I Hate Systems

"What was that for?" Both Li Qiu and Prakash shouted simultaneously.

"That was my innate ability," Enbi Arin said in a nonchalant manner and finally decided to reveal her ability to the others.

<Karma Incarnation>

<Obtain the karma of any entity by forming a contract with it or through plunder>

"That's vague but what do you do with that karma" Questioned Prakash.

"I believe showing it to you guys through action would help you gain a better understanding of it," Said Enbi Arin, as stretched out her right hand, making the surface of her skin take on a grey hue and swiped it vertically downwards.

Followed by the downward swipe of her right hand, a grey coloured sword beam left from the chopping side of her right palm and travelled towards a wall 50 metre away from her within a mere second and left a wide cut on the wall spanning a metre in length and an inch in breadth.

Actually, the sword beam seemed to travel even further after it emerged out from the other side of the wall before it eventually dissipated.

"...." Both Li Qiu and Prakash were looking at Enbi Arin in the same manner like a goldfish that had just witnessed the water which filled its water tank get emptied out after they lay witness to Enbi Arin's newly demonstrated ability.

"Tha-that was the rooster's ability," Prakash was the first to snap out of his stupor.

"It's mine now, hehe" Said Enbi Arin in a cheerful manner.

Finally, Li Qiu snapped out of his stupor as he couldn't help but feel a chill go up through his spine on witnessing Enbi Arin's innate ability as he couldn't help but ask her, "Does your innate ability steal other innate abilities? Doesn't that make it invincible?"

"As if life is so convenient, my 'karma Incarnation' gives me the power to form a contract with any entity, but, only if they are willing though and I have to fulfill their wishes before gaining a specific ability. Moreover, I would lose the contracted ability if that entity dies" Replied Enbi Arin.

As she looked at Prakash who pointed his finger at the dead rooster with an expression on his face that said 'What do you have to say about that?', Enbi Arin sighed once again before she tried to properly present her ability, if not, they might assume that she had some kind of an ulterior motive.

"Actually I can just kill an entity and absorb its Aria core to gain its respective innate ability, but, this method only gives me a random innate ability from all of the innate abilities that entity might possess. And, at present, I can only store two innate abilities within me.

"As for the case with the rooster, I just threatened its life by posing as a butcher that it once feared since it seemed that that rooster had escaped from some nearby poultry farm. My threat worked successfully and I was able to form an incomplete contract with it thereby gaining its ability to create sword beams.

"Though, this was only possible because it was just a stupid bird which allowed me to create a contract in my favour and therefore, completely gained its ability after I killed it" Said Enbi Arin and shrugged her shoulders, acting as if everything that had transpired till now was a perfectly normal occurrence.

"Even with those limitations, that's quite the powerful ability you got there, but, why was your sword beam stronger and faster than the ones unleashed by that rooster?" Questioned Li Qiu.

<Butcher beam>

<Shoot out a powerful sword slash in the form of an energy beam>

<Attribute juggler>

<Passive: reallocate stats

( Note: Aria quality cannot be changed with this ability.

The number of stats gained from Aria quantity= Aria quality X Aria quantity.

The same conversion is used to add stats to Aria quantity) >

"Hold on for a sec, that does not answer my question. Where and when the heck did you gain another innate ability?" Questioned Li Qiu in a fl.u.s.tered tone. Prakash was unable to make heads and tails of the situation, so, he just opted for a wait and see approach.

"Well, to answer your second question in a short and concise manner. There was a giant lizard which hunted an ant nest and eventually led to an all-out war between the two sides. The ants swarmed the giant lizard which breathed fire occasionally and eventually both sides annihilated each other which resulted in the critically injured ant queen being the sole survivor. And yep, I got this ability from her when I ambushed her head with a rock" Said Enbi Arin with an expression as if she just went out for a stroll in a garden.

"Yeah, I too saw their carcasses lying outside the supermarket while I roamed everywhere before I eventually ended up here" Prakash chimed in, "Though, I was too afraid to approach anywhere near that area. Luckily I found a different path that was relatively safe"

"Hold on, if you had the choice why didn't you pick the lizard, you could have gained a fire related ability" Li Qiu couldn't help but voice out his opinion.

"I did, in fact, pick the lizard first, but I later came to know that I couldn't get any abilities from any entity that I didn't kill myself and hence went for the queen" Replied Enbi Arin.

"Hmm, makes sense" Prakash wondered when suddenly, he felt something flash within his mind.

"Aren't we forgetting something?"

"Forget what" The duo of Li Qiu and Enbi Arin looked at Prakash with puzzled gazes.

"The Aria cores, of course!" Prakash shouted aloud when Li Qiu and Enbi Arin felt as if they were zapped to reality by an electric current.

"Damn, I totally forgot about that"

"Quick, let's hurry up before something else gets to them first"

The trio hurriedly ran to the spot outside the supermarket with wooden rods in one hand and in the other some sharp knives that they had picked up on the way from the kitchen section.

"Eww... That's gross" Complained Enbi Arin.

"Can't even deal with a bit of filth eh, miss living legend Rooster Slayer?" Li Qiu taunted Enbi Arin to which she snapped in a fit of rage, "W-WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A ROOSTER SLAYER!"

"Aren't you?" Li Qiu laughed aloud and hid behind a nearby ant's carcass as he tried to play dead.

The duo consisting of Enbi Arin and Prakash were left speechless as they observed Li Qiu's childish antics.

"I can't believe an a.d.u.l.t could behave in such a manner, or maybe, this might be caused due to those unstable emotions that he had mentioned earlier. Ugh, nevermind," Thought, Prakash, as he gazed at the nearby Enbi Arin who was struggling with the corpse of an ant.

"Here, use this cloth to wipe off the filth," Said Prakash, as he passed a shirt to Enbi Arin.

"Ugh... Thanks, I guess" Thanked Enbi Arin as she used the shirt as protection against unwanted elements, though, it failed to help her much in that regard.

Li Qiu was initially shocked to see the gigantic sizes of the monster carcasses which were clearly an understatement to their sizes as compared to Enbi Arin's nonchalant description.

"Damn they're huge, what in the devil's horns did these things eat to grow this huge within a day" Li Qiu couldn't help but be amazed, because, each ant was a foot in length while the ant queen was a metre in length with the lizard being a metre in height and over three metres long.

Li Qiu used his Essence Sense innate ability to locate and quicken their process of digging out the Aria cores. Though he was helpless when he used this innate ability because he couldn't see anything other than the presences of an essence, he could at least show them their location.

The ants had their Aria cores located within their mandibles while the Queen's Aria core had already been absorbed by Enbi Arin.

And, when Li Qiu looked towards the lizard carcass, he was first shocked but then was filled with excitement as he saw a small amount of heat essence slowly dissipating from around the lizard's Aria core.

Li Qiu instantly arrived before the carcass, placed his hand above it and used his Essence Flame innate ability, slowly extracting the flame essence which ended up on his Palm as it successfully formed into a bright orange flame that flickered a little in the wind.

He slowly absorbed the flame into his body when, at the next instant, he was surprised to find out the fact that the flame first passed through his heart, travelling all the way to his head and eventually settled near his blue Soul Flame. A blue coloured tentacle emerged out from his soul flame and connected with the new essence flame.

<Ding!>

<Essence flame absorbed: Thermal flame>

"So that's how it works huh, so any essence flame I absorb gets connected to my soul flame. I guess only my spirit flame is an exception since it is connected to my heart. Though I guess it is for the best since my Aria core is the entirety of my heart and all of my Aria flows through it making invasion by foreign entities impossible at the same level as me" Thought Li Qiu.

After figuring that out, Li Qiu helped the others remove all the Aria cores and went back to the room in the supermarket that Li Qiu slept in the day before.

Enbi Arin began splitting their spoils "There are 26 ant Aria cores and one lizard Aria core. Normally, we may only get a stats increase in a single attribute plus Aria quantity. Since I have already absorbed the ant queen's Aria core, I'll let you guys split the other ant Aria cores between yourselves while I'll absorb the lizard core since I can allocate my stats in any way I please using my other innate ability"

"And, since you have also absorbed the rooster's core, Prakash and I will split the Aria cores of the four hens between the two of us," Suggested Li Qiu.

"Sure, I have no qualms about this arrangement" Replied Enbi Arin.

"Sounds fair since the ant queen was your kill, to begin with" Said Prakash as he began absorbing his share by placing an Aria core on the centre of his Palm and willed it to be absorbed into his Aria core by manipulating his Aria accordingly.