Weeks pa.s.sed in a blink of an eye, Rei had long lost count of how long he sat refining his body. Not that he wanted to keep track as cultivation takes time depending on how talented you are.The blood tendrils on Rei"s body had started to form runes as it covered his body, each rune seemed to help absorb the blood mist in the air much faster.
With the amount of blood mist that he had absorbed, Rei"s initial silver white hair had tinges of red on the tips.
*BOOOOMMMMM!!!!!
Rei"s eyes snapped open as he started his breakthrough.
Tribulation lightning gathered above him as he only smirked.
Reaching out his hand, Rei clenched his fist as his own tribulation lighting gathered.
"HAAA!!!!" With a thundering shout, Rei shot his lightning as they collided.
*BOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!
A shattering quake shook the Blood Craze Realm.
"Divine Rank 3..." Rei muttered with a smile. Standing up, sounds of cracking can be heard as Rei sat still the entire time.
"Status simplified."
[Name: Rei
Age: N/A
Combat Rank: Divine Rank 3 (0%) New!
Body rank: Divine Rank 4 (32%) New!
Soul Rank: Divine Rank 3 (82%)
Will Rank: Divine Rank (48%)]
"Hou~ Blood Refining is pretty good for increasing my body rank." Rei muttered with a smile.
Looking at his own body, Rei could still see some faint hints of blood runes.
"Hmm...." Rei frowned slightly.
He gathered energy in his left palm as the blood runes started to glow. As if alive, the blood runes crawled across his body and gathered at the back of his left palm forming a seal. The seal was blood red in colour and if one were to look carefully, they would see that it was made up of densely packed runes.
Waving his hand, Rei disabled the concealing array he laid out as he decided to go hunt some beasts.
Sending out his senses, Rei picked up on some life forces not too far from him.
"Rank 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2....Hmm...." Rei muttered his findings.
"I"ll work my way up." Rei thought as he decided to hunt Divine Rank 1"s to test his strength and slowly increase in level.
Das.h.i.+ng through the trees, Rei thought on how he should hunt.
"Weapon? Nah I know how powerful Kyoki and Tengoku are. As for Enkidu, that Orion guy showed me how they"re able to dodge as long as they"re fast enough. Gae Bolg maybe... Magic? Hmm... f.u.c.k it bare hand for now." Rei thought as his would only use weapons or magic when bare fists won"t work.
Nearing his target, Rei reduced his presence as he observed his prey.
[Blood Crazed Night Wolf - Divine Rank 1]
It was a black wolf the size of a large house, black fur with streaks of red. It has pieces of metal like plating over his body as steel like fangs protruded from his maw. On its face, it had a distinctive scar that ran from its left eye to his snout.
"Seems like his left eye is blind." Rei thought as his muscles tensed ready to explode with power.
The wolf"s ears twitched as it looked towards where Rei was hiding.
Feeling danger, Rei bent back at an abnormal angle which was only supported by his toes.
Looking at the black shadow above him, Rei knew that should he be a step late, the wolf would have sunk its fangs in his upper torso.
"That is if it can pierce my rank 4 body." He thought before forming a spear with his right hand and stabbed it towards the neck of the beast.
The sound of flesh being ripped apart could be heard as Rei"s hand easily pierced the neck of the wolf.
The wolf struggled as Rei grabbed hold of his spine through the neck.
Rei"s eyes narrowed as he spare hand grabbed hold of the wolf"s collar bone.
"HAAA!!!!!!"
Rei exerted strength as he separated the head of the wolf from its body with the spin attached.
"Hmm fights at higher levels of strength can be ended quickly should one grasp the opportunity. Depending on the situation, even if the two combatants are close in strength it can be ended in one move." Rei thought as the power that comes with higher divine ranks are deadly. If a divine rank 8 let his guard down, Rei estimated that he would be able to have enough opportunities to restrain, disable or down right kill him. But that"s if they let their guard down.
Looking at the wolf corpse in his hands, Rei extracted all of the blood into a small pill before eating it.
Energy flowed through his veins as Rei closed his eyes to savour the sensation.
A smile appeared on his face as it had been a while since he absorbed blood. Although he was a vampire, he didn"t have the negative traits of the race as he was fine even without blood. But it was like telling an addict to give up what he is addicted too. Naturally with Rei"s will power holding off the desire was easy.
Opening his eyes once more, Rei felt that he had been rejuvenated as his senses were increased.
Letting go of the dried-up husk of a body that was the divine ranked wolf, Rei dashed towards his next prey.
[Blood Crazed Demonic Raven - Divine Rank 2]
Looking above him, Rei could see the Raven staring him down. The raven had glowing red eyes that shone with cruelty, black feathers with veins red in colour.
It became a blur as it nose-dived towards Rei attempting to kill him. Narrowing his eyes, Rei reached out before grasping his hands and twisting his body sideways. In two simple moves, Rei ripped both wings off the raven and dodged its nose dive.
"Hmm like their name, they"re in a blood craze. Not having high combat standards and acting like normal beasts you find anywhere." Rei thought as he used his foot to kill the struggling raven.
Eating the refined blood essence once more, Rei smiled. However, his smile only grew wider as he saw what the system displayed.
[Blood Law (0.0001%) New!]
"So, eating refined blood essence of a divine rank 2 increases it by 0.0001% huh? That means I have to kill 10,000 of them to get 1% and 1,000,000 to increase the law to divine essence." Rei thought as blood law was pretty useful already. He could keep gaining energy as long as he intakes blood, refine his body, form blood weapons, regenerate body parts and stay alive as long as a single drop of his blood remained.
"Should it become a divine essence I think I might be able to control the blood in a person"s body." Rei thought as it would help in his fights ma.s.sively.
Feeling renewed determination, Rei started to hunt every rank 2 beasts he could find not leaving any out since 0.0001% was still progress no matter how small.
Each fight was short as Rei used his bare hands to crush everything in his way. His body was tainted with blood as with his hair. On the back of his left palm, his blood seal grew more apparent with each kill.
....
Crus.h.i.+ng the skull of his most recent kill, Rei eat the blood pill once more as he looked at the progress so far.
[Blood Law (1%)]
"I think that"s every rank 2 beast for quite a distance, I can"t feel any more of them." Rei though as the forest was much much larger than he had thought.
"Status."
[Name: Rei
Age: N/A
Combat Rank: Divine Rank 3 (0%->2%)
Body rank: Divine Rank 4 (32%->38%)
Soul Rank: Divine Rank 3 (82%->83%)
Will Rank: Divine Rank (48%->49%)]
"Hmm, rank 3 it is then." Rei thought as he decided to search for any rank 3 beasts around.
Das.h.i.+ng towards the closest one, Rei saw that his opponent was a serpent like beast.
[Blade Serpent: Divine Rank 3]
It has dark crimson scales with natural blade like protrusions, its head also had blade like protrusions especially around the back of the skull which protects it from anyone trying to attack it from behind. It had two pairs of eyes as they glowed with a poisonous purple.
The same time that Rei saw it, it had also seen Rei.
Rei felt his hair stand on end as the pressure was of a creature close to divine rank 4.
His face was serious as he decided to make the first strike.
Gae Bolg appeared in his hands as Rei used it as a medium for his elemental abilities. The blade of the spear lit up with a blue flame as Rei slashed towards the snake.
*PING!!!!
The snake swung its tail as counter, sparks flew as the blue flame barely harmed it.
"Tch, hard armour and slight resistance to elements." Rei muttered. Feeling danger approach his left side, Rei quickly reached out his palm and made Rho Aias.
*BOOMMM!!!!
His body was launched away from the impact as Rei felt his left arm slightly numb.
Looking at what had hit him, Rei was that the snake fired off one of its bladed scales only for it to regrown quickly.
Rei frowned as he used his tribulation lighting together with Gae Bolg. In theory, the lightning should travel through the body of the snake damaging its insides.
"It has a hard sh.e.l.l so damaging its internal systems might be more effective." Rei thought as the tip of the spear started to slowly discharge lightning that would strike the ground at times.
A tense stare off begun as Rei was on edge. His eyes focused as he dashed towards the snake once more.
It lashed its tail at Rei who dodge under it with a slide. Seeing that scales were approaching him once more, Rei stabbed the tip of Gae Bolg on the ground before vaulting up and above the incoming scales.
Rei was above the snake as he narrowed his eyes.
Feeling danger, the snake fired off its blades behind its skull attempting to impale Rei.
"Now!" Seeing the chance, Rei threw the spear. The lightning chained across the different blades shattering them as Rei smiled.
The snake however, also smiled crudely as it bent its body abnormally to try avoid the spear. Whilst doing so, it also spat out a mouthful of venomous fangs towards Rei as he quickly used Rho Aias to block.
The snake felt victory at hand as it saw how the intruder was drowned in its venom while it dodged the spear.
*click
The sound of a finger snap could be heard as Gae Bolg glowed with a golden light.
*KINKINKIN!!!
The sounds of chains colliding with hardened scales rang out as the chains seemed to be alive. It wrapped around the entire body of the snake as it pinned the beast to the ground with it losing its divine strength.
Rei"s body slowly materialised in front of the snake as he had disintegrated himself into mist to avoid the attack while he used Enkidu to restrain the snake.
Forming Gae Bolg once more, Rei stabbed towards the snake"s eye in order to kill it as fast as possible.
The snake"s eye shrank as it saw the spear approach.
*BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!
"PFFFFF!!!!" Rei was suddenly hit by an impact as his body was sent backwards spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you"ve hindered my advancement. Tell me how should I kill you...." A creepy voice rang out as Rei looked up.
"Oh f.u.c.k...." He muttered.
[Heaven Piercing Blade Dragon (Failed Evolution): Divine Rank 6]