18 Fodder

5 days later....

A straight pathway made of shredded trees and large holes was now being handmade by Marss as he wildly waved his large, bleeding talons all over the place. Sending air blades flying in every single directions.

As his mind was further corrupted with rage, the wind razors also began shooting out more frequently.

While traversing the forest like this, he met several different mutated animals. The first one was a large white crane, or better know as the [hacksaw Ibis]. Its beak was pitch black, covered in naturally formed nicked edges and resembling a top class harpoon. Combining that, and its incredible well developed neck was enough to mabye enough to challenge the rampaging Marss a little. That is, until he turned a herd of those into something looking like a salad.

The second beast he found was some sort of salamander called the [Fresh Water Reaper]. It was similar to any type amphibious lizard. Being light blue in color while covered by some brown patches. The name 'reaper' most likely coming from how to would claim the lives of it's victim when suprise attacking them from a pool of water. Using the long paper thin fins growing out of the usal arm and leg joints to cut it's prey into hundreds of pieces instantly. It proved a worthy opponent when surprise attacking him, but failed to successfully penetrate his feathers each time.

As he slowly continued deeper, the monster's all became stronger. This was as clear as the new rays of sunshine shining down at the shrinking forest. New challengers always appeard from the higher end of the master layer, to the lower end of the general one.

Sadly, he did not get any new abilities, as Michael forbade him from integrating any of them. Wishing to wait until they had gotten ever single one, and then fused them togheter.

.....

The second day he traveled, a battalion of different cat shaped monstrosities tried intercepting him, wishing to stop the hen of destruction who threatened their home.

With all at the 'lower general layer' and there being five different cat breeds with over a hundred individuals, victory was not unreachable.

The self-proclaimed army was lead by the [Vered panther]. It's body was entirely black, only the eyes and the paws were red in color. It's pupils were shaped like some type of flower, making you unable to notice it approached. The other four were named [Gasher Cats], [Cloud tigers], [Alimer Lion] and lastly the [Rohaar leopard].

Each in possession of a weird ability, they slowly pushed him back on the ruined path he came from. Wind blades were no longer as effective against the deadly fast foes. Even when activating all skills available, Michael forced him to shut them down as they only reatreted whenever he used them.

However, as things were starting to get worse, the system notified him about a certain upgrade.

[Skill has evolved!]

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['Air manipulation LvL:9' has evolved into Air control LvL:1]

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[Air control: A higher level control of the surrounding atmosphere. It is a little slower than it's weaker counter part, but one can successfully create powerful artificial tornados.]

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[Congratulations!]

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[Host has gained affinity to 'Wind' element]

[Wind essence:0%]

When this happened, the razors of wind he flung at the evading cats stopped. Seeing that their enemy had lost it's power, several arrogant individuals jumped at him. Hoping to get through the thick armour.

But as they closed in, a stronger vacuum of air was suddenly created. Making the falling cats glide. Confused and shocked, they aimed their beautiful eyes at the hen again.

The tired figure was no longer escaping, instead turning towards them with a sinister smile.

Marss slashed away. Sending a much larger and thicker barrage of knifes at the suprised milk drinkers.

There was not even time to grieve as all were turned into mince meat.

The puddles of flesh rained down on the cut down trees. Some even fell inside the surrounding craters created by the endless mayhem.

The rest of the family members could only

watch as a dome shaped tornado made up of dirt and raw planks blocked their vision.

Standing there, waiting, the tornado slowly disappeared.... Disappearing alongside all the remains of their brothers and sisters.

Marss looked at all the filthy house cats who now wearily gazed back.

He had still not integrated the new genetic codes, as he was not yet told to do so by Michael.

The giant silver beast took a deep breath. Slowly exhaling it alongside his previous exhaustion.

All the muscles in his body tightened. The tension made him shake.

It was all released with a horrendous scream.

"I wILl KiLl yOU AlL!!!!!"

Then flying at them again...

.....

In a rundown bar, at an unknown location in some human city, Jenkins was currently discussing something with a well built, black haired individual. The man had a sharp nose, sword like eyebrows and two black dots were stifted in the midle of his eyes. His facial features could be considered very good looking. All this packed with his black robe made him all the more mysterious.

"Haha! Senior-brother Jenkins, I would never have imagined that you would start this so fast! What? it hasn't even been 5 years since last time you took this up!"

He began to laugh back at the blond haired humanoid, resembling some elf. He wore a dark brown hood, similar to the one he used while dealing with the murky voiced man.

He deeply smiled back at the man. answering him with chuckle.

As the atmosphere was growing more friendly, a well dressed maid came with two bottles of booze. She quickly placed them down and left.

The black haired individual did not wait another second, picking up his already opened bottle and downed it down.

After swallowing half of the liquid, he placed it down, looking at jenkins who was not even glancing at his bottle.

"Haha" He laughed weakly. Knowing that his old friend would not drink unless they made some sort of expensive bet.

"You are still like this, senior-brother. Fine, fine, lets begin then" He loosened the stiff smile while reaching his hand into one of the pockets behind his robe.

"So, who is he? To make you come here four hundred years earlier than originally planned."

The dark pupils slowly extended outwards into the whites inside his sockets while the skin paled a little.

Jenkins did not answer, but his smile magnified itself ten times over. His beautiful dimples were exposed to the world, not even some of the royalty could compare to him!

The black haired individual saw this and took his drinking hand out of the pocket, retrieving something similar to a fancy ticket.

He softly slammed it on the table, making the booze in his bottle shake. Small bubbles rouse towards the opening.

"Come on! Tell me already!" His eyes were now pitch black, like a deep and empty void, yet still holding Jenkins's figure in their view.

He did not let go of the ticket, reaching out for his bottle with the empty hand which he used to rest on the table.

He slowly lifted the brown bottle, preparing to take a sip as he then began to speak.

"So you are sure he can do it? Really, why are you not giving a name at least?"

Jenkins finally answered the man with actions consisting of picking up his own bottle. He raised it a little, waiting for the man to reply.

"I see...you are this sure." The black eyed man answered the toast, showing the ticket towards his good brother's side of the worn down table.They were then slowly dragging their bottles over the table once more, preparing to drink while finishing up the conversation

"Yes, old friend. I am."

They broke eye contact. Proceeding to take a sip each. Placing down the bottles, the young man stood up, preparing to leave as his eyes returned to normal.

"To deal with an emperor..." He mumbled while walking away, leaving the tab to his friend.

.....

Not even glancing at the other individual, Jenkins, looked down at the bottle, his thoughts were only know to himself.

'I haven't heard anything from that boy in some days now... But the dungeon is filling up with all sorts of cores and nuclei, so I'm sure he is good. The kingdom also seems to have noticed it. Adventurers shouldn't arrive before next week.'

he closed his amber eyes while thinking deeper.

'I'll try contacting him in three days. Some sort of update would make it easier to follow.'

He the stood up, walking towards the exit.

.....

Night time - same day

Back in the forrest, Marss was drenched in blood, covering most of his cracked silver scales.

His dark surroundings were filled in several slices of bones and mucles. Even some body parts remained, still holding onto their dense fur.

As the clouds let the moon fully shine through, the bloody grass patches became more visible. As more light came, small chunks of what seemed like ideal firewood would be seen, they were filling some of the newly formed craters.

Marss was breathing heavily out of his beaked mouth, resting on top the voodoo mask face. Altough the only skills he had used was the free air control and the most basic 'punch', it still tired him out. After all, he had not stopped to even sleep or rest for several days now!His orange eyes seemed somewhat weaker, mabye the exhaustion had let the wild instinct filling his body temporarily leave. It gave him some time to view his current progress via the system.

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Layer:General (middle)

Lvl:32/60 (Level Up!)

Name:Marss Zell Johnson

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Race:Variant humanAge:15

Mental status:Normal

Body status:Normal

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Energy:13 100/14 000

Bloodline(Integrated):Teratorn Peacock.

Bloodline storage:Night Dove, Leaf Dragon, Ghoul, Troll, bone crusher dog, lesser balrog, Hacksaw Ibis(new), Fresh water Reaper(new), Geyser toad(new), Begger centipede(new), sable clapper(new), ground wanderer(new), winking serpent(new), Sparrow brander(new), clavel singer(new), Cloud tiger(new), (Gasher cat(new), Alimer lion(new), Rohaar tiger(new), Vered panther(new).

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Mass: 110 900

Magic Essence : Wind:0%

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[ABILITIES] (active) (-)

(Sprint LvL 8) (Punch LvL 9) (Trick LvL3) (Muscle empowerment LvL1) (Bone shatterer LvL1) (perceptionLvL8) (Berserk LvL 5(+1) (revenge LvL6) (killer instinct LvL7(+2)

(Deconstruction) (Storage)(Integration) (Assimilation)

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[ABILITIES] (passive) (-)

(Super regeneration LvL7(new) (fatigue immunity LvL4) (Pain immunity LvL 9) (quick learner LvL4) (Primal instinct LvL3(+2) (Charisma LvL1) (Beast aura LvL 4(+3) (Mindful LvL1) (Precise striker LvL7) (Engraved path)(Thermal vision LvL 5(+) (air control LvL1(new) (Kinetic dispersion LvL9(+1) (damage convertion LvL6(+2)

(Filter) (Convertion) (Assort) (Hybrid)

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[Titles]

[BETRAYED/EXPERIENCED FIGHTER/CHEATER OF DEATH/HYBRID/???/???/???

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Looking at it he felt both proud yet confused.

'W..Why is the level not going up faster? I have surely defeated more than hundreds of times more enemies than when I was stuck in the dungeon..'

[Some experience is being absorbed by 'foreign object' inside host's arm]

He looked down at the slightly less shiny forearm. The one where the core shard was implanted.

'So that's why I also didn't level up after smashing all those puppets. The core absorbs experience if you are close enough. Also, mabye the size also affects the amount taken.. Explains why I didn't level up after killing those lesser balrogs and undead.'

Looking around, there was still more trees further away from him. Completly dark and untouched by the battle.

While starring at the current non-viewable area, he noticed some shiny yellow dots look at him from the darkness.

Some sort of werebeasts started sticking their long snouts out. Knurring in his direction. Some lines of sharp, uncovered teeth were visible.

He slowly stood up. Because something withing him said that getting his mother back would be far more challenging than this.

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[Abilities activated!]

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[Berzerk LvL:5]

(Physical power is Quintupled)

(energy drained per second is Quintupled)

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[Killer instinct LvL:7]

(erodes targets will to live)

(target must be weaker than user)

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[Muscle empowerment LvL:1]

(Muscle efficiency is increased by 100%)

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His body began to heat up and the black pupils slowly disappeard.

he opened his encased mouth slowly... Whispering something before the voice contorded. It made some hiding beast's reatret their snouts into the woods.

The powerful echo was sent away for all to hear...

"I...must finish this."

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....Explenation for all new animals....

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[Hacksaw Ibis: A common water bird travelling in packs of 50. They have long and sturdy beaks covered by nicked edges. This helps them hunt their favorite prey, the 'fresh water reaper'. They are not known to be very strong overall, but it is best to not antagonize lone individual, as they almost always travel together. An adult will be at the higher master layer]

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[Fresh water Reaper: A blue salamander covered in dark brown patches. It hunts all types of beasts who come to drink from it's home. They do not have any legs or arms, but possess long and sharp fins which can slice through most beasts at the same level. It was once named 'Smiling reaper' by commoners. Because, if you stand close enough to the water they live in, the last thing you may see is it's 'smily face' features before dying. An adult will be at the middle master layer]

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[Geyser toad: A type of amphibious creature known to be able to cause all nearby water to cool down due to its innate 'ice affinity'. An adult can release a substance which will cause the water to not freeze, making the pond they stay in look like some sort of boiling liquid nitrogen as the temperature peaks. An adult will reach the middle master layer.]

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[Begger centipede:A rare type of snake covered in a sort of centipide shell. It will rattle its entire body as predators close in, sounding like a coin shaking inside a metal cup(hence the name). It usually strangles its prey while shoving the barbed shell into their body. An adult reaches the middle master layer.]

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[Sable clapper:A type of bird, similar to a football in both size and color. It stings prey with its needle shaped beak, trying to bleed it to death.]

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[Ground wanderer:A type of barrel sized coyote, renowned for its almost limitles stamina when moving at walking speed. They only ever tire out when chasing fast prey.]

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[Winking serpent: A small water reptile which only ever blinks while eating. It can swallow large prey, slowly killing them with its highly corrosive stomach acid. If you ever see one starring at you, then run. An adult will reach the lower soldier realm.]

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[Sparrow brander: This sparrow is only the size of a small glass of water. It emits a type ofchemical from its beak which slows down regeneration speed. They travel in packs of 60.]

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[Clavel singer:A type of fox which can make creatures who have not yet reached a 'layer of power' see almost life like illusion while it makes noise. It does this with a compound released when exhaled. It can be controlled or broken if the user becomes aware they are in an illusion.]

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[Cloud tiger: A white tiger without stripes. Reaches the size a horse when fully matured. It has the ability to stand on surfaces dense enough in water. The density has to be similar to that found in a very thick cloud. An adult reaches the lower general layer.]

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[Gasher cat:A type of large grey cat covered in yellow stripes. It will reach the size of a dinner table. The cat can continuously move its body for a day even without a supplies to oxygen. An adult reaches the lower general layer.]

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[Alimer lion:A green lion with a mane formed of leaf shaped haires. It can turn invisible when surrounded by dense greenery. It reaches the size of some normal cattle. An adult reaches the lower general layer]

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[Rohaar tiger:A small type of leopard able to generate powerful soundwaves when roaring. The roar can cause the air vibrations to reach a destrictive level, capable of turning stone into sand. This, however, draines stamina fast. An adult reaches the lower general realm.]

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[Vered panther: A very large, completly black type of feline reaching the size of a carriage. It has red, rose shaped pupils, able to draw the opposing side into a trance. In it, the cat will seem to always stand still, while slowly moving towards it's prey. all its paws are covered in this rose petal shape. It has an 'enhanced physique', meaning it can generate more power than expected for its level. An adult reaches the middle general layer.]

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