The rumble drew nearer, a dull throb shaking the basalt arches of the ruins like an enraged heart on the verge of bursting. Each vibration climbed my bones, a visceral reminder that this world forgave no pauses—it devoured the hesitant, left them bleeding in shadow. The glitched map on my smartphone still flickered, its pale hologram like a mourning veil, pinpointing the cavity just twenty paces away: potential refuge, a whisper of hope in chaos. But the rumble... No longer a distant echo. It was here, a titanic mass erupting from ground fissures, a Basalt-Rumor—colossal twisted, fusion of Stone-Jaw and Echo-Petrified, body a living mountain of stone, veined sonic sacs propagating telluric waves that cracked air and rock in a destructive symphony.
Its mandibles, wide as tomb doors, snapped with a crunch evoking bones pulverized under merciless press. Echo-Scan mapped urgently: ten-meter beast, resonance sacs bloated under cracked carapace, ready to unleash quakes liquefying flesh. Fear knotted my guts, that old companion—but amid it, a thin filament of something else: courage, sparking like ember glow. Emma. Image surged, no longer blurry, sharper—green eyes crinkled mischief under banal rain afternoon, hand brushing mine in shy gesture laden unfinished promises. For her, I thought, silent vow stiffening muscles. Not epic heroism yet, just refusal to die coward. Self-esteem? A murmur, for now.
Leapt, Aerial Claws agility propelling ghost-like through storm. Basalt charged, step crumbling ruins in dust-debris collapse—a stalactite detached, crashing near in stone shard slicing shoulder, hot blood pearling refused tears. Telluric waves hit next: deep hum rattling teeth, air liquefying pressure compressing chest, bones creaking invisible assault. Retaliated, scaling massive leg—rough surface, quartz-veined slashing palms in bloody furrows.
Gore joined then, intimate relentless: Voracious-hardened nails sank carapace crevice, tearing underlying flesh in mineral pus gush, thick granular, sticking skin like cursed resin. Pulled, ripping petrified muscle strip—tendinous fibers snapping dry *crack* like broken guitar strings, unleashing blackened blood flood soaking arm, hot viscous mingling mine in scarlet soup. Stench suffocating: damp earth alkaline rot, death's kiss coughing me, but held, biting open wound. Gritty flesh, salt-ash taste, pulverized bones crunching molars in jaw-echo.
Beast bellowed, seismic wave hurling ground, ribs slamming stone dull thud. But Voracious awoke, ravenous:
[Voracious – Level 5 Unlocked]
Absorption: +25% Resistance (Remnant Wave – 20% Shock Reduction). Earth quakes. Soul endures.
Internal armor formed, absorbing vibes like protective cocoon. Rallying courage—that tenuous thread to Emma, future embrace unshaking—I crawled toward crevice map-indicated. Basalt collapsed behind, dying in fissured stone death-rattle, but no backward glance. Cavity yawned: modest cave, quartz-veined luminescent diffusing blue glow, soft as inner moonlight. Cradle. Refuge.
Year 1 begins. At last.
The cavity's chill wrapped around me like a shroud woven from glacial silk, the quartz veins embedded in the walls pulsing with a subdued rhythm that synced unnervingly with my own heartbeat—a bioluminescent lullaby in shades of frozen sapphire, casting elongated shadows that danced like specters on the uneven floor. I collapsed against the far wall, the stone's bite a welcome anchor after the chaos, its texture rough under my palms, flecked with crystalline flecks that pricked like tiny accusations. The air in here was different—crisp, almost sterile, stripped of the jungle's cloying mist and sulfurous rot, carrying instead a faint, metallic tang of ozone, as if the earth itself held its breath in this pocket of reprieve. No rumble penetrated the fissure's throat; the outside world's fury muffled to a distant murmur, like thunder rolling over a far-off sea.
My body protested the sudden stillness, wounds flaring in the relative quiet: the shoulder gash from the stalactite wept steadily, a warm trickle soaking my jacket into stiff clumps, while the furrows on my palms throbbed with each flex, the blood-furrows congealing into gritty scabs that cracked when I clenched my fists. The new resistance absorption thrummed beneath my skin, a subtle vibration that dulled the seismic echoes still jittering in my limbs, like an invisible brace holding my skeleton together against the void's pull. Voracious settled into a low hum, content for the moment, but its presence lingered as a coiling weight in my core, a parasite sated but ever-hungry, whispering of the next feast with the subtlety of a blade's edge.
I fumbled the phone from my pocket, the screen's glow harsh against the quartz's gentle luminescence, casting my face in stark relief—eyes hollowed by shadows, skin pallid and streaked with drying ichor, veins faintly glowing under the surface like buried rivers of midnight oil. Battery: 86.2%. That glacial drain mocked me, a lifeline from a world where time marched in predictable ticks, not this serpent's coil. The glitch-map hovered, lines sharpening in the quiet: paths veining upward through fissure-chains, marked with peril icons—symbi-bleeds, existential thresholds—that pulsed like warnings from a dying star. "Surface," the word etched in alien script, tasted of ash on my tongue, a promise laced with dissolution.
Year 1 begins, the thought landed like a gauntlet thrown, not triumph but grim ledger—five years to claw this far, or had the Realm bent time to its will? The battery's crawl hinted yes, eternal drip eroding the edges of memory. I leaned back, the wall's chill seeping through my jacket, and let the exhaustion pull, but sleep evaded, replaced by a montage of the day's carnage: the Basalt-Rumor's mandibles parting like judgment's gates, the hot flood of its blood mingling with mine in that scarlet soup, the crunch of pulverized bone under my molars echoing like accusations. Courage sparked then, tenuous thread to Emma—her green eyes crinkling under rain-slicked bangs, hand brushing mine in that shy gesture heavy with unspoken tomorrows. For her. Not epic ballad yet, just refusal to crumble coward. Self-esteem murmured, a faint ember in the cold.
The cavity's symbols caught my eye in the blue glow—etched deep into the quartz, swirls and fractures that seemed to shift when I stared too long, like tattoos on fevered skin. Echo-Scan brushed them, pinging faint resonances: cradle... endure... ascend. Knowledge bloomed unbidden, pieced from absorptions past—this not random bolt-hole, but node in the matrix, engineered sanctuary for damned newborns, noob-pit to temper before the surface's league-leap. A chill unrelated to the stone prickled my neck: the jungle, my prison of fangs and fog, was mercy's cruel jest, shielding from true pandemonium above. Rage flickered, hot against the ice, fueling the vow—out, or become its echo.
Scavenged what I could: loose quartz shard honed to blade-edge on the wall's grit, singing faint when swung; bone-splinter from vestibule pebble for pick, ichor-soaked rag for bandage. Wrapped wounds hasty, fabric stiff with gore, the ichor-wrap clinging like forced-kiss, staunching flow but burning fresh as venom traced scars. No fire—quartz glow sufficed, its chill light warding deeper dark. Hunger gnawed evolved, not sated by the Rumor's chunk but craving choral fusion, Voracious coiling tighter, visions flickering: amalgam feasts, twisted kin joining in hunger's symphony.
Drifted at last, ellipses blurring into half-dreams: wake to hunt dawn-patrols, fortify ichor-smeared walls, absorb in ritual bites. Week 1: Drag Rumor-rem seal entry, carapace barri claw-proof, ichor-pool bait swarm. Trap-spring nightly, pulv-crit wet-crunch pulp-burst overripe-fruit, fine-bone grit grind, black-blood ooze abs mech, Vor purr +5% STR temp, muscles coil tighter. *I* forge, void-ref. Emma ghost-brush lacer-skin smile-grim blue-glow draw—protect you, here-from. Vow tenu, courage spark ember.
Month 1 end: Ref mod fort—basalt-bone alt, traps ich-vein pulse bait-glow, claquant air-test chitter-hunger draw. Scan bubble 8m, safe-radius hold. Hunts yield: Shadow-Larv writhe damp-nook, goo-jelly suck taste poisoned-honey sweet-burn kiss-cut-short, abs no trait but fill gnaw. Veil-Echo perch fissure-edge, click-echo hunt beam-faint, trap-mand snap wing fang-drip, absorb echo-frag scan-range +2m temp, whispers amp mist-murm join... become... but blade-quiet. Emma flash: rain-banal aft, green-eye crinkl, hand-brush shy unfin-prom. Strong back. Us-for. Thread tenu, self-est build.
Month 3: Chases scarlet, agility dance swarm, blade-quartz sing air. Typ: Veil-Scrat lur adj-ruin sac bloat enrag-heart click. Approach shad-shad, strike sink bloat-abd—tear memb acid-spurt scorch fore, skin-blister pink-black bubb, flesh-melt dang thread torn-veil. Claw-rake tors deep-fur exp raw-meat, blood-stream hot-riv rag-shirt soak, pain-white but spd-hone dodge next slash. Bite nape fang-sink rubb-flesh ven-bile expl mouth, cerv-bone crack dry kindl, ooze-marr gulp-burn retch bile-thread mix vom.
Abs Lv.6: spd +30% remnant-venom regen +20% toxic, poison hone wound-knit fast, blisters scab hour. Back ref, band spec-algae goo-wrap cling force-kiss, shift-felt: no just pow, cour root, scar-each vow Emma—back come strong us-for. Batt 85.9% hold wit grow, glitch-map sharpen, surface-path branch clear, peril-mark symbi-bleed.
One hunt mid-month: swarm Rampant Fissuré, crawl-evo Sand-Echo, skin transl ich-weep acid-drop mand micro-sonic fiss weep lure. Scan ping 15m, approach dune-mut, strike lead tear abd gran-pus-quartz gush corr fluid erod fore sup blist flesh peel transl shred dang fun-veil tend twitch ich-impreg drip acid drop floor sizz. Lead conv, swarm fuse temp hunt mass—dod agility ghost-slip, blade carve thro mass, fil pet-musc snap resound crack ground-trem corr fluid arc torch tors skin diss dang thread crack-rib exp liv skel. Bite cent "heart" coll puls mum-heart ven-sac fus tear flesh symb gush hyd visc expl ven-pulv quartz slur, taste cosm bile crush-bone gel-marr pal sens delir Vor gorg spasm mut vein lum net net abys claim trade.
No unlock, but spd weave deeper, hunts yield routine: day 20, Stone-Jaw amb crevice, mand vise snap arm near—cara hold crack not shatt, rip under-flesh min-pus gush thick-gran stick-skin curse-res pull pet-musc strip tend-fib snap dry crack guit-str break black-blood flood soak-arm hot-visc mine-mingl scarl-soup stench-suff damp-earth alk-rot death-kiss cough hold bit open-wound grit-flesh salt-ash taste pulv-bone crunch molar jaw-echo. Abs res +5% wave red, quakes dull.
Month end: Ref vibr sick ener—trap anim mum-heart snap vit air, wall smear gut macab un hard prot-crust air steep sacr-rot reek. Cour no spark visc rag gutt void-ref gnaw bone. Emma echo graze fleet accus mock-ghost crush tram butch weight. No vow. Blade blood only.
Year 1 End: Persistent Echo
Seas abs cycle: mist-thick twist-mut fast form-warp vic hybr. Best length bone-polish Stone-Jaw tab etch. Night-one new-rumble shake ref—no seim, pers... Twisted evo mid-shad size, fus seen-trait: echo-wing sand-claw basalt-rumb throat. Lurk draw scent—surv dare-hope.
Fight: blood-dance—fluid-dodge counter-flay flesh float-tatt, blood-arc wall-mur scarl. Land pois-claw gouge thigh shred-musc dang-fib, scrap-bone vib pain shatt-tun fork. Scream—Vor rav dev puls-heart warm-flesh throb tongue.
[Voracious Lv. 7 Unlocked]
Absorption: +35% END (Remnant Hybrid – 15% Mut Resist). Fusion calls. Essence defies.
Exh coll blue-quartz, van twist mac troph. Cour no fil; blade. Emma sharp-flash—laugh no echo prom—oath draw: *Escape this. You-for. Epic write.
Rumb ling deep. Jun grow me-with.
The persistent echo of Year 1's end lingered like a bruise on the soul, the evo-twisted's chitter fading into the blue-glow's hush, its macabre troph slumped in corner, flesh still twitching faint. Cour blade-sharp, rag sole beac black epic slau chal cosm ref melt void mut scream oth. Ref fort mac troph skull-lant orb ooze lum ich vib sick ener but hold. Cycles coil tight, mist-thick mut-fast, form-warp vic hybr best length bone-polish Stone-Jaw tab etch lore frag matrix... bleed... ascend.