Stepping out of the house, Ren found himself filled with the resolve to survive.
'First, my special ability. It should clearly be this Ultimate Paragon System, but all it shows is the same data as a blue panel, according to what Evan had informed me about.'
'And this mystery of replenishing your hunger just by resting in a safe zone. Its a cheat in itself.'
Ren sighed, realizing he only had one choice, which he would have to make sooner or later.
"I will have to stain my hands with blood." Clenching his hands, he moved to a small nearby tree that could be scaled with some effort, as it was slightly tilted.
"This one will do." He found a medium-thick branch and climbed the tree.
He vaulted onto the branch, causing it to snap under his weight.
Ren saved himself from falling down by hanging on to another branch right above it.
Descending from the tree, he took the branch and went to the blacksmithing area in hopes of crafting it into a usable weapon.
Entering the lodge, he found an axe lodged into a massive trunk of a tree that had been cut down horizontally. It was likely used to chop the lumber.
"I am an idiot."
His left eye twitched. Facepalming himself, Ren went to pick up the axe but was astonished to find it a little heavier than he had expected.
But for someone who had done calisthenics all his life, it was somewhat manageable.
Still, not wanting to waste his efforts, he took the axe and started to sharpen the piece of branch he had broken off the tree.
Coming out of the dwelling, he went to the opposite side of the village and found that all four of them were already there with different weapons in hand.
Ren raised an eyebrow as he saw the sword held by Ronan.
But before he could ask, Ronan noticed his lingering gaze and spoke first, "Don't even think about it. I am not gonna give you my weapon.
My father had purchased this with a lot of money from the city."
"Oh…" Ren realized Ronan wasn't the one who created the sword, and that made sense. How could a teenager craft a sword?
'Even if it is a medieval world, I should remember it was a normal one with no magical beings before the apocalypse.' No one had told this information to Ren, but from everything he knew, he had pieced together the knowledge himself.
How much of it was correct? He didn't know.
Keeping the axe on his shoulders, he stepped forward and exited the village barrier.
As decided before, they split up into groups of two and left Ren to fend for himself.
'It makes sense considering they don't want a baggage who will drag their team down, but did they really have to give such a lousy reason as making me awaken my powers?' Ren mused with a slight smirk on his face.
Nevertheless, he didn't complain and agreed to it as he too wanted some time alone to experiment with his cheat—the system.
After venturing in the forest for a few minutes, he scaled a nearby tree and looked around, and spotted a vermin soon enough.
It looked exactly like the one he had encountered earlier.
His smirk widened seeing it.
His body shivered, not due to fear, but excitement.
Ren could swear he still remembered the thrill of slaughtering one.
Descending the tree, he rushed straight towards the vermin uncaring whether it noticed him.
As soon as he reached near it, the vermin turned, its gaze instantly locking with Ren.
"Shriekkk…"
With a loud scream, it lunged at him.
Ren chuckled as he took out the axe from his back and swung it in a wide arc.
The reach of his axe resulted in his attack connecting first, smashing the zombie's head into mangled pieces of brain matter.
"Huff…huff," smiling to himself, he was about to move ahead when a notification screen popped up suddenly.
[Lv.2 Vermin killed. Exp+20]
[Leveled up! You have reached level 1!]
Raising an eyebrow, he opened his stats to check the changes.
And in the next moment, his breath got stuck in his lungs.
｢Name: Ren
Level: 1
Bloodline: Heir of Oblivion
Strength:10~>12
Agility:10~>11
Vitality:6~>7
Stamina:11~>12
Mana:0~>2
Spirit Power:0(+)
Skill:———｣
"Didn't they say that leveling up allows you to get four free points each level?
Then why did I receive seven stat points? And why were the points predetermined where they will be added?"
As he was wondering about this, his eyes couldn't help but constantly flicker towards the (+) sign beside the spirit power.
'They don't have spirit power. Is this my specialty?' Wondering to himself, he tapped the sign and suddenly, his eyes glowed.
He didn't notice a change, but was astonished after seeing the zombie convulse before him.
Ren also felt a slight pull from inside, a draining feeling was felt inside his body which he couldn't quite place a finger on.
Red-orange streaks began to trace across its body like a serpent, crawling up the neck of the vermin. Its body jerked for a moment before slowly returning to stillness.
A second later, it opened its eyes and stood up.
Ren's heartbeat stopped for a second as he looked at the same inverted eyes he had grown up seeing in the mirror each day of his life.
Taking a deep breath, he cautiously stepped forward and tried to tap the Vermin's head with his axe.
The creature didn't react and stood still while keeping its head low.
'Now what do I do with this? Does this power allow me to… farm them endlessly?' His eyes sparkled at the thought of leveling up infinitely but looking at the eyes of the vermin, he hesitated for a moment.
But gritting his teeth, Ren still swung his axe at it.
But the weapon just passed through it like the Vermin didn't even exist.
Controlling his surprise, he touched it with his fingers, which caused a prompt to appear.
[Oblivion Entity]
[Lv.2]
Now he started getting a little confused about what to do but soon remembered something.
'Oh—the panel.' Glancing at it, he was surprised to see his spirit power had increased from zero to seven.
Deciding to experiment a little, he tried commanding the monster, and to his astonishment, it heeded his words and crouched down.
'So the power to command creatures by converting them as my underling? This will be beneficial when fighting against multiple enemies.' Smiling to himself, he started advancing forward and killing four more vermins using the underling as a distraction.
Disappointingly, this Oblivion entity he controlled couldn't move precisely. Just simple commands like attack, crouch, or jump worked on it.
'Possibly due to its low intelligence?' Thinking to himself, Ren kept sweeping through the forest while keeping track of his level.
[Leveled up! You have reached level 3!]