Bloodlines Online

Ezekiel had fought through the dungeon multiple times in his efforts to level up but he could not get past the sneak attacks of dungeon mobs that had so much more speed than he did.

He wasn't sure what it took for him to finally evolve since he had reached the previously stated level of four-hundred and fifty but it had said that he should consume more and gain more power.

'Consume probably refers to what shadow mana does when someone is killed with the DOT effect but what could it mean by gaining more power beyond levels?'

As he thought about the problem he suddenly had an epiphany.

'Maybe there are skill requirements that I haven't met? This void beast evolution line is bizarre.'

While he was exploring this line of thought he began to consider other ideas.

'What if the power I need isn't some skill or spell, maybe it isn't a level thing but instead it's something more fundamental?'

With that he lept into the air and began to fly to the inn near the castle where he had been given a room by Lucretia.

~

Inside of the room Ezekiel sat in a meditation pose with his eyes closed to concentrate.

He had decided to try and find out if there were any notable flaws in his body that were inhibiting his growth.

Through his mana sight he examined how his magic flowed through his veins no different from blood aside from one notable detail.

His void mana was limited just to his core and did not flow like his regular mana did.

He tried to move the void mana but it only seemed to eat away at his regular mana in ways that immediately worried him.

'It's like once void mana enters the stream of the regular kind it begins to eat away and convert it into void.'

He also realized that since the regular mana in his core was not affected meaning the void must not be directly in his core.

In that moment he made a decision that he prayed would not destroy his future within the game.

He manipulated the void mana that was somehow in his body and not, moving the void in thin streams from the separate orb to his core.

Once the void streams made contact with his core he felt a strange chill start within his chest.

As the streams began to flow into his core they grew thicker and thicker with more streams moving from the orb to it, even the streams already connected began to branch off and connect to other parts of the core.

The deep black mana orb was starting to shrink while the core was fully engulfed, each passing second he felt that strange chill grow stronger while a weight began to settle on his chest.

The mana veins started to grow dark as well once the void began to spread through through them which made that chill spread through his whole body.

As the orb of void mana became fully absorbed by his core he breathed a sigh of relief before immediately regretting it when a searing pain began to grow from every inch of his body.

It felt as if someone had frozen him solid and then rapidly thawed him under boiling water.

The pain was so intense he couldn't even release the throat tearing screams he felt growing within him.

~

Within the emptiness of space a force began to coalesce, it watched as it's sibling set in motion the life-giving energy of aether to another planet in the system that their sibling had created.

The force took the shape of a hungering emptiness that appeared almost as if a black hole but rather than a core at the center there lay more distortion.

Upon seeing it's sibling take a manifestation the life-giving force did the same, manifesting itself as a cloud of dust that resembled twinkling stars.

'You speak?'

'Yes. The new beast within the connected space has begun to accept the void.'

'Is it doing it properly?'

'He… is not? But he is still succeeding.'

'How is It succeeding? Your essence consumes all.'

'He is absorbing the void in a strange way, normally this method fails but somehow He is making it work.'

'This could make It stronger.'

'He could also be weaker.'

'It does not have any kin to teach It the proper method.'

'I cannot teach Him either, I cannot interfere.'

'Do you see why It is succeeding?'

'He is using the void to force the impure material from His body.'

'Where did It even get the idea for that?'

'It appears to be the same as the methods of tempering the body that many of your creations use in other worlds.'

'Using the void to cultivate It's body? How bizarre.'

'The method works shockingly well, He has found a way to use the destructive properties of the void essence to destroy the impurities…'

'Most cultivation moves on the path of eventually reaching my own essence.'

'This has made me curious, I shall make the system create a manual of this technique and gift it at random across the many worlds.'

'A test?'

'A test to find out the limits of this method.'

'Then we shall test.'

~~~~~~~~~~

System Gift Creation:

To create technique "Void Tempered Body" requires 1,000^³⁰ souls.

To begin granting this technique to listed beings requires 1,000,000^³⁸⁷ souls.

Will you pay this price?

~~~~~~~~~~

The force was mildly surprised by the price as just the creation of the technique required am exorbitant price but to give the technique to beings was almost excessive.

Paying the total did not put a scratch upon it's total souls but it did feel a hint of excitement for the future of the technique, such a price hinted at a potential that the entity had not seen in a long time.

~

While Ezekiel sat on the floor of his inn room he dug his claws into the beautiful wood while fighting for air.

Around his body he could see faint wisps of black coming from the pours of his skin while those same pours began to weep an odd, black sludge.

'Come on, just a little more!'

He was pushing his focus into forcing the void mana throughout his body to see if it were possible to make himself more resistant to whatever this pain was.

He quickly realized that while he was pushing his mana through his body it was attacking… something.

The pain made it impossible to actually watch what the mana was destroying but he hoped it wasn't important or else he may have really screwed up.

As he saturated his entire body with the void mana it naturally produced he felt the pain begin to fade away, the chill remained but this time it soothed his aching nerves.

However when he saw inside of his body using his mana sight he almost screamed.

The mana that had saturated his body was breaking down small bits of unknown… things.

Some of it looked like it was physical while others looked like whisps of energy, some of it even resembled pieces of his organs.

As the matter and energy broke apart and melted into the mana he felt a growing disgust from it, as if he instinctively knew this was not good for his body.

He began to push it away from his core and towards his skin in the hopes that he could sweat it all out.

When looking at his skin he saw that the black wisps were growing in number and size until it almost looked like a smog was pouring out of his skin.

Black smoke that reminded him of old movies depicting the industrial revolution clouded his body so much that he couldn't see his skin but he felt the strange sensation of something coating his skin.

'Feels like I'm covered in mud, gross.'

As he pushed his mana further he watched the disgusting haze flow away from his core, the core was now a pure black with hints of crystal structure visible when the mana inside moved.

Once the mana pushed the strange haze away from his core he felt a surge of energy that began to aid in pushing that haze on it's own.

As more mana flowed from his core than he had previously seen he saw the mana veins pushing the haze away in a wave that radiated from his core.

He soon found that if he manipulated the mana saturated with the haze it began to get more difficult.

The denser the haze the more difficult it was to move.

With each pulse of his core he tried to push the haze away, he even began to push more mana into the pulses in an effort to get rid of it.

Eventually he saw that the haze had taken a denser form that almost resembled sludge as it reacted to the mana forcing it out, each pulse made it shift and reform almost like a muddy shoreline.

'It won't work, I need to force more mana out… but will that damage my mana veins?...'

In that moment he made a decision.

That sludge-like haze at the edge of his body was beginning to disgust him and the longer he kept it there the more his skin felt like it was gaining pressure.

He gathered his mana from his core until every drop was at the edge and he pushed the wave of mana through his body until he neared the sludge.

Then he pushed the wave with all of his mental power.

The wave hit that sludge with such force that the pressure under her skin began to grow uncomfortable before he finally felt his pores opening wide to expell something.