Marcus finally came to, groaning as he opened his eyes, muscles feeling sore and heavy. He lifted himself into a sitting position and massaged his arms and legs.

He looked around, taking in his surroundings. It was a nice and tranquil morning, however, was absent of human civilisation. There were no ports or any clear signs of human habitation. Marcus saw a tree branch about the size of a human, and hobbled over to it, picking it up and using it as a walking stick to get around.

After a few minutes of getting used to walking with the stick, Marcus went to see shelter for the coming night. He needed somewhere to collect his thoughts, as his memories seemed to be void of how he got here.

Finally, Marcus found what he was looking for. It was a deep cave, seemingly endless, however looked very solid, and would be somewhere for him to spend the night. Taking a mental note of its location, Marcus went out to collect food, water, and firewood. Whilst he wasn’t a master at survival, he had been hunting several times, and was able to keep a clear head in these kinds of situations.

After a few hours of work, Marcus had collected a large pile of firewood and a small feast of berries. He knew they weren’t poisonous as he had seen a small fox eating the exact same species of berries slightly earlier. Now he just needed water.

An issue Marcus had noticed was figuring out where he would store the water he collected, however his answers were answered when he saw a pack of large blowfish, however Marcus had noticed they weren’t poisonous after they bumped into several other fish that were travelling up the same stream. The wildlife seemed to be friendly with each other and didn’t seem to have adapted much to protect themselves from predators of the sort.

Marcus took out his hunting knife and prepared to take out a blowfish as it passed him in the stream. After a few minutes, Marcus found his target, and focused all its attention on its movements. As it leapt out of the water, Marcus struck at it, swinging his knife with all his force.

He missed. Marcus was shocked. He had been certain that his weapon had contacted the animal, but somehow it had missed.

Marcus readied himself for another try, focusing himself on the movements of the next blowfish to arrive. It leapt up into the air again, and Marcus stabbed his knife at it, but where the fish was meant to have landed, there was nothing. The fish had spun in the air, landed on his head, and bounced off, continuing its journey. Marcus was perplexed, but after a few minutes of recollecting his thoughts, realised what the fish had done. It had rotated its centre of mass to the side, spinning its fall slightly to the right and landing on Marcus’s head rather than where the weapon was.

The fish had seemed defenceless at first, but after trying to take its life, Marcus realised the animals here were a lot more skilled than they let on. Marcus decided this would be a great place to train, and to learn the animal’s movements and mimic them himself.

Marcus spent a few more hours there, further learning the movements of the fish by stabbing at them as they leapt, before finally feeling confident enough to try hit it himself. The fish leapt up towards him, and yet again turned as Marcus stabbed at it.

By a reflex trained through hours of training, Marcus span his wrist at the fish, grazing its sides and knocking it out the water. The fish flopped on the spot a few times, before falling lifeless on the side. Marcus slit a hole in it, and cleaned out its insides, removing its organs, entrails, and blue blood. After finally thinking he had cleaned it enough, Marcus turned it inside out, leaving it to dry. Whilst it dried, Marcus stripped down, washing his clothes which had been muddied throughout the day. He also cleaned and sharpened his weapons with a flint he carried around with him.

He was proud of how fast his weapon usage had come along in just a few hours, but little did he know that if any sword fighters had seen his footwork and wrist play, they’d have flipped. Marcus’s attacks had become unpredictable, leaving minimal trace of his intentions, and leaving nearly no time for reactions.

After the blowfish finally dried, Marcus turned it back inside and filled it with water, closing off the fish by taking a thin needle used for rune engraving and stabbing it through the gap. Marcus headed back to the cave he had found earlier and sat down for a meal. He washed the berries he had fount with water he had just collected, and ate until he was full, but looking at the number of berries left, he realised he had barely eaten anything. Now that he had taken care of all his bodily needs, Marcus decided to explore the cave he had just found. He struck two rocks together to start a fire, then spread the fire onto a stick, creating a torch. Marcus carried a small bundle of reserve sticks for when his current one burned out.

He made his way through the cave, initially finding nothing, but the further he went in, the more he could feel a tugging sensation from his core.

After another 10 minutes of walking, Marcus had gone through 3 sticks, and had 12 left. The tugging sensation had only strengthened since before, and he could now feel it guiding him through the cave. After a while, Marcus had fallen into a trance, eyes turning pitch black, and the stick he had used for a torch had completely burned out, falling to cinders along the floor.

Still under a trance, Marcus arrived at an opening to a large cavern with grass and fauna growing sporadically around him. He effortlessly moved towards the centre of it, calmly striking down any vines in his way and arriving at a large stone monolith in the middle.

A large winged serpent flew down, mouth wide open and prepared to devour Marcus, breathing out a green haze of breath, corroding everything it touched out of existence. Marcus raised his hand, forming a 10 metre long sabre made of a dark energy, and waved it towards the breath of the beast, turning the green haze into a black one that flowed towards Marcus, strengthening his body even more. Marcus then waved the sabre towards the beast, slicing off one of its wings.

The beasts face was turned to fear as it spiralled towards the ground, its blood freely flowing through the air, before also turning into a black mist and joining Marcus’s body like its breath attack earlier. Marcus’s Vis energy had skyrocketed since being possessed by the beast at the black market, and he had now reached the Diamond II Rank. He was now stronger than most living beings and could contest in a fight with many strong ones. Diamond was still weaker than Platinum but was stronger than Gold.

Marcus leapt up into the air and landed besides the wounded beast. It whimpered in submission, asking for mercy in exchange for eternal service.

Marcus didn’t even listen to what it had to say, using his sabre to sever the beasts other wing, eyes, skinned its scales, and took its heart. Marcus then opened his mouth, opening the door to a terrifying void absent of any life. The parts Marcus had turned the beast into were absorbed into Marcus’s mouth, strengthening him even more.

The beast had been a Platinum III ranked beast, strong enough to destroy a large city with just its breath. If it broke out into the world, it would take several hundred of some of the strongest warriors in the military to take down, and yet it had been taken down in such a short time in such an effortless manner.

Marcus then leapt towards the monolith, avoiding the sudden firing of several poison darts, and arriving before the monolith.

Around the monolith, there were piles of several hundreds and thousands of platinum pieces, each worth a hundred gold pieces. Marcus put his hand on the monolith, and using the void absorption ability yet again, moved the symbols on the monolith in several complicated rotations and movements. After a few minutes, the massive Black monolith began to disintegrate, broken pieces surrounding the still possessed Marcus. The particles began to enter Marcus’s body, and at this same moment, Marcus regained his consciousness, returning to the Marcus known to the world.

“W-where am I?”

< System activated. Welcome host, to your newfound power. >

< Download beginning now. Please brace yourself for a whole load of pain. >

And after that? Pain. And a whole lot of it.