Chapter 47: Gnarled Truth
"Seo-jin...? Sounds wrong in my mouth. Who decided that?"
[Once User consumed the human, you gained his memories and appearance. In essence, you are Wohan Seo-jin, and Seo-jin is you.]
He rolled the name in his head, let it sit there like a stone.
"Hmm."
It was gonna take some time.
"Why is my registration only partial?"
[Until system connects to the global network, this was the best the shadow key could manage.]
"Once we're out of here, that gets fixed first. Without the Network, we're basically crippled."
Something twitched. His tongue flicked without thinking, tasting the air. The words he'd just spoken carried a flavor that wasn't his. Felt borrowed. He shoved the thought aside before it could dig in.
He pulled his focus to the numbers in front of him, nine AP to place. With his new class, FLH sat at the center of everything. Every class skill leaned on it. The free ten points from evolution and ten more from picking his class gave him a nice starting push.
Seo-jin's memories filled in the rest: in the human world, his body now counted as E-rank. Two more stats into D and he'd rank up as a User. It meant nothing here in the dungeon, but once tied into the Network, rank decided everything, from shop access to what kind of quests would even reach him.
As he thought about how to apply his points, he absentmindedly reached over his shoulder. His fingertips found the twinback growths, once tumors, now mouths. The flesh around them flexed when he touched it, teeth parting with a wet grind. Two black throats hissed, long and curling, tasting the air.
Grimm hovered between them, swinging his guts like bait.
"I wouldn't do that."
One mouth snapped fast enough to blur. Grimm drifted back. Even incorporeal, the imp somehow knew he'd be sucked in if he stayed too long. A thought from Azakh-Tur sent both mouths sinking back into a slow, uneasy sleep.
"Seems a waste. I already have my inventory."
[Twinback Growth storage is not a waste. Although smaller, they allow the storing of live organic matter without decay. System inventory lacks this feature.]
"Was hoping for something cooler..."
At least his natural weapons had all ranked. His teeth, now D, could split more flesh than Butcher's Wrath.
Something to test.
He'd already examined his new racial abilities, Soul Sense and Bone Oath, but one detail had slipped past him. Corruption. The skill he'd taken from the blood bead, censored from the moment he got it, finally stood open.
Waiting.
[Racial Ability // Corruption]
[Type // Passive / Active Hybrid]
[Category // Parasitic Dominion]
[Rank // E]
[Evolve // Yes]
[Sub-Category // Demonic Infection // Legion Control]
[Description]
[A dormant infection in the user's bloodline. Passively spreads demonic influence to nearby living or soul-bearing entities.]
[Cost // None]
[Cast Time // Passive (Always Active)]
[Cooldown // None]
[Effect // Infection Threshold]
[Entities within 5m accumulate Corruption. After 1 hour, targets with lower Will gain MADNESS / Lv.1—causing instability, aggression, and Maw-related dreams. Resistance to Madness builds with exposure (5% per incident), but Corruption remains until purified or killed]
[Note]
[Corrupted entities marked as Instability Risk. No control effects at this rank]
[Flavor Text]
["The rot of the Maw does not roar. It waits, buried in every breath and heartbeat."]
He'd read through the Corruption entry twice, letting the words settle like clotted blood in his teeth. This had to be the part of his evolution that hinted at affecting other beings. The idea seemed useful in theory, but the more he thought about it, the more it felt like the kind of problem that would come back to bite him.
The image of an entire city being driven to madness by his mere presence, sent a weird chill up his spine.
Surprisingly, only one thing in the flood of notifications and rewards left a sour taste...Grimm. The little ghost was useless in a fight. No HP, no mana, no soulmass. Just... there. He might scout ahead if the distance was short, but that was it.
And yet, looking at him, something sat under the imp's skin...a pull he couldn't name. The way Grimm dangled his intestines at the rabbits below, swaying them like a lure, almost made it worse. For some reason, he felt a closeness to it. A feeling he was unfamiliar with. So he ignored it.
"That just leaves the weapon reward from the achievement and the Rank Up token."
The token, he learned, was a system function, the only way to push system passives up a rank. System Skills could be ranked through use, but a passive needed something else entirely.
"I only have Demonic Will right now. I could save it... System, how can I get more tokens?"
[Currently, the only route is through quest rewards. In the future, potential alternatives will arise.]
He narrowed his eyes. Cryptic answers were always annoying.
"So how do I use it?"
[Remove from inventory. Hold token. Think of skill. Then break it.]
"Pretty simple."
He extended his hand and focused. The token bled into existence almost instantly, solidifying in his palm with a pulse of red system light. Round, palm-sized, its surface bore fine, etched lines that looked less like symbols and more like living code.
'Demonic Will.'
Snap.
The break was clean. Heat surged through him, and the glow spread.
[System // Notification]
[Item // Rank Up Token (Passive) // Used]
[Demonic Will // Rank Up // F → E]
The skill's readout brought a faint curl to his mouth. Pain resistance climbed from 5% to 6%. Health regeneration ticked up from 1 to 1.5%. No extra stacks, no dramatic leap, but enough to matter.
One thing left. He tapped the last notification and drove his claw into the accept prompt.
[System // Notification]
[Achievement Reward // Weapon x1]
[Distributing Reward…]
Light quickly gathered in the air before him, then began rapidly cycling through the shapes of blades, clubs, and spears. Fast at first, then slowing until each shift was deliberate. The final form hung for a breath before bursting outward in a sharp flare.
[Congratulations]
[Gnarled Fang ×1 // Received]
A dagger, crude but deliberate, drifted in the air. The blade was a sharpened fang, its handle bound tight with hide straps. He took it, noting its lightness and the balance in his grip. As his fingers closed, a panel snapped open with its details.
[Weapon Profile // Gnarled Fang]
[Rank // F]
[Type // Melee / Dagger]
[Material // Hardened demon beast tooth]
[Description]
[A jagged fang, uneven and serrated. It tears through flesh instead of slicing clean, its porous surface stained dark with old blood. The handle is bound in stiff, sweat-darkened leather.]
[Damage // 6–9 Slicing / Piercing]
[Durability // 38 / 38]
[Notes]
[Demon bone and tooth dull slower than steel but can crack under heavy impact. Serrations can be refiled, though sharpening shortens the blade.]
[Flavor Text]
["A crude demon tooth, jagged and ugly."]
Crude was right. If it wasn't his first system weapon, he'd have tossed it. He went to stash it, then paused...he remember his Soul Sense had unlocked new functions when his Soul Foundation formed. He hadn't tried it yet. Maybe it would show him what the system couldn't...or refused to.
"Inspect."
His eyes flared, and the system responded.
[System // Notification]
[Hidden Potential Discovered]
[Updating Weapon Profile… Updated]
[Weapon Profile // Gnarled Fang // Updated]
[Rank // F → Evolvable (Max Rank Unknown)]
[Type // Melee / Dagger]
[Material // Hardened high-tier demon beast tooth (dormant)]
[Description]
[What looks like scavenged scrap hides its true nature. The tooth is unnaturally dense, faint ridges in the enamel pulsing as if alive. The serrations are precise, the edge unworn despite age.]
[Damage // 6–9 Slicing / Piercing]
[Durability // 38 / 38]
[Special Properties]
[Evolutionary Weapon // Grows with its bonded user, unlocking abilities as rank increases.]
[Bond Requirement]
[Kill with this weapon to initiate bond. Cannot be unbound without destruction or death of User.]
[Scaling]
[Damage rises with user rank once bonded.]
[Notes]
[Formed from the tooth of a high-ranking demon beast. Its growth is tied to the wielder's kills—mere use will not awaken it.]
[Flavor Text]
["The fang of a great predator—still hungry."]
"What the fuck?! I didn't know it could do that."
[It would appear User should have paid closer attention to Soul Sense.]
The blade looked no different, weighed the same. But it no longer felt like junk. It was his now...truly his. He deposited it into his inventory.
"Alright."
He slapped his cheeks, flexed his fingers.
"Let's see what this class can do."
He raised two fingers to his mouth and bit down.
Crunch! Snap!
[-34 HP]
He spat the severed digits into his palm, eyes lit, not from pain, but from the thrill of testing something new.
"Spawn Broodlings."
As soon as he said it, something took from him, more than flesh. The fingers writhed, tendons jerking like hooked fish before he flung them to a patch of bare stone.
He sucked at his bleeding stumps, watching. The skin split; meat surged. Muscle strands knotted and grew, veins pulsing like feeding worms.
The stone blackened. Nearby water hissed into steam. The air thickened with a scent like burnt marrow, and he felt it...heat, pressure. Birth.
Two demonic shapes began to form, rising from the mess.