2 System or Parasite?

The black jacket and the trouser he wore was torn and tattered. The white shirt he wore underneath was no different than the rest of his clothes. What was a poor commoner doing in this part of the forest, The Pigeon thought.

The blood dripping dagger in his hand indicated he might be a hunter but when The Pigeon thought about the growling sound he heard a few minutes ago stirred up a bad feeling in the Pigeon's gut.

The wind howled as though the wind itself was afraid of him. Even the ninja who took countless lives shivered at the sight of the killing intent in the young man's eyes.

"Get me out of this net" The Pigeon shouted at the young man. His feathery wings were tangled with the net.

"ARGHH!" the archer beside the Pigeon growled, trying to get an arrow from his quiver.

When the youngster reached them, he squatted near them.

Pulch!

Hot blood splashed across the Pigeon's face. It painted the Pigeon's white spandex red. Behind the mask, the Pigeon's face turned pale. The broken dagger pierced straight through the archer's left eye. The young man ended the archer's life in a blink of an eye.

"Fuck, You killed him!" the Pigeon shouted. The young man drew the dagger out of the archer's head and wiped the blood off the dagger on the net.

"The Pigeon, Your name alone deserves a death sentence," the young man said coldly.

"You just killed a man. I'm gonna throw your ass into the deepest pits of the dungeon" The Pigeon was an enhanced human and faced several battles. He was not going to beg and cry just because the young man killed the archer. Besides, the young man did not seem to have any superpowers. If he had some, he wouldn't have trapped them with a net.

The Pigeon could send distress signals but like all the heroes, he was too proud to send distress signals just to escape from a commoner with a dagger and nets.

"These three scumbags killed countless people. Every time, you heroes fight with them, people die. You put them in prison, just for them to escape and kill more people"

His voice sounded colder and colder. Eventually, he placed the dagger on the Pigeon's throat. The Pigeon started to squirm, trying to escape the nets. He tried hard to spread his wings but the nets were too thick and strong.

"This ends now"

Wasting no time, the young man slit the Pigeon's throat with his broken dagger. Blood sprayed out of the Pigeon's throat as he squirmed violently. As the light of life was leaving the Pigeon's eyes, the young man put his hand on the Pigone's head. His eyes began to flicker in blue,

[Absrobing the Pigeon's soul…]

The throaty low pitched voice of the system sounded in his mind. The Pigeon's body began to wither away. His body shrink in size as he was getting older and older. The fat in his body disappeared and in a few minutes, the Pigeon was mummified.

[Soul Abosorbtion finished…]

[1500 Soul Energy has been absorbed from the Pigeon]

[Recived New Power!]

[The Host had received Flight by absorbing the Pigeon's soul…]

"Argh" he almost dropped to the ground because of the excruciating pain he was feeling. He felt like being crushed and stabbed by hundreds of needles at the same time. His breathing got heavier and heavier by the second.

After a couple of minutes, the pain lessened.

"System, open the status window" he willed the system as a list of items in glowing blue letters appeared in front of him.

Host: Draven Zane

Powers: Flight, Marksmanship, Expert Martial artist

Powers limit: 5

Soul energy absorbed: 2500

To increase the power limit: 3500 Soul energy needed

He looked at the status window dozes of time. Each time, he realized he has a long way to go before avenging his family. This was his second chance. Unlike before, he did not plan to take the fight head-on without a plan or a thought. His thick head cost him his family.

If someone else absorbed souls, they would have died in pain. But not him, he fought through the pain every single time. His drive for revenge made sure he comes out of the other side alive every single time.

Closing the status window, he placed his on the ninja's body,

[Absorbing the Ninja's soul…]

Yet again the throaty voice of the system sounded in his mind. Although it called itself a system, for Draven, it was like a parasite attached to his very own soul. It felt hungry, hungry for souls, hungry for powerful souls. The more powerful the person was, the more soul energy he received after absorbing the soul.

Spending years with the system killing wild beasts in the void made him draw the calculations for the soul energy. The required soul energy did not change from level to level, it remained constant; 6000.

Each time he killed a commoner, special human, enhanced human, superhuman, and supreme one and absorb the soul, he would get, 100, 500, 1500, 4000 and 12000 respectively. Leveling up himself was the only way to earn more power slots. At the moment, he could only have 5 powers. He wouldn't be able to get new powers no matter how many souls he absorbed.

[Soul Absorption finished…]

[500 Soul Energy has been absorbed from the Ninja]

The superpowers of the two ninjas he killed first were that they were expert martial artists. Their martial art skills were far inferior to Draven's. Hence, he got no new powers from them. The last ninja's superpower was marksmanship. Just like before, Draven was a far better shot than the ninja.

Now that he absorbed everyone's soul, it was time to get what he came for. Draven took out a silver pocket watch from his inner jacket pocket and checked the time. The hour hand was pointing towards 10 while the minute hand was pointing towards 15.

He put the broken dagger into the sheath wrapped around his thighs. He kicked Pigoen's mummified body aside to see if he could loot the arrows and the bow. Unfortunately, the bow was broken in the middle and there were only ten or so arrows in the quiver. It was not worth the risk to linger around the area to loot ten arrows.

He turned back, walking towards the carriage. The horses were neighing nervously looking at all the blood around them. He opened the carriage door and saw a young girl lying on the floor. Her hands and legs were tied with ropes. She was blindfolded. The girl looked worse than him with her raggedy clothes. There were so many cuts and holes in her dress. He couldn't tell if her dress was really brown or became brown due to the mud and dirt.

He grabbed the legs of the girl, pulling her towards him. He then lifted her in his arms. Like the rest of her body, her face was too smudged with dirt and blood.

P.S => This is note a romance plot or saving the damsel in distress kind of thing. I know how much you hate MCs running around saving damsels. This is not that. I repeat this is not that. And yeah, No Harem!!!!