'...i might have nightmares about this for a while'

Mars took a deep breath and closed his eye for a few seconds to readjust his mental state

'i still live, that why i'm afraid... i should hold on to to this fear, it might help me remain... sane, at least somewhat'

Mars opened his eyes again and started to wash his hands in the lake, but only for a few seconds before he discovered that the lake was filled with the same blue spider blood he was trying to wash of his hands and pulled them out off the water

"...gross, well i guess i did throw a firebomb into their nest"

Mars quickly lit his flame and had it hover in the air as he used it to clean his hands instead off the water when he spotted something glinting in the lake from the moonlight

'is that..?'

as Mars was wondering what it was his skill activated and answered his question for him

cla.s.s 3 magic beast core

stored energy: 10

stored status points: none

source: acid spider hatching

'sure is'

Mars weren't about to jump into a lake filled with blue spider blood for a mere 10 energy points, but he wondered if there was more magic beast corers in the area around the lake, he had after all dropped a bomb into the lake so Mars found it likely some cores might have been blown out off the water and started to look around, and sure enough he easily found 2 cla.s.s 3 cores

'might only be 10 energy units, but if i'm here anyway...'

a slightly greedy expression showed on Mars's face as he started to look for some more cores, all the while Rex was keeping a watch on the surroundings, in the end Mars found 5 more cla.s.s 3 cores and even a cla.s.s 4 core bringing his total loot up to 1 cla.s.s 9 core, 1 cla.s.s 4 core and 8 cla.s.s 3 cores

"this should be good... Rex let's head back"

"...okay"

Mars saw that the old elf was slightly lost in thought and decided not to disturb him as the 2 of them walked in silence though the dark quiet forest back to the camp, when they arrived it was slightly past midnight and in the moonlit clearing Mars saw 6 spider corpses lined up neatly, they were all mangled with holes all over them them, that was still leaking blue blood down on the ground

'...looks like she took out her anger on them'

Mars suspected Victoria had kill these spiders and after saying good night to Rex that heeded into the wood cabin Mars quickly burned the spider corpses to ashes and picked up 6 cla.s.s 6 magic beast cores from the ashes before he also decided to retire for the night and walked into his cave a laid down on the bear hide beside Victoria who was so deep in dreamland she didn't notice him

'or rather she knows it's me and therefore doesn't wake up...'

Mars gave a sigh as he closed his eyes to sleep but found it hard to fall asleep and rolled around on the wide bear hide for some time before he finally fell asleep and started to dream.

Mars felt like he was moving up and looked around and found himself in dark room, a elevator he looked down and saw he was clad in a orange body suit, his hands and feet was cuffed and heavy looking chains led from the cuffs and was linked to a solid metal pole in the middle of the elevator limiting his mobility so he couldn't reach the walls of the elevator, he vaguely felt like he was a dog tied to a pole which caused him large amount of shame and anger

"after all, it's all their fault... wait who are they?"

Mars felt a headache when he tried to remember who exactly 'they' were, and didn't have time to think about it as the elevator he was in slowed down a little as it reached its destination and a bright light shone through the gla.s.s walls of the elevator blinding him as he shut his eyes and heard a emotionless fragmented voice

"---order please, we will now begin the sentencing off ** for crimes against humanity---"

as Mars opened his eyes again he discovered he had left his dream as a pair off clear blue cat eye was peering into his eyes, staring at his face from close proximity

"...good morning"

Mars greeted Victoria that was laying on his chest, but she just stared unblinking into his eyes for a few long seconds before her horns flashed as she tilted her head slightly to the side

"are you...okay?"

Mars was about to brush her off, saying he was fine but when he looked into her clear blue cat eyes he decided to come clean

"well i died once, so i'm not really okay"

Mars reached his hand up and started to brush Victoria's big fluffy ears, causing her to close her eyes and start purring

"but i'm a little better now"

Mars spent a few minutes getting healed by Victoria's fluffy ears before he was finally able to get up and went out of the cave with her and took in the morning air as they watched to sun rise

"....i really should check my status"

Mars hadn't cheeked his status since he died yesterday and unable to find any excuse to stall any further he gathered his mana for a second before he chanted

"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: 19

Status points:

Strength [21/1000] (down) Const.i.tution [41/2000] (down) Dexterity [32/1500] (down)

Intelligence [19/600] (down) Wisdom [32/900] (down) Charisma [23/50] (down)

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

Cla.s.s skills: [Energy: absorption] [Energy storage: 776/1900] [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]

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

"that harsh... well it beats actually... being dead"

as Mars looked over his status he didn't really know how to feel, on one hand he was sad over the loss off points and on the other he was happy to be alive

"...well it's not that bad"

the only reason Mars wasn't more upset about losing status points was he simply wasn't able to use them, one example was his strength that had fallen to 21 points

"21 points is 21 half-dragons worth of strength... i don't even think i'm using half of that number at the moment..."

Mars still hadn't gotten used to his body if he where to give an example of his current situation it would be 'it's like being given a top off the line quantum computer for free, only to find out that the firmware on it is horribly optimized leaving you to having to learn 56 coding languages to optimize it yourself'

"well anyway... let's eat something Victoria"

"okay..."

Mars went back into the cave and grabbed a butchered piece off wind deer that was approximately 30 kilograms

"this should do for the 2 off us"

30 kilograms of meat might seem like a heavy breakfast for Mars and Victoria, but if one considered Victoria was still a growing cub and Mars had i didn't seem that much and it was in fact less than they usually ate for breakfast

"...even looking at the raw meat i still don't feel hungry"

Mars was usually woken up by his hunger so his lack of appet.i.te puzzled him a little, so thinking there might be something wrong with his stomach he toned down his breakfast a little, on the way out he grabbed his bone sword and walked out of the cave to start roasting meat when he noticed Alvin, Chloe and Isabel had woken up and was sitting outside, Victoria had also joined them and was sticking to Chloe as usual casing Mars to get a little jealous before he let out a sigh and walked over to join them as he greeted them

"good morning"

Isabel turned towards Mars and greeted him still looking half asleep

"oh good morning Mars, wait what happened!?"

Isabel's yelling caused Chloe and Alvin to look at Mars for half a second before Chloe abruptly stood up with wide eyes, shock and disable clearly visible on her face as she ran over to Mars while she yelled at Alvin

"Alvin get the potions now!"

"on it!"

Mars stood completely dumbfounded, raw meat and sword in hand as he watched the elvers panic seemingly out off concern for him as Chloe finally reached him and to his complete surprise started gently touching his chest with a grave face

"just hold on a little longer Alvin will be here with the potions soon!"

Mars became even more puzzled as looked into Chloe's face while she pressed her hands softly on his chest

'so soft... wait now is not the time'

"err... what's the problem?"

Chloe looked finely looked away from his chest and looked up at him face filled with anxiety

"what do you mean, what's the problem! this right here!"

Mars looked down at his own chest and saw that the newly made vest he had spent over 5 hours making was torn up, or more like half off it was missing in the center were a circle had been hollowed out with dried blood on the edges, his own dried blood causing him to finally get what they were so panicked about

'so that's what it is'

Mars looked into Chloe's green eyes as he gave a sigh and bluntly told her

"this is nothing, i'm fine"

"what do you mean your fine! this is clearly a fetal wound!"

Mars was a little shocked as Chloe yelled at him from such close range, and even more so when he saw tears was forming in the corners off her green eyes, even as they showed fierce determination Mars was even a little touched by her concern for him

"it might have closed but who knows what kind of damage it caused! i know your healing is amazing but ---"

"Chloe, i'm fine"

Mars interrupted her as he raised his hand and stroked her cheek causing her to turn a little red as she stood in silence for a few seconds before she asked him in a quiet voice

"...really?"

"yeah, i'm perfectly fine"

Chloe looked down as the blush on her face deepened while Mars stroked her cheek for a little while until they were rudely interrupted

"Chloe i brought the potion how is Mar--guh!"

Alvin ran out off the cabin while he yelled, but he didn't make it more than 3 steps before he revived a punch to the stomach from Isabel

"quiet can't you see they are finely making some progress"