Blood sprayed between man and monster!
David's own blood splattered everywhere, and the monster's green blood also sprayed all over his face.
Under the stimulation of the hot, stinking blood, David roared and struggled to control his green monster claw to launch a second attack!
The monster, equally fired up, didn't back down either. It swung its claws again at this weak human who dared challenge it.
The monster's claw blade tore open David's shoulder. Its other claw got dodged as David used the momentum to evade, but then it got its throat pierced by a claw that appeared out of nowhere...
It froze. Green blood fountained from its throat. It clutched its neck, staggered back two steps, and crashed to the ground with a thud.
David gasped, half-kneeling on the ground. Blood flowed from his wounds, looking terrifying and brutal, but he didn't fall.
He knew he'd win this fight—simply because his life value was higher than his opponent's. The monster claw he could summon had a short cooldown, but its attacks were way more unpredictable and impossible to guard against than the enemy's.
The monster's two swipes had knocked off over two hundred of his life points, but his monster claw had dealt roughly the same damage to the enemy. In this kind of slugfest, he was naturally the winner.
The next moment, David crawled over to the fallen monster and grabbed its arm without hesitation!
[Devoured monster arm, absorbed life energy, limit +200.]
As that arm merged into his body, he felt another stream of life flow into his shell. It felt amazing, and his wounds hissed out white vapor, healing at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye!
[Life Energy: 315/520]
Watching his life limit skyrocket again, David slowly clenched his fist. Though the life energy recovery hadn't completely healed his injuries, it no longer affected his movement.
"So the life energy I absorb is that monster's life limit?"
"Which means, as long as I keep killing these monsters, I can keep increasing my health... What a ridiculous ability..."
Not only that, David discovered that the Hand of Monster had undergone some changes after merging with another monster's arm.
It seemed to be getting thicker and more powerful. The iron-blue skin was also becoming tougher—this claw could apparently grow by devouring other arms!
David's lips slowly curved up, but his vision suddenly moved uncontrollably. Whoosh—! His eyeball shifted, and his gaze finally locked onto another dark shadow approaching in the distance.
A health bar lit up above its head...
...
[Devoured monster arm, absorbed life energy, limit +200.]
Soon, David took down the second monster that appeared. This time, he barely got injured.
The powerful claw, under his increasingly skilled control, successfully blocked the opponent's attack. As his life energy expanded, he felt his body becoming more agile and powerful. With a sidestep, he caught the enemy's opening and directly pierced through the monster's chest.
This way, his life limit had climbed to an astonishing 720 points, and the green arm had once again become more powerful.
"This is the power of the supernatural..."
In just these few dozen minutes, David had acquired over seven times the life energy of an ordinary person. He was no longer some regular guy who could be seriously injured by a monster's single slap.
But could he really bear the cost of this power?
The tormenting hunger hit him again. Though devouring and merging those arms could slightly ease that evil spirit's desire, he still couldn't completely shake that feeling. He wanted to eat, he needed food!
David took heavy steps, continuing toward the other end of the valley. In his recollection, as long as he left this wild valley, he could return to the world of human civilization. There would be food there...
In the darkness, David kept moving forward. There were no stars or moon visible in the sky. He didn't know how long he'd walked until he climbed over another hill, and the plains outside the valley entrance finally appeared before his eyes.
The black earth stretched all the way to the horizon. There, in the southern sky, hung a massive crescent large enough to cover the entire horizon...
"This is... this world's moon? That's not scientifically possible..."
Stimulated by this terrifying sight, David suddenly seemed to remember something.
In his original body's common knowledge, this world had always been like this. That thing like a "moon" wasn't actually a moon at all, but another bizarre planet pressed right up against this world's southern edge!
Logically, two planets this close should have crashed into each other long ago, but that had never happened—and it had been going on for over three hundred years, weirdly enough!
He remembered now. He remembered more things. This bizarre world—half of it had already fallen into darkness.
In the unlearned brain of the viscount's son, certain historical knowledge slowly surfaced...
The massive Goliath Empire had risen three hundred years ago under the leadership of the Lionheart King. Using witchcraft and alchemy knowledge from another world, they'd held onto half the world and step by step led the entire dynasty into a golden age where steam-powered guns and supernatural blades coexisted.
But the darkness had never faded...
David walked onto the plains in a daze, heading toward that enormous lunar shadow, continuing forward.
He had no mind to recall more. Right now, he just wanted to find food—even the worst husks would be fine. He'd set aside his noble dignity and swallow anything he could swallow!
Wait... noble? I'm not some noble...
But... who am I then?
David ran in a daze all the way until almost dawn, when he finally spotted village lights on the plains...
At dawn, a farmer carrying a hoe walked toward his field. The faint morning light let him spot a figure collapsed on the dirt road. Surprised, he ran over and helped up the young man dressed in noble clothing, only to hear him murmuring something.
"Food... give me food..."
...
David was taken in by a kind-hearted farmer. He got his wish for food, though it was just a potato (which to the original body, a nobleman, tasted pretty awful).
Under the farmer's kindly gaze, he wolfed down potato after potato, finally temporarily suppressing that maddening hunger.
What caught David's attention was that this farmer named Larsen had a daughter who looked like she'd just come of age.
This girl named Citi had a more mature figure than her peers, especially her bulging chest, which David's eyes locked onto completely out of his control...
David covered his eyes and sighed. Now he knew what kind of trouble that "Watcher" evil spirit would bring him...
But the girl didn't seem to care about David's gaze at all. She just looked at him with a strange, expectant expression.
This made David feel very uncomfortable... Something was off, very off.
In his predecessor's memories, those commoners should've been avoiding him. They never dared look at him with this kind of gaze.
But he couldn't remember more. His head was still throbbing. He needed rest...
And so, David temporarily stayed in this strange little village. It gave him a very unfamiliar feeling, though of course, the entire world felt unfamiliar to him.
Strange little village... enthusiastic villagers... weird looks...
To get more food, David offered to help the villagers work the fields. For this, he took off his noble clothes and put on rough hemp clothing.
That Larsen guy naturally accepted him, and Larsen's daughter Citi never minded David's gaze either.
They all smiled at him, like they were appreciating a long-awaited guest...
...
At night, David would leave the village and enter the edges of the dark forest and mountains, searching everywhere for those wandering monsters. He'd crush their heads with the Hand of Divine Corpse and Hand of Monster, then devour their arms...
The Hand of Monster kept growing through night after night of killing, seemingly endless. When he killed his tenth monster, his arm finally underwent an obvious change.
[Hand of Monster II: Requires 10 psychic energy or life energy to activate. Cooldown: 2.5 seconds.]
It seemed to have leveled up. The number after the name changed to "II," and the cooldown time had decreased too.
Compared to the Hand of Divine Corpse, which could instantly kill enemies as long as he had enough health and psychic energy, the Hand of Monster didn't have such firepower. But its advantage was the short cooldown—it could launch frequent attacks.
The level-two Hand of Monster had become more powerful. Now he could directly use this arm to overpower monsters, forcibly breaking off their limbs.
And his life energy had grown to a terrifying 3,520 points through these nights of combat.
David was getting stronger and stronger, strong enough to no longer fear any attacker charging from the darkness... But he always felt it still wasn't enough.
There were many memories he still hadn't recovered. He seemed to have forgotten something very important.
Until one night, David returning from the forest saw flames rising from the usually peaceful village. Screams and battle cries came through the night. Women's shrieks and some beast-like roars sounded so jarring...