With Beldum sleeping, I could only wait for the Porygon to return before I continued anything. After working all afternoon, I wasn't interested in researching my ability, At the same time I wasn't interested in sitting around doing nothing. So, it was time to start reading some of the cultivation comics I bookmarked.

  Ever since I learned I could, I've been taking useful pills when I find them however, in these comics, there were more useful things than pills. From magic items and artifacts like the 'Soft Armor' to the unique cheats that the protagonist obtains that these stories typically center around. While I can't take systems from these stories, I can take these ‘gold fingers’ as long as it's a tangible item. In doing so I added two unique pieces to my collection.

  The first of the two was a diamond-shaped mirror. It was about three inches long and had a neckce made of copper or brass. However, like the Storage Rings, I needed to figure out the quirk for how to activate it. (I guess I’ll wear it until I figure it out).

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Since the mirror didn’t work, I gave up on it for the time being.

  Moving to a different series, the other item had a simir appearance to a modern touchscreen smartphone, about 8 inches long with a white casing. It even comes with a camera on the back. But it cks a charge port. Instead, to turn it on, instead of electricity, it requires a drop of blood, which I could easily provide. Using the red blood Ki from my Bloodborn, a small red wisp came from my finger and flicked the screen.

  Once the screen turned on, currently there was only one app, with an unknown and unreadable name. According to the comic, it was beled Ant Nest and said icon looked like a chibi-looking red ant head.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Clicking into the app after a couple seconds to load, from here strangely enough this device is and isn’t applicable with my ability. If I try to touch the screen now that the terrain's loaded in, I can insert a finger or two. However, after spawning my character I cannot. Returning it to a pyable state.

  To generate your character, all it takes is another drop of blood. Flicking the screen again with the red wisp coming from my finger, a simirly blood-colored avatar spawned in. It looks like a little chibi version of the user (but red).

  My little avatar spawned standing outside a rge cave hole, which I assume is the Ant Nest.

  But more importantly, beside my avatar was a stat window! While I couldn’t read it at first, cross-referencing it with the comic and a transtion of the original novel to find what the strange characters should mean, I think it was meant to be like this:

  Name: James Dewitt

  Age: 22 years

  Lifeform level: Mortal/Ordinary

  Strength: 4

  Speed: 4

  Constitution: 9

  *Primordial Energy: 1

  *Primordial Energy Art: None

  *Primordial Energy Skills: None

  *Primordial Energy Pet: *Bloodborn

  Instead of Primordial Energy, another way to read it might be:

  Ki: 2

  Ki Art/Spell: None

  Ki Fighting Skill: None

  Pet(s): *Bloodborn

  Though I will admit that 'Primordial Energy' is likely a special type of Ki, much in the same way as what I naturally have and the Blood Ki from my Bloodborn are different.

  It was interesting to see my stats id out like that, and while I can't transte the words, it seems the system recognizes my Bloodborn as some sort of compatible pet (It's the only thing I think it could be).

  Now to py the game.

  I started by moving around and getting used to the movement system outside the cave. It took on something akin to a third-person action RPG out of a Souls-like genre. You could walk, run, jump, roll, even strafe from one side to the other. The animations were incredibly smooth and seemed to be generated in real-time.

  (This game seemed quite complex) I thought as I started into the And Nest.

  On the inside, since it’s an ant dungeon, you explore a rge sprawling intricate cave system with many branching paths. Wandering through the winding tunnels for a couple minutes I eventually stumbled upon my first encounter, a pair of Bck Ants. While chibi and quite cute, they were still rge human-sized ants! (A size bigger than my avatar). And their carapace seemed to be metallic.

  After encountering these ants, it’s not like they’re going to let you invade their home. So, you have to fight them (attempting to not die). You might be able to run away but I’m not fast enough. (I only have 4 Speed after all). And since I didn’t have any special skills, I could only do so through punching, kicking, and dodge rolling like my life depended on it. I wasn't doing any notable damage.

  "What's that?" I said as I noticed a bubble popup appear on the bottom of the screen as I was dodging the ant's rge scythe-like arms.

  Tapping the bubble a smaller simirly blood-colored spirit began floating around my character and assisted me while fighting the ants autonomously. As I watched the small spirit, enter the body of one of the ants the HP bar above its head started to drop as its lifeforce was being absorbed. Then, while I was engrossed, the other of the pair struck my Avatar from behind.

  A decent chunk of my HP disappeared as a rge ssh was made on my avatar's back. And from this rge ssh blood started to leak... and reform. I started taking bleed damage for a second before, from the wound the mass of spilled blood began moving.

  All the blood was pulled together as my avatar used it to form two more blood-red ‘arms’. These new limbs were connected to the ssh wound across his back and floated just behind him. (They even came with different controls...)

  Using these new blood limbs, I pummeled the unafflicted ant; after killing it a crisp ‘ding’ noise was released along with a notification on the top of the screen to alert that you had killed the creature. Even so, I can’t read the strange text.

  Checking the story again it seems they were called ‘Vigor Ants' and these Bck Ants appear to be the weak common mob of this area, with a rare variant of Red Ant becoming more common the deeper you went. Since I could barely handle two bck ants right now it was going to take some time to get there.

  And with my first kill, that leads to why you would bother doing all of this. Why? Besides the fact that just pying a game like this was incredibly interesting and fun. The ants or any other mob have a chance of dropping items! These drops are at best uncommon and at worst extremely rare.

  As for what they dropped there were a few things:

  First, the most common drop while still rare, was energy crystals, when used they enhance the stats of the user, the value of these crystals is dispyed by the interface, and once used higher values repce the ones dispyed on the stats window (A crystal for Strength would enhance your Strength stat, etc...) If the value is lower, instead of changing the stat value, your energy will be replenished instead. (There is a Ki bar alongside with the HP bar.)

  The second would be a pet egg. In this series, it appears that by using the eggs of these creatures they are bound to the user and can be used for a variety of things depending on the type. Each one has a main creature form and a second symbiotic form. Hatching can be done through the game to avoid issues that would come with doing so in reality. (Like dying because you don't have enough energy and vitality to complete the process).

  Lastly would be the arts and skills. These would be the most useful to me because I would finally have a way of properly utilizing Ki. But they are probably the rarest drops.

  After killing the first group of ants and finding out the incredibly immersive gamepy I was having a lot of fun being able to rex and take my mind off things. Moving around mapping out the first floor, fighting small hordes of around 3-5 with the biggest groups being around 6-7 ants at a time. Instead of going in guns bzing I would draw out a couple at a time using the blood spirit and whittle them away a couple at a time. I discovered that the little spirit restored some of my missing HP when it possessed one of the ants combining that with the continuous growth of blood whenever my avatar got attacked, all this blood(HP) was slowly being converted into attack power. I was taking some mental notes for ter use, but it didn't seem too complex. Just overwhelming them with mass (I need to try experimenting with the controls).

  After killing 31 ants, I got lucky and a special crisp *ding* sounded alerting me of a drop item: a yellow crystal. Not being able to read the floating text I didn’t know what it would be until using it.

  Before clicking it, I wrote down the strange characters from the UI on a piece of paper. Thinking I could transte the text after I got enough words.

  Tapping the crystal, the moment my avatar touched it, it immediately transformed into a flow of energy and drilled into the body. At the same time, I felt energy welling inside me outside of the game. After a moment for the sensation to fade, I checked my stats.

  Strength: 5

  After the little boost, I continued on my way killing ants here and there. Eventually, I found myself in a rger area a rge central area that was quickly gaining more ants as time passed. I was quickly trapped and surrounded by the horde meeting my first death by a thousand pincers.

  After my avatar died the screen darkened around it before there was only a bck screen, and then red characters appeared. I didn’t even need to transte to guess what they meant.

  “You Died”

  “Hehe.” I ughed flicking the screen with a wisp of blood respawning my character and continuing my exploration. (1 drop of blood = 1UP).

  I continued running around pying the game while reading more of the comic and learned a couple things. First, the default limit for the Mortal/Ordinary level stats was 9. Without boosts, you couldn't get any higher without advancing to a higher level. (It seems Heart Containers count as a boost to Constitution). Second, I could add more dungeons to the app selection by scanning certain symbols.

  After dying again and returning to the home screen, holding the phone inside the comic I felt it vibrate as a new Camera App immediately appeared on the screen (it wasn't there before). Holding it up towards the strange four-fingered hand that sat on a rge gate old gate, a green square appeared locking onto the symbol, the screen began to blur before a “Loading…” circle started to process.

  Spoiler

  They all look like this in the comic.

  [colpse]Taking a minute for the progress bar to load, the symbol turned into a new icon, a chibi round skull. Appearing right next to the Chibi ant head. Seeing the strange characters dispyed below the icon, in the comic it was called the Ancient City.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Pulling the phone back from the screen, and clicking the new app, I was spawned outside of a rge ominous Ancient Chinese gateway, and said gateway was already open and ready for exploration.

  Entering the gates, the surrounding area was a main pathway through a rge sprawling ancient oriental city. Winding stone streets and dipidated antique housing were the main attractions.

  After walking around for a bit, I found the new enemies of this location, Skeleton Soldiers. However, the chibi little models made them quite cute, almost comical. Even with red dots piercing through their empty eye sockets, and blue fmes burning in their chests. Or the various bone-based weaponry that varied from one individual to another. Their heads were big to the point of comedy those wearing helmets looked more like hats.

  Running around killing the skeletons turned out to be easier than the ants. They seemed to have lower stats overall, I could kill one with a punch or two. But, because their equipment was random, some of them spawned with swords or maces. The swords were my preference for an early buildup of blood while the maces just took a chunk out of my HP if I got hit. (I am weak to bludgeoning). And My Bloodborn was useless against them since they had undead bodies.

  After several minutes advancing down old streets not earning any rewards (The drop rate here sucks!), I stumbled upon a horde of skeletons, and in its center was a unique variant. A Skeleton General, it was adorned with fancy more fitting armor, mounted atop an equally dressed skeletal steed and equipped with a nce.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]The moment it saw me, a shrieking sound effect pyed. I didn't even have time to react before it appeared right in front trusting its nce into my avatar. A burst of red light released from a hole through my avatar's torso. I died on the spot.

  “You Died”

  END

  Spoilerkidmonkey94

  The mirror is a secret, but the other is Let Me Game in Peace/I Just Want to Game in Peace. Sadly, the comic is dead and hasn’t been updated in some time.

  Anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc...

  LINKS:

  SpoilerNU Link

  "Better link"

  Comic

  [colpse][colpse]