3 Yearning for Blood
Although he had processed the influx of information he had received in a short amount of time, he was still somewhat unsure that the information given to him regarding the system he had just obtained was correct. Even after reading through the information he had received a few more times after that did not help the doubt that was weighing in his mind to go away. And so, knowing that he still had a few doubts regarding the information he received from the system, as well as the fact that he wanted to know more about the words spoken by the monotonous voice before he obtained it…
He went ahead and asked the monotonous voice some questions.
Being sure that the monotonous voice was always in his mind, he went ahead and focused his attention on the insides of his mind before asking, "What are you exactly? Are you the voice that relays the words of the Blood Monarch System or are you the Blood Monarch System itself?"
A silence ensued after he was finished asking his question, prompting him to wonder if the monotonous voice did not have an answer to his question. Fortunately, after a while, the monotonous voice resounded throughout his mind, answering his question.
"To answer the owner's question, I am the voice of the Blood Monarch System itself. Of course, if the owner does not want to hear the system's voice, then the owner can opt to disable it if they wanted to," the voice said, to which the young mosquito could not help but say, "I'll keep the voice. I like talking to others."
After asking this question, one of the doubts weighing on his mind had been removed, allowing him to be a bit more at ease when communicating with the system. Not long after responding to the system's words, he went ahead and asked another question, telling the monotonous voice, "I heard you mention a while ago that I'm a system inheritor chosen by the heavens. What does it mean to be a system inheritor exactly?"
Of course, in the literal sense, he had a good idea of what a system inheritor meant. But since he was in another world, the same term could have a different meaning, hence the reason why he asked this question.
Thankfully, the answer given to him by the system resonated with the thought he had in his mind, thus allowing more of his doubts to be removed as the monotonous voice said, "A system inheritor is what it is, the inheritor of a well-renowned system. Most system inheritors obtain their chance to inherit the system through sheer luck, but due to the owner's circumstances, you have become a system inheritor thanks to your fate."
"My fate?" the young mosquito muttered in slight disbelief. In an instant, he could not help but recall his life in the past. With that in mind, he thought to himself, 'Would that kind of life be enough to warrant the heavens to give me something like this?'
At this point, after the system mentioned the term 'the heavens', he truly believed that the heavens did exist in the world he was in. Nevertheless, he could not help but slightly hate the heavens as he was reborn as a mosquito.
"Unless…the reason why I'm a mosquito has something to do with the system?" he could not help but mutter to himself in a slight questioning tone as he felt that the name of the system could not be a coincidence. Thinking that there was no point mulling over it if he could just ask the system instead, he placed this thought at the back of his head as he asked the monotonous voice one more question.
"You mentioned before that obtaining Impure Blood Energy in my current body was incredibly easy. What is Impure Blood Energy exactly?" he asked, to which the voice responded, "Impure Blood Energy is the condensation of energy found within blood. Of course, with the word 'Impure' before it, the condensation of such energy is not strong. In short, to obtain Impure Blood Energy, one must absorb blood. Or in the owner's case, siphon blood."
"So that's what you mean," he replied after processing the answer given to him by the system. He then added, "So the reason why you said that obtaining Impure Blood Energy is incredibly easy for me is because I'm a mosquito."
"The owner's statement is correct," the monotonous voice said not long after.
Hearing the voice's response to his words, the young mosquito became silent for a bit as he pondered on what he was going to do next. With the Blood Monarch System now in his possession, he could now do something else than sucking blood and flying, though he had a feeling that he would be doing more of the former than the latter. In the end, he decided to stay on the back of the horse he had just siphoned blood from as it would not matter to him if he departed right now or later when the sun is almost up.
Of course, that did not mean that he was just going to wait for the moon to dip and the sun to rise idly. With his curiosity at his peak, he looked through the information he had obtained from the system once more before taking in a deep breath. After that, he went ahead and calmed his emotions down before muttering, "System, open the status screen."
Ding!
At the very instant he was finished with his command, a small screen that covered a decent portion of the field of vision in front of him soon appeared, being accompanied by a notification sound. Thanks to his mental capabilities being at the level of human, reading through the contents on the screen was not a problem to him. Surprisingly, after he was finished reading through the contents of the screen, he inwardly let out a chortle as he asked the system, "Did my current name come from somewhere?"
"The owner's name has been obtained from their previous life," the monotonous voice hastily replied, to which the young mosquito responded, "Well, good job finding it, I guess. I really like my name."
________
[Bell]
Species: Young Mosquito (Rank 0)
————
Constitution: 0.001
Impure Blood Energy: 0/1
————
Upgrades:
[Blood Storage Lv. 1] - 1 Impure Blood Energy to upgrade
[Blood Siphoning Efficiency Lv. 1] - Needs Blood Storage Lv. 2
________
Unsurprisingly, his sense of vision was affixed onto three things that could be found on the screen. Recalling all of them, he muttered, "Species, Constitution, and upgrades…"
"Well, species is a given, I guess. It's my current body. From the writing in the parentheses on the side, there seems to be a way to improve it?" he soon muttered after saying those words, thinking to himself loudly. "As for upgrades, it's quite simple to understand, relying on Impure Blood Energy to be improved."
As he came to this point, he noticed that the feeling of fullness he felt from his stomach was now gone, prompting him to say to himself, "It seems that Impure Blood Energy is more or less the amount of blood I could store in my stomach. I wonder if my stomach would enlarge after upgrading that [Blood Storage] to the next level?"
"And then, there's Constitution," he continued to think out loud. Surprisingly, rather than ponder over it by himself like what he did before, he focused his attention towards the system before asking, "What's Constitution?"
And like a well-oiled machine, the monotonous voice resounded in his mind, telling him what Constitution was. "Constitution is an amalgamation of the owner's current physical capabilities. Strength, defense, agility, vitality, and so forth are all affected by the Constitution stat."
"Is a Constitution stat of 0.001 low?" he asked the system not long after. After a few seconds of silence, the system responded, "Considering the owner's current body, a Constitution stat of 0.001 is incredibly high. But when compared to all of the other beings in this world, a stat at that level is unappealingly low. Do note that the Constitution stat of a normal human is 1."
"I see," Bell said after the system was finished explaining. He then pondered over the system's words for a bit, feeling that there was a reason as to why the system said those words. Wanting to make sure that his doubts weren't without reason, he continued to query the system, asking, "What's the normal Constitution for a species like me?"
"That would be 0.000000001," the monotonous voice replied. It then added, "Thanks to the Blood Monarch System, the user's physical capabilities have been increased to the level of being one-thousandth as powerful as a normal human."
"So you're saying that the system is the reason why my Constitution is this high?" Bell asked, to which the system answered, "That is indeed correct, owner. Not only that, but the system has also modified the amount of blood you could store at once, allowing you to absorb more blood in one session than what a normal mosquito can."
"Really?" At this moment, he could not help but be in slight disbelief as he did not really feel much of a difference when he was siphoning blood from the horse a while ago. Unsurprisingly, he would come to know that the system's words were true later on.
With his last statement left without an answer, he decided to move onto the other question he had in mind after listening to the system's words from a while ago, asking, "Is there a reason why you mentioned the Constitution of a normal human?"
"There is," the system hastily replied. "The owner's objective is to achieve a Constitution stat of 1, allowing them to unlock a certain feature that the owner would surely enjoy. Of course, along the journey in obtaining such a stat, the system would unlock more features that would hasten the owner's journey to achieving such a value."
"Could you tell me the feature that I would unlock after reaching that stat?" Now that he heard that there was a reason why that number was mentioned, Bell could not help but become curious as to what the feature he would unlock was. Unfortunately, the system was not going to entertain his curiosity, telling him, "The system recommends the owner to start siphoning blood rather than ask this question."
"Fine, fine, fine." Feeling that there was no point asking the system the same question multiple times, he instantly gave up on asking what the feature was, deciding to heed the system's words and focus on siphoning blood instead. Without hesitation, he went ahead and closed the status screen in front of his field of vision before pricking his proboscis into the skin of the horse he was standing on once more before starting to siphon blood out of the horse one more time.
Slurp…
Although he was still enjoying the taste of blood while siphoning it through his proboscis, with a system related now in his possession, he could not help but wonder as to how much blood he would need to siphon to reach the limits of the system.
Ding!
[You have obtained 1 Impure Blood Energy.]
[Your stomach has reached its maximum capacity.]
After slurping for some time, he heard the monotonous voice resound in his mind just like before. This time though, a notification sound accompanied the voice while adding a few more words. Getting the feeling that he would become annoyed of hearing the monotonous voice resound in his mind quite often, he focused his attention on his mind before saying, "System, please disable the notification of me obtaining Impure Blood Energy. Only keep the notification where my stomach reaches maximum capacity."
Not long after, the system responded, "The owner's response has been taken into consideration. Certain notifications have been disabled."
Feeling a bit more at ease knowing that he wouldn't be bombarded with the monotonous voice every time, he then focused his attention on his stomach. Rather, the full feeling he felt from it. Without hesitation, he went ahead and read through a bit of the information he obtained before commanding, "Upgrade [Blood Storage]."
Ding!
[Would you like to consume 1 Impure Blood Energy?]
Accompanied by a notification sound, a prompt soon appeared in front of his field of vision, making him ask himself, "Should I disable prompts from the system?"
Not long after, he thought that it would be better for him to keep the prompts, lest he made some bad choices in allocating his Impure Blood Energy. While he was deep in thought, he responded affirmatively to the prompt, removing the full feeling he felt from his stomach as he soon felt his stomach expand in volume. After a while, the feeling of expansion disappeared as Bell asked himself, "Did my stomach become big, or does it just feel big?"
With that question in mind, he focused his vision towards his stomach, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief as he saw that his stomach maintained its external appearance. Although he was someone who usually did not care about appearances in his previous life, he did not want to imagine himself as a mosquito with a terrifyingly big stomach later on.
[Blood Storage Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2]
[You can now upgrade Blood Siphoning Efficiency.]
After the upgrade was finished, he obtained a notification from the system that the skill was upgraded, allowing him to continue siphoning blood from the horse as his proboscis was still pricking its skin. Naturally, with the [Blood Storage] skill being upgraded, the amount of Impure Blood Energy he could store at once was increased, which meant that the amount of time he would be able to savor the taste of blood became longer.
Of course, such a feeling would only last for a while as he soon obtained a notification from the system that his stomach was full again. Without delay, he took a look at the amount of Impure Blood Energy needed for him to upgrade [Blood Storage] to the next level, noticing that the amount needed was exactly the amount he had right now.
Noticing this, he said to himself, "In short, as long as I fill up my storage, I can upgrade [Blood Storage] to the next level."
"Hmm…in that case, with every upgrade of [Blood Storage], my capacity increases by 1 point?"
It did not take long for him to obtain the answer to his previous question, obtaining a notification from the system that the amount of Impure Blood Energy he could store at once was increased by one point. At this moment, he could not help but think about upgrading [Blood Siphoning Efficiency] for once, but in the end, he decided to fill his stomach first before deciding on that.
Ding!
After some time, Bell's stomach was filled to the brim with Impure Blood Energy again. But this time, a different notification sound accompanied the notification. To his sense of hearing, it seemed to be congratulating him. Fortunately for him, it did not take long for him to find out the reason why such a sound was heard, taking a look at the notifications he had received.
"Oh? What's this?"
[Your stomach has reached its maximum capacity.]
[After absorbing enough blood from a horse, you have obtained a Constitution Skill!]
[You have obtained the Constitution Skill 'Stallion's Might'.]
[Stallion's Might (0/10) -> (1/10)]
[Constitution +0.0015]
[Absorb 10 more points of Impure Blood Energy to upgrade Stallion's Might to the next level.]
