SSS Awakening: All My Clones Have Divine Bloodlines!-Chapter 32: Let the Hunt Begin

Unaware of what his actions had set in motion across the rest of the world, Evan, barely recovered from his close encounter with something terrifying, found himself caught off guard once again by the system’s words.

"Wait, what? What do you mean the Abyss was never closed?" he asked, trying to confirm what he had just heard. After all, what he had just heard was no small matter.

While little was known about the past two Ages, enough was known about the major events of each age, especially those closer to the current age, such as the Abyss itself.

It was still unclear what had brought it into existence or exactly how it had been dealt with, but there had always been one certainty: it had been suppressed, perhaps even destroyed. No one knew for certain, but there was a difference between saying it still existed and saying it had never been closed.

If what the system had just said was true, then why had the Hollow attacks stopped? And what had become of the divine beings of the past? 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Too many things didn’t add up. And while none of them were directly his problem, Evan understood well enough that the Abyss was a threat to everyone, himself included.

[You see, the Abyss is not something so easily dealt with by those you call divine beings. Those beings had only reached the rank of Demigods. Only two of them had ever truly crossed into the realm of true Gods, and even then, reaching that level was not enough to eliminate or permanently close the Abyss. It only made them strong enough to suppress it to a certain degree.]

[Once opened, the Abyss was never closed, only sealed, to limit its influence. But that seal is not eternal, and sooner or later it will be completely removed.]

[The reason you are able to perceive and even manipulate void energy, and to form a connection with it, is precisely because its influence is still present in the world. And since you possess a clone with a divine bloodline directly tied to the God of Death, your resonance with the Abyss surpasses that of any other being currently present in this world.]

Evan: "..."

’am I supposed to be happy about that?’ He almost said it out loud, but held himself back.

He was still in the manor, after all. Making noise was an open invitation for trouble, and trouble was the last thing he needed right now.

Evan had known that his clone’s bloodline had been random, or at least, that was what the system had told him. But somehow he had still ended up with the God of Death’s lineage. And now that he knew more about the Abyss and its connection to death, it made him anything but thrilled.

He thought about the wave of problems that would inevitably come his way because of all this, but in the end he let out a slow breath and calmed his mind.

’Haa... fuck it. What’s the point of worrying about it now?’

He was still inside the Langton manor. Still a slave. His priority was getting out of his current situation, all the problems waiting for him in the future were, quite literally, a problem for the future. There was no point thinking about it now, especially since there wasn’t much he could actually do about it anyway.

So he decided to set the matter aside for the moment and focus on something else.

’For better or worse, I’ve at least made progress with void energy,’ he thought, feeling it flow through his mana core more fluidly than before, his control over it noticeably stronger and more responsive.

As much of a source of trouble as this energy was, it was also a powerful weapon for him, useful for a number of things, starting with the slave mark.

Originally, his plan had been to simply grow strong enough to withstand the mark’s effects. After all, it was only F-Rank, as long as he kept getting stronger, it would eventually become nothing more than a minor nuisance, like a passing headache.

Once he had escaped, he would have found a way to remove it entirely. But with void energy, things had changed.

Just as he could erode the particles of other elements and convert them into void energy, he could also influence things like the slave mark.

He had already tried before, and despite the difficulty, he had managed to chip away at a portion of it.

And the system could confirm as much.

[WARNING: You are afflicted with a Slave Mark (F-Rank) (93%)]

He had noticed that alongside the notification about being afflicted by it, the system had added a new piece of information showing its current state of integrity.

In other words, through his previous attempts he had managed to erode 8% of it.

If not for his low reserves and limited control over void energy at the time, he could have done more. But now that he had made a breakthrough, he could.

So he set the matter of the Abyss aside for the moment and used what little time remained before nightfall to deal with this particular problem that had been bothering him for quite a while.

***

Two days passed.

He spent them the way he had spent every day since he started controlling his clone’s body, grinding, training, and grinding again.

The results spoke for themselves.

---

[Name: Evan]

[Age: 14]

[Rank: E]

[ESS: 51.5%]

[Bloodline: None]

[Divine Clone]

> Clones: 1

[Skills]

[Storage]

---

Between the passive ESS his clone and summons generated during the day, averaging around 1,200 ESS for him, and the roughly 6,400 ESS he was earning at night through personal hunts, of which approximately 4,480 went to him and 1,920 to the clone, his advancement percentage had been climbing at a remarkable rate. At this point he was close to reaching the peak of Mid-Stage.

Even better, the fact that he was now generating more ESS at night had steadily closed the gap between his progress and his clone’s, to the point where he had nearly caught up. His clone’s current advancement percentage sat at 52.2%.

That alone made Evan quite happy. After all, he couldn’t exactly remain weaker than his own clone, could he?

His control over void energy continued to improve with each session, and the slave mark had felt it. It went from 93% integrity to 43%, nearly half eroded in just two days. At this rate, another day or two and it would disappear completely.

And so the night of the seventh day had finally arrived. The agreed upon day.

***

Deep in the outer reaches of the Greystone Forest, the only sound was the wind moving through the branches overhead and the distant crash of something large hitting the ground.

Evan stood over the body of a Stone Boar, nearly two meters at the shoulder, its hide thick as armor plating, and exhaled slowly.

His left arm ached. His mana reserves were lower than he would have liked. There were three deep gouges across his side where the boar had caught him during the second exchange, already closing but still raw.

He had handled it alone.

No summons. No clone interference. Just him controlling the clone’s body, the dark blade, and twenty minutes of the most exhausting fight he’d had in weeks.

[Ding! You have killed an E-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Stone Boar!]

[You have gained +490 ESS]

He looked at the number for a moment.

’Not bad.’

A few weeks ago, something at that level would have required the clone and all three summons working together. Now it just required him to work harder than he wanted to and take a hit he should have dodged.

He straightened up, rolled his shoulder once, and turned.

Luna was sitting on a wide, flat rock a few meters away, knees drawn up, watching him with those eyes of hers, sharp and still in the darkness, lit only by the pale glow of the moon filtering through the canopy above. The violet was deeper at night, the faint crimson at the center of her pupils burning like embers that hadn’t quite gone out.

He had noticed, at some point in the past week, that she had started looking at him differently. Not with the suspicion or unease of their first days, something quieter than that, harder to name. Like she was still deciding what to make of him, and was in no hurry to finish the thought.

He held her gaze for a moment.

Then, simply:

"Shall we?"

The words settled between them, easy and final.

Luna’s eyes didn’t change, but something in the set of her jaw did.

She dropped off the rock without a word and fell into step beside him as he turned toward the city.

They had been preparing for this day for some time, and now that it had finally arrived, it was time to go hunting.