A Leg

Boom!

Blade's grip on the stones walls lessened as he fell to the ground.

*Cough*

He immediately coughed a mouthful of blood. The fall from that height would have broken his back if he hadn't placed his hand to break the fall. Weakly getting up, and with two hands to his side, unable to be felt by him, Blade began jogging deeper into the jungle in front of him.

As of now, the only thing he could see was bush and vines. The only thing he heard was the chirping of animals. He did not know where to go, but at least he knew that his pursuers would be unable to find him.

While walking, a few minutes passed as his hand slowly healed to their peak condition. A smile formed on his face, as his movements increased in speed. With the increase in speed, Blade's mind finally calmed as he contacted the system.

"Hey, are you completely useless?..." Blade asked. Even though people say that systems are cheats, he thought otherwise as besides showing him his status, the so-called Zenith System that had previously promised him immortality, did absolutely nothing when he was being tortured.

{Well, it isn't my fault. Once we fuse with our host, we lose all of our previous abilities, as the only thing which remains, is the ability to show our host their status. Of course, there is a way for us to become more useful to our host, but that is only possible when we level up.}

Hearing this, Blade's expression changed as his eyes couldn't help but lit up with interest. But, right when his interest peaked, his expression froze when sensing a bad premonition. Darting his gaze to his left side, he was able to see, appearing out of the bushes, was what seemed to be an unusually big scorpion.

Seeing the scorpion jump toward his neck, Blade raised his arm to block its path. But, because of this, the scorpion was able to land on the neck of Blade.

He had not realized that his left arm was still missing, and because of this miscalculation, Blade was on the receiving end of the stinger of the scorpion which went on to embed itself into his neck.

*Puchi*

The stinger penetrated Blade's skin, and immediately after, veins began bulging around the stinger, as Blade felt as if something was being infused into his body. Something which was not good at all for his body, because his vision began becoming blurred while his body became heavier.

Bam!

Blade slapped the scorpion with his right hand, blasting it away, yet the stinger had remained stuck in his neck.

[10 Experience Points]

Seeing a screen suddenly pop out in his blurred view, Blade almost jumped back in surprise. But, seeing its contents, he only smiled slightly, before completely ignoring it. His situation wasn't such that he had time to focus on anything else besides the stinger that was stuck in his neck.

Blade then yanked the stinger out as he hurriedly began walking forward. His mind felt as if it was playing tricks on him, as he was seeing multiple different humans laughing at him while he had chains tied onto his neck and hands.

Blade knew it wasn't real, so the only thing he could do was hurriedly run toward a place where he could somehow rest and calm himself. But, while running, his balance was haywire as he sometimes fell to the ground. His skin was pale, and he had cold sweat all around his body.

*Cough*

Blade suddenly coughed a mouthful of blood! Shockingly, the blood came out black, but he did not mind it as he felt as if his mind had cleared. The scenes of humans binding him with chains disappeared, as Blade bitterly laughed because of his sorry state.

"Why am I not healing? Isn't my High Human bloodline supposed to be able to easily heal a poison from a creature such as that scorpion?" Blade asked out loud. His voice was seemingly voiced toward no one in particular, but only we knew that it was toward his system.

{There is a possibility that the scorpion wasn't a normal animal, and instead had somehow entered the low-level body forging realm. This, in turn, worked as a way for the poison located in its stinger to become more potent.

Not only that, but your High Human bloodline will show more and more benefits the stronger you become, as you are now, not many benefits will be seen. Such things as an increased healing factor aren't improved by a level where the poison of this level of potency could be countered}

The system said. Blade was momentarily stunned as he asked. "What, animals can also cultivate?!" He shouted out in surprise, totally not expecting that those non-sentient lifeforms could also do a thing like cultivation.

{Any, and all lifeforms can cultivate. This isn't surprising at all.} The system replied. With this new information, Blade instantly got to his feet, and even though he was exhausted and his breathing was ragged, he immediately began running through the bushes as he hoped to eventually reach a clearing or at least someplace he could use as a base to get some rest.

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(Back In The City)

"Selina...are you telling me that you could not find the boy!!!" Latin shouted out in anger toward the middle-aged woman now known as Selina. Her head was facing the ground, as she silently prayed to some god that she exits this room with her life.

"I'm sorry Sir, but I am unsure how that boy could escape after I destroyed his spine and sliced his left arm off?" Selina said. She was truly confused since logically speaking, it shouldn't have been possible. He couldn't have some sort of helper since, inside this city, no one dares to get on the city lord's advisor's bad side.

"You...I will allow you one final chance. If you are unable to find that bastard in one week, then your head will be impaled on a spike for the whole city to see!!" He shouted while gesturing for Selina to exit the room. Not wanting to anger him any longer, she immediately left, leaving Latin to curse under his voice.

"Captain, what are we going to do?" After seeing her exit the city lord's advisor's house, the old pervert who was partially to blame for all of this asked Selina. His voice seemingly caused Selina more anger as she suddenly, and without warning sent a punch to the pervert's face, sending him flying a few meters back.

"It's because of you, that I am in this situation. If you had simply killed that brat instead of letting your lust take control, I wouldn't be in a situation with my head on the line!!" She shouted toward the perverted old man, as she then continued. "Hurry and prepare, we are heading into the jungle."

The three members of this group immediately nodded their heads and went to prepare weapons, clothing, and meals. She also headed toward her home, as she wanted nothing more than a nice relaxing bath.

"Fucking bitch!" The old man grumbled under his breath. His eyes showed anger, but he as a mere mid-level body forging couldn't hope to stand against a peak-level body forging like Selina. Standing to his feet, he also headed toward his house to prepare for the trip to the jungle.

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(In The Forest)

"Haha, finally!" Blade shouted out as he appeared in a clearing. A mossy green pond blocked him from entering the mouth of what seemed to be a cave. Though his body was still sluggish, and in fact, he felt even weaker than when he was a normal human, Blade did not hesitate to enter the water, as he only wanted to get some rest.

He then jumped into the water and began swimming across the pond. The mossy pond was only around twenty meters in diameter, as Blade only needed half of a minute to swim across the lake in his current sickened and weakened state.

Swoosh!

But, as Blade was about to reach the surface of the other side, he suddenly heard a noise behind him, causing him to turn around, only to see the scariest sight of his life. It was the sight of an already opened jaw of an incredibly huge creature. A creature that was oddly familiar to an alligator from his previous world.

Blade instantly pushed off from the sand surface and jumped out of the water. But, he was still too late as the jaws of the alligator slammed close!!...

Ahhhhh!!

Blade let out a blood-curling scream as he watched on in horror as his right leg was torn and ripped out.

But as the alligator tried to bite off more than he can chew and crawl toward Blade who lay on the land, his skin began excreting smoke as he jumped back into the lake.