Chapter 36: Nexcore & Star Antelope Bloodline
’Argggghh...’
William groaned as he opened his eyes, clutching his head, still feeling a mild pain pounding behind his temples. "Shit. Next time, I’ll listen to Rollie’s advice. Everything’s fucking painful in this hellhole." He dragged himself upright and rested against the bedframe, then glanced down at his body.
His skin was back to normal. No redness, no burn marks, like nothing ever happened. There was just a little phantom pain coursing through his body.
But then he noticed something that made his eyes pop. He shot to his feet and scanned the room. For some reason, everything around him looked crisp. It wasn’t like his eyesight was weak before, but now he could see everything more clearly, like his eyes just went from 1080p to 4k.
It wasn’t just his vision. All his senses went up. He caught the faint giggling of fairies coming from the Luminara tree, felt the exact texture of the floor under his feet, still tasted that annoying mineral taste from the potion, and smelled some musky stink from the stain on his pants. Rollie chimed in, amused at his cluelessness.
[Welcome to the Mana World.]
[The changes you’re experiencing are because of mana. Check out your attributes.]
Hearing that, he pulled his status panel. A grin split his face as he took in his new stats.
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Attributes
Strength: 55 (After 10 from technique)
Constitution: 55 (After 10 from technique)
Agility: 45
Intelligence: 55
Mana: 40
Charm: 110
Luck: 0 (After +10 from Luminara’s blessing)
Unassigned Attribute(s): 0
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Mana, it was now showing in his attribute section. It wasn’t just there; he had 40 fucking points of mana, way more than any of his troops. He also got an extra 10 points across the board, charm included, except for intelligence, which got a fat +20. That explained why his senses suddenly cranked up. The only thing that didn’t get a boost was his bitch luck.
He had no clue how long he’d been out cold, so he checked the tower system, 22:00. Only two hours left before the tower games officially kicked off. Whatever he needed to prep, he had to do it fast. But first: "I should probably get rid of this musky stink." With that, he trudged off for a quick shower.
[A/N]: Same 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week follow here.
After a while, he stepped outside the hut and sucked in a deep breath. The air hit different, cool, crisp, almost electric. Grass and flowers felt like they were glowing, like colors turned up to max. "So this is how they see everything," he muttered, half in awe and half annoyed at how much he’d been missing out compared to his troops.
Then he wandered over to the Luminara tree; it was the tower’s time to get a mana shower. As he got close, the fairies shot straight at him. After doling out a few pats, he looked at the shy Vrdyl and pulled out the Wind Cutter skill book. "Here, this one’s for you."
The moment she saw it, Vrdyl zipped right up. She knew what a skill book looked like. With an excited ’kyuuu~’, she pressed her tiny hands to the cover and closed her eyes. A wisp of light zipped into her forehead, and the book began to fade away.
William checked her status, Wind Cutter (Low) was now showing in her skill list. Vrdyl hugged his fingers in thanks. William couldn’t help but smile at her.
Then he strolled up to the tree and sent a mental command to use the Nexcore. Instantly, a crystal, same shape and size as the respawn core, but a deep, darkish blue, appeared from his inventory. Mana poured off it in thick waves as it went straight into the trunk.
The next second, the branches started shaking like they were having a seizure, and the trunk began to turn charred, as thin smoke curled up from the bark. William’s face went pale. "Shit, Rollie, what the hell is happening? Why does it look like the core’s about to go up in smoke? If that thing burns up, I’m toast too!"
[Relax, the core’s not going anywhere. It’s just like when you awakened your mana pathways. only in a bigger scale. Once the fusing’s done, everything’ll settle down.]
Even with Rollie’s reassurance, William kept eyeing the tree with a worried face. His troops also gathered around amid the commotion, staring at the tree, clueless and equally worried.
It remained the same for the next five minutes, branches rattling, smoke curling, trunk looking one spark away from a bonfire. Then, suddenly, everything went still. The smoke faded, and fresh bark began to grow over the charred wood, making the trunk look even lusher than before. Five more minutes passed away then.
’Swishhhhh’
A wave of mana burst from the core like a gust of wind. It swept over William and his troops, not with force; it just passed straight through them, before spreading across the entire floor and fading out at the walls.
William glanced at his surroundings. He could feel mana in the air. It wasn’t visible, but he could feel it with every breath. Then he noticed something change inside him as well. He opened up his panel and, yep, his mana had spiked to 49.
Curious, he checked his troops’ stats too. Their mana attributes had all jumped by five points. Not a ton, but hey, it’s free. All of them had wide smiles on their faces, seeing mana in the air; even the dense Cent had a thin smirk.
William wanted to celebrate with his troops, but there just wasn’t time. Only 80 minutes left before a new round of hell kicked off. Scrolling through the merchant’s blueprint list alone would eat up almost all the time, not to mention the skills and materials he still needed to buy. Screw it. He decided to put shopping on hold.
Right now, he and his crew were enough for any lord with C-rank troops, no problem. The real pain in the ass was their talent. Accept a lord’s challenge and find out, they’ve got some S-rank bullshit talent, and suddenly it’s game over. The same risk went for challengers as well.
He had the Antelope bloodline and two troop tokens in his inventory, which he could use before tower games start for extra precaution. The swamp had already respawned fresh marine troops, which would be enough for now.
With that, William headed for the grassland to use the bloodline and summon new recruits. As he passed the edge of the half-trimmed flowerbed, he noticed that the mana in the air went thinner. He remembered that’s because of Nexcore’s second effect, which made mana around the tower core twice as dense as anywhere else.
"Well, there goes my peaceful days lounging under the tree. This place is about to become a hotspot for everyone," he muttered, glancing back at the Luminara tree before heading for open ground.
Once there, he pulled the bloodline vial from his inventory, a small glass bottle filled with tart-red blood, with some shimmering white flecks. It was Earth grade. That meant the beast was from a cultivation world.
At least it didn’t look like garbage juice he got for Gurbkin’s blood. Rollie hadn’t shown the trait details during the pulls, so to see what he’d be getting, William asked, "Rollie, show me the full description for this."
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Bloodline: Royal Star Antelope (Earth)
Description: Spirit beast commonly found in starlit grasslands. They absorb starlight to cultivate and possess high speed, perception, and foresight.
Racial Traits:
Starlit Instinct: When detecting a danger or in battle, the body’s agility and perception would increase by a quarter.
Star Leap: A rare ability found in Star Antelope to blink at a small distance. Initially, a 5-meter blink distance can be increased with mastery over the stellar concept.
Star Glimpse: A rare ability found in Royal Star Antelope to glimpse up to five seconds into the future each day. The duration may be used in separate intervals. The duration can grow with mastery of the stellar concept.
Note: To increase each trait’s effect, Stellar affinity and Stellar concept are required.
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William’s jaw dropped at the lineup of traits. Damn, these were broken for a rare-tier grass-muncher. The first trait was decent, but the second and third? That’s where things got spicy: one let you spook enemies with a short-range teleport, and the other meant you could dodge attacks before their swing came halfway.
He popped the vial open, ready to drown it in, but his hands paused. "Rollie, is this going to hurt?" After the last round of pain, he wasn’t in the mood for another. If there was any way to dodge or lessen it, he’d take it.
[Yep, you’ll get a mild headache. It won’t be as bad as mana awakening.]
"Okay, if it’s less, I can handle it." With that, he gulped the blood in one go. It had a metallic taste, but not as strong as the mana potion. Right when it went down his throat, the pain came: started as a dull throb, but cranked up quick. He clutched his head and sat on the ground, not wanting to fall if the end was unconsciousness.
The pain just kept climbing, wave after wave, and with it came a flood of information for each trait. William gritted his teeth and held on for a full minute. By the end, his eyes had rolled back, white sclera showing, tears streaming as he curled up, hands locked on his head.
Then, in an instant, it was over. His pupils snapped back, the pounding in his skull faded, and he collapsed on the grass, gasping for air. "Fuck, what book calls this ’mild pain’?" He wanted to explode at Rollie, but he didn’t have the energy. Still, now he knew everything about the Antelope traits, like he’d been born with them.
He lay there a while, catching his breath, before finally dragging himself up. It was time to welcome his new recruits. He pulled out a summon token and sent the mental command:
’Summon’
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[A/N]: Idiot Author! How the hell could MC use their traits when he doesn’t have stellar affinity? And you mentioned perfect in the physique bloodline-ability. What does that mean? (Answer Attached)
