Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

After Atlas took the Sanguis Stylus attached to the Codex, he slowly opened the first page and saw the numbers again:

Strength: 70 [LOCKED]

Stamina: 70 [LOCKED]

Agility: 70 [LOCKED]

Spirit: 70 [LOCKED]

He stared at them briefly before speaking and turning to the next page, ”I have to increase them later, but for now my focus should be on the Title...”

The next page opened and showed the list of Traits again, and at the very top the unknown Trait was still sitting there without showing any reaction. Atlas looked at it briefly but did not stop, because he had already tried to understand that Trait before and the Codex had given him nothing. He turned to the third page where the Bloodline was written, then finally reached the Title page.

He did not wait anymore. If this had to be done, then it was better to do it now, so he raised the Sanguis Stylus and looked at the blood stored inside it. The blood had become much thinner than before, making Atlas frown.

The last time he had filled the Stylus was inside that Abyss-rank Ruin, and after that he had only increased his Attributes twice. The amount of blood remaining inside did not match what he expected. ’Then...how did it become this thin?’

Atlas thought about it briefly, and then connected it with the pattern the Codex had already shown before. Every increase required blood, but the amount needed was not fixed. The higher the number became, the more blood the Codex consumed, and the difference between each stage was increasing faster than he had expected.

”Hmm...it needs more blood for every increase, but the amount increasing is ridiculously high.” He looked at the Title again and spoke, ”Well, nothing can be done about that. I will need more blood from Monsters later.”

After saying that, his grip around the Sanguis Stylus tightened and he slowly moved its tip toward the Title written on the page.

[Shadow Explorer]

The moment the tip came close, Atlas prepared himself. When he had activated his Bloodline, the Codex had locked his entire body in place and forced him to remain still while the process continued, so he expected something similar to happen again. He tightened his body, waiting for the same kind of pressure or restriction.

But...nothing like that happened. His expectation broke apart immediately, because the Title only gave off a faint glow before the words began carving themselves deeper into the page. There was no pressure around his body and no force preventing him from moving, but then Atlas felt a burning sensation in his left hand.

He shifted his eyes toward it, frowned, and turned the hand so the back of his palm faced him. A dark shadowy circle was appearing on his skin, its shape slowly forming while the inside filled with the same dark colour.

[A/N: His Hand gloves has cuts in the back area, I will upload a new illustration later for this]

The moment Atlas saw it, he understood that this was probably the meaning of Title Assimilation. The Title was not only being recorded inside the Codex anymore, but was becoming part of his body. Its name was Shadow Explorer, and the mark appearing on his hand carried the same shadowy feeling, so at least that part matched what was written.

Atlas could only deduce that much. He was not an expert on Titles, and the Codex itself was too mysterious for him to confidently understand anything it did. It had already shown the ability to affect Attributes, Bloodlines, Traits, and now Titles, and most of those things were either unknown to this world or known under completely different systems.

Because of this, Atlas sometimes wondered whether the people of the world had truly explored everything they claimed to understand. If they had, then why had he never heard anyone mention the terms shown by the Codex? Why had no Explorer, Noble, or Guild record spoken about Trait Assimilation, Bloodline pages, or Titles in the same way?

Another possibility was that all of this information was classified. Someone like Atlas, who had grown up as a commoner in the outer slums, would never have been allowed to hear the highest secrets of Nobles or powerful organisations. Even lower Nobles might not possess the authority to know about them, especially when the powers connected to these terms seemed far beyond anything Atlas had seen openly.

Still, those thoughts were useless right now. Atlas dismissed them and focused on the mark forming at the back of his left palm. The mark was small, only a dark circle covering a limited area of the skin, and it did not spread outward like the black markings on his right arm, but the burning sensation did not remain limited to the mark.

It slowly moved beneath his skin and entered his nerves and veins, spreading from the hand toward the rest of his body. The sensation was clear enough for Atlas to notice every part it passed through, but it was not painful enough to make him stop the Assimilation. It felt more like controlled heat moving inside him rather than something actually burning his flesh.

Atlas remained seated and watched without interfering. He did not know what was changing inside his body or why the process needed to spread so far from the mark, but he expected that the Codex would show him the information after the Assimilation finished.

What Atlas did not know was that his Spirit veins were slowly changing colour. The change began near his left hand and travelled through the same paths where the burning sensation moved. The veins were becoming shadowy, but it was not only their colour that changed, because something invisible was mixing with the Spirit flowing inside them.

It was not Null, and it was not another energy similar to Spirit either. It was...shadow itself.

Shadow was mixing directly into his Spirit veins and becoming part of the Spirit moving through his body. The result of that change could not be understood yet, because Atlas had not completed the Assimilation and had not used any Trait or attack through that altered Spirit.

For the next half an hour Atlas remained seated on the pedestal, with the Codex floating in front of him and the Stylus still held in his hand. He did not move around or try to speed up the process, because he already knew forcing something connected to the Codex without understanding it could create more problems.

After that long wait, the burning sensation finally faded completely. Atlas released a slow breath as the discomfort left his body, and the dark circular mark settled quietly at the back of his palm as though it had always been there. He then turned toward the Codex again and saw lines of words forming beneath the Title name.

Atlas furrowed his brows because the letters were not complete yet, so he could not understand what they were saying. He waited without touching the page until the final line finished forming, then read the information fully.

His eyes widened, but more than surprise, there was something familiar about what the Title described. Atlas stared at the words before speaking, ”Isn’t this similar to what those Assassins did?”

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[A/N: Sorry Guys, Had a lot of assignments to do that’s why couldn’t write the Chapters quickly these days, and the privilege got out late, but now that it’s out I would expect something from you guys, please support this novel with your Golden Tickets and Power stones.

Gifts and Supergifts are always welcome, Thanks for reading and supporting it!]