21 Ability Absorption

[Main quest- Find the divine relics of the past]

[Progress- 0/9.]

[Reward- ???]

[Punishment- absolute death.]

'' This. '' Jerouch felt as though he was struck by lightning.

'' Since when was death part of the system's punishment?'' His mouth was opened wide in shock, and so were his eyes.

'' What are these divine relics? '' He asked, hoping to get an answer.

However, there was no notification to clarify his confusion.

Jerouch sucked in a deep breath, and then released it with a heavy sigh.

'' I guess I've got no option. '' He popped his finger before proceeding forward.

He was in a region with tall silver trees and grasses. The shortest tree reached a height of a hundred meters with dangling yellow fruits.

The shrubs were also thick and tall which made Jerouch look like a dwarf.

He had to use a wind blade and even fire arrows to create a path for himself.

Fortunately for him, the black robe which he bought not long ago was doing a wonderful job as it kept him cool despite the scorching sun.

As he advanced, he eventually found a low rank monster.

It resembled the bear that got him into the deeper parts of the forest. However, this bear was eight meters tall and it had grey metal coated paws.

'' E rank. '' Jerouch muttered with zero interest.

He ignored the bear and turned to his left, but it seemed the bear wasn't ready to let go.

Growll!

Jerouch heard a growl which made him snort.

He watched as the bear jumped more than twenty meters forward in his six o'clock direction with his forelimbs stretched forward ready to smash him.

Bam!

Jerouch straight sway turned and swung his right hand in a clockwise direction.

His right backhand clashed with the right shoulder of the bear, and what followed next was a krack sound and then…

Boom.

The bear was flung backwards until it collided with the stem of a tree which again followed with a krack sound as its backbone fractured.

'' Think twice before you act. '' Jerouch furrowed his eyebrows.

He was fuming with the system's main quest and there was no better way to vent out his annoyance than that.

'' Swap. ''

Jerouch activated the skill repeatedly, and he swapped his position with a couple of shrubs at a stupendous speed until he appeared before the bear.

Raising his right leg, he brought it down with full force smashing the bear's skull.

[+100 exp]

Jerouch ignored the notification seeing how pitiful the exp was.

He looked at the disfigured corpse with a dead expression and then he muttered in a hushed tone…

'' Grimoire. ''

A thick dark book cloaked with dark and purple miasma appeared in thin air with its pages opened.

This was the new look of the grimoire since its advancement to D rank.

Jerouch carried the grimoire with his right hand and placed it on the corpse.

[Target confirmed. ]

[Absorption in progress. ]

Seeing the notifications, he nodded in satisfaction and sat under the tree.

Five minutes later, he got a new notification.

[Absorption complete. ]

[Host has absorbed a trace amount of the bloodline of an ancient race.]

[Host is advised to absorb more ancient bloodlines to complete the process. ]

[Host can now morph into a common bear.]

Jerouch grinned on seeing the notifications.

'' Who would've thought that a measly bear would carry the bloodline of an ancient race? '' He took the grimoire and unsummoned it

As for the corpse, there was nothing left of it except for the blood stains on the ground.

Checking the system, he could now see a new panel under the grimoire.

[Bloodlines]

Earth titan- 2%

'' Um. '' Jerouch nodded again and continued advancing.

He wasn't completely sure of where to head. The forest was way more enormous than he could imagine.

All he could hope for was that his intuition would be correct.

Several hours later, night arrived and he had to stop his journey.

He found a big tree which he lay under half awake with occasional cold chills due to his wild imagination.

The night, however, was uneventful apart from the birds and insects that kept chirping throughout the late hours.

'' Again, I must say this robe is quite handy. '' Jerouch yawned as he stretched his hands then his body.

Krack

Krack

He popped his fingers and tried so much to open his eyes fully.

'' I hope I find my way out of this damn place today. '' he rose from his sleeping position.

'' I've wasted too much time already. ''

Heading forward again, throwing all his bets in his intuition, Jerouch still found the mouth of the forest to be farther than he thought.

He couldn't even help but wonder if he was really following the right route.

'' Argh! ''

Jerouch was still circling the forest cluelessly when he heard a cry in the distance which brought him to a stop.

'' Isn't that the cry of a human? '' He furrowed his eyes as he looked in the direction of where the sound came from.

Shrugging his shoulder, he decided to peep.

'' Well, a peep won't kill me this time around either, no? '' He smiled while biting his lower lips as he thought of that troublesome lass.

As he moved closer to the place, the sound of battles began to reach him which deepened his frown, but he soon relaxed albeit as he sensed the mana fluctuation that was being released from afar.

'' Mostly F ranks and some E ranks. '' He analyzed in his head. '' And I think some ordinary humans too. ''

After a short while, he finally saw the battle in the distance. It was a total mess.

He could see a group of guards surrounding two carriages and some men who he assumed to be bandits surrounded these guards.

The bandits also had a group of F rank wolves which accompanied them.

'' A beast tamer or what? '' He squinted his eyes while still hiding behind a tree confused as to why beasts would work with humans.

'' This is a lost battle. '' He laughed.

He watched as another guard got his chest pierced by a spear wielded by one of the bandits, and before he could even cry in agony, a wolf was already shredding his pelvic region apart.

Jerouch kept watching knowing that the time to intervene wasn't now.

They need to understand despair to understand better what hope was.

And who was going to bring them hope…