4 Encounter

Jordan tried to keep a low profile while he moved through small alleys away from the area with a dense population, he aimed for an abandoned factory in the west part of town.

Just as Jordan was on his way he could suddenly smell blood, but he couldn't hear anything even with his enhanced senses, as he continued the smell of blood only got stronger, it got to the point that he was sure that some dead body must be near.

Jordan noticed bloodstains on the ground and tracks of dragging that ended in a dumpster. Very slowly Jordan opened the dumpster and there was a body of a young girl with a deep cut on the throat. It was the first dead human body Jordan ever saw but even after seeing the tattered cloth Jordan didn't felt disgusted or scared, instead, he closed the dumpster and resumed his walk to the abandoned factory.

Jordan knew that he should feel something, but nothing came, he was cold even before but not to this level, he was certain now that not only his body changed, his mind was affected as well. As things were now it wasn't safe for pretty girls to go out after sundown, with the chaos lot of people were thinking that the end was coming, people tended to let their desires leak, and the dead body in the dumpster only confirmed it.

Anyway, Jordan needed to find some safe place where no one will bother him before pondering over such matters, but after only a few meters he stopped once again, it looked like he wasn´t the only one who could smell the blood from the dumpster.

Big ugly and ugly as hell dog slowly came and started growling, it looked like a bulldog but Jordan wasn't sure, it´s face was flat to the point that where its nostrils should be were eyes, and its nose completely disappeared, from his mouth small red stripes of fire came out and his fur had red color with brown and black spots.

Just as Jordan pulled out a knife from his belt the dog began to back off. "wow, what a smart pup" But too bad for the dog, he came at a bad time, Jordan needed someone to help him grasp his new strength.

With a quick dash and sidestep, Jordan got next to the dog´s side and with all his strength he kicked the dog´s ribs. After a short flight, the dog hit the wall and helplessly fell to the ground.

The dog was still alive, but his ribs cracked, and it looked like the cracked ribs even pierced his lungs as the dog started to vomit blood. Just as Jordan was about to celebrate his victory instincts started to guide him in some way.

Jordan stopped and let his instincts take over, deep growl came out of his throat and Jordan could feel that some of the mysterious energy from his second heart came to his horn and began to intimidate the dog who was laying on the ground.

The dog began to crawl and tried to bow before Jordan. "amazing! What a successful experiment!" said Jordan with a chuckle, as he was thinking about what he can do with his newfound power.

It took a while before Jordan noticed how badly was the dog injured, the dog started to close his eyes and his breath was also very faint, even with his enhanced senses Jordan could hardly hear it.

With a quick flick of his wrist, Jordan cut the throat of the dog let the blood bleed out, the blood had a strong metallic scent, and Jordan even thought that if he had some working matches the blood could lit up, instead of guessing Jordan quickly take out a bottle with water from his backpack poured the water on the ground and filled the empty bottle with blood.

Jordan put the collected blood back into his backpack and then threw over a shoulder the dead dog, ´I should check out its insides, if the blood changed that much maybe there is another surprise inside´ in novels there are always crystals inside of magical beast and so on, even if it was embarrassing Jordan decided to check, better safe than sorry, with this done Jordan continued on his way.

The rest of the way to the old industrial zone went fine and Jordan quickly approached an old and rusty fence that went all around the old abandoned factory. After finding a hole big enough to fit through Jordan got in, as for why Jordan chose this place, Jordan got a job there after he turned 18 when the factory was still running, at that time the factory was making wooden sunbeds and hockey stick.

Jordan was working part-time here and was working as a maintenance worker, he moved down the grass, cleaned machines, fill up road holes with concrete, and so on, also one of the reasons for choosing this place was that he knew where they kept their tools layout of the factory and so on.

One quick looting later Jordan got 2 hand axes, one big two-handed hammer, two 1,20 meters (4 feet) long steel pipes, some razor knives and rest like spanners, one-hand hammers or screwdrivers and so on won´t help him so he left them there.

But there was also a small problem, while looking around Jordan found some scratches from claws and few traces that suggest that a small pack of beasts is nearby.

Jordan collected everything that could be of some help and when was everything in his backpack Jordan took out a paper notebook together with a pen and started to write a list of stuff that he should do. "1) butcher the dog 2) test out limits of his body 3) figure out mana", that was all for now, as for shelter he was fine, he could just sleep in one of the empty offices, when it came down to it Jordan had the whole factory for himself so he can sleep anywhere he wants, well almost, he could hear some barking that came from the storage.

Jordan was quite confident in dealing with the beasts that were there or even controlling them but he couldn´t see anything he would gain from it for now so it was best to ignore them, the beasts could prove to be valuable fight experience but otherwise, they didn't offer anything for Jordan and if he wants to control them he can do so whenever he wants, doing so now will only give him several hungry throats.

Jordan undressed and kept only his pants and then went to the dog and began to open the dog's belly with a kitchen knife, even though Jordan felt that it went rather easily he could see how the knife bend and had problems with even with piercing skin. Jordan could use his claws to butcher the beast, but he wasn't all that confident in using them, so he settled for the knife.

When Jordan opened the belly of the dog, vapor started to appear, and even on touch, all internal organs felt almost like they were burning. Jordan made a quick search through the body but couldn´t find any magic crystal or anything like that, but one thing he did found out and that was the dog´s heart, when he looked at it he could almost taste it on his tongue, the heart was calling him to eat it and Jordan complied, he didn't even bother to cook it and ate the heart raw, after eating it he felt like drank half a bottle of vodka, the texture was ok and it even tastes quite good. ´do the tastes of alcohol comes because the dog had an element of fire and his blood was his fuel for it?´