Li Zemin's startled yell grabbed Nox's attention.
A swoosh, and Li Zemin was gone when Nox turned around. He glanced up- a stray wooden branch was holding the brown haired man up in the air by an ankle, swinging him back and forth dizzyingly.
The branch tossed him into the air happily, like it was playing a rather amusing game of catch with the random human it found wandering around its roots.
"Uwek-"
Li Zemin's face quickly grew red from the experience. Nox could tell from the way that he flailed around that his friend was rather helpless.
"Need help?"
The tree shook his friend harder.
"Black hearted de- hregh, get me down!"
Nox raised an eyebrow. "Magic word."
"Magic!" The tree promptly dropped him onto the ground.
Nox paused in surprise when the tree actually released Li Zemin, then hurried to help him up. "Should we go pick up the kills now?"
He had pinpointed the locations of other prey by pulling with his ability in general directions, sending an arrow of blood to pierce the sources he felt scattered through the forest.
Disoriented, Li Zemin followed Nox back the way they came without question, heading into the thicker undergrowth.
"Hey, can you really believe that we have abilities now?" Li Zemin scanned the trees warily as Nox picked up a dead boar. "I still can't wrap by head around it."
"Once you're on the verge of dying it'll probably sink in."
"... That's not reassuring at all," Li Zemin shuddered.
Nox dragged the prey with his hands, humming contently as he moved them with ease. Thanks to his new strength, he didn't break a sweat even while carrying the larger bodies.
Interestingly enough, animal blood felt different from human blood. It could be the way that the heart beated; the fast thrum of blood flowing through a rabbit was worlds away from the adrenaline of a human heart.
Their total added up to four startling red squirrels, a brown rabbit (Nox lit a candle for the White Rabbit's cousin), five large boars with unusual white stripes, and an exotic bird with an exquisite yellow plume of feathers.
"Doesn't look like much," Li Zemin commented, prodding the bird. "Do you think this can-" He fell silent, eyes scanning vigilantly around their surroundings.
Nox, noticing the change in demeanor, opened his mouth. "What-"
"Shh." Li Zemin held up a finger, unnaturally serious for once. He tugged Nox over to a large tree, motioning for him to look.
Skeptical, Nox peered past the tree cautiously, half expecting a rabid bear to jump out and attack. What he saw instead took his breath away.
Standing there in a patch of sunlight was a vermillion pelt gleaming softly in the sun, with light spots dotting its fur. When it reared back its head, their eyes were drawn to the majestic crystal antlers branching from its head.
[Recover the crystal heart from the White Palace and present it to the Red Queen.]
Nox, "..."
Li Zemin, "..."
Disgruntled, Nox stared at the red deer. "It was a play of words?" 'Heart' and 'hart' sounded the same after all, but he didn't think the task would trick them with wordplay.
"I don't think so," Li Zemin whispered. "It writes 'heart' clearly. Maybe its heart is made from crystal like its horns?"
Their hushed conversation seemed to catch the deer's attention, because it snapped its head in their direction, freezing slightly as its dark eyes scanned the forest for any perceived threats.
Li Zemin hissed, "Hide, quickly!"
Nox, of course, listened to him and proceeded to attack with his ability. The blood gained from killing prey leveled it up to level 5, allowing Nox to cast out a wide net by slashing the scarred wound on his forearm with his dagger. At this rate, it'd probably never heal completely.
The deer reared up on its hind legs, furiously charging for Nox. Based on his observations, level 7 stamina should be enough for him to take the attack head on.
He was wrong. The crystal horns rammed into his ribs, knocking the breath out of him in one go.
Painfully.
Nox was pretty sure that a few of his ribs were close to cracking. His current stats were nothing against the pure force of the red deer.
Li Zemin shouted in worry, rushing over.
"This is a bit too much for a starting trial," Nox sighed, holding onto his bruised side. Compared to the other prey in the forest, the deer felt many levels stronger.
Wasn't there a general rule that newcomers would get a simple trial?
Nox glanced at Li Zemin, then thought back to Bak Soomin and Liam.
Bak Soomin likely wasn't a newcomer with how level headed she had been. Liam… he couldn't tell. From what he learned with his encounter with the purple haired girl, children couldn't be underestimated when it came to their desire for survival.
The deer tossed its head, crystal horns gleaming arrogantly as its black eyes looked down on Nox. His ability attempted to reach out to snare the deer, but any attempts were blocked, like it was sliding right off a slippery surface.
Even forming a blade with his blood wouldn't cut its vermillion pelt.
So this deer was actually on a higher level than those monsters...
An eager expression appeared on Nox's face, black eyes shining with excitement. That meant if he killed this deer, then his ability could level up quickly. He looked at the deer with fervent eyes, so intense that the deer moved its head unsurely.
Since he couldn't level up his ability quickly, then he'd have to go a different route.
Grasping the cold steel in his hand, Nox invested skill points into strength and agility until they were both at level 10, using up his remaining points. With a loud collision, he clashed with the deer again. This time, he could hold his ground against the fearsome beast. The deer must've noticed the change too, because it reared up and struck even harder.
Nox dodged swiftly, boosted by his new agility. He managed to cut through the deer's hardened pelt with the knife, scoring a wound against its side.
It was like cutting through a very frozen block of butter taken right out of the freezer.
The only thing that helped him continue his momentum was the sheer amount of speed and force he put into that one attack.
Even then, the deer didn't slow down its attacks.
"Aim for its neck!" Li Zemin shouted. He was staying away from the battle because his stats weren't leveled up. "Target the vital spots!"
Nox gritted, "You don't have to tell me that," while proceeding to strike the deer.
The deer was agile in its attacks, darting in and out. Nox had to circle around and lash out when given an opening.
It met its challenger head on, fighting until its last breath.
Nox exhaled heavily as the deer finally crashed onto the ground, bruises tingling all over his body. The few he could see were already turning an alarming shade of dark purple. Although they didn't break skin, it left his body sore and aching every time he moved his arms.
The crystal antlers weren't sharp enough to cause bleeding, but the impact was enough to break a normal person's bones easily. Not to mention, those hooves got dangerously close to his… anyway, it was a strong opponent.
Why didn't his ability work on it though? Nox ran a hand over the pelt, his ability rushing out to take the blood from a deep cut in its side. It looked like the hide of the deer could deflect his ability. Either that, or his ability was too weak to cause damage to the deer.
"..." Li Zemin peeked out from the tree that he retreated behind. "Shouldn't we take the heart first? I can cut it out."
Eyebrows raised, Nox looked disbelieving at Li Zemin's words. "When did you become a butcher?"
Li Zemin protested, "Hey, don't you remember that Mei's uncle was a butcher? He taught me a few tricks." Taking off his overcoat, he rolled up his sleeves. "Just watch."
Amused, Nox watched Li Zemin attempt to cut the tough hide. "Huh?" Li Zemin frowned, trying to cut a clean line. "Why isn't it cutting?" He put more force into his movements until he was practically hacking at it randomly. Despite his best attempts, he couldn't even score a shallow cut on the pelt.
"Your strength levels aren't enough," Nox moved to intercept Li Zemin, copying the same slashing motion, successfully separating the hide. "Tell me what to do next."
Li Zemin instructed him through the steps until they were able to remove the heart. It looked like a normal heart, just no longer pumping with vitality.
The two looked at each other in disappointment. "I guess this isn't it," Li Zemin said dejectedly. "And here I thought we found the jackpot."
"Your luck has always been good," Nox agreed, looking at the crystal horns. Even with their owner dead, they were still shimmering in iridescent colors.
"And yours has always ranged from decent to chaotic," Li Zemin rolled his eyes. "How many times has shit gone down when you were around?"
Nox tilted his head. "There were the rats appearing during my final presentation, then the sudden fire alarm that one time I decided to get lunch early…"
Li Zemin punched him on the shoulder. "Not just that, did you forget about that time you got caught between an argument with the campus beauty and her boyfriend and suddenly became the 'secret third party'? Or the time the entire class was in the computer lab and you somehow managed to trip over a power cable and suddenly all of the computers didn't work."
"It was a technical error," Nox shot back defensively. It really hadn't been his fault that the computers disconnected simultaneously- the technicians had said it was a jump of power of something, scratching their heads in puzzlement.
Li Zemin waved a dismissive hand. "Sure, sure."
Shaking his head helplessly, Nox turned… only to see his ability swallow the heart happily.
"?!" Li Zemin gasped.
"?!" Nox tried to control his ability to spit it back out, but the heart was already absorbed by the gluttonous thing.
Since it first appeared, Nox had been fully aware that there was something off about his ability. That was, it had a 'consciousness' and could convey certain emotions to him. As it leveled up through the forest, Nox could feel the consciousness growing stronger.
During their trek, Nox had asked Li Zemin if his ability was similar but got a negative answer in response.
The most annoying part was that sometimes it was disobedient, like right now.
"How did you even eat an organ?" Nox ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Don't you only absorb blood?" The spiky chain of blood connected to his forearm bobbed happily.
[Special status 'Endless Appetite' has been sated. ??? has evolved due to its glutinous nature.]
[Ability 'I can bleed to death, but I can't bleed to death' has strengthened.]
Nox's screen opened up. The small progress bar was completely full after eating the heart. So the source of blood would increase his ability levels at different rates after all.
He watched in fascination as the blood flowing from his arm slowly stretched itself out, expanding bigger and bigger… before it deflated again like a popped balloon, splattering blood all over his arm and onto the ground.
His face darkened as his own blood splattered uselessly onto his jeans and all over the ground.
[Error. Please provide optimal hatching conditions to gain ???]
"..." Nox couldn't resist rolling his eyes. It looked like his ability had a picky nature.
"What was going to happen?" Li Zemin wondered, steering clear of the splatters of blood around Nox. He tried to drag the deer over to where their pile of prey was with little success, his forearms straining with effort. The most he could lift up was one of the deer's hind legs.
Nox sighed, "Nothing. Let's-"
[Keen Intuition has been activated.]