Core Crystal

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Two minutes earlier a single drop of blood had reached a hollow space in the ground. It fell from the ceiling dripping onto a stone. The stone had been white but upon touching the it began emitting a crimson glow. With every other drop it's light became brighter.

The rhombus shaped shard began to dissolve into a misty crimson-colored liquid. It had little orbs of light mixed within and was now slowly drifting upwards towards the surface.

It flowed into Anya's body, mending her wounds. Each of the glowing orbs absorbed into her hand, forming a cryptic star-circle pattern on her palm. The symbol was glowing crimson red and very bright.

It wasn't visible to the bear since it had no eyesight. Nonetheless even without vision it's perception was top noch. It could spot a movement of hair in a 80 km radius.

Anya slowly found her consciousness again. She couldn't move nor open her eyes. Her hands were entangled in the webs.

"If I move I will only make it worse… And with my current strength I doubt I could get out of here."

[External thread detected]

[Thread Grade F-]

[Possibility of death: 3 %]

{Does Host wish to evaluate the thread?}

{Yes / No}

These messages lit up in the Arya's vision. Bright glowing crimson letters were displayed.

"Huh? What are these? Looks like a mage-window!"

Anya stared at the messages, for a few seconds.

{!Host has been asked to decide.}

{Does Host wish to evaluate the thread?}

{Yes / No}

"Uhm… Yes?" Arya thought, still questioning what was going on.

In an instant a row of messages appeared.

[Sticky Silk Vines]

>>> LvL. 33

>>> Current attack: Sticky Entanglement

>>> Condition for Attack: Moving solid body.

>>> Effects: [Restricting Movement] + [Hindering flight]

>>> Skill needed for counter: [Any Slippery move] ; [Any Slimy properties]

[Host has no blocking skills]

[Block of attack failed.]

"What? Are these the plants I am entangled with? So how do I get out?"

Her vision was slowly beginning to come back and she could see her surroundings. In the same second as she spotted the bear slamming down the tree another round of notifications popped up.

[External thread detected]

[Thread Grade A]

[Possibility of death: 80 %]

{Does Host wish to evaluate the thread?}

{Yes / No}

"Yes!"

[Glacial Blood Bear]

>>> LvL. 48

>>> Tier: Alpha

>>> Effect: Incensed

[Strength + 10] ; [Brutality] ~ Every sense of restraint vanished. Attacking everything in sight, regardless of strength.

>>> Attack: [Not possible to evaluate!] - [ Higher perception needed (+ 44)]

[Emergency!]

{Does Host wish to counter?}

{Yes / No}

"Yes! I am too young to die here! I am stuck, and if you can do anything then please don't leave me hanging here!"

[Activating Skill] >> [Consciousness Parasite]

[Transferring Will]

[Eliminate Glacial Bear!]

In the next second Arya's vision fell dark. Then it flashed up again. Notifications popped up.

[Skill successfully applied!]

[Consciousness merged with: Apex Shadow Crow (LvL. 239)]

[Stats merged!]

[Beginning battle…]

"Hello human. I like your blood. It smells exquisite!"

A dark voice resounded in Arya's consciousness.

"Huh?!? What? Who is speaking?"

A hoarse chuckle was heard and then an answer.

"Dummy. I am the crow. You should give me a name later, in exchange for my help!"

"Huh? Your help? For what?" Arya was baffled.

"I am going to save your ass, silly."

The crow chuckled and spread its wings.

"Just watch and learn!"

Even if Anya wanted to say anything about this language, she just kept quiet and watched.

[Searching for weak spots…]

[Weak spot found!]

[ R-shoulder. Below shoulder blade!]

>>> Attack: [Penetrating Pick] >> use [0.3 % /total strength]

>>> Repeat until penetration through fur-coat.

The crow dashed down. It penetrated its left shoulder until a wound could be seen. The bear had managed to raise its claw for an attack. But the instant it did that a new instruction popped up.

>>> Evasive maneuver: [No skill] >> Flutter upwards.

The crow did as told. And moved aligned with the notifications.

>>> Swerve to 'R' >> [2;7 degree]

A swoosh was heard. The bear noticed this and swung its claw more left. Causing it to loose balance and tumbling a bit. This caused a few drops of blood to spill out. The drops landed exactly on the palm of Arya's body.

>>> Task: Stall it. Don't inflict harm or damage to the creature.

[Disentangling consciousness]

"Looks like I have to take over for a few seconds. Well then, see ya' girl!"

The crows voice could be heard, and then Arya's vision tuned black.

[Transferring Host's consciousness]

This crimson message popped up. And she felt herself insider her body. Her few had changed and Arya could tell that she was inside her body again.

The crow dashed down again in an instant. It was now in range of the bear, this aggravated the bear who tried thrashed at the crow.

Simultaneously Arya felt a drop of blood touching her palm exactly where the pattern was located. Instantly upon touch messages popped up.

[Blood-bond established!]

{Does Host wish to block movements?}

[Success rate: 70 %]

>>> Skill needed: [Blood Paralyzation LvL.5 <+ >]

{Yes / No}

"Yes. Just do it."

[Paralyzation initialized]

[Skill activated! (- 20 EP)]

>>> Energy (EP): 150 / 1000

[!Critical low energy]

The instant the message was shown, I could see the movements of the bear slow down. Only one second later he had stopped moving entirely.

[Initializing lifeblood acquisition]

[0 % / 100 %]

[Estimated time: 20 minutes.]

[EP cost: 1 per/sek.]

>>> Skill needed: [Lifeblood acquisition LvL.5 <+ >]

{Does host wish to acquire lifeblood?}

{Yes/No}

"Huh?! What is this now?"

[Skill can be looked up under section <Skills > in section <Register >]

{Does host wish to acquire lifeblood?}

{Yes/No}

"Do I really have to? Is it beneficial? It uses so much energy up!"

Arya though as she calculated the usage of EP based on her current EP.

>>> Energy (EP): 130 / 1000

She was about to think of not accepting when a quest window popped up.

[Lerner's Quest] - [001 / 001]

>>> Proceed with one lifeblood acquisition.

<x > + 20 skill points

<o > [No penalty issued. Learners quest.]

"What! A quest? This seems like a system!" Arya thought.

She was well aware what a system was. It was a means to upgrade yourself. Everyone had one if they were classified as adventurer. But usually it would only allow you to see your status, name, LvL, age, occupations and race. In our modern world it was something like an ID card. Usually it looked like this:

*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—* *—*—*—*

|Name: Arya S.

|Status: -o- <D-Grade >

|Race: Human

|LvL. 20

|Age: 22

|Occupation: Mage

*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—* [ID-Card] *—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*

Everybody had a different color, based on your social standing. Aryas was usually blue indicating a normal low-class stand.

Now that this thing was issuing a quest Arya was interested and wanted to know what these skill points were.

So she decided to accept the lifeblood.

"Yes." A silent female voice could be heard. It was Arya. She was still lying on the ground but her body had almost stopped bleeding and her eyes were glowing in the same crimson colors as the crows.

[Initializing acquisition.]

[1 %/ 100 %]

As the gauge went up as Anya stared at her surroundings still struggling to free herself from these silky blades of grass.

The sticky ferns had completely entangled her.

[2 % / 100 %]

[ - 1 EP ]

Anya ignored these messages and continued to struggle for freedom.

[Host is advices to stop moving or energy shrinking is doubled!]

[ Result: Failed acquisition!]

Even though she wanted to free herself she was not willing to double the decrease of her energy and fail this. So she decided to stay still and wait.