I opened my eyes, everything felt distant—yet also so close. What was I doing here? Where am I? Who am I? All these questions rang through my head, pulsing through me as if they had already been instilled into me, yet I had no answer for them.
I sat up and looked around. The hut was shabby, broken down even—but I continued, searching, searching for any semblance of who or even what I was.
There was nothing, nothing at all. The cobwebs on the dining table, the wooden spoons and bowls that sat in the parched sink. Nobody had been here in months, maybe even years. I moved on, continuing to search.
Suddenly a sharp and agonizing pain filled my body, the feeling from the sole of my foot. I pull my foot up to see what caused me such pain, glass, a broken piece of glass was left on the floor, presumably from the broken window beside me.
I looked down at it and noticed something black, my innate curiosity getting the better of me as I grab it. I gently rub the blood off of it, my pale and broken down skin turning crimson. It was me? Unnaturally black hair, piercing red eyes. My frame—skinny, weak, a being that I would deem a pest. Yet it was me.
I set the piece of glass down, searching for anything I could use to bandage up my wound—but to no avail, nothing, there wasn't even a curtain on the window seal, much less a piece of gauze.
"This really is shitty.."
Moving on, I figured it would be best to see what was around me, some sort of civilization or really anything.
A loud scream ran through my head, over and over, the sound of blood coursing through the bodies of the animals around me. A bloodcurdling hunger, a craving to feast, to feast on others.
I woke up, woke up from whatever trance took over my entire being. I was on the ground—outside from an unknown turn of events. I glanced down at my body, crimson red, my entire body was covered with blood, but I felt no pain. If it wasn't my blood then whose was it?
I stood up, but something was off, there was no strain in my body like before, I felt rejuvenated..powerful even.
A mark was now engraved into my hand, a tree? Yes, it was a tree, but it didn't seem normal. The tree had a word engraved into it—"Lucifer", Lucifer? It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite decipher what it meant to me.
"Is it a drawing?"
I rub my other hand across it, yet it remained, a feeling coursed through my body, an instinctual feeling that described something utterly bizarre.
Blood Sucker-
This Branch allows the user to restore their stamina and essence based on the amount of blood they drink.
Blood Sucker? Branch? Essence? What the hell is this? None of it made sense, yet it did. My brain knew nothing of what this was, but my body did. Is that what happened? My body needed blood? Is that how all beings in this world are? They crave blood as a hunger source, but that doesn't make sense, if that were the case, how was I alive? The hut is within sight, so any animal would have been capable of attacking me and drinking my blood when I was unconscious.
I sigh, walking back to the hut where I sit down, attempting to relax my racing thoughts. After what seems like an hour, a similar feeling from earlier courses through me.
Meditation-
This Branch allows the user to clear their head and relax when resting.
Meditation? It seems so basic, why would I need a "Branch" for something I can easily do?
With that, my curiosity got the best of me. I started doing basic things—fixing up the hut, hunting animals, cleaning the hut, etc.
After a few days, I had gained many more branches, although one of them didn't make much sense to me.
Construction-
This Branch allows the user to build basic architecture.
Cleaning-
This Branch allows the user to clean at a basic level.
Hunting-
This Branch allows the user to hunt things with the goal of killing what they hunt.
Blood Hunter-
This is a Sub-Branch of "Hunting" that allows the user to have a unique and heightened sense for hunting when hunting for blood.
???-
This Branch forces the user to be cold, a heartless and selfish individual, willing to do anything to achieve their goal.
The others are normal, but this Branch is weird, it seems to have always been there, I didn't do anything to gain it like the other ones, but it didn't bother me.
The feeling of gaining new Branches, it made me feel powerful, an abnormal sense of greed filled me every time. I absolutely loved it.
As I came to understand my emotions, I decided it was time to move on. This desolate forest wasn't gonna grant me anything, it was time for me to find a new place, a place where I could gain as many Branches as I wanted.
With that, my journey began, a journey filled with greed and mystery—an insurmountable amount of depth that many others could get lost in if I carve it correctly. I want this world to be mine, and it will be, mine to destroy, mine to build, mine to own..