Chapter 97: Ire and Instinct

I stared forward for a moment, simply surveying the darkness before letting out a low growl.

Store.

[Unequipped Item: Sin of Wrath.]

The red amulet dangling on my neck collapsed into a rain of shards, along with its ominous miasma.

HA...

The moment the miasma dissipated, the burning rage I was feeling vanished, forcing me back to a state of lucidity.

"Ugh...it's always like this...", I placed a hand over my forehead, as my body collapsed onto the fleshy walls.

Every time I use that damn Effect; I always have this nasty blowback...

[Inventory:] Salvaged School Uniform, Acolyte Leaves, Box of Seasoning, Hunting Knife, Quill-Book, Leather Map, Silver Lining, Veil of the Moon, Inept Lantern, Worthless Bowl, Maladroit Ax, Arch of Error, Featureless Quiver, Empty Goblet, Stone Gallon (4), Thorn of the Profane Cockatrix (57), Midnight Pleasure, Meat Stick (2), Overcooked Meat Stick (7), Waste Chest, Crude Axe, Sin of Wrath

[Inventory:] Sin of Wrath: In a void of chaos, a spark of rage gave birth to direction and an intense desire to destroy. The desire tore through the chaos that formed the void and invoked the anger of a deity. This Rare Item has the Effect; Ire of Balor.

[Effect:] Ire of Balor: The blaze of desire and the wrath of chaos will bear witness to the one-eyed king.

Poetic description aside...what the Sin of Wrath simply does is poisoning my mind with immense rage...rage so great it could utterly consume me...

I slid down into a sitting position and breathed slowly.

HA... HA...

But that's what makes it the perfect match for my Berserker skill.

[Skill:] Berserker: Once upon an eon, Balor, the King of Chaos, stood atop hell and screamed to the Fomorians, "Rage! Rage!! Rage, my soldiers! Anger is the source of all power! So, I urge you, Rage!". This skill burns the user's anger, turning it into raw power.

With a slow exhale, I uttered,

Stats.

[Name:] Alex

[Title:]???

[Level:] 11

[EXP:] 203/400

[Skills:] Oversaturation, Mind Palace, Reverb Mapping, Art of Learning, Body Constitution, War Arts, Anti-Lip Sync, Invisibility, Manipulation, Vast Knowledge Base, Pickpocket, Panoramic Vision, Resistance, Terror Inducement, Thousand Tongues, Death Darting Eyes, Kinesthetic Awareness, Berserker

[Saturation Technique:] Art of Magic Circles.

[Path:] Invocation

[Spells:] Spoken Phantom Blink

[Aliases:] The Mastermind, The Fool, Skeleton Horror, Feral Connoisseur, Fomorian Horror

[Debuffs:] Partial Hearing, Myopic Vision, Anti-Lip Sync, Rizzless

[HP:] 187/200

[Achievements:] Flash of Power, Combat Novice, Death March, Wild Chef, A Great Step, Combat Master, Death Campaign, Beat the Odds

My eyes lingered on the EXP counter.

[EXP:] 203/400

So... still nothing huh...

"Fuck..."

Ever since my last two encounters with the monsters of the artery, I had stopped gaining EXP from them. If I where to put it in the words of the system, I had learnt everything I could from them.

A fact which was rather evident in the battle I just had.

Not only where they unable to harm me, they couldn't even defeat me with their bloodlust.

Except for that one moment...

I recalled, as my gaze landed on my left hand.

Had I not acted quickly, I would have ended up gravely injured.

My gaze darkened.

So far, the only monster I had encountered were the heads in the arteries. I hadn't met any other, a fact which was both a cause for relief and a cause for concern.

Relief, in the sense that I won't need to bother about stumbling into any other horrors.

Concern, because it implied that I would be unable to level up.

And if I couldn't level up, that would mean that any grave injury I gained could very well mean my death.

I grimaced.

Throughout all my harrowing confronts in this world, hardly have there ever been one where I won without receiving some sort of ghastly injury.

From the Lost Skeleton to the Profane Cockatrice and the Hulk Fomorian to the Fomorian Horde, I had always gotten serious injuries from one of these fights.

I hadn't realized this fact due to the Leveling Up process.

The fact that I could step into a fight and still die, even after winning.

HOO...FWOO...

I closed my eyes and breathed slowly.

Calm down...Nothing good ever comes from not being calm.

Deeper within me, I felt the whirlpool of the World Energy swirling slowly in my Aperture.

As I observed its tranquil movement, my body cooled down.

In the real world, there's no leveling up system. If one got seriously injured in a fight, they could end up crippled or worse dead.

All this meant was that, I just needed to change my approach towards battle. After all, I have quite an amount of experience fighting in the real world.

You mean your elaborate schemes that involve intentionally provoking your classmates by hitting on their girlfriends.

My inner voice chimed in.

Aha, yes. The good times.

My face lit up, at the thought.

Back in the real world, there was a time I was looking for combat experience, so as the Mastermind, I prodded many of my male classmates by trying to seduce their girlfriends. I never seduced any of the girls though, but I did end up testing my combat skills on a lot of their boyfriends.

Now that I think about it, I did break a lot of relationships.

HAHAHA...Ah I remember Dex, dude was the perfect definition of all-bark and no bite. I recall how Bells spoke highly of him...oh...her expression when she saw him get wrecked was absolutely alluring...

Ah...yeah, I remember that...I recall telling you how many loose screws you had.

Haha...yeah...

My gaze slowly dilated to view the artery tunnel.

It was just as it always looked.

Absolutely disgusting and revolting.

But... it also gave me a strange sense of sa-

DROOOMM!!

ARGH!

The world shook violently, causing my body to jolt up in alarm.

Shit!

The rumbling went on for a long time than usual before it finally stopped.

I take it back...this place is just disgusting.

I let out a sigh, and stared up.

"All in all, this was a good fight...this fight was more than just dominating a powerful opponent, no... its more than that."

It was my way of saying that I was no longer at the bottom of the food chain. It was about stating that I was now something to be feared too...

With a smile, I rose back to my feet and stretched.

"Well, I gotta keep moving...this place stinks."