Blood Assimilation

As Randy was wondering why his physical appearance did not change despite entering an assimilated state, his system's screen flashed in vision, snapping him from his thoughts and alerting him to look up to face the projected screen.

[[The host has consumed the blood of a human and assimilated into its state for the first time]]

[[Necessary Conditions Fulfilled]]

[[Unlocking a piece of information related to the host's abilities]]

"What's going on this time? Unlocking a piece of information? Is this the valuable information that you were talking about earlier? But I did not complete the quest yet, so why am I getting the information right now?" Randy was bewildered by the system's notifications.

However, the system did not reply and simply displayed more lines of texts on the projected screen in his vision, causing Randy's gaze to become focused as he carefully read through what was being displayed in front of him.

[[The host has obtained the privilege through fulfilling the condition, to learn more about the Blood Retain Skill]]

'Blood Retain Skill?' Randy frowned as he recalled that he did have a skill like that, but he only thought it was part of his assimilation ability and that it was not combat skill. Though he had no idea what it could actually do despite viewing it as a non-combat skill all this time, so he never bothered activating it up until now.

The next moment, the system displayed a few more lines of texts on the projected screen in front of him.

[[Blood Retain: The ability to store the blood of other species or creatures within your unlocked blood spaces as if it was part of your own blood but also act separately from your true blood. The retained blood is essentially similar to one's bloodline when it is in your body. In other words, it would be similar to one's ancestral bloodline from which one could awaken and obtain possible bloodline abilities]]

[[Furthermore, whenever the blood knowledge obtained from consuming blood somehow deteriorate or become usable due to an unknown factor or source of power, you can simply retrieve the lost assimilated state's retained blood from your blood spaces and assimilate with them once to recover the previously lost assimilated states]]

[[Notice: Assimilating with human blood would not necessarily change your appearance since you are currently in your human form, and it is impossible to fundamentally change that form to a similar form without permanently changing all your entire appearance. Furthermore, assimilating with other creatures' blood does imply transforming into the owner of the blood's form, but instead, transitioning into their state in order to use their abilities]]

[[The state you would enter only allows you to acquire their unique features and constitution in tandem with their abilities. Ultimately, it only alters your appearance to fit the acquired abilities and not completely change them. If you truly want to change your appearance, you can only rely on transformation skills, techniques, and other abilities to do so]]

Although Randy was slightly surprised by the words displayed in front of his vision, he still carefully through it all a few times before stopping himself.

He then muttered to himself with a pondering expression: "So I can store the blood of others into my 'unlocked blood spaces'? Then, were my blood spaces or whatever it is locked before or something? Whatever... That does not matter to me right now. I will never get the answer that I need by simply asking anyway. Most importantly, what truly mattered to me right now is this notice that the system had given to me just now."

"Although it did not explicitly say it, I could still recognize it right away that it was a hint somehow. This must be a hint from the system."

Randy smiled in delight when he realized that this piece of information was more than just a piece of information.

At this point, Randy suddenly stood up and decided to test out his swordsmanship skill for a bit to see the effects of the skill that he had obtained through his assimilated state.

As for the reason why he was doing something like this even after he had seemingly discovered something just now, that had to do with the swordsmanship skill that he had acquired through his assimilated state.

It was not as though he wanted to try out the swordsmanship skill right away or anything, but ever since he entered the assimilated state, he had been itching to try swinging out his sword to use the swordsmanship skill, and he could not take it anymore and so, he decided to finally test out the skill before doing anything else.

With that thought in mind, Randy proceeded to swing his rusty steel sword steadily and rhythmically as if following a certain technique.

Randy had no idea what was going on but the more he swung the sword, the more knowledge pertaining to sword stances, forms, and techniques poured into his mind, and thus, he continued to swing his sword for a while without pausing.

A while later, Randy suddenly stopped swinging his sword as he had suddenly gained faint enlightenment towards swordsmanship.

'How wondrous… Is this part of this world's skill acquisition? Isn't this too easy? I didn't even have to learn a technique book or anything to comprehend the whole swordsmanship skill, which contained the different swordsmanships of this world.' Randy was slightly shocked when he realized that he had fully understood the swordsmanship skill just now.

[[Your comprehension towards Occidental Swordsmanship has increased tremendously as an effect of your 'Swordsmanship Skill']]

The system notified him shortly afterward.

"Maybe it was because of my assimilation completion with the blood being 100%, so I might've also obtained all his skill's experience as well as his own experience…?" Randy wondered but soon dismissed the thought as it did not really matter to him right now. There was something else that he would like to verify right now more than the swordsmanship skill's effects.

Randy made up his mind and quickly tried to activate one of his skills. However, when Randy was about to put his thought into motion without wasting time, another notification came from his other system, this one had a 'ding' sound, so Randy could hear the clear noise resounding in his mind and ears.

[The initial evaluation and analysis of user Randy have finally been completed]

[The system had detected an Innate Swordsmanship Skill similar to the Beginner Swordsmanship Skill in the user]

[User Randy's Innate Swordsmanship Skill mastery level is equivalent to the skill, Beginner Swordsmanship Level 10. As such, the system would now record on your skill section this skill and the subsequent skill, Intermediate Swordsmanship Level 1]

"What… Wait, did it say evaluation?"

"Challenger's system, were you evaluating me all this time?" Randy suddenly asked in doubt.

[That was indeed the case, User Randy]

"Why?"

[Evaluation was necessary to determine the best and most fitting occupation for you. The selected occupation cannot be changed and thus must be selected carefully in order to further improve and ensure your survival as a challenger of the dungeons in this world]