Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

Something completely unexpected happened.

The Codex emerged from Atlas’s unconscious body on its own and floated above him without opening immediately. It remained there for several moments while the crimson light coming from its surface slowly spread through the surrounding area, yet Atlas remained completely unconscious below it and gave no response to what was happening.

His body continued regenerating during this time. The Regenerative Hide Trait was still working even without Atlas being conscious, slowly repairing the injuries he had received throughout the battle. Reiden, which remained in his right hand, also gave off a faint glow as if the weapon itself had sensed the Codex appearing from Atlas on its own. The round sphere-like object that had fallen from the Boss Monster remained where it had landed, while both Himalton and Alberion were still unconscious with no signs that either of them would wake up anytime soon.

The chamber remained quiet for several more moments before the Codex finally moved. Its cover opened on its own and the pages began turning until it reached the first page, showing Atlas’s current profile and every Attribute he possessed at that moment.

[ Profile ]

[ Name: Atlas Mariorett ]

[ STATS ]

[ Strength: 99 _ ]

[ Stamina: 99 _ ]

[ Agility: 99 _ ]

[ Spirit: 99 _ ]

[ Null: 99 _ ]

Every single Attribute had now reached 99.

Atlas had been deliberately stopping himself from reaching 100 for some time already. The first time had been before entering the first Cataclysm-rank Ruin, when he had decided that his body needed more time to adjust to the strength he had already accumulated. Even after clearing the second Cataclysm-rank Ruin, he had still maintained the same decision because he could feel that his body hadn’t completely adjusted to the existing level yet. His Instincts were also telling him that reaching 100 before he was properly prepared could create problems he didn’t need right now.

There had also been another reason why he hadn’t increased the Attributes after the second Cataclysm-rank Ruin. After leaving that Ruin, Atlas had been occupied with assimilating the remaining Traits while his mind continued returning to the Hollow feeling he had experienced after killing the SS-rank Individual Angel. He had already accepted that he had needed to kill that man because otherwise he would have been the one who died, but accepting that fact didn’t mean the feeling itself had disappeared.

Somewhere inside his heart, that feeling still remained.

Atlas had continued thinking about it in the back of his mind while dealing with everything else that had happened afterward. He hadn’t forgotten it, but he also hadn’t reached a proper conclusion about it yet. For now, that matter remained something he would have to deal with later, because the Codex had already turned to the second page.

Nothing unusual happened while it turned.

The second page displayed the Traits Atlas had accumulated, and by now there were so many of them that they nearly filled one entire side of the page.

[ Traits ]

[ Metadata ??? - Rank ??? ]

[ Spirit Fist - Rank S - Assimilated ]

[ Spirit Physique - Rank S - Assimilated ]

[ Spirit Roar - Rank S - Assimilated ]

[ Crowbeast Wings - Rank S - Assimilated ]

[ Velgrath’s Spirit Sphere - Rank S - Assimilated ]

[ Spirit Discharge - Rank S - Assimilated ]

[ Qield’s Horn - Rank A - Assimilated ]

[ Regenerative Hide - Rank A - Assimilated ]

[ Spirit Instinct - Rank B - Assimilated ]

[ Spirit Cloak - Rank B - Assimilated ]

[...]

[..]

[.]

The list of Traits continued further down the page, but even from what was visible, one thing was clear. The Codex had arranged them according to their ranks, with the unknown Metadata ??? placed above all the known S-rank Traits while the remaining A and B-rank Traits came after them.

Atlas obviously wasn’t conscious to see and think about it now, but if he had been, one question would have immediately come to his mind - Could a ??? Rank Trait actually be lower than S-rank? There was never any explanation given to him that a ??? classification had to be higher than a known rank, so technically there was still a possibility that Metadata could be below S-rank, but the way the Codex had organized the list made that possibility completely disappear.

It had placed Metadata first, above every S-rank Trait Atlas had accumulated until now, which at the very least suggested that its actual rank was higher than S-rank, even if the Codex itself couldn’t display the exact classification.

The Codex remained on that second page for a long while without turning to the next one. Nothing else happened during that time, until suddenly the word Metadata ??? flickered slightly on the page.

TZZZT.

The letters returned to normal almost immediately, but after only another moment they glitched again.

TZZZZTZZ...

This time the change became stronger as different colours began appearing inside the letters. What had originally been written in the same black colour as the other Traits slowly started changing, until the entire word Metadata ??? had taken on several colours at once.

The glitch continued for a few more seconds before gradually stopping, and once it ended the letters returned to a stable rainbow-like colour instead of their previous black appearance. The Codex remained on the same page for another brief moment before finally moving for the first time since emerging from Atlas’s body.

It floated toward the strange spherical object that had fallen from the Boss Monster after its body was erased. The Sangius Stylus separated from the Codex and moved ahead of the book, stopping directly above the sphere before slowly lowering itself. Its sharp tip pierced straight into the object, and the moment it did, something resembling dark red blood began flowing from inside the sphere and entering the Stylus. The sphere itself started becoming smaller as that substance continued being drawn out, while the Stylus remained fixed in place and continued absorbing everything inside it.

The process only lasted for a few moments before the sphere had completely lost its previous size. It continued shrinking until nothing remained inside for the Stylus to absorb, and once the last of the dark red substance had entered it, the Stylus finally pulled itself out. Atlas remained completely unconscious during all of this, and the Codex itself did not interfere as the Stylus remained floating in the air for another brief moment before changing direction.

Instead of returning to the Codex, the Sangius Stylus moved toward the far corner of the chamber where Heddeon had fallen earlier. His body was still lying there without movement, and there was no sign that he would wake up anytime soon. The Stylus stopped directly above him before lowering itself toward his body, and without any hesitation its sharp tip pierced through his skin.

Thick red blood immediately began entering the Stylus.

It absorbed Heddeon’s blood in the same way it had absorbed the substance from the strange sphere, continuing without slowing down or showing any distinction between the two. Atlas remained unconscious and had no idea what was happening beside him, while the Codex continued floating above his body and the Sangius Stylus kept drawing blood from Heddeon. Until now, the Codex had only used Monster Blood as its medium, and Atlas had never seen it attempt to take the blood of a person.

But now it was doing exactly that, it was proving one utterly terrifying thing anyone can only imagine...it did not just take Monster Blood, it could even take people’s Blood inside it.

And the person it had chosen was not an ordinary person.

Heddeon was an S-rank Individual.