Chapter Four: Unexpected Gains
The first light of dawn began to pierce through the dense forest canopy, casting soft, golden rays upon the moss-covered ground. Birds chirped in the distance, heralding the arrival of a new day. The once foreboding and eerie atmosphere of the forest had transformed into a serene, almost magical place. But for Evel, the peace was a deceptive veil over the turmoil within.
Evel slowly opened his eyes, his body aching from the previous night's ordeal. For Evel, the previous night was just like a very scary dream—no, a nightmare that changed his life upside down. His once happy family, his loving mother, his caring father, his stupid friends—all were gone. Even if he somehow managed to avenge them, they would not return; they were truly gone. Only he was left alone in this cruel world. The faces of his parents, the blood, the dark figure he had slain—all these images raced through his mind.
Evel looked at his body. He was small, hardly 120 cm, his hands tiny and full of wounds, his clothes all torn and dirty. He looked like a beggar who was going to start his begging business. "If I told someone that I am going to kill all those people and avenge my family and friends, they would surely laugh at me. Not only that, even my enemies would show me their butts and tell me to stab them," Evel began to mock himself to ease the unbearable pain and sorrow in his tiny heart.
But there was something more he wanted to observe. He slowly got off the tree by sliding down the trunk; if he could, he would have jumped off the tree, but he didn't want his bones to break. He stood straight and began to observe his shadow. He could feel his shadow, but the sensation was not that strong. Evel was shocked out of his breath. "I can feel the shadow, meaning that I am very close to achieving Quasi Master in the shadow element." Quasi Master might not sound that impressive, but achieving that at his age was more than what the word 'genius' can hold.
In this world, every person has a talent unique to their bloodline. Every talent has its own strength and weakness. There is no strongest talent, only the strongest talent holder. For example, the talent of shadows can help a person to hide in shadows and can be great during assassinations, but what's the point of only hiding if you don't have enough strength to kill the other person? Understanding every element of one's talent increases one's attainment in it. It goes on like this: Master, Grand Master, Great Grand Master, Supreme Grand Master, and Divine.
Bloodline talents are the backbone of respective clans. The information related to one's talent is strictly controlled within the clan to avoid leaks. Knowing about an opponent's talent can give an upper hand to oneself; their own talent can be used against themselves and sometimes can result in the life and death of that person.
One undeniable fact about bloodline talents is that one person can have only one talent power unique to their bloodlines. There are no what-ifs, no matter what the situation; there can't be dual talent holders. If two people of different talents get married, their offspring could either gain the talent of the father or the mother, but they can't gain both. Sometimes, due to mutation, they may gain a new talent.
But Evel was the exception. The number of talents he could possess seemed not to be limited at all as per his current knowledge. Thinking about it, Evel felt strange. "How come I possess this talent?" Evel always thought that his clan's bloodline talent had the ability to devour the blood core of a beast to gain temporary strength. Not only him, but everyone thought so, including all the clan members. "No, it's not the time to think about it."
Evel quickly went to check out the corpse. There was much important information that he got from that shadow assassin. But when he got there, what he saw made him restless. The corpse of the person was gone, not a single piece of bone left. "Did someone come and take away the corpse or was it a wild beast?" Evel began to observe the ground carefully.
The marks left on the ground and the disappearance of the corpse like that strongly indicated that it was a Python. Its size was not small; it must be at least a silver-level beast. It must be a White Demon Python. This name was given to it by its victim, as its favorite food was humans. Evel was certain there was no other kind of python-like beast in this area as per the memory he obtained. No wonder the other beasts didn't dare to wander around this area, as wild beasts have a strong sense of their territory.
...
"Where the heck is that thing!" Evel began to search here and there, following the marks of the python. The thing he was looking for was the black robe worn by that person. He had thought that it was a simple robe, but it was an artifact. Artifacts were very precious, even the simplest ones' value in current times was not measurable with gold coins. They were treasures of every clan, passed down from generation to generation and were not commonly sold anywhere.
Artifacts were made by materializing and manifesting one's talent, so the artifacts contain some of the power of that talent. Only a person of Grand Master rank can create an artifact relating to his talent, and there were only eleven known people with Grand Master rank all over the Southern continent, resulting in the rarity of artifacts.
"Don't tell me that the robe is still under that python's stomach," Evel began to calm himself and think logically. If it was still under that python's belly, then he is in trouble. He would have to forget that it had ever existed. Evel didn't want to leave the robe, but what could he even do? Fight that python? Evel was not stupid. It was a silver-level beast whereas he was just a three-year-old weak boy. Going to fight that beast was just courting death.
"Artifacts will not go anywhere, I should first fill my hunger," thinking about the hunger he began to remember that piece of human meat he had eaten yesterday. "It was truly delicious," Evel's mouth began to drool uncontrollably. "What am I even saying? I am a human, not a beast." Evel slapped his cheek with his hands to regain his focus. He took out his dagger and went out hunting.
After some time, Evel returned to his home tree with a rabbit in his right hand. He was quite frustrated. "I didn't think that I would struggle so much just to catch this little rabbit with my new power and experience from the memory." He set up the fire and started to roast the rabbit meat. Now Evel was not that much worried about the wild beast, as this was the territory of the White Demon Python. As for the python, it was only active during the night.
After a few minutes, the meat was fully roasted, a bit burned, and its delicious aroma filled the air. Evel began to devour his first cooked meal of his life. The meat was not bad, but it was nothing compared to the human meat he had eaten the previous day.
While he was enjoying his meal, he heard some familiar noises. Evel was startled. He quickly finished his meal and headed in the direction of the noises.
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