A Noise

A hiss followed by the sound of tearing flesh echoed in the air.

A horned rabbit was just decapitated by Cliff's blade, its head fell and rolled to the side.

Cliff didn't care, behind him, two of these creatures were preparing to attack him.

He sprinted to the side, he narrowly dodged claws aimed at his head, Cliff took a defensive position, he was cornered by the repetitive attacks of these adversaries, he wanted to distance himself, but the beasts did not give him that chance.

His hand moved in all directions, he tried to respond to all the attacks, having no other option than to rely on luck.

Or... the weather?

It had been almost a week since Cliff was brought to this world, he had absorbed a lot of mana stones in the cave, his stamina had increased greatly, it was as if he never got tired, he had almost no fatigue. more sleep.

His body was saturated with energy, but having it and knowing how to use it were two different things.

Cliff hunted during the day and in the evening he absorbed mana, he kept the essence stones, his body couldn't support everything, he was still... human.

For the moment, he concentrated, the noises produced by the claws hammering his saber, pissed him off, they were not the sounds he wanted to hear.

Cliff wanted to listen to their flesh being torn apart under his blade, he wanted to hear the cries of agony of his prey, in that sense he would be satisfied, satisfied to take out his anger on someone for being left behind.

Maybe by doing this he could feel good?, maybe he could feel...alive?

-"To hell with it!! " Cliff cursed his bad luck.

A minute passed, the exchanges were still going on, Cliff was putting more and more force into his blows, after all energy was what he didn't lack.

He savagely repelled the attacks of his opponents, Cliff had gained in agility, it was now easy for him to follow the movements of the horned rabbits, his blows became violent, fast and precise.

The claws of the "rabbits" were strong but they were not made of steel either, they would very quickly succumb to Cliff's violent blows.

Cliff moved his hand, his saber changed direction which cleanly severed the head of one of the beasts, without even having time to utter a cry.

Seeing the enemy's numbers diminished, Cliff put all his strength into one attack, he decided that it would be the last.

In a single moment, the creature was unable to follow this blow, its arms which tried to block the blow were severed, its torso had been sliced ​​clean, which separated it from its lower part.

"It's astonishing!! »

Satisfied, he shook his katana, causing the blood that remained on it to fall.

-"Now I better hurry now or this big bear will come and ruin everything."

Cliff muttered.

This "big bear" was a bear that Cliff had attracted without realizing it because of the smell of blood the first time he went hunting, Cliff had remembered the terror that the creature had inflicted on him when their eyes met that day, which forced him to abandon his prey.

He quickly collected the essence stones, today he had a lot of them unlike other days, if they had not surrounded him he would have preferred to face one or only two.

After all he had just killed five of them.

On his back, Cliff put a rabbit and he was about to run when a noise echoed in the forest, which made him shiver, Cliff recognized this noise, this roar was difficult to forget...

It was the "big bear" was there and he was on his way.

-"Damn...the smell of blood!"

Cliff swore.

He ran as fast as he could, without looking behind, he was heading towards his cave, there he would not be able to follow him, Cliff had set up several traps there in preparation.

After what seemed like an eternity, Cliff arrived at his destination, his heartbeat so loud he could hear it, he cautiously entered the cave towards his temporary home.

A minute later Cliff was sitting cross-legged, in front of him were his war spoils, he had fifteen essence stones in his possession, ten from the horned rabbits and five from slimes that he met along the way.

Cliff had already absorbed five of those from the slimes but he had not heard anything telling him his facts, he had concluded that his body simply could not absorb more essences.

So this theory had to be confirmed.

He took one of the stones in his hand, he drained the essence from it, it was a stone of slime essence, against all expectations he heard nothing, he took another and another... still nothing.

"What the hell is going on?"

When he absorbed the fifth and final slime essence, the mysterious voice startled him.

[You have absorbed a large amount of Slime Essences]

[Your mana storage capacity has greatly increased]

[Your sensitivity to mana has increased]

[Your "drainage" skill has evolved]

"Absorbing ten Slimes gave me that?, maybe obtaining abilities isn't as easy as I thought."

But still Cliff was satisfied, always satisfied that his evolution was according to his plans.

He suppressed his smile, it was time for him to get down to business.

The essence stones of the horned rabbits were one after the other absorbed by Cliff, following the same process that had been done for those of the slimes, the absorption was done quickly and with less pain.

[You have absorbed a large amount of horned rabbit essences]

"Ahh I understand, so it took ten!!?"

Cliff had just absorbed the last one, when he heard the voice, honestly it was refreshing to him, he had been alone for about a week, as much an outsider as he could be, he was alone in a world full of dangerous creatures, his spirit had taken a hit.

The voice continued;

[Your hearing has greatly increased. ]

[Your resistance to pain has increased.]

[Your "pseudo transformation" ability has evolved into a "transformation" ability. ]

[your sensitivity to mana has increased.]

There were two things that greatly attracted Cliff's attention: his transformation ability and his sensitivity to mana, he wanted to know how they worked.

"If I could transform into any creature I want, it would be a great strategic advantage."

It was as if his mind was begging him to try, he stood up abruptly, this brilliant idea should come to fruition.

With this specific animal in mind, Cliff tried to remember all its features, he was determined to transform it into the creature that had first terrified him in this world.

He wanted to turn into this big snake, if he succeeded, could he maybe take on the big bear?

"transformation!! " Cliff shouted.

Cliff was focused, he was waiting for some change in his body... unfortunately nothing happened, which left the young man disappointed.

"Did I perhaps misunderstand the concepts?, I know almost nothing about using abilities, maybe I did it wrong? »

He closed his eyes, he thought of a horned rabbit, it was one of the creatures he knew best in this world, after all, he had absorbed its essence.

He concentrated and barked;

" Transformation!!"

A cloud of smoke covered his body, he felt his body change, making his humanoid features disappear and transformed into a rabbit with black fur and a horn on his forehead, honestly it was disconcerting.

"Wow, I should train more often!!!"

Cliff had concluded that he could only transform into the creatures he had absorbed.

"It's pretty good now, everything will depend on me and the creatures I face in the future."

Cliff had returned to his original form, a good part of his mana had been consumed in the use of his ability, but it had been a good experience, he had learned something else besides transforming.

As his sensitivity had increased twice as much as before, Cliff was able to feel the flow of mana in his body during the transformation.

He focused his concentration inward, Cliff was trying to feel the flow of mana stored there, under his sternum he could feel a large concentration of mana, like a heart pumping blood to the veins, this "Heart of Mana" sent to circulate in the appropriate vessels of his body.

Cliff knew right away that if he could purposely direct his mana into specific parts of his body, he could certainly strengthen his body.

And that's what he was going to do.

Minutes passed, quickly turning into hours, Cliff circulated the mana in his body, the operation was a success thanks to his sensitivity which had greatly increased.

He felt light, his strength, flexibility and agility increased considerably, his movements would no longer be limited.

- "With this I may have a chance of surviving in this hell." Cliff muttered under his breath.

His concentration was interrupted by a noise coming from the cave corridor.

What made him shiver was that Cliff immediately knew where the noise was coming from.

This noise came from one of the traps he had set.