He began the grim work of collection, dragging carcasses with his jaws to form a grisly, growing hill of fur and flesh. The scale of it was staggering. When the pile was complete, a small mountain of death, he activated
The skill felt different now, stronger. The singularity in his mouth widened, its pull more voracious. The mountain of flesh began to shrink, visibly diminishing as carcass after carcass was sucked into the abyss within him. They dissolved not into nothingness, but into rivers of pure, warm essence that flooded his meridians, saturated his bones, and swelled his core.
It was euphoric. A constant, rising tide of power. Notifications blossomed in his mind like dark flowers, one after another.
[Congratulations! You have advanced: 3rd Tier of the Novice Realm.]
…
[Congratulations! You have advanced: 5th Tier of the Novice Realm]
…
[Congratulations! You have advanced: 7th Tier of the Novice Realm]
The torrent of essence finally ebbed, settling into a potent, humming energy within him. He had stopped at the 7th Tier. The energy settled, a tangible force thrumming under his skin. He was no longer a cub. His body had stretched, muscles cording under the sleek black fur, his frame now the size of a full-grown, powerful tiger.
Good. Now I should be able to activate my affinity. And I've clearly outgrown that little cave.
He looked at the bloody plain, then at the single remaining Rabeer carcass. An idea struck. He grabbed it in his jaws. For the other tiger. It had brought him food first. Kindness for kindness—a human principle he decided to cling to, even in this beastly form.
The journey back was uneventful, his new strength making the distance trivial. In the cave, the tiger cub was awake, watching him with large, curious eyes. It sniffed the air, recognizing his scent despite his dramatic growth. Thiago dropped the meat before it. He made a deliberate gesture with his head: For you.
The cub seemed to understand. It needed no further invitation and quickly began to eat.
Thiago retreated to a dark corner of the cave. Time for an assessment. Status.
The screen appeared.
Name: Thiago Khan
Breed: Black Tiger
Species: Animal
Cultivation: 7th Tier of the Novice Realm
___
System Points: /
Shop: unlocked
Affinities
Darkness
___
Skills
The shop unlocked at 10 points. I need to hunt for points tomorrow. My strength should be enough to handle anything in this immediate area… which likely means I'm in an outer region of the forest. The best strategy is to continually move inward as I grow stronger.
Now, for the affinity. He'd reached the 5th Tier, so it should be accessible. He focused inward, trying to sense a core or a dantian as the cultivation novels described. He imagined his consciousness traveling through his body.
Nothing. Twenty minutes of strained, fruitless concentration later, only frustration remained.
Bullsht. The novel knowledge is just plain bullsht for this.
He was about to give up when an idea, so obvious it was stupid, struck him. Wait. In every game, there's a starter pack. Did I just forget to claim it?
'System,' he thought with focused intent. 'Is there a novice gift pack?'
The response was immediate.
[Yes, does the host wish to open the novice starter pack?]
Bingo. 'Yes, open!'
[You received the following items: Abyssal Darkness Cultivation Manual; A Coordinate Determination Device]
[Receive items?]
'Yes!'
A torrent of profound, esoteric knowledge flooded his mind—complex energy pathways, breathing rhythms, philosophical insights into the nature of shadow and void. The Abyssal Darkness manual implanted itself, granting him a basic understanding as if he'd studied it for years. The other item, a 'coordinate determination device,' remained a mystery. No description appeared. He tried asking the system about it. Silence.
He pushed the mystery device to the back of his mind and focused on the technique. It was time.
He settled onto his haunches and began to run the Abyssal Darkness manual.
The effect was instantaneous and dramatic. The ambient mana in the cave rippled, then surged toward him, coalescing into a visible, swirling vortex of dark energy above his head. It poured into his pores not as wild energy, but as a cool, refined liquid that his body instinctively guided. Inside him, it was filtered, purified, and transformed into something even denser—pure darkness-attributed mana. It streamed toward the center of his being, seeking and finally filling a space he hadn't been able to locate before: his magic core.
The technique's purity was absurd, a cheat within a cheat, though he didn't yet grasp the enormity of that fact.
After a cycle, he stopped, savoring the new sensation of power humming within his core. Now, the test. He focused on that core, then willed a thread of that pure darkness mana to travel outward, down through unfamiliar meridians, and into his right forepaw.
Tendrils of inky shadow, cold and light-devouring, seeped from his paw pads. They swirled together, coalescing into a small, perfectly formed orb of absolute darkness that hovered just above his claws.
Yes! It worked!
But the orb just… sat there. It was raw, unshaped mana. Impressive, but useless. He needed techniques. Ways to project it, shape it, weaponize it.
The shop would provide. Tomorrow.