Blood Assimilation

182 Growth

The moment after Randy responded to the challenger’s leveling system, a portal silently appeared behind him. But unlike the other portals, which were black in appearance, this portal was blue in color, and it also exuded warmth from the other side that made him feel very soothed just by standing there.

‘Is that the safe room’s portal?’ Randy did not think too much and immediately walked in.

Shortly after, he found himself standing in a white room that spans a few meters squared. Just by looking for a bit, it was roughly big enough for two people to live in without any discomfort about the space.

Randy was mesmerized by the whiteness of the room for a brief moment before heading to a corner and sitting down on the floor shortly after. He then took out some water from his storage bracelet and gulped it down.

At this moment, Randy thought of wanting to see how much stronger he has become because while fighting the wolves, he noticed that he was gradually getting stronger. And after fighting the Agile Silver Wolves, he felt like he had gotten much stronger compared to before.

The feeling was quite similar to when he received reinforcements from his assimilated states, as it was not actually his own strength but borrowed power through his assimilation ability.

However, Randy was not sure how to open his attribute screen since he never had to do such a thing with his world’s system.

Most of the time, he only thought of seeing his status screen and it would appear in front of him or his system would automatically display it whenever he entered his assimilated states.

However, the same method was not working with this world’s system, as he thought of opening his attribute screen but it did not appear in front of him.

.....

After thinking for a bit, he decided to call out: “Attribute screen!”

Immediately after, information related to all his attributes revealed themselves in front of his eyes on the blue screen that projected itself in front of his vision.

To be more precise, Randy could see this screen on his left side as it seemed like his golden screen system had taken the right side of his vision.

At this point, Randy proceeded to glance through his information to see how much he had grown, and he was shocked by how much stronger he had become within such a short time.

But he also knew very well that he needed to train his body and skills if he wanted these attributes to stick around and not disappear afterward.

[Name: ???]

[Species: Human]

[Title(s): Challenger]

[Occupation: None]

[Level: 5]

[Mana Points: 1299(+100)/1299]

[Health Points: 400(+100)/400]

[Strength: 40(+10)]

[Endurance: 40(+10)]

[Vitality: 40(+10)]

[Stamina: 39.5(+10)]

[Agility: 30(+10)]

[Perception: 100(+10)]

[Magic Limit: 129.9(+10)]

[Intelligence: 250(+10)]

[Skill(s): None]

‘At least the challenger’s leveling system was able to discern that I was a human, but I guess it could not tell who I truly was, so it left out my name. I wonder why, though... Is it because I was originally not from this world or maybe some other reason?’ Randy silently thought to himself upon realization.

“System, can you explain it to me?” Randy asked.

[User, what do you need to be explained?]

[[What does the host mean by his words?]]

The two systems unanimously responded to his question.

“...”

Randy was at a loss for words when he noticed that the two systems responded to his question just now, as he did not expect something like that to happen.

‘This is too troublesome. Maybe I should decide on a name to refer to both systems.’ Randy decisively thought.

Then, he opened his mouth and rectified: “I meant to ask the Challenger System... Why is my name not displayed on my attribute screen?”

[The user’s information did not seem to be in this world’s archives. No matter how much the system searched, the user’s identity could not be found. Furthermore, there is a mysterious source of power preventing the system from probing the user’s information further. Would the user like to set the name himself?] The challenger system said to him.

‘What? Are you telling me that it cannot even find out about my name? Don’t tell me... Is this related to that unknown power- that mysterious ovoid from before? Why is it trying to hide my name? I would understand hiding my identity as someone from another world, but my name is just my name, so there’s no need to hide such a thing.’ Randy thought in bewilderment when he noticed this strange phenomenon.

“Ah, then set my name as Ra-” Randy suddenly stopped himself.

‘No, wait, damn! If I had known about this beforehand, I wouldn’t have used my actual name when I registered at the society to be a dungeon hunter to prevent unknown danger since it seems like my name is not registered in this world. I did not mind it too much when the system hid my name at the time, because I had already wrote my name on the registration form. At that time, I was mostly concerned about the other things like my species which were hidden for some reason. But now, I regret it! I should’ve consulted with the system... no, I should’ve been more careful instead.’

Randy thought in regret over his past mistake, but he did not take long to calm himself down, as it did not matter how much he brooded over this matter and regretted his choice at this point.

Afterward, Randy sighed and continued: “Randy... Just set my name as Randy for now. It does not matter anymore.”

[Understood. The user’s name have been successfully set to ‘Randy’. Would the user prefer the system to refer to him by his name or simply by ‘user’?] The challenger’s system prompted in response.

“What is this? This system is more user-friendly compared to-” Randy abruptly stopped himself before he could finish with his sentence.

He then cleared his throat and said: “Yes. Just refer to me as Randy.”

[Affirmative, User Randy]

“Alright. Now, I need to focus on what’s important. This rusty steel sword seems to be losing its durability. Maybe I should replace it with the one I bought in the weapon shop earlier. If only I had a magic-based sword technique, then I would... Wait, sword technique? Sword Skills! I almost forgot about that guy’s assimilated skills that I had obtained a week ago.”

Randy suddenly recalled the events that transpired after he was accepted by the old man and his family when he first came into contact with the people of this world.

At that time, he had received his own room in their village, thus giving him some privacy to deal with some unattended matters. ????????????????e????????. ????????????

...

A week ago.

The night Randy was taken in by the old man and his family.

At this moment, Randy was left alone in his room right after he had eaten dinner with the old man’s family.

After waiting and seeing that no one was coming to his room or was near his room, he took out something from his storage bracelet.

This was a small translucent bottle that he had brought with him on the trip to the military base in anticipation of obtaining some useful blood to assimilate with.

Although he did not manage to use it as intended, he could still use it to store the blood of other people that he encounter in this world, who might have useful abilities or skills to assimilate.

Moreover, he had always regretted not bringing bottles with him for such occasions, especially when he was pressed for time and had to leave right away and thus needed to store the blood for later use.

But this time, he was able to store that blonde man’s blood within this small bottle since he could not consume it at the time. Afterward, he sealed it and placed it inside his storage bracelet before following right after Klara.

At this point, Randy glanced at the blood in the bottle for a moment before popping the cover of the small bottle. He then used his Blood Authority Skill to manipulate and hover the blood out of the bottle and into the air for a moment before solidifying it and popping it into his mouth right after.

[[Detected that the host have consumed the blood of a human]]

[[Assimilation Commencing]]