Advancement

Will was terrified, "I thought you told me to use it!!" He cried, tears started to well up in his eyes as the reality of death settled upon his mind.

He hadn't even begun to get the power he needs to survive let alone bring back his family. Which despite being told its impossible was still something he was determined to figure out.

"Yes I said USE it not SWALLOW it you fool!" Miriam was furious, first of all at Will for being so stupid. And secondly at herself for not explaining better. "Who eats something when they don't even know what it does?!"

"Apparently I do! Now quit yelling and help me!!" Will was beside himself, he could feel the energy spreading from his stomach causing a burning feeling as it went. It truly felt to him as though acid was being poured inside of him till it filled him up entirely.

"There is nothing I can do will!" Miriam's voice sounded truly sad, as though she was on the verge of tears. Hearing this calmed will down enough to reason that she didn't leave out any information on purpose. She just didn't expect him to do what he did, and now he was in this situation all on his own.

He didn't have too long to think about anything as the pain spreading from his stomach took everything else out of his mind.

He focused inwardly to see what what happening and started to notice something strange. The fire that was spreading through his body, while damaging him, was also strengthening him.

It was like an accelerated work out/recovery cycle. Where his muscles would tear and then come back stronger.

He could feel it throughout his entire body from head to foot, improving his muscles, skin, senses, everything about him was getting some new juice which was exciting.

The pain lasted for about 5 minutes although to Will it seemed much longer, but when it was over Will could immediately tell the difference.

"I feel...strong." Was all Will could think to say, and it was true the improvement he got wasn't small. It isn't normal to be able to eat another beings soul gem and survive.

The soul gems contain the whole of an individuals power. You could call it the source, and the location of each is as individual as the blessing itself.

For Will his was in his heart, it formed there when his evolution took place. Its what powers his abilities, without it he would die, and so will anyone else who has their soul gem ripped out. Which makes it an effective killing move if you can find and target another's soul gem.

Its just that most people can't see them as they are hidden within the body, and usually cloaked by the energy they produce. Its a special type of energy normally invisible which is what makes Will's Dragon Sense ability so over powered.

He could effectively target and take anyone's soul gem, assuming he had the strength to do so. Making him a highly efficient killing machine. Of course that's if he's smart enough, and capable enough to take advantage of it.

'Ding!'

Will was startled out of his thoughts by the system notifications about his improvements.

He wasn't entirely sure how effective that gem had been, but he was sure it was good for him.

" Absorbed 1 Grade F soul gem

+5 all stats

+120 exp

+5 Bloodline energy

Lvl Up!

+1 all stats

+5 Bloodline energy

+1 skill point"

Will was shocked, he knew the gem improved him but he didn't expect a whopping 20 stat points to come out of it. And on top of that he gained even more exp than when he killed the bast#$@*

The only thing that was tripping him up what the new bloodline energy, he didn't see that on his stat panel before, as well as skill points. Deciding it was a good idea to run everything by Miriam first, at least for a while till she trusted him again. He began to ask her about what to do now.

"Miriam, I am sorry for what I did...I wasn't thinking properly. I promise I wont do that again, so could you please help me understand what happened, and what these new things are?"

Will was putting on the performance of his life, huge round puppy eyes, pouty lip, the whole nine yards. Miriam wasn't falling for it but she still felt bad because she didn't explain things very well and felt guilty about what this idiot put himself through.

"Alright knock it off!" She wasn't really upset she just didn't want to see this shameful display anymore. "Don't you have any face?" she cried,

"What use is my face if I die because it caused me to do something stupid out of pride?" He retorted, and then realizing how ironic his statement was after his previous actions, he amended, "Near death experiences have a way of maturing a person, and I really don't want to have another any time soon."

Miriam sighed to herself and then said, "Alright fair enough, The first thing you need to know is that normally you should never consume the soul gem of another being. They are used with a special method to slowly assimilate the energies inside to strengthen whomever uses them.

Eating a soul gem releases all of that energy at once, and then its a race for the body to adapt and use that energy before it becomes overwhelmed and explodes."

These were sobering words for Will, he felt truly blessed to have survived his own stupidity. "How lame would that have been?" he mused quietly, Miriam ignored him and continued.

"Secondly the only reason you did survive is because of your constitution, The Eternal Dragon King physique is unique. It allowed your body to assimilate the energy much faster than normal F grade beings, even those with powerful blessings.

This may become one of your greatest secrets to power, but unless your some kind of masochist I recommend the other method."

Will nodded to this, that pain was truly horrifying, and unless he was in dire straights he would never willingly eat another soul gem.

"Third your bloodline energy is fairly simple. It represents the amount of energy you can harvest from your bloodline for use without harming it. The more of this energy you have the more innate skills you will be able to use. You can, at higher levels, also use this energy as a substitute for mana changing the effects of some skills while generally making them stronger.

It is a very important resource that should not be used lightly, its individual and extremely important to your advancement but you'll learn more about that later."

Will took this with a grain of salt, since he couldn't really use much of it now he decided not to really worry about it too much, thinking that if and when he made it to the future the uses would be more obvious.

"Lastly skill points are used to improve proficiency with and power of all skills that are able to be upgraded. Innate skills cannot be upgraded with skill points, they follow the grade of the host and will improve when you do.

Other skills can be upgraded to a maximum within each grade. Grade F starts at 5 points per skill and that cap is increased upon increasing your grade. This is done so that your body can handle the energy requirements for your skills.

It wouldn't be good if every time you tried to use an ability you passed out due to energy depletion."

All of this had greatly improved Will's understanding of how this whole system worked, and hinted a bit as to how his body and blood would be improved in the future. He was excited about all those prospects but needed to survive this trial first before he got too far ahead of himself.

"Well Miriam, what do you suggest?" Will wanted a second opinion about where to invest his skill point, he had an idea but he hadn't exactly been dropping dimes with his ideas today, so he thought it might be best to have another's input.

"What I suggest is that you take a look at all your skills first, you can preview their changes before actually deciding. But this might have to wait for a bit as we are not in the best of circumstances here."

Her warning cause will to focus his senses outward again when he noticed several footsteps approaching from all sides.

"Four of you this time eh?" Will's recent battle and improvement greatly increased his confidence, so instead of shying away and looking to escape he instead stared at them threateningly, channeling his bloodline causing sparks to appear around his body and light his eyes with a silver glow.

He smiled mockingly at the four new zombies who had taken a half step back and said "Shall we?"