Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

For the next few days, Atlas had only one goal in mind, and that was to grow stronger as fast as he could.

To do that, he had to clear the Hollow-Rank Ruins that were allowed to him, take blood, take the strange Spirit residue that gave Traits, and while doing all of this, he planned to increase all his Attributes by +1 each day. He did not know how long he would be able to keep increasing them like this, but as long as the Codex accepted the numbers, he had no reason to stop.

And he did exactly that.

He cleared three ruins back to back in three days and got Uncommon-grade relics from them. He sold those relics to the Guild because they were not that valuable to him. If a relic had no direct use for his current growth, no special function, and no connection to the Codex or his future weapon plan, then keeping it would only make his bag heavier and attract more questions later.

What was valuable to him was the fight itself.

Each time he fought, he learned. He experienced combat against monsters with different movement patterns, different bodies, and different ways of attacking. Some monsters attacked from blind spots, some rushed directly, some used Spirit pressure, and some relied on claws, fangs, poison, or speed. Even when the monsters were not strong enough to kill him anymore, they still helped him understand his body better.

He increased his Attributes, tested his Traits, and felt the control over each Trait becoming smoother than before. Qield’s Horn no longer burst out with too much force every time he used it. Regenerative Hide reacted faster to shallow wounds. Spirit Claw could be released in smaller shapes instead of wide slashes. Spirit Poison also became easier to keep near his skin instead of letting it spread uselessly.

While he was learning combat more and more, he also tried to collect Traits from the blood and Spirit residue of the monsters. Though he tried to collect every monster’s Trait, he could not.

Most of the monster types were the same inside two of the three ruins. Even the Boss Monster’s type was the same, only its Trait was one rank higher than those low-ranked monsters. Sometimes the Sanguis Stylus absorbed the blood and residue, but the Codex did not record anything new. Atlas guessed that either the Trait was already recorded in a similar form, or the monster’s body did not have anything useful enough for the Codex to write down.

He did not fully understand the rule yet.

But he was slowly learning.

Atlas did not assimilate those Traits as soon as he got them. He planned to assimilate them all together with the remaining Traits he had left from Ormolio too. Assimilating inside the wrong place could create a reaction, and he did not want to repeat any mistake near the Guild or anywhere people could sense him. So for now, he only stored them and continued clearing ruins.

And as he cleared more and more ruins each day, his name started to spread among the lower-ranked explorers.

”It’s the fifth day, right? He cleared a total of five Hollow-Rank Ruins already...”

A C-Rank explorer murmured to his party member while Atlas stood in front of the mission screen, looking through the Hollow-Rank Ruin list.

”Hm, his name was Atlas Crosswood, right? Leader, let’s invite him to our party. He might be the key to our next expedition into the Abyss-Rank Ruin...”

A B-Rank member spoke to their leader, who was an A-Rank explorer.

The A-Rank leader shook his head and spoke, ”No, He won’t join. Do you think I haven’t tried recruiting him?”

”Oh... such a shame.”

”Tch...”

Atlas heard their murmurs, but he ignored them.

His focus remained on the ruins.

Again and again, one after another, he cleared ruins each day. Each time he went inside and came back, there was a visible change in him. His physical instincts changed, and every fight honed his movement and reaction beyond what he had been capable of only a few days ago.

At first, his body had moved with too much force after every Attribute increase. His steps cracked stone, his strikes destroyed more than needed, and his Spirit attacks wasted too much output. But as the days passed, his body began to understand the new standard. He learned how much strength was needed to break a monster’s bones without destroying the wall behind it, how much Agility was needed to dodge without overshooting, and how much Spirit was needed to activate a Trait without draining himself too quickly.

His routine became simple.

He went into ruins, killed monsters, let the Sanguis Stylus absorb their blood and Spirit residue, checked if any new Traits appeared, collected whatever relics or materials remained, then returned to the Guild.

If the relic was not valuable or useful, he sold it.

If the Guild gave him extra reward for full clearing, he accepted it.

He noticed that Seraphiel also did not came to the Guild after that talk, though he didn’t care if she came or not.

After that, he returned to the Silver Wing Inn, took a bath, ate, and slept.

This same routine became almost his habit.

The Silver Wing Inn had also become a useful temporary base. It was quiet enough, clean enough, and no one there asked too many questions as long as he paid properly. For Atlas, that was enough. He did not need luxury. He only needed a place where he could rest, check the Codex in silence, wash off blood and dust, and leave again the next morning.

And every day, Atlas increased all of his Attributes by +1.

On the tenth day of his ruin clearing, his Attributes touched the ceiling of twenty.

But he did not feel anything this time.

Atlas had thought for sure that it would be the same as when he increased his Attributes to 10. Back then, the change had been harsh enough to nearly break him. The pain had made his body feel like it was being rebuilt in one motion, and every part of him had needed time to adjust afterward.

But when the numbers reached 20, there was no major rejection.

The Codex accepted it normally.

Atlas stood inside his room at the Silver Wing Inn that night, staring at the First Page for several seconds before another realization came to him.

”Hm, maybe it will be the same when I reach three digits, that means 100...”

That possibility made more sense.

The first lock had been broken when he reached 10. Maybe the next true boundary would not come at 20, but at 100. If that was the case, then the Codex was not treating every ten numbers as a major stage. It might be treating each digit expansion as the true barrier.

Atlas did not know if that was correct, but for now, the Codex was still accepting his writing.

So he continued.

After the eleventh day, his Attributes looked like this.

Strength: 21 [LOCKED]

Stamina: 21 [LOCKED]

Agility: 21 [LOCKED]

Spirit: 21 [LOCKED]

As they increased, Atlas also felt his Spirit reserves becoming larger and larger. He could use Traits longer than before, and his body no longer reacted as badly when several Traits were used together. His control also increased without that uncontrolled feeling of strength he had felt when he first wrote Spirit. His body had adapted better now because all his Attributes were increasing together, so there was no strange gap between his body, movement, endurance, and Spirit.

And as his Spirit increased, he could now use the S-Rank Traits, though only barely.

For a few moments, he could use Velgrath’s Spirit Sphere a little, but Crowbeast Wings still felt too difficult to even manifest behind him properly. Something near his back reacted whenever he tried, and he could feel the outline of the Trait somewhere inside his body, but the wing shape broke apart before forming.

So Atlas practiced Spirit Sphere for now.

He was inside the eleventh Hollow-Rank Ruin, and he had already cleared it. No monsters remained nearby, and the ruin’s inner chamber was already half-broken from the earlier fight. That made it the best place to test if his current Spirit could handle Velgrath’s Spirit Sphere better than before.

Whenever he used it by instinct, he lifted his hand and opened his palm wide. From his Spirit veins, a large chunk of Spirit moved toward the front of his palm and formed a sphere.

The instinct from Assimilation told him to compress it into a tiny sphere, and Atlas followed that feeling.

When he compressed it with focus, he felt a sharp sting in his head as backlash, but he endured it. The rotating sphere became smaller and denser until it stopped in front of his palm. Even at that size, Atlas could feel the pressure inside it. It was not stable enough, and the Spirit inside kept trying to expand, but compared to the first time he tried using it, the situation was much better.

Then Atlas willed it to unleash itself.

It did exactly that.

The moment it shot forward with blinding speed and struck the ruin wall—

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A deafening sound echoed from the point of contact.

Atlas felt the shockwave push him backward, and his boots skidded across the ground. Dust and broken fragments flew through the chamber while cracks spread across the remaining walls. This was the eleventh Hollow-Rank Ruin he had already cleared, and he was only testing if he could use the S-Rank Traits now that his Attributes had surpassed 20.

”Kheuk!...”

After the shockwave faded, Atlas looked forward, and what he saw made his eyes widen.

The attack had completely obliterated the ruin wall.

The outside forest could be seen clearly from inside.

The massive thick wall was gone, debris was scattered everywhere, and a huge hole had formed where the wall had been.

Atlas stared at it with a stiff expression.

He had expected something destructive, but this was far beyond what he had thought. The more troublesome part was that he still could not use it properly because of the Spirit consumption and backlash. If this was the result of a poor and incomplete use, then Velgrath’s proper version had been on a completely different level.

Atlas slowly lowered his hand.

”This is not something I can use casually...”

If he used it in a narrow ruin, he might collapse the passage on himself. If he used it against a weak monster, it would be a waste. For now, Spirit Sphere was a hidden card, not a normal attack.

After looking around for a few more moments, Atlas finally sighed and spoke.

”Originate.”

The Codex came out from his chest like always.

Atlas opened the First Page because he wanted to check his Attributes one last time and then assimilate the remaining Traits he had gained from the first Hollow-Rank Ruin’s monsters until now.

But just as the Codex opened, the page turned by itself.

Atlas frowned.

The pages continued moving without his touch until they stopped on the Third Page.

Then he saw it.

His eyes widened again.

The Third Page’s lock was gone.

And on the page, lines began appearing.