"So this is how I am going to die in this life," Evan said while lying on the floor of a dark hall. Blood continued to flow out from his back, where there was a claw mark that completely tore his flesh. The severity of his injuries indicated that the one who caused them was immensely powerful, as even his bones were visible through the wound.
His head was also bleeding, and it was evident from the injury that something very hard had struck his skull, fracturing the bone.
"Since the day I opened my eyes in this world, I knew that my life would be pathetic. I thought I would die at the hands of some powerful beast or hunter. I even considered taking my own life for not being able to improve my own power. But I never imagined I would die from blood loss," Evan mumbled as his voice started to fade away and darkness began to engulf his vision.
"I hope in my next life I will be able to enjoy a normal life, and I absolutely don't want to be born with a unique physique," Evan said before darkness completely consumed him.
Just as the darkness enveloped him, he heard a cold voice. "What do you want to sacrifice?"
Evan, whose vision was engulfed by darkness, heard the cold voice and struggled to open his eyes slightly, unable to move his head or look around to locate the speaker.
"Who are you?" Evan asked in a weak voice.
"What do you want to sacrifice?" But he received no answer, only the same voice repeating the question.
'Is this the voice of a devil, here to collect my soul as a sacrifice after I die?' Evan wondered upon hearing the word "sacrifice."
"What do you want to sacrifice?" The voice echoed again, asking him what he wanted to sacrifice.
Barely able to think clearly due to the blood loss and recent events, Evan asked a different question this time.
"What can I get after sacrificing something?." surprisingly this time he received an answer.
"You can get anything, as long as the thing you sacrifice holds enough value," the voice replied in the same cold tone.
'I can get anything. This is the same line every devil says before asking someone to sacrifice their soul,' Evan thought, skeptical about sacrificing his soul to a devil despite his life's challenges.
However, he reasoned that if the voice was asking for a sacrifice, it meant it couldn't harm him if he refused.
'There's no way I'm going to sacrifice my soul to a devil, even though my life is a mess. I don't want to become a slave to a devil by sacrificing my soul. But what should I sacrifice? Since it's asking for something, it means it can't do anything to me if I don't sacrifice my soul,' Evan contemplated as his vision started to darken once again. The effects of blood loss began to show, and Evan knew that if he closed his eyes, he might never open them again. He pondered what he could sacrifice to heal himself and escape this predicament alive.
Then, Evan recalled why he found himself in this situation. All of it happened because he possessed something that hindered his power from improving.
'Although I don't know if this thing has enough value to heal my injuries, I won't lose anything by sacrificing this. On the other hand, it will benefit me since even if I die after sacrificing it, I can be assured that this thing will not follow me into the next life,' Evan decided, finally choosing what he would sacrifice.
"I want to sacrifice my shadow physique," Evan said weakly, but he received no reply. Instead, black smoke neared him and covered his entire body. After ten seconds, the black smoke disappeared, and he heard the cold voice again.
"What do you want in exchange for your physique?"
"Heal all of my injuries and give me some cores," Evan requested, although his initial intention was to heal his injuries. However, he also decided to ask for some cores. If the voice refused to grant him cores, he would back away. But if the voice agreed, he would be able to enhance his power.
Evan waited for a moment, and finally, the cold voice replied, "Your physique holds enough value for this exchange. Commencing sacrificing ritual."
Suddenly, the entire hall glowed in a dark red color, and Evan, on the brink of passing out, heard the cold voice again.
"You cannot sacrifice your physique in your current condition. If you sacrifice it without healing your body, you will die. Therefore, I will heal you first to complete the sacrifice. However, since I am healing you without receiving anything, you will only receive 50% of the cores I was going to give you initially."
Evan agreed without hesitation, as he never expected to receive any cores in the first place. In an instant, the black smoke engulfed his body once again, and he felt his body rapidly healing. Within five minutes, he was completely healed.
Evan checked his back and found it to be completely healed, along with his previously fractured head. There were no more injuries on his body.
"Now, sacrificing your physique," Evan heard the cold voice once more, and the black smoke engulfed him again. However, this time, instead of feeling refreshed as before, Evan experienced excruciating pain, unlike anything he had ever felt.
"Arghh!" a scream filled with agony escaped his mouth as he felt his body being torn apart by an unseen force.
Unbeknownst to Evan, by sacrificing his physique, he awakened something within him that had been suppressed by his previous physique for years.
Even the one who made the exchange with Evan was unaware that by taking his physique, they had awakened something almost forgotten in history.
[12 hours ago]
RingRing*
Inside a small room, a boy was sleeping when suddenly his phone rang. He picked up the phone and heard the voice of another boy.
"Evan, what are you doing today? Our group is going for a raid inside a dungeon. Do you want to come with us?" Mike, one of Evan's classmates, asked.
"I have to go somewhere today. You guys can go by yourselves," Evan replied, cutting the call without waiting for Mike's response.
After ending the call, Evan clenched his teeth. "This bastard always tries to humiliate me by asking if I want to go into the dungeon with them, even though he knows that I can't increase my power with the help of those cores."
Evan tried to calm his mind, and stood up. He appeared to be around 18 years old, with jet-black hair and eyes. His pale white skin contrasted with his hair and eye color. Standing at approximately 180cm tall, he possessed a remarkably handsome appearance, considering his power level.
He attempted to forget the call he had just received and focused on the task at hand for the day.
Evan prepared a simple breakfast for himself which was pack of cup noodles. While eating, he glanced at his status window.
Name: Evan
Rank: F
Strength: F
Agility: F
Mana: F
Stamina: F+
Intelligence: F
Luck: E+
Charm: D
Skill: Shadow Walk
Physique: Shadow Physique
Title: ???
Job: None
Evan shook his head while observing his status panel. Only his charm and luck were ranked higher than F.
"I should do what I can and wait for an opportunity to obtain some shadow cores to improve my rank. After all, I can only use shadow cores to enhance my rank, unlike others who can use any type of cores," Evan muttered with a bitter tone while looking at his status panel. His gaze briefly stopped at the section showing his physique before he closed the panel.
After finishing breakfast, Evan packed his backpack and made sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He then started walking towards the door of his room.
"I hope everything will be fine, and I will be able to acquire at least one shadow core today," Evan said in a hopeful voice and left the room.
"Damm! How could I oversleep on the first day of my job? I worked so hard to get this job, and I really don't want to arrive late on my first day," Ray, a young man, said while running as if his life depended on it.
But he had to stop when he reached the main road because of the red light.
"This cursed light is always green when I have free time, but now that I'm in a hurry, why is it red?" Ray shouted, nearly throwing a stone to break the traffic light signal.
Ray stood there, glancing at his cheap wristwatch from time to time. After one minute, the signal finally turned green, and Ray dashed forward without waiting for even a second.
Horn-!
But just as he dashed forward, he heard a loud car horn. While still running, he glanced in the direction of the horn and saw a black car coming towards him at high speed.
Ray's mind went blank seeing the speeding car, and even before he could think of anything else, he felt his vision turning upside down.
For a moment, he didn't understand what had just happened. He tried to move his hands but found that he couldn't feel them.
Soon, he felt a warm liquid flowing down from his head, and his vision started to turn red.
He tried to move his body to understand what was happening, but he found that he couldn't even feel his body.
Warm liquid continued to drip from his face onto the ground, and a metallic smell assaulted his nostrils. He started losing consciousness, and his surroundings began to blur.
As his vision started to blur, Ray finally understood what had happened.
'Seriously, am I going to die like this?' Ray thought bitterly, 'I know I should have just stayed home and played video games instead of looking for a job. I didn't even get a chance to try the newly launched 'Lily's Secret' game.'
Soon, Ray lost consciousness, and his vision turned completely black.
"Hmm," Ray opened his eyes and saw a familiar, yet unfamiliar, ceiling of the room.
Ray looked around and saw that he was lying on a bed in a small room.
"Is this the hospital?" Ray thought while trying to sit up. Surprisingly, when he tried to sit up, he didn't feel any discomfort that he expected to feel because of his earlier accident.
He raised an eyebrow, feeling strange about his situation. He looked around the room and saw that it was a small room with nothing but a bed and some daily necessities.
'This is not a hospital,' Ray instantly realized after inspecting the room. For some reason, while looking around the room, he found it quite familiar, even though he was sure that he had never seen this room before.
He tried to stand up and was able to do so without any problem. There was no discomfort even when he stood up.
"How can my body be completely fine after that accident?" Ray said out loud in a shocked voice, looking at the condition of his body. There wasn't even a scratch on his body, and his skin looked even better than before.
He looked around the room and, after spotting a mirror in the corner, he immediately walked towards it.
When he stood before the mirror and saw his reflection, his eyes widened.
"Who the f**k is this dude?" Ray mumbled while looking at his reflection.
Suddenly, he felt a splitting headache, and he dropped to the ground, clutching his head tightly.
"Arghh!" Some foreign memories started to flood his mind, and the headache intensified, causing him to cry out in pain.
Strange memories continued to appear for around five minutes. The pain was so severe that Ray almost lost consciousness once again.
After five minutes, the memories finally stopped flooding in, and the headache began to subside.
"Evan," Ray muttered while lying on the floor. His entire body was drenched in sweat, and his heart was beating like a drum.
After around ten minutes, when his headache had completely disappeared, he finally stood up.
"I can't believe it. Even though I was hit by car-chan instead of truck-kun, I still got a transmigration ticket," Ray muttered while looking at himself in the mirror.
The world he had transmigrated into was called the 'Arora World,' where people could use magic and skills with the help of mana.
"Can I also use magic?" Ray wondered, feeling excited. As an Otaku who had read dozens of novels, he accepted his situation very easily.
He checked the memories he had just received to find out if he could use skills or not. However, as he sorted through all the memories, his face turned grim.
In the Arora World, many people awakened special powers. Most people awakened their powers before turning sixteen years old. Evan had awakened his power when he was fourteen years old and joined the Hunter's Academy to train himself and learn more about superpowers.
Being an orphan, he was relieved when he awakened his power because not only did he awaken his powers, but he also awakened a physique called the Shadow Physique.
He possessed a skill called 'Shadow Walk' that allowed him to turn himself into a shadow. While using Shadow Walk, as long as he provided enough mana, he could even pass through barriers without being hindered by them.
After joining the academy, he learned how to improve his power. To do so, he had to use the cores of monsters.
Cores could be obtained by killing monsters in dungeons or in the wilderness. Cores were very rare, and only a few monsters dropped a core after being slain.
If you killed a fire-type monster, you could obtain a fire-type core from it. Similarly, killing a water-type monster would yield a water-type core. It didn't matter which type of core you obtained because you could improve your power by absorbing any type of core.
Usually, you could only absorb around 30% of the energy from a core, with the remaining energy dissipating into the surrounding environment. However, if you had a fire-type skill and absorbed a fire-type core, you could absorb around 50% of its energy.
But when Evan attempted to absorb a core for the first time after joining the academy, he found that he couldn't. His body inexplicably rejected all the energy he tried to absorb from the core.
At first, Evan thought that maybe the core he had absorbed was damaged, which was why he couldn't absorb it. However, the same thing happened when he tried to absorb a different core.
Evan was confused as to why he couldn't absorb the cores. He even asked the academy's teachers, but they too were perplexed by his situation, as they had never encountered something like this before.
For some time, Evan couldn't find the reason behind his inability to absorb the cores. But one day, he thought about his unique physique, the Shadow Physique.
Using his saved-up money, Evan bought a shadow-type core. To his surprise, when he absorbed it, he was able to absorb it effortlessly.
After this discovery, Evan decided to hunt shadow-type monsters to obtain their cores and improve his power. However, the lowest-ranked dungeon where he could find shadow-type monsters was at the D rank. As an F rank hunter, it was almost impossible for him to hunt them normally.
Even if he wanted to buy shadow-type cores, he couldn't easily afford them due to a lack of money.
"My new life already ended even before it started," Ray muttered, feeling that he had received a defective body because he came here through car-chan instead of truck-kun.
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