8 Vibing in the Forest

Listening to the words of the system, Bell could not help but become ecstatic after hearing the word 'cultivate' come out of it. But after processing the statement of the system in his mind for a while, he realized that the system's words meant something else, deflating all of the hope he had accrued beforehand into nothingness in less than an instant.

"You have got to be kidding me, right?" Bell lamented to the system, wondering if the heavens was just teasing him by giving him information that cultivation existed in this world, only to be barred from cultivating unless he met the necessary requirements. In response, the system nonchalantly replied in its monotonous voice, "Unfortunately, that is truly the case, owner. Only when the owner achieves a Constitution stat of 1 would they be able to start cultivating."

At this point, the eagerness that he had for cultivation was non-existent. Normally, one would be excited to cultivate since they would be able to pull off the things they have read from web novels, but for Bell, he had another reason.

Cultivation would allow him to live longer.

Though it was a normally ignored benefit of cultivation, for Bell, who could only live for 5 weeks more at most, this was definitely the greatest thing to hear. Of course, being intrepidly strong was also something he wanted to experience, though it was not as important as living for eons.

"Is there a reason as to why I can only start cultivating when I achieve that amount?" he inquired not long after, inwardly letting out a sigh as he thought that his current life of monotony would have to last for a while later, though cultivation was also monotonous. Surprisingly, the system did not have an idea either as to why he was barred from cultivating, replying, "To be honest, the system has no idea either as to why that is the case. Well, to be more exact, I have been barred from accessing information related to this question."

Just as Bell felt more depressed from the response, the system noticed this and lifted his spirits up a bit. It then said to him, "Fortunately, I do have access to a certain portion of information which you would definitely be interested in, owner."

"And what would that information be?" Although Bell was still disappointed that he could not cultivate at this instant, he could not mope for long, lest he wanted to die after 5 more weeks. Regaining his composure by taking in a few deep breaths, he then added, "Surely it wouldn't be as good as cultivation, right? Cultivation increases my personal strength and lifespan, so how would this piece of information compare to it?"

"I am glad to tell you, owner, that this piece of information can offer a portion of effects given by cultivation to a certain effect," the monotonous voice of the system resounded in his mind, which sounded like a bomb to Bell after he heard the following statement being said.

"That's because, once the owner achieves a Constitution stat of 0.1, they would be able to access this feature," the system added. Unsurprisingly, Bell's motivation to increase his Constitution had intensified to an unimaginable degree, prompting him to find another unique animal to siphon blood from at this very instant. While being in this somewhat crazed state, he maintained his composure, weighing the pros and cons of certain decisions he could made to achieve the Constitution stat specified by the system.

Thinking about his next move, he could not help but recall the requirements needed by the [Farm Slaughterer] title to be upgraded, inwardly shaking his head at the requirement. He soon muttered to himself as he looked at the remaining number of animals inside the fenced-off area he had stayed in for the night, "Although the title increased the amount of Impure Blood Energy I could siphon from these animals by an additional 50%, I think I wouldn't even be able to achieve the requirement needed for the upgrade even if I suck all of them to death."

"Not only that, but the benefit it would give me in the long run isn't that substantial as well," he added as he continued to ponder over it. "Following the benefit given by the upgrade, the amount of Impure Blood Energy I would obtain from a farm animal would increase while the amount of Constitution I obtain from their skills would increase by a certain degree as well."

"But since I have a feeling that its effects are minuscule, I'll pass on it for now," Bell concluded his internal monologue over the question of whether or not to focus on the title just like that. He then focused his vision on the two humans, that lifted the corpses he left off the fenced-off area, with an aura of contemplation.

"Should I…" he muttered to himself, thinking that the idea was feasible since the act wouldn't be seen by any other person at this time. Though, in the end, his morality got the better of him, thinking that there was no point in siphoning people that haven't done anything to him to death. In fact, he should be grateful to them for allowing him to siphon blood from their animals.

"Then that only leaves me one more option." Saying this, he shifted his vision towards the far horizon, focusing it on what seemed to be a sparse collection of trees from afar. Although he could not see it clearly from his current position, he knew that this place would be the best place to obtain more Constitution thanks to its diverse number of species.

Of course, this place was none other than the forest.

Silently paying his gratitude to the two humans that tended to the animals in the fenced-off area while also making a note to repay them in the future, he then turned his tiny mosquito body to face the direction of the forest. Not long after, he flapped his wings at the fastest speed he could muster, zooming towards the forest with the strength of around 63 times his strength at the start.

Whoosh!

While heading to the forest, he kept his eyes open to the ground below, taking note of places he came across along the way that housed animals he could siphon from in the future. Other than that, the journey to the forest was mostly uneventful, with Bell humming tunes and recalling his past to pass the time as he made his way to the forest.

And so, by the time the sun was close to being at the zenith of the sky, he had finally arrived at the perimeter of the forest.

…

Buzz…

After arriving at the perimeter of the forest, Bell slowed his speed to a level where he could see every detail in the forest somewhat clearly, keeping his eyes peeled for animals he could siphon blood from. Along the way, he could not help but think that forests were such beautiful places to be in.

Of course, this was taking into consideration that Bell in his past life could only peer out of hospital windows in the past due to his condition. At most, he would only be able to view forests through a screen on a phone in his past life. So, for Bell, who could only see trees or forest from afar in this past life, this firsthand experience was kind of breathtaking for him.

Naturally, he never forgot about his purpose for coming into this forest, which was to find more animals to siphon blood from in order to increase his Constitution stat to 0.1 since the system told him that he would obtain something special once he had achieved that requirement.

Surprisingly, after flying through the various trees and shrubs littered all over the forest for quite a while, Bell had not found any sign of animals being in the forest at all. At first, he could not help but ponder as to why this was the case, but soon remembered that forests, especially wild ones, had an incredibly active ecosystem in place. In other words, the predators were currently hunting for prey. Even more so because it was daytime.

With that in mind, he continued to fly through the forest, eventually arriving at a deeper area of the forest around an hour later. At this point, the sun had gone past its peak, though its scorching rays still pierced through the forest canopy, bringing a decent amount of light to the normally dark ground of the forest.

Amidst these blinding rays was Bell, who was still searching for animals to siphon blood from after all this time. Normally,a mosquito would have been frantically searching for an animal to siphon blood from right now, or find fruit to siphon juice from to satiate their hunger. But since Bell was the owner of the Blood Monarch System, and the fact that he still had no idea as to whether or not siphoning fruit juice would offer benefits to him, he continued to look for animals in the forest with a seemingly full stomach.

"There's gotta be a few animals here somewhere…" Bell could not help but mutter to himself, somewhat getting tired of searching through the forest, only to end up finding nothing. Fortunately for him, just as he was at his wit's end, the gray silhouette of an animal resting under the shade of a large tree was finally inside his field of vision after what seemed to be about two hours of nonstop searching.

Noticing this silhouette, he flapped his wings once more at maximum speed, heading to where he found the silhouette. It did not take long for him to arrive at where the silhouette, hovering above it around half a minute later. But once his sense of vision was focused on the silhouette, Bell could not help but inwardly scream in joy as he had found an animal that would surely offer him a large boost in his Constitution, not to mention a great amount of Impure Blood Energy.

The silhouette was covered in gradated fur, which took on various shades of gray that got lighter as it reached the four limbs. On top of that, its body exuded a robust feeling, as well as a hint of pressure since the silhouette was a predator of the forest. Then again, Bell felt that this pressure was a bit odd since the silhouette was currently asleep, prompting him to ask himself, "Is it because it's wary that it would be eaten by other predators?"

"In any case, this wolf will definitely give me a lot of benefits once I siphon every ounce of blood from its body," he soon said to himself, letting out a light chuckle as he landed on the wolf's abdomen. He then paid his respects to the heavens up above as he soon pricked his proboscis into the wolf's body, slightly retracting it not long after the wolf flinched quite a bit from what he had done.

After making sure that the wolf would not move from what he was doing, he then went ahead and made sure that his proboscis was firmly lodged inside the wolf's skin before going ahead and siphoning out Impure Blood Energy from it. Just as he was getting engrossed from siphoning the wolf's blood, he remembered that he did not have any idea as to how much Impure Blood Energy he could obtain from the wolf, prompting him to command to the system midway, "Identify Blood Energy."

Ding!

Unsurprisingly, a small screen with a bar on it appeared at the far top-left side of his field of vision, making him stop siphoning for a bit as he noticed that the amount of Impure Blood Energy he could siphon from the wolf was a bit over twice as much the amount he could obtain from the bull before he had obtained the [Farm Slaughterer] title. Chuckling, he then asked himself in an eager tone, "I wonder how much Constitution I would obtain from this wolf once I siphon all 300 points of Impure Blood Energy from it."

And so, Bell went ahead with the monotonous routine of siphoning blood from an animal, getting a notification from the system that his storage was full, before going ahead and allocating the points he obtained to one of the two features he could upgrade.

With his blood siphoning efficiency being at a decent level, it did not take a long time for him to siphon the wolf to death. In fact, thanks to the amount of Impure Blood Energy he had siphoned from the wolf, he was able to raise [Enhanced Blood Storage] to its maximum level, as well as upgrade [Blood Sac Proboscis] to Level 6, increasing the amount of blood he could store and siphon to a slightly greater degree.

Of course, the part that he placed the most importance on was the amount of Constitution he could obtain from the wolf. So, when a notification sound resounded inside his mind, he instantly opened it up and skimmed through all of it with a somewhat satisfied expression.

Ding!

[The being is now dead.]

[Wolf's Agility (9/10) -> (MAX)]

[Constitution +0.003]

"That's quite a substantial increase for one level," Bell muttered to himself as he noticed the increase in Constitution he obtained from a single level of the wolf's Constitution Skill, being 50% higher than what the bull offered. With that in mind, he then commanded the system to bring up his Constitution stat, eager to find out how much of an improvement he had made.

Ding!

Not even an instant after, a small holographic screen appeared in front of his field of vision, allowing him to see the improvement in his Constitution. At this moment though, he could not help but let out a chuckle as he said, "As expected from a predator of the forest. Now I only have a bit more to go before achieving a Constitution stat of 0.1."

'Constitution: 0.09295'

Since he was in a forest, he did not have any hard feelings for the wolf he had siphoned to death, retracting his proboscis from the wolf's skin after closing all of the screens he opened. Flapping his wings to explore the forest once more, he then took a quick look at the position of the sun before continuing with his journey.

"Hopefully, the next animal I siphon from would give me enough Constitution to achieve the stat the system wants me to achieve."

"I wonder what kind of feature it would unlock?"