Back to the present. Vain was sore all over his body from the training, but the hunger building up in his belly could suppress all the pain he was currently feeling, so he decided to struggle on to his feet and start looking for some food. Once Vain was on his two feet, he slowly walked to the edge of the clearing in the woods and started scouting for his next meal. Shortly after, Vain noticed a large lump on a rotting tree that was about three hundred meters away. Curiosity struck his mind so Vain did what Vain now does best. He pulled the black cloak Uncle Ale made for him off and put it to the side and used camouflage. Vain slowly crept forward not stepping on any twigs or fallen leaves, not making a single sound. Two hundred meters, one hundred meters, fifty meters. Finally, Vain could make out the lump he saw on the rotting tree and he was immediately disgusted. The lump was half a meter long, a pinkish pale color, and looked like it was convulsing. From the fleshy lump, little hair like tentacles could be seen stretching out from the center of the mass of flesh and puncturing into the tree and ground alike. The flesh lumps hairs that were penetrating the ground and tree alike looked like they were draining the life out of the ground and tree directly absorbing their energy with each convulsion. Not daring to keep observing this scene, Vain smoothly retreated back to the clearing and told Uncle Ale about his observation. Uncle Ale had an extremely serious look on his face as he said "Show me." Vain did as he was told, he retraced his steps and took Uncle Ale back to where he saw the pile of bulbous flesh. "Not good." Uncle Ale said dourly. "Whats not good?" Vain asked curiously. Uncle Ale - "Well... I guess you'll find out in those books im about to give you. Also, If you see anything that looks like this leave immediately." Vain nodded and agreed with Uncle Ale's words. "Lastly, stay at the cabin from now on. We'll finish your training from there." Vain agreed and nodded his head again. Vain's stomach suddenly roared in dissatisfaction acting as a perfect queue to get a move on back to the cabin and he did just that. Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and two more years passed. Vain was now Bone Conditioning Rank seven, twelve years old and completely updated on all of the Rem continents geography, laws, regulations, and the common humanoid races. Uncle Ale didnt think it would be necessary to learn about customs and the larger clans since Vain would be staying in the woods, but besides that, Vain's knowledge was completely updated and he was no doubt more knowledgeable than most people at this point when it came to just about everything else. However, Vain's mood kept getting worse and worse the more he read about his local situation. It turns out that there were seven forbidden zones in the Rem Continent and he just happened to be living in one. That's right. He was living in a forbidden zone. Through the knowledge he got from Uncle Ale and the books Vain has read over the past two years he figured out that he was situated in a forbidden zone called the Pallid Rotwood. Pallid Rotwood is a forrest with an unknown blight that stretches across a distance of two thousand kilometers. The outskirts of the forrest aren't affected heavily by the blight, but over the years it has been constantly spreading, chasing out many creatures and destroying many human villages in the process. Learning this, Vain asked Uncle Ale why he decided to live inside the forrest and Uncle Ale gave a simple answer, "To hide." Vain didnt want to know what his almighty Uncle was afraid of so he didnt dare ask. Meanwhile, while Vain was absorbing as much knowledge as he could, Uncle Ale was preparing to leave. In the midst of Uncle Ale packing his things, he noticed a round, unpolished gem in the corner of his room. The clear gem gave off a slight bluish sheen that seemed to scan its surroundings from time to time. This was a memory crystal Uncle Ale had been keeping. Using this crystal, he had been keeping track of Vain's growth and taking in certain memories with the boy. Using certain methods the crystal could scan the surrounding energy and freeze the image the energy depicted inside of it. Uncle Ale picked up the memory crystal, looked at it fondly, and put it in his pocket. Uncle Ale walked out of his room and saw Vain reading at a desk diligently and smiled. Uncle Ale went into the kitchen and started preparing the last feast that Vain and him would enjoy. About an hour later, Uncle Ale called Vain over to the table and Vain happily obliged. What awaited Vain was his favorite fish, the Striped Frog Fin fish, and a mountain of fruits and vegetables. The Striped Frog Fin fish wasn't exactly delicious nor was it easy to prepare, but it was ordinary and easy to catch. The reason Vain liked it so much is just that, it was the first fish Vain caught after Uncle Ale taught him how to fish. Uncle Ale teaching Vain how to fish is Vain's most fond memory in both lives. It was the first time anyone ever went out of the way to teach him something out of good will. He struggled to learn at first, but Uncle Ale was patient and taught him how to fish over and over again. It was something Vain will never forget. After finishing the Striped Frog Fin fish and all the fruits and vegetables, Vain felt that his stomach was going to explode. He ate way too much, but enjoyed every bite of it. Seeing Vain's pained but satisfied expression, Uncle Ale was very content and smiled at Vain silently. The room was silent but there was no awkwardness, it was very comfortable. After a few minutes, Uncle Ale brought his departure up just to clarify everything and to make sure Vain understood everything clearly. "I'll be gone for about five years. I'm going to the central region to take care of some business. You dont have to worry about the blight spreading here. It will take the blight tens, if not another hundred years to reach here. If there's an emergency while I'm gone, leave the forest and head to the east, after about ninety kilometers you'll find a small town called Wysteria." Vain nodded and understood completely. He wasnt worried about the blight anyways because he figured he could just expel it out of his blood. Uncle Ale saw that Vain was calm and didnt bring up the matter of his departure anymore. The conversation ended, Uncle Ale cleaned up the table and then both of them went to their rooms. The next morning after breakfast, Uncle Ale and Vain were outside of the cabin and this time the mood was very subtle. Now that is was finally time for Uncle Ale to leave, Vain was completely agitated about his departure, but he tried to hide it. Uncle Ale could see Vain's struggle and he apologized to Vain for having to leave without him, but the things he had to do were just too dangerous. He didnt dare bring attention to Vain yet. "Listen buddy, I'll only be gone for five years. What's five years in the scheme of things... You're grown up now and know how to take care of yourself... Ok ok, I'm terrible at this but you get what im saying." Uncle Ale ruffled Vain's short hair and pulled out the memory crystal capturing this moment. "Uncle Ale?" Vain said. Uncle Ale - "What is it buddy?" Vain - "Stay safe please." Uncle Ale's heart trembled and his throat tightened up making it difficult for him to respond. "Of course haha, you know how strong I am." Uncle Ale said cooly not wanting Vain to have any worry about him. Uncle Ale ruffled Vain's hair again and gave him a vial that had blood in it as a temporary farewell gift. "What is this?" Vain asked with a puzzled expression. "Some blood from a strong monster I got for you. Make sure to absorb it. It should help a little bit." Vain thanked Uncle Ale as looks of sincerity appeared in both of their gazes. As the conversation ended, both of them gave their goodbyes again. Over the years they both gained a mutual understanding and no more words needed to be said. That being said, Uncle Ale departed from the cabin, leaving the Pallid Rotwood forest. Vain sighed, but he was not depressed. Agitated, but not sad or depressed. Instead, he became motivated. Vain wanted to grow leaps and bounds in the next five years so he could show off to Uncle Ale the when he came home to the cabin. Vain cleared his mind, looked at the vial in his hand that Uncle Ale gave him as a parting gift and cracked the lid to absorb the blood.
Vain started to absorb the blood from the vial and felt his entire body shake violently. The feeling he got from the blood was like a dam of pure bliss just raptured and let all of the pleasure and dopamine in the world flood into his entire body. Vain couldnt help but tremble and let out a few soft moans of joy. This time, absorbing the blood felt so good that Vain felt his conscience fading from the process, right as Vain was passing out he heard a voice in his head say "Rank three..." Then his vision blurred and he passed out cold on the grass outside of the cabin. Time passed and Vain woke up. Vain was waking up slowly but then he felt a tickle on his foot from the grass and he immediately remembered where he was and what happened. Vain shot up like a bamboo shoot during spring and scanned his surroundings immediately. Not seeing anything out of place, Vain heaved a sigh of relief and tried to get back on his two feet, only to push to hard and fall back onto the ground. "Huh?" Vain was utterly confused and tried to get up again. This time, he got up slower but still felt something off. "Whats wrong with me?" Vain didnt think anything was wrong with him, but he couldnt get his balance right after passing out. He sat back down and started to feel his body inside and out with his blood. After just a short moment, his jaw almost touched the grass, he was ecstatic, bewildered, and grateful all at the same time. His body had gotten much stronger and he was now Rank four in the Organ Conditioning Realm. "Just what did Uncle Ale give me?" After finally studying the world for the last two years, Vain knew that after bone conditioning there was organ conditioning, then spirit refinement, and then Kingsfield. To jump from bone conditioning rank seven to organ conditioning rank four at once was no small feat, if he told anyone they simply wouldn't believe him. Letting out a few small laughs, Vain got off the ground and started to adjust to his new strength. After a few hours, Vain had completely adjusted to his new strength. He was now extremely eager to go out and test his new found strength. Vain wanting to find a few opponents, left the cabin after packing a bag with all of the essentials : healing ointment, fishing bait, and bandages. He didnt really need anything else. Vain never got sick, never got an infection, and never needed to worry about poison, so all in all, he didn't need to pack much for a short trip. After traveling around thirty kilometers, Vain found his first target, a Rank five Bone Conditioning Mud Sludge. This creature looks exactly like its name suggests . Its a pile of living mud that only God knows what its made of. The creature has a low intelligence and will try to eat anything living thing that it comes across even if its stronger than them. This causes the species to be extremely rare. However, even though the species is extremely rare, its still next to worthless. The only way to kill the mud sludge is to destroy its core. The problem being that the only valuable part of the mud sludge is its core. This made the mud sludge a completely worthless creature to hunt, but Vain didn't care about that right now. Using camouflage, Vain got within forty meters of the mud monster and prepared to use a condensed bloody needle to kill it in one hit. One minute passed, two minutes passed, finally after five minutes Vain found an opening and took full use of it. Right when the mud sludge looked up and the core was exposed:
*crrk crrk tink* A sound like glass breaking and earth crumbling sounded together as the core exploded causing the mud around it to fall into the ground. The mud sludge was completely dead. "Hahaha" Vain let out a very satisfied laugh. His new strength was leaps and bounds more powerful than what is was previously. But his happiness and arrogance quickly faded as he remembered almost being killed by the Mutated rabbit, almost being eaten by the Round Ear Wolf, and almost being killed by the Mutated Froblin. There were far too many close calls for Vain to be content with his current strength. He didnt want anything like that to happen ever again. Thinking about this, Vain picked up the shattered mud sludge core and started moving on deeper into the forest. Just like that, bloodless corpses fell to the ground, day after day. Two months passed. Vain had been going on a rampage in the Pallid Rotwood forest for the last two months. Because of Vain's massacre, he was now Organ Conditioning Rank six. On this day, Vain was continuing his onslaught of the forest creatures. After becoming stronger, the furthest outskirts of the forest were no longer beneficial to Vain so he started heading inwards in search of stronger foes, but not too strong. Vain was still weary of danger so he only fought enemies that he was sure he could defeat without a hitch. Doing this made his progression slightly slower, but it was the safest option and besides, his gains throughout these two years were massive. He didn't get a new blood essence but he acquired a new innate ability called Leaf Tendrils. One day while Vain was fishing in the river further in the forbidden forest, something massive took his line and almost pulled Vain into the river, once he got close to the edge of the river bank, a bunch of tree like tendrils came out of the river trying to catch Vain instead. Vain was caught off guard but not worried. Using devastating leap, he quickly pulled away from the tendrils causing the creature to come out of the river due to frustration. Vain had a tough fight with the creature and ended up winning but came out terrified. After absorbing whatever the creature had for blood, Vain heard the voice in his head say "Blight blood mutation 5%"
Vain had no clue what it meant but he had a guess, and this guess was terrifying. Vain figured that if the percentage rate reached one hundred percent, he would become a blighted monster. Apparently, according to Uncle Ale, the Pallid Rotwood blight was extremely contagious, deadly, and evil in nature. The blight would infect all living things: plants and creatures alike, causing their insides and flesh to slowly rot, but It would not kill them. The blight would keep all the things it infected alive, causing them to lose their minds and wander around aimlessly hoping to further spread the blight. Thankfully after this encounter, Vain didnt encounter any other creatures infected with the blight.