Nathan blinked twice in confusion before rereading the new notification.

Information available on the Blood Pawn class.

Two New Skills awarded for completing integration.

What new information could the system 'suddenly' have discovered after he'd obtained the class? He'd have some serious questions about the integrity of the system if it turned out that it lied or told half-truths.

Show me the new information.

The words on the screen rearranged themselves as a cold, detached voice echoed in his head:

The Blood Pawn Class is the most obscure of all classes in the system. Depending on the determination and adaptability of the wielder, this class can make the jump from Rare to Legendary.

However, since the system does not have enough information on the class and the last and only wielder before now could only utilize it to reach the scale of a rare class, the system decided to use that as the makeshift ceiling.

You've got to be kidding me, rare to lege—

As the name has already given away, Blood Pawn is primarily blood-focused. A good percentage of the skills in this class deals with blood, both yours and that of your foes.

Of course, it has to deal with bloo— hold on, what's all this about my blood?

The uniqueness of this class will hand you a massive advantage both in your world and in Ra'ahal.

Two new skills awarded for completing class integration:

Blood Rebellion (I): Get a 10% boost on all stats when health drops to 25%. This is a passive skill.

Life Steal (I): This ability activates randomly within strikes that draw blood. Gain the chance to steal the life of your foes. 10% chance to steal 5% health on a successful strike.

Most skills are upgradeable. Visit Merchants to purchase new skills and upgraded versions of owned skills.

Skills can also be given as a reward by the system.

With that, the screen winked out, leaving Nathan with so much information that his head ached.

If he was getting this right, he'd not only gotten a rare class, he might've also gotten an Epic or Legendary class in the process.

Unbelievable.

That was the kind of luck people went to war over.

Blood Pawn.

The blood thing did freak him out a little, especially that part about him using his own blood. Seemed like a ritual if you asked him.

Pffft.

Nathan ran a hand through his long blonde hair; it fell to his shoulders and was basically him just trying to compensate for the fact that his facial hair hadn't come out. Yet.

So, this really is real.

Still flat on his back, Nathan looked around as if prompted by the thought. Everywhere in the forest looked a lot brighter compared to last night, at least he believed the purple sky meant it was nighttime.

The red sky was bright enough that he'd consider it daytime. Glancing around, his eyes fell on the dead bodies of the imps. He wasn't sure, but it seemed like they'd been dead for days rather than just hours. The bodies already looked like dried-out husks, and that terrible smell seemed to have disappeared overnight.

Shaking his head, he returned to the matter at hand. He'd already gone over what the class meant, so that left the new skills that he'd gained:

Blood Rebellion and Life Steal.

Both were passive skills and were at the early stages, but they were definitely something that'd help in future battles. Something like Blood Rebellion would come in handy against the tougher foes. Heck, he'd struggled at the end there against level-one imps.

Life Steal, on the other hand, seemed like a luck-based skill. A 10% chance on each hit wasn't high, and the return of 5% when it did activate seemed... meager. To be honest, he'd been expecting something better. They'd have to do though, and both skills had massive potential judging by the '(I)' beside the skills.

There were a lot of what-ifs and potential possibilities to consider, but Nathan found it best to focus on the present rather than the future. He'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

Status.

The blue screen winked into existence:

Name: Nathan Orion

Imprint: N/A

Level: 5

Archetype: Blood Berserker

Class: Blood Pawn

Imprint: Balls of Steel, Skullcrusher

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 7

Vitality: 6

Constitution: 7

Perception: 6

Dao: N/A

Ra'hal coins: 600

Free points: 13

He had 13 free points to spend as he wished. That was a lot of points considering where he started from; he'd have to spend it wisely.

His strength was behind the rest, and even though it'd come up clutch against the skulls of level-one imps, he highly doubted that it'd suffice against higher-level monsters.

So that needed to be improved. He also didn't like the fact that those imps could get him down to critical health—for goodness' sake, they were only level one. His vitality needed an upgrade for sure.

The rest of his stats didn't seem to have much influence in the fight, and right about now he could use some vitality to get back on his feet. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to save a few points for an emergency.

So this was what he was going to do:

Four points to strength

Three to vitality

One point each to my remaining stats

The blue screen flashed as the updates took place, and sure enough, Nathan was shown the updated stats:

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 8

Vitality: 9

Constitution: 8

Perception: 7

##

Free points: 3

A warm, fuzzy feeling enveloped Nathan, lasting for barely a fraction of a second, but it was enough to fix everything wrong with him. The tiredness and rawness were gone; he felt refreshed. His entire body was revitalized.

Nathan willed the screen to shut and smiled as it winked out. That was that when it came to his stats. He walked towards his sword, which was still halfway into the dirt.

He pulled it with ease; it was like picking a pin that was halfway in a mattress. He had no doubt that it was his improved strength showing itself. It became more apparent when he tried to weigh the blade in his hands.

It felt lighter, or his improved strength had made him feel less strain picking up the sword—not to say that it had been heavy before.

Out of sheer curiosity, he swung the sword in a wide arc.

Swoosh.

The sword seemed to whistle louder as it completed its arc. It was only then that Nathan confirmed that the free points he'd dropped into his strength stat had indeed not been wasted.

Nathan let his sword drop to his side, his right hand clutching the hilt. It was high time he did the one thing he wanted to do since he'd arrived here—it was now daytime, and he had nothing to be afraid of, after all. Picking a direction at random, Nathan began walking.

Time to explore.

________

Nathan quickly got his priorities straight after his first couple of hours living in the wilderness.

Food and water.

He hadn't been too concerned with the two because he'd been too busy fighting for his life, but now that the adrenaline had worn off and he was left trudging through the woods with no direction in mind, little things like that came to the fore of his mind.

He'd read somewhere that people crossing the desert usually quenched their thirst with urine, but Nathan was really hoping that it wouldn't come to that.

He kept his eyes trained ahead, the tall grass swallowing up his sneakers and footprints. The hoodie and jean trousers had been turned into rags with the amount of slashes both pieces of clothing had received, but he was sure if one of those big fashion brands got ahold of this, they'd sell it for a buck load of money.

Probably charging dummies more for less clothing, claiming that it was the next big thing. He didn't really blame the brands though; he blamed the people who made such stupid things profitable for brands to keep manufacturing.

He glanced up and sideways occasionally as he walked around. The trees were way too tall for him to climb; in fact, most of the trees surrounding him were as fat as him with their lowest branches way too high for him to consider trying to climb.

And so he trudged on, occasionally smacking his dry lips. Wouldn't it be funny to have invested all those points into those stats wisely, thinking that he was all set for more encounters just to die from thirst?

Always with the morbid humor.

Nathan chastised himself—now was not the time to be putting himself down. The direction he walked seemed to be sloping downwards, which Nathan thought was weird.

Regardless, he kept on walking. He'd already come this far to turn back because of such a minor detail. Glancing around as he walked, he noticed that the trees were getting shorter and so were the grasses. He could also hear sounds in the distance.

Nathan paused mid-stride. The sounds seemed to be coming from up ahead. He couldn't quite tell what they were, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Whether they belonged to a human, monster, or animal, Nathan was going in with his sword ready for combat.

He slowly moved through the grass. The overhead canopy had grown sparser the further out he moved, the trees shorter and the grass becoming longer. Soon enough, he had grass almost up to his face. He even heard the occasional chirp from what he hoped was a bird flying overhead. Insects and bugs seemed to dominate this area—compared to his starting position, this place might as well be considered a civilization of its own.

He continued walking towards the sounds anyway, pushing his way through the stalks. It had started to sound clearer. He didn't know if it was because he was somewhat thirsty and hungry, but he could swear that it was a waterfall making that noise.

The sound of water slapping against rocks seemed the most likely option, and it was coming from just a few steps ahead.

Nathan trusted in his instincts, hoping that nothing attacked him while he was navigating through this grass—he couldn't swing his sword as he didn't have enough space to generate momentum.

Nathan felt he was at the spot of the sound, so where was it, or had he just walked into an elaborate trap? Nathan pushed back the stalks of grass blocking his line of sight and almost cried with joy.

Water, lots and lots of water splashing against rocks. He'd previously thought it was a waterfall, but it wasn't. It was the sound of water slapping against rocks on the shore.

A vast body of water stretched out in front of him. More than enough to drink for a lifetime. In truth, Nathan was happier because he no longer had to resort to drinking his urine if he couldn't find somewhere to get some water.

He heard another chirp from overhead, and Nathan had to share the same sentiments—water was truly beautiful.

Nathan exited the stalks after spending a couple of minutes walking through shorter ones. The grass grew shorter the closer he got to the water, which Nathan found a little confusing as it was supposed to be the other way around unless someone or something else had been cutting the grass.

Nathan glanced around nervously. He couldn't see anything else apart from what looked to be a bird flying so high overhead it looked like a speck.

Nathan shrugged and continued his walk to the body of water. He'd have a drink first to sate his thirst, and then he could begin analyzing the situation.

He'd barely taken three steps forward when a loud chirp seemed to echo from up ahead, causing him to look up. The bird that had been circling him from above had begun a swift dive towards him.

You've got to be kidding me.

Apparently, he couldn't catch a break. Nathan briefly considered going for a quick sip before the bird got close enough but knew that he wouldn't make it.

So he got his sword ready. Who knows? Maybe he might just be able to solve his food and water problems at the same time.

What was that saying again?

Two birds with one stone?