What was a Limb Grafting Ritual?
David had no clue. The scattered memory fragments he'd slowly been recovering didn't include this kind of knowledge, but he figured this was his only chance to save himself.
Rumble...
After choosing "Yes," that dark red suspicious arm suddenly burst out a wave of information flooding into his brain. The impact on his soul made him dizzy again, and the next moment, the arm vanished from his hand...
It seemed to have entered his body!
[Limb Grafting Ritual complete. Acquired arm: Hand of Divine Corpse]
[Hand of Divine Corpse I: Requires variable amounts of psychic energy or life energy to activate.]
David looked at his hand in surprise and saw this new ability appear on his panel.
"Hand of Divine Corpse... I see."
He murmured, raising his palm. He quickly learned how to use this thing from the information that had just flooded his brain. It didn't seem to be the kind of "limb grafting" he'd understood...
By now, the monster had reached the collapsed noble young master. Its fangs spewed foul breath right in his face, and its huge shadow loomed over David on the ground.
The monster figured this human had completely lost the will to survive. Excitedly, it reached out its sharp claws toward this lamb ready for slaughter.
Suddenly, it froze, couldn't help but blink, wanting to confirm if it was seeing things.
Because it saw a massive red arm suddenly extend from that lamb's back!
Before the monster could react, its head was gripped by that palm covered in dark red patterns.
David stared blankly at the scene. He squeezed his palm lightly—splat!
The monster's head exploded instantly!
Its massive body crashed backward with a thud. But David felt no joy at killing the enemy, because at the same moment that arm crushed his opponent, his heart also jolted violently, and intense pain and weakness hit him.
Only then did he notice there were two other bars with numbers on his panel:
[Life Energy: 20/120]
[Psychic Energy: 0/100]
That psychic energy bar had been drained the instant the arm activated. Then, the life energy bar also plummeted, finally stopping at just 20 points.
This left David feeling like his whole body was in agonizing collapse. He had no injuries, but right now, he felt like even a kid kicking him could send him straight to his next reincarnation.
"So that 'life energy' is basically like a 'health bar'—if it runs out, I'll die instantly!"
This wasn't something normal people could have. That flood of information told him he'd become a type of supernatural being in this world through some weird ritual...
Only, he was a supernatural being about to die.
Yeah, this world had mysterious powers, but touching the mysterious often meant paying a price.
Any ritual of unknown origin was strictly banned by the Church, because even if the ritual succeeded, you didn't know what horrifying thing you'd attract.
Now, David was getting a taste of it—billowing black smoke appeared from the surrounding void, slowly condensing on him into a disgusting, indescribable phantom shape.
It looked like a blob of mud wrapped in a tattered black cloak. Its head had only one mouth like an abyssal swamp, constantly roaring with the unique hunger of the starving.
Hungry... hungry... eternally hungry!
David himself felt the maddening hunger too. That endless torment would haunt him for the rest of his life from this moment on!
[Ritual Evil Spirit Possession: Devourer]
This was the "price" he'd attracted by performing the Limb Grafting Ritual!
Making things worse, that hungry evil spirit seemed to want to completely devour his remaining life energy because of David's weakness and its own appetite!
Its phantom, disgusting maw latched onto David's back, constantly sucking at something. Each time it moved, David's life value dropped by 1 point...
"Damn it!"
David was going crazy. He'd just barely escaped death, and now he had to die a different way and reincarnate again!
Watching his health bar drop bit by bit, his breathing became more and more rapid, more and more powerless... Even as death approached, that terrible hunger still clung to him, making his eyes turn red, pushing him to the edge of losing his sanity.
He saw the huge corpse lying in front of him and couldn't help reaching out to grab the corpse's arm. Driven by hunger, he bit down on its hard claws.
Something unexpected happened. The prompt panel forming in his consciousness instantly shocked David, and his eyes slowly regained clarity.
[Monster arm discovered. Initiate Limb Grafting Ritual?]
[Hint: Devouring a freshly dead monster corpse's arm can absorb its life energy.]
It was like something in the shadows was pushing him step by step into the abyss, but right now he had no choice. He could only perform the ritual again!
"Yes! Devour it, let me survive!!!"
That monster arm whooshed and became invisible, merging into David's body. At the same time, a surge of abundant life energy also flooded into David's depleted body!
[Devoured monster arm, absorbed life energy, limit +200.]
David was thrilled to discover his "health bar" had finally climbed back up, even exceeding the original 120-point limit!
[Life Energy: 220/320]
[Psychic Energy: 20/100]
[Limb Grafting Ritual complete. Acquired arm: Hand of Monster]
[Hand of Monster I: Requires 10 psychic energy or life energy to activate.]
David didn't pay attention to the new arm ability. He was already absorbed in the wonderful feeling of life energy being infused into him. But this pleasant surprise didn't last long. Soon, he was forced once again to taste the price of performing the Limb Grafting Ritual!
Another mass of black smoke rushed from the void into reality, stabbing into his eyes with lightning speed. He couldn't help but cry out and rolled on the ground.
"Ah! My eyes!!!"
Sharp pain came from his eyeballs, and bloody tears seeped out—this time, it was an evil spirit lodged in his eyes!
[Ritual Evil Spirit Possession: Watcher]
...
David didn't know how long he'd been lying in the wild valley. Not until his eyes stopped hurting. Not until his life energy had slowly recovered to full. Not until he felt that tormenting hunger again...
He struggled to get up, using his now somewhat off-kilter eyes to look around. The dark valley seemed a bit clearer to his eyes, but certain vague shadows in the distance made his heart run cold.
More monsters seemed to be approaching!
He gritted his teeth and turned to flee toward the other end of the valley.
While running, he tried to use his chaotic brain to figure out the relationship between his abilities and that ritual.
From what he could tell, life energy should be like his "health bar." Under normal circumstances, his health probably recovered about 1 point per minute on its own.
And psychic energy should be like "mana" or something. This energy came from the evil spirits summoned by the ritual.
He noticed his psychic energy had already recovered 20 points. The reason was because he'd just satisfied the "Devourer" evil spirit's appetite.
Based on the fragmentary memories in his brain and the knowledge that mysteriously appeared, supernatural beings in this world relied on this psychic energy value to fight.
But he seemed a bit different...
Stumbling and fleeing, David seemed to have no sense of direction. He'd just climbed over a low ridge in the valley when a tall green monster appeared in his view!
That monster seemed to have smelled human scent long ago. The instant David appeared, it pounced with claws bared, incredibly swift!
David's pupils couldn't help but contract slightly. Oddly enough, he saw a "health bar" light up above that monster's head too.
"Is that its life energy?"
He suddenly realized that the "Watcher" evil spirit attached to his eyes had actually brought him a little benefit... Though he still didn't know what trouble this evil spirit would bring him, at least he now knew this green monster's life energy was 200 points!
So that's how it works...
In a flash, David figured out what had happened earlier. That dark red arm had drained his 100 points of psychic energy plus 100 points of life energy to directly deal an equivalent 200 points of damage to the enemy—that's how it crushed it in one hit!
"In that case..."
He wanted to summon that terrifying red arm again, but a heart-stopping feeling suddenly hit him. Horrifying whispers roared from every cell in his body.
They were warning him—he couldn't do this...
Breaking out in a cold sweat, David immediately realized something. Looking again at the prompts in his consciousness, he found some very "thoughtful" new information added to the arm descriptions.
[Hand of Divine Corpse I: Requires variable amounts of psychic energy or life energy to activate. Cooldown: 60 minutes.]
[Hand of Monster I: Requires 10 psychic energy or life energy to activate. Cooldown: 3 seconds.]
"There's actually a cooldown?"
The ability of the Hand of Divine Corpse was currently in a dimmed state. This powerful arm was probably a manifestation of some high-level mysterious power—his body simply couldn't use it continuously.
By now, the monster's claws were already grabbing toward his body. David instinctively raised his hand to block!
Riiip—!
Those sharp claws instantly slashed away 100 points of his life, tearing several bloody wounds on his arm and body!
The pain of his body being torn nearly made David pass out, but he didn't forget to fight back. At the same moment those claws hit him, another identical green claw materialized from his back and stabbed into the monster's chest!