The pain from stabbing into his own chest was nothing compared to the sensation of placing the ruby inside.
Pushing it through his bleeding flesh was already bad enough, but the ruby reacted to his movement, and most likely his blood, as he did so.
As it touched his blood and flesh, the ruby rapidly heated, to the point of lightly burning his finger tips as he pushed it deeper.
A fire seemed to ignite itself within his chest, in the middle of the wound, quickly overshadowing the pain of the cut itself.
His heart began hammering, even the blood it pumped seemed to slowly become infused with that fire.
Creeping, the burning sensation filled his entire body, spreading the pain and agony everywhere.
6 had hardly winced as he stabbed his own chest, but as the fire passed through him his free hand clutched at the ground beneath him, struggling to find something to grasp onto, anything to distract him from what was happening inside of his body.
Fire ran through his arms and legs, traveling all the way to his feet, the pain which brought him to his knees became worse with each passing second, leaving him unable to breath as he curled into a ball.
The beating of his heart seemed to calm down, but the feeling of fire coursing through his body didn't.
Shaking, 6 struggled to roll over, wanting to examine the state of his body to ensure he was okay.
The blood that was draining down his chest had come to a stop, or perhaps he just couldn't feel it anymore, his body becoming numb.
His trembling hands were noticeably red when he looked down at them, more red than any humans hands should be. It wasn't jus the blood on them either, it was coming from inside.
Like the blood in his body was so powerful that it was dying the outside of his skin, taking his natural skin tone to replace it with the fire forcing itself through his veins.
If there was anything he could compare the feeling to, it would be the feeling of an adrenaline rush. It was like an intensified, burning adrenaline rush. He could hear his own blood flowing and feel his heartbeat through his chest.
Looking down at his chest, he physically see the beating of his heart.
The wound on his chest drew his eyes to it, noticing the peculiarity.
There was still blood all around it, but it wasn't because he was numb that he could no longer feel the blood running.
It was that the wound was no longer bleeding.
The wound was still there, but blood was no longer flowing out.
Considering how heavy his heart was pumping, and how suffocating the flow of his blood felt, he knew that that shouldn't be the case.
Rather than heavy bleeding, as the description of the skill indicated he would face, his blood clotted and ceased bleeding almost instantly, before the pain that was wrecking his body even came to a rest.
While he was looking at the wound, a massive surge struck him, through his entire body.
As if his heart had become restless and decided to release all its frustration out in one single wave, a heavy pulse of blood flowed through him, threatening to break through his skin.
The red in his hands intensified, going beyond the shade of blood. They nearly produced light on their own accord, the red was so intense.
Once the wave subsided, the pain slow began fading as well.
6 let out a sigh, thankful to be done with that process, and more concerned with what exactly happened to him.
He hadn't expected it to be pain-free, given he stabbed his own chest to begin this process, and he wasn't even certain it would work, but the pain that followed vastly overshadowed all of his expectations.
Even stabbing himself didn't compare to the pain of his own heart beating.
If that was the pain he would feel every time he used the skill, it was definitely the flaw the description talked about.
Hopefully, it was just the process of gaining the skill that hurt that badly.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to utilize his skill as often as he would like.
That pain was bearable, but only for short periods of time. Dealing with it for long periods would be too much, especially in tense situations.
[Intensified Blood Flow]
[Type: Active]
[Quality: Basic]
[Effect: Raises all physical aspects, aside from defense, by 19%. Any attack received that draws blood will deal increased damage, and you will have a higher rate of blood loss while the skill is active. Upon deactivation, your heart will continue beating heavily for an amount of time proportionate to the amount of time it was active.]
[Requirements: A circulatory system. A steady heart rate.]
[Description: You got a not terrible version of the skill, congratulations! Don't bleed out because of it.]
It wasn't the best result he could ask for, but it was pretty damn good.
19% bonus to most of his physical abilities was definitely enough to help him out in the spider's nest.
Of course, he would need to test the skill out first. If it made his heartbeat too ridiculously loud, using it around the spiders would be suicide, especially when his whole plan revolved around sneaking.
He could still use it to run away if he needs to though.
With the pain subsided, and his curiosity satisfied, 6 turned his eyes to the wound on his chest once again.
The blood had already begun drying, turning into a caked mess upon his chest, and you could hardly see the actual wound beneath the mess.
But purely from the sensation of it, 6 could tell that the wound was closed.
The fresh burning sensation of an open wound was missing, the air didn't sting when it brushed past his chest and moving his arms no longer hurt.
He couldn't even feel it when he breathed, despite the deep gasps he was taking due to the pain he was recovering from.
Unlike the skill description, which said it would make him experience greater blood loss, his wound had magically sealed itself shut as the ruby tore through his body.
Perhaps it just happened due to the effects of learning the skill, some kind of protection for whoever was using the ruby, especially someone like 6 who practically had a death wish.
Had someone done that without the healing effect, there was a pretty high odd that they would just bleed out and die in the process if they had no one there to help stop the blood loss, which would be counterproductive.
But it could also be a hidden effect of the skill.
The body healed with the movement of blood. Blood clotted wounds, and it was what started the healing process. It was probably exaggerated due to it being the first time, but if a skill could have hidden flaws, couldn't it have hidden effects that helped instead of hurt?
It was basically a trade. Lose blood much faster initially, in exchange for faster overall healing.
Or so 6 hoped. There was no way of knowing without a lot of testing, and he didn't quite feel like testing anything other than how strong he was with his new skill.
"Hey hey, Trivrium, the loveliest lady in my head, might I trouble you to explain how I use an active skill? You see, I'm but a poor man, and I've never had one before, so I quite simple have no clu-"
[Just think of using it.]
"Ah, ah, how simply and intuitive. Now, I'm sure you've already made the decision to ignore my next question, as you're wont to do, but is there anything special to it that I should know?" 6 asked sarcastically.
As 6 expected, or more likely because of his own actions, Trivrium had nothing more to add.
He shrugged his shoulders, figuring he'd find out more about it sometime later.
With a though, he felt his blood begin to move faster, and his saw his hands begin to gain a slight red hue, though it was nothing compared to the initial redness he saw.
It wasn't painful, not like the process of learning the skill, but it did feel uncomfortable, and his entire body felt warm. His hands also trembled slightly, out of his control, most likely because of how unfamiliar he was with the skill.
He could hear his blood in his ears once again, but it was faint, hardly audible at all unless he intensely focused on it. His heartbeat wasn't nearly as intense either. It shouldn't be noticeable to anyone unless they were directly next to his chest, but by that point he should've already attacked them, and thus the odds of his stealth being ruined by his heartbeat wasn't high.
Unless whatever he was stalking had crazy good hearing, like the shadow that killed him. But that was already way beyond his pay grade, he could only run if he ran into something like that again, even with his new skill.
He had exciting shit to live for now, he couldn't go headfirst into whatever was interesting like he used to.
Or so he told himself.
Despite that, he had no intentions of shying away from entering the spider's nest, which was basically guaranteed to be a death trap that he should shy away from if he wanted to live and do the things he wanted to do.
At least he had the lifesaving card of Trivrium's promise to teleport him away in the case of near death, as long as he didn't instantly die.
Besides, as soon as this mission ended, he would lose the Protective Blessing of Trivrium, which would massively set back his power. That was basically all of his defense as of right now.
Without it he would be as fragile as a piece of paper, especially considering the side effects his new skill.
Putting his shirt and armor back on, 6 stood up and began walking.
"Time to get test my new skill. Would've loved to have some water to clean my chest, but its whatever. I'll just bath again when I get a chance." He said, walking with his hands on his head, with [Intensified Blood Flow] still active.
He began running, testing his speed and the way the increase in his physical fitness felt, getting his body accustomed to the increase in power.
Each stride felt more powerful, each leap was further, and each strike he made felt as though the air itself was parting to him.
The sensation was amazing, it felt far more than 19% more powerful.
When it came time to fight, he could get an even better sense of how much stronger he is.
"Hey hey Trivrium, which is the opening in the spider's nest?" 6 asked, having made to decision to bring forward the time of his entry to the nest.