Achieving the First Awakening

After flying through the forest for about an hour or so straight at this point, Bell had noticed that there was something odd going on in this forest. What he noticed was that, other than the wolf he had come across, which he had siphoned to death to obtain its Constitution skill, there were rarely any other animal out in the forest…save for a few docile ones appearing here and there, of course.

Naturally, that made him ponder as to why that was the case, why the forest did not have a lot of predatory animals roaming around. Normally, there would be packs of them darting around the forest ready to eat the prey, or perhaps fight against other packs of predatory animals to find out who was stronger among them. But right now, no sign of that could be seen at all. It was as if the predatory animals were avoiding him, who became stronger by siphoning their blood.

"This is definitely weird," Bell muttered to himself, looking at the position of the sun once more to find out how much time had passed since he had arrived at the forest. Fortunately, it was then that he realized that the reason why there were rarely any predatory animals out and about in the forest was because of the position of the sun.

"Taking into consideration how much time I took to arrive at the forest from the fenced-off area of that human couple, as well as the time I've spent wandering around the forest to look for more animals to siphon, I think those animals are still sleeping," Bell said as he could not help but feel that his words sounded off.

Well, that was because in his previous life, when the light of dawn started to appear, the predatory animals would start waking up so they would be able to kill the docile animals that were still more or less asleep at that time…or at least, that's what he knew from watching those videos about predatory animals in the past.

"Then again, this is a different world, so the rules from Earth might not apply here," Bell said to himself not long after, assuring himself that his thought process did not sound crazy. Nevertheless, he continued to buzz through the forest in search of an animal to siphon.

Of course, he could opt siphoning the blood of docile animals in order to increase his Constitution. But from what he knew so far regarding Constitution skills, the weaker the animal, the weaker the boost in Constitution from the skill, and the more animals of the same species he would have to siphon blood from.

In his mind, he would be better off doing that when he was overwhelmingly stronger than them. Well, if one considered that he had the tenth of a human's strength inside him, then he was definitely stronger than them. But to Bell, he wouldn't be assured of his success in making sure those docile animals didn't escape unless he at least had the strength of an entire human, or a Constitution stat of 1.

Fortunately, there was the saying that went 'good things come to those who wait'. And so, after about ten more minutes or so of continuous flying, he eventually arrived at what was a large river. Naturally, he could not help but stop a few meters away from it as he felt the cold air coming from its stream, making him slightly shiver from the cold…even though he was a mosquito.

Nevertheless, he was left in awe at the sheer size of the river. He wasn't sure if it was 10 meters or 20 meters, but he definitely felt that the width of the river wouldn't be less than 10. As for its length, it definitely went beyond a few kilometers, given how he couldn't even see the ends of the river with his wider field of vision.

In any case, it did not take long for him to stop being in awe by the sight of the river as the sight of an animal moving through the water instead captured his field of vision. As if his eyes had a target locking mechanism on it, his vision fixated on the sight of a scaly back bobbing up and down the water, intentionally swishing the water to make sure prey moved away from it.

Thankfully, the scaly animal wasn't too deep into the water, allowing Bell to see the true appearance of this animal. Judging from its movements, it seemed like a predator waiting for the right prey to catch. As for its appearance, from the olive-colored scales covering its body, to its long and pointed snout, it did not take that long for Bell to realize that what he was looking at…was an alligator.

No, wait. A crocodile.

Seeing that the crocodile was idly moving through the water in search for its prey, Bell decided to move closer towards the crocodile, waiting for the time its back would be above the water surface.

While waiting for the crocodile to show its back to him, he decided to check through the system how much Impure Blood Energy he could siphon from the crocodile. Muttering the phrase that allowed the system to do its magic, a small screen soon appeared on the top left portion of his field of vision.

'Remaining IBE: 200/200'

"Huh. A hundred points less than what the wolf had," Bell muttered to himself as he wondered if he still had to siphon another crocodile in order to max out its Constitution skill. Though, after some time, he thought that if he still had to siphon another crocodile, the amount of Constitution he would get from this one crocodile would probably be more than enough for him to reach a Constitution stat of 0.1.

After waiting for about five minutes or so, the crocodile eventually rose up to the water enough for its back to poke out of the water surface, which Bell instantly took advantage of as he landed on its back as soon as possible. Not long after, he made sure that he aimed his proboscis in between the crocodile's scales, knowing very well how hard it was to poke through.

Just as he was about to poke his proboscis and siphon the blood out of this crocodile, he pondered over something for a bit before commanding the system, "System, if it's possible, all Impure Blood Energy I obtain from this crocodile shall be used to upgrade [Blood Sac Proboscis]."

Ding!

Not long after, the system responded to his command with a notification sound as it replied, "The owner's words have been taken into consideration. All Impure Blood Energy siphoned from the next species shall be used to upgrade [Blood Sac Proboscis]."

It then continued, "If the owner wishes to use this feature next time, the owner can opt to create a shortcut for it."

At first, Bell thought about creating a shortcut right now, but then he remembered that the crocodile might dive down at any moment. With that, he placed this thought at the back of his head later as he poked his proboscis in between the crocodile's scales before using his blood siphoning efficiency to its maximum.

Slurp…

Ding!

Surprisingly, it did not take long for a Constitution skill to form from the crocodile's blood, though that was a given since Bell's current blood siphoning efficiency was more than enough to siphon a tenth of its blood every moment.

Naturally, Bell went ahead and commanded the system in his mind to bring up a screen that showed him his recent notifications, allowing him to see the boost brought about by the Constitution skill he had gotten from the crocodile.

[You have obtained the Constitution Skill 'Crocodile's Vitality'.]

[Crocodile's Vitality (0/10) -> (1/10)]

[Constitution +0.0018]

After making a few calculations in his head, he calculated that as long as he had leveled up this Constitution skill to Level 5, he would have obtained enough Constitution to reach a Constitution stat of 0.1. With that in mind, he continued to siphon the crocodile's blood as more and more notifications regarding the Constitution skill upgrading and his [Blood Sac Proboscis] upgrading resounded in his mind.

As for the crocodile, when it first noticed that it was gradually getting weaker, it could not help but instantly dive downward in the hopes of being able to recuperate its strength. Unfortunately, the speed at which Bell siphon its blood was so fast, that by the time the crocodile thought it was a good idea to dive down, almost half of its strength was lost.

Although it would still be able to dive down, it was a speed slower than it was used to. Nevertheless, it didn't give up, getting the feeling that if it dived down, it would be able to escape this predicament. And so, it started to dive down…and stopped.

Just as it had dived down about ten centimeters or so, all of the blood in its body was siphoned by Bell, which meant that the crocodile had at lost all strength. In other words, it was now dead.

Ding!

[The being is now dead.]

[Crocodile's Vitality (9/10) -> (MAX)]

[Constitution +0.0018]

[Blood Sac Proboscis Lv. 6 -> 10]

[Maximum Capacity +4, Siphoning Efficiency +4]

[You have obtained the requirements needed to evolve 'Enhanced Blood Storage'.]

[The previous command given by the owner has now been disabled.]

After Bell had siphoned all of the blood from the crocodile, he instantly went through the notifications he had received, only to be surprised that the amount of blood inside the crocodile was actually more than enough to make its Constitution skill reach the maximum level. With that, he could not help but mutter to himself, "So, it's as strong as a wolf, but the Constitution it gives is less than a bull. Does it have something to do with the ferocity of the animal?"

Either way, he placed this thought at the back of his head as only one thought had occupied his mind at this instant. Did he reach a Constitution stat of 0.1?

Slightly nervous, he then asked, "System…show me my Constitution stat."

Ding!

Oblivious to what Bell was feeling, the system responded to his command as usual as a small screen appeared in front of his field of vision. After looking at the number written on the screen, Bell's nervousness had disappeared in an instant, being replaced with extreme joy.

'Constitution: 0.11095'

"I finally reached a Constitution of 0.1!" Bell shouted with intense happiness not long after. Surprisingly, the system took this as a sign that Bell had reached a milestone. It did not take long for the system to find out that Bell had reached a Constitution stat of 0.1, allowing him to access another portion of the system's features.

A few seconds later, the system's voice resounded in his mind, saying, "The owner has finally achieved a Constitution stat of 0.1, allowing the owner to undergoing the first bloodline awakening. Would the owner like to undergo bloodline awakening right now?"

Hearing that he was now eligible to undergo a bloodline awakening, Bell instantly thought that this was the feature the system was talking about that offered a portion of the effects brought about by cultivation. Then again, since this was the goal Bell had worked towards, and the fact that he had no other thing to do with the system other than to upgrade his skills, he didn't really have a choice.

"I should move to a dry place first, though," Bell said to himself as he remembered that he was still on the back of the crocodile he siphoned to death. After landing on top of a nearby tree branch, he then responded to the system's question, saying, "Yes, I would like to undergo bloodline awakening."

Ding!

A few seconds later, a screen, bigger than most screens he had seen so far, appeared in front of his field of vision. Not long after that, four buttons manifested on top of it as text gradually appeared on the four buttons.

At that moment, Bell instantly knew what he was going to do. Although the term 'bloodline awakening' sounded incredibly fancy, in actuality, it was none other than him choosing his evolution path in the future.

________

Please choose which bloodline you would like to awaken:

[Adult Mosquito]

[Crimson Piercer Mosquito]

[Swift Wings Mosquito]

[Night Walker Mosquito]

________

It did not take long for Bell to come to the conclusion that the choices he had were pretty vague. Although he had a feeling of what bloodline did what from the names themselves, he knew that names alone weren't enough for him to make a choice. With that, he asked the system, "Is it possible to get a short description of the choices I have?"

In response, the system replied, "The owner already has that option enabled. The owner just has to say the word 'Identify' before the name of the bloodline itself."

"Oh," Bell uttered not long after. Hearing that, he knew very well that he wouldn't choose [Adult Mosquito] as it was just the grown-up version of his current species, [Young Mosquito]. As for the remaining three, from the name themselves, he knew that they would change something about him, so he would definitely choose from them.

"Identify [Crimson Piercer Mosquito]," Bell commanded, to which the system replied not long after, "The Crimson Piercer Mosquito is a type of mosquito that's inclined towards blood and everything else related to blood. If the owner chooses this bloodline, the amount of Impure Blood Energy they could obtain would increase by a slight amount while they would obtain an offensive skill reliant on the amount of Impure Blood Energy they have, which is called [Bloodied Proboscis]."

"Hmm…I'll have to pass," Bell said after listening to the system's explanation. Unsurprisingly, he continued with the next one, commanding, "Identify [Swift Wings Mosquito]."

"The Swift Wings Mosquito is a type of mosquito that's inclined towards speed and agility. If the owner chooses this bloodline, their movement speed would increase while they would obtain a skill that would temporarily boost their movement speed even further, which is called [Wind Blessing]," the system soon explained.

"Hmm…this sounds like a good choice…but I have to know what the third choice does first," Bell muttered not long after before commanding one last time, "Identify [Night Walker Mosquito]."

"The Night Walker Mosquito is a type of mosquito that's inclined towards stealth and darkness. If the owner chooses this bloodline, beings would have a harder time trying to detect the owner while they would obtain a skill that would temporarily shroud them from the senses of other beings, which is called [Stealth]," the system explained before ultimately going silent as this was the last choice among the four.

"Hmm…" After listening through the descriptions of the three variants, Bell closed his eyes for a bit as he pondered over which choice he should make. Eventually, he thought that a certain choice among them was along the lines of what he wanted to become in the future. With that, he told the system, "I choose…"

"…"

"[Night Walker Mosquito]."