"...rain huh"

as he stood and looked up at the gray sky Victoria ran up to him from behind and rubbed her face against him while purring

"good morning to you too Victoria"

as Mars greeted the big panther that was acting more and more as a spoiled kitten he instinctively moved his hand up to pet her on the head while feeling to soft fur he discovered Victoria's soft black fur now had a pattern of orange-red mix in that covered all of her body like a thin spider web

"wait Victoria what happened with your fur?"

as Mars was panicking slightly over the unexpected change, Victoria kept purring seemingly unconcerned by the change in the color of her fur as her horns flashed

"got... stronger"

unable to connect the change in fur color to getting stronger in his head Mars asked Victoria

"you got stronger?"

"yes... stronger because contract... with Mars"

Mars still confused remembered that he had exchanged mana with Victoria during the contract forming

"so because of my mana your fur changed color?"

"yes... also got new magic"

as Mars was still a little confused he asked Victoria

"new magic huh... can you show me?"

"sure"

Victoria stopped rubbing her face against Mars and walked a little in front of him as her fur seemed to start to melt into pure shadow covering the area around her in darkness for a few seconds before suddenly a black fire spear shoot out from the darkness. .h.i.tting a tree a little over 30 meters away in an instance creating a head sized hole in the tree while pa.s.sing straight through the 5 meters wide trunk and piercing deeply into a rock behind the tree before exploding with a loud bang blasting pieces of rock all over

"..."

looking at the devastation from a single spell Mars was dazed as he watched the black fire slowly eating away at the tree while pieces of hot rock still rained down from the sky until Victoria ran up to him again purring even louder than before with excited eyes as her horns flashed

"strong magic... praise me"

Mars was still a little dazed but still patted Victoria for some time before he pulled himself together and remembered that a contract was a two way road and opened his status to cheek

"status"

Name: Mars

Age: 0 (vessel 5220)

Race: Half-dragon human

t.i.tles: [Living G.o.d of energy] [Conquer of Salen] [Tyrant King] [5000 year prisoner] [Man that fell from the sky] [Contracted](new)

Cla.s.s: [Energy]

Cla.s.s level: 10

Status points:

Strength [23/1000] Const.i.tution [19/2000] Dexterity [20/1500]

Intelligence [19/600] Wisdom [18/900] Charisma [10/50]

Active skills: [Dragon-flame magic lv 5] [Swordsmans.h.i.+p lv 4] [Shadow magic lv 2](new)

Cla.s.s skills: [Energy: absorption] [Energy storage: 200/1000] [Energy: discharge]

[Energy: upgrade shop]

Pa.s.sive skills: [Fire resist lv 15] [Commanding lv 3] [Mental reinforcement lv 5] [Pain resist lv 5]

[Bone crafting lv 1]

"so i got a new t.i.tle that seems to have raised the cap on charisma and a new skill... but how do i use [Shadow magic]?"

as Mars was petting Victoria with one hand

he held the other up while he started to circulate his mana around inside his body while he tried to activate his new skill for a few minutes with Victoria's purring as background sound but after trying for a few seconds without success he decided to ask the master on the subject of [Shadow magic] for a little help

"Victoria how do you usually use [Shadow magic]?"

in response to his question Victoria tilted her head a near perfect 30 degrees to the right side and gave Mars a blank look as her horns flash

"Mars... what is [Shadow magic]?"

looking at the shadow death panther or rather Victoria that was giving him a blank look Mars almost fell over before answering weakly

"...never mind"

after find his companion to be no help at all in his quest for new magic Mars practised for a few hours almost succeeding a few times only to have his magic fail and explode in his hands before he finally managed to make a small ball of darkness appear on top of his palm

"**** YEAH!!!"

as he celebrated his victory over the art of [Shadow magic] Mars yelled loudly while taking a victory pose startling Victoria that had fallen asleep a few minutes in to his training, as Victoria was sending him a slightly resentful look for interrupting her afternoon nap Mars was jumping around like a caveman after just having discovered the wonders of fire not at all noticing her resentful look as he admired the little ball of darkness for some time before calming down slightly as the rational part of his brain took over

"...well this does not look very useful"

looking at the pitiful ball of darkness in his hand Mars felt like the effort he put in not being equal to the results

"might as well test it"

deciding to test the power of his newly obtained magic Mars grabbed the ball of darkness that was floating a few centimeters over the palm of his hand as he felt the smooth and squishy surface of the ball he was a little surprised before he picked out a target tree and took aim

"...lets see what this puppy can do"

performing a near perfect overhand throw the ball rapidly accelerated as it left his hand and flew through the air towards the tree before hitting the trunk exploding like a water balloon covering the surrounding area in some sort of liquid darkness as Mars walked up and inspected the damage

"...well this is interesting"

as Mars was inspecting the liquid darkness by poking it with a random stick he discovered that the 'darkness liquid' was acting like some super adhesive glue sticking to the surface of the tree as well as the stick he had poked it with while it was giving of a little smoke as the parts in direct sunlight was slowly melting

"well it certainly is not better than [Dragon-flame magic] in terms of offensive and destructive power... but it might be useful in certain situations"

after Mars finished absentmindedly poking the liquid with a stick he sat down to see how long it would take for the darkness liquid that was exposed to sunlight to melt

"about 5 minutes and... it looks like the surface of the tree is mostly undamaged as well, this might be good for hunting and taking down a target in a non-lethal way... overall a valuable addition to my a.r.s.enal"

feeling somewhat satisfied with the test of his new magic Mars remembered another part of his a.r.s.enal that he had not used yet

"hmm [Swordsmans.h.i.+p]..."

remembering the whole incident with making a sword out of bones Mars felt somewhat reluctant to use this skill as it seemed to have a negative effect on his mind

"screw it what's the worst that can happen?"

walking into his cave Mars took garbed the only bone sword he had deemed usable and walked out again with sword in hand and stood out in the area he had cleared of trees in front of the cave as he felt the sword in his hands

"...the question now is how do i use [Swordsmans.h.i.+p]? or rather how do i use a sword in the first place?"

as Mars felt the smooth 80 centimeter long single edged blade of the sword with his hands he gradually started to feel like he knew how to handle this sword as he grabbed the handle with his right hand he lowed the sword to just before the tip of the blade touched the ground and closed his eyes to feel the sword in his hand

"...this is?"

as Mars stood still with sword in hand he felt like a voice or maybe the will of the sword was flowing into him from his right hand that was grasping the handle, like it was saying to how to use it

"...like this?"

mumbling Mars seamlessly like water flowing slipped into a stance holding the sword over his head preparing to strike with his right hand while also lightly gripping the handle with his left hand

"...this almost seems like cheating"

as he stood still with sword raised and his eyes still closed he felt like the sword was an extension of his arm and that it slowly was becoming part of him

"HA!"

yelling out and swinging down with the bone sword with blinding speed the tip of the blade once again stopped right over the ground almost like the sword and the ground was two magnets repelling each other before they could met

"...this is awesome"

as Mars opened his eyes now wearing a ferocious smile as he quickly turned into a blur as his sword struck out from all manner of stances and all kinds of angels sticking the empty air sometimes creating strong winds and other times soundlessly pa.s.sing through the air like a ghost

"this is ****ing AWESOME!"

as Mars struck out with his sword he gradually got more and more excited and unconsciously transformed thereby increasing his speed even more as he turned into a blur moving all over the place with expert looking footwork over the uneven ground and tree stumps that got even faster

as time pa.s.sed

"THIS IS THE BEST!"

losing himself in practicing Mars only stopped after the sun had gone down as the sweet purred down from his lean body and he lightly panted completely exhausted as his arms and legs trembled but still a ferocious smile was still planted on his face and his eyes was sparkling from excitement as Victoria walked up to him

"Mars... also have horns?"

looking blankly at Victoria for a few seconds Mars torched his forehead and discovered he had transformed at some point during his sword practices

"yeah i am not human i am a half-dragon human, so sometimes i have horns and claws awesome right?"

"yes... Mars strong"

receiving the simple praise from Victoria Mars felt a little happy and petted her on the head as she lightly purred for some time before he pulled his hand back

"let's head down to the river, i need to wash up"