Blood Assimilation

Just like the system had mentioned, Randy could feel a sense of closeness with the surrounding mana, and he could now easily circulate the mana in his body.

That was thanks to the nameless meditation technique that he had comprehended the night before, which seemed to enable one to increase their affinity with the supernatural energy, mana.

Most of the time, when one used their innate skill, there was usually no need for one to use any mana circulation when doing so, as either the system end up doing that for you, or more likely it was not necessary for one to even do so in the first place.

Even when Randy used the skills he acquired in this world, he only instinctively followed what his assimilated state brought about after he assimilated with that blonde man's blood. In other words, he did not have to truly understand the cause to bring out the effect of his skills, which means that he still did not fully grasp the method of mana circulation when using his skills even in this new world.

While Randy was pondering these to himself and at the same time observing the changes in his body, he wondered if this mana circulation existed in this world. Up until now, he discovered that their skill acquisition seemed to depend on one realization or enlightenment instead of just using technique books or spell books.

[Ding!]

Sure enough, the challenger's system notification resonated inside his mind and ears when he thought of this possibility.

[The user has utilized a unique method to absorb the surrounding mana into his body and at the same time circulate the gathered mana throughout his body's meridians, thus creating a perfect flow of mana within your body]

[You have met the requirement to obtain the skill, 'Mana Manipulation']

[Mana Manipulation: A skill that most magicians gradually develop as they wield mana to invoke supernatural phenomena. This skill allows the user to easily control the surrounding mana and also your mana aptitude will gradually increase. As the user increases the level of the skill, the effects of skill would be more pronounced]

'A new skill?'

Randy thought as he quickly called out: "Attribute Screen!"

[Name: Randy]

[Species: Human]

[Title(s): Challenger(+1)]

[Occupation: None]

[Level: 55]

[Mana Points: 1299(+100)/1299]

[Health Points: 400(+1100)/400]

[Strength: 40(+110)]

[Endurance: 40(+110)]

[Vitality: 40(+110)]

[Stamina: 39.5(+110)]

[Agility: 30(+110)]

[Perception: 100(+110)]

[Magic Limit: 129.9(+110)]

[Intelligence: 250(+110)]

[Skill(s): Beginner Swordsmanship (LV. MAX), Intermediate Swordsmanship (LV. 1), Sacred Sword (LV. 5), Sacred Enchant (LV. 6), Sacred Aura (LV. 9), Myriad Species Transformation (LV. 1), Absolute Stealth (LV. 1), Body Strengthen (LV. 1), Dimensional Sense (LV. 1), Mana Manipulation (LV.1)]

Randy looked through his attribute screen, and sure enough, there was a new skill listed on the skill section.

'Even so, my attributes are still the same, huh? It doesn't appear that I will be able to assimilate with them soon… Hm?"

At this moment, Randy noticed that there was now a new icon on the right side of his attribute screen that he did recall seeing from his earlier observation.

Randy turned to the very corner of his attribute screen and then observed words on this new icon carefully, which read:

[Skill Points: 5,500]

'When was this here?' Randy wondered.

And without bothering to think, he immediately asked: "Challenger's system, what is this skill points icon? Why didn't I see it before, though?"

[The skill points were the rewards given to the challengers to increase the skill level of any skill of their choosing. However, the total amount of skill points that a challenger could receive was not indefinite, and thus, it was necessary to use these skill points on a skill that the challenger would want to select as their main specialty]

"Oh, is that so." Randy muttered dazedly.

'To think that they even had something like this? Just how easy are this world's power and skill acquisition going to get. Although I think it is not too excessive. Considering that it said the skill points one could receive was not indefinite. Meaning that there's a limited amount of skill points that one could receive in their lifetime. I should carefully think about this matter later.'

'Oh, right!' Randy recalled something else.

"Challenger's system, how long do I have until my acquired attributes disappear?" Randy asked.

[Every attribute gained through leveling needed the challenger to absorb them within seven days using the outside world's time, or else it would become invalid when the duration is over]

"I see… Then I guess I still have enough time to get used to my attributes." Randy nodded in understanding and then turned his attention elsewhere.

Afterward, Randy continued to practice his meditation for a few hours straight all the while attracting the surrounding mana onto his body before carefully absorbing them into his body while following the instruction within the nameless meditation technique.

Not to mention, with the newly acquired skill, 'Mana Manipulation', he was now able to increase the speed at which he absorbs mana into his body before circulating them afterward.

A while later, at this time, after absorbing enough mana into his muscles, bones, and organs to both strengthen and increase his body's affinity, Randy started to absorb the gathered mana into his mana seed to increase his total mana.

When he finish absorbing the mana into his body, he would then repeat the process of gathering the mana into his body all the while circulating the mana throughout his body before gathering it all into his mana seed afterward.

That was to ensure that his body would get used to the mana gathered, and at the same time, he would have more control over the mana before gathering it into the mana seed on his chest area.

After doing this for a while, a sudden notification from the challenger's system flashed inside his mind.

Furthermore, almost as if the challenger's system knew that by ringing in his mind, it would disturb him, this time, it did not ring the notification and only displayed the texts with the new changes in Randy's mind.

[Through circulating the gathered mana within the user's body, the condition of the user's body have been improved drastically, thus enabling some of the attributes to be transferred over without much complication]

[All attributes are slowly being absorbed into the user's body]

After this notification, Randy still remained in his meditative state as he read through the text. But before Randy could ponder about these changes, a sudden notification from the other system flashed within his mind, with lines of text appearing on the golden screen next to the challenger's system's blue screen display.

[[Attention!]]

[[All statistical induction conditions have been met]]

[[All your basic statistics have risen above the first threshold of 400 points, and with that, your first evolution sequence would now commence]]

[[Would you like to initiate the first evolution sequence of your body?]] The system prompted.

'The first evolution?' Randy stopped gathering and circulating his mana and instead pondered these words for a bit before coming to a quick realization shortly after.

'Ah, there was something like that… I completely forgot about this since I have now awakened my innate ability.' While recalling something, Randy inwardly sighed to himself.

Back then, the main reason why Randy had been forcefully training his body to the extreme despite not having any innate ability or energy compatibility had to do with this very evolution that the system had mentioned just now. And just like the name implies, one could evolve their bodies when the necessary conditions were met.

Ever since the era of ability awakening and hunting of otherworldly creatures, many people had gradually discovered that when their body's basic statistics had reached a certain threshold, their physique or simply their bodies would undergo something akin to evolution or awakening of their physical prowess.

Whenever that happened, many people born without talent or with less talent in energy gathering techniques would then develop bodies that would allow their bodies to absorb their compatible energy easily and naturally within their surroundings.

For those with a weak constitution, they would gain robust and durable bodies that would rid them of their weaker bodies, and that was just after their first bodily evolution.

With that discovery, there had been some people who had adamantly risked their lives to increase their physical body statistics in order to at least undergo the first evolution, especially if they did not have innate bodily talents upon their awakening.

That especially was true for those who risk their lives to become hunters since a weaker body would mean certain death when fighting against a dungeon creature, even if they both had the same power level.

To that end, some people used crude methods like using the graviton or the weight rooms to laboriously train their physical bodies, and for others who had money to spend, they readily used specially concocted medicines to forcefully increase their basic statistics.

Naturally, using medicines to increase one's basic statistics had limitations, so one could only take so much of those kinds of medicines before their bodies eventually develop immunity towards them.

Randy was no exception to this either, as he used to take those medicines in tandem with his regular physical training until his immunity towards them built up, and he had no choice but to stop taking them.

However, none of that mattered much if one could, at least, increase their basic statistics closer to the first threshold, which was 400 points in all basic statistics.