[Congratulations Nathan Orion on your first blood class evolution!

You are now a Blood Baron.

You have received one new boon for Evolving:

Hidden Mind (I) (Passive): This is a mental skill.

This skill protects the wielder from all sorts of mental manipulation and mind reading. It is a passive skill and therefore doesn't require any effort from the wielder.]

Hidden Mind.

Nathan couldn't even comprehend what the hell a Berserker like him was supposed to do with a skill like that. For one, his entire Archetype relied on being able to hit things and monsters hard and fast without taking any or much damage, and now the system was out here giving him a skill that protected him from attacks.

Bullshit. That was Nathan's verdict on the whole thing. Of the endless posse that had permeated himself from the beginning, there'd never been a version of him that had assumed he'd ever get a mental-related skill. What was he, a priest?

At that moment, if Nathan could've cursed, he would've, but every inch and part of him was exhausted. His throat felt raw even though he'd been unable to scream during the entire process of having to evolve; his body had felt like it'd been dipped in bubbling magma.

Mental defense.

Nathan hesitated a little at the thought. If there were mental attacks, then what exactly were normal people without this type of skill supposed to do about it? In fact, what did mental attacks actually entail? Was it the type of skill that'd make people run mad or go crazy, or maybe mental attacks were more subtle?

Right there still, covered in what had to be dried blood, Nathan realized the system might've just granted him a boon, one that he might've not known he needed. It was just like a farmer who'd used a hoe all his life being gifted a tractor and wondering what exactly the machine was supposed to help achieve.

That was Nathan right there. Besides, the rest of his skills were already tied in with his Class, Blood Pa— Baron. Blood Baron, he shook his head at the mid-thought correction, the motion causing him to wince a little as his body was still suffering from the aftermath of the pain.

Blood Baron.

A triumphant grin replaced his wince. The thought of upgrading alone was enough to make him joyous. He was partly sure that the increase in his potential and the boon weren't the only things that the system had given him after he'd evolved, but it seemed like most other things, the full benefits eluded him.

Plus, it didn't hurt that his new class name sounded badass like crazy, making him wonder a little bit if he'd rushed to judge the earlier class — Blood Pawn. Sure, the class had a terrible name or title going by the looks of things, but it was a great class, a rare one, and if he was to believe the system, then it was a class that could potentially make the jump to Legendary.

"...than, Nathan!" a voice boomed.

The sound snapped him back into reality, disorienting him a little bit since everywhere had initially been really quiet, no sound leaving the room since he'd come awake after evolving. The trio of Ciara, Pirlo, and Ruben were still in his face, screaming — well, Ciara and Ruben were — the only difference between then and now was that before Nathan couldn't hear them even from close range, and now he could hear them very clearly.

The little issue was that now Nathan could clearly hear two people screaming at him, a person whose entire bodily functions had all been nonexistent a couple of minutes ago. His hearing had just returned, and right off the bat, his ears were being assaulted by shouts. With a wince, he raised up a single hand to signal the pair of screamers to chill a bit.

"A mi-nu-te pl-ease," Nathan muttered tiredly.

He wanted to curse at the pair — no need to include Pirlo — for screaming at him, but he had to agree that standing in the cabin, caked in dried blood and probably reeking of the same fluid was always going to cause a stir. The fact he'd been temporarily mute and dumb was also a cause for concern, so their reaction was actually valid.

It kind of made sense that Pirlo was the fastest to get up to speed; the intense teen's entire mojo hinged on him being the fastest in everything and, more often than not, the brashest. The rogue was smart, obviously, but the teen preferred to handle things with his weapons first, just like Nathan. He was more ruthless when it came to killing, which was part of the reason Nathan had picked the rogue over Ruben for the upcoming voyage.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Plus, we might've had to fight if I'd have picked Ruben over him.

Nathan wasn't scared of the rogue, but the intense gaze behind the teen's mind was one of the few things that made him realize they were more alike than he'd initially thought. In fact, the first time he'd seen the rogue, he'd assumed they had nothing in common, especially since the rogue had just stolen his kill. He'd instantly labeled him a vulture.

With a ghost of a smile, he came to the conclusion that if he and Pirlo went toe to toe, he'd probably kill the rogue, but he didn't doubt for a second that the wiry teen would put up a good fight. Heck, Pirlo would put up a spectacle, but at the moment Nathan was so far ahead that Pirlo was beneath him.

"Uh... Earth to Nathan, Nathan to earth," Ruben said, the Berserker's pitch back to normal. "I don't know, Ciara, I think he might've jerked himself a little bit too much."

This guy...

"Brooo," Nathan protested, too flustered to put up a proper defense.

In Nathan's defense, the accusation that the Berserker had just casually thrown at him was so bizarre and weird that his mind hadn't even seen it coming. Not even in a million years. It was funny too, evidenced by the laughter that erupted in the cabin. Hell, even Pirlo was cracking a smile at the inappropriate joke.

"Oh, no need to hide it, Nathan. It happens," Ruben said, winking at him, his words causing another round of laughter.

"I did not... JERK off!" Nathan said, embarrassed.

"Come on, there's no need to hide it. You're covered in blood and you weren't in a fight," Ruben pointed out.

"And that was your first assumption, that I jerked off? What in the hell is the correlation between the two?"

"Well, you've always been obsessed with blood..." Ruben said. "It just makes sense, Nate. Of course you shoot out blood, no judgment from my end."

Nathan face-palmed, more to hide the embarrassment on his face than because of the absurdity of the Berserker's words. The rest of the squad didn't seem to have his mindset though. They were all openly laughing at him, content at the leader of their faction being the butt of their joke.

Even Diane and Tasha were in on it, the pair chuckling with a palm over their mouths. Ciara was laughing so hard at the absurd statements by Ruben that he feared her sides would burst.

Oh well, that one has been brewing for a while.

Of course Ruben was going to eventually land a golden joke considering how much the Berserker talked. It was only a matter of time, after all — there were only so many combinations of words the Berserker could make.

"I don't shoot out blood," Nathan said exasperatedly. "Also, don't ask me any follow-up questions on that."

"Damn, Nate. You're such a... Jerk," Ruben said, the Berserker bursting into hard laughter, the rest of the squad joining him.

Nathan simply rolled his eyes at the immature act and let the rest of the squad get it out of their system. After all, it didn't affect him in any way, and it would be good to relieve the tension that had probably occupied the room when they'd seen him on the floor covered in his own blood.

"Okay, now I'm done," Ruben wheezed, clutching his side as he let out his last chuckle.

"Great, now we can actually turn to the new thing that we are supposed to do with our lives," Nathan breathed. "Ciara, what's the update on the mine?"

"Well, we checked it out and it's definitely defendable. I think the three of us left at camp can handle the task and still hit dungeons," Ciara replied.

"Nice," Nathan said. "Anyone know how much Tora we're going to need to run the ship?"

"Uhh... I'll run the calculation. It's a Racron ship, the cheapest of the compressible ships, so it shouldn't take too much. Maybe a few hundred ore to run the ship per month," Ruben replied.

"You, you are going to calculate that?" Nathan asked with a raised brow.

"Aye, sure. I might talk a lot but I have a great brain between my ears," Ruben said.

Highly doubt it.

"Sureee," Nathan said hesitantly. "I'll leave that to you. The rest of you guys have to start preparing. I don't know what exactly we're going to see on this voyage, but I need you guys to prepare for the worst, mentally and physically."

Nods went around the squad. In that moment, grim smiles were the common feature on every single person present in the cabin. Heck, even the bunny, which had patches of its fur covered in Nathan's blood, was silent and at attention, not pulling off any of its numerous attention-grabbing antics.

"It'll be cold, so try to wash whatever piece of salvageable clothing you can get from the pile of miner clothes," Nathan continued. "We're traveling by sea, with no idea of what's underwater and without a definite destination in mind. We're out of our depth, risking our lives in hopes that there's something for us out there. Let me make this clear: apart from the people in this room right now, we have no friends, no family. There is no telling what the apocalypse has done to those we love. The new reality has changed us and will most definitely change them too."

He went face to face, not moving on until the person he was focused on gave him a nod to indicate that they understood the stakes involved in their little excursion. He'd done his best to explain it as he himself understood it. Maybe he wasn't the most experienced with the matter, but he'd grown up in uncertain conditions; he'd worked uncertain scores for Sparrow, so he wasn't new to the feeling raking through him.

"Ciara, I'll be delegating the rulership of Blood Rock to you. I assume you know what that means."

"Yes."

"Good. I'll be transferring some funds to the account. Do with it whatever you think is necessary for the survival of you guys staying back on the island," Nathan said before turning to Ruben. "Dude, let's cut the jokes. For a moment, I need to know — can I trust you with protecting them?"

"With my life, Nate," Ruben replied.

Nathan stared at the face of the Berserker, trying to find any hint of unseriousness, but he didn't. For the first time since he'd met the Berserker, the teen was serious, totally focused and determined, almost like an amateur replication of Pirlo's demeanor. But he'd take it; after all, Ruben was competent regardless of his personality. Confirming that the Berserker was reliable, he brought out the second bag of holding, belonging to the Dead Commander, and a single compressed black box.

"Ciara, this bag of holding is yours. We'll need Tora ore, so I suggest that you move the food in the compressed vat to the bag of holding and then fill the vat with Tora ore," Nathan said as he passed both storage items to the mage, who nodded in response.

"Good, I guess that's all. I'll go wash now," Nathan breathed. "Tomorrow, we ship out."

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