Mana Veins
Kai's eyes widened as he fell to the ground, his mouth open in a silent scream. The pain was overwhelming, definitely up there with the worst he had felt.
In a desparate attempt, Kai clawed at his wrists, desperately trying to get the pain to stop. If felt like his blood was boiling, his veins being branded by fire, but it wasn't actually his veins that was hurting him.
In close proximity to his actual veins, a thin blue line started to shimmer in and out of existence. The blue line wrapped around Kai's normal veins, becoming ever so slightly thicker with every passing second.
But the thicker they got, the worse the pain became. His veins continued to burn hotter, but now they started to close in on themselves, as if they were being constricted by a horrifying snake.
The cat watched in silence as blood started to seep out of the thinner areas Kai's skin, as if being pushed through by some unknown force.
Kai, realising that clawing at his wrists wasn't working, activated Soul Flame and put all the additional boosted stat points into Constitution. He wasn't sure if that would help at all, he just wanted to try something in an attempt to lessen the pain.
Carefully and painfully, he manipulated the flames to hug as close to his body as they could in an effort to lessen the pain. Even though the flames did not burn Kai in any way, because of how close he was to the ground, it started to heat up and offer Kai a sense of comfort.
The flames also started to burn away all the blood coating Kai and the ground, seeing it as a nuisance.
The cat watched the boy curiously, wondering what was up with that green flame.
They had known previously that upgrading your Mana Veins was not a pleasant experience, but as long as one could push through the pain, the benefits were massive.
The cat didn't want to throw Kai off the idea of upgrading his Mana Veins by mentioning the excruciating pain, so they remained silent, hoping that they would just be able to push through the pain and take full advantage of the enhancement.
But to the cat's surprise, Kai was actually doing better than majority of the other participants in the past who had bought the Mana Vein Enhancement. Majority started crying and wailing seconds after the process began, and while Kai had attempted to claw at his wrists, other participants clawed at their whole body, ripping off their own skin in an effort to get the pain to stop.
Kai's whole body burned, both from Soul Flame and the process of enhancing his Mana Veins. Time passed torturously slow, ever second felt like an hour being burned alive.
But finally, the burning pain started to lessen.
Three minutes and fifty-two seconds after it began, the process of enhancing his Mana Veins was complete.
Still, even after it was over, Kai did not move. He stayed completetly skill, lying on the charred ground while holding his breath, not wanting to move even a single centimetre.
After steeling himself, Kai exhaled and started writhing in agony again, the aftereffects of the enhancement kicking in.
Luckily, that was the end of the pain.
Upon the rickety wooden stand, the cat's eyes widened as it caught a glimpse of a second set of veins that travelled alongside Kai's normal veins, these veins a faint blue colour. However, this was something that should only happen if the being was a god or had extremely high quality Mana Veins.
However, the next moment, the additional blue veins paled and faded away. They were still there, just not visible anymore.
But the cat had seen them, and they knew...
The boy lying on the ground had some of the highest quality Mana Veins, nearly comparable to some of the elites of the Multiverse.
"Huh... Well, would you look at that..."
Groaning, Kai turned his head to glare up at the cat and said:
"I really hate you. No warning? Now I'm... even happier that I used my free choice on the glimpse of my fate."
The cat froze, it's eyes widening at the fact Kai even had the strength to do that after what he had just gone through. They then chuckled as the stood up on the stand and pounced off, approaching the tired Kai.
"Don't hate me, trust me, it wasn't a nice thing to watch. Still, enhancing your Mana Veins was a wise choice, it will definitely benefit you in the future.
However, I would rather not have the participant who made me the most money hating me, so I'll make it up to you."
A ball of white light formed above the cat's head, blinding Kai for a moment. A second later, the ball shot forward and hit against Kai's back.
However, to Kai's surprise, there was no pain upon impact. In fact, Kai felt the lingering pain lessen.
The pain continued to dull and fade until it was practically non existent. The areas his body where his veins were more visible, like his wrists, still throbbed, but it was a lot less sore than what it was.
"Thanks." Kai grumbled, still bitter about the fact that another one of his upgrades had come in the form of excruciating pain. When was he going to end up like those main characters in stories and get a power up in the form of a secret tome or a blessing or something, not forming a new organ or peering into the soul of some unknown being.
But Kai was also curious about that ball of light the cat had used, it definitely wasn't some low level healing magic, so what was it?
"Say" Kai began to speak as he sat up, his body creaking in disapproval. "Are you also a god?"
The cat lied down on the ground beside Kai, stretching it's body. It remained silent for a few moments before answering Kai's question.
"I've been called that a couple of times, yeah, so I guess you could say I am."
Kai's eyes widened slightly, but they quickly returned to normal. This was the second time he had met a god, it's not like he was going to count Eye of The Moon blessing the Demon, they weren't actually there for that.
"So what's your shtick? The gods I've heard of always have some sort of theme or title or something like that."
Which was true, after all, Kai only knew The Ever-changing, who's name practically revealed their shtick. Eye of The Moon had cursed a moon, which was also to do with their title. And then there was Elysia the All-Knowing, the one who offered her powers to allow tutorial participants to catch glimpses of their own future, a power befitting her title.
The car simply shrugged in response.
"I don't have a shtick, I'm just a humble shopkeeper. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm just here to make some money and have a good life, tutorial points are always worth a fair bit when converted."
Kai sighed and shook his head. There definitely was nothing normal about this cat, that fact was only reinforced when Kai used Soul Sense and looked at its soul.
Kai's eyes widened in shock as he gazed upon the soul of a god, it was-
The cat's head suddenly turned to glare at Kai.
"Kid, a few words of advice, whatever sort of skill you're using right now, don't bother using it on a god. They can sense it, and they'll probably be less forgiving then I am."
Kai froze and quickly deactivated Soul Sense. The cat's soul was something he had only gotten to look at for a couple of seconds, but it was a sight that Kai would never forget.
"Sorry" Kai sighed, before asking another question. "You mentioned converting tutorial points though, to what? Is Units the universal currency or something?"
The cat quickly returned to its normal attitude, yawning as it stretched again.
"It's the most common currency anyway. Some Subdimensions still use their own currency, but Units can be converted to any currency freely, so it doesn't really matter.
Still, I'll let you in on it, a single tutorial point is worth ten thousand Units."
The cat grinned as it chuckled, imagining how much money it was going to make after this tutorial.
The previous ones, first place had only made a maximum of 600000 points, but now first place had more than 800000.
And there was also the fact that second place had made more than the first places of previous tutorials...
"So how rich are you then? I'm assuming you have quite a lot of Units if you've been selling in the tutorial. Actually, how many tutorials have you sold in?"
The cat sighed wistfully, reminiscing about the good old days.
"I've been selling in tutorials since the third one, after all, I only came around in the second one. As for how many Units I have? Hah, another rule for you.
I'm assuming you've been told never ask a lady their age. Well, you should also never ask a shopkeeper how many Units they have, it's a bit of a sore topic for those who have less than me."
The cat chuckled, but Kai frowned slightly.
"Third tutorial huh? How many tutorials have their been?"
The cat whistled softly in response.
"Hoo, well, let's see. Started in the third, took a break in the twelfth, take away the three, multiply by four, double money round and... there's been about two hundred, give or take, I don't really count, you know?"
Kai sighed softly.
"I see. What were the other tutorials like in comparison to mine?"
The cat shrugged.
"Well, yours was pretty bad, but you had allies. If I had to say, I think this tutorials second place had the worst tutorial out of the last... fifty three of them."
Kai's eyes widened.
"It was that bad?"
The cat nodded its head.
"That little highlight reel that bitch created didn't even show half of what they went through, seems like they were a little more biased to you."
Kai sighed softly once more.
"Well, I don't know what that is. I'm guessing I'm making her a lot of money or something."
The cat's tail wagged as it stood up, making its way back to the wooden stand it owned.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you were. Anyways, there's still a few minutes left, so you should use this time to go over your purchases. Even I have no idea whats going to happen to you after this, or even who's winning the bid on you."
Kai nodded his head, stretching and getting ready to do some last minute preparation.
"Alright then, I know what I'm doing first."
A grin slowly made its way onto Kai's face as he ignored the pain and summoned one of his purchased items.
It was time to turn one of his most useless skills into one of his most useful ones.