Chapter 141: Bloodborne Monarch

He could not deny it.The worlds beyond the portal were nothing short of creative. The castle of finite doorways, the purple forest, and now the bloodscape.

Although this place looked like something straight out of a nightmare, it was still interesting, even beautiful, in an ominous and deeply unsettling way.

The sky was red as blood. There was no sun, but the sky shone with a bright crimson illumination that radiated across the entire land, bathing everything beneath it in an eerie and oppressive glow.

The ground below was shiny as well, glistening faintly beneath the crimson light. It almost looked tiled, yet it retained just enough roughness to make walking possible without slipping.

Nonetheless, according to research and individual reports gathered from thousands of hunters, the more beautiful a world appeared, the more chaotic and dangerous it usually became.

And this bloodscape was no exception.

While the crimson light above was bright and radiant, it came with a curse known as Red Fever.

What this curse entailed was simple but cruel. When a hunter suffered an open injury, no amount of healing powers or healing potions would be able to properly close the wound.

Instead, the more they attempted to heal it, the more intense and unbearable the pain became.

In other words, if one sustained any form of injury in this place, they were better off enduring it rather than trying to heal it.

This restriction alone drastically reduced their collective combat power.

Health, in this world, also functioned as stamina. The lower one’s HP dropped, the more sluggish and unresponsive their body became.

As a result, everyone present was badly wounded.

When Marlon arrived, he found his clones desperately defending two hunters. One of them was the arrogant summoner.

The other hunter, a melee-type talent user, was missing a hand entirely, while the summoner had a deep, sharp wound carved into his shoulder. From a brief observation, it appeared to have been caused by vicious claws.

Both of them winced repeatedly, their expressions twisted in pain. They were so focused on enduring the agony that they failed to notice the sudden change in the situation around them.

Marlon shifted his gaze toward the monsters his clones were fighting.

They were humanoid in shape, and just like this dimension itself, they were covered in thick red scales from head to toe. Their eyes glowed with a sharp, blood-red light that radiated hostility.

There were more than a dozen of them, and they were extremely nimble on their feet. Even his clones found it difficult to keep up with their speed.

Marlon smirked.

This was the perfect opportunity to use his new skills.

However, there was one problem.

[ ERROR! Insufficient Aether Points ]

He was completely out of AP.

"Crap..." he cursed under his breath.

He had exhausted everything back in the Iceland. Overwhelmed by excitement at testing his newly acquired skills, he had rushed straight into this place without giving his aether points enough time to recover.

To make matters worse, he no longer had any aether potions left.

Turning his attention to the two wounded hunters, Marlon spoke.

Amidst their pain, both of them froze when they heard one of the clones speak. They exchanged confused glances with one another before turning back to stare at him in disbelief.

"This is the real me," Marlon sighed, correcting their misunderstanding.

Their confusion only deepened.

Wasn’t Marlon supposed to be with Sandra and her group? Why was he here instead?

"I don’t have time to explain what’s happening," he said impatiently. "I need aether potions. If you have any, speak now and stop gawking at me."

Hearing the frustration in his voice, they finally accepted that this was truly him.

"I have some mid-grade aether potions," the summoner said through clenched teeth, clearly enduring immense pain.

"Good. Give them to me."

The summoner frowned at the rudeness, but he knew better than to argue. At this moment, Marlon was their only hope, so he quickly handed them over.

Marlon took the aether potions and gulped them down in one go.

In an instant, half of his aether points were restored.

Tossing the empty vials aside, he lazily activated Swap, exchanging locations with one of the clones currently engaged in battle against the redlings.

The moment he arrived—

"Venom Quake."

With a verbal activation, a vast amount of misty, venomous green energy wrapped tightly around his fist. With a swift and decisive motion, he slammed his punch into the ground.

The instant his fist connected, an explosive boom echoed through the area. A powerful wave of venomous energy surged outward, spreading across a wide radius in a perfect circular motion.

Dozens of damage indicators flooded his vision as the redlings were violently hurled several meters away.

Each number exceeded thirty thousand units of damage.

The redlings’ total health did not even come close to that value, and as a result, every single one of them died instantly.

What followed was a barrage of notifications announcing their deaths.

[ You’ve slayed x1 Redling, EXP + ]

[ Drain activated, you’ve obtained 500 Aether Points ]

[ You’ve slayed x1 Redling, EXP + ]

...

[ Drain activated, you’ve obtained talent – Bloodborne Monarch (B) ]

[ Would you like to awaken this talent now or store it as an awakening crystal and awaken later? ]

[ You’ve unlocked special effect: Lucky Bloody Hero; Your EXP gain in the Bloodscape is multiplied by x3 ]

However, what truly caught Marlon’s attention was the reward he obtained for eliminating such a large number of enemies in such a short span of time, as well as the talent itself.

"Lovely."

A thrilled expression appeared on his face.

A special effect that multiplied his experience points and a new talent at the same time.

He had really hit the jackpot.

Nonetheless, he decided to store the talent in his inventory first and awaken it later.

Beside him, the summoner and the remaining hunter stood frozen in shock after witnessing how a group of monsters that had caused them grave injuries were wiped out in an instant.

It felt as though they had just witnessed the greatest plot twist of their lives.

===

Dealing with the bloodscape was a walk in the park for Marlon.

It was even fun, if he had to be honest.

He easily slayed wave after wave of redlings with a single skill—Venom Burst.

He came to love the skill, even though it had only been a few hours since he acquired it.

He only used Fear twice, but since he didn’t give any of the monsters the opportunity to properly enter combat with him, he did not derive much joy from using it.

But standing in front of the boss of the portal, a smile appeared on his face.

"I think I might use it after all,"

He muttered to himself.

The boss was humanoid, just like the redlings.

It was about six feet tall and had a slender and muscular build. Its skin possessed more luster than the redlings, and unlike the others, this one had long black hair cascading down from its shoulders.

It also seemed to possess higher intelligence.

Judging solely from the look it exchanged with him, that much was clear.

But unlike the Aurax, it could not speak.

To express its dismay, it began shrieking in an indecipherable, animalistic sound.

There was rage in its eyes as it stared at Marlon.

But Marlon remained unfazed.

"Inspect."

Red King

Race: Blood Born

Threat Level: C+

Talent: Bloodborne Monarch (A)

Health: 100%

Noting everything he needed, a smile crept onto his face.

The Red King continued shrieking in its enraged language and even stepped closer, but Marlon did not mind.

And when the Red King was close enough, he activated Fear.

In an instant, the arrogant Red King froze on the spot.

Its face turned a pale shade of red, and its eyes widened with nothing but dread as its body began to shiver uncontrollably.

Unlike with the redlings, Marlon gave the Red King the opportunity to recover from the initial shock, which should last for about thirty seconds, before the attack power and composure reduction effects kicked in.

And true to his expectations, the boss attacked.

With dread and a desperate determination to survive in its eyes, it lifted its hands and activated its magic.

Several blood-forged spears formed midair and blasted toward Marlon.

While the blood-forged spears rained down on him, the Red King followed up with additional blood-based magic attacks.

Blades, chains, and spikes condensed from crimson energy, converging toward Marlon from multiple angles and leaving almost no room to evade.

But Marlon remained unfazed.

He avoided all of them with ease, even using the residual waves of energy from Venom Burst to disperse several attacks.

While evading, he gradually shortened the distance between himself and the Red King, causing it to shiver even harder and take cautious steps backward.

But that alone was not enough to save it.

With a single divine punch, it was all over.

And fortunately, he got what he was looking for.

[ Drain activated, you’ve obtained talent – Bloodborne Monarch (A) ]

[ Would you like to awaken this talent now or store it as an awakening crystal? ]