Chapter 9 – First Blood

After flying for a while, Mark stopped over an area.

His eyes were locked on the ground, watching the ripples in the sand with a mix of fascination and disgust.

Sand Worms.

In the game, Sand Worms were just 3D models with brown textures and looping “up and down” animations. There, they looked almost clean, made of polygons that vanished in a flash of light when defeated while invading the Ziggurat.

Reality didn’t know graphical limits.

It was the difference between seeing a photo of an accident and standing in the middle of the wreckage.

The realism of that world was a double-edged blade; the beauty of the landscapes was balanced by the nauseating rawness of wildlife.

One sand worm had half of its massive body exposed, its mouth wide as it tried to snap at Mark in midair. The creature’s skin was a wet, segmented carapace, gleaming with a grayish, viscous secretion meant to let it slide between grains of sand.

Its jaws were an orifice of exposed muscular layers, drooling milky mucus that dripped onto the sand with an acidic hiss.

Every movement made the shell creak with a sound like bone scraping against stone.

Mark could see tiny land parasites scurrying through the gaps in the chitin and smelled the stench of rotten flesh mixed with damp earth rising toward him.

“This is… disgusting.” Mark narrowed his eyes, feeling his stomach lurch slightly.

Fortunately, Vaelin suppressed his human revulsion. When he looked again at the worms, they didn’t seem so repulsive anymore.

Now they looked like… targets.

Without overthinking it, it was time to test his strength in practice. He wanted to feel the real impact of his abilities without the safety net of a game interface.

Because, for the first time since waking in that world, he didn’t need to hold back.

The vast stretch of sand was his testing ground, and the worms were perfect training dummies.

…

“[Mana Barrier].” Mark whispered, feeling a light pulse of energy spread across his skin.

This was one of the abilities that didn’t require a class to use.

It created an invisible film of neutral energy around the body, serving as basic defense against physical and magical damage, consuming only Mana in the process.

“[Sanguine Core Acceleration].” He activated a reinforcement skill, feeling a warm sensation bloom inside.

The skill worked by optimizing blood flow, drastically increasing reaction time and muscular strength.

Not that Mark needed it, but he was curious to push his abilities to the limit.

At that moment.

Below him, the desert seemed to come alive.

The gray sand swelled and burst in a cascade of dust and debris.

Another colossal Sand Worm erupted upward, throwing half its chitinous body out like a pillar of dark flesh.

Its circular jaws, lined with teeth like jagged stalactites, spread in a silent roar as the beast tried to reach Mark in the air.

The leap was powerful. Its many-meter-long body closed the distance between them, nearly reaching him—but not quite enough.

Mark watched the jaws snap shut on empty space just meters from his boots and extended his index finger with disdain.

“[Blood Bolt].”

Mark activated a skill. It was a basic precision attack, a rotating projectile of Blood Essence meant to deal simple piercing damage.

The crimson dart fired, breaking the sound barrier with a sharp crack.

BOOM!

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It struck the worm’s head and not only pierced the chitin, but blasted straight through the creature’s body, leaving a smoking hole as yellow, viscous fluid gushed out.

Insect blood painted the dunes as the worm collapsed like a giant, dead before it even hit the ground.

‘Wasn’t that too strong?’

Mark had expected the attack to merely test the density of the monster’s shell, but the result was excessive.

Even the lowest tier of his abilities felt lethal against local monsters.

The ground trembled.

As if answering the chaos, another silhouette—larger than the last—began tearing through the surface of the sand, drawn by the scent of the first creature’s fluids.

Mark narrowed his eyes, feeling the energy in his chest surge.

“Raising the output then… [Sanguine Spear: Impalement]!”

Unlike the previous projectile, this was structural manipulation magic, using Blood Essence shaped by a Mana framework.

It didn’t just pierce—it expanded after contact, ignoring internal biological defenses to destroy the target from the inside out.

The dark crimson spear began forming before his finger, vibrating with power that made the air around Mark feel heavy.

“Take this.” He flicked his finger.

SWOOOOSH!

The spear shot out like lightning.

The second worm didn’t even have time to close its jaws. The spear struck straight into the center of its open maw, and in the next millisecond, the “Impalement” property activated.

Mark clenched his fist in the air, and the spear, already inside the monster’s entrails, branched into dozens of transversal spikes that burst through the shell as if the worm had swallowed a metal porcupine.

THUMP!

The sound was muffled—a wet noise of flesh tearing and chitin shattering.

Carried midair by its own momentum, the worm hung suspended for an instant before turning into a grotesque mass of spikes and yellow fluid.

The remains crashed to the ground near its first companion.