God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

{+20 to Perception...}

{You have received an Epic-grade Weapon, Hand of Stingè}.

***

Cain ignored the stream of messages flooding his field of vision as he stumbled onto his back, his heart pounding wildly.

'Well, that went swell?'

A groan escaped his lips as a wild burning sensation filled his vision. This was a result of overdrawing on his mana in such a short period of time. His mana pool was empty, and his {Mana Heart} trembled violently.

This was always what happened when he used up his mana to dangerous levels too quickly. Although it was inconvenient and uncomfortable, he found himself doing it more often than he would have liked.

Thankfully, the consequences were limited to just a few moments of pain...

Cain focused on the person that was curled up into a ball on his chest. Feeling the subtle heat radiating from her made him want to just lay there for a while, but now wasn't the time for resting...

He sat up with a groan while Ignis frantically stood up to her feet...

Cain let out a tired sigh...

"Let's get moving..." He said as he slowly stood to his feet.

Ignis stared at him for a while with a dark look on her face,

"That was reckless. We both could have died very easily."

Cain merely shrugged, "We got out of it fine, didn't we?"

Then he shook his head, "Now's not the time for conversation. The explosion drew the attention of a few aether beasts. Let's get going..."

With that, he killed any chances of continuing the conversation by spinning on his heels and running back to the cave silently.

'Damn! That was close!'

Internally, he was just relieved he wasn't dead yet. The scale and magnitude of destruction brought about by his augmented skill he was now going to be calling {Black Sun} was far beyond what he had previously imagined.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a skill he could use every time. Unlike system-assisted skills, this one couldn't be activated instantly and would require a considerable amount of time for the build-up. Something he couldn't spare during a high-paced battle.

Cain quickly shifted his attention to the new weapon he had gotten from the creature he had killed.

Sitting in a corner of his inventory, were a pair of black, curved shortswords, commonly referred to as scimitars. On their hilts, the image of a dying manticore was engraved in onyx. The grey runes running across the length of the blade made him pause as he had never seen runes like those before.

'They must be advanced tier-runes and unique ones at that...'

Cain had seen his fair share of the ancient language. He had learned the most basic of the runic language and how to use his Ki to etch these patterns onto metal to upgrade the power and utility of the {Metal Manipulation} skill.

Shaking the useless thoughts out of his head, Cain quickly took a look at their description.

***

{Hand of Stingè}:

Description: Blood flows from everything Stingè touches. To appease his mother, Leonis, the Blood Dragon, Stingè offers the freshly drained blood of his victims to his mother, but is brutally cast aside and rejected. As such, he grows resentful...

{Hand of Stingè}: (Deadly)

Strength: 40.

Agility: 150.

Defense: -40.

Control: 2.0

Weight: 30.

Durability: 300/300.

Skills: Lacerate, Flurry, Blood Restitution, Hand of Stingè.

{Lacerate}(passive): The Hand of Stinger draws blood violently. Increases the amount of blood when the user delivers a cut successfully.

{Flurry}(passive): These light blades are swift and deadly. Attack speed increases by 30% when in use.

{Blood Restitution)(passive): Absorbs the blood energy of a dying victim and grants it to the user, healing wounds and cleansing fatigue.

{Hand of Stingè}(passive): Stingè's place is on the battlefield. He was born to kill by the sword, and then, die by its edge. However, as the perfect spawn of the battlefield, death is nothing but a non-existent privilege. The more enemies slain, the deeper the bloodlust.

***

Cain was surprised by a few things...

Not only were the weapons Deadly-grade just like his {White Claw} and {Black Claw}, but they also had four passive skills attached to them.

They were different from his former weapons because they were not different. Although the black and white claws had the same origins, they weren't the same. The {Hand of Stingè} on the other hand were one and the same.

Cain felt eager to use them...

While he did enjoy using {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}, it wasn't as convenient as using lighter weapons. They also didn't siphon large amounts of his energy with each use.

Cain had a feeling he was going to love his new weapons...

Soon, he and Ignis had arrived at the cave silently. Standing in front of the naturally formed cave were Susan and Jenny who both had looks of intrigue and suspicion on their faces.

"Uhmm... Who is that?" Susan asked, pointing at Ignis with a confused expression.

Without waiting for Cain to respond, Ignis greeted both ladies with a slight bow,

"My name is Ignis. It is a pleasure to meet you, Humans."

Cain blinked rapidly, 'Damn! This definitely isn't how it's supposed to be, right?'

Recalling his first encounter with Ignis and how she had almost sunk her teeth into his flesh, Cain shivered. This was definitely not the same creature he was dealing with.

"Nice to meet you. My... My name is Susan. This is Jenny. How did you get to know him?" Susan said, pointing an accusatory glare at Cain.

'I'm innocent, damn it!'

Cain let out a sigh, "Alright, cut it out. She is a contracted creature I acquired on my previous journey." Cain said, not wanting to go into too much detail.

Jenny raised a brow, "Last journey? What exactly were you up to?"

'A whole bunch of stuff...' Cain thought but just answered with a silent shrug as he was too tired to explain anything.

Meanwhile, Ignis glared at him, "Who are you calling a creature?! If anything, you are the creature here." She finished with a sneer.

Cain rolled his eyes...

He really wasn't in the mood to begin picking fights. There was so much to do and his mind was occupied with the stress of what was about to come. As such, his mood was quickly becoming sour.

"Cut it out, would you?"

Shaking his head, Cain turned to Jenny and Susan,

"There is more to it than that, but we don't have time for idle chitchat right now. We need to start moving... The main communication module of the horde is down. All we need to do is somehow make our way through the sea of creatures."

"Is that where you ran off too? You could have told us, you know..." Jenny said with a deep frown.

Cain had no answer for this... At the time, he didn't think it was necessary or even helpful to inform them of what he would be doing. However, now, he realized he could have done things differently. But now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

"It went by without a hitch, so you guys didn't need to worry. Like I said, if any danger really comes up, I'll just run."

They both looked at him with displeasure for a while before they both laughed simultaneously. Then they stared at him with faces that screamed, 'So what next?'

Cain grinned, "Now let's get to the fun part..."

"Fun part?" Ignis echoed, completely oblivious to what was to come.

"Hehehe..." Cain simply chuckled.

He then pointed at the distant large land mass. Even though the distance between them was great, it wasn't a problem to see what was happening on it with their high perception stats. The entire body of land was covered in bodies of large, bloodthirsty beasts.

Some of them lay motionless on the ground, others absorbed the rich aether, while others engaged in varying levels of combat that ranged from what Cain could only call a friendly skirmish, to full-blown death battles.

"You want us to get onto that thing?" Ignis asked after a moment of silence.

"We need to cross over to the other side, actually. That means we will have to fight a straight line through it."

'He's insane!' Ignis couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had heard numerous things in her life, but never had she ever heard of something like suicide disguised as a 'plan'.

"What did I say about suicidal orders?!" Ignis said with a growl.

Cain shit her a sideways glance, "This isn't suicidal. I know what I'm doing."

She was a bit put off by his confidence, "And what makes you so sure of that?"

"I do..."

The short statement was razed, but Cain believed it wholeheartedly. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but he knew he could. The only thing stopping him was whether he was willing or not. Everything else took the back burner.

Ignis stared at him for a while, " You are different from what I first thought. Turns out not all humans are the same."

"Hm?" Cain was about to ask her what she meant but was cut off.

"If we are going to follow your suicidal plan, the least we can do is get some rest after that battle."

Moving past Jenny and Susan with a passive face, she walked into the cave.

"I need to absorb some flame mana to recover, so I won't be done for a while." She said, before moving to a dark corner of the cave and settling into her business.

Cain had given her all the remaining flame elemental mana shards with him. He also bought a few more from the system. However, there was a limit to the amount of it he could buy, so he settled for what he could get.

He had then given them to her, who, much to his surprise, also had an inventory. Seeing his surprise at this made her raise a brow in surprise as well.

"What? Why do you seem so surprised? Everyone has one, I think..."

This bit of information was new to him. This meant that the benefits of the system weren't unique to humans. He knew that while Ruby had access to the system, she couldn't use it the exact same way humans could. He had stupidly assumed it would be the same way for Ignis.

While he was consumed with his thoughts, he noticed Susan and Jenny still staring at him,

"What?" He asked obviously.

Jenny wanted to reply but was cut short by Susan who simply glared at him,

"I wonder how many more women you are hiding under your belt." She said spitefully. Spinning on her heels, she walked briskly back into the cave. Jenny followed her with a half-amused, half-concerned expression.

"What was that all about?" Cain wallowed in his confusion for some time before he continued with his thoughts.

So many new things had come to light...

Many more things had been destroyed, but he had gained others...

He had discovered old knowledge because he had come across new ones. He was on a journey he hoped would be brief, but there really was no telling what direction the winds of fate would blow.

However, he could feel that this was only the start of a very entertaining show.

And he was placed right in the middle of it...