Moving as fast as he could before his heart could merge with the wrath of nature completely, he opened the vial in his hand and carefully let a drop of the blood essence into his mouth.
As soon as the drop of blood essence touched his tongue, his entire body turned red. His body began swelling as though he was going to explode.
And then traits of Nature, Predator, and [Blood Bane] forcefully suppressed this energy, keeping it from causing his body to explode.
Marcus didn't even know that his body was about to explode, all he could feel was immense pain coming from every muscle in his body.
His eyes were still closed, still engrossed in feeling the wrath of nature and observing its flow. Because of the state his body had been put in, even his will stats began growing. His mouth also didn't stop moving, chanting the mantra even louder.
By the time his heart merged with the flow and wrath of nature, the vision of the globe vanished, and Marcus was hit with even more agonizing pain. It was at this point that he noticed that his body was on the verge of exploding.
Guide the energy.
Rather than panicking, he calmed himself and started to guide the energy from the blood essence the first Major Acupoint, one of the acupoints he saw when the wills of beasts rampaged in his body.
As he guided the energy through the path of the first that he chose, it felt like he had swallowed thousands of tiny needles and they had gotten stuck in his throat. Nonetheless, he pushed on.
To what felt like hours to him, when in reality, it had only been a few minutes, Marcus finally opened a Major Acupoint.
Dun!
A metallic sound echoed from his body, as though a bell had been hit.
With a path for Wilder Force to flow in, he felt the energy rush to invade the cleared acupoint. As this energy flowed through him, under the influence of his heart and the wrath it had fused with, he could feel a certain type of heat flow into his veins.
Then suddenly, the energy rebounded, making Marcus throw up black blood and forcing him to stop chanting the mantra. He knew what the problem was. The acupoint he opened wasn't one of the cultivation arts. The Wilder Force couldn't flow through that acupoint like that.
Or at least, not yet.
Marcus pushed that aside and stopped chanting, his body felt a bit burnt, but nothing major happened to him.
Even though he had opened an acupoint, it wasn't enough to drain the energy rampaging in his body. His body was still swollen.
With no other option, he guided the remaining energy to another acupoint, opening it in a few minutes… time went on and he opened more and finally drained his body of the energy of blood essence.
Marcus noticed that with each Major acupoint he opened, the energy required to clear the path multiplied, as though the blood essence was losing its efficiency. Throwing caution to the wind, he swallowed the entire blood essence in the vial.
Poof!
His body puffed up in a second, tearing his uniform into rags.
Marcus rushed to guide the energy into his acupoints.
And just like that, in a little over an hour, Marcus opened fifty-nine Major acupoints, all of which were from the ones he found on his own.
By the time he got to the fourth vial, he had started opening the Major acupoints pointed out in the cultivation art.
By the time he got to the eleventh acupoint, the energy from the level 70 fish blood essence could no longer clear an acupoint for him. It was as though his body had gotten used to the essence was no longer influenced by it.
At this point, Marcus winced.
His body felt completely different, as though an indescribable power had been pumped into his muscles. Every fibre in him pulsed with a newfound strength.
At the same time, he realized that his body had been badly injured. His reckless behavior didn't go unpunished. His joints had shifted and many had cracked. There were impurities from the blood essence flowing in his veins and clogging his lungs.
Despite the newfound strength, his body was on the verge of failing completely.
Stretching to the crate, he picked up a bottle and opened it, and a pungent smell of fish filled the room. He ignored this and quickly poured the blood over his body.
Upon contact, [Blood Bane] did its thing and began patching his body up, albeit slowly. The blood he poured on his body wasn't enough to heal all the damage that had been done to his body. Ignoring the flaring pain from his body, Marcus moved to open more bottles and he immediately poured them on his body.
Like water falling into hot oil, his body sizzled with every drop of blood that touched his skin. It took his body half an hour and the entire crate of blood, 24 bottles, to heal.
Finally, Marcus felt like he could breathe in properly now.
He attempted to stand up from the ground and the next thing he knew, the back of his head collided with the roof.
Thud!
Dust fell from above as he dropped to the ground holding the back of his head. Not out of pain, but out of shock.
"What just happened?" He muttered.
Realizing that he couldn't accurately control the strength he exerted in his legs, he started to calm down and excitement filled him up.
How strong have I gotten?
With that thought in mind, he summoned his status;
Name: Marcus Black
Age: 24
Race: Human (F)
Level: 0
Nature: Predator (A)
Attribute: [Blood Bane] [Berserker] [Deep Thought].
Skill: [True Double] [Mind's Eye] [Hunter]
Realm: Mortal
Comprehension: [Unfettered (1%)]
Strength: 63
Stamina: 75
Speed: 40
Mental: 98
Will: 75
Wilder Force: 10
Marcus froze, completely speechless at his status.
Not only had he acquired a new skill, but his stats across had gone up. However, one thing didn't sit right with him, his Wilder Force points…