Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

Atlas slowly opened his eyes and saw the first page, which now wasn’t simply a white paper anymore, its colour had somewhat become gray and ashy, which caught Atlas’s attention quite a bit, after all this was the first time ever he was seeing something this strange with the Book.

Everything was as is except the colour of the entire page and the Attribute area, where Atlas noticed something really strange:

[ Strength: 100 ]

[ Stamina: 100 ]

[ Agility: 100 ]

[ Spirit: 100 ]

[ Null: 100 ]

’Huh? There are no more locks or a blank, does that mean the highest number I can write here is 999?’ Atlas thought before nodding to himself, as he couldn’t figure that out for now, so he dismissed it with a simple, ”Hmm, I will have to see when the time comes...” After that, he shifted the page to the next one, the Trait page, and the moment he did, the first thing he saw was—[ Metadata ??? - Rank ??? ]

Just below that, he noticed the Notes section, which had finally changed.

[Note: User has met the requirements to Assimilate this Trait permanently, Tap the name of the Trait with Sangius Stylus to Assimilate it]

Seeing that, Atlas’s expression turned into a grin as he remembered the requirement was to meet 100 in all Attributes, which he had finally achieved now. Another thing he remembered was that a similar event had occurred with the Bloodline, which had also been showing those question marks, and when it was Assimilated, it had given him the ridiculous ability—Rei-Kokuin Active Vector.

He couldn’t help but imagine something similar from this one, after all there were many similarities between that Bloodline and this Trait. The first one was obviously those question marks beside the name, the second one was that both seemed to be originating from himself unlike the Traits he had gained from Monsters, and the third one was their higher rank compared to everything else on their respective pages, with Metadata ??? standing at the top of the Trait page while Osmo ??? stood at the top of the Bloodline page.

Those points were all so obvious that Atlas believed it wasn’t a plain coincidence, so the possibility of this Trait giving him some ridiculous ability similar to Rei-Kokuin made him grin even more as he thought, ’Finally, this unknown Trait will be usable, I have to Assimilate it inside a Ruin...’

With that, his gaze shifted below, and the moment he did, his eyes widened as he saw two entirely new Traits, both of which were SSS-rank. A frown appeared on his face as confusion quickly followed, ’I didn’t take that Monster’s blood with the Stylus, and that Monster had no blood remaining to begin with...wait! That Spherical object that dropped! But I hadn’t taken out the Codex at that moment as I wasn’t even conscious, how in the hell?’

That’s when it clicked to him, and he immediately shifted his attention toward the Codex, his eyes narrowing to a slit before he spoke, ”You...You came out on your own without me calling you, and even took in the blood, or whatever was remaining in that spherical thing dropped from the Monster.”

The Codex remained silent as it always did, it didn’t even glow to respond to his statement and simply floated in front of him. Atlas waited for a long moment, expecting some kind of response, but after getting nothing, he could only sigh and think, ’Only this Book can do something like this, it’s a complete mystery how it works, but to think it can come out while I am unconscious...’

After that, he could only sigh again and shift his attention toward the two new Traits just below the unknown one:

[ Malbreat’s Freeze Gem - Rank SSS ]

[ Malbreat’s Glacial Singularity - Rank SSS ]

Atlas stared at the two names, both seemed to carry something that was clearly related to cold. Glacial and Freeze both spoke of the same thing, and at a glance Atlas could tell that much, but what he couldn’t understand was why they were even cold-related Traits to begin with when the Monster itself had never shown anything like that.

Just as that thought occurred to him, something suddenly clicked in his mind.

’Maybe it’s because it died even before it could show its real attacks? Hmm...its movement was fast, but its process after each attack had seemed slow. That must be exactly why it couldn’t reveal its trump cards...’

Atlas remembered the battle again, especially that single attack where the Monster had used one hand and killed almost everyone around him. The attack itself had been terrifyingly powerful, yet after that single strike, the Monster’s movements had seemed strangely slow, almost as if something was preventing it from immediately attacking again.

Only after noticing that had Atlas decided to act. Otherwise, he would have simply fled without trying to fight it at all, but the thought of obtaining the Traits of an SSS-rank Monster had tempted him enough to take the risk. Now that he was seeing those Traits inside the Codex, he realized that his decision had been worth it.

He wanted to see something ridiculous appear inside the Book, something powerful enough that he could Assimilate it into himself and make his growth even faster. That desire had been one of the reasons he had taken the risk in the first place, even when he knew that Monster could kill him.

’Good thing I didn’t use Shadow Shift or that Artifact to flee at that time, otherwise I would have missed these...’

Atlas slowly looked at the two SSS-rank Traits again before nodding to himself. He already knew what he would do with them; once he entered another Ruin, he would Assimilate them along with Metadata. ’All that aside...why are there three more S-rank Traits? And all of them seem to match the abilities of those three from the Asfalon team...’

His eyes narrowed slightly as he shifted his gaze toward the Codex, which continued floating in front of him without the slightest concern, ’...Don’t tell me this Book can take people’s blood too? I mean, it did take my blood when I first got it, so that shouldn’t really be a surprise, but if it can take their Traits as well, then it must have taken their Bloodlines too.’

The more Atlas thought about it, the more obvious the answer became. The Codex must have taken their blood while he was unconscious, just as it had somehow absorbed whatever remained inside the spherical object dropped by the Boss.

Atlas stared at the Book for another few moments before eventually shaking his head and dismissing the matter, ’It’s doing things even without me calling it out. It’s strange, but so far it seems like everything it does only helps me rather than harming me, so I don’t really have a reason to complain about it...’

His gaze shifted back toward the Traits as another thought entered his mind, and this time there was no confusion in his expression, ”Instead, it’s a very good thing. I can now absorb the Traits of people killed by me and use them for my own growth.”

Atlas paused for a moment before continuing in the same calm tone, ”Though...it does give me a creepy feeling. I still need to use everything in my power to get stronger.”

His voice remained completely calm while he said it, without even the slightest trace of excitement or madness. That made the statement far more unsettling than if he had said it with a maniacal grin like some psychopath.

Atlas had already accepted that strength was the only thing that mattered when it came to survival, and he wasn’t going to reject a method simply because it felt disturbing. His ability to calmly turn the deaths of others into another means of growth was exactly what made him more dangerous than someone who simply enjoyed killing. He wasn’t driven by bloodlust or madness.

He was driven by pure, cold practicality.

- - -

[A/N: Sorry for the late chapter, I had to type later after a long rest and upload after the reset, I couldn’t type as I already explained my sickness slightly worsened yesterday and now it seems to stay the same...

Thanks for the support and understanding!]