Chapter 44: Dark Blood

The fifth skill hung in front of Luke like a whisper from something ancient. The system’s screen pulsed softly in the dim light.

[Dark Blood (Demon)]: Your blood becomes a living, symbiotic organism that feeds on the essence of your enemies. This blackened blood strengthens your body, enhancing your resistance and regeneration. But it is not merely a part of you. It grows. It learns. And one day, it will no longer remain confined to your veins. When that time comes, it can manifest as a second skin if you allow it. An extension of your being. Together, you will become something far greater.

Luke stared at the text in silence. This wasn’t a skill. It was a transformation.

Unlike the other options, Dark Blood didn’t grant immediate strength or utility. It was a seed, one that promised to bloom into something monstrous. And it would grow inside him.

“A living organism… inside my veins.”

He felt a chill crawl up his spine. Not from fear, but from imagining the implications. His biology wouldn’t just change; it would be redefined. This thing would drink his enemies’ essence, mutate, evolve… become something more. And eventually, it would try to escape. Not violently. Not rebelliously. It would ask to be let out. To cover him. To fight with him.

He clenched his fist. Would his blood still be his? Would a single scratch expose the truth? Pitch-black blood leaking from his wounds like a curse etched into his flesh.

No hiding that. No going back from it either.

It was the most powerful choice. No doubt about it. But also the most alien. He’d been circling this decision for an entire day, weighing each option, trying to ignore the quiet hunger in the back of his mind that begged him to choose it, to embrace it.

Now he was tired. Exhausted, both physically and mentally. And still unsure.

With a long, steady breath, Luke closed his eyes.

He didn’t choose. Not yet.

***

“Finally! I don’t believe it!” Allison shouted, his pace quickening as he sprinted ahead. “Lady Skeleton, we made it!”

They’d done it. After days of trudging through frozen death, the two of them, along with Charlie, had reached the edge of the cursed tundra. Luke’s boot sank not into snow, but into solid earth. Grass.

He glanced behind him. The transition was so sharp it looked unnatural. Snow fell from the sky in a continuous curtain, yet refused to pass beyond a certain invisible boundary. As if the storm was being held back by something.

Magic? Tech? A divine barrier?

He didn’t know. And right now, he didn’t care. Because for the first time in days… it wasn’t freezing. The temperature was still cold, but not lethal. Luke could move without feeling the threat of death breathing down his neck with every gust of wind. Trees with living green leaves swayed nearby, birds chirped faintly in the distance. It was surreal.

Allison slid down a low hill toward the treeline, practically stumbling in his excitement.

“You see it, don’t you?” Luke called out behind him, gaze fixed on the structure looming in the distance. “This wall… it’s endless.”

A sheer, towering wall of stone stretched across the landscape as far as the eye could see. No visible gate. No towers. No guards. Just a smooth, seamless barrier reaching skyward until the sun itself became blinding. It reminded Luke of Attack on Titan, if the titans never even got the chance to fight back.

Allison stood at the base of a tree, scanning the branches with wide, hopeful eyes. “No fruit. Nothing edible…”

Luke already knew what that meant. They were out of food. What little he had left was gone by day one. They hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours. Still, they were alive. And for the first time since the tutorial began… they were close.

He stared up at the wall again. Beyond it lay the kingdom. And somewhere inside, the portal that could take them home. But this was far from over.

This was only the beginning.

***

They had been following the wall for hours, hoping to find a gate, an opening, anything that resembled an entrance. But the stone stretched on endlessly, unbroken and indifferent. Instead, what they found was something else.

More trees.

A forest had begun to take shape as they continued, dense enough that the treetops obscured the distant sun. The farther they moved, the more the snow receded. Eventually, the soil beneath their boots turned soft, damp. Something trickled nearby: a faint stream of water.

The three of them followed it cautiously, until it led them to a small recess at the base of the wall. A perfectly carved tunnel.

Water flowed from it in a steady stream, and at its mouth was a set of thick, tightly-crossed bars, both horizontal and vertical, forming an impenetrable grid.

“A sewer drain,” Allison muttered, stepping closer.

“The water looks clean, though,” Luke noted, eyeing the stream.

“Sewers have clean water lines too. Don’t forget that.”

They inspected the metal. Not even a pinky could slip through the gaps. It was sealed tight.

Allison took a breath, gripped his katana with both hands, and swung. The blade rang out with a metallic clang, sending a vibration up his arms, but the bars didn’t so much as bend.

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Luke stepped forward. “That thickness… it’s no joke.”

Princess Charlie raised her massive sword, focused her energy, and activated Heavy Strike. The hit echoed through the tunnel like thunder, but again, nothing.

Luke followed up, slashing with his kukris. No enhancement, no empowered strike, just raw force. The result? Minimal at best.

Then Charlie switched to her fists, activating Iron Fist. Her punches hammered the bars with enough force to make the stone vibrate. Blow after blow, she pounded the metal. The sound echoed deep into the tunnel like a drumbeat of war.

Still nothing. Unmoving. Untouched. Solid as ever.

“This just keeps getting worse,” Allison groaned, stepping back and wiping sweat from his brow.

“There might be another drain,” Luke said. “If there’s one, there could be more.”

They exchanged looks. Then turned their eyes down the wall.

“Only one way to find out,” Allison said, disheartened.

With that, they kept moving.

***

They crouched low in the woods, concealed by the underbrush and shadows. They’d found two more sewer drains along the way, each one locked down just like the first. Unbreakable. Unyielding. But now, something else had caught their attention.

Light.

Flickers of fire in the distance.

At first, they thought they might’ve finally stumbled across survivors. But as they crept closer, the shapes of crude wooden homes came into view. A village, hidden within the forest.