Chapter 22 - Reward and Changes ( 1 )

Suddenly a lot of system messages appeared in my mind.

[Ding ]

[ host has encountered a life-threatening situation. Activation emergency protocol...….done]

[ finding the best way to save the life of the host.......search completed.]

[ method found.....stimulate the host's bloodline.]

[ stimulation failed...…stimulation failed...…..]

I read the system messages in a daze. For some reason, the system is trying to save me by activating some sort of emergency protocol.

So the solution to my current problem is my bloodline. The path chosen by the system must be the best according to the current situation.

But can my mysterious bloodline respond to the system? Despite many attempts, the bloodline showed no reaction.

So the last miracle has also failed to keep me alive.

Anyway a good journey so far. I would be lying if I said I do not have any regrets but alas.....

Just as I accepted my fate and the explosion covered me a new message appeared in front of me.

[ stimulation success...…bloodline is awakened for some time.]

I felt the world slow down and come to a halt. As if the time has stopped. Like a beast from the ancient ear has awakened from its slumber. The world is showing respect to its arrival.

 A purple-coloured light gathered at my chest area or to be precise just above my heart. My heartbeat seems strange to me. Unlike before something is different about it.

A barrier made of shadows covered me fully. After the barrier covered me the world regained its motion. The time started to flow.

The explosion hit the barrier but it did even cause a shake from the barrier. Like a sturdy wall, the barrier bears the impact form an explosion without showing any weakness.

After the impact and heat subdued the barrier around me also melted in the shadows.

The light around my heart got dim and then dispersed completely. For a moment I felt like I lost something precious.

My eyelids felt heavy. My vision started to darken. Before I lost consciousness I saw the screen of a trail appear in front of me. It says.

[Congratulations to the adventured for passing the special test of survival. Sending the adventure back to get the final reward.]

This was the last thing I saw before fainting.

***

I lifted my heavy eyelids and looked around. I found myself in front of that statue and shadow sitting on the throne.

I got up from the ground and looked at the shadow. All my injuries are gone.

It would be a lie if I did not hold any resentment towards this being. It could have killed me in that trial.

Though it warned me that the trail might be life-threatening who knows it will be as difficult as this.

It was a level above the hell level difficulty.

Before I could speak the same soothing sound came in my ears.

"Congratulations brave adventurer. You have passed all the tests and earned the right to get the ultimate reward. First, let me give you the reward you got after completing those trails before meeting me. may I know your name?" ( Shadow )

Keeping my mood in check I decided not to mention the trail and just accept the reward.

" My name is David Adam. How do I address you, sir?" ( David )

" good name you got there. I will introduce myself later. First receive your reward. A tier 7 manual skill." ( Shadow )

The shadow raised its hand and pointed its finger at me. A light appeared on its finger then it came rushing towards me. I did not try to dodge as it is meaningless to do so.

The light hit me at the centre of my head. Lots of information appeared in my mind. I organised the information for a bit and learned what is it.

The skill is called the " Shadow Blade Technique". A genuine tier 7 manual skill.

Just as I was looking at the skill information in detail a bunch of system messages popped in front of me.

[ Ding ]

[congratulations to the host. The host has completed the quest called breaking the ban.]

[ does the host want to claim the reward now? Yes or no?]

A strange feeling took over me for a second. In normal times I should have selected no and chose to receive the reward later but something different happened. I choose yes.

I felt a strong chest pain. It is like someone griped my heat and is squeezing it hard.

The pain was so strong that I started to scream. Despite the screaming, I did not feel any better but the pain started to increase.

The same purple light form before appeared above my heart. The frequency of my heartbeat increased to a level I could not imagine.

The purple-coloured light burst from the centre of my chest and completely covered my body. The surrounding shadow element started to get attracted towards me.

I become a humanoid magnet that attracts the shadow element towards itself from the surroundings. As the amount of shadow element increased the purple light became brighter.

The small vortex is formed above my body which continuously attracts the shadow element from the surroundings.

The vortex became bigger as time passed and its rotation speed also increased with its size. The end of the vortex point is attached directly to my heart.

Vortex continued to gather shadow elements and directly pass them to my heart. The system message explained the cause of the changes to me but I am in no state to read the system messages.

[ the bloodline awakening in progress........]

My vision gets dyed in purple light.

***

The strange phenomenon around David aroused the shadow's interest. It looked at the tiny human in front of it.

A strange magic array or circle appeared under David's feet. The ancient aura released from the mana circle as if it came from a forbidden place.

Shadow looked at the mysterious text and symbol on the mana circle.

After taking a closer look the body of the shadow started to shake.

The powerful being who can stand at the top of the power pyramid got frightened by these symbols and text.

With its vast amount of wisdom, it failed to understand why such symbols and text appeared here and for what reason.

As the shadow is looking at the mana circle a new change happened to the vortex formed at the top of David.

It stopped spinning and growing and instead started to shrink gradually. While shrinking its size also got reduced.

The thing is vortex is not getting smaller but it is gradually getting absorbed into David's body.

The huge vortex gets into a small-sized human body making the laws of physics a joke.

Finding the information about the mana circle shadow did not do anything to disturb the process. It just quietly observed the whole process from the sideline as a spectator.

David's body has huge changes after the vortex merged with his body. The blood circulation increases and some purple stuff gets released from the spine and gets into the blood. Slowly the purple stuff spread into the whole body of David.

David's body gets destroyed from inside to outside but every time something gets destroyed the better new part gets regenerated in its place.

This process gets repeated continuously. Body parts get destroyed and regenerated continuously to get more perfect results.

It is like going through the process of forging. Lots of impurities are washed out through this process. With each cycle, the body becomes better and better.

Suddenly the purple-colored light beam rises from David's body. The light beam touched the ceiling of the underground space but due to a special barrier, it could not pass through it.

As if feeling provoked a huge shadow started to rise behind David and formed a strange shape or figure. From the outline of it, the shape belongs to some kind of creature or entity but the most notable thing about that figure is its deep red eyes.

Just looking into those eyes can cause someone to lose his mind. Just as this figure appeared the whole atmosphere in the underground space changed.

It becomes cold and desolate. The entry of the mysterious figure made Shadow lose its cool for the first time. Shadow can not believe in its eyes.

Like receiving some sort of boost the purple light column strength increased by manyfold.

The barrier that stopped the purple light path started to shake. It seems the power of the purple light column exceeds the limit of the barrier.

Seeing this situation shadow decided to intervene. Just as it was about to do something shadow sensed something and cancelled its move.

It looked towards the status behind it or more precisely towards the statue's eyes.

The eyes that seemed to be shut from birth started to open themselves. The eyes were filled with endless brilliance and mystery. It may be one of the most beautiful sets of eyes that ever existed since the birth of the world.

The main color of the eyes is purple and the eyes have no pupils in them. Still, it shows enough beauty to mesmerize any soul who looks at it.

The statue's sight moved towards the figure made by shadows that appeared behind David.

A strong purple light ray released from the eyes of the statue and landed on the mana circle and shadow figure.

Strangely the light rays did not cause any damage to the mana circle or the shadow figure but it made the light beam no longer put any pressure on the barrier. As the light beam stabilized another ray shot out of the statue's eyes.

This time the colour of the rays is golden. It fell on David's body and got absorbed inside. Seeing things stabilize the statue's eyes get closed.

***

Unknown to changes happening in my body and surroundings I find myself in a very unique place. There is nothing around me except the darkness.

A strong light appeared in front of me. I tried to cover my eyes but found out that I was not feeling anything harmful from this light source.

Like an instinct, I turned my head away from the light and looked opposite. I find a long shadow of myself stretched towards the end due to the strong light source behind me.

I feel some sort of special connection with my shadow. Before I could understand more light disappeared. I can not see my shadow as clearly as before but I can still feel that special connection.

I tried to walk forward but could not say whether I moved from my place or not. This Is a very weird feeling. I lost count of time in this place and continued to stay in this dark realm.

Just as I was about to become mad some changes happened.

I felt something or someone was trying to pull me towards someplace or somewhere. I tried to stop myself but it all proved useless as my body got dragged to an unknown place.

After some time of pulling, I arrived at a special or unknown place.

This place is different from other places. Around me, many shadows with different forms wander from one place to another. Some have a humanoid appearance some are fully in beast shape while some have unrecognizable forms.

While observing these strange shadows who collectively ignored my presence I arrived at a weird location.

It may look like a crack formed on the ground due to an earthquake or other things. There is no end to this massive crack nor its depth can be seen.

It stood out differently compared to all the places I had seen before.

Suddenly something seems to be staring straight at me from the depths of the crack. My whole body feels like it is thrown into an ice chamber.

All of my body hair stood up and an unimaginable sense of terror struck me.

I can see some purple things rise from the crack and move toward me. I tried to run away but my body refused to move.

Just as those things got out of the crack some sort of barrier appeared and stopped those purple things.

I seem to have seen something terrible as my whole body gets numb from fear but soon that fear turns into something else.

Completely different from all the feelings I felt before. It feels like I find some missing piece of myself.

I feel some unique existence from somewhere. Except for me, a total of 6 different types of sources appeared in my mind. Strangely I feel some sort of unbreakable bond with these sources.

Before I could find out more about these strange feelings I felt some kind of suction force appear and it sucked me to a somewhere.

***

Just as David disappeared something moved inside the crack. A pair of big red eyes appeared out of nowhere. They scanned the whole area and place where David was just a second ago. After finding nothing a trace of doubt and disappointment flashed in those eyes but in the next movement it got hidden behind the indifferent look.