Chapter 64: Failed Attempts

After making sure Mei had left, Arion went out the back where only a large plain field was visible with nobody in sight. The backyard of his house was surrounded by thick bushes and small trees, and a green field in the distance.

All the other houses were located on the other side, and he was sure no one else would come here.

"Alright. Time for Inner Perception!" Arion wanted to check out his status screen once again properly since he didn't have much time to check out some things.

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[ INNER PERCEPTION ACTIVATED ]

Strength: 3

Defense: 4

Agility: 3.8

Pranic Force: 1

Defity: Prana Binding Stage [ 10th Cycle - 20,521/ 1,048,576]

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"Huh? How is this possible?" Arion mumbled when he noticed a change in his Defity, surprising him.

Previously he had only 0 rounds, but now it was showing 20,521, which meant that somehow his 10th Cycle had made some progress within just a day when he had only been eating.

'It can't be...Ingestion Empowerment?' Arion remembered that he had such a kind of ability that seemed to allow him to increase Defity as long as he eats something that contains prana.

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— Ingestion Empowerment [Lvl. 1] : Ingest any pranic items to increase Defity. Effectiveness varies with level

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Arion's eyes lit up, 'Does this mean I can really become powerful just by eating alone? That sounds too easy!'

Before he thought that he would have to go through arduous training like the ones he usually read in stories or see in movies where the main character would have to train without food and sleep for 100 days or something similar.

From 0 to 20,521 rounds in just a day was almost unbelievable for him since he doubted if anyone else could beat this speed of increasing Defity and that too without doing any extra heavy lifting of his own.

He speculated that he could complete the 10th Cycle within just two months compared to a year or more.

And theoretically, if he had a bottomless stomach and infinite amount of pranic food, then he could maybe even complete the 10th Cycle within just a few days or less.

But then his expression became a bit down when he remembered how expensive anything with the word 'prana' was. Even the medicinal balls he ate would have sold for quite a lot in the market if Yaro wanted to sell them.

'How am I gonna earn money? Join a training school? No...even then, I would merely be just training...or will I be allowed to do some part-time jobs like in my previous life?' Arion had already begun to think of different ways to earn money in this world.

But due to his limited knowledge of the world, he couldn't see many options, especially since he wasn't even a legit Defier yet.

The most common way of making money he knew was by killing Dreadlings or taking up bounties to kill Dreadlings people spotted. However, all these required him to be at least a Dreadslayer, let alone a Defier at least.

But now, he was sure he would even find it hard to kill the weakest Dreadlings out there with his current strength. He had merely started on the path of building his Defity, and he was nowhere ready to engage a Dreadling alone just to earn some money.

It was only because of sheer luck and the mental state he was in at that time, he was able to kill some Jawfiends in that cave. But even then, he knew how close to death he was at that time.

He valued his life more, and so he thought, 'I guess I will just take my time. No need to become desperate and do something foolish. Let's see where the future takes me.'

He then decided to check out the most interesting thing he saw on his status screen,

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Bloodline: Doom Lizard (Dormant)

Abilities -

— Shapeshifting [Lvl.1] : Limited to base race and bloodline form 

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'Dormant? So how do I exactly use this bloodline or change into my bloodline form?' Arion was very curious about his shapeshifting ability coupled with his bloodline. He was already used to using the shapeshifting ability on humans, but now the 'bloodline form' truly intrigued him, making him wonder if he could really turn into a lizard and if so, how and what he would look like.

Even though he was inwardly disappointed with the word 'lizard' when he thought about how that old man or Aldress boasted of being a dragon, he still felt that having a 'bloodline' was better than nothing.

Arion looked around to see if anyone was nearby and moved into a more secluded spot just to be safe and also to make sure he would have enough time to react in case someone comes.

'Alright. Let's do this…'

"Transform!" Arion whispered as he took a powerup stance. But other than hearing the sound of some night-calling insects, nothing else happened. 

However, he did notice that his hearing got better, his sight improved in the sense that he could see better in the dark, and his smelling sense improved as well when he could smell the fragrances of even flowers located a bit far away from him, and this was especially noticeable when he hugged Mei before and felt that she smelled more pleasant than before to the point it had a cleansing effect or so he thought.

But his improved senses weren't what he was thinking now but how to 'activate' his bloodline or anything.

He felt that there should be some magic word or something just like he saw in movies and decided to borrow some tricks from those,

"Lizard Man!" 

"Still nothing...wow...just what the fuck should I say. Fuck it...let me try all kinds of words."

He closed his eyes and focused instead of taking a silly power stance and whispered, "Doom Lizard!"

But even after connecting with his pranic energy and whispering the 'magic word,' nothing happened.

"Magic Lizard!"

"Transform to Lizard!"

"Shapeshift!"

"Activate!"

"Dragon!"

"Lizard Immortal!"

"Boogeyman!"

'Fuck it! This is useless and stupid,' Arion thought, feeling stupid himself for even thinking that this might garner some results.

In his previous life, all he had to do to change his face was to touch someone for a certain time. But since it seemed simpler than this bloodline transformation, Arion felt that there should be some complicated way to activate it.

Even though he was disappointed that he wasn't able to shapeshift into his bloodline form, he felt that it was not really a bad thing since there was always the danger of being stuck in the bloodline form and depending on what kind of form he was going to take, there could be a lot of dangers including the fact that how no one would recognize him including Mei.

He then decided to ask Mei about his bloodline and mainly the Aspect he found strange, Devour.

After getting lost in another discussion with Mei, he had forgotten to ask about this. But just as he was deciding to return back, he heard the sound of a leaf being crushed by someone's feet.

Arion quickly moved away from his spot and came out but was met by a familiar annoying face.

"You!"

"Yes. It's me," Shun said as he rubbed his nose.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Arion asked as he was startled by his appearance in the middle of the night.

"You read my mind. That's what I wanted to ask. I thought I heard someone saying 'lizard' something. Why are you so obsessed with lizards? I don't see them a lot around here," Shun said as he glanced around.

Arion clenched his jaw and asked, "Even if I said it or not, don't tell me you who were sleeping in your room came out just because you heard something?"

"Of course, no. It's not like I have super hearing. I came here to take a pee since Miss Mei has occupied the bathroom. You don't expect me to pee in the room, right?"

"Don't tell me you don't know about the second bathroom you had been using all this while? Why would you even use the bathroom in my room?" Arion squinted his eyes and kept looking at Shun suspiciously.

Shun rubbed his nose again, "Oh, really? I saw Miss Mei going into the bathroom I usually use, so I don't know if she wanted to take something from there or use it. Anyways, how long are you going to stand here? Are you going to watch a boy take a piss here? Don't tell me you—-"

"Just stop popping up randomly," Arion said in a peeved tone as he left in a huff. However, he didn't know why but he was getting strange vibes from this shorty. But he was glad that Shun didn't manage to catch what he was up to.

After Arion left, Shun glanced in his direction before turning his head around and mumbled, "Not bad."

Arion made his way to his room and was about to enter when he saw Mei coming out of the bathroom through the slight opening of the door with only a towel around her luscious body.

Because of his enhanced vision, he was able to see the water droplets sensuously sticking to her wet milky body as they slipped down her deep cleavage, making him fantasize as he had never before.

Even her bathing robes couldn't hide how big and soft her pair of snow mounds were.

He quickly hid himself near the door, pressing his back against the wall like a thief, and saw her taking some new clothes from the cupboard.

However, the next sight almost made his thoughts muddled as he saw her slowly removing her only clothing to put on the fresh clothes.

Before his eyes could get blinded and bewitched by the beauty of the forbidden regions, he twisted his neck around and closed his eyes since he was afraid of his little dragon getting out of control again since it was already making a tent underneath just by taking a peep.

Never before had he had a boner just by looking at a half-naked woman, and this was proof enough that even if he physically became better, it apparently came with a slight disadvantage of him having no control over his libido.

He literally felt enough energy coursing through his little dragon to go on for days without rest!

He took in a deep breath and calmed his thoughts for a minute or so before taking a peep again to see whether she had finished changing.

Seeing that she had already dressed up, he let out a sigh of relief as he went inside, but feeling a bit regretful that he missed out on a heavenly sight.