Three days had passed as Dante sat in the center of the blistering hot cave as still as a rock while his spiritsteel body constantly expanded and compressed with the force of the Fire energy making his body now glowing white hot, black smoke rolling off of his body at regular intervals. Soon his body cooled down back to the ambient temperature of the air around him and his newly refined body shone, refracting the dimming orange glow of the firewater surrounding the small island he carved out of the cave. Dante's cable like limbs had become thicker and coiled tight around a rock that sat nearby straining at the force the limbs applied to it. With a loud cracking sound the rock exploded under Dante's grip and his multitude of limbs flew around the cave in excitement at his newfound strength."I can feel the power flowing into my Limbs, and this cable almost acts like loose muscle just rolling off of me. It flexes, but it is hard to move it properly like something is missing?" The writhing mass of steel muscle pooled under Dante and strained against the rocky ground to lift Dante's light mass off of the ground. " They are too soft to do anything other than crawl and dig with them. they are supposed to be like steel tough and firm but they just feel too limp to be used." Dante called out the Properties screen from the corner of his mind and it flared to life in front of him. The menu had returned to it's dull grey and white text that it had been previously with no trace of the strange colors it had appeared in his latest evolution.
[Properties]
[Existence Rank] 1
[Deaths] 1
[Judgement Destination] The Nine Hells
[Name] Dante
[Race] Ironclad spirit
[EXP] 270
[HP] 4/4
[energy density] 6/6
[Toughness] 5
[Strength] 7
[Dexterity] 4
[Agility] 6
[Intelligence] 3
[Willpower] 20
[Titles] Soul Eater
[Skills] Teir 1Flaming meditation
[Racial Traits] Spirit Adaptation(Locked)
Dante could feel the increase in strength but he had not known it had over doubled in power during his meditation. Even though he felt in tip top shape due to his increased stats his mental fatigue was quickly catching up with him in this barren land he now called home. even his hideout was just a small cave flooded with the burning fire water that was available in hell. The solitude was getting to him and he wanted to be free and break out of this shitty oversized prison and go back to living in the mortal world. He had fallen so far that he did not even remember when he started but the loneliness had heft him to peice himself back together all alone. Dante shook away the fatigue with an audible scraped as the lose limbs scratched against one another as they lightly brushed through the air. He clambered his way out of the small crevice the cave was located in and looked out onto the vast plains that spread out around him covered in blood and reeking of death. Compared to the grizzly sight outside the char filled cave that pooled with burning hot magma that burned to touch and drink felt like a paradise in a vast shark infested ocean. Dante began his journey along the Acheron River so that he could find his way back to his small alone when he needed to rest. He would not return soon he was sure of it being alone had gotten to him and even just interacting with mindless beasts that wished to kill him sent shivers down him. He felt ready to begin hunting here and starting his accent to the peak of this horrifying world and break the binds that held him to this eternal punishment. He would not end up like those lost souls banished to hell just to end up in his or someone else's stomach he would consume all in his path for victory at whatever sick game this [[WORLD [[ had placed him in. "Ahhh to smell the fresh brimstone in the morning must be nice or disgusting I don't really have a clue, can't smell with these anyway." He glanced down at the appendages that rolled off of his body before focusing on his surroundings. Dante stayed alert and kept himself ready for any predators, he learned quickly that he meerly looked like a snack to the demons around him and he was prepared to eat them all the same." I'll show you who the dinner is once I feast on your corpse." Dante quickly turned around when he heard a rock crunch behind him and staring back at him was a set of razor sharp fangs closing in on his midsection of the mass of limbs he had piled himself atop. He lunged back in the closest call he thought possible a single cable was left with a long gash from the demons tooth and tried to get the upper hand while the beast was exposed. A twisted Lance of cables was roughly jammed into the left side of it's neck ,and Dante used the opportunity to Lach his many limbs onto its back and pull himself aboard. The demon growled in anger and began to buck in an attempt to throw Dante off but the spiritsteel held firm and justed tightened his Iron grip into its back drilling into it to wear down at the beast. The demon realized that the plan was not going to work and threw itself to the ground on its back to grind Dante to a paste under its bulk. "Gahhh" Dante screeched out in pain with a metallic wail like that of nails on a chalk border and he struggled under the demons mass. He wrapped his limbs tightly around the creature's neck in an attempt to strangle it which did slow the creature's thrashing about but it was not very effective for killing it. a final slam from the beast dropped Dante's remaining hp to half and his Energy was weakening. at this moment Dante wished he still had that combat skill but That dam thing had destroyed it during his last evolution and he was left to rely on his wit to survive this deadly encounter. Dante steeled himself and quickly took the opening when the beast relaxed its attacks thinking Dante was almost dead and he lached onto the creature's head. He twisted together three wires of steel muscle as beast he could and attacked the demons eye with as much force as he could muster then sent it hurdling into the creature's eye. Lacking the flame energy to fuel the skill he quickly pulled away his Energy reserves to quickly activate the flame meditation skill. Dantes body quickly began to glow red hot and the makeshift Lance of flaming spirtsteel dug deeper into the creature's skull, the cables rapidly unwound themselves to rake through the soft flesh in the skull and tear it up as quickly as they could. the demon howled in pain and it bit down unto a clump of limbs attached to it's neck using as much strength as it could and ripped them off slinging Dante into a nearby bolder. His body cracking the scorch stone from the force of the throw."Akhh dam why so rough you'll get yourself killed acting rash like that." Dante lightly chuckled at his own stupid retort. no one could hear his end and the only witness was the demon looming ahead of him currently scratching at its missing eye a massive gaping wound that reached his brain and blood floowed out of the eye socket and fresh wounds lingering all across its body. Dante was completely beat his hp lingering just over 1.1 and his Energy was depleted below .7 inching dangerously close to running out,so while he could he just laid there in silence. looking at the still recovering demon Dante made up his mind and clambered as close as he dared to the flaming river that laid to his left and daringly stuck one of his wires greedy drinking in the abundant elemental energy. Seeing he still had time a small Crack in the tight ball of wires opened up pulling in the fire water, using his own body as a container burned his insides slowly dwindling his already low hp but he knew this was the only way he would survive. Flaming meditation roared to life quicker than before and the skill rapidly pulled in the energy of the flaming water covering his body in a dim orange glow that was quickly becoming hotter and hotter. Dante left onto the demon and drilled back into its skull his many limbs body constricting the demon while the scent of burning meat wafted into the air as the skin of the demon chared black. it let out one last primal scream as Dante emptied the rest of the firewater into the demon empty eye socket leaving a blackened mess of burning flesh on the ground. as he looked down the blood burned and boiled off of his rippling hot metal and steam diffused the air as he cooled down from using the meditation skill. he looked like a prowling demon countless limbs ripping apart the defeated beast and tearing into its skin as it slowly absorbed the remenants of energy in its body to replenish his reserves. He looked at the pop up that had appeared in his vision with baited interest as he consumed the tasteless mass of energy in front to him.
[1200EXP gained from killing Rank 3 Deathclaw... due to the killing of a creature of 2 ranks above your own a feat has been achieved...[[WORLD[[ Has acknowledged your ability and offers ironcladspirit_Dante a pact of servitude in exchange for power Y/N]
the sudden change in tone had startled Dante and he attempted to back away from the screen,but it just followed him lingering in the corner of his vision." What the hell do they want from me first the weird forced evolution now a contract something here is not right and If I take the contract I'll be playing right into their schemes. no one would just offer up power for free they must need something from me and I don't want to find out what for!" Dante smashed the N button and the appeared screen began to shift and Crack before returning to it's normal grey.
[N acknowledged... now processing feat achievement... title weakling hunter acquired/ skill wrath of the small granted]
Dante cast aside the pop up and pulled his attention to the skill tree and quickly bought the Teir 1 fire affinity and he could feel the effects almost instantly. The hot climate of hell had become more bearable and the fire that surrounded him seemed to call out to him urging him towards it like a dog urging it's master to go on a walk. After a while the sharp increase in awareness of the Fire around him faded to the background and he looked at the next 2 options in the skill tree to chose from.
[ lesser fireball/ A elemental attack based skill that creates a charged orb of fire that explodes on impact.]
[Teir 1 Fire resistance/ decresses damage taken from fire based attacks and enviorments.]
Looking at the new options Dante thanked his lucky stars but after looking at their price tag he no longer felt the inclination. The price was growing at a fast rate. every ring of Skills cost exponentially more meaning attaining all of those unlocks was a pipe dream."Ah well getting everything is being too greedy anyway, I need some stronger offensive attacks and the fireball looks like it will come in handy." Dante bought the new lesser fireball skill for 600EXP bringing his current total to 870EXP no where near what he needed to Unlock his racial trait. His Energy had refilled to about half so Dante decided to try out what this fireball could do. Energy rapidly drained from him coalescing into a small tightly packed orb of flames that threatened to consume him if he lost control of the skill. After draining 2 points of energy he let the fireball go to prevent it from going wild out of his control and it whizzed through the air with a light crackling sound before crashing into a nearby rock. The ball rapidly doubled in size when it made impact and burst into a shower of flaming chunks as the rock was shattered under its explosive might."I feel like the system was holding out on me if this is what 2 points of energy looks like as an explosion what more can this energy do. it seems like it is universal, a blank form of energy that gets molded into whatever it is commanded to. the fire energy from the river is very dense But it has to be converted and processed before I can absorb it . What would the pure elemental energy do if I could pull it into the spell?" Dante pushed the thought aside for now and continued his journey along the river to wherever it led. he hoped that it would take him somewhere civilized but seeing where he currently was the idea was too ridiculous, so he walked with low hopes only wanting to find something else to try his new skills on.