Silas Vane sat on the edge of his creaky bed, staring at a sausage.
It was a perfectly fine sausage. A bit greasy, perhaps. The kind of sausage that promised heartburn but delivered satisfaction. He had bought it from a street vendor on the way back to his room, intending to celebrate his new financial freedom with a grease-soaked feast.
He took a bite.
He chewed.
He swallowed.
It tasted like wet cardboard.
"Disappointing," Silas muttered, staring at the half-eaten meat stick with genuine betrayal. "I risked my life for gold, I unlocked a legendary class, and this is how the universe rewards me? Bland sausage?"
He took another bite, hoping the first one was a fluke. Nothing. No savory burst of flavor. Just... texture.
A purple text box blinked into existence in his peripheral vision.
[Void Sovereign Passive: Hunger of the Abyss]Rank: 1Effect: The Void demands substance. Mundane matter provides no sustenance. You must consume mana-rich entities or energy sources to maintain peak performance.Current Satisfaction Level: 12% (Peckish)
Silas dropped the sausage onto the nightstand. "Wait. Are you telling me I'm on a diet? A magic diet?"
He thought back to the dungeon. He had eaten that dried meat and felt nothing, but when he absorbed the shadows of Malachi's attack... that had been refreshing. Like a glass of ice water on a hot day.
"So I can't eat food," Silas summarized, rubbing his temples. "I have to eat energy. Do you have any idea how expensive mana potions are? Or how hard it is to find a monster that won't stab you while you're trying to take a bite out of its soul?"
The Void remained silent, presumably digesting the shadow tentacles from earlier.
"Great," Silas sighed. "Just great. I'm a handsome, broke, mana-vampire."
His stomach gave a weird, hollow gurgle. It wasn't a rumble; it was an echo. Like a stone dropped into a very deep well.
He needed to hunt. Not for gold, not for glory, but for lunch. And he needed to do it without alerting the entire Guild that he was turning into a monster.
He stood up, grabbing his sword. "Alright, The Last Resort. Time to earn your name. We're going grocery shopping in the forest."
Two hours later, Silas stood at the edge of the Silvertree Forest, a hunting ground just north of Oakhaven. It was a popular spot for C-rank parties to farm experience, dense with magical beasts like Razor-Boars and Blink-Foxes.
He pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders. He had bought a cheap, dark grey cloak from a second-hand shop to hide his face—and more importantly, to hide the faint violet glow that seemed to flicker in his eyes whenever he got excited.
"Okay, Void," Silas whispered, stepping over a gnarled root. "Let's see what's on the menu."
He activated [Sovereign's Gaze].
The forest exploded into grayscale. Trees became dark pillars of stagnant mana; the air shimmered with faint currents of ambient energy. But what caught his attention were the bright, pulsing lights moving through the brush.
A rabbit hopped by. It was cute, fluffy, and glowed with a faint green aura.
[Target: Moss Hare][Mana Density: Low][Nutritional Value: Snack-sized]
"Sorry, little guy," Silas said, drawing his sword. "But you're looking less like a pet and more like an appetizer."
He lunged. The hare, sensing danger, tried to bolt. But Silas was faster. [Void Step] made his movement instantaneous. One second he was three meters away, the next he was standing over the hare, his sword sheathed.
The hare froze, then collapsed. A small, green wisp of energy drifted out of its body.
Silas reached out. The wisp hovered over his palm, looking like a glowing jellybean.
"Bottoms up."
He willed the Void to consume it. The wisp was sucked into his palm with a faint shlup sound.
A cool sensation washed over him. The hollow ache in his stomach lessened by a fraction.
[Satisfaction Level: 16%]
"Four percent?" Silas groaned. "I have to eat twenty-five rabbits just to feel full? I'm going to cause an extinction event."
He spent the next hour hunting. It was monotonous work. He avoided the main paths where other adventurers roamed, sticking to the thick undergrowth. He consumed wisps of mana from foxes, badgers, and one very confused squirrel.
He was currently sitting on a log, feeling about as satisfied as a man who had eaten a single potato chip, when he heard voices.
"Spread out! It has to be around here somewhere!"
"I'm telling you, I saw tracks! A giant one!"
Silas perked up. Giant one?
He crept through the bushes, following the sound. In a small clearing ahead, he saw a party of three adventurers. They looked fairly competent. A tall woman in plate armor with a massive shield, a robed man holding a glowing staff, and a nimble archer perched on a rock.
They were facing down a creature that made Silas's stomach growl—not with hunger, but with professional curiosity.
Three adventurers—a classic party composition of Tank, DPS, and Mage—were locked in a desperate struggle against a behemoth.
It was an Iron-Hide Boar.
The creature was a moving fortress. Its hide was a mosaic of natural armor and metallic fragments it had absorbed from the soil, glinting dully in the light. It stood four feet tall at the shoulder, snorting clouds of steam.
Silas narrowed his eyes, pulling up the data.
[Target Analysis] Target: Iron-Hide Boar
(Aggressive)Rank: D-Rank (Peak)
Level: 39
Mana Density: HighThreat Level: Moderate
"Level 39," Silas mused, checking his own status. He was sitting comfortably at Level 26. A solid start for a D-Rank, but against a Peak D-Rank monstrosity with steel skin? The math was sticky.
"Threat Level: Moderate," he scoffed. "Easy for the system to say. It doesn't have to fight a moving anvil."
He looked at the adventurers. They were panting, their movements sluggish.
[Adventurer Analysis]
Leader (Tank): Level 28 (Low D-Rank)
Mage: Level 25 (Peak E-Rank)
Archer: Level 24 (Peak E-Rank)
"They're outmatched," Silas whispered. "The boar is too durable for their scratch damage."
The Tank, a burly woman with a dented shield, slammed her weapon against the boar's snout. The beast didn't even flinch. It whipped its head sideways, sending the woman flying into a tree with a sickening crack.
"Elara!" the Mage screamed, panic cracking his voice. He hurled a fireball, but it splashed against the boar's iron hide, doing nothing but sooting the metal.
The Archer was trying to aim for the eyes, but the boar was too fast, thrashing wildly.
Silas watched the mana flows. The boar was a furnace of red energy. Its wounds—the few it had—were leaking thick, delicious ribbons of vitality.
"I shouldn't," Silas told himself. "That thing is thirteen levels above me. If it hits me, I'm a stain on the grass."
But the hunger... the hunger was a dull roar in the back of his mind.
"And," he added, adjusting his cuff, "I can't let good experience go to waste. Or good mana."
He stood up.
"Hey! Ugly!"
The boar's head snapped toward the ridge. Beady, rage-filled eyes locked onto Silas.
"I know I'm pretty," Silas called out, drawing The Last Resort with a flourish. "But staring is rude. And you have something I need. Lunch."
The boar let out a sound like a grinding tectonic plate and charged.
"Silas! Run, you idiot!" the Mage yelled from below.
The ground shook. The beast scrambled up the ridge, moving with terrifying speed for its size.
Silas didn't run. He waited, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He focused on the space around him, feeling the cold thread of the Void.
Just a little bit. Just enough to move.
[Skill Activated: Void Step]
The world shifted. Silas sidestepped—not physically, but spatially. He blinked three feet to the left.
The boar thundered past him, its tusks slicing through the air where his torso had been a millisecond ago. The wind pressure nearly knocked him over.
"Fast!" Silas gasped, stumbling. Even with his D-Rank agility, the beast was a blur of momentum.
The boar skidded, tearing up earth, and spun around faster than Silas anticipated. It didn't charge again; it swung its massive head laterally.
Silas raised his sword to block on instinct.
CRUNCH.
The impact was devastating. Silas was tossed backward like a ragdoll, tumbling down the ridge and landing hard in the ferns below. His arm went numb; he felt a sharp crack in his ribs.
"Ow," he wheezed, spitting out a mouthful of dirt. "Okay... rude. No more Mr. Nice Sovereign."
The boar leaped down after him, landing with a ground-shaking thud. It loomed over him, steam hissing from its nostrils, preparing to gore him.
"Shield Wall!" a voice bellowed.
The Tank, blood dripping from her forehead, threw herself in front of Silas, raising her shield.
BOOM.
The impact drove the woman to her knees, the shield groaning under the strain, but she held.
"Get up, stranger!" she gritted out. "Attack its flank! It's vulnerable there!"
Silas scrambled to his feet, clutching his bruised ribs. He looked at the woman, then at the beast.
"Thanks for the save, Muscle Lady," Silas said. "But I don't need the flank."
He clenched his fist. The Void inside him swirled, angry and hungry.
"I need the soul."
Silas didn't lunge with his sword. He lunged with his hand. He activated [Void Step] one more time, blinking past the Tank and appearing directly under the boar's neck, inches from the killing blow.
The boar froze, confused by the sudden displacement.
Silas slapped both hands onto the beast's metallic hide.
[Skill Activated: Void Consumption (Forced)]
"Drink," Silas commanded.
He didn't just absorb the ambient leakage this time. He forced the Void open, creating a vacuum directly connected to the boar's core.
The reaction was instantaneous. A vortex of violet light erupted from Silas's palms.
The boar let out a squeal of pure terror—a sound no physical wound could elicit. It tried to shake him off, thrashing violently. Silas held on, his grip clamped tight by gravity and desperation.
The beast bucked, throwing Silas into the air, but the tether of purple energy remained attached. Silas hung in the air for a split second before being yanked back down, slamming onto the boar's back.
"Eat! Eat, you greedy abyss!" Silas roared over the noise of the rushing wind.
He could feel the mana flooding into him. It was hot, wild, and untamed. It tasted like iron and blood and fury. It filled the hollow spaces in his soul, knitting his ribs back together, hardening his muscles.
The boar's thrashing slowed. Its metallic hide began to lose its luster, turning from steel-grey to a dull, rusty brown. Its red eyes dimmed.
[Warning: Mana Influx High][Assimilating...][Vitality Absorbed: 60%... 80%... 100%]
With a final, shuddering breath, the Iron-Hide Boar collapsed. Its legs gave out, and it fell heavily into the ferns. Dust billowed up around them.
Silas rolled off the beast, landing on his back, staring at the canopy of leaves above. His chest heaved, but not from pain. He felt... euphoric.
[System Notification]
[Target Terminated.]
[Experience Gained: Significant.]
[Level Up! Level 26 -> Level 28]
[Satisfaction Level: 100% (Overflow)]
[Temporary Stat Boost: Strength +10, Vitality +10]
"Ah," Silas sighed, a lazy smile spreading across his face. "Now that was a steak dinner."
He sat up. The clearing was silent. The three adventurers were staring at him—the Tank on her knees, the Mage gripping his staff like a lifeline, the Archer with an arrow nocked but not drawn.
The boar behind him looked like a desiccated husk, collapsed in on itself.
"What... what are you?" the Tank whispered. Her eyes were wide, filled with a mixture of awe and horror. "That wasn't magic. That was..."
"Aggressive dermatology?" Silas suggested, standing up and dusting off his cloak. He felt incredible. The pain in his ribs was gone. He felt strong enough to punch through a wall.
He walked over to them. They flinched.
"Relax," Silas said, raising his hands. "If I wanted you dead, I would have let the pig do the heavy lifting. I just saved your lives. A simple 'thank you, handsome stranger' will suffice."
"You killed a Peak D-Rank monster in seconds," the Archer said, his voice trembling. "You... you drained it."
"I have a very fast metabolism," Silas quipped. He looked at the corpse. "You guys can have the hide. I already took the best part. Consider it payment for the entertainment."
He turned to leave, needing to process the surge of energy.
"Wait," the Tank called out. She stood up, wiping blood from her face. "What's your name? We... we owe you a debt."
Silas paused. He glanced back over his shoulder, his emerald eyes catching the light.
"Silas," he said. "Silas Vane. And don't worry about the debt. Just... don't tell anyone about my diet. I'm trying to watch my figure."
With that, he walked out of the clearing, leaving three shaken adventurers and a hollow shell of a monster behind him. He had a level to consolidate and a hunger that, for the first time in days, was finally quiet.
He didn't wait for them to respond. He broke into a jog, then a sprint, vanishing into the tree line.
Behind him, the tank looked at the mage. "Did he just... eat the monster's magic?"
The mage swallowed hard. "I think so. We... we shouldn't tell anyone about this. The Church doesn't like people who mess with the natural order."
"Agreed."
Silas hummed a happy tune as he walked back through the city gates. He felt strong. Full. The world seemed sharper, colors more vibrant.
He was rich. And he hadn't died.
"Today was a good day," he announced to the guard at the gate. The guard just grunted.
But as Silas headed toward the market to finally buy that better sword—since he had money now—a blue screen popped up, shattering his good mood.
[Class Quest Unlocked: The Sovereign's Court]
Objective: A Sovereign cannot rule alone. Build your Faction.Reward: Unlock Class Evolution Path.Failure: The Void will stagnate, and your hunger will become insatiable.
Silas stopped in the middle of the street. A crowd of shoppers flowed around him, annoyed by his sudden halt.
"A faction?" Silas groaned, reading the text again. "You mean I have to get a party? I have to... socialize?"
He hated socializing. It was exhausting. People expected you to listen to their feelings and not eat the monsters they wanted to loot.
"I work alone," Silas argued with the screen. "I'm a lone wolf. A handsome, solitary wolf."
The screen blinked stubbornly.
[Recruitment Requirement: Find a vessel compatible with Void Energy.]
Suggestion: Look for the broken ones.
Silas sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Fine," he muttered. "I'll look for a party. But I'm picking the weirdos. No normal people. Normal people ask too many questions."
He looked up at the sky, wondering where one goes to find a 'broken one' in a city like Oakhaven.
Then, he remembered the slums. There was a street rat he used to buy information from. A girl with a nasty cough and a habit of stealing his wallet.
"Elena," Silas mused. "She's definitely broken. And she owes me five silver."
He grinned. "Sorry, kid. You're about to get promoted."