Erik ran through the wheat field, leaving a trail of blood behind him. The strong smell of iron made him feel sick to his stomach, and he tried hard not to throw up as his body shook.
Erik was used to the taste and smell of blood, usually from when Logan hurt him. But this time was different. This was not his blood, and besides, he never lost this much.
This time he had a dead thaid in his hands, losing blood all over the ground.
Killing the thaid wasn't wrong, but Erik knew it could cause problems. Given his low F-rank status, people would be suspicious about how he killed such a creature, despite how weak that thing might have been.
The system told Erik he needed to eat the brain crystal and drink the creature's blood to get its power. Drinking the blood was the easier part here. Eating the brain crystal would be rather problematic.
Besides, the main problem was that, since the body was bound to be found sooner or later, a missing brain crystal would be rather puzzling.
Erik went into the wheat field for two reasons. The first was that he wanted to avoid being seen doing all of that. The second was that he wanted to get as far away from Mr. Fox's farm as possible.
With a beating heart he ran. He was both anxious and scared, but he was also excited because if the system's powers really worked, he would get a new brain crystal power.
Erik stopped running in the middle of the wheat field and looked at the dead creature in his arms.
It was disgusting to see, mainly because the eyes were out of their sockets. Though seeing the dead creature wasn't the worst part, it was the thought of putting his fingers into the head, touching the brain, and all the fluids dripping from it.
Then he also had to drink the blood. What if the creature had some disease that could kill him?
However, the need to gain a new power was too strong, and greed surged inside the young man's mind. Erik collected the creature's blood, and when his fingers were wet with the red liquid, he licked them.
Erik tasted the blood, and it was awful. He felt like throwing up but forced himself to swallow. Right after, he saw several messages pop up in front of him.
[Unknown creature's blood acquired. Starting the analysis.]
[Analysis complete.]
[Fifty DNA points are required to extract the DNA.]
[Sixty DNA points detected. Starting the extraction?]
"NO! WAIT!" Erik couldn't start anything out in the open, as he didn't know what the extraction process entailed or required, and most importantly, he wanted to do this where no one could see him. A field in the middle of the night wasn't exactly the best place.
"System, how does all of this work, exactly?"
[To get a new brain crystal power, you need to change your DNA to match the power. If you don't, the power won't work. To do this, you need to use the DNA extraction power. This ability uses DNA points, genetic material, and energy.]
"Ah, I get it."
Erik then put his fingers from both hands inside the creature's head wound and started applying force, trying to open the head in two.
With a little effort, he managed, and it was there that he saw the brain crystal. It was a small transparent bead, about half the size of a coin, embedded deep inside the brain and covered in brain matter.
He quickly grabbed the crystal and pulled it out. Then he took a tissue from his backpack and cleaned off the blood and brain bits from the crystal.
Erik knew he had to eat the crystal right away, but he hesitated.
He checked his watch and realized he might miss his train if he wasted more time. Plus, he couldn't risk losing the crystal or someone finding out he had it. So, he took a deep breath, put the small bead in his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
The beads themselves didn't have a flavor, but the raw brain matter did, and it was disgusting.
"Damn!" The young man said. "I hate this."
Erik immediately got some other notifications.
[Unknown creature's brain crystal acquired. Starting the analysis.]
[Analysis complete.]
[Fifty DNA points are required to extract the power.]
[Sixty DNA points detected. Extraction is not advised; the host has incompatible DNA.]
[Extraction aborted]
The notifications were like the previous one. Erik assumed he needed, in total, a hundred DNA points to be able to get the brain crystal power.
Since Erik already had sixty DNA points, he only needed forty to extract both. As far as he understood, he first had to extract the DNA, and then he could extract the power.
…
…
…
After having cleaned himself as best he could, Erik headed back to the road. However, some blood still stained his clothes. As he walked along the country road, he noticed the sun setting.
Luckily for him, most pedestrians ignored him. So far, nobody seemed interested in checking who the boy was or what had happened to him.
Erik arrived at the train station just in time for him to take the last train to the eastern district.
"Welcome aboard," said an automated voice over the train's speaker system. "We will arrive at the next station in ten minutes."
It wasn't his stop, though.
As soon as the doors closed, the train began moving, its engine roaring like thunder. Ten minutes of pure anxiety passed before they reached the first stop. The passengers flooded onto the platform when the door opened, leaving empty seats.
Erik looked out the train window. He saw the floating tracks split into three paths, going to the south, west, and north parts of the city, but then focused on checking his surroundings again. Soon after, the train came to a stop. Erik and the other passengers got off the train.
Erik looked above. It was night already.
The rain would wash the blood stains away and hopefully erase the tracks he left on the ground.
The journey back home was a nerve-wracking experience for Erik. Every passing car made him flinch, thinking it might be the police.
He kept his head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone he passed on the street. The blood-stained clothes felt like a neon sign announcing his guilt, and he constantly checked to make sure they weren't visible.
Each step closer to home was both a relief and a new source of anxiety, as he feared someone might recognize him or notice something amiss.
The streets he knew well now felt unfamiliar and scary. Erik's heart raced the entire way, and he only allowed himself to breathe normally once he finally reached the safety of his apartment.
He turned around, leaned against the door, and sighed.
Erik spent a couple of minutes thinking. He was already seeing himself possess a wide array of brain crystal powers. Even though he couldn't show them all, he could do so with just one power.
Although it was uncommon, there were a few individuals who, in their later years, got a new brain crystal power; they were the so-called Awakeners.
Erik thought he could pretend to be an Awakener without getting into trouble. Awakeners were people who suddenly got new powers, so, in theory, he shouldn't have problems with it. The problem was that it was a rare event, so he had to be careful about what he did and said.
Showing the power would undoubtedly attract new trouble, yet Erik was seriously thinking about doing it. Not because of fame, not because he wanted to join the military. But because he wanted to stop the bullying. If he said he became an awakener, maybe that torture would finally end; maybe he would have the chances he never had.