Looking at the corpse, the old man couldn't help but frown when he looked at the hideous sight. Even after more than 3 decades of being in this 'business', he just couldn't get used to these hideous, horrific creatures.
Don't misunderstand, he wasn't afraid of them. Not even the slightest, but merely disgusted at how they looked.
Garkains, were a type of vampiric beasts, a hideous, horrific type of bloodsucking monster that would give the cryptologist a run for their money, that's for sure. They were large bipedal creatures between 7 to 9 feet tall. What made their sight disgusting and disturbing was their constantly oiled, hairless, wrinkled dark brown skin. It was unlike anything else, it looked as if it was dripped to a bucket of some oily substance, and then loosely put back on them. It was as if their own skins didn't fit their bodies, but instead, it was at least a size bigger, causing these baggy air pockets to appear. All of their fingers be it on their fore and hind limbs ended with short and sharp, ebony claws.
Still, despite the disturbing sight of their bodies, it wasn't even their worst feature. No. Their heads, or more like that hellish-looking faces was what took the crown in that regard. From a first glance, they looked like a hellish hybrid, an unnatural cross between a rat, a bat, and a dog or more likely, a wolf. They had a ball-shaped head, with a long nose stretching out at the front, and two antennae-like sharp, pointy ears at the top. Their mouth, that stretched out along with their noses had long white fangs in their front with an additional set of sharp row of teeth matching the traits of a natural predator.
Despite being classified as vampiric beasts, blood wasn't the only thing they enjoyed eating. No, they often ate the whole bloodied flesh as well, leaving only the skin and bones behind. Still, while they enjoyed the taste of flesh, they needed a steady supply of fresh blood to survive.
They preferred dark, damp places like this sewer system, only coming out from their hideouts during the cover of the night to grab the occasional unlucky sod that went too close to one of the gutter covers that they laid in ambush.
Like cockroaches, and even the rats their faces partly resembled, they were pretty hard to get completely rid of. Even now, as it looked dead, it was capable of regenerating and waking up a couple of hours later. Sure, it would be much weaker and hungrier, it would most likely survive, even after being shot by weapons such as the ones the old man was carrying.
Whilst not completely certain, it seemed the fire was the only way to completely get rid of them.
Reaching for his right chest pocket, the old bearded man pulled out a box of matches. He pulled out one match, lit it, and without hesitation threw it on the body of the Garkain whilst jumping back a step.
Instantly as the lit match hit the Garkain, a huge flame flared up, covering the entire body immediately. The fire burned with an uncanny intensity, and seemingly with much greater heat than one would expect, as the body was quickly being burned away, remaining only ashes after only a few minutes.
This strange, mysterious scene didn't seem to phase the old man at all, he continued watching the burning corpse with the same sternness. Only after the corpse was turned into ash and the fire died down just as fast as it flared up, did his expression change.
He scoffed, spitting another black grimy saliva in the pile of ash, scattering it away, before walking over it.
"Disgusting creatures… I hope I can find some clues at the very least, otherwise, I will be pretty pissed and will have a few words with that disgrace of a priest." He grumbled as he continued venturing ever-deeper into the ominous darkness.
There were no traces of fear on his face, but instead, the sparks of determination and maybe a hint of concern could be seen shining in his eyes… He gripped his archaic pistols tightly as he continued on…
—
'Before giving myself into the system's whims and let it do whatever it wants with my body to grow it stronger, I should at least take a peek at this supposed Creature Library.' Lucien thought as he sat on the edge of his bed. Although he was eager to get started, it wouldn't be good to ignore anything the system offered. He still had two features he had to check out, and whilst the Essence Pool seemed to be the more important one, he wanted to cross out this other one as well.
Who knows, maybe it would be just as important?
Making the decision, he looked in front of himself and gave a mental command to the system to bring up this newly unlocked feature.
Immediately, the black, translucent screen appeared in front of him, with the now-familiar blood-red letters rapidly swirling, reorganizing themselves to their predetermined places.
A couple of seconds passed before the system finalized and brought up a new interface. However, before that, there was a message from the system awaiting him.
[…::: Creature Library :::…]
[…::: Greetings, host. Welcome to the Prime Evolver System's Stored Essence And Bloodline Bank, or the Creature Library in short.
This section stores the growing database of the various creatures, beasts, monsters, and all other types of living existences that the host has successfully synthesized. Note, unlocking the complete page may require more than one complete assimilation of relevant mass and essences.
Below Host will see only the currently unlocked categories. To complete the list, the host is advised to continue absorbing new examples.
Also note, that the library is a critical requirement for the host to continue growing stronger. :::…]
Lucien frowned as he read through the message. The system basically was forcing him on a very dark path. It wanted him to continue with hunting, killing, and using his horrific features to absorb the flesh of the dead. Just what kind of monster was he turning into? Was doing all of this, really okay? Was relying on this strange, and mysterious system… this 'other one' inside him, was truly the good choice, the correct path to take?
Before he could descend even further into self-doubt, a notification rang inside his mind, causing a new, smaller screen to appear atop the current one, bringing forward its new notification.
[…::: New Task Received! :::..]
[…::: 2) Grow and expand the Creature Library! :::…]
[…::: 2) Continue Expanding the Creature Library with new pages! (3 / 5) :::…]
[…::: 2) Rewards: Power Stage Rank Evolution :::…]
[…::: Note: While there is no time limit on the task. The Host is advised to focus on it if he plans to survive once he is forced to leave Pocket Space Eden-N03 (Type: Sub-Dimension - Class: F). :::…]
The notification brought forward his second task given by the system, this time aimed to the expansion of this creature library. Strangely though, he already had 3 out of the required 5 pages already registered, giving him significant progress right from the start.
Still, this wasn't the biggest surprise that was revealed to him. Not even the reward that mentioned something that he theorized should be related to the Rank that was displayed next to the Power Stage in the system. He had no idea what they really meant or what the numbers there represented, but he was sure that filling the progress bar would only be beneficial to his growth.
The biggest shock was the note that came as the last line. Ignoring the slightly sarcastic remark, the system seemed to be able to recognize and also categorize this hidden world.
He couldn't help but ask the system once he read it.
"System, what does this Eden-N03 mean? How did you identify it?"
[…::: Every Pocket Space or Pocket World has a unique energy signature, a defining characteristic. This can be felt all around in the air and be identified with the relevant knowledge and skill. :::…]
Before Lucien could ask anything, the system seemed to understand his thoughts and updates itself, giving another note.
[…::: Currently the host is too weak to feel these small energy fluctuations, and has no access to them. The host needs to continue growing stronger if he wishes to interact with its parameters, read or make modifications to it. :::…]
Once again, Lucien was stunned by what he had just learned. He could make changes to a whole world like this? What would that make him? Its ruler, its god?
The thoughts and implications of it were almost making him dizzy. He shook his head to dismiss such pointless thoughts. Just as the system said, whilst it was fine to dream, the reality was that he was probably nowhere near to do feats such as the system talked about.
He smiled at himself wryly, shifting his attention back on the system's screen, and dismissed the text. He watched with much greater interest than before as the Creature Library screen slowly appeared in front of his eyes.