The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion

"Is there anything new that has occurred with you after inheriting the essence of the noble vampires?" the human king asked, observing the four High Humans standing in front of him.

"Yes... Your Highness, a few days after you gave me the vampire traits, I developed an elemental affinity to a new element, Lightning..." Ana said, as she conjured a small three-inch blue magic circle.

From it, a small bolt of lightning shot out and struck the wall of the throne hall.

It was too weak to do any significant damage, except for leaving a small burn mark where it hit.

"Hmm, that's expected. The vampire essence did alter your flesh and soul bit by bit, and even now it's continuing to do so. Along with the newly added werewolf essence, it's not impossible for you to acquire an affinity for a new element," the human king replied.

"Is there anything else that I should know about... anything unusual?" the human king asked.

He thought for sure a lot of out-of-place things should have happened because of his existence.

After all, he himself was the anomaly of anomalies.

It wouldn't be impossible for other irregularities or oddities to appear.

They would never be as significant as him, but surely enough to be thought of as interesting, at the very least.

The four beautiful High Humans thought for a few minutes.

Then Ana's eyes widened as she remembered something.

"My lord, I did come across something that was a little unusual..." Ana said as she rubbed her long red hair and continued, "When the System first descended on Earth, all living beings changed, right, my lord?"

"Yes. When the System introduced itself to Earth, it awakened all the supernatural energies and essences that lay dormant. As a result, everything from insects to humans, from grass to towering trees, from soil to the rarest of metals was affected. They either changed completely or mutated into something superior..." The human king tilted his face slightly as he observed Ana's beautiful white face, her crimson hair, and blue eyes, eyes that he loved, as he began to understand what Ana was about to say.

"Ana dear, did you come across something that remained unchanged?" the human king asked.

"A dog... I was overseeing the construction of the castle when I came across it, a dog, a very normal-looking dog that doesn't radiate any sort of presence. It didn't look like it had been affected by the System's changes," Ana explained.

"That's not possible. The System made sure every single living entity on Earth was affected. Not even an ant could escape. Even if that dog wasn't affected by the System, you're saying that dog survived the Day of Awakening, thousands upon thousands of hordes of monsters and mutated beasts that appeared, and all the disasters and catastrophes that came along with them? Either that dog is a world-level monster, or it's the reincarnation of luck itself," the human king rubbed his chin.

"Where is that dog now? I hope you have it secured?"

"Of course, my lord... I'm a mage. Of course I wouldn't let something that interesting run off from me," Ana said, grinning. "I left it in the care of my coven witches."

Some time ago, Damian gave each of them hundreds of vials of blood, and each of those could create a pure-blooded High Human.

He gave those to them so each could create their own faction, within which they would lead as his generals of the humans.

Among the four High Humans, Ana Sánchez was the only mage, a very talented mage, even before Damian increased her potential by leaps and bounds.

He turned her into a High Human and made her a far superior version by giving her the essence of noble vampires and Alpha werewolves.

She used the vials of the human progenitor blood given to her and created three hundred High Humans.

Every single one of them was a mage, a witch to be exact.

All female mages.

She had actually created a coven of witches, and she herself became the Coven Mother.

She was truly impressive.

Damian had reviewed her coven: all the witches were talented.

She had done a great job.

Not just her, the remaining three did a great job as well.

Unlike Ana, who took the coven of witches route, Maria did something a little more interesting.

She and her seven sisters created a single faction that had seven divisions, each named after the Seven Heavenly Virtues.

Maria's seven sisters controlled each of them as generals, while Maria took the role of the leader of the entire faction.

Shiru, on the other hand, only used two vials of the blood of the human progenitor, creating two High Humans, individuals Shiru had known before she met Damian in the first Tower Realm, Solarta, whom she worked alongside as a friend.

She was still holding on to the remaining vials of blood, unused, because she wasn't sure about it.

In her mind, she already had a very powerful and important role in her life, that was being the assistant to the human progenitor.

Why would she go about creating her own faction when she could serve so close to the greatest existence in the universe, her king, her most beloved person in the universe?

Yuki was also in a similar predicament.

She hadn't decided what to do with her status as one of the four ministers representing the entire human race in the king's court.

They were still discovering and realizing their own paths of evolution.

Shiru cultivates the [Dark Essence].

Maria cultivates the [Holy Essence].

Ana cultivates [Elemental] and [Non-Elemental] magic.

Yuki, on the other hand, took on the path of [Qi Cultivation].

Damian observed the four for a few minutes, using his special eyes, as a smile appeared on his face.

"You've all grown a lot stronger... strong enough for me to edit you," the human king said as a purple and red aura began to seep out of his figure.

"W-What do you mean, my lord...?" the four High Humans' eyes widened in nervousness as they saw the purple-red aura seeping out of their king, surrounding him like a ghost.

They felt as if something terrifying, like a predator, was locking its gaze on them.

The aura seeping out of the human king began to condense in every direction, filling the entire throne hall with its terrifying presence.

Hundreds of monstrous-looking eyeballs manifested, staring directly at the four women.

The women suddenly felt like they were in a completely different place, a place where they had no strength, no power, and no way to defend against the hundreds of monstrous presences they could feel observing them.

"W… W-What..." the women felt like they had lost the ability to scream or move, all their motor functions stopped.

"Don't be afraid. You know I would never hurt you… Don't resist. I'm doing this for your own good," the human king's voice entered their minds.

And as if by magic, they calmed down.

They no longer felt fear.

They closed their eyes and let their king do whatever he wanted.

Damian smiled, looking at his women.

They were really great, to be able to trust him this blindly.

They were loyalists among loyalists.

"You all are talented, there's no doubt about that. But what I'm about to do will make you geniuses among geniuses," Damian smiled as he activated his unique innate ability.

[Predation: Unique Ability Activated]

[Predation], this unique ability was the evolved version of Damian's previous ability, [Devourer].

It retained all the capabilities of [Devourer], but at a much more powerful level, along with new capabilities it never had before.

When Damian first awakened this ability, it wasn't this strong. At that time, its first version was called [Extraction].

At first, with the initial version, [Extraction], all Damian could do was absorb energy from an object or a living being, and that was all it could ever do.

Then the [Extraction] ability evolved into the ability [Devourer].

This was a game-changing ability for Damian.

Everything he was now was partially thanks to this ability's capabilities.

[Devourer] could not only extract energy but also devour anything that had a physical body, including living beings with souls.

Anything he devoured could be used to improve his physical capabilities, his power, even his soul.

With this ability, Damian was able to absorb many things: the blood of the Night King, thousands of racial essences, even the fallen angel Marquis Andras.

He used them to become many races he could embody at will and even gained the abilities of the fallen angel himself.

Now, once again, this ability had evolved into something much more terrifying.

[Extraction] can extract energy from any physical object.

[Devourer] can extract energy and devour anything with a physical form, including living beings, and store them in his spiritual space, where he can edit and manipulate them however he wishes.

Now, [Predation] can do all of that, but better.

And now, Damian is no longer limited to absorbing things with a physical form.

He can now absorb non-physical things, like souls or even laws.

Not just that, until now, he could only manipulate things he devoured after they were inside his spiritual space.

But now, he no longer needs to devour something in order to manipulate, change, or edit it.