Kal rushed through the dome slaying every enemy he found, never allowing himself to waste time on recovery or rest. He needed to kill everything in the forsaken place, nothing could be left alive. Despite his ceaseless slaughter Kal’s resources continued to slowly recover, as he left his Wrathful Regeneration on at all times. His constant mutilation of every kill boosting his Wrath drastically.

Every kill urged him to the next with new vigor, his birthright calling for the endless death of his enemies. Something in the back of his mind bothered him, what was it? Caution? Like he had for the last several hours he ignored the emotions his weaker self called out. Caution was for the weak. Patience was for those who could not take what they wanted. Control? He was in control, wasn’t he? A savage growl distracted him from the thoughts as he leaped down from a small ridge into another openly he often found a pack within.

[Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 18]

He turned and glared at the garghound. A wave of heat came over him again as his rage heightened his murderous focus. When their eyes met the garghound faltered, its expression changed from anger at the trespasser to fearful whelp instantly. It disgusted Kal. He had been searching for another noble for hours and this is what found? Pathetic. He moved not bothering to activate his Wrath Incarnate, this thing would be far too weak for that.

The garghound didn’t even have the guts to try and burn the sword from his hand this time as he charged. It turned to flee but Kal would never allow an enemy to go free and grabbed the demon by the hind leg and pulled it back onto his sword. It pierced directly through its chest. It yelped but Kal continued his gruesome work, and his Wrath grew.

You have slain [Garghound Noble | Abyss Spawn 18] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.

Level up!

Your Wrath Grows…

Hot dark blood covered him head to toe but he didn’t care his Wrath simply urged him towards the next enemy.

Kal barely cared about his condition, about his condition but he glanced at on his way to distribute his free attribute points.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer [Epic]

Level:

15

Race:

Human?

Health:

687/990

Stamina:

1203/1560

Wrath:

2432

Attributes

Strength:

136

Agility:

55

Endurance:

156

Vitality:

99

Intellect:

41

Perception:

75

Will:

141

Wisdom:

67

Titles

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Common], Wrath Incarnate [Common

Race

Birthright: Waking

He was near prime condition, though his weakness still infuriated him. His hunt would need to continue. Kal's speed needed improvement, every moment he wasted between kills was unacceptable. But his eyes drifted to Will and Wisdom, Why even consider those? They are worthless to my right! Disgusted with his unnecessary thoughts he put the points into Agility and closed the menu.

----------------------------------------

Kal’s memories blurred as days of slaughter passed, only in the quiet moments when he was forced to search for longer than usual did his thoughts clear enough to realize something was very wrong. Right now he was tearing the scales from a garghound noble, his mind continuously jumped back and forth from furious rage to concern. The need to kill and confused caution. He needed to do something while he was still aware of what was happening, but what could he do? He could feel that at any moment he could throw down the carcass and continue the hunt. Who knows how long he would lose track of time next? His heart and birthright were still in rhythm, just slower now, less chaotic.

He scrambled to think of some way to extend this time of calm, then he remembered his deep meditation. While within his core space, time seemed to behave strangely. An hour in his core space could be only minutes outside. Thinking of nothing else to try, Kal tried his best to drag himself into his deeper meditation. And to his surprise the moment he made the attempt he felt his birthright try to help him, its rhythm changing subtlety, easing him into the mystical state.

The deeper Kal fell into meditation the more he could feel how truly unbalanced he was. Subconscious aggression pummeled him constantly as he arrived in the void in front of his core. His core was a burning inferno once more, his birthright pouring from his core like it wasn’t even there and filling his core space with its crimson flame. Now that Kal’s sense had improved he could sense the subtle differences in the crimson flame that weren’t there before he had merged the abyssal mana with his core. It was working almost literally like fuel, as it leaked from Kal’s core the crimson flame roared after it. Each rush of flame made Kal’s concentration wane and he almost fled the void and continued his hunt but flexed his Will and he calmed ever so slightly. He could feel his Will working over time as he forced himself to remain her, he still wanted to leave but something about all still felt wrong.

Kal looked closer at his core and concentrated on the crimson energy of his birthright. He wasn’t sure if it was his practice with his mana sight or just higher Perception but Kal found what was wrong quickly. First, now that he had achieved meditation in this state he could finally see what was going on. His core was looking more like a three-segmented line separated by darker threads that seemed to allow the flames of his birthright to truly escape. But it took something with it. The flames were subtly coated in the dark energy which seemed to leech into the void and his body. It felt strange. Like it wasn’t his.

Was this why he had lost control like he had recently? He didn’t think so, Kal had lost control a few times before even arriving in the Abyss. He definitely did while fighting that prick Julin, and now that he thought about it had also likely happened back when he was fighting that rogue. Then what was it doing? Did it just make it easier? Wanting to check something Kal activated his Wrathful Regeneration and let his Wrath drop. The moment it activated he had almost left his core space and had to drag his perception back to his core, where he was just in time to see his core change. As his Wrath decreased the dark segments of his core slowly began to shrink, and the flow of crimson flame lessened slightly.

Kal rage's addled brain struggled to understand what was happening but whatever it was doing seemed to somehow control how much of his birthright was unleashed. So it had to help control his birthright somehow. But how was it there? He hadn’t created the dark threads. Suddenly as Kal watched one of the dark threads simply snapped and a huge gout of crimson flames burst from his core. Kal cried out as his mind caught fire but he remained in place. Then the pain vanished like it wasn’t even there, and in the snapped thread's place was a much thinner copy of the original.

It was some kind of seal, how it got there didn’t really matter. What mattered was that it was failing. Apparently using your birthright merged with abyssal mana wasn’t good for one's health. The two mixed together was clearly way too much for his self-forged core to handle as it was, let alone his mental health. Perhaps the seal was the system's way of throwing him a bone after getting dumped here and crafting his own core. But now he would need to find a way to continue on his own and craft a new seal of some kind. Now that he realized he had been sealed this way it was obvious why his birthright had been behaving strangely directly after his ascension. It had barely worked at first and had only gotten to this point after he had drastically increased all of his attributes.

But how the fuck was he going to make a new seal without destroying his core again? Kal didn’t think destroying it now would be the smartest thing to do. He had no doubt that he could do it but whether he would survive or be forced to start again from level one were definitely uncertainties.

If only he could create a trigger of some kind to just open the floodgates but otherwise have it completely locked away. Distracted by the constant urge to abandon this line of thought Kal had to constantly force himself to concentrate on the seals. They were very complex, well beyond what Kal could have done during his core forging. Kal could see that they were supposed to be solid seals though, not allowing anything through at all. The fact they were currently leaking even while still intact was a clear indicator that they were degrading.

He couldn’t replicate that, not a chance but he had one more idea that may or may not kill him. Kal searched around his core for his new thread. It didn’t take him long, the thread he found was pale and broken. It even almost looked charred in places, but Kal still recognized it the moment he saw it. His Wrath Incarnate skill.

Apparently, something had gone wrong during its use. It was clearly damaged. Kal suspected it had something to do with his birthright or Wrath increasing to a level that was beyond the skill. Like a bolt of lightning melting a thin line of copper wire. From what Melisia had told him birthrights were not well known but all of them were powerful. Maybe the system's skills were not well suited for use with resources so closely connected with his birthright. From his inspection of the crimson flames earlier it was clear that his Wrath did not simply replace his birthright’s flame but instead amplified it somehow. Even his heightened perception wasn’t enough to make what exactly was going on clear to him but it would have to do.

He needed to find a way to strengthen the skill and bind his emotions and birthright more tightly to it, so he began weaving threads from each of his attributes and resources to see what could outlast the fires of his birthright. The moment he began he felt the Soul Forge activate and suddenly the threads felt much easier to manipulate and produce. It was lucky that they came easily as with every thread his patience thinned. None of the threads were suitable so far as he laid them down along the path of Wrath Incarnate. Each of them burned up and faded only moments after they fully formed, at least until we created one from Will.

Will held strong for much longer than the others, only dissipating after he fully separated from his shaping. It should have been obvious that Will would play a role here, but Kal’s focus still wasn’t the best. His body had stopped scaling the garghound and now had the creature's raw flesh in his mouth. Kal hadn’t even noticed movement until his birthright ignited again sending him reeling in anger. Kal held onto his meditation trying his hardest to dismiss the thoughts of slaughter rushing through his mind.

His body had paused again after the rush and Kal continued his forging. So his Will could withstand his birthright and or Wrath but could it contain it? Kal weaved a thread of Wrath, instead of it coming from the edges of his core space or his manifested body it instead came directly from his core. A tendril of crimson power followed his command and formed a narrow thread as it passed through the fragile seal in his core. When it left his core it felt like he was handling molten steel as its power threatened to melt through his manifested fingers. Barely maintaining the burning thread Kal weaved a spiraling thread of Will around it.