Ethan woke up early and it didn't take him more than a few moments to feel the absence of Valeria's soft, delicate skin pressed against his, and of the gentle, angelic breathing that accompanied her as she slept.
Getting up quickly, he scanned his surroundings, but found no sign of the woman's presence.
"Has she left?" asked Ethan, walking over to a table where men's clothes and a black cloak were carefully folded next to a letter and a crumpled map.
Picking up the letter, Ethan felt a slight weight on his chest and began to read it.
[I'm sorry to have to leave like this, but my big sister must be worried about me... I promise that one day we'll meet again. I
've left some fruit in the kitchen cabinet, you can eat it if you're hungry...]
"Hm...", Ethan exhaled deeply, sitting down on the hard, uncomfortable wooden bed.
He couldn't say he was happy about the situation, but he understood that Valeria was a noble.
With the decline of her family and the relentless persecution of its descendants by the forces of the kingdom, the young woman had a lot of responsibilities.
"Ah... patience." Ethan sighed and closed his eyes, still feeling in his mind a faint connection that carried Valeria's aura and scent.
It wasn't precise, but he could still get a rough idea of her distance and location.
With that, at least he was sure that they were connected to each other and that he could easily find her if necessary.
"Now... the system." Ethan pushed Valeria's image from his mind and finally decided to explore the gift left by Seraphar.
Systems were not uncommon in this world; in fact, they were central elements in religious literature, where heroes received systems as divine blessings to help them achieve transcendental power.
Ethan had read countless fantasy books that told these stories and knew enough to be almost certain that this system was no different from those in literature.
'STATUS', Ethan mentally exclaimed and an information screen immediately responded to his call.
[Name: Ethan DarkHeart
Race: ????
Lineage: Blood of the Black Dragon (lvl 1)
Talent: SSS
Stage: Awakening (1/3)
Corruption store points: 885
Soulmates: 0/1
Wives: 0/10
Lovers: 1/20]
" Amazing..." Ethan murmured, his eyes shining as he slowly absorbed all the information contained there.
Despite keeping his surname, he seemed to have lost his family lineage, and his race was now represented only by question marks, making it unclear whether he was still human.
The talent also left Ethan confused; he didn't know what 'SSS' stood for, or even whether it was considered a high or low talent.
In this world, it was common for people to simply use a child's lineage and mastery of controlling mana to determine whether they were a great talent or a waste, and there was no official classification or way of defining who was more or less talented.
While pondering these questions, Ethan remembered a fact present in almost every book he read: you could ask the system questions!
With a little uncertainty in his eyes, Ethan asked: "System, what is this 'talent'? And how does this classification work?"
The moment Ethan's voice fell, the status screen in front of him disappeared, replaced by a floating text that was slowly written in the air.
[System: Talent is a way of defining a person's magical and genetic aptitude. The forms of classification are wide-ranging, but in the [access denied] regions, the most commonly used is the F to SSS system, with F being the lowest and SSS being the highest.
These are all the known classifications that I have access to: SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, F.]
"I expected nothing less from a primordial," Ethan laughed with delight as he realized that his talent was at the top of the rankings.
After pondering for a second, he asked one more question: "What is my current race?"
[System: Access denied]
"Hm... no access? Then why is my race marked with question marks?"
[System: Access denied]
"Am I still human?"
[System: Access denied]
A throbbing vein appeared on Ethan's forehead when the system once again refused to answer his questions.
With a slight hint of anger in his voice, he rigidly questioned: "And how the hell do I get this access?"
[System: Just evolve your lineage using corruption store points.]
"And how do I do that?"
[System: Open the 'improvements' section of your corruption store.]
"I see..." Ethan muttered before intoning in his mind: 'Corruption store!'
Responding to his call, a translucent menu and a system message appeared in his vision, floating ethereally through the air.
[Corruption store:
{Equipment}
{Skills}
{Lineages}
{Improvements}
{Miscellaneous items}]
[System: This is the corruption store; if you need an item with a specific functionality, let me know].
"All right," Ethan replied to the system before focusing his vision on the ''improvements'' option, a new translucent menu appeared in front of him.
[ Improvements:
{Bloodline:
Your bloodline 'Blood of the Black Dragon (lvl 1)' can be upgraded to 'Blood of the Black Dragon (lvl 2)'.
Price: 10,000 corruption store points}
{Your current cultivation stage 'Awakening (1/3)' can be upgraded to 'Awakening (2/3)'.
Price: 150 corruption store points}]
"So expensive!" Ethan's heart immediately sank when he saw the price to evolve his lineage.
Even after having sex for hours on end with Valeria, he only got 885 corruption store points, more than half of which were obtained by taking her chastity and making her his lover.
Of course, that was the gain from having sex with an extremely talented woman from an ancient family.
He didn't even need to be a genius to know that he would earn much less by sleeping with women of lesser talent.
By his calculations, he would need to spend weeks fucking dozens of women just to achieve a single lineage evolution.