*Click!*
Renatus flips off the building's lights. Walking to the backroom, he picks up a pen and writes down '12:11pm' onto the attendance chart before grabbing his sling bag and exiting through the back door. His graveyard shift is finally over.
Fishing out his phone as he walks, Renatus opens his webnovel app and taps on a featured novel, something random with a bunch of 'S'es in its title. He begins to read, immersing himself into the novel's world. Passing an alleyway, he is too absorbed into the novel to notice frantic footsteps approach him. The footsteps stop just before entering the light of the streetlamp, but a hand reached out and grabs Renatus by his collar, dragging him into the dark.
"What- Urgh!"
Metal pierces into his stomach, cutting through skin and bone. A burning cold sensation spreads through Renatus' chest as he falls to the ground. As crimson red spills onto the ground below him, Renatus turns to look deeper into the alleyway, hoping to find the culprit. He finds nobody.
He falls to the ground, the hand that had dragged him into the dark now missing as is the knife that had pierced through him. With nothing to stop it, blood begins gushing out of his chest, staining the concrete even more. There's nobody around to help him, so he begins crawling. He crawls deeper into the alleyway, situating himself against a wall and behind a dumpster.
'Heh,' he thought, 'I thought this dumpster would smell worse, but I can only smell my blood.'
A wave of nausea sweeps through him, accompanied by his vision momentarily blackening and the cold air irritating his wound.
'Ugh... I hope some adult finds me, instead of a child...'
Then, a blink, and-
*Thud!*
"Urk..!"
The wall behind Renatus is gone, replaced by air and the alley's cold and smooth concrete floor is now replaced by cold, uneven stone. His limp body falls down as his mind slows and vision darkens.
But, though his mind begins to fail, his heart and lungs don't. He breathes and breathes, almost hyperventilating as his heart beats faster and faster, blood gushing out of his stab wound like a waterfall. A blue light surrounds him and seeps into his bloody chest as a dozen little panels appear around him.
●☆●☆●☆●
Renatus wakes up 3 weeks later. Rising into a sitting position, he examines his body. While his work uniform – a mustard yellow and ketchup red polo shirt with black pants – is still bloodied, his wound no longer hurts. In fact, the wound had closed up completely, leaving only a pitch black scar.
"What..?" he mumbled, shoving his hand under the fabric. "Didn't I get stabbed? Where am I?"
Cutting off his thoughts, a transluscent panel appeared in front of him. It resembled the overlays of a video game in dark mode, dark gray with white text.
| Welcome to the Feat System! |
'Huh?'
| To help you survive in this realm, you have been granted the Skill [Shadow Sink] and [Other Form]. |
| As you have already accomplished the Feat 'First Blood', you have been granted the Skill [Dark Tendril]. |
| As you have already accomplished the Feat 'Killing Spree', you have been granted the Skill [Soul Harvest]. |
'W-Wait, what? [Shadow Sink]? What-'
Renatus' thoughts are cut off by the ground beneath him disappearing, letting him fall into the cave's darkness. The moment he is fully submerged, every one of his senses is cut off and replaced by an instinctive knowledge of every shadow nearby. He tries walking forwards, tripping a few times before succeeding, though he could only tell through the knowledge that some shadows had moved closer while others had moved further. Eventually reaching a nearby shadow, he reaches out his hand and touches it. The moment he does, his body is sucked out of the shadows and he finds hinself in a different part of the cave.
'Woah. What the... [Dark Tendril]!'
A black tentacle, unaffected by light, rises from the shadows around him. The tendril follows his hand as he raises it and when he flicks upwards, shoots into the cave's ceiling. He uses [Dark Tendril] again, forming another tentacle, but trying a third time gave no results.
'Guess I can only form two. Then, what about... [Soul Harvest]!'
| There are no targets eligible for [Soul Harvest] in range. |
'Oh. What are the-'
His thoughts are cut off by a thud, followed by footsteps and loud barking. Following the sound, Renatus is led out of the cave, where he spots a pack of four wolves chasing down a child. At least, he looked like a child. Upon closer inspection, the child has the features of a fox. He has fox ears, tail and furry, clawed hands with orange hair.
The wolves look strange as well. They are twice as large as normal and have fully red eyes along with scales running down their side. Their throats glow an eerie yellow, pulsing with every breath.
Two wolves open their mouths, the glow in their throats intensifying, while the other two charged towards the fox-child. Before they could reach the child, however...
'[Dark Tendril]!'
Two black tendrils shoot out from the shadows of a nearby tree, piercing into the wolves' sides and stopping them.
"Awooo!"
The wolves howl in pain, reddish-purple blood spilling out of their wounds. Renatus turns his wrist in a twisting motion. The tendrils follow, wrapping around the wolves. Then, he clenches hus fingers into a fist. The tendrils tighten, crushing the wolves' bones. The fox-child looks around, spotting Renatus' silhouette in the cave's shade.
| [Other Form] has been automatically activated. |
Renatus' uniform bursts into long, black robes that fall past his hands and drag behind him and a dark veil lowers itself onto his face. Looking at his outstretched hand, it has become black with claws replacing his fingertips.
Blasts of light shoot out of the remaining wolves' mouths, aiming at the fox-child. Renatus flicks his hand, but the tendrils are too slow to block the attacks.
'[Shadow Sink]!'
The tendrils change their course, pulling him into a nearby shadow where he falls into the darkness. Another flick, and the child appears behind Renatus. The wolves turn to face the cave, snarling and growling. Their throats begin to glow again, but with a flick of Renatus' wrist, a tendril pierces through their sides and their lifeless corpses fall to the ground.