What's this Weird Sensation?

"It looks like some children have been running around, messing with my experiments," the strange creature mused to itself while twirling around the boy's weapon in the air.

"Run!" the fast kid yells, speeding past us and into the hallway. The shockwave produced from his sudden movement knocked down the monsters and the villain mid-monologue.

The rest of us took advantage of the ensuing chaos to run past the downed enemies and followed the trail of destruction. Rounding a corner, we hit a dead end with the fast kid slumped against the wall, panting hard. The tanned boy ran over and propped him up against his shoulder.

"We need to leave. Now," he told us.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," the villain spoke up from behind us.

"It seems to me like you've got nowhere to run now," he continued with a hair-raising chuckle, advancing on us with his small army of abominations frothing at the mouth to attack us.

My anxiety started to spike again as I realized that my new shot at life could be cut short this fast. I only just got here, I hadn't even figured out where I was yet and this chuckle-fuck thought he was going to kill me? C'mon, that Lovecraftian nightmare must've given me some sort of power.

As if sensing my thoughts, a translucent blue screen appeared before my eyes.

[Void-Walker System]

Name: Damien Cross

Race: Human?

.....

Stats:

Physique: 10

Mind: 10

Energy: 10

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Skills:

[Void Control: Lv. 1]

[The power to manipulate energies originating from the void, a space outside of the known universe. The energy is highly volatile and dangerous, known to eat any practitioners who attempt to harness it from the inside out.]

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Perks:

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Powers:

[Devour: Lv. 1]]

[A passive ability which activates upon killing an enemy with void energy. Devour will steal a portion of the enemy's soul and turn it into stat points for the user. Stat points will reduce as the user absorbs the souls of the same enemy type or the user devours the souls of weaker beings. On devouring an elite enemy, the user is given a choice of assimilating one of their skills.]

.....

"Well," I thought, "things just took a sudden turn for the awesome."

I quickly scanned through the info before the villain finished his monologuing. Why do villains always do this? Focusing on [Void Control], I felt a small burst of information enter my mind on how to use the power. The ability basically lets me draw void energy from the surrounding area and manipulate it to a small extent. For now, all I'm able to do is use it to reinforce parts of my body and emit small energy attacks that don't go very far.

Returning my attention back to the villain, I managed to catch the last of his monologue: "Well, I've talked long enough, now die for me."

The blue creature laughed and barked a command to the surrounding monsters in an unknown language. Hearing its command, the monsters growled and began to corner us. Suddenly, it was on me. One of the monsters had jumped me while I wasn't looking, its sharp claws cutting gashes into my midriff.

Feeling my hot blood, pouring out of my wounds, I instinctively grabbed the creature's head with both hands and channeled my meagre amount of void energy. It coalesced around my hands, giving them a dark-purple sheen that rippled and thrummed with energy. As the energy came into contact with the creature's head, it screamed in pain and leapt back, thrashing wildly. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch us, including the other monsters.

Eventually, the creature stopped flailing and grew still, showing us its now melted head and seared flesh.

[Devour Activated]

Another mass of void energy floated off of the monster's corpse and merged with my body.

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+2 Physique

Stat gain minimized to heal the user's body.

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A sigh of satisfaction left my body as I felt my open wounds begin to close, my muscles knitting themselves back together and my skin closing up, not leaving a single scar in its place. Strange, it said that my body was stronger, but feeling your muscles grow and compact upon themselves all on their own was a strange experience.

I looked at the remaining monsters with a sudden burst of greed. If just this one creature was able to make me stronger, what would happen if I devoured all of them?

The blue leader had his gaze rooted on me with hint of fear in his eyes, "W-what are you fuckers waiting for! Get them!"

Hearing their leader's command, the monsters stopped hesitating and lunged at us. Not letting myself get tackled again, I lunged forward as well, coating my arms with void energy.

My fist collided with the chest of one of the monsters as I ducked below the sharp claws of another. The impacted monster was sent flying with a crackle of purple energy. After dispatching the first monster, I spun on my heels and delivered a blow to the creature that missed me, sending it into a nearby wall.

[Devour Activated]

+4 physique

.....

Reorienting myself, I saw the other boys taking down the remaining monsters as I felt Devour strengthen my body even further. Seeing them easily handling the mostly mindless monsters, I looked at the leader who seemed confused as to how we were winning.

He locked eyes with me and flinched as my gaze bore into his own. Without saying a word, he turned around and made a break for it, running as fast as his gangly blue legs could carry him. Thinking this could be a good opportunity to test out my new abilities, I began charging up void energy in my hand and took aim at the fleeing enemy. Once I lined up the shot, I released it, sending a baseball-sized orb of dark energy hurtling towards the villain.

It didn't even collide with him, instead passing right through his chest without losing any momentum and crashing into one of the walls. The enemy's run slowed to a crawl and clutched at his chest, not expecting his hand to pass through his chest cavity and out his back. With eyes full of horror, he turned back to me and tried to say something, but only coughed up blood before collapsing to the ground for the last time.

Strange, I thought. I expected to feel something from killing sentient creatures, but I guess not. Have I always been like this or is this an effect from my abilities?

[Devour Activated]

+6 mind

New Perk - [Mad Scientist]

[Mad Scientist: Lv.1]

[Your brain has changed on a fundamental level, giving you near superhuman levels of mental efficacy. It has become nearly impossible for you to forget something and understanding concepts requires almost zero effort with the proper resources. As a side effect of absorbing this perk from a deranged individual, a passive effect has been applied. Any device or compound becomes increasingly easy to create depending on how nonsensical or ridiculous the idea is.]

.....

A piercing hot pain coursed through my head and I fell to my knees, my eyes fogging over as my neurons began rewiring themselves. After several minutes had passed, the intense pain had faded into a dull throbbing.

So what are my stats right now then? I thought. That pain better have been worth it.

[Void-Walker System]

Name: Damien Cross

Race: Human?

.....

Stats:

Physique: 16

Mind: 16

Energy: 10

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Skills:

[Void Control: Lv. 1]

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Perks:

[Mad Scientist: Lv. 1]

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Powers:

[Devour: Lv. 1]]

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