When I came to, I found myself in yet another dark space. But unlike the previous two which had seemed as if they were from a dream, this time it felt completely real.

I felt around the enclosement I was in, feeling the top bottom and sides. From what I could tell, I was surrounded by tightly compacted dirt on all sides except the top, which seemed to be a rough stone. Trying to free myself, I started pushing on the rock above me.

Starting off kind of slow, I started to push harder and harder. Panic began to build in my chest as the stone would not budge, no matter how hard I tried. Pouring all of my remaining strength into a last ditch effort, the rock still didn’t move.

I fell to the ground, panting, as I tried to focus my thoughts and consider my other options. Unable to come up with anything, I decided to look at the notification I had gotten.

You have been gifted Blood Art: Blood of the Gods, by $%&!&$&!%$!&.

Blood Art: Blood of the Gods (2/7) 1. Blood Explosion, 2. Blood Needle

Blood Explosion: First skill in Blood Art, Blood of the Gods. Using the blood of enemies or your own, combust blood in a powerful explosion, spreading outwards from your body. Be aware that blood must be in contact with you. Blood not in contact will travel towards you, speed of travel and area of blood affected increases with skill level.

Blood Needle: Second Skill in Blood Art, Blood of the Gods. Using the blood of enemies or your own, condense blood into a needle, firing it at your opponent with incredibly deadly speed and sharpness. Be aware that blood must be in contact with you. Blood not in contact will travel towards you, speed of travel and area of blood affected increases with skill level.

“Damn,” I said audibly. I couldn’t help but think about how cool both of those skills sounded. Unfortunately, I was still stuck under this rock, and I wasn’t so sure of using my own blood to create an explosion.

I was left with my other skills, which all sounded quite strange, as well as not having any idea how they work. Of all the previous skills I had gotten, only Madness, Tear in Reality, and Blessing of the Outer Gods were active skills.

I completely ruled out Madness, I couldn’t afford to lose my mind in a situation like this. As for Tear in Reality, some sort of instinct told me that I wasn’t able to use it without a weapon. That left me with Blessing of the Outer Gods, and since I had no weapon, the only option available was to use it on myself.

Taking a deep breath, I instinctually activated the skill within me. At that moment, something changed. A blue bar popped up in my vision, and much like notifications, I could see a vague outline of it. When I focused on it, the bar grew larger and character appeared above it.

Mana: 900/1000

I had no way of knowing whether my mana amount was considered to be anything impressive, but the skill had obviously been activated from my missing mana. I didn’t notice anything different about myself, but looking down gave me a shock. The skin on my arms had become rotten, with tendrils of black seeping down towards my hands, which were completely engulfed by the sludge.

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As frightened as I was by the sudden appearance of the sludge, nothing felt wrong. My hands felt completely normal, almost as if the sludge was a part of my own body. I knew that this must have been the skill I activated. Knowing that it was my only chance to get out of here, I thought over how I was supposed to use the skill.

Not able to come up with anything, I tried pushing on the stone again. Still, nothing happened. In a moment of anger, I struck upwards at the stone. Tendrils of the black sludge rapidly extended from my hand, smashing into the stone with enough power to shatter it. Bits and shards of the rock rained down onto me, leaving nasty gashes in several places.

Climbing out of the pit, I smiled at the sunlight shining down on me and the wind brushing against my face. It had been too long since I felt this type of sensation. Trying to get my bearings, I looked at my surroundings. It seemed I was in some kind of graveyard mixed with a beautiful garden.

I heard a scraping noise behind me and quickly turned to face it. There was a tall middle-aged man, standing next to a crying girl. They were clearly paying respects to the grave nearest mine, but what surprised me was that the scraping noise from earlier had been the man drawing his sword. Unable to understand why he drew his weapon, I walked towards them while trying to explain. “Sorry about the little commotion I caused over there. I was uhh… trapped in the grave and had no other way to get out.”

I was never very good at communicating, and realizing how strange I sounded, I stopped advancing towards them. The man didn’t reply to me, merely standing there with a white-knuckled grip on his sword as the girl trembled, a look of fear on her face. Knowing that something must have been wrong, I started to back away. All of a sudden the man lunged at me, with a speed so fast all I could make out was a blur.

Instinctively, I raised my hands to protect myself, but instead of hands, I saw giant black tendrils, forming somewhat of a shield in front of me. I felt a sharp pain in my arms as the sword cut into the tendrils, piercing nearly half of the way through before losing momentum. The tendrils swiftly swept to the side, wrenching the sword from the man’s grip and throwing it away.

The man faltered, unsure of what had happened. Knowing that this was my best chance, I reached my hand out in the direction of the girl. The tendrils of black stretched, grabbing ahold of the girl. Without a weapon, the man could do nothing as I held the girl hostage. “Move and I’ll kill her,” I said, as intimidating as I could muster. There was obviously no way that I could bring myself to kill the girl my age, but the man didn’t know that.

He stood there, clenching his fist as frustration and rage was clear on his face. Gritting his teeth, he finally spoke to me. “What the hell do you want?” We were finally getting somewhere. I replied, “Just let me go, I don’t want anymore trouble.” “Fine.” The man said, growling through his teeth. I didn’t trust him enough to just let the girl go. Making up my mind, I willed the tendrils to throw the girl.

As she flew into the air, the man quickly rushed to catch her. Immediately, I sprinted away as fast as my legs would take me, the black tendrils retracting back to my hands. I had no idea where I was going, but I must have ran for several minutes at full tilt. A notification flashed across my vision, but this time I had no way to ignore it, as if I was required to read it.

Warning: Due to your body’s inability to handle a skill, you will suffer from extreme backlash. You will only receive this warning once.

The moment I had finished reading the message, I felt an agonizing pain throughout my body, especially in my hands. I quickly blacked out, not even able to process everything that had just happened.

When I awoke, the moon hung in the sky. I must have been out for several hours, luckily that man didn’t find me. I saw lights and heard faint noises through the trees. Hoping that it was some kind of civilization, I started to approach the lights. I came within a hundred feet of the edge of the forest, and could clearly make out that it was some kind of town.

Just before I stepped out of the trees and revealed myself, I had a realization. That man had attacked me for no reason and the girl was clearly terrified of me. Hearing the sound of running water nearby, I quickly ran over to find a stream, and for the first in a while, I took a good look at myself.

Frozen still, I stared terrified back at what I assumed to be my reflection. I knew why that man had attacked me and why the girl seemed so terrified.

I was… a monster.