I equipped my new spear and launched myself towards the bear. It took a swipe at me with its remaining arm but I back-stepped out of the way. I looked towards the bottom of my vision and saw my mana was still 3/4 full. I used mana blade with another fourth of my mana, slashing at the bear. It tried to block with its missing arm but when it had realized, it was too late to use the other arm. I pushed the blade, overflowing with mana, into its chest, sliding in and ripping it open.
It gave an angry roar as it swung at me a few times, though I was able to dodge all of his attacks. I managed to get in a few more jabs before backing off. My poison was doing damage so I just had to hit him with even the slightest prick every ten seconds and it should do a good amount of damage. It was heavily bleeding as well. I let a smile play across my face as I knew I had this fight in the bag.
This was what I was thinking when the bear started to turn red. First its eyes, then moving down and across its body a dark red tint covered its body, contrasting against the bright red blood covering its body. Battle sense screamed at me to move as the bear dissapeared from my sight. I managed to throw myself mostly out of its path but its claw cut into my shoulder as i went by. It was a decently heavy cut. My Hp bar went down by a fifth or so. I readied my spear as it came at me again. We exchanged blows with me on the losing side again. Another fifth of my health dissapeared. I managed to fit two health potions in my mouth, healing me back up to full but not for long.
We kept on like that for a few more blows until the bears skin turned into such a deep shade of red as to almost seem black. The bear attacked again, this time I couldn't track it at all. I had to let my instinct lead me as I shut my eyes. I felt a soft pressure coming from my left side. I immediately activated mana blade and jabbed with all my strength towards the point I felt the pressure from. My desperate attempt was rewarded with a pained howl as the monster stumbled back a few steps before disappearing again.
I felt out the same way I had before, this time feeling a pressure somewhat fainter behind me. I ducked down and spun around. Lashing out using my spear. Once again the direbear howled in pain as I cut deeply into its leg. I pushed forward, using its momentary weakness to my advantage. I managed to get in another stab before it backed off. I closed my eyes and felt out again, this time feeling an extremely faint trace of that power in front of me.
I opened my eyes to find the bear laying on the ground, body minced and riddled with holes and hide tattered beyond use. I walked up to it. Its eyes followed me as it lacked the strength to move. I put my spear above its neck and pushed most of my remaining mana into it. I cut its head cleanly off in one motion. I sat down and downed a few health potions. I was panting, lying on the ground with a satisfied look on my face as the system rang out with a few notifications.
[Hunted Lv.10 Alpha Direbear (Tier II Boss), awarded 10,000 SC, 7,500 EXP, Callisto's Bracelet, Berserk Soul (Tier II)]
[Skill learned: Lifeforce Sense (Epic)]
[Lifeforce Sense - Unique]
[The ability to sense the lifeforce that all living beings give off]
[You have attracted the interest of a god]
[System has analyzed skill: Lifeforce Sense... Updating...]
The system updated as I was stunned both by the rewards given by the Alpha Direbear and by the last message before the system started updating. It took a few minutes before it completed, giving me the rest of my notifications.
[Congratulations on taking another step on your journey, for killing your first Rank II Boss, you've been awarded a system upgrade module]
[Spear Mastery Level Up! (6->10), Max level reached, upgrading skill...]
[Skill gained: Spear Mastery II (Uncommon)]
[Battle Sense Level Up! (3->5)]
[Mana Blade Level Up! (1->3)]
[Charlotte Level Up! (1->4)]
With all the messages out of the way I opened my inventory to see what I got from the fight. I first put the bear's corpse into my inventory to work with later and checked the bracelet and soul. While I was doing this I noticed I still had a unique skill roulette sitting in my inventory. I decided to roll it.
[Congratulations! You have received: Auto-Regeneration (Epic)]
[Auto Regeneration - Epic]
[Doubles the natural rate of healing]
That didn't seem super good right now but it was only level one so I suppose I have to give it some time. Next!
[Callisto's Bracelet - Unique]
[+20 Dexterity]
[This bracelet is merged with a fraction of Callisto's soul, giving the user a great affinity with bear-type species.]
I took a deep breath when I looked at it, immediately putting it on and feeling my body become nearly weightless as I moved around. I then checked the soul that I had gotten.
[Berserk Soul (Tier II)]
[For every 10% HP down from max deal 20% more damage.]
I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. This seemed both incredibly overpowered and dangerous at the same time. I could deal insane amounts of damage at low hp but it was far easier to die. If i was at 10% Hp I would deal an extra 180% damage but one hit from whatever I was fighting might be able to kill me. Nonetheless, I followed the system's instructions and slotted it into my Soul Reap skill. I immediately felt a warm sensation as the soul merged and bonded with mine.
I looked in my inventory for the last thing. The system upgrade module. I used it and was greeted with a long list of features that almost made me do a double take. For instance, one of them was to gain ten stat points per level, another being absorbing small amounts of stat points from anything I killed. There were several more extremely appealing options but as I couldn't get any information other than the name I went through the list pretty fast. When I was reaching the bottom one caught my eye.
[New Game +]