BloodWorld & Slenshalan

A sudden weird sensation was felt near his eyes and head once he confirmed, and in the next instance, it was gone. His eyes had already changed.

The whole crowd cheered, offering encouraging words like, "Blessed!" and "Welcome!" Kai noticed his uncle and aunt looking at him with emotion-filled eyes—his aunt was already crying, while her husband consoled her. Both looked at Kai with pride. It was indeed a really big deal to these people.

Suddenly, Kai noticed another skill slot of his was already filled with a symbol of black eyes surrounded by two droplets of red on each side. He hesitated a little before selecting the skill. Just a change in his appearance gave him a random skill? Maybe this was similar to his Exodian bloodline awakening or something. The Stonebinders had no such thing. But those with higher points in them should unlock the stone spirit immediately, so both had their own advantages.

[Skill: BloodWorld

Rank: ⬟⬟

Refresh Time: 10 seconds

Effect: The world drowns in pitch black, swallowing all but the living. Flesh glows pale white, blood blazes crimson beneath—every vein exposed, every heartbeat laid bare. Structures vanish. Only life remains—raw, fragile, and stripped of disguise.]

A free two-star skill? That's quite generous! The Nexus Kin was indeed quite advantageous. Not only could he get a rare bloodline skill freely, but he could also hopefully unlock the Stonebinder's spirit energy in the future—best of both worlds. Well, considering how this game balanced everything out in the end, he might not get an ability as powerful as full-blooded Stonebinders or Exodians. But Kai wasn't concerned.

Variety was more favorable to him instead of one powerful random ability. With technology added to the mix, damage wouldn't be a problem in the future. He had to get out of this backwater village, though, if he hoped to learn any useful Exodian technology and get himself a couple of grenade launchers.

Since it was an eye skill, it shouldn't be noticeable to anyone if he activated it. Kai walked back to his position as the second player next to him stepped up. He instantly activated the skill to see what he had received.

Suddenly, the whole world turned full of darkness. It wasn't fully void-level pitch black—just the outline of shapes was visible with slight white lines. Everything—stone, tree, iron—was blackened. Only one bright color remained: crimson red. Only blood was visible, going up and down in the veins of hundreds of villagers gathered before him. Kai turned his head and could even see blood-red in people through the tree and the stone stage—like an x-ray vision, but only blood was visible in his spectrum.

It didn't end on its own. Kai realized it was one of those powering-type skills—as long as he had SP, it would work. It seemed to cost around 1 MP per 10 seconds. Quite high! He immediately canceled it. But then again, it was a two-star skill, and this much was expected.

One by one, all players walked up and chose their classes and weird alien traits. Some chose neon-colored wings, some extra arms—one weird guy called Kokoro even got antennae like an ant. The crowd cheered each time, no matter what one chose. No one had yet rejected the two classes, confirming their Nexus Kin class. The options available depended on what kind of quests they had completed—not in type but in availability. His Blessing of the Forest opened a rare ability trait for him—not because they were related, but the system must have graded the quest as a high-tier one and gave him options accordingly. Others should have even more limited blue section options compared to his golden one.

Deimos, Kai saw, chose slight pitch-black scales on her arms and legs. It was eerily similar to what he remembered from the full black-armored Deimos Emperium of his last timeline. What weird ability would that give her? Did she choose Warpblade or Hexmancer class? He would find out soon enough.

Once all players were done, there were around 76 of them. Some came quite late, seeing the timer. Still, there was no penalty—they were all allowed to come on stage.

With their newly acquired abilities at hand, they were now given a chance to show them off. The challenge, as the chief explained, was simple—there was an area shown on their interface map, located deep in the forest. They all had to run there, kill monsters prominent in that region called Barkspawn, and collect their cores. By the evening signal, which marked the official end of the challenge, whoever had the most cores would be the winner.

The official mission looked something like this:

[Quest: The Strongest Slenshalan of Kalimari

Difficulty: G

Objective: Collect as many cores as possible before the time limit. (Monster: Barkspawn—humanoid creatures made of knotted roots and bark. They grow back stronger if killed without burning their core)

Reward:

First - 10 Gold & A weapon of choice from the village armory.

Second - 5 Gold & Knowledge of a medicine recipe.

Third - 2 Gold.]

The rewards were not as high as Kai expected, but those wouldn't be the only rewards. The strongest in the village would receive unique quests only available to them—along with respect and favorability of the entire village. All the shops would be open to price haggling, and all NPCs that could teach unique skills would easily agree to teach them too.

Kai could use the influence to learn that skill Deimos had learned.

"Now, begin!"

The chief bellowed, and all players—excited to grab the highest reward—ran at full speed towards the forest, Kai and Deimos among them. However, once they reached the forest, both Deimos and Kai split up from the crowd heading straight toward the golden dot on their interface map.

Most players didn't know what the deeper forest had in store for them. With so many players making so much noise, they would attract the most dangerous monsters, who would not back down in front of such low-level mobs. Kai had experienced that before, which was why he decided to go around and avoid such hassle.

Only Barkspawn cores counted—fighting any other monster without proper reason would just waste his MP and stamina. And he wasn't fond of dying either. His inventory was full of valuables.