Blessings, Download, and Kai's offer

If you want to read ahead, then upto 15 more chapters are available on Patre0n.

Link is available in the Synopsis. Thank you!!!

************

10:45 am,

T009

Kai eyed the ruins of tall buildings and domed halls from afar, hidden within the black and green shadows of the jungle as if he was a part of it.

He had arrived here an hour ago. Since then, he had seen one or two Candidates darting out of the wilderness and heading to the ruins, thinking no one could see them. Kai wasn't just any no one.

'11,' Kai recalled the count. '3 are still spying on the ruins like me from the outskirts, waiting to see a hint of a trap.'

He leaned back and slumped down on the branch with his backpack on his lap and swords on his side, standing like three sentinels with the brown, flaky wall of the trunk behind them. Even then there was enough space left for many to sit leisurely on either side, such was the thickness of the branches of this humongous tree.

Kai took out his Tablet and tapped on the Points Tally.

-[

1. Tablet-89: 67 points

2. Tablet-55: 33 points

3. Tablet-47: 31 points

…

…

77. Tablet-3: 1 point

]-

'33 Candidates are already dead or gone,' Kai analyzed. 'Haha! Not everyone can handle bad Luck like mine. And those who have yet to get 10 points would soon leave the Tournament as well.'

Kai liked the idea of using their Tablets' numbers for ranking, but not so much as his top ranking itself.

After killing the Yautja, he recalled, he had used Pokedex to store their data. The only thing was that, unlike Pokemon, he couldn't see their Stats other than their name. One such name had surprised him then.

'Facehugger,' Kai remembered. 'The Systems didn't mentioned it. Nor is it present in the list of species.'

But it didn't take a scientist's brain to conclude what this thing was.

A hidden threat.

'It has come from the egg, Ovomorph,' Kai had reflected. 'So it must be some in-between stage of evolution from the egg to the Warrior Xenomorph.'

The only question that had troubled him was how many such stages there were that gave no points on killing them. Not to mention, he couldn't even get to operate on it, as it had exploded, splattering acidic blood everywhere.

Kai had also noticed how the Pokemon had been forced to remain in the outside world, despite the obvious death of its trainer. Then, after careful deliberation, Kai had tested the potency of this acidic blood using the metal shuriken, which the Yautja had thrown at him and he had fended it off with Murasame.

He hadn't liked the results then, he didn't like them now.

'If the swords were to remain in that blood's contact,' Kai reasoned, 'then they wouldn't remain swords for long.' But Kai needed blood. Not for him, but for his sword, Afro's Tachi. He needed to bathe the sword in his enemies' blood after killing them using the sword to enhance its Base Damage. These were the conditions of Sword's Skill, Ruthless Ritual, and for the same reason, he couldn't have used the blood of the Young-Blood Yautja, as it was Murasame that had planted the last kiss on that creature, not Afro's Tachi.

After noting his findings on the Tablet as drafts and taking pictures, a thing he had decided to make a habit of from now on, he had continued with his journey with the grotesque corpse on his shoulders, trying to distance himself from the battle site as far as he could.

'Grotesque it was,' Kai thought, smiling, 'but it wasn't unappetizing at all. If only I had taken out my box of spices from the MRB before coming out of the Pod, then I could've truly enjoyed that fucking lizard's roasted arm.'

The single arm had invigorated him profusely, but other than that, it had brought him nothing. Selene, though, was a different matter altogether. He had chopped up the vast reptilian body of the Yautja and had thrown the pieces in different directions to hide the existence of his Ghost Serpent. If he could afford it, then he would rather not let his audience know about her.

After devouring her food, she had gone into a false hibernation. He could feel her squirming inside him like a lazy child refusing to get off the bed well past the afternoon.

'One strong simulation and it would push her grade up,' Kai reflected. 'Blooded Yautja. Yes, I must have its corpse. Without knowing how hazardous Xenomorphs' acidic blood is for her, I rather not feed her entities of that species.'

In contrast to the existence of his magical creature, Kai hadn't hidden his swords and fighting style to lure bigger fishes from the top floors. He just hoped he would garner some attention from Contestants of the 9th to 12th floor. Loner and demon as he was, even Kai didn't think that he could manipulate empty air for his benefit. For that, he needed men and women; strong Contestants, who were interested in him or his Items. Otherwise, what was the point of the Tournament of Worth?

Unlike his counterparts in this Tournament, he was one of the few who knew that there was no Glitch award waiting for him at the end. The individual stages' rewards were well and good, but on a greater scale, they weren't enough.

Kai sighed. His eyes again fell onto the Tablet and his 67 points.

He had encountered 37 more of those Ovomorphs from his dinner site to here. Every single one of them had been cut in half before the Facehuggers could have come out and lunged at him. Kai had been extremely curious to just sit and experiment on those things, but time and place weren't in his favor. Then there were eyes on him, watching his every move from the Primordial Tower. He'd rather not show every weapon in his arsenal to them other than his raw, ruthless fighting capabilities.

So here he was, and it was now time to make a move.

As he sensed the last three Contestants heading towards the ruins from three different directions, Kai noted the time, climbed down, and leisurely walked on a straight path, just hoping for his bad luck to make him encounter another Yautja.

When Kai entered the boundary of the ruins, his Perception picked up blatant signs of murderous threats from his surroundings. Surely there were Contestants watching all the incomers and were spying on them. None had come like Kai, though. That was plain.

Kai's every step spoke one word. Careless.

Yet, it was this carelessness that baffled the watchers, sweating their backs. These were hard Contestants, and their uncalled misfortune of 3 Luck had made them harder.

To see a fellow unlucky Candidate coming as if he was walking in a park brought out their fury.

Kai chuckled, feeling quite amused.

He didn't need directions to know where he needed to go. The Tablet's map had such precision that it had shown him even the interior of the building from where Tablet-47 had shared his location.

He climbed up the stairs of a multistory building covered in vines and rotten shrubs and entered a hall with broken stone columns. 14 Candidates were already in the chilly hall with its gray and red walls, and as he crossed the threshold of the entrance, 2 more entered through the window, bringing the total count to 17.

"Time's up," a soft voice called, hidden within the crowd. "Thank you for coming here, friends."

Kai saw a tall woman coming forward from a corner. She was hiding it, but Kai could tell even then that she was at least from the 5th floor. Such subtle hints weren't difficult to be noticed by trained eyes and brilliant minds.

"I am 47," she declared and then pointed at the two men behind her. "They are 55 and 39."

A hushed murmur echoed within the hall hearing those numbers. It seemed these three had grouped and had somehow chosen 47 to be their leader, despite the number 55 being higher on the Points Tally.

The owner of Tablet-55 was a masked Shinobi, Kai noticed. 39 was a rough individual with gloved hands and hunched back. Both looked equally powerful to him. But then again, scarcely anyone could match Kai by oneself in this Tournament, especially with their Stats restricted and their rotten Luck.

"Some of us have yet to get our 10 points," one man said. "You better be quick about what you have to say."

Others nodded in silence.

47 giggled, quite unladylike. She looked over her shoulder at 55 and nodded. The ninja made an odd sign with his right hand and a thick stack of documents appeared in 47's hands with a puff of smoke.

"Every single paper in my hands contains detailed info on all the different stages of both species," she declared. "You can tell the value of such a thing in this Stage. I have called you all to sell it to you. The price would be 1 Common Grade Item."

"Impossible…" one cried.

"Liar…" another commented.

"Bitch…" curses flew under breaths.

"How am I to confirm that these details are true?" Kai asked, his voice tearing the buzz. "We all know nothing about them. What proof do you have?"

Kai had a way to tell. He, for a matter of fact, knew that none of these Candidates had encountered a Young-Blood Yautja so far; much less killed one. But it was best to rile up the crowd and see 47's reaction. How people handled themselves in such cases told much about them.

The Candidates, all experienced and veterans of the Primordial Tower, agreed with Kai, forgetting him almost instantly. But 47 eyed Kai like a hawk and then smiled at him.

"I am a Blessed," 47 proclaimed, bringing a choking silence in the hall. "And my Blessing is Download from the Matrix World. If I know the true name of anything, I can download its info. That's the only thing I would say about it. If you know something that only you know, then you can verify the documents using my Blessing."

'What a monstrous Blessing?!' All must have thought, their eyes wide, and their mouths open.

'Which Temple?' Kai's mind had only this question. By now he had got a pretty good idea to differentiate between Temples' Blessed and Deep Ones' Blessed.

Temples used the power of the Old Ones to bless a Contestant with a unique Skill or Ability from Random Worlds, much like Nyra from Kai's Pokemon World in his last mission. It was more precise. That's why Item-M had falsely assumed Kai's use of Emotions Manipulation as a Blessing from another Temple.

Deep Ones' Blessings were more thorough, bringing changes at cellular and gene levels like Item-S' Hellspawn form. It was also the reason for these Blessings to be rarer than Blessings from the Temple. Not to mention, the price one needed to pay was unimaginably higher in the former cases.

So, when Kai heard that 47 had only an Ability as a Blessing, he couldn't help but relate her to a Temple. Contestants might or might not know about Temples' existence, but they did know about Blessed.

Those who had Blessings, their words carried weight.

Yet, even though all desired their hands on these documents, they seemed reluctant to part with a Common-graded Item when every single Item could make a difference.

"I have a name," Kai said, smirking. "Facehugger."

All Candidates, including 47, 55, and 39, showed confusion at the name. "For your sake," 55's heavy voice rumbled, "I hope you aren't making it up."

Kai just looked at 47. "Consider this as me showing my goodwill for you, my lady," he said. "You can decide later what to do with this info. But I would like to have the first claim on every knowledge you have about these species and more."

47 studied him and then nodded. "Guard me," she commanded the two Candidates standing behind her and sat down. In a moment, under the shocked gazes, a thin tube with a metallic protrusion appeared behind her as if space itself had been punctured by it. Then, with a jerk, it lodged itself in the back of 47's head.

Kai's eyes narrowed as he observed all this, tapping his fingers on the hilts of his swords.

And then, with a sudden burst of Mana, 47's eyes snapped open, the tube lodged in her head vanishing like a blur.

Shocked, and now afraid, she gawked at Kai, sweat shimmering on her forehead as tiny pearls.

Kai smiled, confirming her Skill as true, and bowed to her.

With her chest rising and falling, 47 neared him and asked, "Who are you?"

"If we are using our Tablets to address ourselves," Kai said, matching her stare, "then you call me 89."

The shock on 47's face was palpable, and everyone backed away by one step hearing Kai's words.

This was the beginning.

"Your face tells me that these documents are genuine," Kai said. "I will buy this info if you can add all that you know you haven't mentioned in them. Price, yes. Here it is."

Kai's hand reached to his right, pulled out the sheathed one-half of the Power Sword, and handed it over to her.

The moment 47's hand touched the sword absentmindedly, and her eyes landed on the Stats, she almost dropped the sword.

"Now," Kai whispered, as others readied themselves to trade the info, "let's hear what you have for me."