38) Bloody Rebirth

"Wait wait wait, what do you mean cosmic affinity? Aren't we supposed to be limited to just one affinity?"

As if answering his question, a system notification appeared on his vision.

[New Title acquire [Inquisitor]]

[Inquisitor - you are free of the rules and laws of the world.]

"Just that? Nothing else? So does that mean I can have as many affinities as I want? Wait, what is this Devour ability?"

[Devour - the user converts anything they eat into energy. This can be given in the form of gold coins, XP, stat points, spells, spell level-ups, spell evolutions, or affinities. Only works if it is the first time eating a certain item.]

"WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK! So now I need to eat even more?"

Ryker was lost in thought. He now had meant to become more powerful and get revenge on Golak. Then, a smile soon crept upon his face. Golak's execution was meant to be next week, he didn't have the power needed to save him, but now? All he had to do was eat different things and pray to get the things he wanted. If he could get a flight spell with the air affinity or a teleportation one with space. Hell, he could even get a contracted flying beast or summon. The obstacles in his path had been removed. He was free.

Sadly, true freedom comes at a cost. He had so many options he was feeling overwhelmed. From all of the feasible paths he could take, only one would allow him to reach his goal in a week's time. But what if he chose the wrong one? With true freedom also comes the fear of choices. He realized every single thing he did would have a major impact on his progress and in the world itself. He was even hating himself now for just standing there without doing anything but he didn't know what to do.

As if protected by some kind of plot armor, a growl shook him out of his petrified mental state. He looked around just to see a huge bear with front arms as thick as old tree trunks, it had some complicated orange lines covering its entire body that completely contrasted its black fur. He was standing more like a gorilla than a bear. It also had a slight silvery shine on its eyes. Ryker immediately recognized it. It was an Eclipsed Bear.

Eclipsed Bears were a branch of Dawn Bears, however, due to their brutality, they had been cast away by the group and had become loners. Their anger and loneliness were strong enough to drive them mad. They were so blinded by their fury that they literally lost their eyesight. Giving their eyes that characteristic silvery shine often seen in people with cataracts.

Even though it looked intimidating for normal people, Ryker only saw it as an experiment. He was dying to bite a chunk of its meat to see if he gained anything useful. The innate ability of the Eclipsed Bears was Intimidation, sadly, it only worked on weak-willed individuals and Ryker had 100 points in willpower.

When the bear realized that its intimidation had failed, it had a bad feeling. The individual he had regarded as lunch was more powerful than he thought. But, even if it was thinking properly, it was not going to back away. It shoved away its instincts and charged at Ryker who had been dying to see if his title brought any other perks. Unfortunately, it was not the time to find that out.

The bear sent three powerful red claw projections to Ryker who just stood still. When he looked down he realized he was unaffected by them. It was due to his high resistance stat. When he saw he was not going to be able to test his new title, he decided to just eat the bear instead. He flashed and before the bear could react, its skull had been bashed by a powerful uppercut.

Ryker then proceeded to grab a piece of raw meat and took a bite out of it. Blood was dripping down his chin when he saw a notification.

[[Starfall] spell acquired]

[Starfall - bombard an area with three waves of five falling stars for 10s. 20MP. Cooldown: 10s. Cast time: none. Damage: 10 for every star.]

A burst of manic laughter echoed across the forest as Ryker tried every single part of the bear. He bit the eyeballs, the brain, the stomach, the fur, he even drank the blood of the poor bear. He didn't realize that none of these items gave him any new stuff. He was too endorsed in literally bathing himself in the blood of his enemies.

[Due to the players' mental instability, the passive skill, [Calm Mind] has been granted by the gods]

And finally, Ryker came back to his senses. He was now drenched in blood, what once was a white coat had now turned into a deep red one. He looked towards the mauled corpse of the bear and felt as the raw meat came back up. He did not have anything to throw up as he had converted it into energy as stated by the Devour ability but he kept gaging for around twenty minutes.

"Alright well, now I need to learn the water spell [wash] to get my clothes cleaned."

He knew he was going to go back to the city now as he had completed his quests. The only thing was that he was required to wear all white when entering the city and currently he was all red. So he decided to stay a few days here in the mountains eating everything he saw to gain as many spells and things as he could.

He tasted the dirt, the grass, the leaves of the trees, he even bit a chunk of a branch off. He found a stream of water and tasted the rocks, the water, he even tried tasting the air. He went up into the mountains to find the Souleaters village; it was meant to have a lot of things he could eat. On his way there, he would slay the first new beast he saw but he would also ignore the ones he had already tasted, like the Eclipsed Bear and the Crescent Wolves. He had also decided he would not sleep and instead he would continue hunting. That went on for two days and he had gained a lot of new spells and even a new affinity.

His stats had also changed and he even leveled up. He was not happy with his advancement tho as he knew he needed to move even faster. Golak was running out of time. Unknown to him, Golak was also suffering greatly and it was because the king had changed his execution once again. However, this time, they did not tell him when it was going to be. The only word he got was "soon". It was also a torture method. Making the victim think every day would be his last.

When Ryker arrived at the entrance of a cave he knew he was in the right place. There were claw scratches all over the walls and floors. The entrance had been modified and widened for the Souleaters to move more comfortably. Of course, the first thing Ryker did was lick the walls. There was moss, dust, even some salts that could all give him an overpowered spell or even evolve one of his own. He was not going to give that opportunity up. If anyone saw him they would say he had lost his mind.

He had also been using his spells while walking until he exhausted his mana to level them up. He needed to evolve them soon as they were too basic for his current stats. The spells he used the most were the ones related to his Runic affinity. Once he saw what they did, they piqued an interest within him.

Level 16 (50%)

Name: Ryker

Affinities: Food, cosmic, runic, neutral

HP: 1040

MP: 2230

Stamina: 2040

Strength: 104

Vitality: 104

Resistance: 100

Dexterity: 100

Speed: 104

Intelligence: 114

Wisdom: 109

Willpower: 102

Perception: 103

Charisma: 110

Luck: 100

Spells:

Food: [Cherry Bombs], [Gummy Bear]

Cosmic: [Starfall]

Runic: [Strength], [Defense]

Neutral: [Power Shot], [Calm Mind], [Claw Slash]

Free stat points: 0]

He learned that he would have to draw the runes for them to work. The defense one could either block attacks if drawn in the air or if drawn into a surface it would make that surface harder to break. When drawn on himself it would give him a temporary buff in resistance. The strength one could be drawn in weapons to increase their attacks or on himself. He found out that he could also combine them. When strength was drawn in the air, nothing would happen, but when it was drawn onto the floating defense rune, then the shield would be tougher to break. He was looking forward to getting new runes.

He had also realized that as soon as he stepped near any type of civilization he would have to only use one type of spell. He could not go around showing everyone he was not limited to one affinity as long as he was not powerful enough to defend himself.