Warlock of War: My Ares System

"I know… Thank you so much for everything. Despite you killing me so many times and putting me through so much stress, you still helped me grow into a stronger person… and I know the answers I've been wanting will not be given by you… But still, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart," I announced while bowing deeply towards my master.

"That's surprising…." The woman muttered with a small smirk, and as she disappeared into the distance, I let out a long sigh.

"What do you want?" I asked Cy as he slowly crept up behind me.

"Sorry about all of them. They just didn't know of your circumstances, so I hope you won't blame them,"

"I wasn't planning on doing that,"

There was a long awkward silence between the both of us, and as I slowly began to walk away again, Cy reached out for my shoulder.

"What is it?" I asked yet again, brushing his hand off.

"Do you want to spar some more? There are some skills I wasn't able to show off earlier, and I really need to practice with them…."

"We can do that tomorrow… I'm about to fall asleep soon, so it's best you ask somebody else for today. I'll be waiting for you tomorrow, though,"

"You better not chicken out!" He shouted as I slowly walked down the hallway.

I only gave him a light smile before walking into my room and locking myself inside, crumbling to the ground with exhaustion.

My legs felt as if they weren't working anymore and refused to support me as I attempted to claw my way to the bathroom.

But, the exhaustion ran up my legs and into my spine, sending an electric shock that made my worries skyrocket.

"Fuck… what is this?" I muttered to myself through heaving breaths.

"One of your runes is awakening. You've passed a certain threshold in your physical and mental prowess, so your body is reacting accordingly to the runes that are just begging to escape," A cold voice sent shivers down my spine.

I snapped my head towards the corner of the room and saw Beezlebub amused at my miserable state.

I couldn't move my body any longer, and it felt as if all my muscles had melted off of my bones, leaving me to just sink in the middle of my room.

Slowly, I let out a groan, and just like that, my consciousness slipped away from me.

…

Awaking in an endless void, a massive white spine appeared in front of me, and it seemingly traveled infinitely upwards.

I couldn't hold back my jaw that nearly hit the floor, but seeing how my runes had already been carved into it, I knew this was my spine.

"What is this… feeling?" I muttered as I instinctually raised my hand into the air and then shifted it to the right.

Two inches to the left, then two inches down. Following that up with five inches to the right again and one inch up… and there, I saw it.

At the top of my spine, which I assumed to be my neck, was a brown and green rune carved into the bone, while the second rune, which was a blood red, was floating just above the spine, presumably carved into my skin.

And then, finally, there was the third one I had just carved under the second one in the same blood-red color that was presumably engraved into my skin.

[Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error]

"Seems I can't use my status here… what a pain," I groaned before swiping away all the error boxes and feeling my hand burn up.

It was the same hand that had the rose vines that slowly began to crawl up my forearm, and now they were spreading even further upwards.

The process was slow, but eventually, it managed to touch my elbows, sending an electric shock up my bicep and into the back of my neck.

It traveled downwards until it hit the very bottom of my spine, emulsifying the bone itself.

"*sigh*..."

As I sighed, my body fell backward on its own, pushing past the abyssal floor created underneath me and sending me falling downwards into a quick spiral.

…

"Huff… huff… huff… huff… Fuck… What just happened?" I muttered to myself as I was coated in sweat, and as I attempted to stand up, my muscles gave out once again. 𝐟𝗿𝚎𝐞𝓌e𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵ𝒆𝑙.c𝚘𝓶

They were shivering from exhaustion, and my bones felt as if they were about to snap with each and every twitch of my body.

"Since you were babied this entire time, I decided to give you your own task. And your carving skills were decent at best… you could never be an enchanter with such skill, but at least your body won't break down yet," Beezlebub smiled as he hopped off my bed and crouched down right in front of me.

His swirling white eyes stared into my soul as if he was checking for something.

"Yep… Now check your status, demi-boy,"

『Status』

[Name: Orion]

[Race: Demi-Human]

[Class: Prince of Blood]

[Level: 35/55] (110/200) XP Needed

[HP: 100/100 MP: 75/75 SP: 55/55] - Above Human

[Strength: 40] - Above Human

[Defense: 40] - Above Human

[Magic: 45] - Above Human

[Speed: 45] - Above Human

[Skills: [Spear Coating] [Berserk Coating] [Empower] [Scout] [Ancient Torterras Tongue]

[Magical Presence]

[Prince of Blood Skills: [Royal Blood Magic] [Vampiric Creation] [Vampiric Drain]

[Shroud of Fermented Blood] [Egg of the Progenitor]

[Passive Skills: [Toxic Immunity] [Toxic Body] [Night Vision] [Breath of the Snowy Underworld] [Blood of the Underworld] [Blood Tainted Aura] [Blood Tainted Presence] [Speech of a King] [Constitution of a Tarturling] [Prisoner of Tartarus] [Iron Speech]

[Rune Path: [Influence of Battle] [Throne World: Dripping Hell] [Locked] [Locked] [Locked] [Locked]

[Equipment: [Magic Ring] [Storage Ring] [Sangria King's Spear]

…

"Just as I had expected, your shit is based off that damn god… well, I'm not gonna complain about such a juicy candidate like you," The man muttered before ruffling my hair and disappearing into a black portal that swiftly closed off.

For that entire night, I couldn't get a wink of sleep because my cells felt as if they were being continuously torn apart and then rebuilt.

It was a torturous amount of pain that I could not get used to in the slightest, but at least Beezlebub came to check up on me once in a while… though, it was just to watch the spectacle of me suffering. 𝘧𝔯e𝗲𝙬ℯ𝙗𝓷o𝘷e𝗹.𝐜𝑜𝒎

"Fuck… Give me what you gave to Cy. I won't be able to do anything for the rest of my life at this point,"

"I'm surprised you're still affected by this level of pain…." Beezlebub smirked before tossing me a piece of raw pitch-black meat.

"I'm not your dog to clean up your scraps," I muttered.

"Well, you said you wanted to go through the same thing as Cy. Then consume the meat of a monster, and you have a chance of obtaining the constitution of a monster… it's a pretty good deal, am I right?"

"Then what the hell is this?"

The man before me smiled maliciously as he crouched down in front of me, opening up the sleeve of his robe and pouring out even more pitch black meat.

And soon, a head came rolling out, its eyes popping out as if it had been burned to death.

"Demi-human…"

My eyebrows furrowed as I stared at the meat, but the thought of consuming such a thing didn't seem that bad to me.

"Well, you can't really call them demi-human when they're such rabid beings… they're tribesmen who live on the outskirts of Tartarus… I think you met one of them… right?"

His smile widened even more, and the sight of the rolling head fully presented itself to me, causing me to realize who it was.

"Kekekekeke… You're an insane bastard, you know that, right?"

"I'd prefer the words tactical… a tactical bastard who will do anything to achieve his goals. I'm like those heroes in the stories… they will go through any trial to succeed at their objective and to be honest, I think I look like one as well. Would you be able to guess that I was a demon lord at first glance?" The man twirled around, lightly smiling to himself.

But, behind that angelic and almost priest-like look was an aura of pure malice that spread throughout my room, suffocating me from the depths of my soul.

"What a funny joke," I rolled my eyes before grabbing the black meat in front of me and taking a bite out of it.

It was completely and utterly tasteless… yet the more I ate it, the more I began to crave it like an addictive drug.

And soon, the entire pile of meat was gone, and in the reflection of the waxed marble floor, I saw my horns had grown longer and a few smaller ones sprouting from the routes.

"Us demons don't have god-marks, yet we can tell our status from how large our horns are… you'd be smart to remember that,"