God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 73: Whispers of a Devil.

Cain stared at the status screen with utmost concentration...

***

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 24.

Strength: 235.

Agility: 296.

Stamina: 15/112.

Vitality: 50.

Defense: 91.

Control: 5.5.

Perception: 4.7.

HP: 1,950/4,900.

MP: 2,090/3,500.

Magic: 295.

Ki: 6.

Resistance: Poison- 10%.

Spirit: 52.

Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, *Fear, *Bloodthirsty, Blood Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart, Seal, Hollow Judgement, Devil's eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked), Sorcerer's Mind.

Free attribute points: 27.

System points: 10.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

{Golden blood level.1}: Upon activation, multiply all physical stats by 2. Consumes 100 MP, and costs 1 point of stamina per second to maintain. Puts the body of the user under great strain. (7,560/10,000 SP).

This is an internal skill, hence, it can be upgraded.

{Mana Blade}: Coat the surface of your blade with destructive mana to deal an extra 200% damage when attacking. It Consumes 5MP per second to sustain. Note:This is an external active skill, and cannot be upgraded.

{Lightening Edge: Increase attack speed by 100%. Critical rate increases by 5% when the skill is used. Cost 100MP to activate.

Cooldown: 30 seconds.

{Blade Mastery lvl. 2.} (passive): Increases attack power and speed with bladed weapons by 30%. Increases critical chance and rate by 5%. (8,000/9,000SP).

{Burst Step}: Expell mana from beneath the feet, creating propulsion that allows the host to change trajectory abruptly when in motion. Increases movement speed by 30%.

Costs 5MP per activation. No cooldown.}

{Metal Creation Lvl 2.}: Gather the Metal elemental attribute mana to create constructs of metal. The effects of the skill are influenced by the host's magic and control stats, as well as imagination (5,000/10,000SP).

{Golden Severance}: Condense an immense amount of metal attribute elemental mana into a concentrated beam of world light, capable of splitting anything it comes in contact with only for a single attack, and increases attack power by 500%. The attack consumes 500MP upon usage.

Cooldown: 2.5 minutes.

{Metal Manipulation}: Grants the ability to freely control metal of weight that does not exceed 1 ton. Skill is leveled up simultaneously with the {Metal Creation} skill.

{Fear} (passive): Release a malevolent aura akin to a devil, inflicting fear onto your opponent. Decreases opponent movement and attack speed by 5%.

{Bloodthirsty} (passive): Consume the blood and flesh of fallen enemies to increase the power of the Devil's broken claw. For every 100 enemies slain and absorbed, attack speed and attack power increase by 1%.

{Blood Regeneration}(passive): Gather the arcane energy of blood elemental mana to regenerate your lost power. Regenerates 10HP, 2MP, and 1 point of Stamina per second.

Requirements: Basic control over blood elemental mana.

50 stat points in Spirit stat.

{Azure Burst}: Rapidly burn out internal mana in a single burst to produce enough heat and energy to burn the surrounding mana. These flames greatly increase the attack and movement speed of the host by 300%. Attack damage increases by 50%. Critical rate and damage increased by 10%.

Costs 500MP to activate, and the skill only lasts for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

{Mana Heart lvl 1 (passive): Mana pool increases by 2×. Mana is regenerated at 5MP per second. The Cooldown of all skills was reduced by 50%. For every level, +1 extra point to Magic stat.

Grants host the ability to absorb and transform pure forms of mana}.

(0/10,000SP)

{Seal}: Forcibly freeze the flow of mana in the spiritual plane. This skill doesn't distinguish between friend and foe, and any skill or spell, apart from ones activated by the host, will be nullified. Skills or spells already active will be deactivated as well.

This skill will only work on skills that are not above Tier 1.

Cost: 300MP per activation

Cooldown: 30 minutes.

{Hollow Judgement}: The combination of powerful skills summoned the elements to create a devastating attack powerful enough to split mountains and oceans without distinguishing between friend or foe. The power of the skill is determined by the density of mana present in the area.

This skill is highly unstable, and can only be activated with sufficient magic and control stats.

Cost: 1000MP per activation.

Cooldown: 12 hours.

{Devil eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance}: Gain crystal clear information on everything that happens all around you in a 100-meter radius when the skill is activated. Nothing can escape your sight within this range. (500/10,000SP).

Cost: 30MP and 1 Stamina point per second.

When his eyes reached the end of the holographic image displayed before him, his face squeezed at the sigh of how many systempointsnt he had left.

'Only ten?! I had thousands this morning! How did it get to ten?!'

{Replying to the host: Since the host suggested that he would prefer the system provide him with all information he requests without checking for the price in the store, the system made sure to obey this request to the fullest...}

'Shit! This is fraudulent!'

{Replying to host: Negative... The only reason the host lost such a large amount of system points is that all the questions the host has asked are very useful and rare pieces of information, some of them completely unknown and uncovered on the host's home planet...

Hence, the rarity of these pieces of information was what made their prices so high, which led to you losing system points rapidly...}

'That is true...'

Since Cain already knew all of this about the system, he had no right to complain. He knew exactly what he was getting to when he gave the system that command. What he didn't expect, was how easy it was for him to use up all his system points.

'Regardless... I still benefited greatly.' Cain consoled himself as he looked through his status screen to analyze his progress.

He had glanced over his status screen a few times, but he hadn't gone over his stat gains over the past twenty-four hours. Now that he had the time, he decided to see just how much progress he had made...

'My stats have improved significantly... Not only that, but I have gained new skills, as well as level up my old ones.'

He had already acquired 5 internal skills, so he couldn't get any more until he reached level 50, and passed the system-issued quest to be promoted from Tier 0 to Tier 1.

'Metal Creation, Mana Heart, Golden Blood, Blade Mastery, and Devil's eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance. These are the Internal skills I have...'

Cain pondered over these things for a while before remembering what he was supposed to be doing...

'Now, I have everything I need. I will use {Blood Regeneration} to recover my lost stamina. I can also gain more and more Ki without the aid of a ki plundering technique. It's like killing two birds with one stone.'

Cain stood up from the ground again and approached the blade buried in the ground. Now that he had all he needed, he saw no reason to hold on any longer.

He was quite eager to test the results of his new skill. He quickly deactivated {Devil eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance} to stop himself from losing more stamina, and quietly waited for his stamina to regenerate back to full.

Because the blade was so heavy, he lost about 1 stamina point per second, which {Blood Regeneration} was barely able to offset. So he couldn't use any of his other skills if he wanted to do this.

Sure, by activating {Golden Blood}, he would be able to pull the blade out without any resistance, but he didn't want to do that, now that he knew what the rewards of his struggle would be.

'Here goes nothing...'

Once his stamina had regenerated back to full, he paced his hands on the hilt of the blade once again...

Then he pulled...

He pulled with all his strength and power. With his level of control, he was able to maximize his strength output. He even one of the martial arts techniques he had learned from his teacher to better increase his power output, whilst distributing all the force and strain throughout his body equally.

He had been told by his master that the technique was very basic, as almost every person with martial arts training had some degree of proficiency in it. However, Cain didn't know that his mastery of the skill had gone above what normal people could achieve...

Before he had gained his powers thanks to mana, he was able to exercise a decent amount of control over his body. Although he was no master, it was still above the beginner's level. The control stat completely changed that dynamic...

He was nowhere close to mastering the skill, but his proficiency in it had gone up by at least fifty percent.

'Come on!'

Cain grits his teeth as he made use of all the strength he could call upon.

{+1 to Ki stat}.

"Martial arts seeks to break all limits possible on the human body. By breaking these limitations, one becomes one with the very purest form of power itself, capable of unleashing the powers of the demon within..."

"

Martial arts seeks to break all limits possible on the human body. By breaking these limitations, one becomes one with the very purest form of power itself, capable of unleashing the powers of the demon within..."

His master had once told him that behind all his limits, was a terrifying demon waiting to be released from its shackles. Subconsciously, he had created these chains to lock the demon down, as he knew that unleashing this demon would have dire consequences.

In his earlier years, he had tried his best to be accepted, but there was no place in society for someone like him. And yet, he still tried his very best to be accepted...

When he saw that it would be impossible to make them accept him, he shut his true self away...

Images of his past resurfaced as he pulled on the coarse hilt of his blade. This situation was all too familiar to him.

That feeling of weakness that he thought he had escaped from had come back for him. When he had been saved by his master, he thought that was the end, but he had simply just locked all these emotions away. He knew what it was like to be weak, and he hated that feeling.

But right here, right now, that feeling he had been running away from all his life had come back for him again.

'You aren't strong enough...'

'

You aren't strong enough...'

'Weak!'

Weak!'

'Don't you dare fight back! Know your place as the bastard you are. Hahaha!'

Those voices came back like the tauntings of the devil, eating at his psyche. Cain had no idea why these thoughts had decided to come back at a time like this, but he could feel himself slipping...