Oath

Black appeared inside a cave full of rabbits. The familiar feeling of water pressure and despair bearing down on him. 

The rabbits that sat within the cave turned to him with clear bloodlust in their eyes, but sensing the aura of their king they all bowed their heads.  

With a small smile, Black picked up one of the white rabbits and patted its head, causing it to release a purring sound. "I'm home."

During the time he couldn't level up, he discovered the difference between the gray rabbits and the white ones. 

The gray rabbits were male, having a great compatibility with something known as ash magic. The white rabbits were female and unlike the gray rabbits they had a great compatibility with ice.

The rabbits made sounds of satisfaction watching their king's affection, wishing to be in the white rabbit's place.

Putting the rabbit down, Black opened his inventory allowing the megalodon corpses he obtained to fall onto the cave's floor, instantly catching the rabbit's attention.

"Eat, I didn't bring them back for nothing." Said Black.

Hearing their king's command, they all ran over to the corpses then tore into them not caring about the mess they made, creating the sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking that resounded through the cave as they ate.

'Cute.'

Shifting his attention from the rabbits, Black brought out the blue smartphone Bell had given him.

The moment he turned it on he was greeted by a picture of Bell posing as the background. 'Did she forget to delete some things?' 

Black searched throughout the phone until he found the gallery, inside was an endless amount of pictures of Bell lying in bed, eating, or next to some treasure doing a victory sign. 

Without any shame Black looked through them all one by one until he reached the end. From what he saw he could tell Bell enjoyed her hobby of treasure hunting, the number of pictures of treasure proved it.

Closing the gallery, he went back to scouring through the phone until he found an app named Demoncord, by just the name Black knew it was for messaging.

When he opened it he saw an image of Bell located in a category called direct messages with a dot next to her profile picture, the dot had a pair short devil horns atop its head and was colored green as if signalling she was active.

Deciding to start the conversation, Black sent the first message hoping it would actually go through due to their circumstance.

The fact alone the phone hadn't been flooded with water was enough to surprise him, he was in the depths of the sea after all.

{New User: Yo, Bell.}

'I didn't think that would go through..' 

[Answer:

The smartphone previously owned by Hydra Bell was already affected by her spatial magic.

When it came into contact with an even greater spatial aptitude such as one belonging to the host and entered the interdimensional void, the spatial remnants were strengthened allowing the smartphone to receive and send messages no matter the world or distance along with multiple resistances.]

'That explains it.' Black thought.

{Golden Bell: Who's this?}

{New User: Black..}

{Golden Bell: Oh, hey. If you were some random creep I would've teleported over and put you 6 feet under.}

{Golden Bell: You didn't find anything left on that phone by any chance right?}

{New User: I may have.}

A minute passed with no reply.

{New User: Bell?} 

Unknown to Black Bell was blushing heavily, cursing out loudly to herself while punching a pillow. 

But even with the inconvenience she didn't regret giving him the phone, mostly due to her not being able to find him anywhere in the demon or human realm.

{Golden Bell: Ah sorry, don't worry about me. Let me introduce you to the app.}

{New User: Thank you, sorry if I respond late, going out for a bit.}

{Golden Bell: Don't worry.}

Black put the phone away and remembered the city he had seen across from the megalodon infested lake, simply put, he was interested.

However, he wanted to try something first. Now that he had obtained the ability to travel worlds he gained a bit of hope on letting his sister know he was alright. 

Thinking of his room back in his previous life, Black attempted to open a portal only for nothing to happen. The portal refused to open.

Black let out a sigh then looked at the rabbits eating. "I'm going out, watch the cave for me." Said Black, opening another portal.

The rabbits made a small noise and continued to eat. Though they were a bit distracted, Black understood they heard him from the way their ears were standing up.

Black stepped through the portal and appeared in front of the lake he evolved next to, the stones up above twinkling just as brightly as before.

Black closed the portal behind him then took a look around. The area was silent as ever, almost peaceful if it weren't for the shark infested water.

Now that Black had a phone he decided to take a picture of himself next to the lake doing a peace sign, the city's walls behind him. Somehow, he managed to catch a megalodon peeking its head out of the water looking up at the camera.

Saving the picture, Black dealt with the megalodon and put his phone away before walking off in search of a way to cross the lake.

He followed the lake for what felt like hours. 

After a couple more steps, Black released a sigh and prepared to open a portal back to the rabbits. Just when the portal was about to take form he saw a man watching him from a distance with a bag over his shoulder.

Without any warning, the man flashed in front of Black in an instant. He had a wide smile on his face and looked to be in his late 30s.

He wore a blue suit with a pair of thick eyeglasses, magenta colored eyes behind them. What was truly unique about the man was his lavender colored skin and gray hair.

"Hey, you're a mutated horror rabbit aren't you?" The man asked.

Black looked at him with an expression that said 'What are you getting at?'.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm curious. I'm a researcher who enjoys going out into the world and discovering new things. You see, a normal horror rabbit only has the aura of ash or ice, no in-betweens." 

"We call these variants, some races have them while most don't. Though they're different they're all under the same race and ruler." The man explained.

"But you, you're clearly not either of them, you look nothing like a horror rabbit. Even if you're mutated, a mutated horror rabbit only grows a third eye on their forehead."

"So please do tell, what are you?"

Black stared at the strange man in front of him speechless.

When he thought back to when he first reincarnated he realized his race had never said despair rabbit like the others, only shadow rabbit.

 'What am I?'

Black began to question himself, the more he thought about it the more confused he became. But remembering his title, Child of Voice of The Abyss, he found his answer.

It was possible that his so-called mother created an unknown variant for him that would make them feel closer, hints to his race, skills and certain titles.

Black shifted his gaze back towards the man who was looking at him with expectation. 

"I'm a mutated Horror Rabbit." Answered Black.

The man stared at Black for a moment longer before going into thought, unknowingly muttering what was on his mind out to himself. 

"This could only mean he's a new variant, if I can get his blood I can do a bit more research.."

Catching the man's words, Black's ears twitched causing him to cautiously take a step back while preparing to open a portal.

The man turned to Black, seeing how the rabbit was on guard he released a laugh. "Don't worry, I'm not really the combatant type. I'm just a normal everyday researcher." 

Black looked at him with doubt, causing the smile on the man's face to twitch. 

"Fine, how about we make a deal?" The man asked.

"A deal?" 

The man nodded. "Indeed, you will give me a single drop of your blood and I will teach you the oath I've developed."

Hearing the term oath confused Black who had never heard of such a thing. "Oath?"

The man seemed to notice Black's confusion. "You must have recently gained your human form."

"Just today." Answered Black.

The man's smile faded, a serious expression taking its place. "Listen carefully, an oath is a vow in a sense. If your vow is strong enough you can turn it into strength."

"This is how one usually creates an oath, however they need to go through something traumatic, or to at least have complete resolution" 

"Thankfully, to take an oath you do not need to go through this process, only to take a vow." Explained the man, his smile returning.

"If you choose to accept my oath I promise you will not regret it. I spent most of my life pouring everything I had into it, I feel it would be perfectly suited for a horror rabbit." The man said.

Black slowly became interested the more he heard about oaths, even more so when he heard the man say his oath perfectly suited horror rabbits.

"Mind explaining?" Asked Black.

The man's smile widened. "A horror rabbit's strength is their great speed, willpower, and ability to drive others insane." The man explained.

"Now what would happen if you gave them illusion magic? The name horror isn't just for dramatic effect, they feast on the insanity of others for more strength."

Black quickly understood the man's train of thought, if a horror rabbit gained the ability to create illusions it'll only lead to undesirable outcomes for other monsters.

Suddenly, a black and lavender aura resembling flames were released from the man's left eye surprising Black.

"I, Kari, the creator of the Shakti oath, an oath full of illusion and trickery. Formally request of you to take my vow in return for a single drop of your blood." The man, or now Kari said, his smile not wavering.

Instead of answering right away, Black looked Kari straight in the eyes and spoke with a solemn tone. "First answer me, what do you plan to do with my blood?"

Kari kept his smile even after hearing Black's tone. "Research, my goal is to discover every new species. If you're worried then I promise to wipe all traces of your blood when the analysis is completed, I'll even make it part of the deal."

"Now, do you accept?" Kari asked, holding out his hand to Black.

Black released a sigh and took Kari's hand. The moment their hands came in contact a black and purple aura resembling flames rushed out of Black's left eye that was far larger than Kari's.

A minute after the aura's appearance, it was pulled back inside and a red and golden card appeared in Black's vision.

[Oath: Shakti

"You vow to only see that which you see. Reality itself is malleable, pliable to your deft hands."

Note: The host needs 50 Charisma to begin unlocking Shakti abilities and cards.]

Kari felt accomplished seeing someone take his oath, especially so when they had such great potential.

"Don't worry about the color difference, the color varies from the user." Explained Kari.

"Got it, do you have anything for the blood?" Black asked.

"Give me a moment!" Kari grabbed a small vial out of his bag along with a needle. 

Taking Black's finger, he pricked it and let a drop of blood fall inside the vial, the color of it taking them both by surprise. 

The blood that came from Black was extremely dark like that of ink, a purple aura emanating from it.

Black had never seen himself bleed so far, yes he had got injured many times but they were only bruises. For Kari this was the first time he had seen a Horror rabbit with blood such as this.

"I guess I should get going then." Said Kari, carefully storing the blood in his bag. 

Doing a small bow, Kari vanished out of sight. However before he could vanish Black decided to look at Kari's level.

[Kari - The Diver: Level 30]

"..."