Dante walked along the banks of the flaming river that flowed through limbo the first ring of hell slowly caring along chared corpses to the lands below. His chains clacked together as he walked his body released a dull pale light as if it was charged with energy. He had trained over these passing days and his Energy had become denser causing him to slowly expell some energy as a dull silvery glow around him.The glowing energy wrapped around him and his moving limbs giving them a pale luster as they spun over themselves to move him through the wasteland."So many questions without any awnsers. If only I had more EXP to regain my abilities and find somewhere to train in this hell." He thought to himself outloud, he needed more energy to build himself up to survive in hell so he continued his journey to find some prey to hunt and soon he saw something in the distance that overwhelmed him. In awe at the ludicrous sight he slowly approached the gaping abyss before him. The massive hole before Dante was so large he could not see the other side and it appeared bottomless. echos of the wailing souls resounded from the pit and its surroundings, the sound felt like nails on a chalkboard the raspy sounds of countless screaming all mixed together to make an endless scratchy wail that shook one's bones. Around the massive pit Dante spotted a multitude of strange ragtag groups of demons that gathered together to hunt the falling prey in the pit. countless souls and demons fell through the pit to the deeper and darker layers of hell. they used strange contraptions reminiciant of harpoon guns made out of bone and intestines that shot barbed spears at the falling creature's to pull them back to the edge of the pit to devour them bones and all. it was a gruesome sight but Other than the screemes of the creature's who fell and were occasionally caught the place seemed quiet. There was a tense atmosphere around the pit with the groups all glaring at each other but none daring to make the first move to attack and break the peace of the hunting ground. "it's almost like one of those water holes in the Savanah where all the animals drank water and left without killing eachother." Dante marveled at the strange sight before him wondering what chaos would happen if someone around the pit was attacked. He Quickly put the thought aside as he did not have a death wish and that would be a one way ticket out of the afterlife. he carefully approached the gaping chasm that spread out before him with some weery glances as he passed between the space between 2 small groups of imps. The imps had a dark crimson color in their skin that had been burned so long by helfire it had thickened like wrought leather and had been burned and chared till all their exposed flesh had become this sunburnt dark red. their appearances varied wildly but they all shared this sunburnt trait that gave Dante little amusement as they looked as if they were ready to pounce on him. after a few minutes the stalemate finally ended and both groups went back to their wild hunting contraptions ignoring the small fry that sat next to them. Dante let out a sigh of relief, he was almost a dead man or well spirit anyway. 'Now I need to find a way to get ahold of some of that EXP falling before my eyes but how? it looks like the others use harpoon guns and nets to catch them' he dared not talk aloud but he pondered the question. any normal person would have had some sort of moral objection to catching helpless souls to consume but Dante did not think twice he needed EXP to become stronger and a goldmine was falling right before his eyes how could he pass up this chance. He dug himself into the ground in order to stop himself from falling in the pit and then began his plan that any other demon would think insane. he stretched out 5 of his spare limbs Ober the pit as far as he could manage witch was only about 10ft or so but it was enough for his idea. Then he simply just waited. Like an old fisherman he sat in wait for his limbs to catch a falling creature for him to eat.after waiting for a few minutes he felt a large weight slam into his cable limbs trying to pull him down with it but he quickly threw the rest of the dangling limbs at the creature binding it tight so it could not struggle. Dante then used all the strength he could muster and barely managed to drag the beast ashore. It was a fleshy beast with a gaping maw and tiny legs that should not be able to support it. He quickly dispatched the creature before ripping it apart and draging it into his body for his spiritual energy to devour and convert it. The imps looked angry as the strange creature had stolen some of their prey but they soon went back to their pit fishing. Dante took some time to digest the creature before casting out his cable lines to catch another victim, This time he caught a snake like creature covered in spikes that Dante had to rip off before he could eat the creature. he threw the spikes into a pile on the side and continued his fishing until a few hours later he caught something more than he could chew. a massive weight slamed into him but when he tried to pull it up it only dragged his limbs further down threatening to snap his limbs. he felt the giant creature pull on his limbs in an attempt to pull itself out of the pit in a final struggle and it managed to get its head above the cliff of the pit. It was a abomination of blood and snew covered in countless blades that were coated in some sort of black slime. Dante knew he was screwed if this thing made it up to him so he began trying to strangle it and peirce its skin but it was no use and the creature only got closer.He threw a fireball at the creature but it only left a scorch mark on the creature not doing much other than making the beasts skin smoke and smell like rotten char.he decided to not continue the infective fireball assault, so in a fit of desperation he grabbed one of the spikes he had beside him and used all the strength he could manage to drive the spike into its neck. Dante doubted it would work but then the creature recoiled in pain as the spike drove around an inch into its flesh. this only made Dante more violent as he dodged the beasts blades and continued to drive the spikes into its head until he had broken through the skull. the creature could not do much as it was holding on for dear life as it tried to pull itself over the edge. it's bladed limbs peirce into the ground as it finally pulled itself up only to be met with countless writhing steel limbs holding the last of Dantes spikes and he drove them into the Crack in the skull he had created driving them into its brain killing the creature. As the beast slumped over dead Dante also let himself fall to the ground to rest as his Energy was low after using it to keep his body moving to kill the blade creature. he looked happy as he saw the message that had appeared before him.
[Killed uniuqe creature 2 exsistance ranks above the host calculating bonus rewards for feat...]
"come on EXP I want EXP give me bonus EXP!" Dante chanted to himself as he waited for his reward from risking his life to chip away at this creature till it finally died.
[input detected calculating reward.../// ///reward calculating... selected _//null Error... Bonus EXP. granted 4500EXP to host]
Dante was over joyed at the large sum of EXP he was just given and he quickly opened the Properties menu to observe his changes.
[Properties]
[Existence Rank] 1
[Deaths] 1
[Judgement Destination] The Nine Hells
[Name] Dante
[Race] Ironclad spirit
[EXP] 5970
[HP] 5/5
[energy density] 2.3/7
[Toughness] 5.5
[Strength] 8
[Dexterity] 4.5
[Agility] 6.5
[Intelligence] 3
[Willpower] 20
[Titles] Soul Eater, weakling hunter
[Skills] (ethereal jaws/disassembled/),Teir 1Flaming meditation, teir 1 fire affinity, lesser fireball, wrath of the small
[Racial Traits] Spirit Adaptation(Locked)
Dante did not even hesitate when he saw his EXP count and immediately unlocked his racial trait. he did not quite understand how they worked but he was sure they were important, his last racial trait was probably the only reason he was not dead as it let him Rank up by eating the souls around him before he crash landed into hell. He soon felt a violent surge of energy coarse through him it felt like he was just shocked by 10,000 volts causing him to double over in pain before more surges of energy spread throughout his body in pure agony."GAHHH was this what the system ment when it said the limit protection shackles were broken?!"
The Imp demons to his sides looked at him like a juicy peice of meat as he writhed on the ground in pain. each group sent 2 imps to go investigate the creature, they approached cautiously as even though the spirit was weakened it still managed to take out a Rank 3 creature on it's own with that crazy hunting method. The 4 imps surrounded the spirit and began closing in on the unsuspecting prey that was writhing on the ground in pain. The spirits limbs flailed about making the Imps need to back away once or twice to avoid the powerful cables that branched out of it's body. Soon the Imps had closed in around Dante as the writhing finally slowed down and stopped the group of imps made their move and lunged at him from all directions aiming to slash and tear him to peices with their claws. a few other groups glanced their way but they quickly went back to their hunting not wanting to be involved in a death battle when such easy prey was falling before their eyes.
As Dante rose from his stupor of pain he only saw 4 red flashes leaping above his head to strike him down. In a panic he quickly rolled to the side which seemed more fluid and easy to do after unlocking his trait but he pushed the thought aside for now as his enemies were now upon him. The four imps backed off seeing that their initial attack had failed still surrounding him they began circling him just outside the range of his limbs waiting for their next opportunity."Dam I guess running is out of the question, but I've never fought 4 enemies before how should I go about this?" Dante appeared panicked but there was an eerie calm to his voice that supprised even him since when did his thoughts become so cold and calculated. he wearily glanced around at his four oppressors and soon had an idea in mind one so mad insane that it might just get him out of here alive. The blade monster's corpse was still beside him so he quickly dove over to it activating his flame meditation and lesser fireball at the same time to burn through the base of one of the creature's bladed spines. Dante managed to dislodge and rip of the blade just in time to whip around and use it to block the imps claws that were inches away from piercing right through him. The collision resounded with a loud CLANG as the blade wrapped in his limbs shook from the force of the impact causing both him and the Imp to be pushed back a few feet. Dante quickly spun around and disengaged from the Imp to attack the one behind him, surprised by his sudden change in trajectory the Imp behind him barely managed to put up his arms to defend himself as the blade dug into its flesh. The blade only stopping on the imps bones before being mercilessly ripped out of it's arms to continue the fight. Dante was attacked from the left and the Imp behind and to his right were quickly closing in on him. Dante put up a few limbs to stop the Imp but it's claws ripped into them like butter severing them from his body. His body reacted quicker than he though he could move swinging the blade into the incoming claws, deflecting them to the side before he sent a fireball into the imps chest knocking it back and sending it tumbling to the ground. The Imp in front of him lunged at Dante in a rage biteing into his center mass of wires before Dante swung the blade with all his might splitting the imps head open, but the blade had become stuck making him take a second to rip it from his former assailant. That was all the time the 2 imps to his right and back to reach him and make a brutal slash at him sending his HP plumiting down to 2 forcing him to quickly retreat back less he be killed on the spot. Dante glanced at the three remaining enemies seeing that the one he dispatched with a fire ball was back up and running towards him with a massive bubbling burn wound on his chest "dam that has to hurt, so glad I'm not on the receiving end of that fireball." He only had enough energy for one possibly 2 fireballs left so he had to use them sparingly. This fight was not going in his favor and the enemies were closing in on him once more.