God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain lay on the ground unmoving...

Beside him was a 30-square meters crater on the surface of the earth. This crater was formed when he had used his newly learned skill, {Hollow Judgement} on the {Devil-eyed White Primate}.

Broken earth, trees, and mutant beast corpses littered the area around him, but Cain just lay there in silence.

Although his body was idle, his mind was working on overdrive...

'Damn... The drop rates of runes are abysmal!'

The reason he lay unmoving on the ground, was that he was taking his time to go through the gains deposited in his inventory.

Within his inventory lay a few things, such as hundreds of HP and MP regen potions, the mana shards he had obtained, a few water canteens that he used to store the mutant beast blood, his destroyed {Bloody Katana}, and most importantly, a few runes.

Even though he killed more than a thousand mutants, the number of runes he had in his inventory was just a little over 10. What this meant, was that the drop rate of the runes averaged at approximately 1 rune for every 100 mutant beasts killed.

'System, why is the drop rate of these runes so low?' Cain thought about it for a while before deciding to ask the system...

Since he had ordered the system not to confirm with him the price of the information he wanted to purchase, he was answered very quickly.

{Replying to Host: Runes are created from the residual mana when a creature dies, regardless of its race. Be it the human, beast, devil, or even god, there is a certain probability of a rune being created at death}.

{The reason it is so low, is the same reason the drop rate of HP and MP potions are higher. These potions and runes are created with leftover inert essence or ki. This energy is unique to every single race. It is a unique type of mana that can only be used or released under certain conditions.

Creatures with higher inert essence or ki have a higher chance of dropping a rune and HP or MP potion}.

'Ki? So mana can exist in more than one form? Just as I thought!'

{Replying to host: Affirmative. Mana can exist in its raw form, in elemental form, as ki, god ash, and many others}.

'That explains a lot!'

Cain looked at the dark skies pondering deeply on what he had just learned. His mind was filled with the details of all that had happened in just three days.

He had gone from being a high school student to wielding a sword to protect his ass from huge rabid mutant beasts and creepy devils. His life had changed so much in such a short time, but he wasn't bothered a little bit.

He had learned so much as well. He had learned about a whole new source of power. He had gained the ability to perform feats that would have been impossible for any human to achieve. But most importantly, he had matured...

He had faced death more than once, but that had only made his mind and body stronger.

'So what is this ki?'

{Replying to host: Ki is inert essence or just life essence. The creation of runes can only be achieved through the use of ki. The runes you see now that are gotten from these dead mutant beasts are of the lowest of qualities. This is because the quality of the ki used to create them is extremely poor.

Hence the system has to make do with what it has}.

'So it is the system that creates these runes?'

{Replying to host: Affirmative... The system uses what is known as rune manuscripts to draw these runes out into a form that is usable to the host}.

Cain pondered for a while before asking one more question, 'I need all the information on ki I can get!'

{Replying to host: Affirmative... Although Ki is very precious, it is still a form of mana and can be obtained and used through various methods. Ki can be used to draw runes and perform battle techniques amongst many others. The most commonly used way to obtain ki is through ki plunder.

Ki plunder is a technique created for essentially stealing ki. It can only be performed with the aid of a ki plundering technique}.

{It can be stolen from the environment, the corpses of other creatures, vegetation, and so on... However, it cannot be absorbed by inanimate objects. Only mana can be absorbed from both living and nonliving entities.

Ki is also better than mana when activating physical related skills, whereas, mana is more potent when activating spells}.

{However, bear in mind that ki is many times harder to control and gain than mana. The slowest and most tasking way of effectively gaining ki would be stealing it from the environment, which would be through exercise and putting the body under extremely strenuous and taxing conditions}.

{Congratulations to host: You have obtained access to the secret stat, Ki}.

{+1 to all stats}.

{+1000EXP}.

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 24.

Strength: 204.

Agility: 265.

Stamina: 15/111.

Vitality: 49.

Defense: 60.

Control: 4.7.

Perception: 4.6.

HP: 1,372/4,900.

MP: 751/3,500.

Magic: 249.

Ki: 2.

Resistance: Poison- 10%.

Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, *Fear, *Bloodthirsty, Blood Ingestion Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart, Seal, Hollow Judgement, Devil eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked), Sorcerer's Mind.

Free attribute points: 27.

System points: 2,210.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

'Hmmm... The way this system thing was made, only those who ask the right questions will have any benefits.' Cain pondered over the uniqueness of the system. If he didn't ask the questions he did, he would never have known that there was a secret energy he possessed called ki.

'On the other hand, I've become broke again.' Cain let out an irritated grunt when he was that he had lost a very huge chunk of his system points due to curiosity...

'System, Where can I get these Ki plundering skills?'

{Replying to host: Ki plundering skills or techniques are very rare and hard to come across, but the basic Ki plundering technique is the only one available in the store for the host at the moment...}

'Alright then, let's see it!'

Cain scrolled to the bottom of his status screen and opened to store.

{Basic Ki plundering technique}: Absorb Ki from nature inefficiently...

Cost: 100,000 System points.

'Bloody hell...' Cain was taken aback by the price of mere basic-level skill.

'This freaking system is trying to rob me at gunpoint. I guess this is out of my reach for now.' Cain had already begun building some resentment toward the system, but this was the icing on the cake.

{Replying to host: "..."}

'Haaa...' Cain let out a sigh, partially from exhaustion.

There were so many things for him to do, so he had to take them a step at a time, or he would be easily overwhelmed.

Gradually, after lying in the same spot for over five minutes, he stood up.

CRACKLE!!!

The sound of his bones popping back into place made him let out a sigh of comfort as he stretched.

'That felt freaking good!'

Looking down, at the human-shaped hole he had created when he fell from the sky, he let out a chuckle.

That chuckle quickly turned into choking when he saw the deep gorge his {Hollow Judgement} had created. The gorge wasn't too deep or wide, but it was very about 30 meters long.

'Damn... Am I the one who did this?' Cain was bewildered by the fact that he was capable of causing such destruction. {Golden Severance} was deadly, but this skill was on a whole other level.

Looking around, he quickly spotted his target...

Just a few meters from the gorge lay the divided corpse of the {Devil-eyed White Primate}. It stared into the empty sky overhead, its eyes devoid of life. Cain walked over to the beast and gazed down at it.

Its expression was contorted into a hideous snarl, and its eyes were still wide open. It was clear to Cain it hadn't died in peace.

"Hm?" Cain bent down to closely observe the corpse and was surprised to find out that Its previously sparkling eyes had been replaced by a hollow void, become devoid of light and life. It was as though someone had gorged its eyes out cleanly.

There was no injury or damage to the surrounding tissue, but there were no eyes, only empty eye sockets.

Cain quickly recalled the skill he had obtained when he had killed the {Devil-eyed White Primate}. He opened his status screen to search for the prompt that came up when he got the skill.

{Devil eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance}: Gain crystal clear information on everything that happens all around you in a 100-meter radius when the skill is activated. Nothing can escape your sight within this range.

Cost: 30MP and 1 Stamina point per second.

'This skill also burns stamina. Looks like I'll need to find a way to increase my stamina if I want to make good use of this skill.'

These thoughts ran through Cain's head as he stared down at the dead mutant.

'If I had lost, I would have been the one lying dead on the ground.' Cain was grateful to the {Devil-eyed White Primate}. Had it not been for the beast attacking and defeating him, he never would have acquired the sense of urgency he had right now.

'There are is without a doubt, foes just as strong or even stronger than this beast waiting for me out there.

I'll defeat them all.' His conviction was just as strong as the hand he plunged into the chest of the dead {Devil-eyed White Primate}, pulling out a pulsating, warm spatial attribute mana shard.

'Yes! Didn't expect there to be a rare find.' Out of all the monsters Cain had faced, the {Devil-eyed White Primate} was the only one that had the spatial attribute. Which meant he now had just a single spatial attribute mana shard.

'Time for some dirty work, I guess...'

He wiped the blood off his hand with the snow-white fur of the beast. He retrieved a few empty water canteens from his inventory and then set them aside on the ground. He flipped the beast over, and using his blade, he cut the beast's jugular open.

Before the blood could waste away, he quickly place the water canteen beneath the steady stream of blood.

Cain managed to fill two whole canteens before he was sure he wouldn't be able to get any more from the beast. He used the same blade to carve out a few chunks of meat and fur, keeping them in his inventory.

Since the space in his inventory was extremely limited, there was a huge limit to the things he could gather as spoils of battle.

'I have to find a more convenient way of doing this.'

Once Cain was done, he got back to his feet. He took a brief moment to take it all in. The calm and quiet atmosphere, the cold breeze hitting against his cheek, and of course, the very heavy scent of blood, which wasn't pungent in any sense of the word.

A soft smile made its way onto his face for a while...

"The day has just begun..."