Chapter 46: More Unknowns
[System // Class Tree Available]
[Class Name // Gorewrought]
[Classification // War-Forged Carnophage]
[Status // Extinct Tier Combat Doctrine]
[Combat Role]
[Frontline destruction. Specializes in sustained melee engagements where injury and attrition fuel exponential power growth.]
[Core Mechanics]
[Agony Conversion // Damage taken increases damage output; thresholds trigger temporary mutations.]
[Adaptive Mutation // Sprouts bone plating, weaponized growths, or auxiliary limbs during prolonged combat.]
[Carnophage Recovery // Rapid regeneration from consumed biomass, scaling with kill intensity.]
[Signature Skills]
[Rendflesh Overdrive // Deliberate self-wounding to spike damage and trigger mutations instantly.]
[Meatforge Carapace // Hardened, plated armor grown from user's own bone and sinew.]
[Scaling Conditions]
[Mutations persist and grow more complex the longer combat continues. Highest potential achieved in battles of extreme duration and casualty count.]
[!!Warning!!]
[Physical cohesion degrades if denied combat for prolonged periods. Risk of permanent disfigurement and uncontrolled mutation growth. Gorewrought who survive peacetime often collapse into feral states.]
["Steel breaks, flesh mends. In the Gorewrought, the flesh learns to be steel." —War Sermons of the Ninth Legion]
[Confirm Selection?]
[Y/N]
Expressionless, he swiped away the panel and pressed the second option.
[System // Class Tree Available]
[Class Name // Soulblight]
[Classification // Malefic Soulbinder]
[Status // Extinct Tier Curse Doctrine]
[Combat Role]
[Mid-range control and attrition. Excels at crippling foes through soul-anchored curses, while stealing and redistributing traits between combatants.]
[Core Mechanics]
[Curseweave — Inflicts stacking soul-borne afflictions that bypass armor and physical defenses.]
[Soul Anchor — Attaches curses to objects, corpses, or lingering spirit fragments.]
[Blight Transfer — Transfers strengths, resistances, or buffs between allies and enemies.]
[Signature Skills]
[Gravetongue Binding — Locks target's abilities behind spiritual seals until curse is broken or caster is killed.]
[Woe Reclamation — Upon death of a cursed target, harvests the curse's power as raw soul-force for immediate use.]
[Scaling Conditions]
[Power grows with the number of bound curses active at once. Maximum potential reached when curses are maintained across multiple enemies or battlefields.]
[!!Warning!!]
[Identity erosion likely without mental safeguards. Prolonged practice can result in compulsive curse weaving and permanent detachment from physical reality. Some Soulblights have cursed themselves into nonexistence.]
["A soul is just another limb. I break it like bone." —The Grave-Tongue Codex]
[Confirm Selection?]
[Y/N]
He rubbed his eyes, jaw clenching.
"Why does everything have to have a fucking drawback? Can't just one thing not try to kill me?"
He sneered and flicked the Soulblight panel aside. Both choices were tailored by the system, both felt hollow, and both were obviously meant for one of the two races he didn't choose.
"So either I get stronger by letting things tear me apart, or I gamble my sanity until I end up drooling in a corner...fucking great."
[User is a creature born from filth. Lower expectations.]
His snarl cracked into a bitter laugh.
"You've said that before. When do I get to raise them, huh? When I'm 'worthy enough'? Fuck you! Give me something that won't chew me up and spit me out, you broken—"
[User still has the third option from consuming the Cradlebloom. This class was not curated by the system. Maybe User expectations can still be met.]
"Doubt it."
He drove a claw into the final panel—Broodspawn.
[System // Class Tree Available]
[Class Name // Broodspawn]
[Classification // Unknown]
[Status // Unknown]
[Combat Role]
[Unknown.]
[Core Mechanics]
[Flesh Genesis — Spawns Broodlings from User's biomass]
[Mutagenic Lineage — Broodlings gain permanent mutations from combat exposure and consumed prey.]
[Signature Skills]
[Unknown.]
[Scaling Conditions]
[Class strength increases exponentially with brood mutation diversity.]
[!!Warning!!]
[This class path is unauthorized. It appears to have been created by interaction with Cradlebloom. Full capability set is unknown. System cannot confirm long-term stability of User's soul structure if class is selected.]
["The seed splits. The seed bleeds. The seed devours its young." —Fragmented Genetic Code]
[Confirm Selection?]
[Y/N]
"..."
He stared long enough for the bloodlight around him to pulse and settle. No cursing. No roar. He just calmly walked to the broken lip of stone, set his claws, and wrenched out a slab with a shriek of granite.
Grimm drifted into his path, skull tilted, ribboning guts, questioning without words. Azakh-Tur didn't answer. He stepped to the edge, met the churning fuzz and eyes below, and breathed once.
"This is bullshit!"
He hurled the rock like a falling star.
It hit tail and spine; the rabbit folded wetly, a smear of fur and meat dragged forward by momentum. It didn't die. It tried to crawl and the swarm granted mercy the only way it knew...by eating.
[Exp +10]
Kill assist.
"I want a reroll! Go through some more data, crunch the numbers, and give me some new options."
[Negative. User has no other options.]
"Bullshit! You can't do this twice! Two shit choices, and once again, the last with unknowns...again?! I'll wait another ten levels, you—!"
[User request unable to be granted. Please make a selection.]
His jaw clenched so hard his teeth began to grind. He stayed still for a few seconds, listening to the faint splash of the waterfall, the rabbits' clicks in the distance. Grimm drifted in lazy circles beside him, intestines swaying, waiting. The system's prompt blinked in the corner of his vision, stubborn and unmoving.
He knew himself. Knew with these three, he only had one choice.
"Broodspawn...broodlings..."
Looking to Grimm.
"What would you pick?"
Grimm just smiled and shook his guts.
"Big help."
The little ghost danced at the compliment. Sarcasm was still foreign to it.
"Fuck it. Might as well keep the theme. Unknown...really hate that word."
[Confirm Selection]
[Yes/No]
He tapped his claw.
[Yes]
System light unfurled across his vision, and something settled in his core...as if a furnace door slid shut inside his belly and the heat began to climb.
The warmth didn't rush; it gathered.
It soaked into muscle and tendon, ran the length of his spine like a slow iron poured into a mold. Blood rose to meet it. Marrow answered with a faint, vibrating pressure, the way a hive stirs when the queen wakes.
[Class Integration Protocols — Unlocked]
[Initializing…]
Thread by thread, the class stitched itself through him. He felt lines anchor behind the sternum, hooks set along the ribs, a quiet bite in each nerve as if teaching his body new movements.
[Integration // 14%]
[27%]
[54%]
[89%]
[Integration Complete]
The warmth thickened into weight, good weight, like fresh muscle packed onto a frame that had always been waiting for it.
[Achievement Unlocked // First Class]
[Requirements // Choose a Class]
[Reward Granted // 1x Weapon]
The icon held its breath. He didn't. His attention remained inward, where new instincts were being soldered in. This time the pain stayed just shy of pleasure, leaving his mind clear enough to watch his growth unfold in real time.
[Class Tree // Broodspawn // Established]
[+10 FLH]
The first imprint arrived as an itch behind the navel and along the spine. Fertile, restless, eager.
[Class Skill Unlocked // Spawn Broodling]
'Wonder what they'll look like...'
A second pulse rose beneath his tongue, undercutting his thoughts. Awareness budded outward, a space in the mind shaped to hold others without crowding his own.
[Class Skill Unlocked // Broodlink Instinct]
[Class Skill Unlocked // Symbiotic Pain]
Cartilage began to prickle under the skin, elbows, shoulders, along the blade of each scapula, quiet, simmering options laid in like spare parts.
[Class Skill Unlocked // Malformed Growth]
His throat and stomach brightened in tandem, a second economy opening, one for harvest, one for division. What he ate could be broken down into orders.
[Class Skill Unlocked // Brood Feast]
Finally, a cool filament slid from heart to hands, then outward into the dark, searching. It touched the air the way blood touches water, ready to spread, ready to bind.
[Class Skill Unlocked // Blood Link]
He exhaled. The furnase-heat eased to a steady glow. The lines held. The new shapes inside him did not feel foreign; they felt overdue.
Steam bled from between his teeth as he let his jaw hang. The glow inside had settled.
It was finished.
He felt…whole.
"Now...let's see what I've unlocked."
Time to tear through every change. One by one. Everything since he first evolved.
----
"Okay, new rule—moving forward, check every notification right away...this is a lot."
It took him close to an hour to clear them all. Between swipes, he kept the horde below busy, dropping stone chunks, crushing a few skulls, making sure their eyes stayed on him.
Swiping away a notification, he glanced down at his chest. Faint red light pulsed in the cracks of his black skin.
"Didn't realize that much had changed."
His racial abilities had ranked up during evolution, he knew that already. New stats. A new passive. A new active. But he hadn't realized most of his traits had climbed a tier.
He swiped to his updated profile.
[Basic User Profile]
[User Name // Wohan Seo-jin]
[User True-Name // Azakh-Tur]
[Entity // Imp / Mawspawn Variant]
[Class // Broodspawn]
[Status // Partial Registration]
[Rank // Unranked]
[Flag // Anomalous Host Detected]
[Titles]
[Kinslayer]
[Level // 12]
[Exp // 3622/4610]
[HP // 300/300]
[SM // 36/36]
[ATTRIBUTES]
[STR // 25 // D]
[VIT // 20 // E]
[AGI // 28 // D]
[INT // 14 // E]
[FLH // 23 // D]
[WIL // 16 // E]
[AP // 9]
[Soul Integrity // 52%]
[DEFENSE]
[Natural // 10% slicing and 5% bludgeoning]
[RESISTANCE]
[Fire // 100%]
[Hellfire // 20%]
[WEAKNESS]
[Exposure to light]
[RACIAL TRAITS]
[Heat Resistance // A]
[Dark Vision // S]
[Wall Crawler // B]
[Stealth // B]
[MUTATIONS]
[Slot 1 // Twinback Growth // E]
[Slot 2 // Wohan Seo-jin]
[NATURAL WEAPONS]
[Claws // E]
[Teeth // D]
[Tail // E]
[ACTIVE SKILLS]
[Rend // E]
[Desecration // S+]
[Rotflow // F]
[PASSIVE SKILLS]
[Demonic Will // F]
[Souls Sense // E]
[RACIAL ABILITIES]
[Savage Feed // E]
[Minor Shifting // E // Rare]
[Corruption // E // Rare]
[Bone Oath // B]
[CURSE]
[Hellfire // F]
[Fiendskin // F]
[CLASS SKILLS]
[Active]
[Summon Broodling // E]
[Brood Feast // E]
[Passive]
[Broodlink Instinct // E]
[Symbiotic Pain // E]
[Malformed Growth // E]
[DIRECTIVES]
[FEED // Active]
[KILL // Pending]
He stared at the profile. Pride swelled in his chest...clean. No "Unknown." No "None." Nothing "Locked."
For the first time since the Maw, he wasn't guessing at what he was.
And that felt dangerous...in all the right ways.