A Slave to the System

"I choose [Night Walker Mosquito]," Bell soon commanded the system, prompting the system to respond, "The owner's words have been taken into consideration. The owner has chosen the bloodline [Night Walker Mosquito]."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Not long after the system's voice resounded in his mind, a large amount of dark energy started to manifest in his surroundings, surprising Bell as he wondered how the energy had appeared out of nowhere. Nevertheless, this question soon disappeared in his mind a few seconds after as this dark energy was hastily absorbed by his body and brought…immense pain!

"Agh! Shit!" Bell could not help but curse as he felt the dark energy move around his body like a fish out of water. If Bell had the ability to speak like a normal person like now, then it wouldn't be surprising to hear his curses from even a kilometer away due to the pain he felt.

Then again, this pain did not last for long as the dark energy had eventually found its place, residing in his heart before using the vessels the heart used to transport blood as its own pathways to spread out dark energy. Not long after, a sensation of immense pleasure washed over Bell, prompting him to forget the immense pain he felt earlier. At this moment, he even felt like he could fall asleep from the pleasure he felt.

Unfortunately, every once in a while, the dark energy would radiate a feeling of pain throughout Bell's body for a split second before radiating pleasure once more. At first, he wondered if the dark energy was intentionally doing it because it wanted to torture him. But after noticing the changes occurring all over his body, he then realized that it was because he had to be awake for the changes to actually take effect.

In any case, this was the first time he was going through a bloodline awakening, so his curiosity was at its peak at the moment, wanting to know how his body would change after choosing to become a [Night Walker Mosquito].

Surprisingly, the first change that had occurred to his body was the color of his body. If before, his body was a mix of dark gray and light gray, now, his body from head to limb was jet black. Even his wings were not spared from this change, taking on a jet black color as well.

In fact, if one looked at Bell at the moment, one would think some crazy human had sprayed him with paint that was incredibly black. Though, Bell kind of understood why his body had taken on a darker color, relating it to the name of the mosquito itself.

"[Night Walker Mosquito]…well it wouldn't be surprising for me to be well-suited to traveling at night time since my body would blend well in the dark. This might also be the species' natural camouflage in order for them to not be eaten by predators," Bell muttered as he watched more and more changes happen to his body.

"Then again, when it's day time, I'm more or less a walking target…if one didn't consider my size," he continued as the second change had finally finished taking place in his body.

At first, he did not notice this second change. But after some time, he realized that this second change did not occur on his exterior, but rather in his interior. More specifically, the constant bodily functions a mosquito had.

"Is it me or do my bodily functions feel weaker?" Bell muttered to himself as he tried to examine this change even further. Eventually, he had arrived at a conclusion as he said, "No, wait. It's not that my bodily functions feel weaker. They're still at the same strength, perhaps even slightly weaker. It's just that if one tried to sense it, they would have a harder time doing so."

With that in mind, he then pondered to himself, "Does this have something to do with the species having less of a presence?"

Surprisingly, the third and final change was done after that, sending Bell an influx of information towards his mind as he felt like his body had gained more energy. Nevertheless, the latter was ignored since the former seemed to be more interesting to him. Processing and organizing this information in his mind, he then muttered to himself, "It seems that this information I've obtained details the use of [Stealth]."

Ding!

Unfortunately, before Bell could ponder any further regarding the information he had received, a notification sound resounded throughout his mind as a notification screen appeared in front of his field of vision soon after.

[You have completed your first bloodline awakening!]

[You have evolved from Young Mosquito (Rank 0) to Night Walker Mosquito (Rank 1)]

[You have obtained the innate skill 'Stealth'.]

[Your lifespan has extended by 3 times.]

[Constitution +0.05]

After reading through the various notifications he had obtained, Bell could not help but look at a certain notification with surprise and excitement as he found out that there was another way for him to extend his lifespan.

"So that means I just have to awaken my bloodline again and my lifespan will extend!" Bell said with raucous laughter as he continued, "I knew the heavens wouldn't just give me a system for no reason!"

"System, I would like to undergo my second bloodline awakening!" Bell commanded to the system not long after, eager to undergo another bloodline awakening to extend his lifespan. Though, the system's response to his command had removed all present hopes of extending his life any further.

"The owner does not meet the necessary requirements to undergo a second bloodline awakening," the system said. "The owner must first reach a Constitution stat of 0.5 in order to undergo the second bloodline awakening."

"Did you just say…0.5?" Bell could not help but say as he commanded the system to show his current Constitution stat. After undergoing through his first bloodline awakening, he had obtained a small boost to his Constitution, increasing his Constitution stat to 0.16. Nevertheless, he still had a long way to go before reaching such a high Constitution stat. In fact, even three Bells with his current Constitution stat right now wouldn't even be able to reach that goal.

With that, all hopes he had for extending his lifespan even further had been deflated by a single response from the system. Then again, he now had more reason to work towards the next goal as he could extend his lifespan with each bloodline awakening. Of course, that didn't mean he was enjoying the process.

"I have to siphon blood all over again," Bell muttered to himself, wondering how long it would take him to be numb to the taste of blood. It was then that he realized that it had only been a day since he had arrived in this new world.

"I've only been in this world for only a day or so and I'm already tired of doing this?" Realizing this, Bell decided to become his own wingman, hyping himself up for the multiple siphoning sessions he had to do in the future.

"Believe in yourself, Bell. Even if you get tired of siphoning blood to increase your Constitution, it's still better than being stuck to a hospital bed. Sure, you may be a mosquito right now, but aren't you more free than you could have ever been?"

And with that, his mentality had returned to a level where he wouldn't mind siphoning ten more animals in one go. Just as he was about to start searching through the forest once more to siphon more blood and gain more Constitution skills, another notification came from the system, prompting him to mutter as he read through it.

"What does this mean?"

Ding!

[By undergoing through your first bloodline awakening, you have unlocked the feature 'Constitution Skill Mastery'.]

"Constitution Skill Mastery…System, what's that?" Unsurprisingly, Bell asked the system not long after obtaining the notification. What was also unsurprising was the fact that the system replied to his query not long after, explaining what Constitution Skill Mastery was.

"From the name of the feature itself, the system has now given the owner an option to increase the amount of Constitution one could obtain from the Constitution skills they already own," the system said as it started to explain.

"All Constitution skills, save for a few exceptions, could be upgraded five more times, which are called Mastery Tiers. Each Mastery Tier increases the Constitution given by a Constitution skill by 50 percent, with each upgrade stacking on top of the previous one."

"By the time the owner reaches Mastery Tier 5 on a certain Constitution skill, the amount of Constitution the owner would obtain from it would be around 8 times as much as the original amount," the system ended its explanation with this statement, instantly prompting Bell to check out the various Constitution skills he had in excitement.

After perusing through the Constitution skill list he brought up to the system, he eventually decided to enhance [Pig's Tenacity] first since it gave an amount he could keep up with when he enhanced it through this feature.

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[Pig's Tenacity (MAX)] - 100 Impure Blood Energy to enhance to Mastery Tier 1

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"100 Impure Blood Energy, huh," Bell said to himself as he thought that it was quite a lot for an upgrade. Then again, the upgrades for his storage and siphoning efficiency would also reach such an amount in the future, so he wasn't too surprised by it.

Though, unlike for his storage and siphoning efficiency, which he knew followed a pattern when the cost of Impure Blood Energy increased, he wasn't sure as to what pattern enhancing Constitution Skills followed. With that in mind, he asked the system, "How much Impure Blood Energy do I need to enhance a Constitution skill to Mastery Tier 5?"

Without delay, the system replied, "To answer the owner's question, 100 points for Mastery Tier 1, 150 points for Mastery Tier 2, 225 points for Mastery Tier 3, 338 points for Mastery Tier 4, and 506 points for Mastery Tier 5."

"So over a thousand points per Constitution skill, huh…" Bell calculated, only to feel like there was something wrong. He had a feeling that the system wasn't telling him the entirety of how the cost of each enhancement was calculated. He had a feeling…that there was more to it.

Then again, it might just be him acting pessimistic again. But if there was the chance that his doubts were actually true, then…

"System…does this apply to all Constitution skills…or am I just misunderstanding your words?" Bell slowly questioned, emphasizing each word. Of course, the system did not care about that as it hastily responded, "To answer the owner's question, the amount I've given you is only applicable if one focused their Impure Blood Energy towards one Constitution skill."

"In actuality, each consecutive purchase would increase the cost of the upgrade by 50%, regardless of which Constitution skill might choose. In other words, if the owner chooses to upgrade one Constitution skill to Mastery Tier 1, and then upgrade another Constitution skill to Mastery Tier 1, it would cost the same as upgrading one Constitution skill to Mastery Tier 2."

At that instant, he knew that his doubts had been realized as he soon asked with a hint of fear, "Is there a limit as to how far this increase in cost gets?"

"To answer the owner's question, the maximum cost an increase in Mastery Tier would be at 100,000 points of Impure Blood Energy," the system indifferently replied in its usual tone, though Bell was now left at a loss for words at the sheer number that was given to him.

"100,000…System, how much Impure Blood Energy can I store at the moment?" Bell muttered before asking. Not long after, a screen that showed the current amount of Impure Blood Energy he had appeared in front of his field of vision.

Ding!

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Impure Blood Energy: 25/61

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Looking at the maximum capacity he had at the moment…before recalling the massive number he had received from the system, Bell could not help but let out a chuckle, which soon turned into crazy laughter, then turned into…sobbing?

"I would have to fill up my storage over 2000 times to have more than enough points to afford that? Have the heavens truly abandoned me? Do they really wish to see me siphon blood until I die?"

"I'm definitely a slave to the system at this point…a slave to the system…"