First Casualty

After taking some time to read through all of the notifications he had received, the first question that popped up in his mind was, 'What's a Constitution Skill?' With that in mind, he went ahead and focused his attention on his mind to ask the system a question regarding it, but decided otherwise as he rummaged through the information he had received when he gained ownership of the system.

It did not take long for him to find his answer on what Constitution Skills were, feeling that there was nothing wrong with it as he muttered to himself, "So they're skills that increase my Constitution stat as long as I absorb the blood of a certain being."

As he came to this point, he could not help but wonder if there was a limit to how many beings he could obtain Constitution Skills from. Unfortunately for him, there was no information regarding that question in his mind. Hence, he went ahead and asked the system without hesitation, "Is there a limit as to how many Constitution Skills I could obtain?"

Unsurprisingly, the monotonous voice resounded inside his mind the very instant he was finished asking, responding, "To clear the owner's doubts, there is no limit to the number of Constitution Skills the owner can obtain. The only limit is that only one Constitution Skill can be obtained from a certain being."

After hearing the system's response, he went silent for a bit as he upgraded his [Blood Storage] to Level 4, increasing his maximum capacity to 4 points. After that, he queried the system in order to clarify some of the doubts he had, asking it, "So, if I'm getting what you said correctly, once the Constitution Skill I obtained from the horse I'm siphoning has been maxed and I siphon more blood from another horse, I wouldn't get another Constitution Skill?"

In response, the system replied, "Yes, that would be the case. As long as the Constitution Skill is maxed, then one cannot obtain Constitution Skill from another being from the same species. If the Constitution Skill is not maxed though, then one can increase its levels when siphoning the blood of another being from the same species."

"I see," Bell said after understanding what the system was saying. After having his doubts clarified by the system, only then did he notice the change brought by a single level in a Constitution Skill. At this moment, he felt that he had become twice as strong when compared to before. After taking a quick peek at his status screen, he found out that his Constitution stat was now at 0.0025, indirectly telling him that what he was feeling was indeed real.

Now that he had discovered the way as to how he was going to increase his Constitution to the system's goal of 1, Bell's flame of motivation was reignited, prompting him to start siphoning more blood from the horse he was standing on…only to stop as he noticed that something was wrong with the horse.

Even though it took a few glances for him to actually believe what he was saying, he could not help but retract his proboscis from the horse's skin and mutter in disbelief, "The horse…looks weaker."

As he said these words, he went ahead and flapped his wings to get a better view of the horse, ignoring the fact that he was now flying twice as fast when compared to before. In a short amount of time, he was able to arrive at the horse's front side, seeing that the horse was still deeply asleep. Although the horse was still deeply asleep, the complexion of the horse had become slightly worse, with Bell feeling that the strength he felt from the horse a while ago had waned quite a bit.

Wondering as to why the horse exuded less vigor than before, Bell eventually recalled the system's words a while ago, echoing in his mind as he muttered those same words. "Not only that, but the system has also modified the amount of blood you could store at once, allowing you to absorb more blood in one session than what a normal mosquito can."

With this in mind, he went back to where he was siphoning blood from the horse a while ago before asking the system, "How much blood do I siphon before it is considered as 1 point of Impure Blood Energy?"

In less than an instant, the monotonous voice of the system responded, "As all beings have different amounts of blood inside their bodies, the Blood Monarch System has decided to calculate the amount of Impure Blood Energy the owner can obtain based on their overall constitution."

It then added, "Note that beings that can give you more Impure Blood Energy can also give you more Constitution once you obtain their Constitution Skill. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule, but the owner does not need to know about it for now."

The young mosquito could not help but feel slightly annoyed that the system he owned was intentionally hiding some stuff from him. But since he had a feeling that there was a good reason why the system was hiding those things from him, he let it be as he pondered over the system's words for a bit. After a while, a thought popped up in his mind, prompting him to ask the system, "Is it possible for me to see the remaining amount of Impure Blood Energy I could obtain from a being? Also, if it is possible, please make sure that I can toggle it on or off."

Ding!

Not long after he was finished commanding the system, a notification sound resounded in his mind as the monotonous voice told him, "The owner's response has been taken into consideration. The owner can now view the remaining amount of Impure Blood Energy they could obtain. The default setting of this ability is off. To toggle it on, the owner must look at the being and say the words 'Identify Blood Energy'."

Inwardly nodding in response to the system's response, he then went ahead and pricked his proboscis into the horse's skin once more, trying to ignore the fact that the horse's complexion had become slightly worse. Although he felt pity for the horse as he was siphoning its blood, he knew that the horse would still die sooner or later, telling himself that if the horse died, it would be the first sacrifice offered to his path to obtaining a Constitution stat of 1.

Of course, now that he had obtained the ability to see the amount of Impure Blood Energy he could obtain from a being, he went ahead and tested it out on the horse he was standing on as he looked at it for a bit before muttering, "Identify Blood Energy."

Ding!

Accompanied by a notification sound, a small screen appeared on the top left of his vision, showing a bar that had a bit of text above it.

[Remaining IBE: 93/100]

"So I've basically siphoned 7 points worth of blood from this horse before obtaining its Constitution Skill?" Bell muttered to himself as he recalled the notification he had obtained from the system, telling him to absorb 10 more points of Impure Blood Energy for the Constitution Skill to proceed to the next level. With that in mind, he could not help but ask himself, "Would the number of points needed increase with every level?"

Wanting to obtain the answer to that question, Bell went ahead and started to siphon blood from the horse once more, noticing that it took quite some time for one point of Impure Blood Energy to be obtained from the horse thanks to the screen he was seeing. Eventually, his stomach had reached maximum capacity once again, prompting him to either upgrade [Blood Storage] or [Blood Siphoning Efficiency]. Surprisingly, rather than upgrading [Blood Storage] once more, he went ahead and upgraded [Blood Siphoning Efficiency], which cost 2 points of Impure Blood Energy to upgrade to the next level.

Ding!

[Blood Siphoning Efficiency Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2]

[Siphoning Efficiency +1]

After taking a look at the notifications he had received from the system, he could not help but notice that his Siphoning Efficiency had increased by 1 point, just like his maximum blood capacity whenever he upgraded [Blood Storage] to the next level. With that in mind, he asked the system to allow him to view his Siphoning Efficiency from his status screen, which the system allowed not long after.

He then went ahead and opened the status screen to take a quick peek, seeing that his Siphoning Efficiency now had the number 2 after it. It did not take long for him to understand that he could now siphon 2 points of blood at the same time it took him to absorb one a while ago, relying on the information he obtained from the system once he gained ownership.

After that, he focused his vision towards the upgrade portion of the screen, seeing that the next level for [Blood Siphoning Efficiency] now cost 4 points. Doing some basic maths inside his head, he concluded that he would only be able to raise [Blood Siphoning Efficiency] to Level 6 while [Blood Storage] would be at Level 12. Thinking that it was a chore for him to calculate how many points he would need to siphon to get to that point, he decided to max out [Blood Storage] first before focusing on [Blood Siphoning Efficiency].

And so, he continued to siphon more blood from the horse, only to be left with a feeling of awe as he felt more blood gush into his proboscis at once after upgrading [Blood Siphoning Efficiency] to the next level. At the moment, he could not help but feel like the speed at which he was siphoning blood from before was akin to a CPU with a single core. And now that he had upgraded it to the next level, the speed at which he siphoned blood now had doubled, which was akin to a CPU with two cores.

After getting over the initial feeling of awe he felt from an increase in the amount of Impure Blood Energy he could obtain from siphoning blood, he went ahead and continued to siphon blood from the horse as he glanced at the bar on the top left of his vision from time to time. Naturally, the remaining amount of Impure Blood Energy he could obtain from the horse gradually dwindled as time passed. But in correlation to what was happening, the complexion of the horse gradually worsened as more and more blood was being siphoned from its body.

Eventually, quite some time had passed since Bell started siphoning blood from the horse he was standing on. At the moment, he had just obtained a notification from the system that his stomach had reached its maximum capacity for the nth time. This time though, rather than upgrading his [Blood Storage], he went ahead and used all of his Impure Blood Energy on [Blood Siphoning Efficiency], improving it to Level 6.

Ding!

[Blood Siphoning Efficiency Lv. 5 -> Lv. 6]

[Siphoning Efficiency +1]

[You have obtained the requirements needed to evolve 'Blood Storage'.]

"I thought I would be able to raise [Blood Storage] to Level 12, but it seems that the maximum level for these skills is Level 10," Bell muttered to himself as he started to siphon blood from the horse once more as he took a look at the screen on the top left of his vision.

[Remaining IBE: 24/100]

At this point, the complexion of the horse he was siphoning blood from could be summed up with the word 'half-dead'. The feeling of languor and death could already be felt from the horse, but Bell continued to siphon blood from it, only to stop once he had reached the maximum capacity of his stomach once more.

Ding!

[Your stomach has reached its maximum capacity.]

After reaching maximum capacity, he went ahead and opened his status screen to take a look at his current status, inwardly feeling surprised as he noticed that his Constitution had undergone a great improvement after all of that siphoning.

Ding!

________

[Bell]

Species: Young Mosquito (Rank 0)

————

Constitution: 0.0115

Siphoning Efficiency: 6

Impure Blood Energy: 10/10

————

Constitution Skills:

[Stallion's Might (7/10)]

————

Upgrades:

[Blood Storage Lv. 10 (MAX)] - 10 Impure Blood Energy to evolve

[Blood Siphoning Efficiency Lv. 6] - 12 Impure Blood Energy to upgrade

________

As he focused his vision to the end of the screen, he could not help but mutter, "Who knew I needed to upgrade [Blood Siphoning Efficiency] to Level 6 before being able to evolve [Blood Storage]."

"Either way, evolve [Blood Storage]."

Ding!

As a notification sound resounded in his mind, he could not help but think, 'I wonder what choices I'm going to have for the skill's evolution.'

Thanks to the information he had obtained from the system, he knew that the innate skills of the system could undergo evolution once they had reached a certain level, though he did not know what that certain level was. Nevertheless, he was quite excited to see the choices that could make his journey to obtaining a Constitution stat of 1 easier.

While he was pondering over the choices, a small screen appeared in front of his field of vision. On the screen were two buttons with text on them.

________

Please choose between the following:

[Enhanced Blood Storage]

[Condensed Blood Storage]

________

"What would be better?" was the question that instantly popped in Bell's mind as he looked at the two choices he had. Wondering if it was possible to view more regarding the choices he had, he asked the system, "Is it possible for me to get a short description of the skills I'm choosing?"

Ding!

Accompanied by a notification sound, the system indirectly answered his question as it responded, "The owner's response has been taken into consideration. The owner can view descriptions of the evolution paths by saying the word 'Identify' and the skill's name."

Hearing the system's response, he unhesitatingly went ahead and said, "Identify [Enhanced Blood Storage]."

Ding!

________

[Enhanced Blood Storage]

A storage skill that allows you to store more blood than before. Increases maximum capacity by 2 points per level. Maximum level of 20.

________

After he was finished reading through the description of the skill, he naturally went ahead and identified the second skill, prompting him to contemplate over his choice as he was finished reading through the description of the second skill.

________

[Condensed Blood Storage]

A storage skill that allows you to store more blood than before, but exchanges a bit of that expansion to purify the blood energy siphoned. Increases maximum capacity by 1 point per level. Reduces the number of points needed to form Pure Blood Energy. Maximum level of 20.

________

Fortunately, it did not take long for him to come to an answer as he eventually chose [Enhanced Blood Storage] over [Condensed Blood Storage].

"Although I have a feeling that Pure Blood Energy is something I would be using later on, what I need right now is the ability to store more Impure Blood Energy. [Enhanced Blood Storage] does just that," Bell muttered to himself as he watched the notifications appear in his mind.

[Blood Storage Lv. 10 -> Enhanced Blood Storage Lv. 1]

[Maximum Capacity + 2]

After undergoing his first skill evolution, he then continued to siphon more blood from the horse, seeing that not much was left from it. At this point, he felt that putting the horse out of misery was better than letting it live a life of suffering. Thanks to his increased siphoning efficiency, it did not take long for him to max out his stomach's capacity once more before upgrading [Enhanced Blood Storage] to the next level.

Naturally, he continued to siphon blood from the horse's body, wanting to max out its capacity before reaching the next level once more. But before he could do so, a plethora of notifications appeared in his mind, prompting him to read through them. In the end, he looked at the screen on the top left of his vision before uttering, "Ah."

Ding!

[The being is now dead.]

[Stallion's Might (9/10) -> (MAX)]

[Constitution +0.0015]

[You have obtained the title 'New Blood'!]