For a heartbeat, Kaizer did nothing. He recalled his conversation with Verdana. Somehow he had received another divine blessing. He pondered the conversation, Verdana’s Dao felt heavy, far too heavy for someone like Kaizer to understand, but the one thing he did know was that his Essence Siphon was fucking awesome.
Rot stung his nose when he finally breathed in properly. The Gravebloom’s corpse was collapsing in on itself, the swollen growths shrinking and splitting as their structure failed. Sap and dark fluid leaked down the stone in slow lines. Kaizer kept his spear across his knees and stayed still long enough to confirm the den hadn’t changed. Cold stone under him. Damp air. No pressure. No presence. The contrast mattered. What Verdana had done hadn’t been a dream, but the System had returned him to the exact posture he’d left. That meant the change was inside him, not around him. He didn’t like that kind of change. You could read a monster by its movement. You couldn’t read a god.
Kaizer rose slowly, testing his balance. His body responded without hesitation, but the response felt altered. His centre of gravity was lower. More grounded. When he shifted his weight, the movement carried an unfamiliar certainty, as though his bones had been subtly reinforced while he was not looking.
He stood and shifted his weight from heel to toe, then back again, paying attention to where his balance wanted to settle. His posture corrected without effort. His legs felt steadier, more planted, and his hips sat lower than he remembered. He took a step, then another, then turned in place. No wobble. No hesitation. The movement came out cleaner, and the force through his feet felt more direct, as though his joints were better aligned for leverage. Kaizer rolled his shoulders and flexed his fingers. His body followed instantly. The speed was familiar. The certainty was new. He didn’t need to think about bracing anymore. It happened on instinct.
He lifted his hand and turned it palm up.
The claw retracted smoothly, silver sheen fading beneath fur that now crept farther up his forearm than it had before. When he tilted his head, catching his reflection in a patch of polished stone, he saw it immediately. Along the side of his neck, trailing down over his collarbone and into his shoulder, scales caught the dim light.
They were not crude. Not jagged or monstrous. They lay flat and clean, pale green edged with faint iridescence, visible without being garish. Too deliberate to be mistaken for damage. Too organic to be armour.
Wrong… No, they felt completely natural on him, as though he was always made to have both fur and scale. Kaizer did not flinch. He reached up and brushed his fingers over them. They were warm. Harder than skin, but not rigid. They flexed slightly beneath pressure, responding like living material rather than plating.
He lowered his hand. “I see,” he murmured.
He tested the new pieces one at a time. Kaizer drew one fang down with a small movement of his jaw, then pushed it back into place. The sensation was controlled, not painful, but it made him aware of his mouth in a way he wasn’t used to. He bit the inside of his cheek on purpose, shallow, just enough to draw blood, then waited. The cut sealed quickly. He tapped the scales on his neck with his knuckle. Hard surface, slight give, warm to the touch. Not armour strapped on, not a dead layer. It responded. Kaizer’s expression stayed flat, but his thoughts were sharp. He could work with this. What he couldn’t tolerate was the implied ownership. Blessings came with words like “will” and “voice” for a reason.
He had known something like this was coming the moment the serpent’s essence had touched his core. The moment Essence Siphon had latched on and refused to let go. You did not take from gods without consequence. Even if the System pretended otherwise.
Kaizer exhaled and let his awareness turn inward. The System answered. He did not rush through the windows this time. He read them slowly, carefully, letting each line settle rather than blur past in pursuit of numbers.
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Blessing: Verdana (Divine)
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You walk the path of Verdana. Her will is your will. You will spread her word and become her voice. This divine blessing bestows you with the Scales of Verdana. Her iridescent protection is proof of your connection. As her will grows, so will your blessing.
Passive Effect:
- Scales coat your left shoulder, neck and internal organs. These scales are highly durable and act as living armour. They will help deflect, block or reduce the damage of blows to these areas.
- You speak with Verdana’s will. Reptilian creatures and followers of Verdana are naturally more trusting around you.
Active Effect:
- Once per day, you may activate Verdana’s will. The outer skin on your body is shed, replaced with scales. This will effectively heal all minor wounds, some major and provide you with extremely durable, natural armour for a short time.
Aura Effect:
- Your aura is infused with Verdana’s will. Individuals with blessings are able to sense your divinity.
Only one individual may have a gods Divine Blessing throughout an age (10,000 years). Should you die, the God in question must wait until the end of the age to provide a new Divine Blessing.
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The last line forced him to pause. One per age. Ten thousand years. Kaizer read it twice, then held on the meaning. That wasn’t just power. That was a marker. If anyone in the camp had a blessing of their own, they would sense his aura effect and put the pieces together. If anyone outside the camp had one, the same thing would happen. That would change how people looked at him, how they approached him, what they tried to take from him. Kaizer didn’t have time to manage worship, fear, or politics. Gareth’s structure wouldn’t stop someone with ambition. Elira’s competence wouldn’t matter if the wrong person decided a divine blessing was worth a war. Kaizer’s jaw tightened. He didn’t need another problem. He’d just been handed one.
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Holy fuck were divine blessings strong. Though, Kaizer could see it being a double-edged sword, talking about wills and spreading her word. He hoped he wouldn’t be required to do that. Afterall, he already had a divine blessing from Silver, which come to think of it, he had never actually bothered to check out.
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Blessing: Silver (Divine)
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You walk the path of Silver. His will is your will. You will spread his word and become his voice. This divine blessing bestows you with the Fur of the Chosen and Instinct of the Wolf. His fur will keep you warm at all times, providing natural protection from elemental attacks based on water or ice. His instinct provides you with preternatural combat ability, allowing you to predict attacks based on motion. As his will grows, so will your blessing.
Passive Effect:
- Fur coats your arm and will slowly grow overtime. This fur, while not acting as armour will naturally heat your body. You will gain increasing resistance to cold and water elements, the longer you are in those environments, or combat.
- You are able to predict the flow of combat more precisely than most.
- You speak with Silver’s will. Canine creatures and followers of Silver are naturally more trusting around you.
Active Effect:
- Should you ever lose a limb, you may regrow it instantly… once (applies separately to each major limb).
Aura Effect:
- Your aura is infused with Silver’s will. Individuals with blessings are able to sense your divinity.
Only one individual may have a gods Divine Blessing throughout an age (10,000 years). Should you die, the God in question must wait until the end of the age to provide a new Divine Blessing.
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Silver’s blessing was nice too. It’s no wonder he seemed to be doing better in fights than most. Having preternatural instincts could truly be a blessing. Next was these new fangs he could feel in his mouth. It felt a little uncomfortable, but who was he to complain when receiving almost free skills.
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Skill: Fangs of Verdana (Epic)
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Your canines have been converted into snakes fangs. You are able to expand and contract these at will. Neurotoxin is contained within these fangs, each bite, slowly paralysing your prey.
Passive Effect:
- Canines are now sharpened fangs, able to penetrate most hides and surfaces. These fangs will grow back if damaged or destroyed in a fight.
Active Effect:
- When biting with these fangs, poison is excreted into the target. This poison is a mid-strength neurotoxin, able to slowly paralyse your foes.
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A pretty short and overall apt description. This could be extremely handy in long drawn out fights where he was able to get close to his foes. Close range fighting was clearly his specialty, tooth and claw his bestial weapons, but Kaizer couldn’t bring himself to discard his spear. It felt as though he would be discarding part of his humanity if he chose to get rid of it.
Finally, his Beast Claw skill had upgraded, Kaizer was actually happiest about this. He had used and abused his claws since receiving them and he had no plans to stop now.
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Skill: Claws of Silver (Epic)
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You manifest the natural weapons of beastkind, forming retractable claws along both hands. These claws are a pure extension of your body and also serve to strengthen the bones in your arms for maximum penetrative power. They no longer require essence to maintain, will regrow if broken and are infused with the Will of Silver
Passive Effect:
- While maintaining these claws, you can coat them in essence, increasing the destructive force when slashing or penetrating.
Active Effect:
- Manifested claws possess exceptional sharpness, responding directly to your instinct, intent and essence flow. You can manifest these claws indefinitely and essence will only be consumed upon impact with the target.
The claws will retract automatically upon essence depletion or loss of consciousness.
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There it was. The claws in all their brilliance. Expanding and contracting them no longer felt painful or difficult. In fact, he no longer had human nails on his fingers. The claws had replaced them fully, coming to a stop, right where his human nails would normally be.
Kaizer closed the windows and focused on his core. That was where the real change lay. It no longer felt like a reservoir. It felt like a weight.
Essence circulated more slowly now, but each cycle carried greater pressure, greater density. The energy pressed outward against his channels, not painfully, but insistently, as if the structure itself was testing whether he could contain what he was becoming.
He sat back down and began to circulate.
Kaizer slowed his circulation deliberately and tracked the movement through his channels. Essence didn’t rush anymore. It moved with pressure. Each cycle felt heavier, denser, and it held its shape instead of thinning out at the edges. He adjusted his posture and felt the difference immediately, the flow smoothing when his spine was straight and his shoulders were set. That was a warning and an instruction. He wasn’t just getting more essence. He was being forced towards structure. If the density kept increasing, he would either adapt or crack. Kaizer opened his eyes, checked the timer, and made the decision without ceremony. Five days left meant he would spend five days refining control. Not chasing the biggest fight. Not testing himself for pride. He would hunt what leaked unstable power, what relied on stored reservoirs, and what punished sloppy technique. If the tutorial wanted to shape him, he would shape himself first.
Essence flowed through muscle and bone, across damaged tissue, through the twisted remains of his injured claw. The pain dulled as regeneration took hold, not restoring it fully, but stabilizing it enough that movement no longer threatened further damage.
Kaizer frowned slightly as he cycled again. The flow did not thin. It deepened. Each loop felt heavier than the last, as though the core itself was compressing inward rather than expanding outward. The sensation made something in his instincts tighten. This was not simple growth. This was approach.
Not to a number. To a state. He opened his eyes and glanced at the System timer. Day twenty-five. Five days remained. Kaizer did not think of camps. Or leadership. Or people waiting for him. He thought of monsters.
The forest beyond the den was dense with them now. He could feel it, the way Essence Siphon tugged faintly at his awareness whenever unstable power bled into the world. Ruptures. Wounds. Deaths waiting to happen.
Kaizer stood. “Five days,” he said quietly. That was enough. The days that followed blurred together. Kaizer did not hunt recklessly. He hunted deliberately. He sought creatures that leaked essence when wounded, that relied on reservoirs rather than clean circulation. Monsters that grew arrogant on stored power and collapsed when it was taken from them. He learned to open fights with throwing daggers, coating them in thin layers of essence and watching how the blades struck deeper than they should have.
When enemies bled power, he inhaled. Not greedily. Not desperately. With control. Essence Siphon fed him strength without frenzy. His breathing steadied instead of ragged. His stamina returned faster than it should have. The longer fights went on, the clearer his thoughts became. On the second day, he nearly died.
A Wendigo caught him unaware, claws raking across his back in a strike that would have split him open weeks ago. The blow still hurt. Still drew blood. But the scales along his shoulder and spine absorbed just enough force to keep his organs intact. Kaizer rolled, came up snarling, and killed it slowly. He learned from that fight.
By the third day, he stopped taking hits entirely. By the fourth, he stopped chasing kills and began engineering them. He bled monsters where it hurt them most. He drew fights out when it benefited him and ended them brutally when it did not. He used his spear when reach mattered, his claws when control was required, his fangs only once, experimentally, noting the way poison weakened rather than overwhelmed.
The forest learned him. Predators hesitated. Smaller creatures did not flee immediately. They watched him with tilted heads, uncertain. Kaizer noticed and catalogued the behavior without comment. On the fifth night, he camped alone beneath a broken tree, essence still thick in the air from his last kill. His core throbbed steadily, heavy and compressed, circulation slow but powerful.
He knew something was close. Not a level. A change. His core no longer felt like it could expand much further without consequence. The density pressed inward, testing its boundaries, demanding structure rather than growth. Kaizer lay back and stared at the canopy above him. “Soon,” he murmured, unsure whether he meant the end of the tutorial or whatever came after.
Either way, he would be ready. The world had stopped asking whether he would survive. Now it was asking what shape he would take when it no longer held him back.