Talent System: I Instantly Master My Opponents Skills
Chapter 67: The One Who Was Left Behind (2)

Chapter 67: The One Who Was Left Behind (2)

...Jason’s Point Of View (Sometime Earlier)

"Two extra hearts." Jason muttered to himself as he sent the Black Horned Wolf’s heart to his space ring.

"If I go through it I’ll be sent to another place, again." He gazed at the opening. "I can feel it."

It was less of a question and more of an affirmation, he couldn’t feel mana, yet he had a feeling.

A feeling that something laid past the opening.

’Here goes nothing.’ He thought as he stepped through.

The scene around him didn’t change, but he could tell that he had changed locations.

For starters there was a giant spider sleeping at a distance, it reminded him of the Giant Arachnid Spider.

’It is the sub-boss!’

’But I don’t want to fight it yet.’

To kill the Giant Arachnid Spider he would have to use both Spirit Steps and Blade Strike, using both techniques at the same time tired him a bit.

He looked around the room, his sharp eyes scanning the environment for anything.

He found something. ’A pond.’

Jason had spent three consecutive days without drinking water or eating, both were important for his survival and he had been fighting against hunger since he began swimming.

’Strange, I didn’t feel anything until now.’ He mused.

To his estimations he had spent two days.

But throughout, it was only when he thought of drinking water that hunger and thirst finally came to bite him.

Jason blitzed from his initial position, what lay in his place after he began moving was an afterimage, but even then it also disappeared.

In some seconds he arrived in front of the stream.

The water shimmered in the unnatural light of the cavern, it wasn’t flowing.

’Is it stagnant?’ He wondered, there was no way to find out unless he tested it out himself.

Jason hesitated, not because he was afraid the water might have adverse effects on him, rather it was because he was afraid that he might taste stagnated water in his mouth.

That was only for a moment.

He crouched beside the stream. His hand moved instinctively to scoop the cool liquid into his palm.

Unfortunately for Jason, he only had one arm.

Meaning that he couldn’t gather much water from his palm alone.

The water went down his throat, surprisingly it was cool and refreshing. And most importantly, it wasn’t stagnant.

To Jason, it was refreshing to drink water after being separated from it for so long.

He continued.

He drank deeply, thirst gnawed at him far more fiercer than he remembered.

The water felt better, better than anything he had to drink throughout his 13 years of life in this world. It wasn’t just good, it felt alive – in its own sense – as if something was pouring into him with each swallow.

Jason didn’t know how long he drank, he only stopped when he noticed that the water in the pond had dried up. His thirst had gone.

A strange warmth radiated from inside of him.

’What was in the water I drank?’ He wondered.

When he drank it down he didn’t notice anything unusual, it just felt good.

Now he knew that it was too good to be true.

A heat grew from withing him.

Jason’s hand went to the right side of his ribcage, he felt it, that was where the heat originated from.

The warmth caused him no harm.

But his vision blurred. Not in the usual way when he stepped through an opening or went through the dungeon portal and felt disorientation as his eyes adjusted, this was different.

Jason felt his vision split into two, then four, then six.

"Ah, fuck." He muttered.

He felt it expanding, for what felt like mere seconds his vision split into more and grew tinier.

There was nothing he could do to stop it, even when he closed his eyes he could still see.

It suddenly stopped.

His eyesight came back.

The heat in his ribcage dispersed.

Jason came back to normal.

He stood up, a sense of vertigo rising in him.

"I need to make a note to never drink water in a random location again." Jason muttered to himself as he fell back down.

The world was spinning around him, it continued for awhile, time passing before it eventually stopped.

’What the hell was that about?’ He mused.

The adverse effects drinking the water in the cave had left.

Jason got onto his feet once more.

’What kind of water did I drink?’

[Host did not consume water]

The system replied.

That meant that what he had done was important.

’Then what did I drink?’

[Host has drank the essence of a being]

’Essence of a being... Does that mean I welcomed something into my body?’

The system did not answer.

It left Jason in the jaws of despair, the system not answering meant an equal chance of it being positive or negative.

’What should I do now?’ He wondered.

Jason had lost the motivation to laze around and try to uncover something, his zeal broken by consuming the essence of a being, anymore findings and he might just find something even more crazy.

His gaze landed on the Giant Arachnid Spider.

The space ring on his finger glowed. His katana appeared in his grasp.

’I’m killing this thing then taking the heart out.’

Just as he was about to move he cave rumbled.

It was as if someone had just uncovered a secret of this place, hence the shaking.

Jason stood straight, the rumbling didn’t shake him one bit, instead it was the spider.

It woke up.

The rumbling in the cavern stopped.

Their gaze locked on each other, a silent agreement that they were going to fight to the death.

The spider screeched, it got up on all its legs and began moving towards Jason.

He didn’t move, he waited for the monster to get close.

’Spirit steps. Blade strike.’ Jason thought.

He was about to activate it when...

Two people appeared.

Hereon, and his sister Titania.

’If I kill the spider immediately, they’ll grow suspicious of me.’ Jason thought as he watched them discreetly. ’I’ll need to do a little acting first before finishing it off in a sudden burst of power, after that I can make some BS about unlocking hidden potential and using it in a sudden burst.

I’d rather not kill anymore, or the other awakeneds will get suspicious as to how everyone keeps on dying when they’re close to me.’

With those thoughts he dashed in the direction of the spider before engaging in combat with the spider – dodging the monster’s attacks – while holding back a significant amount of strength.

His focus wasn’t entirely on the monster, he momentarily cast glances towards Hereon and his sister. Jason noticed that Hereon was moving around.

*BANG

Jason’s instincts blared, a sound that eerily resembled a gunshot rang out.

He turned to the direction of the sound.

’Is that a bullet?!’ He thought, his eyes widening.

One of the spider’s legs made contact with him, making him fly backwards. But Jason instantly stabilized himself.

’Its still coming.’

Jason was about to jump.

Something passed through his chest.

His hand instinctively went to the area where it passed through, the warm, crimson liquid oozing out of the large wound.

The bullet had went through, his heart.

He fell onto the ground, his consciousness slipping.

Just as he died he noticed a prompt from the system.

[Using "Essence Of A Being" to conserve Host’s life]