Chapter 170 - Comprehension
Seeing how Frer's curved longsword slashed at him, Shane's thoughts were in a mess when a single thought overwhelmed all others after he noticed that Frer's eyes were cold and distant.
This indicated to Shane that she not only had switched off several emotions but that Frer was serious in showing him how serious bloodlust could become if he were to be distracted for too long.
Suddenly, he felt as if death was approaching him, which caused the thought that overwhelmed all others to explode within him.
'I don't want to lose!'
According to his uncles, aunts, and even his father, losing meant that he would most likely die, and Shane didn't want to die once more after having finally found something he liked to do.
He loved to venture through the Primordial Dimensions, and be free of responsibilities!
Shane's mana erupted from within, enveloping him in a single moment, as he injected mana inside his curved longsword to deflect Frer's slash.
Once the two curved longswords clashed upon each other, Shane was forcefully pushed back by the terrifying impact that almost caused his hand to go numb.
Gritting his teeth, he started to circulate mana throughout his whole body while he circulated most mana through his arm to further strengthen it.
However, the impact was still strong enough to force him to retreat several more steps before he could barely avert the trajectory of Frer's curved longsword.
This single clash was already enough for Shane's finger to go numb, and it became even worse when the clang of the swords filled the surroundings for the second time after Frer's bloodlust-killing-intent erupted.
When that happened, Shane was distracted for a millisecond, which was enough for Frer to appear next to him, and punch him in the side.
Pushed away by the punch, Shane lost his firm grasp around the curved longsword as Frer closely followed Shane to slash at him, who could only think
"I don't want to lose….I don't want to die!!!"
With this thought, he subconsciously transferred some of his world seed's mana into his mana pool, filling it completely as his mana erupted at once, in a single direction, targeting Frer's hand which was forcefully pushed away.
This changed the trajectory of her slash, giving Shane barely enough time to summon his dagger-set.
Releasing his killing intent subconsciously, he didn't even notice that a faint, almost invisible red gleam could be seen within it as he was about to charge at Frer.
However, before he could even do anything, the tense atmosphere receded as Frer's bloodlust-killing-intent dissolved.
Her eyes returned back to her normal shy self too, and Shane could barely halt his steps in front of Frer avoiding bumping into her by a hair's length.
Frer retreated several steps to hide her embarrassment as she smiled lightly at Shane
"Did you sense that?"
"Huh?" Shane was still confused, still thinking that Frer had probably tricked him as he heard her words.
He couldn't say what he should have sensed, and the only thing he knew was that he didn't want to lose to her and die.
It was only then that he recalled having an unusual feeling during his counterattack.
'What was that sensation? It felt like I became slightly faster for a short moment...was that merely a feeling or did I really accelerate?'
Not being able to find an answer, he could only sigh and ask Frer, who told him that his speed had indeed increased for a short moment.
Furthermore, she also told him that he had released an incomplete, minuscule bloodlust, which astonished Shane a lot.
'This feeling was bloodlust?' He concluded in confusion as Frer asked him what exactly he felt
"How exactly did you feel? Was it more like 'I will die!' or 'I don't want to die!'"
Hearing her question, Shane thought that Frer had already planned this out before and maybe that she herself had learned it that way.
"I don't want to lose and I don't want to die, were my thoughts to be precise."
Chuckling lightly at Shane's answer, Frer couldn't help but say
"You don't like to lose, huh?"
However, instead of a light answer like "Yes", or "nobody wants to lose", Shane's expression turned serious and even slightly cold as he said
"I was told that those who lose, are the first to die!"
Frer stopped chuckling almost immediately and goosebumps appeared on her skin for a short moment, when she saw Shane's expression which couldn't be more serious
'Who the hell taught you something like that??'
Clearing her throat, she tried to ease the atmosphere that seemed to tense up.
"That might be right in some dangerous situations, but you can't be the best and always emerge victorious…"
Shane's expression was still as serious as earlier when he said
"I can and will, if I work only hard enough, as long as I desire it!"
Squinting her eyes, Frer didn't know what to think about Shane who seemed to be even weirder than her or even Aisha.
With a weird smile on her lips, she walked a few meters away from Shane before saying
"At least you now know one of your desires….You don't want to lose out to anyone...I guess?"
Shane thought about that, and could only nod his head, agreeing to her assumption.
Suddenly, as if a small barrier was broken, his mind was flooded with similar experiences and other things he didn't want to happen ever again.
One of the most apparent thoughts in his mind was something that didn't happen a long time ago.
It was his blessing's notification when he was soul binding the world seed!
[[Artemis' Blessing] activated, Host's desire to be his own ruler and retain his freedom (...)]
With the notification visualized in his mind, a radiant smile emerged on his face as he mumbled
"Freedom and being my own ruler?"
However, that was not everything, when he remembered the time he fought against the late-Elite stage elemental subterra centipede that was stronger than him by a few levels.
Not only had he felt the excitement to have entered the elemental crystal cave but also to have encountered a stronger beast that he had been able to fight alone.
The Primordial Dimensions were unique and adding the existence of millions of unique races, Shane couldn't help but feel his desire to adventure through the dimensions and get to know other intelligent races.
Only now, after Shane received a small push towards the right direction, did he finally realize his desires.
They were more than he initially expected to have, which was good and bad at the same time as it might allow his bloodlust to become profound and unique, while on the other side it could limit him if a single desire were to lose its meaning to him.
Nevertheless, this didn't mean that he would let himself be bogged down by something like this.
If he were to summarize his desires, they would turn into two smaller desires and one gigantic theme that included almost all of his desires in one word.
The two smaller desires were his excitement to fight stronger enemies and defeat them with all his might, and not to back off against them, and his will to never lose against anyone if he desperately wanted to win!
Both of these desires were rather feeble and in Shane's opinion he wouldn't fight against someone several stages above him, only to be killed within the blink of an eye, while his definition of losing might be different to others.
If he were to lose at something he wanted to win, he wouldn't feel discouraged but rather work on himself so that something like that would never happen again!
As such, he could lose if it was not a matter of life and death, as long as he had scope for improvement.
With that in mind, Shane thought that it might be bad for him to use them as his foundation to establish a bloodlust.
However, there was already a large theme in his mind that perfectly suited most of his desires.
'Freedom!'
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