Deep in the West Philippine Sea, after Isao had constructed the blood prison in the sky—

In the deepest part of the sea, inaccessible to man, even with their advanced technology and whatnot, lies a dragon. Its overall feature could only be described by one word: demonic.

The pupils in its eyes were vertical, like a cat’s but thinner. His irises were crimson in color while his sclera were jet-black. Below its serpentine head covered by a noh mask, it has jaws that could swallow even the moon. Horns similar to a ram’s grew on its temples.

The dragon has a body that is a cross between an oriental dragon and a western one. Its slender limbs end with the talons of a bird of prey. Behind its back, patterns in its scales formed mouth-like images, and it even has those in its three pairs of wings. And its tail was split into six, all ending with a moon-shaped end.

“What a pathetic man,” The dragon commented as he watched a young man through a holographic interface. "Cowardly yet hotheaded, worrywart yet reckless; he is a walking contradiction." The dragon sighed as he observed Isao's every move.

‘How could he fulfill his fate, if the urges of our species are enough to overwhelm him? I even made sure to warn him in the guide that the skills of this otherworld have traps inside but he had still tried to rely on it, to resist his urges.'

"He's still not ready for his trials, it seems," it concluded. Standing up, the dragon stretched its wings and tensed its hind legs before taking off. From its lair deep in the sea, it swam upward through the pitch-black waters using its slender body.

As it emerged from the depths, the dragon soared into the night sky, aiming for the seven moons that hung in the starry expanse above. Higher and higher it climbed, its scales shimmering in the moonlight.

Until finally, the dragon had passed through the layers of the atmosphere and entered the vastness of outer space. Gazing at the seven moons that served as satellites for the planet below, the dragon grimaced, muttering, "There should only be one moon, and yet..."

The dragon shook its head. 'It should be my chosen one who must put things right in this world, and not me.' it thought as its six moon-shaped tail ends swayed gently in the weightlessness of space.

"Blood Moon Magic, Crimson Lunar Eclipse," the dragon whispered, its voice echoing through the emptiness.

The next moment, from all over the world, people began to witness a celestial phenomenon unlike anything they had ever seen before. Astrologists of Erse argued over the origins and implications of this unprecedented event, while religious leaders interpreted it as a divine message. Filipinos, however, knew of only one thing: the arrival of Bakunawa, the moon-eating dragon from ancient folklore.

The Bakunawa, who caused this celestial phenomenon with his authority, had its eyes only on one man, the Dungeon Master Isao—its chosen one.

***

While Isao's mind raced to come up with a solution, unaware of the happenings outside his blood prison technique, he abruptly noticed something different about himself.

He’s finally calm or more precisely, clear headed.

What the neuro-something-something did to him was only a temporary reprieve from the flames of hatred burning inside his heart. Mid-combat with the Hantik Knights, Isao felt it coming back to life, bit by bit. But, all of a sudden, it just went poof. Like a bubble, it disappeared, never to be seen again.

‘Could this be the fault of the gift that unknown god gave to me?’ That is a natural question to ask, considering it coincided with the time that a feeling of being hurried by someone to do something. It's vague, so he never knew for sure but that's how it felt to him in the past few days.

Now that his thoughts were once again his, his conjecture of someone manipulating him solidified. ‘Uwaaa, like I thought, it was an evil god that gave me his blessing.’ Holding his head, Isao lamented, his cowardly disposition coming back to the surface.

The time to lament his fate was not now, however. Remembering that, he immediately opened his D-Maps and looked at the situation on the ground. What he saw made his face go pale.

“They’re engaging the Hantik Queen!?” he exclaimed, his face horror-stricken. 'I have to do something!' Isao thought urgently.

A telepathic communication from Fel, however, stopped him in his tracks. "Master, could I ask you to entrust this to Ava and the others, nya?" He still said nya, but there was a sense of seriousness in his voice.

"But—" "I know you're only worried for our sakes, but we would never grow if we didn't face challenges on our own," Fel interrupted.

"What's the harsh training you had us undergo if you won't allow us to handle difficult situations? You created us to serve you, but Master, you are being too overprotective," Fel continued. "When the time came and we had a truly powerful foe, and they were numerous as well, we needed to be able to stand on our own and protect ourselves."

"And while there is a moderately hard opponent we could handle on our own, you should let us prove our capabilities and develop our skills further," Fel added. "By facing challenges independently, we can learn from our mistakes and become more resilient. It is through these experiences that we can truly grow and become the formidable force you designed us to be."

'But I'm still worried,' Isao swallowed these words about to spill from his lips. If he said that, it would be tantamount to saying that he doesn't trust them.

So he bit his lip, and instead asked a question that has been nagging him ever since he opened his D-Maps. “You didn’t tell us your whole plan didn’t you, Fel?”

"Why do you ask, nya?" Fel responded, a hint of amusement in their voice.

There’s one thing in the map that caught Isao’s attention: they had other units without his knowledge traversing the San Cristobal River to reach Liberty College, and among them was the hero, Joanne. The river was a more direct and faster one than the indirect and roundabout land route Isao and Ava’s group was taking. Furthermore, and because of the river being below ground level, it provided better cover and reduced the risk of detection by enemy forces.

Supposing that Joanne's group was the actual rescue team, then what's Isao's and the others' role in this mission? And why did Fel easily accept Isao's suggestion to use a noise disruption tactic?

Looking at his still-open map, Isao could hazard a guess as to what Fel's plan might be. The noise would attract the enemy forces towards the dungeon, allowing Joanne's group to safely carry out the rescue operation without being noticed. Even if the enemy somehow managed to gleam what their real aim was, Isao and the others' role in this mission would be decoys pretending to be the rescue team. They weren't even aware that they were not the real rescue team, though.

When Isao offered his guess of Fel's entire plan, Fel was impressed by his master's insight. "As expected of Master, nya. Are you mad?"

"No. I'm proud that you're living by the saying, 'To fool the enemy, you must first fool your allies'," Isao replied. "Honestly, this plan of yours has so many objectives that I'm not sure I know all of them."

There's the survivors' rescue, real-battle training, and the acquisition of valuable intelligence.

"But I trust your judgment, Fel." Isao paused for a moment before adding, "Just make sure to keep everyone safe. I don't want any unnecessary casualties."

"Yes, nya. Don't worry, this cat made sure to plan for every possible scenario and minimize the risks as much as possible," Fel responded confidently.

"Is that so? Knowing that gives me peace of mind. I'll focus on defeating the Hantik Knights and leave the Hantik Queen to Ava's team."

Ending their telephatic communication, Isao took a deep breath and racked his brain once more, strategizing his next move. The telepathy only took a few seconds in real time due to both of them having the High Speed Processing skill, but even those seconds were crucial in the midst of battle.

Pumping his brain with mana while the skill was active, a spark of inspiration ignited within him. 'I could use the ant monster's keen sense of smell to my advantage,' he thought.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Manipulating the blood in his surroundings with his Blood Manipulation skill, Isao carefully infused the blood into the corpse of the ant monster. He's relying on the blood to examine the Hantik ant's physiology and locate the organ responsible for their pheromones.

Isao wasn't familiar with insect biology, or biology in general, so he knew he would have to rely on books and other resources to gain the necessary knowledge. Although books from Earth might not have information specifically about Hantik ants, Isao hoped that skimming some general insect biology would provide some insights.

Holding a book on insect anatomy, Isao manipulated blood to carve up the Hantik ant's body to find its scent glands.

'Not this, not this one too.' Isao muttered to himself as he examined the different sections of the ant's body, searching for the scent glands.

"Must be this one. Probably." There's a bit of uncertainty since the scent glands inside the Hantik Ant looked so different from an ordinary ant's. Isao carefully extracted the scent glands from the ant monster's body and deposited them into a blood ball hovering above his hand.

Then he crushed it inside the blood ball. "There's no scent... Is it because only those ant monsters could smell it?"

Not wasting time to wonder about the lack of scent, Isao quickly moved on to douse his body in the crushed scent glands. With care, he spread the crushed scent glands all over his skin, hoping that it would disguise his human scent and make him undetectable to the ant monsters.

'Hopefully, this works.' Isao thought to himself as he finished applying the crushed scent glands. 'Oh well, I have no other choice but to try.'

Once his preparations were done, Isao opened the D-Maps and double-checked the locations of the ant monsters inside his blood prison.

There were 25 Hantik Knights remaining. The monsters had managed to group up into four different groups, their locations sporadic across the prison.

And even now, they were still trying to meet up with the other ants in order to form a stronger force.

Most dangerous of these groups were the 10 Hantik Knights in the central area, since they had the largest number. Moreover, the leader of these ants was among them, making them even more formidable.

First priority for Isao would be the group in the western area, as they were the next largest and posed a greater threat due to their proximity to the leader's position. They number around eight ants, making them a formidable force if they were to join forces with the eastern group.

'It's best if I take care of the group with the next fewest number of ants next,' Isao thought to himself.

This group was located in the northern area of his blood prison and consisted of four ants. It is also near the leader's location, but not as close as the western group.

And before Isao attacked the leader's position, he decided to eliminate the farthest group in the eastern area. This group was the smallest, with only three ants, and the farthest from the leader's location.

Taking a deep breath, 'Let's do this,' Isao mentally prepared himself for the upcoming battle.

Covertly, Isao made his way towards the western group, carefully avoiding any detection. He made use of the earlier technique he had devised to move silently and swiftly through the blood prison.

At the junction, before reaching the western group, Isao paused to assess the situation. Opening the D-Maps interface, he studied the position of the enemy ants.

They were marching in a disciplined and tight formation, watching each other's backs and moving with precision. Their four legs moved fast, and if they continued at this pace, they would reach the central group in no time.

'I have to make sure they don't regroup with the rest of their comrades!' Isao thought to himself. Casting a quickening Blood Magic spell to boost his own speed, Isao dashed towards the western group of ants.

His steps remained quiet due to the blood beneath him being under his control, allowing him to move swiftly without making a sound.

However, due to some unknown reason, one of the ants seemed to sense his presence and abruptly shrieked, alerting the rest of the group to Isao's presence.

'Ah, I messed up.' Isao cursed under his breath as the ants quickly turned towards him, their menacing mandibles clicking in anticipation.

'The scent glands I crushed must be too much. Instead of masking my presence, it seems to have attracted their attention,' Isao thought frantically. He quickly assessed his options, knowing that he had to act swiftly to avoid being overwhelmed by the approaching swarm.

'I'll have to at least try to prevent them from escaping.' With the D-Maps still open, Isao raised two walls of blood from the ground, one in the central group's direction and the other behind his back.

Thanks to his Parallel Processing and High Speed Processing skills, Isao was able to manipulate the blood wall without his focus being compromised. But he could only have three parallel processes running at once, and the third was already maintaining the blood prison.

Projectiles then started flying towards Isao from the ants, who were now alert to his presence. Isao made a shield of blood to block the incoming projectiles, hunkering down behind it for cover.

But the blood shield would not last long against the onslaught of projectiles from eight Hantik Knights.

As the blood shield started to crack and weaken, Isao knew that his time was running out. 'I wanted to keep my race a secret; however, it seems that I have no choice but to use my Dragonification skill and Drake Iron Wires.'

Isao wanted to hide as much of his side's strength and capabilities as possible, but the situation demanded a drastic measure. At least he was inside his blood prison, so prying eyes from the Chaos and Order factions wouldn't be able to witness his transformation.

Activating his Dragonification skill, Isao felt scales replace his skin, wings and a tail sprouted from his back, and claws extended from his fingertips. Manipulating the blood in his surroundings, he added a layer of crimson armor to his newly transformed body, enhancing his defense even further.

Once Isao had equipped the spool of Drake Iron Wire behind his back, the blood shield protecting him from the ant's relentless attacks shattered into pieces.

Moving out of the way to avoid the projectiles, Isao leapt into the air, but one of the ants' projectiles grazed his right shoulder.

'Wha! It managed to break through my defense!' Luckily, it was only a minor graze and did not cause any serious injury. However, what unrattled Isao more was the realization that even though he had two layers of defense, the ants' projectiles were still able to penetrate through.

'Did I get weaker?' Isao questioned himself, feeling a pang of doubt. Earlier, his blood armor managed to deflect the ants' projectiles without any issue. But now, he couldn't help but wonder if his abilities were diminishing.

Unknown to him, a celestial phenomenon was occurring outside his blood prison. Fel didn't feel the need to inform Isao about it, thinking that it was irrelevant to his current situation.

'Not the time for pondering!' Isao snapped himself out of his thoughts, seeing another hail of projectiles coming towards him.

Discarding his blood armor, Isao used his Blood Magic instead to increase his speed and reflexes and activate his Swift Foot and High Speed Processing skills. The world around him seemed to slow down as he effortlessly dodged the projectiles, his movements becoming a blur.

However, this short burst of increased speed and agility was burning through his mana at a rapid rate. If Isao was without any skills to replenish his mana, he would soon find himself vulnerable and unable to defend against any further attacks.

But he had devour. His unique skill was like a compound of the skills that take skills and recover HP and MP through eating the flesh of defeated enemies. He could also replenish his HP and MP by drinking their blood, but to acquire their skills, he had to consume their flesh.

Pulling the leg of the nearest ant monster, it stumbled. Sending a Drake Iron Wire towards Hantik Knight A, Isao swiftly reeled it back, pulling with Herculean Strength and Blood Magic strengthening his grip. With a powerful yank, it flew towards Isao, crashing into the ground with a thunderous impact.

Opening his mouth wide, Isao used his Devour ability to consume the fallen Hantik Knight. To protect himself from any potential counterattacks, Isao raised a dome of blood around him.

Like a hungry beast, Isao gobbled up the Hantik Knight's flesh, leaving nothing—not even a drop of its blood—behind. Isao felt his HP and MP recover as the life force of the fallen enemy flowed into him.

But it was this notification that he was seeking:

Player Isao acquired the following skills, Hardened Exoskeleton, Limb Weaponification, Telepathy, Coordination, Command, Gun Mastery, Sword Mastery, Flight, Pheromone Generation, and Olfactic Communication.

Error: The Hantik Knight's skills weren't applicable to Player Isao. Executing Skill Modification...

Processing...

Skill Modification Complete.

Hardened Exoskeleton ⇒ Hardened Scales

Limb Weaponification ⇒ Scale Manipulation

Pheromone Generation ⇒ Fear Inducement

Olfactic Communication ⇒ Empathy

'Woah, this is even better than I thought.' By consuming all of the Hantik Knight's corpse, Isao was able to not only recover his HP and MP but also gain the Hantik Knight's skills. He was also able to learn the skills a Hantik Knight possesses.

Not all of them were suitable for his physical characteristics, but luckily, the system was able to modify the skills to better suit Isao's abilities.

Activating his newly acquired Hardened Scales, Isao felt his scales grow thicker and stronger, providing him with enhanced defense against physical attacks. Coupled with enhancing his defense buff with Blood Magic, he felt confident that he could now withstand the Hantik Knights' barrage.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Crack! With blade-shaped limbs, the Hantik Knights attacked Isao's protective dome of blood relentlessly. If this continues, Isao knows that his defense will eventually break.

'Hopefully, my new skills help me defeat them.'

Taking down the blood dome he had created, Isao rushed towards the Hantik Knights, his movements augmented by Swift Foot and Blood Magic. Not letting him get closer, the Hantik Knights swiftly changed their limbs to barrel-shaped protuberances using their Limb Weaponization skill, launching a barrage of projectiles towards Isao.

But with Hardened Scales, Isao's body was able to withstand the onslaught of projectiles, for a short while at least. However, he knew that his defense would not hold forever against the relentless assault of the Hantik Knights.

Suspending a drop of blood near his target, he used it as an anchor, pulling himself with his Drake Iron Wire towards the nearest Hantik Knight. As he closed in, he used his newly acquired Scale Manipulation to create a sword made entirely of his scales.

Due to the Sword Mastery he got from Hantik Knight A, in one swift motion, he expertly sliced through Knight B's armor, severing its head from the rest of its body.

Unruffled, the other Hantik Knights turned to face him, their mandibles clacking menacingly as they prepared to attack.

Without hesitation, he lunged forward, moving from one place to another with his Blood Manipulation skill and Drake Iron Wire. But this time, the Hantik Knights were prepared for his swift movements and quickly adapted their defensive strategies. They tightened their formation, creating a wall of impenetrable armor and overlapping mandibles.

Despite their efforts, Isao remained undeterred. 'If you're going to huddle like that, you're going to make it easier for me to kill you all.'

Bindings made of blood emerged from the ground, wrapping around the Hantik Knights' legs and immobilizing them. And then the walls of the blood prison began to close in, trapping the knights within its crimson embrace. On all sides, the Hantik Knights were surrounded by walls of blood.

Producing poison with his Poison Generation skill, Isao threw a strong paralytic contained in blood at the Hantik Knights, further incapacitating them.

And as a finishing blow, controlling his Drake Iron Wire with Blood Manipulation, Isao made a dome of wires around the trapped knights, constricting tighter with each passing second. Pulling it with his strength, powered by Herculean Strength and Blood Magic, Isao sliced through the knights' armor and flesh, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

The fight had exhausted Isao's mana, so he ate the Hantik Knights with ferocious hunger, replenishing his HP and restoring his MP. He wasn't able to acquire new skills, but that's probably because they all had identical abilities to the ones he already possessed.

Once he was done with his meal, Isao opened his D-Maps to check the locations of the other Hantik Knights in his blood prison.

"Ah, shit. I was trying to prevent it from happening, but the worst-case scenario still occurred," Isao didn't know how they did it, but in the central area of his blood prison, the other Hantik Knights had regrouped with their leader, ready to confront Isao.