About 20 minutes before...
Standing above another decapitated corpse of a Specter among burning ruins, Neo swung his Bone Cleaver in his hand to the side, cleaning the blood from it with one single motion.
[Notify! The durability of your Artifact {Bone Cleaver} fell from 76 to 74!]
[Congratulations! You have killed a Specter! 50 System Points acquired!]
[You have a total of 900 System Points currently!]
[Notify! New Legacy Capsule is available within the Legacy Hall!]
[Congratulations! Your Artifact Mastery with {Cleavers} has increased by 1!]
"Finally! A new Legacy Capsule!"
Neo's eyes lit up with excitement and quickly opened the Legacy Hall.
Whoosh!
_________________
• Legacy Capsule {Ice Claws}:
▸ Tier: 2
▸ Stage: Infected
▸ Description: A mutated Legacy allowing you to develop Ice Claws and cut through solid surfaces! Wounds inflicted with it slowly freeze your prey!
_________________
"Haha! Knew it! Give it to me!" Neo laughed and quickly spent 100 System Points. Then, he activated his new ability.
Swish!
"W-Woah!"
Watching with wide eyes as his fingers suddenly transformed into blue, crystal-like claws, Neo cut the air a few times before nodding and making them vanish.
"Cool! These will definitely come in handy later."
[Indeed, Master. However, do not be careless when using them. As this is a Tier 2 ability, it will use your Blood Essence faster than any of your other Legacies!]
Neo nodded and looked down at his hands.
After killing several Specters for who knows how long using his Mist Camouflage, Neo not only gained more experience in combat but his knowledge about how Legacies worked expanded a bit also thanks to Aurora!
First of all, now he knew what Tiers indicated between Legacies. They showed the amount of power they could grant one as well as their potential in the long run!
Obviously, Tier 1 was the weakest while Tier 5 was the strongest. As for Tier 0, so far what he understood it was a special Tier that was considered to be both the weakest and also the strongest for reasons he had yet to comprehend entirely.
Secondly, it seemed that by concentrating on the Legacy which he wished to use, without actually using it, he could "sense" its limits with more clarity, including how long he could use it, the time he needed to rest before activating once again, and what they were truly capable of.
He could even sense just how much Infected Core they needed to push them to the next Stage, which weirdly enough made him realize that except for his Enhanced Senses he could not Evolve any of his other Legacies!
As for the reason? According to Aurora, it was because Legacies earned from Legacy Capsules simply cannot Evolve, which, made Neo a bit disappointed.
Then, there was his understanding of Blood Essence. Until now, he thought using Legacies just made him exhausted but it was more complicated than that. It turned out that every time he used a Legacy, something within his blood was consumed by the Legacy to keep the ability active, which, if consumed completely could cause him to lose consciousness or even worse, could die right on the spot!
Hence why Aurora warned him about his new Legacy, as she said, a Tier 2 Legacy consumes one's Blood Essence faster than a Tier 1 Legacy!
As for how to increase one's Blood Essence, Neo knew the exact answer for that but thinking about it made his stomach twist from disgust.
'This world is truly wicked...' Neo sighed dejectedly and was ready to keep walking when suddenly his body froze.
"Finally, found you..."
"Eh?"
Feeling a bad premonition in his heart, Neo wished to move but unfortunately was too late to do so. The very next second, something flashed from his side and crashed into him, forcing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground!
"Urgh... Wha-"
"Silence or I will split your throat wide right here and now!"
Rose, who now knelt on top of Neo with one knee and was holding his head by his hair, hissed with anger and pressed a small blade before his throat, quickly drawing blood.
"Urgh..."
Ignoring his pained groan, Rose lifted Neo's head higher to allow him to see her face and asked;
"You are one of them, aren't you? You brought them here, didn't you!?"
"I... Urgh... I don't know what you are talking about."
"Lies!" Rose yelled and was about to press his blade deep into Neo's skin when suddenly a small figure appeared on the side.
"L-Lady Rose..."
Rose froze and slowly, she shifted her gaze to the side. There, a young girl stood trembling with a pale face and tearful eyes, her body covered in blood and ash while in her hands, a plush toy was tightly clenched.
Looking at the frightened kid, Rose's face softened a notch then sighed.
"Child, where is your mother?"
"Mommy... She..." the eyes of the little girl turned even redder and turned her head to the side, making Rose do the same, only for her face to turn dark the next second.
"I see..." Rose hummed with a low voice and as she turned her attention back at Neo, now with a deeper level of anger in her eyes, she said, "Child, close your eyes."
"Eh? W-Why?"
Hearing the trembling voice, Rose clenched her teeth.
"Just do it."
"Will you... Kill him? But... Mister... He saved my life."
"Eh?"
Rose jerked and for the first time, confusion settled down on her usually cold face.
"...What did you say?" Rose asked with a soft frown.
The young girl flinched and although scared, she pointed at the corpse of the Specter.
"He... He saved my life... From those people."
"She... Is telling the truth..."Neo added, to which the frown on Rose's face turned into a scowl.
"If that's true, why did you run away?"
Feeling as the blade was withdrawn a bit, allowing him to talk normally, Neo sighed with relief and spoke;
"I didn't run. I knew they will break through the gates and attack the innocent. Of course, I admit I could have gone to the main battlefield as the rest, but as I don't consider myself that strong to be any help there, I decided to help here."
Naturally, what he said was just bullshit, but considering how Rose let his hair go after pondering for moments in silence, it didn't matter.
"You are getting better in this."
Ignoring Zen's comment, Neo pushed himself up from the ground and after looking at the little girl with gratitude, he glanced at Rose, who although seemed to spare his life still looked at him with suspicion.
"So... What's the plan for now?" caressing his throat gently, Neo asked with a wry smile.
Now that things came to this, he had no choice but to follow after Rose.
Looking at Neo for several seconds in silence, Rose sighed and looked at the little girl.
"First, let's take her somewhere safe. Then, we take care of the rest of this mess together."
'Crap...'
...
After taking the little girl to a small building underground where others without any power to fight hid, Neo helped Rose to kill the rest of the Specter within the Shelter which turned out to be much easier than he believed it would be.
With his Mist Camouflage working as a cover, Rose slaughtered her targets with deadly precision thanks to her unique ability that allowed her to move almost as fast and silently as a breeze!
That Legacy of hers together with her skills and deadly precision with her blade was truly... Terrifying.