The scent of blood called to him.
Not as hunger. Not yet.
But as a whisper a promise. A pulse. A temptation.
Erevan crouched behind a jagged dune ridge, his body hidden in the curve of scorched sandstone. Below, three Sand Fiends circled the twisted remains of a collapsed caravan shattered wheels, torn cloth, and half-buried corpses strewn across the sand like discarded offerings.
The midday sun roared overhead, merciless and blinding. Heat shimmered in the air like oil on fire, but Erevan's Bloodsense pierced through the distortion. The Codex enhanced vision painted the world in red auras, each creature glowing like a lantern in his mind.
[Codex Objective: Hunt 5 Sand Fiends – Progress: ]
[Sub-Objective: Drink the blood of a Beast-class creature (Optional)]
[Reward: Blood Essence + Unique Trait Unlock Chance]
His hybrid eyes narrowed.
"I shouldn't be able to do this."
He remembered blinking up at a sky not made of endless flame and dust. Remembered cool air, cities with noise and rain, a name whispered in the dark before it was all ripped away.
Now? Now he hunted monsters in a desert soaked with ancient curses and buried kings.
And his blood was changing.
"Whatever I was before… it's slipping."
But still he needed this.
Kael had remained at the Ashveil outpost to chase rumors of a nearby Monarch ruin. Erevan had insisted on going alone.
He needed to learn what the Codex was making him.
No teachers. No Kael. No safety net.
Just blood. And consequence.
He watched the Fiends two smaller scavengers, and one larger alpha, jawline jagged with growths, back marked by old battle scars.
The alpha sniffed the air suddenly. It stiffened, growled low, claws flexing.
Erevan muttered under his breath, "Activate… Bloodsense."
The world burst into clarity arteries glowing beneath thick, armored flesh, hearts thumping like drums in the deep sand.
He waited. Waited
Dropped.
Erevan sprang from the ridge, his body moving like water over stone. His dagger carved clean into the first fiend's spine it shrieked, legs buckling as crimson ichor sprayed across the sand.
The second turned.
Too slow.
Erevan slammed his hand to its chest.
[Veinbind – Active]
Blood tendrils shot from beneath his skin, weaving through the creature's limbs like a parasite. Its body seized, frozen in mid-growl.
He twisted bones cracked.
Two down.
The alpha roared, sand exploding as it pounced.
Erevan didn't run.
"Come on, then."
He rolled low, the claws grazing his back with burning heat, and drove his dagger into the beast's underside.
It bucked, shrieking.
Blood poured from its mouth bitter, foul, alive.
[Codex Suggestion: Execute Optional Sub-Objective? Y/N]
Erevan hesitated.
Then
"…Yes."
The dagger slipped from his fingers.
He pinned the creature down, fangs pressing from his gums, alien but natural.
What the hell am I becoming?
He bit.
The taste was raw power. It wasn't just warmth it was memory.
The alpha's life surged into him in a flood of images:
Sandstorms tearing through flesh. Hunts beneath a blood moon. The screams of prey echoing through caverns laced with bone.
[You have consumed Beast Blood – Class D]
[+60 XP | +5 Blood Essence]
[Trait Gained: Sandstep – Lv. 1 | Increased movement in arid terrain]
[Blood Crown Passive Ability Unlocked: Hemogrowth]
[Codex Note: Blood consumed in battle grants strength. Blood taken from the helpless weakens the soul.]
Erevan collapsed backward, gasping. The claw wounds on his back knit together before his eyes muscles tightening, healing.
He sat there, breath ragged, hands trembling.
"Gods…" he whispered.
But he didn't feel fear.
He felt... better. Faster. Sharper. More himself.
And that terrified him more than any monster.
The sun began its slow descent into crimson.
Ashveil appeared on the horizon again skeletal and battered, ringed by fire-colored clouds. He walked back like a man reborn, not limping… but flowing.
Kael leaned against the gatepost, arms crossed.
"You smell different," the older warrior said without turning. "Stronger. Or hungrier."
Erevan didn't deny it.
He stared down at his bloodstained palms. "I drank from the alpha. The Codex responded."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "You fed on a Sand Fiend?"
"I wanted to see what it would do to me."
A pause.
"…And?"
Erevan's voice was quiet, but resolute.
"It made me more."
Kael stared, then slowly nodded. "You've taken your first step."
Erevan looked up. "And what does that mean?"
Kael's smirk faded. "It means there's no going back. But there never was. The Codex doesn't give without reshaping."
"I don't want to go back," Erevan said. "I want to rise."
Kael's gaze darkened. "Then be ready to bleed for it."
That night, Erevan sat beneath the cracked idol of a long-forgotten god. Its eyes had been worn away by wind and time faceless, nameless. Just like him.
The Codex hovered before him, glowing faintly red against the dark.
[Level: 4]
[XP: 310 / 400]
[Blood Essence: 45%]
[Stat Points: 3]
[Skill Points: 2]
[New Skills Available:]
[Hemogrowth – Lv. 1]
(Passive stat scaling when drinking blood)
[Bloodstep – Lv. 1]
(Short-range teleport using blood pools)
[Crimson Shroud – Lv. 1]
(Temporarily boost defense by coating skin in blood armor)
His finger hovered.
He grinned.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
He selected *Bloodstep*.
[Skill Acquired: Bloodstep Lv. 1]
In the far distance, lightning cracked over the desert a storm rising near the forgotten tombs.
It wasn't just monsters that waited in the dark.
There were others like him.
Others chosen.
And Erevan knew that this world this violent, unforgiving world would not be survived by those who remembered who they used to be.
It would be conquered by those who embraced what they were becoming.