Chapter 55 Awaken, And You Shall Never Truly Die Again.

The deer's body went flying and crashed into several trees, destroying them in the process and leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

Without skipping a beat, I slammed my foot on the floor causing cracks to cobweb around my foot. In the next second, I had disappeared with the only indication of me having stood there being the small dust cloud that I had left behind.

Appearing in front of the deer that had been slowing down due to constantly slamming against different trees, I raised my foot into the air and got ready to smash my leg down on it and perform an ax kick.

*BOOM*

A dust cloud was kicked up due to the power behind my attack, yet even then I was far from done. I could still see that the deer while being damaged, was still breathing fine even though its breaths were heavy.

'Pinpoint'

[Pinpoint activated]

[Hp: 92/120]

[Mana: 8/35]

As if on instinct, my foot shot in the direction of the glowing red area and kicked it in its side, smashing my foot into a broken rib and causing it to howl in pain before being catapulted away.

"That should be enough..." I muttered under my breath as another drip of blood trickled out of my mouth. However, since I didn't want it to dry onto my face, I quickly wiped it off and began walking towards the deer, my blood eyes still active but my pinpoint now off.

Strolling my way to the deer's body with a slight limp, I looked at its unconscious body as well as its ragged breathing. It was only then that I finally crouched down and touched its body while muttering-

"Life Drain..."

The rune within the void world that I had entered last time began to shine with a crimson light. While the larger red rune seemed to be connected to two other smaller runes, only one of them shone and began to shine brighter.

The other red rune seemed to have already been shining with its bright crimson light, being connected to another rune this time even smaller than it. That other rune, however, was still dull and did not activate at all.

The life drain rune shone and transferred its crimson radiance into the blood energy that traveled out of the void world, into my body and down my arm, and finally implanting itself into the body of the deer.

I could see all my nerves, veins and arteries light up as the energy within the deer was sucked into my body, but after around 20 seconds of waiting, I finally saw the screen that I had been waiting for all this time.

[Life Drain complete]

[You have killed a Crystal Deer]

[You have gained +750 EXP]

[You have leveled up]

[Level 10]

[Progress: 0/51 200

[You have absorbed 1 soul core from an Elemental Crystal Deer]

[Calculating difference in strength]

[Calculating amount of life absorbed]

[Hp: 113/120]

[Mana: 7/10]

[Stats-

HP:24

Strength: 31

Agility: 30 (+1)

Intelligence: 27 (+1)

Vitality: 33

Mana: 8 (+1)

Defence: 0 ]

The moment my agility hit 30 points, I felt an overwhelming sense of lightness that made me feel like I could move as fast as sound with the grace of a butterfly. I could feel that the energy within my body was increasing at the same time, but the difference wasn't as large as the one I was feeling due to my agility.

However, my gaze moved to something else, making me narrow my eyes in confusion.

'Elemental crystal deer?' I thought while scratching my cheek, but something else immediately right after, as if trying to answer my question.

[Several affinities can be sensed within the soul core of the Elemental Crystal Deer]

'Hm?'

[Picking out affinity]

[Your understanding of the space element is too low]

[Your understanding of the air element is too low]

[You can choose to gain an affinity to one of the following:

~~Common~~

-Fire

Understanding: Intermediate (due to your low understanding of the air element)

-Earth

Understanding: Superior

-Water

Understanding: Intermediate

-Air

Understanding: Basic [Locked]

~~Unique~~

-Space

Understanding: Below Basic [Locked] ]

My eyes widened a little before narrowing back down after reading the rest of the words that shone on the red screen before me.

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

Slowly, I stood up from my crouched position and began to think about all the elements, and what I would do with each of them. I also thought about which one I needed more at that moment.

While it might seem stupid to not think about the future and other long-term plans, I had to think about my current self first rather than choosing something that would only help me later in life.

'What is the point of making long term plans if I won't live up to them? I could choose fire and build it up from scratch while trying my hardest to not die in the process. At the same time, I could try and go for the easy option and survive instead. I have 4 lives, not infinite lives. Even I can die permanently if I don't take proper care.'

And with that thought in my mind, I once again took one more look over the screen and finally chose using my brain rather than instinctually choosing what an anime character with plot armor would have chosen.

A wry smile stretched out from the corner of my lips while my eyes glimmered, waiting for the system message to appear in front of me once again.

[You have chosen 'earth' as your element]

[The earth element is coursing through your veins]

[The world's elemental energies are blessing you with the power of mana]

[Your body is already accustomed to mana]

[Blood energy is running rampant]

My eyes widened immediately as the feeling of something waiting to explode caused my heart to drop.

Unbeknownst to me, that very thing had already exploded outwards and had devoured the blessing of mana, making it go from a light blue harmonious energy to a crimson sinister one.

The sinister mana left anything within a distance of 100 meters frozen, before finally.

[Mana awakening has failed]

[System intervention needed]

[Blood energy is intervening in the awakening process.

I felt surges of mana forcibly move to the will of the blood energy as well as the system. However, even though the blood energy was intervening, I could not feel any of my mana leave my body at that moment, meaning that it was getting its energy from somewhere else entirely... Something that wasn't mine...

[117.9 billion souls are £$(*&(£!"]

[System malfunction]

Fear was beginning to seep into my body

What was happening?!

Why was this happening?

What the hell did I do to make this occur?

What does it mean by 117.9 billion souls?!

How the hell can the system malfunction!?

I wanted to pull my hair out, but due to the amount of pressure that had fallen upon me the moment I saw the word awakening on my screen, I couldn't move a single muscle.

It was only then that a voice entered my mind, a voice that I would never forget.

A familiar set of words that send shivers down my spine to this day.

"Awaken, and you shall never truly die again."

[End Of Volume 1 - The Birth Of The First Immortal]