The ground shook beneath his feet, and dust rose into the air with every breath of the savage beast. Its long teeth glowed with hatred, black veins of poison ran under its cracked skin, and its eyes burned with a primordial fire.
Ashin stood in a primitive fighting stance, holding a wooden stick from a decayed tree. His back was still heavy with wounds that had not healed from the chase.
This was the first monster he had faced since his exile.
A Blood Rank One creature known as "Rustcrawler," descended from ancient crawling species that thrived on tainted blood and could track the heartbeat of their prey.
The beast lunged without warning.
Ashin jumped aside, but its claws scratched his chest, and a scream of pain escaped his throat. He hit the ground and rolled, blood running from his shoulder.
"There is no choice… fight or die here."
He exhaled, eyes fixed on the beast's movements. He moved in wide arcs, dodging, learning from every attack.
Strike – dodge – mud thrown into the crawler's eyes –
A sudden kick knocked it down for a few moments –
Then he jumped on its back and drove his stick into its rotting neck.
A sharp scream. The beast trembled and collapsed without movement.
Ashin stood over the corpse, panting, his chest tight as if the air itself had grown heavy. His eyes were fixed on the monster, and blood slowly gathered beneath it.
That moment… was the beginning of the Awakening.
---
Hours after the battle
Ashin sat near the fire, looking at the corpse he had skinned and cut to get the meat.
But his eyes were not on the body.
A strange fluid leaked from the beast's heart.
A dark liquid that looked like blood, faintly glowing with hidden threads.
"Is this… Blood Energy?"
He remembered the old man's words, buried deep in his sealed memory.
"Refinement begins with breathing… with blood… with acceptance…"
He inhaled slowly. Focused. He tried to absorb the beast's energy with deep concentration.
A sting hit his nose, pressure built in his chest, then sudden burning pain spread throughout his body.
"Ghkk!!"
He vomited a blood-like fluid.
His body had rejected it.
But at that moment, something changed.
---
Inside his body…
A faint thread of energy tried to flow into his muscles, bones, and blood.
But it stopped.
As if a gate had closed – an invisible barrier refusing the foreign energy.
"Why?"
He heard a voice inside him – or maybe it wasn't a voice, just a feeling:
"Refinement is not blind absorption… it is harmony. Foreign blood is rejected unless it is understood."
---
The next day
Ashin sat next to another corpse – this time a strange plant known as "Sleeping Artery Root," famous for carrying traces of Blood Energy.
He tried again. Breathed. Focused.
But the result was the same:
Rejection… vomiting… inner pressure.
But he was no longer ignorant.
This time, he felt something different.
As if the energy was "knocking gently."
As if his body had begun to understand.
---
On the third night, while trying refinement using the blood of a moss creature, an idea formed in his mind:
"Every blood has its nature, and every body has its limit.
Foreign blood is not accepted… unless understanding is reached."
He smiled despite the pain.
This was the first thread of insight.
The first law of the art of refinement.
But he was still far from true success.
---
He sat in the darkness, looking at the sky filled with red mist.
Wiping blood from his lips, his heart beating slowly…
But with every pulse, there was determination.
"I will learn."
"I will refine."
"And I will restore the Primordial Blood to its throne."