Chapter 9: Rebirth
Luckily, he was deep in the cave, and shut himself inside with a huge boulder blocking most of the sound from leaving. What made him scream like a pig, was the intense pain he felt from his abdomen. Scalding pain that felt like eating a lava, the pores of his body opened as it emitted hot steam.
Unable to bear the pain that already spread throughout his body, he lost his consciousness. What he didn't know that during the time he was out, the extreme temperature emitted by the golden drop of blood didn't diminish in the slightest, still burning his body like in a furnace. Slowly, his organs were burned to ashes, as his blood evaporated and skin became red and crisp. Hours passed, became days as the process of rebuilding his body is still ongoing. The third day of the process, the bones on his body was the last part of his body to be destroyed.
Ashes of his remains scattered beneath the floating blood, which now lost it's golden hue. Suddenly, it squirmed like an excited kid. The blood rapidly expands, as it formed what looks like a human shape outline. Like the process the system made when he was still imagining his image as he arrived first on that white room, from blood, to tissues, organs bones and skin. He was quickly molded, like a doll from clay.
At the fourth day, the last to form was his hair. Slowly opening his eyes, he felt refreshed and energized. But remembering the hellish pain he went through, he shuddered and the excitement of acquiring the new cheat in the form of the incomplete bloodline all vanished.
Taking in deep breaths, he noticed that the air around him nourishes his body. Looking at his arms, his skin now emits somewhat a shiny jadelike feature, flawless. One thing made him frown, was that he felt weak, so weak that he felt heavier than it was before. Even though he feels his strength slowly rising, he was nowhere his peak. If compared to his past strength, he felt like an ant against a dragon.
Alex pondered for a while, thinking what it could be as he then checked his status.
[Alex Kane - Primordial Human <Celestial> (Incomplete 1/3)
State: Reconstructing
Physical Strength: Human Immortal (Early Stage)
Mental Strength: Human Immortal
(Early Stage)
Divinity: Manifestation(?) (?%)
Bloodline Skills: (1)
<Breath of the Primals>
- Forcefully draws essence from the universe through the pores, increasing physical and mental strength by 2 stages in 1 hour
Cooldown: 24 hours
Aftereffects: Decrease in physical and mental strength by 2 stages (1 hour duration)
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Bloodline Traits: (1)
<Immense Growth>
- All first born creatures are cherished by the universe, resulting in a prejudice against the later generations of life forms. Increases comprehension +100%, essence absorption speed +100%
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'Is this due to that system update?'
What he saw made him somewhat unfamiliar of the status panel. He began to ask the system about it especially the question mark on his divinity stat.
[The Divinity or deific force is the 'spiritual' strength of all deities. As the host haven't yet reached the minimum Lesser Deity level, the '?' indicates that the host's deific force is locked.]
"Then what's with that 'Manifestation stage'? How did I get it? Are there higher levels than that?"
[Affirmative host, Manifestation of deific force means that the 'spiritual' strength of the host can be 'manifested' outside the physical body. The increase of strength also depends on the percent clarity of the 'manifested' image. The higher percentage, the stronger the deific force would be.]
[During the host's training in the 'Chamber of the Universe', the host entered the state of epiphany during meditation. Due to the host's blood impurity, the 'spiritual' essence the host accumulated only reached the manifestation stage even after a hundred of millennium in epiphany.]
[Negative, host. The host is currently low levelled to acquire the sufficient information.]
Alex sorted the information he got from the system. 'W-wait, i meditated for a hundred millennium!? I thought i only slept, like hours. What the fuck was that!? I'm an old boomer now!? 'Chamber of the Universe'!?'
He became more and more crept up the more he realized how absurd the things were. Calming himself, he asked one last question.
"Icy, why do I feel so weak?"
[The pure blood of Primordial Human triggered the host to a state of rebirth. As a human with diluted blood, the acquired bloodline chose to ultimately destroy the entirety of the host's being. The feeling of weakness the host experiences is due to the body being remolded from the start. As the host slowly adapts to the surrounding essence, the body will also return to it's previous state.]
"So that's why the air feels nourishing to me, hmm.. so this is what cultivators in those novels call 'qi' huh.. Wait, I think I forgot something.. Oh right."
'Shop'
What Alex saw was an array of dazzling items encased in a laminated glass. The square frames on it have different colors. There are white, blue, yellow, orange and red, with mostly white taking up the whole space. Above, he saw 'Newbie Traveler' just beneath the [Shop] word.
Skimming down, he saw bizzare things such as potions, pills, armors and weapons, even numerous beasts' body parts such as cores, hides, and organs.
With curiosity, he began to tap on one of the red items, which only numbered up to 10.
[Archaic Dragon Velskud's Heart]
- the heart of a Greater Almighty dragon, consumption will improve one's physique, acquire a draconic bloodline and increase deific force up to 30%
Requirements: Physical and Mental Strength of Peak Deity and above, minimum of 50% manifestation
Price: 3 billion points
"What the fuck!? Isn't it too overpowered!? But wait, it has requirements though, and the points.."
"Icy, where can I get shop points?"
[The host can acquire shop points through selling items on the shop. Higher rarity of item means higher selling price.]
"Does the shop also accept spirit stones?" Alex began probing the system, as he starts to feel the excitement of grinding and farming for items, like the one he often plays before.
'My god tier items!! Wait for me!!'
[The shop accepts any kinds of items, from spirit stones, up to living objects such as herbs, beasts etc. The exchange ratio of spirit stones to points is 1 high grade : 1 point]
"I can sell living organisms too?"
[Affirmative, host. The host only needs to capture a creature alive and use a sealing card to trap it and sell it to the shop.]
Alex began to skim upwards, as he remembered he saw a sealing card sold by the shop. The cards also have corresponding levels, such as, beastlings(human immortal) with price of 10 point. Every stage next to other have increment of 10 times it's price.
Alex nodded and thought 'It feels like pokemon(1) and shit. Pokemon! Gotta catch 'em all!(2)'
He began to hum his childhood banger as he walked to the entrance of the cave. There, he saw the 3 meter tall boulder, as he began to push it on the side.
"Huuppp." With a grunt, he successfully pushed the boulder as he thought 'I feel like Lord Jesus(3).. Oh sorry, please forgive me, oh lord.'
He began to regret thinking of that as he walked, still feeling the cool breeze of fresh air strengthening him from the top, then towards the bottom.
'Wait, bottom'? He looked downwards as he saw his little baby hanging like a sock for Christmas.
"Icy, can you give me some clothes? It's breezy down here, and I think it's not appropriate to walk around the city naked right?"
[Ding! You have obtained White Linen Clothes (White)]
[Ding! You have obtained Leather Trousers (White)]
[Ding! You have obtained White Linen Underwear (White)]
[Ding! You have obtained Leather Boots (White)]
Equipping the items, he thought 'I really look like some level 1 newbie with this appearance..' as he began to go back to the city borders.
.....
In a far, far away place, a man sitting on a lotus leaf with bamboo shoots all around him was calmly sitting in a meditative posture. Refreshing rays of sunlight, bees and flowers all surrounded him as if they are children waiting for praise from their father. This picturesque beauty of the man and his surroundings was like in a heavenly painting, with an otherworldly aura that permiates throughout the mountains.
Suddenly, the eyelids of the man shuddered, as he lifted his eyes calmly, letting out an ethereal breath that steadily slowing the pace of time, until it went to a brief stop.
"A kin..?"
With a mellow voice, the stopped time went back to normal as the man went back to his slumbering, dumbfounding the nearby creatures such as the bees and insects dangling around.
(1) Reference to the hit anime series 'Pokemon', where cute beasts are captured by snotty kids to do some 'dog-fighting'
(2) The theme song of the anime
(3) Reference to the Christian Bible, the Son of God 🙏