Chapter 5

I stayed in my abode on the side of the volcano for a few weeks as I spent all day collecting souls in the desert. The black sands of the desert and the volcano proved to be gifts that just kept on giving. I would alternate between hunting demons heading to the altar and the worms of the desert. I had a few close calls with demons more powerful than me, but having wings was extremely rare in the Upper Abyss, so I was able to outmaneuver and escape from any powerful foes that I couldn't take in combat. I also used these weeks to hone my combat abilities against demons of approximately the same skill level as me. 

Once I had a total of 250 souls, which had been a pain to earn, I was ready to create an enhancement item. I had struggled internally when I wanted to use fewer souls to create something sooner so that I could get on my way into other worlds, but I reminded myself that patience would be key to my success. I was basically immortal now and needed to act like it. Unlike when I was human, playing the extremely long game was a viable strategy since I wouldn't degrade with time. I knew that a strong base was exactly what I needed to facilitate my future growth. That is why I waited and collected so many souls without moving on.

With the appropriate number of souls in my inventory, I quickly flew out of the desert and made my way to the crack in the cliff face that led to my humble temporary home. I moved inside and laid down on the pelt of a monster that looked like a cross between a bear and a lion. Once I was in a comfortable position, I began to define the item that would facilitate my growth and give me the strength to allow me to explore other worlds.

- - - Creation - - -

Item: Blacklight Virus

Description: Gives the ability to consume and manipulate biomass, evolve based on consumed biomass, shapeshift, digest memories from slain targets, immense physical enhancement, enhanced senses, and control others by injecting them with a portion of the virus

Modifiers: None

Cost: 250 Low-quality souls 

- - - Creation - - -

I whistled as I looked at the abilities and cost, even without adding any modifications. I decided that I would work off of these abilities for a while and use any more souls I gained to boost my magical power. I planned to use the biomass manipulation and shapeshifting powers the most since magic wouldn't be so useful at this level. I would focus on developing magical abilities in the future. I shook my head and finalized the creation of the virus. 

A small dark vial dropped into my hands, already placed inside a small injector. I looked at the small item dubiously, but I knew that things from the system were safe, so I picked up the injector and injected the virus into my chest. At once, my whole body seized, and my limbs fell limp at my sides. I was glad that I had the foresight to lie down before starting this process. I groaned as I felt my cells being infected by the virus, then closed my eyes involuntarily and felt my consciousness fade. I tried to fight the oncoming darkness, but as the cells in my brain were being rewritten by the virus, I passed out. 

- - - (An Unknown Amount of Time Later) - - -

I awoke with a start. I looked around but couldn't be sure how much time had passed, but those thoughts were secondary in my mind to the new power that suddenly filled my body. I suddenly instinctively knew how to manipulate the biomass of my body to either heal myself to create weapons from my body. I also felt that I could gather biomass from other creatures and use it to heal myself when damaged. Once I had digested all the information on how to use my new abilities, I glanced at my status screen and found that my magic power had increased to 10, I was now at the Top of Low-Rank, and I now had a new skill called 'Blacklight Manipulation.' 

When I stood up from my bed of pelts and furs, I noticed that I was much larger than before. Looking down at my arms, I saw that they looked more smokey and translucent than before. It seemed that the virus had transformed my body into something halfway between darkness and normal flesh and blood. I touched one of my arms with a hand and found that it felt completely solid, which released me, but my body felt much lighter. I couldn't tell if the lightness was due to the newfound power in my limbs or if the haziness of my new form actually made me weigh less. 

I turned and punched the wall, watching the stone splinter and blast apart beneath my fist. I grinned and made me toward the exit of my cave home. I manipulated my claws to become thicker and sharper as I swept them forward and carved out a larger hole for me to exit out of. My claws carved through the stone like a hot knife through butter. Then I was out and flapping my wings and blasting out and toward the ground. There I found the dark glass that covered this whole area and looked at myself in the depths of its dark reflection. 

(Image of MC's form)

I nodded as I looked at my new form. I was mostly humanoid and looked like a hazy skeleton with horns. My chest and arms were covered in dark scaley flesh, but my head was bare bone. My eye sockets had two masses of bright red flesh. These new eyes allowed me to have a sort of thermal vision where the entire world before me was awash with various levels of heat. Luckily I could turn the thermal vision off since I was blind next to the volcano and altar due to their intense heat. Once I had a look at my reflection, I took off on my massive wings and soared into the desert. I landed on the sands, purposely making as much noise and vibrations as possible. 

After a moment, four worm demons rose from the sand and launched themselves at me. Before, I had thought that the worms moved decently fast, but now they seemed to move slowly. I manipulated my fingers and hand to fuse together to form a sort of sickle blade. Then I used it to rip through the worms. I split all four into tiny cubes in a moment, claiming their souls, then reaching out toward the chunks. I reverted my hand back to its normal shape as I took up the worms' corpse chunks and assimilated them into myself. I felt the influx of biomass and grinned as I manipulated my claws to become much larger and sharper using my newly acquired biomass.

I reverted them back to normal as I turned and made my way back toward the mountain on foot. As I walked, I glanced around with my thermal vision and saw the outline of a heat signature in the distance. I jumped and beat my wings hard, throwing myself in that direction. In one bound, I crossed hundreds of meters of sandy terrain. I landed atop a small dune and looked down at the figure of a demon with a chipped and rusted cleaver. It was the very same demon that I had avoided a few weeks prior. Back then, I had been too weak to contend with the demon, but now...

My opponent spotted me as soon as I landed on the ridge. We looked at each other from a distance for a while, each of us gauging the other. I blasted myself forward with the aid of my wings and launched at the demon, who raised its cleaver and swung. I pulled my mace from my inventory and met the swing. The cleaver bit deep into my mace's handle, nearly cleaving the weapon in half. I pulled back and took the demon by surprise by throwing the mace at it. It ducked easily enough, but that put it in the path of my kick and the new sharp spikes emerging from my foot. 

I danced forward as my opponent stepped back. As I raised my claws, the biomass of my body shifted, and the spike on my foot was drawn back into my body while new biomass emerged on my hands, then solidified into stronger and thicker claws. I only saw my opponent raise an eyebrow, a surprisingly human gesture, at my actions before swinging the cleaver down at me. I solidified the matter of my shoulder and took the blow head-on, letting the clever sink deep while I punched through the demon's chest and ripped out its heart. I brought up my other hand and cut through its throat, causing an arterial spray of purple blood to cover me.

I pulled the heart back into my body and began to assimilate with the mass of new biomass. I pulled the cleaver out of my shoulder where it was lodged deep and filled in the injury with some of the biomass I gained from the demon's body to fully heal myself before I used my increased strength to snap the cleaver and watched as a soul fragment left the broken blade and merged back with the demon's soul that was floating in the spot where it had died. I plucked the soul from the air and stored it before turning and heading toward the altar so that I could head off into a new world.

- - - - - Chapter End - - - - - 

What world should he go to?