Hopping down into the basement, Leon found Claire and Sophia standing before the newly opened doorway. They were trying to see into the room without actually crossing the threshold. Was there something odd going on or were they just being cautious?

“What’s wrong?” Leon asked, coming up to stand beside Claire.

She stopped leaning at funny angles and pointed at the door frame. There was some kind of golden haze lingering around the edge of the door, its power fading to nothing as it drifted towards the centre of the hole in the wall. Leon thought it was some kind of lighting strip at first, but on closer inspection it was made up of tiny golden particles.

Sophia tossed a boot through the door. It went straight through the haze and bounced across the floor on the other side, the mist not reacting at all.

“Do you think it’s safe to go through?” Sophia asked, looking back at them.

“I don’t know, but I definitely don’t feel like testing it with my own- Quick, grab him!”

Leon spun around as Pete jumped down into the basement. Sophia called out to him, but he ignored her and tried to run into the room. It was no surprise that he was too focused to listen. There were several glowing items in the new room, creating a luminescent wall of light in the dark and boring basement.

That reminded Leon of how they met the little panther cub in the first place. He had most likely been drawn to the basement by something in that new room and gotten trapped.

Pete ran straight at him. Leon reached down, but the little cub ran through the gap in his legs and wriggled out of his grasp. He then dodged past the girls, their hands not even touching him as he weaved around their outstretched arms. Sophia screamed as Pete almost leapt in, but Leon was right behind him, Qi billowing off his skin as Strengthen allowed him to catch up.

Leon was forced to grab Pete by the scruff of his neck as his other hand slammed against the wall. He stopped just in front of the doorway, his body missing the haze by less than a few centimetres. He sighed in relief, but alarm bells went off in his mind as the haze reacted despite not making contact with it.

The particles trembled around him, vibrating so much that they tickled his skin even after he dived away from the door. Pete squirmed and jumped out of his grasp. Leon thought about trying to chase after him again, but he froze as the golden mist detached itself from the doorway, the haze twisting around him as if it were checking something.

The golden mist hovered around him like an omen of death. It wobbled and undulated in a storm of gold, almost as if it were unsure of what to do. Leon flooded his body with Qi. Power leaked out of his pores, but the haze wasn’t affected in any way.

The golden mist began to condense into threads, each one piercing into a different part of his body. They were like tiny knives slicing through his flesh, the pain making him grit his teeth. They wound through his blood, muscles, and bones as if to search for something. Almost all of them went dormant after a few seconds, but the thread in his left arm appeared to have found what it was looking for.

The threads poured out of him and gathered into a radiant blade of pure light. Leon fell to his knees as the sword hovered over his head, barely managing to glance up as the weapon flashed with power. Claire and Sophia screamed as it came down, but his body wasn’t chopped in half like they all expected it to be. Instead, something was ripped apart inside of him; cut into two pieces.

He felt the pain everywhere as it overwhelmed his mind and threatened to stop his heart. Notifications flashed in front of his face, but Leon couldn’t even move he was in so much pain. Whatever had been cut, it sent waves of agony throughout every facet of his being. It felt like he was simultaneously being burned alive while undergoing a full-frontal lobotomy.

The blade dispersed and went back to the doorway, but Leon just lay on the floor, his head in Claire’s lap while Sophia brought in the squirrel they were going to use for dinner.

Leon Devoured until it turned to ash, the aura and blood doing nothing to help him as it merged with his body. He languished in the growing pain until something shifted inside of him. His left arm continued Devouring without him noticing, but it wasn’t consuming another squirrel or either of the girls.

It was Devouring him.

Leon’s hand was on his own chest, consuming the part of him that had been severed. It only took one of the halves, but when it was finished drawing the power away, the pain almost instantly disappeared. Leon blinked from where he lay, casually sitting up a moment later as if nothing had happened.

“Oh my god!” Claire shouted, her hands raised in shock. “I thought you were dead. Are you okay? What the hell just happened?”

“I’m so sorry!” Sophia cried, her tears streaming down her cheeks. She quickly pulled out her bottle of Bloodroot Extract and held it up for him with trembling hands. “D-Drink some healing elixir if you’re injured.”

“I’m fine, guys,” Leon smiled, feeling warm at their concern. “Thank you for worrying about me.”

Sophia didn’t lower her trembling arms, so Leon grabbed the bottle and took a swig. The power swirled around his body and fixed up some minor muscle soreness and bruises, but it didn’t do anything else.

“You’re fine? Screaming at the top of your lungs as if you were being murdered is fine?” Claire said, her eyes boring into his own.

Leon nodded.

“What the hell was that all about, then?”

Leon tried his hardest to explain things from his perspective. He had already told them about what happened with his arm being infected by a demon, and now he explained how the sword had cut something inside him. He mostly got blank looks. They didn’t experience what he did, after all. To them, the golden mist had pounced at him and then he began to scream before a giant sword almost turned him into a kebab… and then nothing happened, and yet he began to scream at the top of his lungs.

“So what did it cut?”

“I’m not sure, but I did receive some notifications that I will check in a second.”

“I’m really sorry,” Sophia sniffled, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. “I promise to discipline Pete so this never happens again.”

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Leon pat her on the back and told her that the mist reacted without him even touching it, meaning it wasn’t her fault. Once Sophia calmed down, she picked up Pete and held him like a baby. After seeing what happened to him, Pete freaked out and spent the next five minutes trying to hop up through the hole in the roof, making a mess of the broken armour that they had neatly placed into piles.

Sophia hugged him and sat down in the corner, the baby still on edge. Claire risked it and went in before anyone could tell her not to. Thankfully nothing happened, allowing her to bring everything out one at a time. It seemed that Leon’s guess about any lingering demonic influences in his arm was pretty likely. Still, Sophia didn’t go in for safety’s sake.

While Claire brought everything out, Leon checked his notifications.

[Warning! You have suffered extensive damage to your soul. Loss of personality, extreme shifts in mental state, and temporary bouts of insanity are almost guaranteed. You are advised to seek medical assistance as soon as possible or you will die.]

Leon’s blood pressure dropped as he read the text. He felt completely fine, and yet the notification was giving him the worst news possible. Where could he even find help? No medical doctor could treat the soul. Hell, it wasn’t even confirmed to exist before now. No one could help him, but as more notifications sprawled over his eyes, he realised that he may not need help.

[Soul damage can no longer be detected. As the locus of the self, the soul is one of the most important parts of any living being. Damage to it is also one of the most difficult types of injury to recover from, requiring expensive medicine and thorough care from the relevant professionals.]

Leon sighed in relief. He wasn’t going to turn insane any time soon, thankfully. He leaned back on the wall and closed the notification, but as he relaxed, several more popped up, their contents confusing him greatly.

[Racial evolution detected…]

[Congratulations! You have evolved into a Blood Fiend.]

[All races in the multiverse are chained down by certain limits. The majority are restricted to F-grade, meaning that unless they evolve their race, they will never rise to become an E-grade cultivator. All of the upgrades come with their own benefits and demerits. Your choice, however, may not always be the most optimal.]

[There are three routes that one can take to evolve: First, a person can absorb a racial treasure. This will not change their lineage in any way, providing a direct upgrade of their current abilities. Second, many will absorb the evolved bloodline and or racial quintessence of another from the same race. This may alter any number of traits, the changes extensive but still within the realm of what is possible for your race. Lastly, a person can mix their race with an outside heritage to become a demi-human, taking on the qualities of another race to boost their current abilities.]

[You have taken the third option to become a demi-human, altering your humanoid lineage to take on traits of the wicked and bloodthirsty Fiend-]

The notification cut off, flickering as another replaced it.

[Full human bloodline and racial heritage detected.]

[Full Blood Fiend racial heritage and bloodline detected.]

[System unable to reconcile, user lineage unknown...]

Leon blinked, waiting for another notification. None came even after a minute. He read everything again, understanding that his race should’ve changed to that of a demi-human Fiend. His human lineage was supposed to absorb the racial quintessence of the Fiend race and take on some of its traits. The only problem was that it hadn’t.

In his Status menu, his race now showed both of them to be separate.

Status

Name: Leon Hartwell

Stage: Middle Foundation Forging

Race: [Mortal] Human | Blood Fiend

Level: 8

Leon wasn’t sure what had happened, but it looked like his arm now contained a portion of his soul. Nothing else had really changed. He was still the same person he had been since getting bitten, only now the System was able to recognise the changes to his arm. He’d thought it strange that there was nothing about his arm, but now that his soul was connected to the grey organ, the System could recognise its traits.

The most strange part, however, was that the transformation of his arm didn’t appear to be normal. The System almost broke itself trying to understand what was going on. Was it really not possible to have two separate races in one form? Or perhaps it was possible, but Leon had done it the wrong way. He had no method to fix any problems now, but he would have to keep an eye out for more information.

In the meantime, he used True Sight on his his Human and Blood Fiend races.

[Human (Mortal)]

An ancient race that has dominated the multiverse since the dawn of time. While they do not have sharp fangs or powerful bodies, the human race makes up for their weaknesses with a sharp intellect and opposable thumbs, these two traits allowing them to follow nearly any Path in existence. For while they start as a blank canvas, all humans can become a masterpiece in their own right.

Unawakened and ungraded, this genus of Homo Sapiens must reach F-grade in order to awaken their racial heritage.

[Blood Fiend (Mortal)]

A slave race of beasts created by a higher-order being. With the ability to directly Devour their enemies, they can mutate and transform into a wide variety of creatures depending on their master's will.

Racial Limit: F-Grade.

+5% to Body.

-5% to Mind.

Leon blinked. This was a pure beast race, his arm from a literal monster. How was that even possible? And was that the issue the System had with his transformation or was it the fact that the two were separate, his remaining human side untouched by the demonic influence?

What was also interesting was that his original Human race was unawakened. What kind of powers and abilities would he be innately capable of, and would all Earth humans have the same ability?

Leon then stared at the effects of the beast race. The boost to Body and demerit to Mind had done nothing to his stats, but that may not be true. His arm had transformed before he even gained access to his Status. For all he knew, his Mind was supposed to be five percent higher and his body five percent weaker.

Preparing to close his Status, Leon paused. There was a new line at the bottom that he only just noticed.

Bloodline of the Crimson Fiend (Lesser)

Devour

Leon used True Sight on his bloodline, a detailed prompt appearing for him to read. He guessed that since it was a part of him, the System thought he deserved to be thrown a bone rather than scramble around in the dark.

[Bloodline of the Crimson Fiend (Lesser) - 13%.]

The bloodline of the Crimson Fiend is based on the conceptual strength contained within every drop of Blood. Through its power, those with a higher-tier bloodline can control members of a weaker lineage. Enlightened beings of this lineage can resist the mental control with their willpower. Beasts are wholly unable to be commanded by anyone besides their creator. They will wholeheartedly follow their master, never resisting for a single moment.

+1% to Body.