Chapter 5: Mmm... blood.

It was already night once again when Jin finished cutting up the bee. He was now busy roasting a piece of meat on his hands.

The meat sizzled as the red flames danced across Jin's open palms. While Jin was busy with that he looked in the direction of the volcano. It was closer by a considerable amount, so the bee flew closer to it.

'So their nest is probably the volcano,' Jin deduced. A moment later his face also darkened. 'So the endgame for this evaluation is a boss fight.'

The description of Blood Taster mentioned a tyrant that ruled the desert. That tyrant was probably a queen bee that resided in the volcano.

Jin gazed at the blade that sat beside him in the sand. When he was cutting the bee up into pieces, it had no problem slicing through it. He was very satisfied with it.

He turned his gaze back toward the meat. Strangely, it looked like normal red meat, not at all what you would expect from a giant bug.

Jin just shrugged and dulled his flames. Getting a better grasp on the piece of meat, he brought it closer to his mouth.

He hesitated for a few minutes and then tentatively took a bite. The meat was gone a few seconds later. It was simply delicious.

After cooking up a two more pieces of meat and eating them at a break-neck pace, Jin looked at two more items that layed beside him.

The first one was a piece of carapace from the bee and the other was a sphere as big as a soccerball that looked like a pearl.

Jin focused his attention toward the carapace. It was filled with the bee's blood. Jin took one last look, shivered, then cautiously took the make-shift container.

'I have to get hydrated somehow,' Jin thought, trying to motivate himself.

Jin brought the carapace closer to his mouth, opening it slightly. He then tilted his head back and then downed the contents of the container. One gulp, two gulps, three gulps and then it ended by the fourth gulp.

Jin's face contorted into disgust as he finished drinking the blood. 'It tasted of iron, disgusting.'

When he thought that, a line of words suddenly appeared in front of his face.

[You have drinked the blood of a Beast class monster. Your body grows stronger.]

When that message appeared, a strange pulse shot through his body. His muscles contracted and his bones rattled.

When the pulse flew through his body, he landed on his back. He stayed like that for a moment, unable to utter a single word.

Then he slowly sat up and clenched his fist. 'What the heck?! I didn't know that would happen, I was just thristy!'

Jin felt how his body had become stronger. It wasn't a substantial change, but if he could accumulate it, it would soon bore results.

His bones felt slightly stronger, his muscles felt slightly firmer and harder. It wouldn't really effect the outcome of a fight, but it will better his chances of surving.

If he did it a few more times though...

Jin, his eyes full of hunger, looked toward the bee. Quickly moving over he scooped up the last of the bee's blood, the rest had already been absorbed by the sand.

[...Your body grows stronger.]

After drinking the blood, Jin walked over toward the giant pearl and looked it over.

This was the bee's Energy Core. This core was very useful. He knew that he could absorb the Energy Core to grow his core's reserves. He just had to figure out how.

Sitting back down, he crossed his legs and placed the core on his legs. Closing his eyes, he first focused on his own core and then focused on the bee's core.

'There.'

He could feel a slight pull from the bee's core. Clinging on to that feeling, he 'pulled' the energy from the bee's core, to his own. His body felt warm as he did this.

This process took a little over an hour, but when he was finished a message once again appeared in front of him.

[You have absorbed a Beast class Energy Core. Your core grows more vast.]

Unlike the blood of the bee, the core brought a more noticable difference. He felt that his core had a little more capacity then it had before. He also felt that he could maintain his flames longer.

After absorbing the core, Jin took one last look at the corpse and then prepared to leave in the direction of the volcano.

***

The next day, Jin had made a considerable gap between him and the corpse, about 4 kilometres.

Jin covered his eyes with his hand and looked up toward the sun. It was midday, and the sun was shining brightly.

He was currently in a rather positive mood. His food problem was solved and he had become a little stronger. The only real problem was water.

The blood he drank yesterday, had left a bitter iron taste in his mouth. Still, he sighed in content, nothing could ruin his mood right now.

A second later a low buzzing sound could be heard. Jin's face darkend as he saw a black silhouette in the distance. It was another bee.

And it was flying right at him... with alot of speed. He almost had no time to react. Jin jumped to the side barely avoiding the bee's stinger.

It flew past and slammed it's stinger into then sand. While Jin had jumped to the side, Blood Taster was already forming in his hands.

Quickly turning around to face the bee, Jin had to swing the blade upwards. A loud clang was heard as the bee's stinger was redirected upward, causing the bee to fly over him.

In disbelief Jin quickly stared at his hands. They were numb from the force the bee used, but he wasn't staring because of that.

'How did I do that?!' He was surprised about how fast he had reacted just now. 'My reflexes must have gone up!' He thought happily.

Turning his consentration back toward the bee, he saw it shoot toward him. Seeing this, a small smirk appeared on his face. He brought Blood Taster to a guarding position.

'I can do this!'