Dante took a deep breath and decided to read his traits one by one.
[Demonic Dragon]
⤷ Your bloodlines clash, slowing each other's growth, but gradually fusing into something greater.
• Draconic Mutation: Right Eye
• Demonic Mutation: Right Arm
Seeing the effects, Dante unconsciously looked at his strange, segmented arm. He understood now why his right arm felt stronger and his right eye sharper.
'But what is the difference between the demons and dragons? If I had a draconic arm instead of a demonic one, would it be worse or better?'
Unfortunately, he couldn't know the difference between the demonic and draconic parts as the runes weren't detailed, so he moved to the next trait.
Seeing the name, he read with a dark expression:
[Regression Marks (13/30)]
⤷ Time marks etched into your body.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Regression by death⟩
⤷Upon death, consuming a regression mark to force a will holding your memories and experiences to return to a returning point. The returning point changes every 39 mental hours. Limited and finite.
✧ Active Abilities:
⟨Mark Restoration⟩
⤷ Restore consumed Regression Marks through consuming your spirit. Requires Time Aspect.
'That's the regression ability, huh?'
Most people would see it as 13 chances to live again, but Dante saw it as something else.
'13 deaths… 13 painful deaths.'
Dante wasn't too afraid of death—he was already getting used to it—but he hated the pain.
He still remembered the pain of his previous deaths clearly—the bullet in his chest, the axe splitting his skull, the flaming blade severing his neck.
'No, there won't be 13 deaths if I simply don't die. I'll survive! I only have to keep living and ignore that trait.' Dante's determination returned before focusing on a strange part that confused Fafnir as well.
'Mental hours?'
Was that something like a universal timing? Maybe related to the mental age?
Unable to think of an answer, he shifted his gaze to the next traits. They were what caused some problems in his translation.
They read:
[Silver Ether Bond]
⤷ Permanent connection to Silver Ether, a part of the primordial current between life and death.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Ether Absorbance⟩
⤷ Can absorb Silver Ether directly into the soul.
__
[Silver Ether Eye]
⤷ A Silver Ether Thread fused with your right eye.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Enhanced Vision⟩
⤷ The fusion enhances your right eye, giving it an enhanced vision.
⟨Natural Ether Manipulation Talent⟩
⤷ The fusion grants you a natural talent in manipulating Ether.
✧ Active Abilities:
⟨Spiritual Eye⟩
⤷ See Spirit value of all beings.
Dante had 2 traits with descriptions about Silver Ether, which seemed to be another kind of energy.
The first talked about absorbing it and storing it in his soul, maybe similar to how he stores mana.
The second showed that a certain thread fused with his right eye, improving it, giving it an ability to see the spirit value, and giving Dante a talent in manipulating Ether.
Sadly, Dante knew how to use the other energies only due to Fafnir's memories, so he would need to learn about Ether himself.
'Why do I have that, anyway? It doesn't seem like something I was born with.'
From its description, he could say it was quite familiar, but why did he feel that familiarity…
'Wait!'
Dante's eyes widened as he remembered something: 'The golden and silver threads current! It's something I have seen while dying and a silver thread entered my eye socket. That explains it!'
'But what exactly is that? And what is the difference between the silver and golden Ether?'
Unfortunately, Dante had no answer for that, so he decided to test his active ability for now.
He didn't know how, but when he focused on his right eye, he instinctively understood how to activate it and that it consumed silver Ether.
It was like how a snake can naturally use its poison and how birds can Instinctively know they're able to fly.
Dante activated his ability…
CRRK!
He immediately deactivated it.
"...."
Dante's hand trembled as he used it to wipe a warm liquid at his eye, only to see his palm painted red.
Dante groaned in pain: '...It wasn't even a second.'
He activated his eye's ability for less than a second, and that was enough to hit him with a sudden, sharp pain through his eye and into his skull, so fast and immense that he couldn't even scream, and made his eye bleed.
Inwardly, he decided to never activate that crap again.
With his eye still shaking, Dante took a deep breath and focused on the other innate traits.
[Sorcerer's Gift]
⤷ Innate ability to shape magic by will and understanding.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Sorcery⟩
⤷ Cast spells without chants or formulas.
The sorcerer's gift was definitely a great blessing. With it, he wouldn't need to shout or waste time forming magical circles to make a spell.
Fafnir's sister had the same trait, so Dante had a simple understanding regarding it
From his understanding, he only needed to increase his comprehension, practice his mana, and have some imagination to make his own spells.
'But there is a downside.'
The downside was that, unlike others who could simply memorize spells, he would have to truly understand them from scratch. In other words, he lost the ability to chant.
Of course, he could still cast some spells by drawing their runic formula in the air, but Fafnir didn't learn that technique.
Sighing deeply, Dante read the next trait:
[Fateless Soul]
⤷ When another died in your place, the world recorded your death instead.
Your existence no longer registers within the system of Fate—an error that shouldn't have existed.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Fateless⟩
⤷ The natural enemy of Fate.
'What, what is this supposed to do? And does that mean Fafnir… died?'
Dante tried to make any sense of that trait but couldn't. He understood the part of someone dying instead of him, which was obviously Fafnir, but everything else didn't make any sense to him.
Was being a natural enemy of fate a good or a bad thing?
Dante ignored it for now, then he finally read the last 2 traits:
[Unfortunate Aura]
⤷ Leaks your misfortune into surroundings.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Unexpected Accidents⟩
⤷ Causes minor accidents nearby.
__
[Misfortune Attraction]
⤷ You are a natural magnet for disasters, drawing misfortune toward yourself.
✧ Passive Abilities:
⟨Probabilities Twist⟩
The less likely an event, the greater its chance of occurring.
'This… makes sense now.'
From their description, it was obvious that they caused all the events that occurred to him through all his life.
Whenever someone close to him was harmed, then it was the Unfortunate Aura trait.
Whenever strange events happened to him, like a fucking lightning strike, then it was the Misfortune Attraction trait.
When Dante thought about that, it made sense. Fafnir, who had Fire Aspect, wasn't burned by it. So logically, Dante wasn't harmed by his aspect, but by something else, which was his traits.
Thinking about that, he wondered if there was still hope to fix his situation.
He had thought earlier that he only had to control his misfortune by some magic and fix everything, but what about his traits? Could he alter them, somehow?
Suddenly, a memory flashed in his mind, of the sudden car accident that killed his parents. But what if it wasn't… a random accident?
'Was I the reason… my parents died?'
Immense guilt and sadness surged through his mind, but he shook his head and looked at the last section with heavy eyes.
❖ Relics:
[Empty]
Similar to the classes, it was empty.
Neither Dante nor Fafnir understood what that was, so he didn't bother himself with it and started thinking about his traits.
Tak!
Suddenly, he heard a sound.
Interrupted by the sound, Dante lost his focus, causing the hovering runes to vanish. As he looked at the sound's source, he froze: 'How did that come here?'
Lying just a few steps away was a lifeless white skeleton gripping a rusty sword. It was the same skeleton that was supposed to be behind the corridor.
Dante didn't dare to make any sound. Slowly, he forced himself to his feet, breathing raggedly. But all of a sudden—the skeleton moved.
Gripping its sword firmly, the skeleton stood up and swung swiftly.
"WHAT THE HELL!"
How was a skeleton moving?!
Three crimson claws burst out of Dante's knuckles and blocked the sword, but the impact shattered his claws and made him fall backward.
The skeleton's force was so strong that he felt a slight numbness in his demonic arm, but how could a skeleton… without muscles do that?
'Think. Think. Think!' Dante's mind skimmed through his new memories, searching for anything useful as the skeleton approached him.
The moment he found a good basic spell, he immediately pointed his right index at the skeleton while channeling both his Mana and Demonic Energy.
Demonic Mana Spell — Demonic Bullet!
Bang!
In an instant, a crimson bullet materialized in front of Dante before launching into the skeleton, causing a recoil that pushed Dante's hand back.
The bullet smashed into the skeleton's shoulder, shattering it entirely and taking a small part from its ribcage, but the skeleton continued moving, ignoring its injury.
When Dante tried to shoot another demonic bullet, the skeleton was already standing before him.
Immediately, the world around Dante slowed down as the skeleton thrusted brutally.
"Ah!"
Clank!
Dante moved his head to the side, dodging a lethal hit and causing the skeleton sword to hit the wall, but unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to save his ear.
He froze for less than a second because of the pain, but that was all the time the skeleton needed to slash horizontally.
The rusty blade passed through Dante's neck, severing his head quickly and sending it flying into the air.
'Again…'
That was his last thought as he watched his headless body bleeding of its neck.
12 lives remained.
¢¢¢
"...."
As his vision returned, Dante was back to the first room, touching his neck with his shaky hands, feeling a phantom pain where the blade cut him.
'Hell… I'm in hell…' Dante thought as tears started forming in his eyes, but almost instantly, he bit his lip and steeled his mind.
Although all that was too much for him, his survival instincts helped him stay sane and think clearly in that situation. He had many things to worry about.
'Run to the gate again, and avoid that damn trap!'
As he was ready to run, he remembered something: 'Wait, mana can enhance the body. That may help me.'
Dante focused on his brain—where his mana was stored—and channeled the mana it contained through his veins into his legs.
His legs were covered and infused with mana from the inside and outside, filling them with power beyond Dante's imagination.
That was only a small boost, but it was enough for now.
But as he pressed on the ground, trying to run forward, he used more force than necessary and stumbled, crashing onto the floor.
'Focus!'
Gritting his teeth, he began to move step by step first. When he was used to his new strength, he finally began to run.
As Dante reached the trap he fell into before, he simply jumped over it. But when he finally felt some relief…
Click!
…Another trap activated under him.
'No—!'
Swish!
Cutting his thoughts off, a few ragged spears burst out of the ground, suspending him in the air with many of them piercing his body.
Against the unbearable pain, his mind went blank.
Dante couldn't even scream, only coughing mouthfuls of blood while helplessly feeling his body slowly pressing on the spears due to gravity.
Slowly, gradually, and painfully, the spears dug inside him.
'Please… anything.'
Dante begged inwardly, for any miracle to save him, but unfortunately, nothing happened.
Eventually, one spear reached his heart, ending his pain in a few seconds.
11 lives remained.