[Location: Planet Grania.] Anya, Jim, and Cherry lay fast asleep in a makeshift cave just under a massive boulder while Ace, having promised to take the first watch, wandered further up the mountain in hopes of encountering other beasts to battle. With his system no longer available, he developed a certain appetite for adventure and danger. Not knowing whether it was him letting loose a little or the fact that he was looking for a quick way to strengthen his skills, he decided to bite his tongue, quit the bellyaching, and instead focus on the quest his system gave. For about thirty minutes, the Blood Mutant tracked a goblin-like beast back to its ’pack’. There, Ace discovered a hoard of other goblins living in what seemed to be a little colony of their own. An evil grin appeared on his face as he prepared to attack. The first thing he made sure to do was check whether he had enough blood. Even without his system, he could still sense the amount stored within himself, minus his body’s natural supply. ’What should I do first?’ he questioned, looking for the best possible option to cause chaos without drawing excess attention from other creatures nearby. ’Perhaps I should try using my ’imagination’ as the system says.’ He mumbled, remembering his system constantly reminding him how limitless his power could be if he decided to use his imagination. For a few short minutes, Ace remained in a squatting position while pressing his hands together under his nose. He started breathing heavily, slowly opening the pores of his skin. Slowly but surely, blood from his body started to drip and gather into a blood clone. This was the first time he created one without his system’s help. Once the clone was created, Ace used his fingers to control it, making it move into the colony of the creatures. As quickly as he could, Ace used his clone to kill as quickly as he could. He’d occasionally turn the clone’s texture from liquid to solid depending on the situation. Another advantage with using a clone was that even though it was hit, he’d always replenish and rebuild it to its former glory. In a matter of only ten minutes, the Blood Mutant slaughtered the entire colony of goblin creatures, leaving not even one alive. His blood clone proved to be a very useful tool, but even more, he was impressed with his blood control skill. "Never knew I could control blood that well." He smiled while retracting his clone back into his body. As for the dead creatures, he emptied them off every drop and turned them into a thick blood block. He already had more than enough, so there was no need for him to be greedy. "Perhaps there’s more I can do with this block." An idea sprouted in his mind, prompting him to return to the boulder to turn the idea into reality. With this extra blood, the Mutant decided to perfect his blood control skill. The best way, according to him, was through bending, shifting, shaping, and manipulating the blood into as many shapes, sizes, and textures as possible. "This should keep me busy for a while." ---------------------------- While Ace was focusing his energy and time on perfecting his willpower, Skyler, who was at the foot of the mountain with the Granian emperor, was floating in a cylindrical tube filled to the brim with green fluid, the same fluid in which the blood mutants were made to swim for a while. The liquid not only helped her body evolve, but it also allowed it to heal quickly and replenish her energy. It was a cheat fluid that reduced hours, days, or even weeks of time needed for resting and healing into only a few minutes. "She’s replenished," Lord Grania spoke, having grown bored of waiting for Skyler to heal. "Let her out so we may resume." "Yes, Lord Grania," One Horn, the only other Granian who was awake, responded. Grim and his mate Helda were fast asleep, their tails entangled in each other’s as a way to show ’affection’ and ’compassion.’ "Human!" Grania shouted with a smirk on his face. "Shall we continue?" "No, I’m hungry," Skyler answered. "I’d prefer something with meat in it. Got any digestible foods that won’t crawl up my throat once I swallow it?" Her questioning seemed odd, but ever since she landed on this planet, Skyler was given some odd-looking foods that didn’t look appetizing at all. It didn’t help that some of the ’food’ given to her looked like it had the potential to kill her. "Very well," Grania smiled, pointing at the giant carcass the Blood Mutants killed a couple of days ago. "You can eat that and continue." "I hate to be rude, but do you think that stuff looks good?" She questioned, disgusted by the thought of eating a giant worm. "I’d like something sensible to eat." "Lord Grania, if I may," One Horn interrupted. "We purposefully retrieved a few species from the human planet Earth. Maybe we can breed them for the purpose of feeding her and the others." "Thank God," Skyler sighed in relief. "How soon can I get...." "No, we’re not going to do that." Grania interrupted. Seeing this as an opportunity to ’train’ Skyler, he decided to take some drastic measures in order to train and feed Skyler at the same time. "I remember Grania telling me that the Evolving Gas altered the biology of some of the planet’s beasts, correct?" "Very well. Bring out the ones which are digestible. Make sure they’re dangerous as well. If not, add a symbiote into their bodies. That will most likely make things more interesting." "Wait, wait, wait," Skyler panicked. "I’ve seen what those symbiote things did to Anya on the ship. What crazy game are you playing here." "You, human, are going to fight for your food," Grania cackled, his deep voice sounding more irritating than joyful. "Since you tapped into your Eneraflux when faced with danger, I deduced that fighting something dangerous enough might push you to do that again. Use whatever tactic you can to kill your food. One Horn, please go and retrieve it." "Yes, Lord Grania." One Horn left, leaving Skyler looking at the Granian emperor with great distaste for his ’training methods.’ As much as she couldn’t bring herself to do so, the young woman wished she could fight Grania and eat him instead. ’You’re one twisted lizard.’ She thought to herself while staring at the annoying smirk on his face. [A few minutes later.] A few minutes passed, and One Horn returned. With him was a small ship suspending a medium-sized container. Surrounding the container were other Granians, each one carrying deadly weapons for their own protection. Upon seeing this, Skyler’s heart started to race heavily with fear filling her very core. Meanwhile, Lord Grania proudly looked at the crate and was pleased by One Horn’s decision. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝗇𝗲𝘵 The ship gently dropped the crate and departed, leaving Lord Grania, One Horn, Skyler, Grim, and Helda, who were woken up by the engines of the ship and growling noises coming from the crate. "Very good, One Horn," Lord Grania congratulated. "Did you place a symbiote on it?" "Lord Grania, if I did so, the beast would become much harder for her to kill. It would even become a challenge for Grim to defeat." "Very well," Grania spoke and then together with the other Granians stood on top of the crate with Skyler standing a few feet away from the crate’s hatch. "Release it." "Curse you, Grania." Skyler cursed and quickly turned her hands into her groundhog form. Not wanting to take any chances, she decided to turn her entire body into a humanoid groundhog, granting her more strength, speed, and endurance. This was simply because she did not know what was inside the crate. The grunts were too loud and muffled for her to make out what type of beast it was. A massive hog-like beast, the size of a regular rhino, ran out from the crate as soon as it was opened. With its wide mouth, it let out a terribly loud oink roar that shook the ground beneath it. Skyler’s eyes shook with fear as her body screamed at her, urging her to run from the beast. The creature stood almost at the same height as a large rhino, standing at one point six meters tall and two point eight meters wide. It had a length of fourteen feet, and its lower body was covered in glowing bone-like structures that protected its beast crystal. On its mouth were a pair of three irregular tusks, one coming from the nose and the other two coming from its mouth. Its eyes scanned the ground beneath it, and once it spotted Skyler, it lowered its horns, grunted a small cloud of hot breath, and charged straight at full speed.