Ren's mandibles clicked softly as he stood over the first corpse. Steam still rose faintly from the human's blood, the scent curling into his senses like a teasing finger.
Hungry.
It was a dull ache at first, but it grew the longer he stared. He remembered — vaguely — being human once. The idea of eating one felt… wrong in that old, distant framework. Back then, humans had been his kind.
But that was before.
Here, their smell was different. Their breath stank of rage, of cruelty. Their mana wasn't clean like the forest's — no, it was thick, greasy, clinging to the air. And yet… it stirred his hunger in an odd way.
Ren lowered his head, sniffing closer.
Huh… smells like… soup?
It was baffling. Their mana didn't crackle like elemental beasts or hum like dungeon-born. It simmered. Stewed. Rich with the flavors of something boiled too long — aggression, fear, desperation, all muddled together until it lost its shape.
His stomach growled. The sound echoed in his own ears like a drumbeat.
"Sorry," he muttered, though the apology had no real weight. His mandibles split wider, silk-wrapped limbs pinning the first soldier's body. His teeth sank in — not tearing, but grinding, his unique digestion pulling mana and essence in even before flesh parted.
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Human Soldier – Hostile]
[Element Sampled: Mixed – Low Mana Infusion]
[Trait Acquired: Minor Heat Resistance (Lv.1)]
[Skill Fragment Absorbed: Adrenal Surge – Unlocked (Rank F)]
It was… strange. Human flesh was soft, almost disappointingly so. No satisfying crunch of shell or mineral-rich tang of stone beasts. Instead, there was a faint sweetness beneath the iron tang of blood — a reminder that these were creatures of warmth and muscle.
Kind of like badly cooked chicken… but with soup mana.
Ren chuckled in his head. "Weird." Then he moved on to the next.
He didn't bother dragging them off — he ate where they fell, crouched low like a predator over its kill. Each soldier's mana spilled into him differently — some sharp and bitter, others mellow, like the last of a broth left cooling.
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Human Soldier – Hostile]
[Element Sampled: None]
[Trait Acquired: Pain Tolerance (Lv.1)]
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Human Soldier – Hostile]
[Element Sampled: Minor Fire Affinity – Trace]
[Trait Acquired: Heat-Linked Reflex (Lv.1)]
It was… filling in a way leaves and stone never were. Messy, but filling.
By the fourth body, Ren noticed movement — the bound swordsman, the coward, staring at him wide-eyed. His face was pale, lips trembling, fingers digging into the dirt as if anchoring himself.
Ren tilted his head at him, mandibles slick with gore. "What? You've seen worse."
The boy shook his head violently. "No… not like this… never like this…" His voice was a rasp, not from fear alone, but from something older — shame.
Ren turned away, sinking his teeth into another body. This one's mana was faint, diluted — the taste of a man already broken long before the fight. It left almost nothing in his mouth, like soup with no seasoning.
The boy watched every moment, his breaths coming faster. Not because he feared Ren's hunger — but because each soldier devoured was someone he had known for years, and he wasn't sure if he wanted them saved or erased from the world entirely.
When the last hostile was gone, Ren licked his mandibles clean, not out of courtesy, but instinct.
Hunger sated — for now. But the boy's scent of conflicted mana lingered, and Ren knew it would taste very different when the day came.
The air in the caravan's wreckage was heavy. Not just with the copper tang of blood, but with something older — the primal scent of a predator that had fed well.
The freed goblins and beastkin huddled together a short distance away, whispering in low, rapid tones. Most didn't dare look in Ren's direction. The silk threads still dangling from the trees like a spider's feast only made it worse.
Then she stepped forward.
Kaela Ironfang.
Her stride was deliberate, not rushed. She moved like someone who had known chains but never bowed to them. Her furred ears, sleek and dark, twitched faintly at the scent of blood, but her golden eyes stayed locked on Ren.
Ren noticed immediately — she didn't reek of fear. Her mana was steady, deep, and pure. Not soup, not sludge, not wild. It was clean. Refined.
"You eat humans," Kaela said, her voice calm — almost flat.
Ren tilted his head, wiping his mandibles with a casual flick of silk. "They were hostile. Dangerous. And I was hungry."
Her gaze didn't waver. "I'm not here to judge that."
That made Yutu glance at her sharply. "Then what are you here for?"
Kaela didn't answer him. Instead, she stepped closer to Ren until the tips of her boots nearly touched the edge of a still-warm bloodstain. "You're not like other predators. Your mana… it feels like standing at the edge of a cliff. Beautiful, and dangerous enough to crush a city if it falls."
Ren's mandibles twitched. "You make it sound like I'm some kind of calamity."
"You are," Kaela said simply. "But you don't see it yet."
The words lingered between them.
Behind her, the cowardly swordsman kept his head low, eyes averted, as if the weight of Kaela's presence pressed down harder than Ren's.
Ren's gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before finally asking, "Kaela Ironfang… why do you have a surname?"
Her lips curved into something between a smirk and a warning. "Because I am pure blood. Those with a name… are the ones who survived the evolution into something greater."
Ren thought about that for a moment. Her mana was proof of it — refined, powerful, and sharp in a way that made even his instincts take notice.
And yet, for the first time since leaving the dungeon, he felt that she might be just as dangerous to him as he could be to her.