Bell

[Cursed Requiem Activated.]

[Curse has been implanted on the 4th Gate beast, Slug Winged Raptor.]

[You have obtained the First Cursed Creature. The Slug Winged Raptor rises from the dead.]

[You have obtained a Rune.]

[Would you like to Bind the Rune to your heart?]

[Demonix Blood Child is affecting the Rune.]

[Would you like to turn the Rune into the Parasitic Rune?]

Vritra stared at the rain of the messages that suddenly appeared in front of him, he took a deep breath and first looked down towards the corpse of the Giant Raptor whose dead body was covered with a strange black energy.

He just stared at the large body which seemed to be melting and getting smaller and smaller until it became less than a meter tall, but the changes continued to happen as Vritra stared at it with anticipation, finally the changes seemed to have stopped after around ten or so minutes, and slowly the black fog from around it began to vanish.

He took a step forward and stared at the small figure that sat on the ground while looking around with its big puppy like eyes, blinking them constantly. Its body seemed to be around fifteen or so centimetres in size, there were two folded wings on its back and its skin was covered with black scales.

Instead of previous slugged scales they looked shiny and smooth, the small beast looked rather cute and harmless, its head and face still looked a little similar to its original self with a slightly protruded mouth out of which tiny pointy teeth were visible as the small Raptor opened its mouth and tried to eat a stone.

"…" Vritra just stared at this small figure for a few seconds, he was expecting something bigger and dangerous, if he sent this small creature to fight then he would be the one to feel guilty about it.

"How is this little thing going to help me? Is it supposed to entertain me?" he wondered, then another thought came to his mind: "Maybe I can see some information about this thing too."

Just as he focussed on the clumsy beast, an ethereal message appeared in front of him.

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[NAME]: None

[MASTER]: Vritra

[SPECIES]: Gluttonous Blight Raptor

[Class]: 1st Gate

[TRAITS]: 

『[HUNGRY]』

[RUNES]: None

....

{SKILLS}:

『SHIFTER:

This ability allows the Gluttonous Blight Raptor to change its size at will. Its body can grow up to ten feet.』

『GLUTTON:

 The Gluttonous Blight Raptor is a hungry creature that gets stronger the more it eats. It can consume anything without getting hurt, but it especially loves to eat meat. With each meal, the strength, toughness and class of the cursed beast grows.

It needs to be fed with meat every day.』

『DEAD-SCALE:

This ability allows the Gluttonous Blight Raptor to increase the toughness of its scales, making them extremely difficult to penetrate for even opponents a Gate ahead of the cursed beast. Additionally, the raptor can shoot off its hardened scales like knives, turning its defense into a deadly offensive weapon. 』

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Vritra read the entire message with excitement; the species of the slug winged raptor seemed to have changed making it a completely different creature. Although it was nowhere near its original strength of 4th Gate but he was still satisfied, though no locks were mentioned here like in his own status message.

'1st Gate, that's still quite strong. Hunger, looks like it got the trait after starving for such a long time. Sigh, so it's size is changeable that's relief.' He continued to read the message carefully, while the small beast tried to climb onto his feet but because of its smooth scales it would slid down every time.

Glutton and dead scale are skills that the slug winged raptor didn't possess, nonetheless Vritra was quite satisfied by his first pet and the skill cursed requiem, it worked even better than he had expected.

"Can you decrease your size further?" Vritra asked, as he bent in front of the cute looking beast.

The small raptor stared at Vritra's face for a moment with both its hand resting over his feet, then it nodded its head several times before its size began to decrease until it became less than five centimetres, making it look like a small and cute cartoon figure.

Vritra picked the raptor onto his palm and stared at it, as he rubbed the belly of the beast with his finger the raptor released a cute purring sound and fell back onto its back, playing with the finger.

After placing it down, Vritra then gave it the command to increase its size to ten feet and instantly the body of the raptor began to enlarge until it began to look like a terrifying creature, its size was still smaller than the 4th Gate raptor but it was much bigger than any ordinary 1st gate raptor.

"Great!! Come back." He exclaimed, hearing the praise in his voice the raptor returned to around four centimetre tall body and ran towards Vritra while flapping the wings on its back.

Vritra had expected that the creature that would rise from the dead would be emotionless but it seemed to contained more emotions than Vritra himself, especially hunger.

Picking up the creature, he pondered for a moment and then mumbled: "So you need a name, hmm I am bad with that stuff but I will try."

After thinking for a few seconds, some names like Glut, Scaly, Beasty appeared in his mind but then looking at the cute beast he chose the name:

"I am going to call you Bell from now on." Vritra spoke, while the small beast nodded in its head and rubbed its smooth head against his thumb.

After talking with Bell for a little longer and trying a few things like flying Vritra decided to put his attention onto the other messages while Bell climbed up his sleeves and then safely sat over his shoulder, looking around as if it was on a great adventure.

[You have obtained a Rune.]

[You have obtained the 1st Gate Slimy-Veil Rune.]

[Slimy-Veil Rune]:

(1st Gate)

The rune obtained from the Slug Winged Raptor allows you to cover selected parts of your body with durable scales. These scales not only provide enhanced defence and durability to the chosen areas, but they also possess a slippery surface. This unique property makes it exceedingly difficult for anyone to land effective strikes on the scaled parts, but it can't cover the whole body.

[Would you like to Bind the Rune to your heart?]

"…Yes." Vritra replied after a moment, for a moment a scale appeared in front of him which had strange patterns drawn over its surface, in the next instant it moved towards his chest and seemed to broke into energy pieces as it was absorbed into his body.

Vritra closed his eyes as he felt this warm energy moving towards his heart, it wrapped around is heart and then left a small imprint somewhere inside his heart, something Vritra had no idea about yet.

[Slimy-Veil Rune had been bound to your heart.]

[Would you like to turn it into a Cursed rune?]

[CURSED RUNES]: Unlike the normal runes, a cursed runes won't only depend on your essence but it would need to be constantly fed with your blood. Cursed runes power is several times stronger than a normal rune at the same gate and there is even a chance of awakening an additional ability in the rune.

Before Vritra even had the chance to read the new messages that had appeared in front of him, his attention drifted to the black coloured tattoos forming upon both his arms, extending from his wrists and almost reaching his shoulders.

The pattern seemed complex, covering dozens of lines that moved strangely, the pattern resembled the one that Vritra had seen on the scale not long ago though there were many changes.

Pulling up his sleeves, he just stared at the tattoos as a question rose in his mind:

"Why did the tattoos appear on both my hands?!! All those rune masters only had these runic tattoos over their right arms?"