakable ice as if they weren't even there. Like seriously, what sort of ability was that? Kai wanted it! If he managed to get out of these chains then he could just walk through the bars and be a free man.
After the three of then had left, Kai let out a sigh of relief. Both of his arms had been frozen solid, the same with both of his legs and the lower half of his stomach, up to about his belly button. It would take a long time for him to return to normal, meaning he probably wouldn't be able to train for the rest of this sleep.
This was the most he had ever gotten frozen, the previous record being up to his shoulders. To be honest, it was really uncomfortable.
Kai couldn't move properly, he couldn't itch anything, and it was even colder than it normally was, and even how cold it was normally was very cold.
Still, Kai didn't regret it, he thought he had been smart in the moment, but in reality there was nothing he could have done.
He just managed to get incredibly lucky.
If his Bloodline hadn't managed to nullify the Ghoul Bloodline, Kai didn't really want to imagine what would have happened.
But he was still shocked. You could inject someone with a Bloodline?
It kind of made sense? If someone had an incredibly weak Bloodline then they could just inject themselves with another one, but was it really that simple? Surely there would be some drawbacks.
Still, Kai was happy that he didn't end up becoming part Ghoul. He wasn't sure what sort of power ups he could have gotten, considering that both of his Bloodlines had some sort of bonus, but he was sure that becoming part Ghoul wouldn't be a good thing from what Anastasia had said.
Dumb, loyal beasts with insatiable hunger and the innate desire to please their master. Kai didn't want to live like that, not now, not ever.
But that still left him with the question, what the hell had happened with his Bloodline?
Hard luck, your injected Bloodline has been devoured.
Kai scoffed. What was wrong with the system, this was a good thing, not something to be saying hard luck about. He would definitely have to take it up with the manager of the system once he got out of here.
However, Kai decided that he might be willing to let that little transgression slide for now in favour of trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
Bloodline: Human 80%. Kaiser of Souls 25%
Kai stared at his status blankly. Those numbers... did not add up.
Before, it had been 80 and 20 percent respectively, both of those adding together to make 100. But now, now they added together to make 105.
Even before, when his Bloodlines were 97 and 3 percent they added up to 100, so how the hell could he have more than 100?
Kai sighed. Why did everything have to be so confusing? Why couldn't his Bloodline have been something simple, like increased stats or something?
Ah who am I kidding, this Bloodline is ten times better
And Kai wasn't wrong, especially when he looked at the description of his Bloodline again.
25% Kaiser of Souls: Your soul has been tugged on by the strings of fate, reinforcing it and granting it unknown power. With every increase in rank, you shall obtain new knowledge. You gain an in depth amount of knowledge to the working of souls that can be applied in various different areas of expertise. You gain a 25% boost to all soul related abilities.
An extra 5% boost to all of his soul related abilities, that's what he got out of being injected with a creepy Bloodline. To be honest, it did seem like a worthwhile trade, especially since it was a percentage boost, meaning it would continue to grow with him in the future, unlike a flat boost.
It meant that Soul Flame would give extra bonus stats when used, the limits of Soul Sense would be increased. Soul Link, Soulcery and Ignintion would all see some sort of upgrade, considering they were all to do with his soul.
His Statshifting and Innate Ability would also probably see some sort of upgrade. It was a little bit of a shame to be honest, even though he had technically been out of the tutorial for half a year, it had only been a month for him.
And even though a month had passed, he never actually got to test the limits of his upgraded Innate Ability. The Mana Vein Enhancement that he bought would definitely make it even stronger than it already was.
And all the items he bought, his armour, Esurient's upgrade, and even his new skills, Soul Link and Ignition, all of them were yet to be properly tested.
Kai really wanted to test them all, to go all out, but he was still bound by the collar around his neck.
Still, he knew that as soon as he got this collar off his neck, he would not hold back, not unless the situation called for some careful planning and not the brute strength of a flaming Lycanthrope.
Back onto the topic of Soul Flame though, the new boost in his Bloodline probably means that it would be a bit easier to control, which would then mean that Kai would have more time for practicing his Statshifting because he wouldn't have to spend as much time setting it up and spend as much mental energy to keep it lit.
Kai grinned as he leaned back against the wall of ice he was chained to. Maybe these thirty sleeps would be more productive than he originally thought.
Having that Bloodline injected into him took quite a bit out of Kai, so having nothing better to do he decided to just sleep off the frostbite. He wouldn't be back to normal for another few hours anyway, so there was no harm in doing so.
And that was what he did, he managed to fall asleep. He even stayed asleep when someone delivered his daily stir-fry a couple hours later.
Waking up to the familiar scent, Kai opened his eyes and saw that his arms had returned to normal. He then noticed that the lower half of his calves down to his toes were still ice, but that was fine, he only needed his arms to Statshift.
Reaching out to grab the tray, Kai frowned when he saw something sticking out from under the bowl the stir-fry was in. Pushing the bowl to the side, he was confused when he saw a peice of paper.
He was even more confused when he saw what it said.
'Do not sleep tonight.'