"I'm going out, do you want to come with?"

"are... we going... to play?"

"sure we can play after I'm done"

"yay... then I'm coming... with"

"okay then let's go, first we got to sneak out of camp"

"okay...."

Mars and Victoria sneaked out of camp, like last time it went rather easy by using Victoria's [Shadow magic] and Mars's [Instant movement] simply put the sentry's never stood a change. Out in the open desert Mars and Victoria ran towards their target at full speed and soon they arrived at the spot were Mars and the rest of the squad had annihilated a group of cla.s.s 1 and 2 golems the day before

"and we're here... now time for me to level up"

"level... up?"

"hmm... basically I get stronger?"

"cool... I want... to level... up too"

Mars kneeled down and petted Victoria on the head

"sure, I'll buy some magic beast cores for you when I have the change"

"is it... a promise?"

"sure , I have enough money anyway"

"yay..."

Victoria began running around in pure happiness while Mars watched on, remembering he had promised to play with her afterwards Mars stretched and activated his energy sense and soon the desert 'lit' up with blue lights

'well time for me to get to work...'

Mars began to search around for mana stones, with his energy sense it was rather hard to oversee them so it was pretty easy, when he found a mana stone he would pick it up and absorb the energy within it turning it to dust before he picked up another stone and soon his energy storage reached its capacity

"well then... open the upgrade shop"

Energy upgrade shop

[Energy] cla.s.s skill level up price: 2400

Cla.s.s skills currently available: [Living G.o.d: presence]

"level up my cla.s.s"

Mars soon felt the stored energy units drain and a comfortable warm spared over his body, after the warm feeling disappeared Mars opened his status to confirm

"status"

Name: Mars

Age: 0 (vessel 5220)

Race: Half-dragon human

t.i.tles: [Living G.o.d of energy] [Conquer of Salen] [Tyrant King] [5000 year prisoner] [Man that fell from the sky] [Contracted]

Cla.s.s: [Energy]

Cla.s.s level: 25

Status points:

Strength [70/1000] (UP) Const.i.tution [93/2000] (UP) Dexterity [81/1500] (UP)

Intelligence [72/600] (UP) Wisdom [85/900] (UP) Charisma [63/50] (UP)

Active skills: [Dragon-flame magic lv 5] [Swordsmans.h.i.+p lv 4] [Shadow magic lv 2] [Demon dreaming lv 1] [Instant movement lv 1]

Cla.s.s skills: [Energy: absorption] [Energy storage: 0/2500] [Energy: discharge]

[Energy: upgrade shop] [Energy: information] [Energy: restoration] [Energy: healing] [Energy: absorb s.h.i.+eld] [Energy: reactive s.h.i.+eld] [Energy: basic reinforced storage] [Energy basic drain touch] [Energy: sense] (NEW)

Pa.s.sive skills: [Fire resist lv 15] [Commanding lv 3] [Mental reinforcement lv 5] [Pain resist lv 5]

"yep, looking good... my stats are closing in on 100 each... well not that I'm fully able to use all my stats anyway..."

Mars gave a sigh even though he technicality had 70 half dragons worth of strength he was only able to use 10 half dragons worth at most which in and of itself was a lot but Mars still felt it was not enough

"well maybe some new skill will solve my problems... open the upgrade shop"

Energy upgrade shop

[Energy] cla.s.s skill level up price: 2500

Cla.s.s skills currently available: [Living G.o.d: presence] [Energy: bloodline]

"oh there is a new skill, let's see..."

[Energy: bloodline]

cost: 2500

use cost: 1000

status: locked

function: restores the targets dormant bloodline or repairs a damaged one

Mars paused on first glance it seemed like a useless skill to have

'but... there was that collar...'

Mars thought back to when he was reincarnated, at that time he was wearing a collar that suppressed his dragon part and his 'vessel' had been wearing it for more than 5000 years so it wasn't entirely unlikely that this skill was useless

"maybe my dragon bloodline is damaged..."

the more Mars thought about it the more likely it seemed, after all when he was not transformed he looked just like any other human

"well any other handsome human, but still..."

Mars picked up a mana stone as he thought and absorbed the energy inside it

"f.u.c.k it, let's give it a try"

Mars began to gather mana stones again and soon his storage had filled up again, although the amount of mana stones left on the ground was insufficient to refill his storage again

"unlock [Energy: bloodline]"

Mars felt his energy units drain before knowledge of a new skill appeared in his mind

"okay... now for the energy units..."

quickly gathering the remaining mana stones in the area Mars managed to get his total energy stored up to 1340 which was enough to use the new [Energy: bloodline] skill once

"question is do I want to use it now..?"

the reason Mars was hesitant was because of his recent experience with the [Energy: sense] skill that hurt like h.e.l.l when he unlocked it

"maybe I should wait..? nah f.u.c.k it, the best things in life is the things you don't think through"

Mars threw caution to the wind and activated his new skill, first nothing really happened but having learned from last time Mars grit his teeth and waited and soon a warm sensation spread all over his body, but the pleasant feeling soon ended as the warm feeling gradually began a hot feeling and then a boiling feeling like being boiled alive, Mars went down on his knees and grit his teeth as the pain intensified meanwhile a itchy feeling spread all over his skin that at this point was red like that of a boiled lobster after sometime Mars began feeling his eyes begin to bleed and closed his eyes as tears of blood ran down his face and feel onto the cold desert sand

'well.... this... is... not... that... bad...'

after a unknown amount of time pa.s.sed Mars gradually felt the boiling sensation lessen before it soon went away completely he was finally able to let out his breath and fell over backwards and rested some time on the cool desert sand before he began to check his body for new parts

"no horns... no tail... no extra body hair... tongue feels normal... nope nothing new..."

not quite sure how to feel Mars gradually opened his eyes and looked around

"well this is..."

first he thought it was daytime, but then he noticed the stars in the sky

"well I'll be d.a.m.ned..."

when Mars looked around he found that other then being able to see perfectly fine during the night he was able to see a lot better like being able to count grains of sand better

"...neat"

if Mars had a mirror he would have been able to see that his eyes had changed the pupil was still blue but it had become vertically split like a lizard's eye and the area around his eyes had also changed a little, the skin now looked a bit like scales

"maybe I can use the skill more than once..?"

Mars decided to test it when he got more energy in storage

"well anyways... Victoria!"

calling after her once Victoria jumped out of a nearby shadow and walked over to him while her horns flashed

"can...we play... now?"

"sure, what do you want to play?"

"let's... play tag..."

"okay then here I go!"

Mars activated [Instant movement] and tried to catch Victoria but the Victoria in front of him turned out to be a shadow clone that turned into black smoke when he touched it

"well it would not be that easy..."

Mars looked around and saw multiple Victoria's around the desert all looking at him with their big blue eyes and moving their tails in unison clearly saying 'come on. let's play'

"oh, here I come!"

"I... can't... anymore...."

Mars now lay on his back looking at the night sky, in the past 20 minutes he had used [Instant movement] more than 10.000 times even with stamina of a living G.o.d Mars was tired out by the end, seeing her playmate was unable to keep up Victoria, the real one appeared next to Mars and laid down next to him before imitating him and turning around so she laid on her back and looked up in the night sky with her big blue eyes, for sometime both of them stayed silent until Mars sat himself up and petted Victrola on the head

"let's head back"

"okay..."

Mars and Victoria began heading back to the camp, avoiding the night watch and successfully slipped into the camp before they made their way to squad number 7's tent and quietly walked inside after Mars confirmed that the rest of the squad was sleeping and laid down on his bed, soon Victoria jumped up and laid down on his chest lightly purring while her horns flashed

"today... was fun"

"yeah I had fun too"